George Herron
cjherron
pacmanxu
slapshot66
X wins best Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout in years.
Posted by George Herron on December 14, 2009
You want to know what I love more than Xavier winning? Xavier beating UC when UC is ranked. Is there any better feeling than beating your cross town rival when your team in the underdog? Maybe sex.
You can see me acting the same way during many games.
I will be honest, I didn’t even watch the game. I had a chance to go to it and I said no thank you, sorry Ali. I very rarely watch this game, it tends to put my blood pressure in a range the Dr.’s will only refer to as the dead-zone. For years they were amazed that my blood pressure could go that high and not kill me. I tend to look a lot like Donald Duck during one of his tirades.
So, as this year wasn’t any different i was shocked when I got a DM from Ali through Twitter about what a hell of a game it was. I immediately ran to my PC and checked the score. There it was, Xavier won in double OT. Perhaps one of the greatest Skyline Chili Shootouts ever and I missed all of it. Probably better for my long-term health, but what a game!
Impressions:
- Foul shooting won this game. Xavier was a very adequate 78% from the charity stripe. Jason Love was only 1-4, but Terrell Holloway was an impressive 11-11. The Bearkittens were a measly 46%. Ouch. Shaq called and said that foul shooting was embarrassing.
- The senior stepped up for his last Crosstown shootout. This was Jason Loves final chance to leave his mark on the Crosstown shootout, and he was impressive. Yeah, OK, maybe the 7 points aren’t going to overwhelm anyone, but the 19 rebounds and 5 blocked shots are. Oh yeah and he did that with only accumulating 3 personal fouls in a double overtime game. Nice. Love might not be a leader night in and night out, but he was last night.
- Mark Lyons speed continues to impress. It must not be just me either, because if I heard correctly he started last night over Crawford. Xavier does have an interesting problem with their guards. They have like 20 they could start, unfortunately I am told that is against the rules.
- Is Jamel McLean sand bagging? Are they not trying to involve him more? Is he just not that good? He seemed to me to be a perfect slasher/swing man, but again last night he laid an egg, what gives? I am going to have to watch some more games, but it doesn’t seem to me that they even want to involve him in the offense. I have seen the kid make plays, he is quite gifted athletically, even if it means running some back door or alley oop plays for him, he seems perfect for it.
- Brad Redford played 15 minutes and didn’t take a single shot? Isn’t that against his religion?
- Ummmmm, how about that 28% shooting from behind the arch? Why the insistence on shooting the three when you are stone cold from there? Not that UC was any better, actually thankfully they were worse with 22%, but just as enamoured with it. Both team shot over 18 shots from 3-land, despite not making them. Please look up the definition of insanity.
- The only other thing that concerns me is that we had more turnovers and less assists than UC. That has been a growing trend all year, we do not take care of the ball. We sadly have a lot of young kids on this team, but like last year they are going to have to grow up fast and take better care of the ball. It is tough to win when your guards are passing it to the other team.
"Shhhhhhh, UC sucks."
So congratulation X, you guys played your hearts out and won the most important game on the schedule. Looking forward, you guys might want to get more production from Frease, and McLean, and start playing Robinson more. Need to find the combination of big men, otherwise we are going to get eaten up down low, and on nights where the guards are cold it is of the utmost importance!
pacmanxu said
How about firing up the DVR and watching after you know they won?
I’ll do a little article on what I took from the game, since I actually saw more than the box score.