Results tagged “Xavier” from Jays Blog

Xavier Shuns "Mid-Major" Moniker

By
Max Univers
on January 10, 2008 3:23 PM |
A big Polyfro shout out to fellow Jesuit institution Xavier, for finally having enough of the ridiculous "Mid-Major" label and telling a major media outlet how they feel about it.

Rivals.com named point guard Drew Lavender their "Mid-Major Player Of The Week", but Xavier refused the honor, saying the term was quote "a black eye for its program."

Nice. You go, Xavier! But wait, it gets better:

    Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno backed the Musketeers' stance. "I really am puzzled why anyone would consider us a mid-major," she said. "It's a term you really don't need. It got started because the media use football terms for basketball leagues. Give people credit for what they're good at. The term is derogatory."

The media use football terms for basketball leagues. That's hilarious, and quite prescient...the media has slapped the "BCS" label on basketball leagues for years, and I've always kind of been mystified by it. What in the hell does the Bowl Championship Series have to do with college basketball? Its laziness, or ignorance, or both, to use BCS to refer to anything other than football. There are no bowls in basketball, last time I checked. Things are settled on the court, where they should be.


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Gameday: Creighton at #21 Xavier

By
Max Univers
on December 5, 2007 4:26 PM |
School Databank:
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Enrollment: 4,000
Famous sports alumni: Tyrone Hill, Brian Grant, Byron Larkin, David West
Last game: Defeated Belmont 90-49
Last game vs Creighton: Lost 73-67 in Omaha on 12/9/06
Series: Xavier leads 7-6

The fourteenth all-time meeting between these two Jesuit rivals takes place tonight in Cincinnati, as #21 Xavier takes on the Jays at the Cintas Center. The last seven games in the series have been decided by a sum total of 22 points, making the series not just a marquee matchup for the fans to look forward to but an entertaining and competitive one as well.


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2007-08 Game #6: Xavier 79, Jays 66

By
Max Univers
on December 5, 2007 4:24 PM |
Its with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this tonight. The Jays lost a game on Wednesday night, but Omaha lost something much more important. Eight families lost loved ones, and countless others were injured either physically or mentally, when a dude walked into a mall and started shooting people. Think about that, a guy -- a kid, really, he was just 19 -- walks into a mall with a SKS assault rifle and starts picking people off left and right. Does that even make any sense? If you live to be 150 years old will that ever make any freaking sense? I'm at a loss to describe how I feel, honestly, because I was at Westroads over my lunch hour today, and left about 45 minutes before this all happened. What if I'd taken a late lunch, as I often do? Sheesh, I scarcely dare give it utterance.

I offer my sincerest condolences to everyone who suffered a loss today, and I want you to know you're all in my prayers.

Now then, I don't know about you, but I could use a distraction from all this heavy real-world stuff. Shall we talk some hoops?

---

Wednesday morning, I got an email from a co-worker of mine who recently moved here from Cincinnati. He's a University of Cincinnati alum and can't stand Xavier. I mean, he can't STAND 'em. But now that he lives here in Omaha, he feels like he has to keep it real for his hometown, I guess, hence the smack talk. He was convinced they would beat Creighton, and he wanted to tell me all about it.

"You'd better hope your boys don't try run their press. Prince will run right through 'em, and they'll beat you by 20, guaranteed!"


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Polyfro Flashback: #19 Xavier 75, #15 Creighton 73

By
Max Univers
on December 4, 2007 4:29 PM |


Creighton and Xavier have played an extraordinarily close series over the years, with Xavier holding a 7-6 edge. Look at some of these scores:

1938: Creighton 34, Xavier 29
1941: Creighton 42, Xavier 39
1960: Xavier 75, Creighton 73
1985: Xavier 56, Creighton 53
1986: Creighton 74, Xavier 73
2001: Xavier 72, Creighton 65
2002: Xavier 75, Creighton 73
2004: Creighton 73, Xavier 72
2005: Creighton 61, Xavier 59
2006: Creighton 73, Xavier 67

That's a whole lot of great games, isn't it? But the best might very well have taken place on New Years Eve 2002, when #15 Creighton travelled to Cincinnati to take on #19 Xavier. Seniors Kyle Korver and David West elevated their game to ridiculous levels, in an epic battle of All-Americans that came down to a last second shot in a tie game. With the two teams resuming their series tomorrow night, I thought I would take a look back at that game.

---

Creighton came into the New Years Eve tilt riding the wave of their best start in 60 years, and entered the game 10-0 and ranked 15th in the country. Meanwhile, Xavier entered the game as a team in turmoil. Sure, they had beaten Eastern Kentucky 84-60 three days prior, and sure, they were ranked in the Top 20. But after that game their best player and All-American candidate, David West, called the team out. He told the media that some of his teammates were playing selfishly, and that they would get "whipped by Creighton" if it didn't start pulling together.


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2006-07 Game 6: Jays 73, #24 Xavier 67

By
Max Univers
on December 10, 2006 5:21 PM |
There's nothing like bad calls to get a crowd riled up. Exhibit A: Saturday night's game against 24th ranked Xavier. At tipoff, the crowd wasn't all that different from other games this year. But three terrible calls, all against Creighton, in the first 150 seconds of the game changed all that.

It was a double-edged sword. Josh Dotzler had two fouls by the 17:30 mark of the half, and sat the bench the rest of the first 20 minutes. One of his fouls was highly questionable and got the crowd incensed. I had barely settled in, and already I had to tell the ref that the only way he would stop blowing is to put his whistle in his pocket. Not the way I like to start a Saturday night, let me tell you.

Barely a minute later, Dotzler was trailing on a fast break, and he absolutely laid out the Xavier shooter. This is the kind of foul that sets the tone for a big game, telling the opponent that you are bringing it tonight. This is also the kind of foul that lands your point guard on the bench for the next 17-1/2 minutes.

But the crowd was crazed. When Isacc Miles was whistled for a questionable foul a minute later, after I'd settled down from telling the referee that his mother is a very ugly woman, my brother announced that if his chicken strips hadn't cost 5-and-a-quarter, he'd have thrown one at the ref. (He wouldn't really have done it, don't worry, but just the thought of wasting quality poultry on such a despicable ref should tell you how bad the call was.)

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There Is No Change In Expectations

By
Max Univers
on December 18, 2005 6:49 PM |
Jays 61, Xavier 59

A couple of years ago, when I was in Cincinnati for a few days at a conference, I had a chance to talk hoops with several of the locals at a bar one night. I was curious if they were Cincinnati or Xavier fans. Certainly, the Bearcats were the more successful program, but Xavier with none of the thuggery or drunken coaches was the better program. I was somewhat shocked to learn, at least in their opinion, that Xavier was who almost everyone pulled for. They had played Creighton that year and won in Omaha on a late shot, after handing Kyle Korver's 02-03 Jays their first loss in Cincinnati a year earlier, so they knew of the Jays and had much respect for their program.

Over the past four years, these two Jesuit schools have played some absolutely fantastic games, all three won by a combined 11 points. In a way, these two programs are almost mirror images. I'm glad they have decided to continue this series thru the 07-08 season, and likely beyond. Creighton and Xavier should play every year, dammit.

Tonight's game was originally part of a proposed Jesuit classic, including Gonzaga and Marquette, to be put on by ESPN in the vein of their Big 10-ACC Challenge. But Gonzaga and Marquette wouldn't agree to do it. Whatever. XU and CU still locked horns, and it was a good game.

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Max Univers (not his real name) is a graphic designer and author of two books, neither of which you’ve probably heard of. A 2001 graduate of Creighton University’s Journalism program, Max takes time out of his busy nightlife to share his thoughts on Jays hoops here during the season.

Why Univers? Its his favorite font, plus it just sounds really cool as a surname.

Why Polyfro? Years and years ago, Max had a giant afro wig that he wore as part of a Halloween costume. Not wishing to retire its giant fro awesomeness after the holiday, he began wearing the wig out in public as part of his everyday ensemble. One night at a dance club, the DJ called out the moniker over the soundsystem. Max thought it sounded cool, and purchased the URL shortly thereafter.

More questions? Send me an email: max-at-polyfro-dot-com. I like jokes, story tips, and generally all correspondence involving Bluejay athletics. Emails that point out how stupid I am and/or where I should go after I die are not encouraged.

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