Tuesday, February 22, 2000
Xavier needs more home magic
GW visits today for key A-10 game
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OK, Xavier, click your Reebok heels together and repeat this:
“There's no place like home. There's no place like home.”
The Musketeers return to the Cincinnati Gardens tonight to play host to George Washington in a nationally televised game.
XU has won 28 of its last 29 games on its home court. It has lost five straight Atlantic 10 games on the road.
“I've certainly not had a team like this,” coach Skip Prosser said. “It's a tremendous puzzlement to me. It's something we're trying to work out. I tell the guys all the time, it's never who you play, it's never where you play, it's how you play that's really critical.”
Here is some good news for the Musketeers: They have not lost twice to the same team in a season in four years.
And George Washington is one up on XU this season, having come from 15 points down to win 78-67 on Feb.5 in Washington D.C.
This game could help determine the second-place finisher in the Atlantic 10 West Division. The Colonials, on an admitted rebuilding plan, are 7-5 and lead third-place Xavier (6-6) by one game. A loss tonight would drop the Musketeers into a third-place tie with Virginia Tech (6-7).
The Hokies and Colonials both have better division records than Xavier.
“We've fared pretty well lately, but we're by no means a power,” GW coach Tom Penders said. “We have to play really well to win. We don't feel like there's any pressure on us. We don't think there's unfinished business. We're just trying to have fun.”
Therein lies the difference between Xavier and GW.
George Washington has won seven of eight and excluding Temple may be the hottest team in the league.
The Musketeers, who were 11-3 at one point and heading toward an NCAA Tournament bid, have gone 5-6 since.
They don't seem like they're having fun.
The team met at length Sunday after returning Saturday night from a loss at Virginia Tech.
“We just talked about the fact that there are still goals out there to achieve,” Prosser said. “We're not happy to be 6-6 and we're not happy to be 16-9.
“There have been teams here at Xavier that I've been a part of that have caught fire the last 2-3 weeks and have really made a name for themselves in March, and that's what we're going to try to do. We've just got to try to make the next two weeks really special.”
George Washington has played better since junior Mike King returned from a shoulder injury Jan. 19.
Coming off the bench, King averaged 17 points on 13-of-21 shooting in two games last week. SirValiant Brown, bidding to become the first freshman ever to lead the country in scoring, averaged 26 points last week while earning his sixth A-10 Rookie of the Week honor.
GW could make a run for a National Invitation Tournament berth but has a tough regular-season finish, with three games on the road (Xavier, Fordham, Massachusetts) and a home game against Temple.
“Anything we do this year is gravy,” Penders said. “This is your turn to get GW, this year.”
He has yet to mention any postseason opportunities to his players.
“It's like a goat seeing a fence for the first time,” Penders said. “If you make a big deal of the fence, they'll never hop over.”
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SEASON IN STORIES
