Wednesday, March 08, 2000Xavier faces long odds in A-10
McAfee key to Muskies' NCAA hopes
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati EnquirerXavier will try to defy history in the Atlantic 10 men's basketball tournament.
XU, starting tonight against Rhode Island, must win four games in four days to secure the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
No team in A-10 history has done that.
XU coach Skip Prosser has no plans to rest players or pace the team for four games. It will be all out tonight, then see what the players have left for a potential Thursday night matchup with St.Bonaventure.
“You can't worry about saving anybody for the spring dance,” Prosser said.
The player to be most concerned about wearing down is junior Maurice McAfee, who averages a team-high 35.1 min utes a game and is Xavier's only true point guard.
And, McAfee typically plays at top speed with little regard for his body.
“You've gotta go all out every game,” he said. “This is one and done. ... At times it is tiring, but that's part of it.”
McAfee takes charges, drives into the paint, grabs rebounds, mixes it up defensively.
“I know I've taken a lot of beatings,” he said.
McAfee got the wind knocked out of him Sunday trying to take a charge against St.Joseph's. This season, he has suffered a sprained right ankle that still is not 100 percent, a sprained right wrist, a thigh bruise, a bruised elbow, and he has been hit in the head countless times in games and practices.
“I always worry about him getting hurt, because he never backs down,” XU trainer David Fluker said.
McAfee also admittedly has “terrible eating habits.”
“I get hungry at the wrong times,” he said. “I can eat late at night, but I can't eat in the morning. Sometimes I go a day without eating. I'm on the move and just don't take the time.”
After backing up Gary Lumpkin the past two years, McAfee has been the starter all season. He did not receive any postseason Atlantic 10 honors but is Xavier's leading scorer (14.6 ppg) and 3-point shooter (68). He is No.1 in the Atlantic 10 in free throw shooting (.839) and has 126 assists and 108 turnovers.
“I think he's held up exceedingly well,” Prosser said. “I think the mental pressure's probably been as much as the physical stress, but all in all, he's done very well.”
Entering the 1999 A-10 tourney, Xavier was 20-9; this year's team is 19-10 with a little tougher schedule.
When freshman Lionel Chalmers was declared ineligible in the fall, that left the Musketeers short-handed at point guard.
Prosser has had limited options when it comes to substituting.
“There are times when he needs to come out of a game, to sit and watch and rest and evaluate and learn, but we don't have the luxury of doing that,” he said of McAfee. “There are times when he makes bad plays when he needs to be taken out of the game and chastised, corrected, coached or criticized, but you can't do that because he's so valuable and we need him on the floor. And that's not his fault.”
Alvin Brown, recruited as a shooting guard, has served as McAfee's backup. Brown has 52 assists and 34 turnovers while averaging 6.8 points.
His scoring has dropped off to 5.7 in A-10 games. During the past three games, he has averaged just 3.0 points on 3-of-13 shooting with no assists and three turnovers. His 3-pointer Sunday against St.Joseph's was his first in league play; he is 1-of-15 in A-10 games.
“He's never been a point guard in his life,” Prosser said. “I think he's done very well, all things considered.”
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