Anthony Coleman lives life like Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day. Except in this film, Coleman spends his days chained in the cafeteria, eating until it hurts, then waking up the next morning weighing the same.

        “I don't know what my deal is,” said Coleman, a Xavier redshirt freshman forward. “I eat nonstop. I just can't seem to get it to stick.”

        The 6-foot-10 1/2, 200-pound Coleman epitomizes the Musketeers' skinny bench. He is the closest thing XU has to a scholarship backup player for center David West and power forward Kevin Frey, but he's not a true post player. He was a 6-2 shooting guard beginning his senior season in high school, and he's still adjusting his game to his subsequent growth spurt.

        Xavier's coaches redshirted him last season to allow him to bulk up. Coleman went from a low weight of 187 pounds this spring to 208 this fall before conditioning drills melted him to his current weight. He can now bench-press 215 pounds, up from 135 when he arrived at XU.

        “Strength is a relative term,” XU strength coach David Armstrong said. “Anthony's body type is a true ectomorph; he has an extremely long upper arm and upper leg. (The muscles) will change internally significantly. His tendons thicken up.”

        Coleman will never look like the Incredible Hulk. But he's not as apt now to be pushed around inside. On the court, expect Coleman to roam from the blocks to the 3-point line.

        “We have to look at him as what he is and take advantage of what he can do,” XU coach Thad Matta said. “He's got good timing blocking shots and a nice touch for as big as he is. We're trying to find the right spots for him where he can succeed.”

        A-10 TOURNEY SITE: Monday in Philadelphia, Atlantic 10 athletics directors will discuss changes for the A-10 men's and women's basketball tournaments. So-so attendance at the Spectrum in Philadelphia — where the men's tourney has been played the past four years, and is under contract for this season and next — has sparked talk that the league should shop for a new site.

        “The general consensus is, particularly a couple of days (each year) have not been what we'd like them to be (in terms of attendance),” Xavier AD Mike Bobinski said. “Rather than just accept that, it makes sense to look at other options.”

        The 2001 tournament had a total attendance of 45,680 (an average of 9,136 per session), down from 54,288 in 2000. The turnstile count at the tourney's three-game Wednesday session this spring was just 6,486.

        The tourney's site is up to the ADs. ESPN.com reported that the league is eyeing Dayton, a site that drew well hosting the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tourney a decade ago.

        Making the tourney an eight-team event, rotating the event's site or putting some rounds on campus sites will be considered, Bobinski said. He said Southwest Ohio should be considered in the site talks.

        “Taking into account our fan base and Dayton's fan base — having it here or there, we'd be off to a good start (attendance-wise),” Bobinski said. “But we also realize it's an Eastern-based league.”

        RECRUITING RAVES: XU's five-man recruiting class is garnering acclaim. Bob Gibbons' All Star Sports Report ranks it the 10th-best class in his early rankings. Hoop Scoop ranks the class No.6, though it uses a cumulative point system under which some teams probably will leap-frog XU after completing their recruiting.

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Xavier's Coleman walks thin line

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