By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Remember the movie Almost Famous? You could title Armein Kirkland's first Crosstown Shootout Almost a Hero.

Kirkland, a 6-foot-8 freshman from Tyler, Texas, played 13 minutes in the University of Cincinnati's 50-44 loss to Xavier at Shoemaker Center on Saturday.

If one or two of his three 3-point attempts had fallen, it might have been a different outcome.

"He's capable of making shots," UC coach Bob Huggins said. "He didn't today. But he's capable. If he makes a couple of those, they have to change (defenses). Unfortunately, he didn't."

Kirkland was in the game out of desperation. He played a total of 13 minutes in UC's first five games. He didn't play at all in the first half Saturday.

Kirkland wasn't expecting big minutes against Xavier.

"Coach doesn't talk about that," he said. "I was just happy to get a chanced to contribute."

UC was stuck on 22 points five minutes into the second half. Part of the problem was Kareem Johnson and Rod Flowers, UC's quasi-centers, were clogging the lane offensively.

Huggins decided to try Kirkland, who is athletic and can handle the ball and also can go inside.

"We can't score," Huggins said. "We were looking for ways to score."

Kirkland is, shall we say, fearless with the ball in his hands. He'll drive to the basket. He'll take 3s.

Although it was hard to tell Saturday - he took nine shots in 13 minutes - it isn't Kirkland's philosophy to fire at all costs.

"Not necessarily," he said. "I was just trying to be aggressive on offense. Coach doesn't want me to be tentative. He wants me to attack the basket."

Kirkland made an immediate impact on the game. Shortly after entering, he hit a short jumper to make it 33-24. Thirty seconds later, he blocked a David West shot. Then he got the ball to Field Williams for a 3-pointer 18 seconds after that.

Leonard Stokes followed with a jumper. Just like that, XU's lead was trimmed from 11 to 33-29.

Kirkland wasn't great down the stretch. He missed four shots in a row in one stretch.

"He gets too excited," Huggins said, "and takes too many bad shots. But I thought he really helped us."

Kirkland finished with four points, a team-high three assists, five rebounds and three fouls.