On the radio tonight, Byron Larkin will make his case with David West, and he will lose. Larkin will argue the 1987-88 Xavier team his senior season was better than the current edition. "We'd have kicked their butts," Larkin decided at halftime Saturday. West will tell Larkin to take that weak stuff outta here.

Apologies to Larkin, Xavier's all-time leading scorer, who thought passing was something a Ferrari did at 110 miles an hour. No offense to Tyrone Hill and Derek Strong, Jamal Walker and Brian Grant. No slight to any member of the '89-90 Sweet 16 team. All great players, all great moments. None was as good as what's being produced on Victory Parkway right now.

These are the good old days for the Musketeers, winners of 15 in a row, the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship net hanging from their collective neck. They've never been better as a team. They've never looked better as a school, either, their best athlete a walking, talking billboard for what's good about quasi-amateur athletics. David West is whom coaches are talking about - or should be - when they tell you one of their players is a "good kid."

This is a time when the visiting coach says the Musketeers are better than the best team the A-10 ever produced, the 1995-96 UMass group that got to the Final Four. "This team has more of an arsenal," decided Temple's John Chaney, who has been coaching college hoops for only 31 years.

Romain Sato dunks over Temple's David Hawkins. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

This is a team that, if it's shooting well, is almost impossible to defend. On Saturday, the Owls dropped defenders into West's shirt, so the Player of the Year prospect kicked the ball out. With 15 minutes left, the Muskies already had made a season-high 11 3-pointers.

If you chase the 3-ballers - Lionel Chalmers, Romain Sato and Dedrick Finn, who went a combined 13-for-25 from long range Saturday - West will control the ball with those big, soft, catcher's-mitt hands of his, and 2-point you to death. Or you'll foul him.

Temple is not as good as it usually is. But the Owls had won six straight and eight of nine. Xavier beat them by 31. The Muskies scored 56 just in the second half. "They have five guys who don't hesitate," Chaney said.

Right now, West looks like the best player in college. On one second-half possession, he dribbled through Temple's full-court pressure, stopped just inside the lane, drew two defenders and slipped an assist to Anthony Myles.

On the next possession, he caught the ball on the left wing and swished a 3-pointer like he was Larry Bird. How do you defend that? West had six assists in the first 30 minutes. When your player-of-the-year hopeful is sharing the ball like Carl Lindner shares wealth, how can you not do the same? "I hope that sets the tone for what our program is about," Thad Matta said.

Xavier's fans show their admiration for senior David West. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

It was Senior Day, West's last home game. The school retired his number. His family was in the house. West could have made the game his party and no one would have cared. Instead, he had six assists in the first 30 minutes.

"You tend not to make statements about frontcourt players like, 'He makes people better,' " said XU assistant coach Sean Miller. "But at the end of the game, Dave's our best ball handler. At clutch time, who do you want shooting the free throws? Dave. Usually you say that about a point guard."

The chances that the best player in college hoops will attend a small, private Jesuit university not named Georgetown are similar to a rock speaking Latin. The odds are even longer he'll stay in school four years, get his degree early and pass the ball a lot.

He exists, though. He'll be on the radio tonight, trying to talk sense at Byron Larkin. "I'm not gonna give him that," West said, when told of Larkin's comments. "We do want to be the best in Xavier history, though. We'll see about that."

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E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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