It's not every day that a team from the Big East plays a team from the Atlantic 10 and finds themselves in the position of underdog. That's just where struggling Cincinnati found itself last night during the intercity shootout with Xavier, though. They almost pulled off the upset, too, by playing a game in the tradition of their former coach Bob Huggins. The Bearcats played rough, physical defense and threw the Musketeers off their game. Xavier's Drew Lavender caught a forearm to the face and Josh Duncan landed wrong after taking a shove to the back and left with an injured knee. A 10-man pileup led to technicals on both sides and all the activity helped Xavier to a miserable 38.6% shooting night. But Cincinnati was even worse, 33.8%, and Derrick Brown scored 11 points over the final seven minutes to escape with a 64-59 win. Xavier can expect to get such treatment in the future. They're a big dog now and will be hunted by every team they play for the rest of the season. It's been a few years since UMass was such a dog but it might not be much longer.
They opened up a 15-point lead against Boston College in the Commonwealth Classic and then held on for an 83-80 win thanks to Gary Forbes. The swingman scored 10 points in the final five minutes to put the finishing touches on the Minutemen's first win in nine tries against the Eagles. Forbes, Ricky Harris and Chris Lowe combined for 64 points as BC unwisely tried to run the floor all night.
Xavier and UMass are just the tip of the iceberg. Rhode Island is 10-1, Dayton is 7-1, Charlotte is 6-2 and Duquesne is 6-3. The conference slate is going to be chockablock with good games and the NCAA Tournament should be well stocked with the cream of the A-10 crop.
