Saturday, December 15, 2001
DAUGHERTY: West or not, UC simply is better
By Paul Daugherty
The Cincinnati Enquirer
David West landed on Leonard Stokes' foot and the air went out of the room. You never heard a silence so loud.
Beneath his basket, in a scrum of big legs and feet, West's size-18 turned the wrong way, and the texture of the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout changed. It went from being the most important game of Xavier's season to wondering if the rest of the season would be a disaster.
The Shootout? How about next week? The Atlantic 10 season? The NCAA Tournament?
It was with 1:03 left in the first half that West rolled his right ankle. They characterized the sprain as minor. If you were among the partisan faithful at Cintas Center, it was anything but. Everything this game should have been was lost when West went down.
Actually, West re-appeared four minutes into the second half, limped through 73 seconds, then came out. Minutes later, he demanded to go back in, beseeching Muskies trainer David Fluker to let him try it, pounding his fist on the hardwood.
Fluker did, but West, bless him, was moving like Captain Ahab. And truthfully, UC was pounding the Muskies when West was healthy. In the first half, the Bearcats outrebounded Xavier by a ridiculous 25-10 margin.
West shut down
UC's Jamaal Davis guarded West straight up, playing bump-and-run as well as it can be played on an All-American candidate. “Make it hard for him to catch the ball” UC coach Bob Huggins told Davis. “Don't let him go where he wants.”
UC's guards extended the defense, making it hard for West to get the ball. When he did, Davis was on him before West could turn to the basket.
In the game's first five minutes, West took one shot, a jumper he missed. In quick succession after that, West was whistled for traveling, committed an offensive foul away from the ball and was called for three seconds.
By the time he finally got decent position close to the basket against the relentless Davis — and knocked in a short turnaround in the lane — 12 minutes had expired.
All of which made you think the Bearcats would have won even if West had not been hurt. UC is playing March defense and has more depth and more players who can score consistently.
XU's star all alone
The Musketeers, night after night, have only West.
It showed. “We needed someone to step up,” Lionel Chalmers said. “Nobody stepped up.” Or as Kevin Frey put it, “They out-toughed us. We couldn't do anything.”
UC got 22 points from Steve Logan, 15 from Leonard Stokes and 14 from Immanuel McElroy, including back-to-back film-at-11 layups in the first half.
Garbage time came early. With fully 10 minutes to play, UC went up 61-38 on Davis' breakaway jam. Then it got ugly. Playing with equal parts desperation and frustration, the Muskies lost their collective calm. Romain Sato got hit with a technical. Bodies started flying.
With 8:45 left, West limped out for good, Xavier down 61-40. Everyone had to feel a little cheated. Especially West who, if he does the expected and leaves Xavier after this year for the NBA, won't have a happy memory of his last Shootout.
“When I have one guy defending me, that's when I'm at my best,” he had said Wednesday. He got that Friday, for 18 minutes. The rest was forgettable.
Contact Paul Daugherty at 768-8454; fax: 768-8550; e-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com.
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DAUGHERTY: West or not, UC simply is better
