A10: Xavier is starting to find its toughness

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By Doug Harris, Staff Writer Updated 1:40 AM Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Xavier coach Chris Mack probably wanted his players to dial down some of the tough talk and swagger after their melee with Cincinnati, but he didn’t expect them to put aside the competitive edge that helped the program produce five straight Atlantic 10 titles.

After getting vilified by the national media for their part in the brawl, the Musketeers suddenly became passive on the court while losing five of six games, including their A-10 opener at La Salle.

But they’ve won three straight since then, beating Fordham on the road and walloping St. Bonaventure and Duquesne at home.

“I think everywhere we go and every game we play, you can feel our team being under a microscope a little bit,” Mack said on the Atlantic 10 teleconference Monday. “People want to see how our team responds in certain situations and how they handle a poor call by a referee.

“But we’re past all that. I think our kids aren’t worried about anything but playing hard and playing unselfish and being a team that plays fearless. That wasn’t easy to do there for a stretch.”

The Musketeers climbed to No. 8 in the polls before the brawl with wins over Georgia, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Butler and UC. They had to weather some suspensions — although those weren’t quite severe enough to suit most college basketball commentators — and Mack also has had to remind his players about getting back to the style that helped them compile a streak of consecutive A-10 home wins that has now reached 42.

“I think as a coach, you’re always trying to preach a message, and that was mine,” said Mack, whose team hosts Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday and visits Dayton on Saturday.

“It probably happened a little later than we all would have liked. It took us a little bit of time for our guys to get over that hump.”

Rebuilding: George Washington hasn’t won an A-10 tournament game since 2007, and first-year coach Mike Lonergan knows he’ll need to tap into the fertile recruiting ground around Washington D.C. to revive the program.

“Almost our whole staff, myself included, is really tied into the D.C.-Virginia-Maryland area,” he said. “We inherited a roster with only one local player. I was kind of shocked by that. And he’s actually one of our best players (Lasan Kromah).

“We want to recruit internationally, where coach (Mike) Jarvis and some others had some great success. ... (But) we’ve got to do a much better job recruiting locally, and we’re doing that. I’m biased, but I think the best basketball in the country is in this area.”

Strong ratings: The Atlantic 10 is ranked seventh in conference RPI standings. Going into Monday’s games, it had 10 teams ranked in the top 100 out of 344 Division I schools, which is more than any other league.

They include Temple (24), Dayton (27), Xavier (43), Saint Joseph’s (53), Saint Louis (59), UMass (61), La Salle (78), St. Bonaventure (89), Richmond (93) and Charlotte (97).

Making their points: St. Bonaventure’s Andrew Nicholson has 1,760 career points and has a chance to top 2,000 for his career.

Ten other A-10 players have surpassed 1,000: Xavier’s Tu Holloway (1,478), Carl Jones of Saint Joseph’s (1,449), Fordham’s Chris Gaston (1,209), Dayton’s Chris Johnson (1,244), George Washington’s Tony Taylor (1,166), Temple’s Ramon Moore (1,112) and Juan Fernandez (1,075), Saint Louis’ Kwamain Mitchell (1,114), Duquesne’s B.J. Monteiro (1,033) and Charlotte’s Jamar Briscoe (1,014).

UD junior Kevin Dillard is close to joining the 1,000-point club. He’s got 952, counting the 734 he tallied at Southern Illinois.

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