The annual crosstown shootout between Cincinnati and Xavier took things to a new level today when the two teams decided to slug it out at the end of the game. The two schools are only a few miles apart leaving the game to decide yearly bragging rights. Last year Cincy won by 20 points on their home court and this year Xavier got their revenge winning 76-53.
These games are always intense, with their hard fouls, trash talking and general hatred for the other school. The trash talking got so out of hand that Xavier junior guard Mark Lyons was warned by officials in his locker room at halftime to cut it out or get hit with a technical. Lyons shut up in the second half.
I'm all for running up the score in games, especially in rivalry games but Tu Holloway a senior guard for Xavier has a lot of blame for what happened. After his layup he made with time running out he ran back on defense yelling at everyone and anyone on Cincy's bench before getting in the face of Cincy's Ge'Lawn Guyn. That's when freshman Dezmine Wells came over to help Halloway and then shoved Guyn. Here's what happened next:
Bearcats senior Yancy Gates is the player who sucker punches Xavier's Kenny Frease in that video. A Bearcat player appears to stomp on Frease while he is bloodied and on the ground and more punches are thrown while coaches tried to separate the teams. Not shown after the game was called with 9.3 seconds remaining was Holloway jumping on the scorer's table celebrating the victory.
Then in the post-game interview Holloway dropped this bomb on everyone, "That’s what you’re going to see from Xavier and Cincinnati,” Holloway said. “We got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out. We’re a tougher team. We’re grown men over here. We’ve got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room—not thugs, but tough guys on the court. And we went out there and zipped them up at the end of the game.”
The sad thing is neither Halloway nor Lyons apologized for their actions rather they seemed to be proud of themselves for "not letting people get in their faces". We'll see how proud they are when the NCAA and the teams' respective conferences and ADs figure this mess out and hand out their suspensions.
Good news is at least the coaches understood how incredibly dumb this was. Cincy coach Mick Cronin made his players turn in their jerseys afterwards, he even had to take them off some players. "I made everybody take their jersey off and they will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school, what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be here let alone have a scholarship." Cronin also said he'd be meeting with his AD and school President hoping they wouldn't ask him to resign after this.
Xavier coach Chris Mack tweeted this after the game, "No one, no one regrets our ending to the UC game more than me. My 5 and 6 yr olds were in the stands. Both teams were at fault period. I'm disappointed to the enth degree. I've got good kids. Mick's got good kids. They made DUMB decisions."
Sad thing is Xavier was a legit Final Four contender but after today's game who knows what they'll be or who will still be on the team.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Lions Still Don't Get It
The most frustrating part of being a Detroit Lions fan during their Week 13 loss, 31-17 to New Orleans wasn't the loss itself but the fact that if not for boneheaded plays and poor officiating the Lions could have upset the Saints at home. Now while I hold the Lions more accountable for this loss the officials had some critical calls that we saw the 0-16 Lions get time and time again when no one respected them.
The Lions, one week after watching teammate Ndamukong Suh selfishly stomp on an opponent and put the team in a bad spot committed three more selfish and uncalled for personal fouls this week. It started early in the third quarter when rookie Titus Young tagged a Saints defender in the facemask while a referee was trying to separate the two. Instead of 3rd and 1 from New Orleans 5-yard line it became 3rd and 16. The Lions settled for a field goal and not a touchdown that they most likely would have scored. Young was benched for most of the game after this, seeing the field for a handful snaps when needed.
Then in the fourth quarter return man Stefan Logan flipped the football into the face of an opponent after a return. Logan who hasn't been an impact on returns this year has been understandably frustrated but this selfish act came back to haunt the Lions as they settled for a 55-yard field goal attempt. They missed and gave the Saints the ball on their own 45, the seven point game quickly became a 14 point game and was pretty much over. There's no guarantee the Lions drive like they did and kick a 40-yard field goal if Logan didn't get that penalty but it's still a dumb penalty to commit nonetheless.
And lastly Brandon Pettigrew picked up a personal foul for contact with an official as he shoved an official who was trying to separate him from a Saints defender. There's absolutely no excuse for what Pettigrew did here and while his penalty didn't cost the Lions points it did cost them position.
Head coach Jim Schwartz has said that the plan is to bench those who continue to make these selfish and costly penalties. If I were him or front office personnel you can bet that not only am I benching them but I am fining them whatever amount it is under the new CBA that I can. You thought Suh's suspension would have opened their eyes, it didn't so maybe this will.
Ultimately the Lions cost themselves the game with the Saints but I do have some qualms with the officiating in that game. Right before the half the Saints clearly jumped offsides en route to blocking the Lions field goal which wasn't called. Nate Burelson was flagged not once, not twice but three times for offensive pass interference. Has there even been three OPIs called all season long? To me you can call offensive pass interference is 99 percent of the one on one jump balls and under throws, so why all of sudden was the crew working that game deciding to call every little hand check battle Nate got into? Conveniently enough they also missed the defensive pass interference on Nate which led to Stafford's only interception on the night. These were the calls and officiating when the Lions were irrelevant and the laughing stock of the league. Like I said I don't blame the officials so much but that was an awful officiated game.
Schwartz says it's on him to stop this "trend" of idiotic personal fouls let's just hope for our sake, his sake and the playoff's sake that the guys get the memo.
The Lions, one week after watching teammate Ndamukong Suh selfishly stomp on an opponent and put the team in a bad spot committed three more selfish and uncalled for personal fouls this week. It started early in the third quarter when rookie Titus Young tagged a Saints defender in the facemask while a referee was trying to separate the two. Instead of 3rd and 1 from New Orleans 5-yard line it became 3rd and 16. The Lions settled for a field goal and not a touchdown that they most likely would have scored. Young was benched for most of the game after this, seeing the field for a handful snaps when needed.
Then in the fourth quarter return man Stefan Logan flipped the football into the face of an opponent after a return. Logan who hasn't been an impact on returns this year has been understandably frustrated but this selfish act came back to haunt the Lions as they settled for a 55-yard field goal attempt. They missed and gave the Saints the ball on their own 45, the seven point game quickly became a 14 point game and was pretty much over. There's no guarantee the Lions drive like they did and kick a 40-yard field goal if Logan didn't get that penalty but it's still a dumb penalty to commit nonetheless.
And lastly Brandon Pettigrew picked up a personal foul for contact with an official as he shoved an official who was trying to separate him from a Saints defender. There's absolutely no excuse for what Pettigrew did here and while his penalty didn't cost the Lions points it did cost them position.
Head coach Jim Schwartz has said that the plan is to bench those who continue to make these selfish and costly penalties. If I were him or front office personnel you can bet that not only am I benching them but I am fining them whatever amount it is under the new CBA that I can. You thought Suh's suspension would have opened their eyes, it didn't so maybe this will.
Ultimately the Lions cost themselves the game with the Saints but I do have some qualms with the officiating in that game. Right before the half the Saints clearly jumped offsides en route to blocking the Lions field goal which wasn't called. Nate Burelson was flagged not once, not twice but three times for offensive pass interference. Has there even been three OPIs called all season long? To me you can call offensive pass interference is 99 percent of the one on one jump balls and under throws, so why all of sudden was the crew working that game deciding to call every little hand check battle Nate got into? Conveniently enough they also missed the defensive pass interference on Nate which led to Stafford's only interception on the night. These were the calls and officiating when the Lions were irrelevant and the laughing stock of the league. Like I said I don't blame the officials so much but that was an awful officiated game.
Schwartz says it's on him to stop this "trend" of idiotic personal fouls let's just hope for our sake, his sake and the playoff's sake that the guys get the memo.
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