Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 19, 1993 TAG: 9312190159
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CINCINNATI LENGTH: Medium
Simply, what was played at chilly Cincinnati Gardens was a meaningful game. The flying bodies proved that. In Division I hoops, too many teams schedule too many December holidays.
This game was a push, literally.
Tech-Xavier was a matchup that once might have been a Metro Conference game. It's a game between a program that's trying to rebound against a program that - despite being from a little league - has played big in recent years.
When this home-and-home series was scheduled, the Hokies and Musketeers were precisely what each other needed - a respectable opponent that would make a schedule more attractive, an opponent that had a name, an opponent that had no hyphen.
For Tech, this wasn't UNC-Greensboro. For Xavier, this wasn't UNC-Asheville. Hokies coach Bill Foster, his freshmen of last winter having matured, added Xavier, Marquette and Tennessee - which is a name, if now an awful one - to the schedule.
Xavier, picked again to win the shrinking Midwestern Collegiate Conference, needed foes like the Hokies - from tougher leagues than the MCC - to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The MCC has lost its automatic bid as the Musketeers seek their eighth NCAA trip in nine years under coach Pete Gillen.
So, Gillen added Tech, the Hokies' state and Metro brother Virginia Commonwealth and George Washington to the schedule. Then, for a $25,000 guarantee and an ESPN date, Xavier even took a tumble at Duke after Brigham Young backed out on the Blue Devils.
The Hokies certainly aren't foreigners here. They used to visit for Metro games with former league member Cincinnati. In the past two seasons, the Bearcats, as Great Midwest Conference members and a Final Four club in 1992 - have clawed past the Musketeers as this city's hoops power.
When Cincinnati bolted the Metro a few years ago, some in the league - most notably Louisville athletic director Bill Olsen - wanted to invite Xavier to keep the Metro in the Bearcats' backyard.
Louisville even played Xavier the past two seasons. The Metro still could use an eighth member, but it won't be Xavier. The Musketeers, in their last season of a commitment to the MCC, want to join the Atlantic 10.
The Hokies and Xavier could be linked again in that scenario. If Tech and its Big East football-only buddies West Virginia, Temple and Rutgers are invited to play Big East basketball, too, the Atlantic 10 will lose three members.
Xavier and LaSalle are likely replacements to join GW, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, St. Joseph's, St. Bonaventure and Duquesne. At least Gillen - with his native Brooklyn ties still strong in recruiting - hopes the Musketeers will be included.
The A-10 is a better league than the Metro now. Although it would be weakened by a trio moving to the Big East, the Atlantic 10 is seen as having a better long-term chance at survival than the Metro, which might lose the Hokies and is only a Louisville invitation to play football elsewhere away from a crumbling power base.
Xavier's former MCC rivals Marquette, St. Louis and Dayton are in the Great Midwest. Evansville is leaving the MCC after this season for the Missouri Valley.
The MCC is expanding with a light six-pack. The move of Wright State, Cleveland State, Illinois-Chicago, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee will make Xavier's MCC little more than another MCC - the current Mid-Continent Conference.
Their recent hoops history couldn't have been more dissimilar. The Hokies haven't reached the NCAA Tournament field since 1986, ending a stretch of nine postseason bids in 11 seasons. Gillen's teams have missed the dance only once since '86.
These first-daters also might be going new places other than each other's schedules soon, too.
by CNB