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By Christopher Witflee
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They haven't come from nowhere, exactly, but they've played for years behind a veil of indifference. Sports fans, who love winners, ought to love the Xavier University women's basketball team -- but love of sports teams is conditioned, if not conditional, and the conditions come slowly.
Whether due to a late-arriving appreciation of women's basketball, the game's relative lack of speed and size, its obscurity behind the men's game, garden variety sexism, the glut of options for sports fans, the glut of passive entertainments for Americans or simply because a portion of Cincinnati sports fans aren't inclined to like anything about Xavier, it remains that this basketball team with its sudden prominence compels us to ask where it came from. It also must be asking us where we've been.
Where we've been, of course, is elsewhere, into the usual. The life well-lived gives only so much time for watching games, and the ones we've known are more than enough. A bold move would be required for elbowing onto the scene, and that's where Xavier has been all this time, orchestrating the bold move.
The Musketeers made their move last Saturday, arriving somewhere near the junction of credibility and pop stardom with their 80-65 NCAA Tournament victory in Birmingham against Tennessee, which hadn't lost in the Sweet 16 since 1994. As quickly as the images of Bob Huggins and Steve Logan faded from the screen, they were replaced by the likes of Melanie Balcomb and Nicole Levandusky, who proceeded to bid for an even bolder move, a trip to the Final Four.
No one could begrudge Xavier its disappointment at falling short of the Final Four, but neither should the Musketeers decline congratulations on beating Tennessee, a women's basketball power without equal. Experience matters in the tournament and, for all the importance of beating Tennessee, the victory made Xavier no more than a newcomer in Monday night's Mideast Regional championship game against Purdue, an old hand deep into the bracket.
The Musketeers offered a legitimate performance on their first night of new credibility, but, for all their seriousness, they were in the corner office for the first time and Purdue was on a routine business trip.
Xavier led, 58-55, with 9:08 remaining as it worked in its offensive frontcourt and a whistle blew against Jennifer Phillips. The Xavier forward, a 6-3 senior, somehow was spotted applying too much body away from the ball, though her feet were down and her hands were out. Phillips went to the bench with her fourth foul, and the game immediately changed.
Until then, Xavier called the shots, even during a 9 1/2 minute stretch in the first half when it didn't make any. But the Boilermakers turned Phillips' benching into a turning point. With 8:55 remaining, Purdue All-American Katie Douglas hit a three-pointer for a 58-58 tie. Another three by Douglas gave Purdue a 67-63 lead. The Musketeers worked to within 67-66, but Purdue came back with seven straight points and Douglas made 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch.
Purdue, winner of the national title just two years ago, accomplished what Tennessee couldn't, beating Xavier, 88-78. The three lead seniors for Xavier -- Phillips, Levandusky and Taru Tukkanen -- can say they closed it out against two of the very top programs. Remarkable as it would have been for Xavier to beat both, that's not because it was uniquely overmatched. It would have been remarkable for any other team to do the same.
The Musketeers finished their season 31-3 but might have started their program toward more just like it. That's not a cinch, of course. With the loss of the three lead seniors, "The Three Musketeers" as they're called, Xavier loses 54 percent of its scoring over the last four years.
But the NCAA Tournament is a star maker, especially in the women's game, which receives a lot less national exposure during the regular season. The Xavier men's coach, Skip Prosser, said after his first-round loss that too much emphasis is placed on the NCAAs. He's not the only coach who feels that way, and he's definitely not wrong.
Once upon a time, basketball teams laid it on the line to win conference championships, which meant automatic berths to an NCAA Tournament numbering only 25 teams through 1974 and expanding by swift increments to 64 teams in 1985. The only exception, the Atlantic Coast Conference, decided its berth through a conference tournament, which, in those days, created a unique excitement throughout the country.
Other conferences eventually aped the ACC, set up conference tournaments for the payday, and the regular season was lost. Today, the audience and the money is in the NCAA Tournament. The demand to succeed in that setting has grown to the extent that a first-round loss this year forced Tennessee men's coach Jerry Green to resign under pressure, despite four consecutive years of 20 wins and tournament bids.
So, perhaps, too much emphasis is placed on the NCAA Tournament. The game has placed all its eggs in that basket, and that's what isn't right. The regular season is meaningful for individual records, but the winter achievements of too many teams vaporize in March.
Then, again, that's all part of the madness. Fortunes are made and lost during the boom and bust of March, which is great for teams needing to stage a grand appearance. That is, it's been great for the Xavier women's team, much in need of a grand appearance and much capable of making one.
A week ago, the Musketeers already held a 30-2 record. They had already earned a Sweet 16 meeting with a leading program on a neutral floor. They already were 56-7 over two seasons. They already had come a long way. And how many others, really, gave it a second thought?
No wonder they wanted Tennessee. Once they defeated Clemson March 18, winning entry to the Sweet 16, that was the talk: Tennessee.
Any other opponent would have been fine, of course, but no other opponent is Tennessee. To find a greater dynasty in sports, one must look for UCLA during the late Wooden years, the Celtics of the 1960s and the Yankees or Canadiens of several eras. From 1987 through 1998, Tennessee won the national championship six times. The coach, Pat Summitt, is 758-153 in 27 years. Her home court record at Tennessee is simply unbelievable: 350-34, 91.1 percent.
In 1997, Tennessee came to Cincinnati and won its second of three consecutive national championships. The host school, Xavier, finished that season 10-17. They were worlds apart. Today, it almost seems like worlds ago.
Two years later, Balcomb coached the Musketeers into their first NCAA Tournament and a win over Florida International. Their reward proved to be a disappointment, a meeting with national power Connecticut on UConn's home floor, ending in a controversial loss.
Since that day, the Musketeers have won 88 percent of their games and two consecutive Atlantic-10 titles. They won all that largely without fame or acknowledgement. Their 28-2 performance entering the NCAA Tournament convinced the selection committee of no better than a fourth seed.
On March 25, the Musketeers found themselves in the game they wanted and made the point they wanted to make. The Musketeers tore through for layups as Tennessee overplayed their three-point shooting. For Xavier, the win over Tennessee wasn't merely a historic victory but a virtuoso performance for an offense that entered the game second in the nation with 52 percent field goal efficiency while making 42.5 percent of its three-point shots.
The Musketeers entered the game with 691 assists on 912 field goals, meaning an assist pass preceded 75.8 percent of their baskets. Their point guard, Reeta Piipari, led the country with 8.5 assists per game, and their team average of 21.6 assists stood 14th in NCAA history. That's how Xavier entered the Tennessee game. It wasn't enough to make anyone notice.
But Xavier ended the game with a statement and a public. The Musketeers proved what all the top programs eventually need to prove, that they can beat anyone for high stakes. And if the Purdue loss demonstrated that this Xavier team couldn't beat everybody, it remains that it could have beaten anybody.
That's an arrival for a team, for a game and for an audience.
contact Bill peterson: letters@citybeat.com
