Here We Go

Big big big week has just gone down. I've got a lot of things to cover. After hella persuading I have finally jumped onto that deal they call twitter, so follow me (scoonie712) as I have quickly become immersed into the twitter lifestyle. You may be wondering what the heck is scoonie712? I'll tell you what it is and it's not what but who. James "Scoonie" Penn. My all time favorite basketball player. He lead the Buckeyes to greatness in the late 90s. The banner may not be hanging anymore, but he was so crucial to the 1999 Ohio State Buckeye Final Four run. I still claim that had he not had to wear the #35 jersey they would've beat UCONN and played Duke in the championship game. The number 7 represents my lucky number and also the number Joey Galloway wore at THE Ohio State University. The number 12 represents Scoonie Penn's number and also a favorite number of mine. That should explain everything.

Onto the more important items. The Musketeers are once again peaking at the right time of season like they always do. The Muskies went into St. Louis last Wednesday and gutted out another big time road conference win. Jason Love is just absolutely a man possessed this year. It's no coincidence I'm hearing swirling rumors that the man has a legitimate shot at the League. His work ethic is unmatched and easily has made the greatest improvement of any Xavier basketball player over his four year career. One thing Xavier players are known for is their ability to get better every single day. In came the Spiders from Richmond on Sunday. The Cintas Center was ready and so were the Musketeers. Jordan Crawford did what he does but it was the stellar play of Terrell Holloway that stole the show on Sunday. Xavier won in a double over-time thriller that will give them no less than a share of the A-10 regular season title provided they don't have a disastrous melt down against Fordham and St. Bonaventure. Make that four in a row. All we do is hang banners and put rings upon our fingers, something completely foreign to the Dayton basketball program. When Jordan Crawford appeared worn out from chasing Richmond players all over the court and running through screens it was Tutu who stepped up into the spotlight and showed once again why when his time is done at Xavier he will surely be the program's best point guard. The tradition is seriously continuing to grow at Xavier. Every year, down the stretch Xavier steps up when it means the most. In the month of February Xavier went on the road 4 times to hostile environments and grabbed 3 wins. They also took care of business in conference. You can't say enough about the job Chris Mack has done. If Xavier wins out and wins the A-10 tournament they seriously could be looking at a three seed in the NCAA Tournament. I think a 5 is a lock right now but if they continue to play well that seed will only rise giving Xavier better chances at moving on into the second weekend of the tournament. Even when there was doubt at the beginning of the season, Xavier stayed the course. It's not a sprint and it's not how you start but it's how you finish in the marathon that is college basketball as Xavier has entered the top 25 poll. Keep doing what we do fellas.

Gordon College basketball is also hanging banners and donning bling to the fingers. My brother's team won the regular season title and did work in the TCCC tournament to grab an automatic bid into the NCAA D3 tournament. They will face off against #6 ranked Middlebury on Friday. According to my brother they are young and are capable of committing mistakes. The Fighting Scots are a seasoned team with a lot of veterans including 5 seniors who came in with a goal to go dancing and after four years of hard work they are dancing. But, they are not satisfied. They are looking to make noise and show why Gordon is a legit program. I would like to plug in that my brother was named Co-Conference Defensive player of the year.

Ohio State is doing work and has a chance to win the Big 10 regular season title. Again, the play of Evan Turner is unreal. The guy has got to be the front runner for POY in the college hoops. I've been pimping him all year and all he does is go out there and lead the team in almost every statistical category. They are getting great play from David Lighty and William Buford. If they even had an ounce of legitimate depth they would be a team, on paper, worthy of a Final Four run. I just wish people cared more about that program in Columbus. Seriously, why is it everytime I watch a game Value City Arena looks empty? Can we please get some support for that program?

I hit up my boy Pete's wedding this weekend in Chicago. To say it was quite the event is an understatement. It was HIGH LEVEL. The Management came strong and rocked the house. A biased yet arguable fact would be that the Management table shared MVP honors this past weekend. We rocked Oak Brook, IL with vigor. Everyone did work and was in rare form. Quite the reunion of old friends. Congrats Pete and Natalie! I will say that I of course owned the Electric Slide. Other highlights include: the late night party in room 904 that lasted until the sun came up, hehateme183's studio rapping that will soon be featured on a mixtape, taking charges on the dance floor, and the reminiscing of our time as managers at Xavier.

Tonight Smokin' Trees and Strokin Threes takes to the floor as a #2 seed in the intramural tournament. It will once again be a prime-time, west coast tip at 10:30 at the AFC. The overly confident football team will be in the house to take note of what they could be facing down the road in the tournament. Looking to make a deep run a la Xavier basketball.

I'm still working on The Blind Side by Michael Lewis, but it's a great book and highly recommend it.

Current Song: Dancing Nancies - Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds (Live from Las Vegas)

-'Killa