Xavier Nation - The Official Magazine for Xavier Athletics - Fall 2019

SWEET MEMORIES

IT’S BEEN 30 YEARS SINCE THE MUSKETEERS UPSET MIGHTY GEORGETOWN

MR. SPEAKER

HOW DID JOHN BOEHNER END UP AT XAVIER?

HOMETOWN HERO

SOCCER STAR NICK HAGGLUND RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS WITH FC CINCINNATI

XavierNation THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE FOR XAVIER ATHLETICS

KID FRIENDLY

PAUL SCRUGGS LOVES TO CONNECT WITH XAVIER’S YOUNGEST FANS

Contents X AV I E R N AT I O N

FALL 2019

22 | Taking the Lead P H O T O G R A P H S ( F R O M T O P) B Y J E N N I F E R F E L L I N G E R / B R E T T H A N S B A U E R , 4T H F L O O R C R E AT I V E / M I C H A E L M I L L AY, R O O T E D M E D I A H O U S E / G R E G R U S T / M I C H A E L O C H O A , M L S

Junior Paul Scruggs enjoys being a role model for children. This season, he’ll also need to help in trying to set a good example for seven first-year players, including five freshmen.

WARMUP 12 Gain in Spain

These photos help capture XU’s summer trip overseas on and off the court.

14 Working Overtime

Playing one sport just wasn’t enough for Olivia Jenkins.

16 Going for the Kill

How Xavier men’s basketball focuses on defensive stops.

28 | The New Kids Here’s your chance to get to know the first-year Musketeers a little better before the season gets underway. You wanna know Dieonte Miles’s favorite movie and food? Look inside!

18 Getting to Know You Meet XU’s new women’s basketball players.

20 Like Father...

Mark Prosser, Skip’s son, brings his Western Carolina team to Cintas Center.

COOL DOWN 52 The Making

36 | Making Connections Melanie Moore once turned down a scholarship and a chance to play basketball at Xavier. But she didn’t pass up the opportunity to be the Musketeers’ head coach.

of Champions Xavier is not finished improving its athletic facilities. More plans are in the works.

54 Twitter 100

A new list of the best way to follow XU basketball on the social media platform.

One Thought 42 | “No We Could Win” Hard to believe, but this is the 30th anniversary of Xavier’s program-changing NCAA Tournament victory over national power Georgetown, which sent the Musketeers to their first Sweet 16.

56 Where Are They Now? Xavier Nation catches up with Brian Thornton, now working for the NCAA, and former women’s basketball standout and successful businesswoman Judy Smith.

60 Program Updates

A look at all 18 Musketeer teams.

64 Post Game Interview

48 | Hometown Hero Nick Hagglund, a new member of Xavier’s Athletic Hall of Fame, realized a dream come true when he signed with FC Cincinnati and got to play in front of family and friends.

Former Speaker of the House John Boehner remembers his Xavier days fondly.

ON THE COVER // Paul Scruggs with (from back left, clockwise) Xavier Barbour, 11; Tristan Moore, 8; Karly Barbour, 9; Ayla Moore, 6.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HARTONG DIGITAL MEDIA

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WARMUP

FROM THE EDITOR

Contributors JACK BRENNAN

TODOS PARA UNO (ALL FOR ONE)

O

N PAGES 12 AND 13, YOU’LL SEE PHOTOS FROM

Xavier’s August trip to Spain, where the men’s basketball team played—and won—three games in Barcelona and Madrid. But the games and pictures won’t tell the whole story. This was a bonding trip that was especially helpful for a team with seven newcomers, including five freshmen.

Developing team chemistry is hard when there are so many first-year players in a locker room.

“Any time you go to a foreign country where there’s a different language spoken, it forces guys to bond,” says coach Travis Steele. “When you’re away from the culture you live in, you kind of cling to each other.”

Steele intentionally limited the number of mandatory team meals on the trip and instead wanted players to go out on their own to eat. That’s when he mentioned an observation that makes these kinds of trips worthwhile.

He said that, early on, he’d see classmates mostly sticking together. Seniors with seniors, freshmen with freshmen, and so on. But as the trip continued, instead of seeing seniors Quentin Goodin and Tyrique Jones going to eat together, he’d see Goodin with freshman Zach Freemantle. “I didn’t encourage that, it just happened,” Steele says.

“Even in team meals, the tables were more mixed.”

That’s when he sat back and smiled. “The chemistry piece is way ahead of where we would’ve been,” he says.

This is not the first time a Xavier coach has taken the team on a summer trip. Skip Prosser, an Irish history buff, brought the Musketeers to his promised land in 1997.

Sean Miller chose the Bahamas in 2005. Chris Mack opted for Brazil in 2014.

Experiencing international travel—especially a different culture, language, food, and way of living—is a wonderful addendum to college learning for any student. The bonus for Steele is that it could very well help his basketball team.

Former Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post reporter and longtime Cincinnati Bengals public relations director.

RORY GLYNN Former Xavier beat reporter and former assistant sports editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Also worked at Cleveland Plain Dealer and Atlanta Journal Constitution.

KEVIN GOHEEN Former reporter for The Cincinnati Post, Fox Sports Ohio, and Landof10.com, covering professional and college sports. @CincyGoGo

BOB JONASON Former general manager and digital operations director at Indianapolis Star and former deputy news editor/ sports at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

UC journalism professor. @BobJonason

TABARI McCOY Former CinWeekly arts, entertainment, and news reporter. Professional stand-up comedian. Also worked at Community Press papers and was a Bengals intern. @tabarimccoy

Sincerely,

Michael Perry, Editor-in-Chief

BILL THOMPSON Longtime editor and reporter at The Cincinnati Enquirer, including in the sports department.

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P H O T O GR A P H C O U R T E S Y V E H R CO M M U N I C AT I O N S

MICHAEL PERRY Former Xavier beat reporter and former sports editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Author and publisher of Xavier Tales: Great Stories from Musketeers Basketball (2008). @mdperry14

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J E R HOW WE CHANGED… AND HOW WE DIDN'T

HA IM NG IN G A M IG C IT R R Y H A E B E T A N TS — VEN A WEE N HE DHN ELL S H L P IN — ARE G HAN D ME DS D IV AL , S TH ERS E N IT Y UM BY BE RS OU

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SPECIAL THANKS Tom Eiser (Xavier University) Brian Hicks (Xavier University) Greg Lautzenheiser (Xavier University) Mario Mercurio (Xavier University) Hayley Schletker (Xavier University)

Marty Still Tells It Like It Is

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WHAT GOES UP...

FELIX BOE-TANGEN, A SOPHOMORE FROM OSLO, NORWAY, RISES ABOVE THE ZIPS PLAYERS.

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SIGNATURE WIN // XU knocked off Akron 2-0 in its season opener on Aug. 31. Akron was ranked No. 3 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll. It was the Musketeers’ highest ranked victory over an opponent at home. Freshman Karsen Henderlong and senior Samson Sergi scored.

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK BROWN, ROOTED MEDIA HOUSE

JUMP FOR JOY XAVIER GOAL COMES AT THE 78:46 MARK AND COMPLETES A COMEBACK FROM A 1–0 DEFICIT.

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BENCH SUPPORT // Xavier players

explode in celebration during the team’s 11–3 victory over St. John’s during the BIG EAST tournament in May at Prasco Park in Mason.

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID WEGIEL

LET IT FLY SENIOR CAMERON TAYLOR STRETCHES FOR A XAVIER THROW-IN AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY.

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IT’S A TEAM CHEER THE MUSKETEERS ADVANCED TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET, WHERE THEY LOST TO CREIGHTON.

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CALM BEFORE WIN THE XAVIER WOMEN FINISHED FIRST AT THE QUEEN CITY INVITATIONAL IN HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KENTUCKY, IN AUGUST.

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GETTING LOOSE // Xavier gets ready to capture

its third title in this meet hosted by Northern Kentucky University. Junior Anna Kostarellis won the individual title at the Valhalla Cross Country Course. The Xavier men finished fifth.

PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK BROWN, ROOTED MEDIA HOUSE

JUMP FOR JOY XAVIER GOAL COMES AT THE 78:46 MARK AND COMPLETES A COMEBACK FROM A 1–0 DEFICIT.

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Meet the whole family connecting you with Greater Cincinnati business Print

View from the top CINCINNATI BUSI

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SPAIN TRIP PG. 12

XAVIER DEFENSE PG. 16

NEW PLAYERS PG. 18

//

JUST TO GET YOU STARTED

MARK PROSSER PG. 20

AND MORE

P H O T O G R A P H B Y DAV I D J O H N G R I F F I N / I CO N S P O R T S W I R E V I A G E T T Y I M AG E S

GEORGIA ON HIS MIND // Xavier alum Jason Kokrak lines up a putt during the PGA TOUR Championship in August in Atlanta.

Kokrak, who played in his first British Open earlier this year, has qualified for his first Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in 2020 by his top 30 ranking this season.

TK TITLE // Caption.

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WARMUP

GLOBE TROTTERS

GAIN IN SPAIN

// SURE, THE XAVIER BASKETBALL TEAM DID SOME SIGHTSEEING IN BARCELONA AND MADRID, BUT BONDING AND BASKETBALL WERE AT THE HEART OF THEIR AUGUST TRIP.

1 2

1 COOKING CLASS: From left, Xavier AFO Fund supporter John Dovich, associate athletic director for basketball administration Mario Mercurio, men’s basketball coach Travis Steele and strength and conditioning coach Matt Jennings participate in a rooftop Spanish cooking class in Madrid.

2

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3 TOURISTS: From left, freshmen Daniel Ramsey, KyKy Tandy, and Dieonte Miles tour the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

4 SCORING: Junior forward Naji Marshall scores against a Spanish select team in Madrid.

5 HISTORIC BACKDROP: Dieonte Miles, Daniel Ramsey, and Bryce Moore stand outside the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

6 RISING ABOVE: Junior forward Jason Carter goes up for a short jumper in a Xavier victory over a Spanish select team in Madrid.

7 WINNING WAYS: From left, Naji Marshall, Quentin Goodin, and Tyrique Jones join a tour of Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and get a lesson on Real Madrid’s championship history.

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P H O T O G R A P H S B Y D ’A N D R E S E Y M O R E( 1) , T O M E I S E R (2 , 3 , 5 , 7 ) , J U A N P E L E G R I N (4 , 6)

2 FUTBOL FANS: Xavier players tour FC Barcelona’s home stadium, Cam Nou. Front, from left: Kyky Tandy, Paul Scruggs; back, from left: Jason Carter, Zach Freemantle, Bryce Moore, Myles Hanson, Tyrique Jones, Leighton Schrand, Dieonte Miles, Daniel Ramsey.

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THE PLAYERS

Olivia Jenkins, a sophomore goalie from Plainfield, Illinois, and a 6-foot-4 forward, appeared in four women’s basketball games last season. She scored her only two points in a loss to DePaul.

WORKING OVERTIME // OLIVIA JENKINS CAME TO XAVIER TO PLAY SOCCER. NOW SHE’S ON THE BASKETBALL COURT, TOO. — B I L L T H O M P S O N

OLIVIA JENKINS WORKS HARD TO BE PREPARED WHEN HER MOMENT ARRIVES. Whether it’s being inserted into goal for the Xavier soccer team during its biggest game of her freshman season. Whether it’s approaching the basketball coach with a proposition.

Whether it’s declaring a double academic major while playing two Division I sports. “I

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have a scholarship for soccer, so I was just going to go for soccer,” says Jenkins, a sophomore from Plainfield, Illinois. “I didn’t have any intention of playing basketball. I just wanted to help out, but as a practice player I realized how much I missed it. So I talked to the previous coach [Brian Neal] about trying out next season.

And he said, ‘Honestly, how would you feel about joining the team right now?’ I didn’t think it was possible, but it was something the soccer coach [Nate Lie] was very understanding about.”

Lie knew Jenkins had unique athletic skills. She replaced starter Toni Bizzarro in goal and stopped two DePaul shots during penalty kicks after the teams tied 1–1 through double overtime in the 2018 BIG EAST tournament opener, moving the Musketeers to the semifinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2013.

“Olivia is a natural shot-blocker,” Lie says. “She has more length, so she covers more of the goal. Before the game started, I told Toni she was starting and, if we go to penalty kicks, OJ [Olivia Jenkins] is going in. To Toni’s credit, she nodded her head, like ‘Yep, that’s the right call.’”

Jenkins embraced the moment. “I had confidence,” she says. “You have to exude confidence, because it can intimidate the opponent. But it was crazy. It was easily one of the best moments of my life.”

When Melanie Moore replaced Neal as basketball coach in April, Jenkins reached out. “She told me the situation and said she would love the opportunity to do it again,” Moore says. “We talked, and she’s such a great kid, a hard worker. She’ll join us after soccer season. I told her that’s priority No. 1.”

Actually, academics are top priority. One of the lessons Jenkins learned in college is how many hours there are in a day. “I was a double major in biophysics and economics, but I want to go to med school, so I kept the science,” she says, laughing.

“You can’t have it all. You have to have some time for yourself.”

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P H O T O GR A P H B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A

WARMUP

engaging | challenging | fun

FIND FULFILLING WORK IN AN EMPOWERING ENVIRONMENT

APPLY TODAY

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INSIDE THE GAME

GOING FOR THE KILL

// XU PLAYERS FOCUS ON THREE CONSECUTIVE DEFENSIVE STOPS, THEN DO IT AGAIN. AND AGAIN. — R O R Y G L Y N N

Paul Scruggs defends Justin Jenifer of the University of Cincinnati during last season’s Crosstown Shootout.

GEORGE RAVELING, THE LONGTIME COLLEGE BASKETBALL COACH AND NIKE EXECUTIVE,

once said that in order to combat player boredom, coaches need to “think of new ways to do old things.” In basketball, they don’t come much older than playing defense, around since Dr. Naismith asked some guy to stand between him and his peach basket.

Intensity and attention to detail are crucial to playing effective defense, but maintaining both at a high level for 40 minutes a night sometimes can be a challenge. Which is why Xavier coach Travis Steele embraces the concept of the “kill.”

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The premise is simple: A “stop” is an empty possession for the opposing offense—a missed shot or a turnover.

A “kill” is three consecutive stops.

Steele likes targeting kills because it makes effective defense measurable, tangible, and attainable for players. A new way of doing an old thing.

“It’s a way to engage their minds and to make the game smaller,” Steele says. “You want to break it down for them, give them little things to grab onto during the game, rather than just say, ‘Hey, let’s go play for 40 minutes.’

There’s a lot that can happen in 40 minutes. We want to attack each possession.”

Steele says the Musketeers try to get to seven kills each game. “If you do that, you win 96 percent of the time, regardless of whatever else is going on,” he says.

The program has tracked kills since the 2009–2010 season. Last season, when XU averaged 5.17 kills per game, it had seven or more in a game eight times (IUPUI, Miami, Oakland, Eastern Kentucky, Detroit Mercy, DePaul, Creighton, and Villanova).

The Musketeers won all eight, with an average margin of victory of 13.25 points.

Steele isn’t alone in valuing the kill. According to Jeff Greer of The Athletic, Chris Mack took the concept with him to Louisville, and John Calipari uses it at Kentucky, as do Tom Crean at Georgia, Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner, Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams, and Tony Bennett of national champion Virginia, among others. Steele says he remembers adopting the concept from Bennett.

The Musketeers staff tracks kills throughout each game. At media timeouts, players are reminded how many kills they have at that point and how many stops remain toward the next kill. Once XU has two straight stops, no player wants to be the one who gives up the basket or commits the foul that resets the count to zero.

“We always get hyped up in our little circle,” junior guard Paul Scruggs says. “When that last stop is coming up, we’re always saying, ‘Kill time!’”

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PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG RUST

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GETTING TO KNOW YOU

#1

NIA CLARKE

You played at Miami University last season, then got injured and transferred to Xavier. Why the switch? Well, I saw there was a coaching change with Melanie Moore coming aboard, and I was interested in seeing what she was about. In talking to her, you could tell she was just a positive person and means well and she’s really genuine with everything that she does. I just wanted to be part of that culture.

What was the toughest part about being injured and missing part of your freshman season? I’m not going to say I’ve never been hurt, but this was my first [injury that required] surgery. I probably shouldn’t have been in the game against Florida A&M—the game was closer than it needed to be—and I kind of got clipped and it was my ACL. Surgery was pretty hard [with] a lot of pain, but I went to rehab every day. I didn’t want to slack off; I just wanted to get better. You hear all the stories about how so many people come back better after ACL surgery, so I wanted to be on that side of things and get better every day. The hardest part was obviously not being able to play.

Favorite TV show? I do, a Netflix series called Power. It makes me mad, but I love Power. [The characters] Ghost, Tasha, and Angela are just too much!

WELCOME WAGON

// MEET THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM. — T A B A R I M C C O Y

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Who do you model your game after? From my demeanor standpoint, my attitude, my drive, and my competitiveness it’s [Houston Rockets guard] Russell Westbrook. That attitude is just killer.

Phobias or fears? Snakes. I don’t know why. I’ve never seen one, but I can’t even watch snakes on TV. I’ve never touched one, but I just hate them and they creep me out. The ones with the heads that raise up, king cobras, I just can’t! Snakes on a Plane really scared me.

I can’t do that.

What should Xavier fans expect from you? Off the court, I’m a nice person. I’m chill. On the court, I’m trying to hype up my teammates, I’m screaming, I’m giving high fives all the time. I just want to be that positive leader all the time.

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P H O T O GR A P H S B Y B R E T T H A N S B AU E R , 4T H F L O O R C R E AT I V E

What concert do you want to see and who are you bringing?

First, I’m bringing my best friend from Miami, Kennedy Taylor, and we’re seeing Beyoncé. Beyoncé is Beyoncé, and that’s that. There really is no other explanation needed.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

#5

MORGAN SHARPS

In high school, you won three conference finals and three district championships and hold your school record for the most 3-pointers in a single season and career. What’s up with you and the No. 3? [Laughs] I just shoot the 3 well. I had some really good teammates in high school who got me the ball and a really good coach who let me shoot pretty freely whenever I wanted to.

Favorite musician/band? I like Drake. He has different vibes, and I can vibe with anything he puts out.

Books or movies? Movie watcher. [The best movie I saw recently] is Miss Congeniality. I just saw it on TV the other day. I just like Sandra Bullock as an actress. She’s pretty funny.

Favorite food? Steak is probably my favorite. [It needs to be cooked] medium [well]—not too pink!

If you could chat with any athlete in the world… Probably [2015 WNBA MVP and multi-time all-star] Elena Delle Donne.

She’s my favorite basketball player. I like the way she plays and carries herself.

Biggest adjustment to college basketball? Probably [learning] a new system, new coaches, new people I’ll be playing with—just getting used to everything. The style of play, how fast you have to play because we’re running this year.

Pregame superstitions or quirks? I always have to put on my left sock before my right sock and then my left shoe before my right shoe. Then I say a prayer. I’m left-handed just in my writing; I write left-handed and I shoot right-handed. I just always do that, and it’s become a habit.

If not basketball, then what sport? Soccer—I used to be a goalie—or volleyball. My mom played volleyball at Kent State.

Any pets? I have two dogs, Roxi and Mia. Roxi is a Boston Terrier, and Mia is a black Labrador. I like running around with them, cuddling with them.

What else should Xavier fans know about you? Off the court I’m pretty shy, but on the court I’m pretty fiery. I like to scream and yell for my teammates and get everyone involved.

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COURTNEY PRENGER

Being tall (6'1"), how often do people mention your height when they first meet you? They ask if I play volleyball. That’s usually the first one, and I’ll say no and they look very surprised and go, “But you play basketball, don’t you?” and I’ll say yes. My dad’s a cross country coach, so I always ran, but I stopped after my freshman year of high school. I didn’t run cross country my sophomore through senior years because I would use fall to train for basketball.

Why Xavier? I come from a small town and from a very competitive league. Coming to a college that’s in a league that’s very competitive and always having competition and never having easy opponents [appeals to me]. You’ll never get better unless you have that. Also, the campus is small and my high school was small, but Cincinnati is a big city; it’s the best of both worlds. I didn’t want to stay somewhere where I wouldn’t have many opportunities.

Favorite cartoon? I’m not really a cartoon person, but I could watch Disney cartoons because my family is a big Disney family.

We’ve been to Disney World like eight times, Disneyland in California twice, and we took a Disney Cruise in 2007, so we’ve done a lot of Disney before.

What do you like best about Coach Moore? People always say she’s very positive, and she is. You can always turn to her for encouragement. Not that she’s not going to give you constructive criticism, because that’s what coaches are supposed to do, but she’s also going to tell you what you’ve been doing well. I feel like as players we always need to have that constructive criticism, but sometimes it becomes too much. You always need to have those reminders that you’re doing some stuff well.

Why did you choose to major in education? I come from a family of teachers and my brother is at Bowling Green studying to become a high school teacher, too. I was a student aide for first, second, and fifth grade classrooms throughout my high school years.

What are you most excited about? I think experiencing all the firsts that come with college. We haven’t even been here a month, and we’re all really close. There’s been absolutely no issues, so being able to experience my first game, my first Musketeer Madness, my first road trip, going to West Palm Beach with my tveammates and enjoying their goofiness and personalities as everyone brings something different with them, I’m excited about that.

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REMEMBERING SKIP PROSSER

LIKE FATHER...

// MARK PROSSER, SON OF A CERTAIN FORMER XAVIER COACH, BRINGS HIS WESTERN CAROLINA TEAM TO CINTAS CENTER. HOW COULD IT NOT SPARK MEMORIES? — R O R Y G L Y N N

Skip Prosser’s teams were 148–65 during his seven seasons as the Musketeers’ head coach, from 1995 to 2001. He is Xavier’s No. 3 all-time winning coach behind Chris Mack (215) and Pete Gillen (202).

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MARK

PROSSER

IS

APOLOGIZING.

Western Carolina University officials said he would call between 11 a.m. and noon, and a meeting with his athletic director ran a little long, he explains.

It’s only 11:04 a.m. If you can’t be on time, be early.

That was just one of the many sayings of Mark’s father, Skip, the beloved former coach at Xavier and Wake Forest. And Mark Prosser, beginning his second season as head basketball coach at Western Carolina, proves the proverbial apple doesn’t fall far from the proverb-loving tree.

Mark, 41, will bring his Catamounts to the Cintas Center on December 18 to play the program his late father helped build into a perennial power. It’s the second of back-toback Skip-themed games, following XU’s December 14 visit to Wake Forest in the resumption of the series XU and Wake created in his honor.

It’s Mark’s second season in charge of the program in Cullowhee, North Carolina. “It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he says. “As a family, we still feel a very, very tight bond to Xavier. I’m sure there will be a lot of emotions, but once the ball gets tipped, it’s a game.

Hopefully Travis [Steele] will take it easy on us.”

Mark is kidding, of course, and knows better. He grew up in a household where maximum effort was assumed and better was expected.

Another of Skip’s favorite sayings was borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Our chief want in life is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

That philosophy was among the underpinnings of a career that included 291 victories and nine NCAA tournament appearances as a head coach.

Skip was the first coach to lead three different schools to the NCAA tournament in his first season at each.

When Mark told Skip he wanted to pursue coaching as a career, he said his father’s reaction “was what a lot of coaches’ sons hear: ‘What else do you want to do?’ But I knew pretty early on,” Mark says. “To see the relationships he built with players, the opportunity to be part of kids’ lives and

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY GREG RUST

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REMEMBERING SKIP PROSSER

help mold them into young men...this is what I wanted to do.”

Mark grew up around Xavier, where Skip spent eight seasons as an assistant coach and seven as head coach, but played his college basketball at Marist. He visited Xavier on a recruiting trip—Pat Kelsey hosted him—but says seeing players like Torraye Braggs, Lenny Brown, Gary Lumpkin, and Darnell Williams persuaded him that Marist was “a good level for me.”

“Hindsight’s 20/20,” Mark says. “If I had known [Skip would pass away in 2007], I might have done things differently.”

When a knee injury ended his playing career early, Mark served as a student coach at Marist and made stops as an assistant at Wofford (twice) and Bucknell, where the Bison famously upset Kansas in the 2004 NCAA tournament. He spent a year as head coach at Brevard College before leaving for Winthrop to work under Kelsey, who had been an assistant to Skip at Wake Forest. In six seasons at Winthrop, Mark was part of four straight Big South tournament finals and one NCAA bid.

“I took the job with Pat because I didn’t get to work with my father as a coach,” Mark says. “Pat would always say, ‘Here’s how your dad would approach this.’ It was great to see how they went about their business.”

When Wake Forest and Xavier announced this season’s return of the Skip Prosser Classic after a two-year hiatus, Wake coach Danny Manning said the Deacons “continue to feel his presence every day within our program.” Twelve years after his father’s death, Mark has a theory as to why he remains such a presence in his sport.

“What endeared him to a lot of people was his honesty,” he says. “Like recruiting. You have people telling you what you want to hear sometimes instead of people telling the truth. People were sometimes taken aback by my dad’s brutal honesty. But the way he could be so open, so honest, and yet so compassionate is a big part of why he’s such a popular figure in college basketball.”

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“AS A FAMILY, WE STILL FEEL A VERY, VERY TIGHT BOND TO XAVIER. I’M SURE THERE WILL BE A LOT OF EMOTIONS, BUT ONCE THE BALL GETS TIPPED, IT’S A GAME. HOPEFULLY TRAVIS [STEELE] WILL TAKE IT EASY ON US.” —MARK PROSSER, HEAD BASKETBALL COACH AT WESTERN CAROLINA

Above: Mark Prosser with his family: wife Emily, daughter Ava Grayce, and son Declan.

Below: Mark Prosser is entering his second season as head coach at Western Carolina. His first team went 7–25.

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BY RORY GLYNN

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P H O T O G R A P H B Y TP KH O T O G R A P H B Y H A R T O N G D I G I T A L M E D I A

Junior guard Paul Scruggs is ready to set an example for young Xavier fans— and younger teammates.

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he second of Travis Steele’s three summer basketball camps is winding down on a late June afternoon, and dozens of campers—some headed to high school in the fall, others just a few weeks removed from first grade—sit wide-eyed in a rough arc beyond the three-point line, watching and cheering a shooting competition.

Steele bounces a basketball to a small boy and asks him: Would he like to have one of the Xavier players rebound for him? “Paul Scruggs,” the boy replies softly.

Scruggs shuffles toward the court. He’s shuffling because he’s wearing slides better suited to the Cintas Center locker room than its basketball floor. He and his teammates are here to sign autographs for the campers, not clean the glass and feed the shooter.

But Scruggs doesn’t want to disappoint the young camper, so out he comes and hustles to help his new friend. The boy smiles.

Afterward, Scruggs and his teammates linger to sign autographs for the campers. Scruggs takes extra care to get his signature in the perfect spot. “Paul’s great at camps,” Steele says. “A lot of the guys are. But Paul really connects with kids in a different way.”

“I just love little kids,” Scruggs says.

Last December, Scruggs’s AAU coach, Mike Peterson, helped set up a visit between Scruggs and a 7-year-old fan from

“PAUL’S GREAT AT CAMPS. A LOT OF THE GUYS ARE. BUT PAUL REALLY CONNECTS WITH KIDS IN A DIFFERENT WAY.”

Paul Scruggs visits with 7-year-old Kilian Herppich, a Xavier fan from Holland, Michigan, who gives Scruggs a home-made birthday card during a trip to Cintas Center last March to see the Musketeers play St. John’s.

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Michigan named Kilian Herppich. “It was really wonderful,” Scruggs says of hosting Kilian. “A blessing.”

Says Steele, “When he’s around kids, you see a different side of Paul than just the player.”

Scruggs, a junior guard, grew up the youngest of six kids in the blended family of Dan and Brenda Scruggs of Indianapolis. He loves cartoons (SpongeBob in particular), silly jokes, and video games.

He wasn’t the type to reach out to his own favorite basketball player—his first love was football. “When we’d travel for AAU games and we’d see some NBA player, I’d be like, ‘Who’s that dude?’”

Scruggs says.

He loves being the youngest in the family. “I could get anything I want from

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER FELLINGER

—TRAVIS STEELE, MEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH

P H O T O G R A P H B Y BT KR E T T H A N S B A U E R , 4 T H F L O O R C R E A T I V E

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through the NBA’s pre-draft evaluation process last spring to get the pros’ take on areas for improvement, and consistency in the three-ball topped the list.

Scruggs has taken it to heart. “He’s making better decisions, and his shot has improved dramatically since he’s been at Xavier,” Steele says. “He’s definitely taken steps forward in his development.”

More difficult to measure—but no less important—are steps needed to become an effective leader. Steele says Scruggs is aware of that.

When former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett spoke to the Musketeers over the summer, he asked the group who their leaders were. Steele was pleased that Scruggs raised his hand.

“He understands that he’s got to be one of those guys,” Steele says. “A lot of times kids don’t want to hold their peers accountable. Not being afraid of confrontation is important. And you have to hold yourself to that same standard. He does.”

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PHOTOGRAPH BY (LEFT) FRANK VICTORES / (RIGHT) BOB STEVENS

my parents,” he says. “My brothers and my sister were always jealous of that. I’m kind of a big kid myself.”

And yet some of the success of Xavier basketball this season will be shaped in part by how well Scruggs and veteran teammates like Naji Marshall, Tyrique Jones, and Quentin Goodin transition to adulting. Scruggs doesn’t shy away from the responsibility of leadership. “It’s a much bigger role for me now,” he says.

“When I’m on the court, I’ve got to make sure I’m doing the right things, following the directions the coaches are giving.

Back when I was a freshman, I was looking up to J.P. Macura and Trevon Bluiett.

Now it’s like I took their position. The freshmen are looking up to me.”

To that end, Scruggs went out of his way this summer to make sure Xavier’s first-year players didn’t feel like newcomers, whether it was organizing open gyms and a Fourth of July pool hangout at his apartment or just sharing a meal and a conversation. “I don’t put up walls, because we’re trying to build that bond,” he says.

If leading by example is required, Scruggs is your guy. His fondness for football shows in his grit and toughness.

He’s a stingy defender who doesn’t take plays off. “He competes in everything that he does,” Steele says. “He’s a warrior. He plays to win.”

But Scruggs says the qualities that make him difficult to beat on the court can sometimes make him a little more difficult to know off the court. “Most people are intimidated by me,” he says.

“I don’t know [why]. I guess it’s just how I hold myself. I don’t really talk to too many people. But I’m a very approachable person. And if you talk to me once, you know that. If you get to know me, I’m very chill.”

How chill? Scruggs can’t remember the last time he got mad. “Like really mad? Want-to-fight-somebody mad?

Man, I don’t know. That’s just not me.”

What has defined Scruggs’s Xavier career to date is steady improvement.

Last season he was the only Musketeer to start all 35 games, and he made significant gains in scoring (12.3 points a game, up from 4.9 as a freshman), rebounds (4.9 vs. 2.0), assists (3.3 vs. 1.7), and three-point shooting (.375 vs. .304).

Beyond the arc, Scruggs needs to continue that upward trajectory. Though intending to return to Xavier, he went

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THE NEW KIDS

sh e r f e th w o n k Get to XU’s men’s on faces all team. tb k CP baske G T %

M CE %[ Pictured: Dahmir Bishop, Jason Carter, Zach Freemantle, Dieonte Miles, Bryce Moore, Daniel Ramsey, KyKy Tandy

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Being from Philadelphia, have any impressions you had of Cincinnati changed? I thought Cincinnati wouldn’t be like Philadelphia at all. But it feels kind of similar. Just the downtown and the stores and the way things are laid out, it feels comfortable to me. It’s not something I’ve had to get used to.

Fan of Philly cheesesteaks? Ha ha. I knew a lot of people would think that, but once you’re in Philly for a long time, you start to get tired of it. It’s just not exciting anymore.

Favorite food? It’s got to be macaroni and cheese, the way my mom and dad make it. I couldn’t tell you how they make it, what they put in it or anything like that, but it is great. It’s the best.

Least favorite food? I would have to say beef stew. It doesn’t sound like something you’d hate, I guess, but I just had a bad experience with it one time. I didn’t like the texture. Maybe I’d like it better if I tried it again, but I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon.

Did you root for Philly sports teams as a kid? Oh, you know I did. For sure.

Is your favorite the 76ers? No, they’re OK, but the Eagles have always been No. 1 for me. We won the Super Bowl a few years ago, you know.

College teams you pulled for as a kid? I gotta admit, before I knew I was coming to Xavier, I was a real big Villanova fan. Maybe I shouldn’t let too many people know that, you think? But now that I’m here, I know there’s a big difference between the two and I’m glad I made the choice I did. I’m curing myself of being a ’Nova fan in a hurry.

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How much do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? Oh, yeah, the Cincinnati thing. I’m learning about it real fast. It’s fun to think you’re going to be part of one of the biggest things in town. It sounds pretty intense. But I’m from Philly.

I’m always up for a battle.

If you could take a trip anywhere, where would it be? I would definitely be on my way to Jamaica. I went there as a kid with my family and just had the greatest time. The thing I remember most is kind of funny. I was in the pool, and it started raining. Everything was great, but in two seconds it started pouring like the kind of

Dahmir Bishop storm I had never seen before. I ran back to our room as fast as I could. And then my mom says, “Why are you running in here?”

And I looked outside, and it was sunny. It poured like crazy for two minutes, and then it was totally and suddenly over. That just made a real impression on me. I just thought that was so cool.

Academic major? It was going to be business, but I just changed it this summer.

I’m changing to communications. I could see myself being a reporter someday.

If you could meet any person outside sports, living or dead, who would you choose? Will Smith. I have a great admiration for him. He’s a tremendous actor and just seems to have it all together. I’d love to talk to him and learn how he makes it all work.

Favorite movie? I Am Legend. Well, not necessarily that, but anything with Will Smith. That was just the first of his movies that came to mind. Besides him, I also really like Four Brothers [about brothers in Detroit who investigate the murder of their adopted mother].

Favorite non-sports hobby? I play a lot of video games. My favorite is probably Fortnite.

Mentor or basketball idol? Definitely Kevin Durant. He’s just great.

DAHMIR BISHOP VIDEO: WANT TO LEARN MORE?

#2

6-5 freshman guard Philadelphia, Pennsylvania XavierNationMagazine.com

Some of the first words you will hear about Bishop: Big personality. Swagger. Confident.

It wasn’t always that way. He wanted to play football as he was growing up, then he started getting hurt.

As he turned to basketball, he wasn’t that good right away.

“When we went to his high school he was a virtual no name,” says his father, Rudy Davis. “People said why did you send him there? He’ll never play there. It just drove him.”

If you want to learn more about Bishop, check out “The Arrival,” Xavier’s video series about its five incoming freshmen at GoXavier.com/TheArrival

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How did you end up with two years of eligibility left after graduating from Ohio University? I was at OU for three basketball seasons, but I only used two years of eligibility. I got hurt with a stress fracture in my lower leg as a sophomore, and I had to call it quits. I graduated last summer, the summer after my junior year [with a degree in business management and strategic leadership]. It was a busy summer, real hectic, but now I’m here and going for my MBA.

You against Xavier last year… Yeah, we played them here in December. It was a close game until about the 10-minute mark, and then they pulled away and wound up winning by 20. I did all right individually. My efficiency numbers were a little low for my liking, but I had 17 points and a few rebounds. I didn’t have any thoughts at that time about coming here, but when I entered the [transfer] portal I did have the memory of that game. So I knew from personal experience that this is a great program.

Why Xavier? I was thinking about staying at OU, but when our coach didn’t get resigned, I decided to open things up and see what was out there. And I ended up liking everything here. Talking to Coach Steele and the staff really swayed me in this direction.

Growing up in Johnstown, Ohio, what did you know about Cincinnati?

Johnstown is like 30–40 miles northeast of Columbus, but I played a ton of baseball down here when I was younger. And my girlfriend, who I met in high school, has been

n o s a J r e t r a C

here a lot, so she’s told me about Cincinnati.

Have you tried Cincinnati chili? I had it once a long time ago, and honestly I did not have a good experience with it. But I’ll be open to trying it again. Obviously everybody here thinks it’s great.

Favorite pro sports teams? This is probably not gonna fly well either, but I’m a Steelers fan.

Favorite movie? Coach Carter with Samuel L. Jackson. When I was younger, I loved watching it the night before a game. It reminds you that school’s important, that setting up for life after basketball is important.

Favorite book? I’m into how money works and how to handle it, so I’m into Dave Ramsey’s books.

Favorite foods? Chicken wings, burgers, and fried chicken.

There are a lot of burgers out there… A lot of good ones, too. The first two that come to mind are the bacon-bacon cheeseburger at Cheesecake Factory, and Five Guys. I really love Five Guys.

Impressions you had about Cincinnati that aren’t proving to be true? It’s not as busy as I thought it would be. Not as much traffic. And that’s a huge plus, because I hate traffic.

How much do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? I know it’s very intense, very big to people around here. I knew about the rivalry as a kid. I watched those games growing up. A lot of expectations are tied to those games.

If you could travel anywhere, where would it be? I haven’t been a lot of places, but I have great memories of going to Ft. Myers Beach growing up. I would definitely go back there.

Favorite non-sports hobby? I like to fish. I like just generally being around water: boating, tubing, those kinds of activities with family and friends.

JASON CARTER

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6-8 junior forward Johnstown, Ohio 3 0 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 9

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If you could meet and talk with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

I’d want to meet Jeff Bezos, because of what he’s done with Amazon. He would be so cool to talk to.

Favorite movie? Above the Rim with Duane Martin and Tupac Shakur. This guy’s best friend died playing basketball, and he quit basketball himself over that. Someone close to him had a son who was really good at basketball but had done some bad things, and the guy came into the picture to help him. He ended up playing again himself, and he was really good. I just really like the story.

Favorite food? Hot wings. They’ve got really good wings back home [Teaneck, New Jersey].

Do you like your wings blazing hot?

Not like to hurt my mouth. Just spicy enough.

Do you think they’re as good as the wings in Buffalo? I’ve never been to Buffalo, so I couldn’t tell you about theirs.

But I’m telling you, ours taste really good.

Favorite non-sports hobby? Probably video games. My favorite is Call of Duty.

e l t n a reem

F h c Za

Academic major? Business. But I couldn’t tell you right now what I plan to do with it. I’ve got some time to figure that out.

My only focus right now is just being as good a basketball player as I can be and going as far with that as I can.

Key people in helping your basketball career? I’d have to say my AAU coach, Vince Johnson, and my high school coach, Billy Armstrong. Coach Johnson took a chance on me at the beginning of high school. I was pretty bad back then, but he saw some potential in me. He knew where I grew up, and I was tall at least, and he let me on the team. That just helped me tremendously for high school ball, and Coach Armstrong was there for me every day, helping me make progress.

When did you realize you had a future in basketball? Playing at this level and maybe beyond was always my dream growing up, but I didn’t see that I really had a chance until maybe my junior year in high school. I knew by that point that I’d get a chance in college and I said to myself, “Maybe you can make a future out of this.”

Which pro players inspire you the most? LeBron James and Blake Griffin.

LeBron because he’s just the greatest player of all time, and Blake Griffin because he’s had some of the most amazing dunks I’ve ever seen.

If you could meet and talk with anyone in history, living or dead, who would you choose? Jesus.

Favorite teams growing up? It’s always been the Knicks, [New York] Giants, and Yankees for me. Probably the Giants most of all, because I watch every single Giants game, and they’ve won Super Bowls with me watching. The Yankees have won it all, too, but I’m not nearly as big on baseball as football. The Knicks have been terrible lately, so they’re not as much fun to watch right now.

Where would you go for a free vacation? Somewhere tropical.

ZACH FREEMANTLE VIDEO: WANT TO LEARN MORE?

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6-9 freshman forward Teaneck, New Jersey XavierNationMagazine.com

Larry Freemantle describes his son as “tough as nails.” “He gets that from his mom,” Larry says.

Indeed. “I’m probably one of the few parents who doesn’t necessarily overinflate my child,” Michaela Freemantle adds. “So, I tend to downplay their abilities.”

Zach? He talks about playing with passion and doing whatever it takes to win. Just like you’d expect from a kid who grew up playing in the parks of Teaneck, New Jersey.

If you want to learn more about Freemantle, check out “The Arrival,” Xavier’s video series about its five incoming freshmen at GoXavier.com/TheArrival

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Growing up in Walton, did you identify more with Cincinnati or Lexington? I’m really more oriented toward Lexington.

Cincinnati is pretty close, obviously, and I’ve been through Cincinnati, but we never did a lot here. I’m more a Lexington type of guy.

Were you a Kentucky basketball fan as a kid? Actually, my dad and I were North Carolina fans. But the rest of my family was all UK. Did you follow any pro sports teams as a kid? I’m not that big a fan of teams. I’m more into following players. I really like Anthony Davis, so now that he’s on the Lakers I guess I’m a Lakers fan.

Favorite non-sports hobby? I love watching wrestling, the WWE. I’m a gigantic fan. I started watching it as a kid, and I’ve never gotten away from it. It’s just really entertaining, the story lines and the characters. It keeps growing on me.

If you were offered a free vacation, where would you go? Miami. I’ve never been there, but I know there’s a lot that goes on there—a lot of different stuff, a lot of different types of people. It seems like a very interesting place.

Favorite movie? Uncle Drew, the basketball movie about the guy who rounds up the all-star team of old guys. The one with all the NBA players in it: Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller.

Why Xavier? It’s a good program and a good school, and I like the aspect of it being really close to home. It’s 30 minutes away, and everything I need is right here.

What would you like to do when your playing career is over? I’d like to stay in sports, and I could see myself doing a lot of things. Sports management, trainer, coach… there are plenty of options.

Do any of your past coaches stand out for helping your career? I’d have to say my

AAU coach, Chris Grubbs. He’s my best friend’s dad, and he’s all about getting better, all about us improving and getting to the next level. He led the way in a lot of fund-raising in the community for us. He tells you to never let anybody take anything away from you and that everything you get has to be earned.

What else would you like Xavier fans to know about you? I hope our fans will come to know me as just a good kid, a good person. I like to be around people.

Dieonte Miles

Favorite food? Hot dogs, cheese coneys.

I’ve eaten Skyline and Gold Star a lot since I was a kid.

How much do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? I know it’s been a big thing here, the battle to see who has the better program. But I only started to really know about it when I was being recruited by XU. Then it all made sense to me. I’m very excited to compete in it. I know there will be a lot of people watching.

If you could meet and talk with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose? A pro basketball player. No one specifically, just someone who would really talk to me about the pro game. What it’s like to be a professional. When you go to the next level of competition, how do you prepare, how do you do things on and off the court?

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6-11 freshman forward Walton, Kentucky 3 2 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 9

When Miles was 15 years old, he was 6-foot-9 and people wanted proof of his age. “We had to bring out his birth certificate,” his father Roman Miles says. “That’s when Dieonte kind of took off.”

And take off he did. Until a shoulder injury sidelined him early in his junior season.

It pained Miles to sit on the sideline and watch his high school teammates play without him. “It really took a toll,” he says. “I was sad. I was upset.”

If you want to learn more about Miles, check out “The Arrival,” Xavier’s video series about its five incoming freshmen at GoXavier.com/TheArrival

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P H O T O GR A P H S B Y B R E T T H A N S B AU E R , 4T H F L O O R C R E AT I V E

How did you end up at Xavier after playing and graduating from Western Michigan? Trevon Bluiett and I played together in high school [in Indianapolis], so I followed XU when he played here. I would also come here and work out with him at the practice facility. So it was just a natural place for me to consider after I got my degree with some eligibility left. I liked the winning culture here, and Coach Steele just kind of sealed the deal. I could tell he was a coach I’d really like to play for. And now I’m going for my master’s in accounting.

What do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? Over the years, I watched it more than a few times on TV. Besides having played with Trevon, I also remember watching Dee Davis and Tu Holloway in those games. I was always rooting for Xavier. It’s competitive, a great atmosphere.

Career plans beyond basketball? I want to get into real estate and own my own business.

Favorite non-sports hobby? I play the tenor sax. I have a Jeep, and I like to sit out in back of the Jeep and just play. I got into it in high school. We had to take a fine arts class,

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and I thought it would be cool to learn that and be able to play a lot of different music.

Favorite book? As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. It’s about the power of thought. I also like Rise and Grind by Daymond John. That’s a good book for teaching yourself good habits. Get up and get things done. Form a commitment to what you want to do in life.

Favorite food? I like sushi, but it has to be cooked. I really like Japanese food overall.

Do you know about Cincinnati chili?

Skyline? I’ve had it in the past. They have a few spots in Indy. I like it.

If you could meet and talk with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

Denzel Washington. I’d like to know how he became such a great actor, and beyond the acting, he’s inspirational to me. He’s done a lot of speeches I’ve watched. He inspires you to keep going no matter what you’re facing.

He tells you that if you persevere, really stick with it, you may fail sometimes but you’ll win at many things in the end.

Sports teams you’ve pulled for? In basketball, the [Oklahoma City] Thunder

when [Russell] Westbrook and Kevin Durant were there. Also, the [San Antonio] Spurs.

It’s just the way they play, and I like Coach [Gregg] Popovich. I like his interviews. Nice and short. In football, the New York Giants.

My dad [Eric Moore] played on the offensive line for them. He played one year for the Bengals, too [1994], but most of his time was with the Giants.

Toughest moment in your basketball career? My junior year at Western Michigan, I played on a torn ACL. We didn’t know it was torn right away, but as I tried to play, my knee kept giving out. There was a lot to deal with due to that, but I wanted to show I could play through anything and keep giving it my all.

BRYCE MOORE

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l e i n Da sey m a R

Tell us about your hometown, Cordele.

It’s in southwest Georgia, about an hour from Florida. Atlanta is about three hours away, so my family always felt more of a pull from Florida. It’s easier to get down to some of the bigger Florida cities than it is to Atlanta, and we took a lot of family vacations there.

If you could meet and talk with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose? For a non-athlete, Martin Luther King. He wanted equality for all people, and in my opinion he did most things the right way. From what I’ve read, he was a great family man and a great person, the kind of person I want to try to be off the court.

Has living in Cincinnati changed any impressions of the city you had before you came? Every time I think of a big city, I think of Atlanta’s downtown. Cincinnati’s downtown isn’t like Atlanta—I thought it would be bigger, but that’s kind of a good thing. Atlanta can get a little overwhelming.

Cincinnati is not too small. It has a nice downtown feel, and there are nice areas around downtown.

Favorite pro teams? My brother [OL Andre Ramsey] played in the NFL, and his first team was the Seahawks, and ever since then, when I was 11 or 12, the Seahawks have been my favorite team. I also like the Falcons, and in basketball I like whatever team Kevin Durant plays for.

Kevin Durant clearly has a lot of fans among young players. Why are you among them? Most NBA players are built really strong, like grown men. But he still looks like more of a long, skinny tall kid, and that’s how I have seen myself. And he’s the best player in the game. So versatile, he can do everything on the court. I try to pattern my game after him.

When did you fully realize you had a chance to play major college basketball?

Until my sophomore year [of high school], I played basketball just for fun. My first love was football, and basketball was just a hobby. But in my sophomore year I started getting taller, outgrowing football a little bit.

Basketball started becoming my thing, and when I worked hard and started getting better, that’s when I fell in love with it and started thinking about the future.

Favorite movie? That’s an easy one for me. The Blind Side [about the football player Michael Oher]. He was homeless but wound

up playing at Ole Miss and then in the NFL. Great story. I love anything sports, and it inspired me.

Favorite things to do as a kid, beside sports? I liked to read, and when I was 9 or 10 I really liked the Captain Underpants series. It was a comic-strip type of book, and anytime a new one came out, I had to get it.

The jokes were just really funny. Later, when I was a little older, I liked the Harry Potter books.

Favorite food? I love pizza. Meat Lovers at Pizza Hut is the best. A lot of people think Pizza Hut is kind of old school, but I can eat Pizza Hut a lot. For home-cooked food, I like spaghetti.

Have you tried Cincinnati chili? I had it pretty soon after I got here. Everyone was making a big deal out of it. I’m a big food guy, and it’s good, but I have to say it doesn’t taste all that different from chili I’ve eaten in Georgia. Maybe a little sweeter. But I love chili, and I’ll have it again.

How much do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? I didn’t really start watching Xavier basketball until this last season. I was more into the NBA. But after watching the game last year, I actually did some digging into the whole history of it. I know it’s a whole-city rivalry, two crazy fan bases that love basketball. It seems like a fun game to play, high intensity from the coaches down to the players to the fans.

That’s the game I definitely have circled.

DANIEL RAMSEY VIDEO: WANT TO LEARN MORE?

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6-9 freshman forward Cordele, Georgia 3 4 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 9

Cordele is a town of roughly 11,000 in southwest Georgia. “Known for football mostly,” Ramsey says.

He says it’s a big deal for someone from his small community to get so many scholarship offers. But one thing that matters to Ramsey: Making a difference in the lives of kids and people less fortunate.

“I just want to be remembered as a good person who always thought of others and always helped people, but also as a great basketball player as well,” he says.

If you want to learn more about Ramsey, check out “The Arrival,” Xavier’s video series about its five incoming freshmen at GoXavier.com/TheArrival

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When did you first start thinking about playing college basketball? I’d say when I was in ninth grade. I was playing some games with the varsity, and it came to me: If I take this more seriously, I can really do something with it. Before that in basketball, I was just playing to have fun. But when you get to high school, it starts to become a business. People are paying to watch you, so you can’t waste their time and money just for you to have a good time. So I’ve taken every game seriously from that point on.

Were you a Kentucky basketball fan as a kid? Yes. I was born there and, you know, just about everybody in Kentucky likes UK basketball. But I’m in a different mindset now, of course. Coming to Xavier was an easy decision. I liked it here way more than anywhere else that recruited me. I like the way our campus is laid out. You can walk where you need to go. I don’t like going very far, so it’s just perfect for me. It’s also fairly relaxed and quiet, and I’m not a big party guy.

If you could meet and talk with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose?

Gilbert Arenas. You probably won’t hear that one from a lot of people, but he played the game the way I think I can play it, and what he went through inspires me some. He was a great player, an NBA all-star, but he admits he did some dumb stuff that made his career go down. [Arenas was suspended for the 2009–2010 NBA season for handgun violations and related offenses.] He came back from it, though. He did what he had to do to get back on track. I admire people who can learn from their missteps.

Favorite food? Burgers. Nothing fancy, just regular burgers. Wendy’s is probably my favorite. I don’t like McDonald’s all that much. Burger King is good, but they just don’t have the taste of Wendy’s.

If you were offered a free trip, where would you go? Florida. I’ve never been there, and I’d really like to go.

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Academic major? Business. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll want to do with it, but I’ve got time to figure it out.

What do you know about the Crosstown Shootout? I know a lot about it. I think it’s one of the most underrated games in the country. It seems like I’ve always known about that game, even though I was down in Kentucky. Playing in that game is one of the things I’m looking most forward to here.

KyKy Tandy

KYKY TANDY VIDEO: WANT TO LEARN MORE?

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6-2 freshman guard Hopkinsville, Kentucky XavierNationMagazine.com

Tandy says he has bad asthma and heart problems as a kid that hindered his playing ability. “I couldn’t breathe,” he says. “Every minute or so I had to sub out because I couldn’t breathe.” He talks about his father Keith Tandy “always being there” when he was struggling with his health “or to teach me life lessons.”

Despite scoring 3,363 career points in high school—eighth-highest total in Kentucky history—Tandy says, “I’m just being a humble kid.”

If you want to learn more about Tandy, check out “The Arrival,” Xavier’s video series about its five incoming freshmen at GoXavier.com/TheArrival

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MAKING

Connections New women’s basketball head coach Melanie Moore says all roads in Ohio lead to Xavier—including her own.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

By Bill Thompson

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PHOTOGRAPH BY M T KI C H A E L M I L L A Y , R O O T E D M E D I A H O U S E

HIGH PRAISE // North Carolina

coach Courtney Banghart, for whom Moore worked from 2007 to 2012, called Xavier’s hiring of Melanie Moore a “home run.”

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Cincinnati, but the northwestern Ohio village is close enough to I-75 that it would have been easy for Melanie Moore to set the cruise control if she’d accepted the scholarship offer to play basketball at Xavier after graduating from high school in 1995.

She did not, however, and instead turned east for Siena College in New York, another Catholic school. But almost 25 years later, she said yes to Xavier’s next offer and became the eighth head coach of the women’s basketball team, replacing Brian Neal, who resigned in March after six years.

This is Moore’s first head coaching job after 17 years as an assistant at Siena, Indiana State, Dayton, Princeton, and, most recently, Michigan, where she was associate head coach last season, her seventh year on Kim Barnes Arico’s staff.

Moore passed on top jobs over the years, but the pros outweighed the cons when she studied the Xavier position. She was ready when Athletic Director Greg Christopher made the call.

“It was diving into what Xavier is about, its mission, big-time athletics,” says Moore.

“The BIG EAST is a basketball conference, and it’s been done here before, the tradition of our program. We’ve been to two Elite Eights [2001 under Melanie Balcomb, 2010 under Kevin McGuff]. And the school, the academic piece, it’s smaller and reminded me of my small town. It reminded me of Siena. Everything felt like home. I said, ‘Well, why not? This could be the perfect place for me.’ And now it’s home. I wake up every day thrilled to put on that X and can’t wait to win the day.”

If history repeats itself, the glory days are coming back. The last time something felt like home was when Moore reconnected with a fellow Ottawa-Glandorf High School grad. That was more than 11 years ago, and now Melanie and Joe Moore have two kids (Tristin, 8, and Ayla, 6) and a house in Montgomery.

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“We knew each other in high school,” Joe says. “She went off and played college basketball in New York and I stayed in Ohio. In our late 20s, we reunited. It makes the courtship a little easier when you know exactly who the person is, who her family is.”

That sounds a little like Christopher’s search for a new coach, even if he didn’t really know Moore. By the time he decided she was the right choice, he had a pretty good idea of the person. “When you do this [look for a coach], you have a list of 10 to 15 attributes...that are important to us,” he says. “You look at Melanie’s background and you layer it on top of [the attributes] and say, ‘Boy, the two mesh very nicely.’ She had played at a high level herself [Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and two-time league Player of the Year at Siena], so she was going to have instant credibility walking into the locker room.

She had a taste of pro basketball [a year each in Luxembourg and Israel], which every kid in that locker room is hoping to do.”

But it was Moore’s coaching family tree where Christopher struck pay dirt.

“She had some big public experience at high levels [Michigan],” he says, “but she also had schools like Siena and Dayton that feel a lot like Xavier. And she had won at every single place she had been, had been part of winning programs.

“And the last point, which I put great, great value on, is who have you learned from? Who were your mentors? She was with Courtney Banghart [at Princeton, now the coach at North Carolina] and Kim Barnes Arico [at Michigan], who led complete turnarounds, taking programs that were not successful to a high level of success. So you start saying, ‘Yep, yep, yep...it’s a good fit.’ It’s exactly what we were looking for.”

The fingerprints of Barnes Arico run throughout the BIG EAST. Former Michigan assistant Megan Duffy, who was head coach at Miami for two seasons, is the new coach at defending champion Marquette, and Joe Tartamella coaches St. John’s.

“I think she’s probably glowing with a little pride for us to be part of her coaching tree and having impacted each of us,” Moore says of her former boss, who drove from Ann Arbor to attend the introductory press conference at Xavier.

“Ultimately, she prepared us for this step. How she runs her program day-to-

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IT’S NOT EXACTLY A STRAIGHT LINE FROM GLANDORF TO

Bench Strength Here are the new faces on Melanie Moore’s coaching staff.

P H O T O G R A P H SB BY YT RK O O T E D M E D I A H O U S E

Melanie Moore began her coaching career at her alma mater in 2002 after a Hall of Fame playing career at Siena and two years of international competition in Luxembourg and Israel. The experience she gained and contacts she made gave her many options as she chose her first staff as a head coach.

“I started to make a list of assistant coaches about five years ago,” Moore says. “It was important to me to surround myself with winners, workers, and high-character people. I hit a grand slam with my staff.”

None of the three have ties to Xavier, but they’ve had success in recruiting, rebuilding programs, and head coaching in their careers. Here’s a look at Candice Finley, Mary Grimes, and Dan Lang from their résumés, their self-descriptions, and Moore’s reasons for picking them.

MARY GRIMES

DAN LANG

CANDICE FINLEY

In her second stint at LeMoyne, Grimes helped the Dolphins capture their first conference title and advance to the DII East Regional last season. Prior to that, she was an assistant at Albany from 2010 to 2016 when the Great Danes won five conference titles and played in five NCAA tournaments.

She also coached at Syracuse from 2005 to 2010 and LeMoyne from 2003 to 2005.

Grimes played at Siena College (Moore was on that staff for Grimes’ senior year), where she helped the Saints capture three Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference titles and three postseason appearances, including the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

Lang was the women’s coach at SUNY Sullivan, a two-year school in New York that competes in the National Junior College Athletic Association, for seven seasons. He compiled a record of 149–53 while winning four Mid-Hudson Conference titles. His 2013–2014 team finished No. 6 in the nation, the highest ranking in school history. Prior to that, he was an assistant men’s coach at Orange County Community College in New York. Lang played basketball at Orange County for two seasons before transferring to Coastal Carolina, where he was a student manager for the women’s basketball team.

He graduated in 2010.

Finley, XU’s recruiting coordinator, was a UMass assistant the past two seasons. Prior to UMass, she spent four seasons at Eastern Michigan during which the Eagles had two 20-win seasons and three postseason appearances. She began her college coaching career at Southern Connecticut State in 2007 after coaching at Romulus High School in Michigan. Finley played professionally in Luxembourg after playing at Eastern Kentucky, where she led the team to the 1998 Ohio Valley Conference title.

Grimes on Grimes: “I will bring positive

Lang on Lang: “I can’t thank Coach Moore

energy and enthusiasm every day because that is who I am. I’ve been fortunate to be part of programs that have had success in the postseason, whether it was in the WNIT or NCAA Tournament. Those tournament experiences have been priceless and something I hope the current players here at Xavier will experience. Xavier has already been to two Elite Eights, and it’s exciting to have that rich foundation.”

enough for this opportunity. I’m extremely excited to be at Xavier. This is truly a dream job for me to coach in one of the premier conferences in the country. For the past seven years I’ve been a head coach, so with my experience I can help Coach Moore as she navigates through her first year. Xavier women’s basketball has a rich history, and from having the opportunity to get to know the alumni I’m looking forward to building on those relationships and putting a product on the floor that they are proud of.”

Moore on Grimes: “Coach Grimes is a builder and has brought major success to every program she’s touched. She has been to the NCAA Tournament multiple times as a coach and brings that winning mentality to everything she does. Coach Grimes works with our guards and makes sure they’re improving daily on their basketball IQs, shooting, and ballhandling.”

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Moore on Lang: “Coach Lang is an incredible coach with head coaching experience the last seven years. He brings a wealth of knowledge and positive energy to every practice. Coach Lang is a tireless worker and loves to teach the game.”

Finley on Finley: “I bring the experience of coaching the game on all levels, from 10-year-olds to 20-year-olds, which helps me relate to, understand, and build relationships with our players. This will be the fourth head coach I’ve worked for who has brought me into their family as they have embarked on their first head coaching position. I truly understand what it takes to build a program and create a winning culture. Mel has been a mentor to me and has always given me positive energy mixed with great advice, so it’s only right for me to match her energy and be a sounding voice for the Xavier Way.” Moore on Finley: “Coach Finley is a bright star when it comes to recruiting and is one of the best in the country. She has an infectious smile and lights up a room with her sparkling personality. She does a great job developing and challenging our post players to be the best every time they step on the floor.”

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“We need to get players who are looking elsewhere to say, ‘I want to put on that X uniform and I want to hang a banner like they did in the past.’”

day, she prepared me for this position.

And I’m thankful to her every day.”

Barnes Arico’s statement upon Moore’s hiring shows mutual admiration and affection: “[Moore] helped us build this program to what it is today, a consistent winner year in and year out.

We wouldn’t be here without her tireless work and commitment, which she brings to everything she does. She has really developed during her time here as she embraced every new responsibility. She has really become a complete coach, and I know that she will be successful as a head coach.”

Another Big Ten coach adds a simi-

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lar vote of confidence. Ohio State’s McGuff, who compiled a 214–73 record at Xavier in nine years, believes Moore is the right fit.

“Mel has recruited against the best teams in the country to get top-flight talent, so she has practical experience,” says McGuff, who is XU’s winningest coach. “One of the things that’s going to be really exciting—and it’s good and bad—is that Connecticut is coming into the BIG EAST, so there’s a lot of hype around the league. I think she’s going to be able to sell that. It’s also going to make the climb harder because she has to go through some excellent programs to

make progress, but it’s going to be a huge selling point for her, a big deal.”

Moore will have to apply every lesson she’s learned to lift Xavier out of last place in the BIG EAST, where it has finished for two years. She has some talent in veterans Aaliyah Dunham, A’ri Gray, and Ashley Gomez and has added three recruits. Maybe more importantly, she has the support of her boss.

“I don’t believe John Wooden would walk in here and take us from 10th place to first place in 2020,” Christopher says.

“So Melanie Moore’s not going to do it, as much as I love her. That said, I also don’t believe after watching us the past

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P H O T O GR A P H S B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A

couple of years that we are the 10th-place team in the league. So can you come in and make an immediate impact simply by organizational changes, by philosophical [changes], a new schematic approach? That will move us incrementally.

Whether or not we make the long-term move is going to be about recruiting.”

It turns out Moore has a plan for that, one that echoes a familiar refrain of the past few years, but she’s not asking for billions of dollars to implement it. “We will try to build that fence around Ohio and not let [top players] leave,” she says, laughing. “Ohio is a hotbed for talent, from youth basketball to high school to

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AAU ball. We produce tons of DI talent.

When Xavier was successful in the past, they had talent from Ohio.

“We need to get players who are looking elsewhere to say, ‘I want to put on that X uniform and I want to hang a banner like they did in the past.’ We want them to embrace the idea of playing close to home as part of your college

experience. That means more people in the stands. Heck, you can have your own section.”

Moore knows the value that connecting (or reconnecting) has on family and community. Now she has to convince the state’s top players that all roads lead to Xavier.

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len and Pete Gil reect players 0th on the 3 y s ar anniver r’s of Xavie pset u g stunnin e g town of Geor et 16. we in the S

By Adam

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Baum

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GOOD COMPANY //

PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG RUST

Xavier’s Tyrone Hill goes up strong against Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning (33) and Dikembe Mutombo (55).

All three players went on to play in the NBA.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

EXTRA, EXTRA // The

Enquirer’s front page on Monday, March 19, 1990.

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It was the night before arguably the biggest basketball game in Xavier University history and Jamie Gladden couldn’t sleep. “Every single year when March Madness starts, that game’s the first thing I think about,” says Gladden, a freshman for the Musketeers back in 1989–1990. “When Xavier gets to the Sweet 16, I feel like I’m ready to play. Thirty years went by really fast, but for me it still feels like yesterday.”

Insomnia was a product of what awaited the following day, a Sunday, inside the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. Xavier, a six seed, was making its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, and two days earlier the Musketeers had won only the second NCAA Tournament game in school history, beating Kansas State 87–79 in the first round of the 1990 tournament.

“THEY’D NEVER HEARD OF XAVIER” The next test was No. 3 Georgetown, a program that had won a national championship (1984) and was fresh off its seventh Elite Eight appearance the season prior. Conversely, Xavier had only made the tournament seven times in program history. The Hoyas, led by legendary coach John Thompson Jr., had two future NBA stars in Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo, not to mention a solid pair of senior guards in Mark Tillmon and Dwayne Bryant.

“Georgetown was a BIG EAST giant, and I’m coming from New York and everyone wanted to play against them,” says Jamal Walker, a junior point guard that year for the Musketeers. “They had a following that was unbelievable. I remember the open practice before the game and people were just waiting to watch Alonzo and Dikembe work out, then we came in after them and we’re stumbling, falling, getting laughed at. It was funny, but I always knew we were gonna go at them.”

At the time, Georgetown was a perennial powerhouse and didn’t mind acting like it. “They’d never heard of

Xavier,” says Pete Gillen, Xavier’s head coach from 1985 to 1994. “They didn’t know where we were from. Before the game, they were saying, ‘Where is Xavier?’ They were asking our players, ‘Are you guys from New Jersey or Connecticut?’ Our guys were ticked.

They knew after the game where we were located.”

Walker, who Xavier fans still affectionately refer to as “Jumpin’ Jamal,” says, “Nobody knew who we were. I think when Georgetown was there, the open practice was packed, and then once we came on everyone was leaving. That was good. That just put fuel in the fire.”

“WE BELIEVED WE COULD DO IT” Confidence is a curious thing, and for a program that had never made it to the second weekend of the tournament, Xavier believed.

“I will tell you, we had no soft guys on our team,” says Michael Davenport, a junior guard at the time. “Jamal didn’t take any crap. I absolutely didn’t take any crap. Tyrone [Hill] and Derek [Strong] didn’t take any crap. It was like, ‘Bring it, you might be from Georgetown, but we got something for you.’

“I coached for a couple years at West Point, at Xavier for a year. I’ve been around team sports all my life and to have as many strong leaders as we had

on that team was really unique. All of us wanted to take that last shot. You rarely find five guys on a team who are like that. We were a balanced team and a tough team. We didn’t take anything from anybody.”

Davenport says that the night before the game, “The coaching staff made a lowlight tape of Georgetown, like a blooper reel video…and I remember us thinking we were gonna win. At that point, we had an extreme amount of confidence knowing that Tyrone and Derek were unique big men. They could rebound, outlet the ball, and then dunk at the other end. I think Alonzo Mourning could do that, but Dikembe was not that type of big man so we did not think they could run with us.”

Twenty minutes into the game, it was clear Xavier wasn’t intimidated. The Musketeers led 42–26 at the half. “We were up 16 at the half, and our kids were fired up,” Gillen says. “I gave them some type of speech, hell and brimstone and fire, spitting cotton. I’ll fight coach Thompson if I have to with a bat and he’ll probably kill me, but I gave them a speech and our kids played with fire.

“Up 16 at the half and then I started coaching, and we only won by three.

Maybe I should have shut up and just let them play,” he says, laughing.

“You knew they were gonna make a run,” Walker says. “Our biggest thing was to maintain and hold onto it. We

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struggled in the second half. I know I did. I was tired as hell. Georgetown was relentless. Full-court press and me being from the east coast, I gotta dribble through everybody. Now I know better, pass the ball up the court and make it easier on yourself.”

Ahead of his time with his endof-game philosophy, Gillen had the Musketeers foul with the lead in the final minute. “We fouled at the end, which I’ve been doing for 20 years as a head coach,” he says. “We fouled up three with 15 seconds left so they didn’t hit a three, and we did that twice in the last 15 seconds, with maybe 11 seconds left and then again with four seconds to go.”

Walker, who hit a pair of foul shots in the closing seconds to help Xavier hang on 74–71, says the crowd was unforgettable that day. Fans came from all over, many to see the Hoyas, but what they ended up seeing was history: the first-ever Sweet 16 appearance in Xavier history.

“I think for some of us it sank in right away, but for me it didn’t,” Gladden says.

“It took days before I realized what actually happened. I had family members, friends from back home, everyone I knew watched that game.”

When the bus arrived back at the hotel, the team was greeted by a mob of Xavier fans. “I think it was the Embassy Suites and everyone was hanging over the banisters when we got there,” Walker says. “It was unbelievable. You really thought you had won an NCAA championship, but we had just won a game.”

becoming the first lottery pick in Xavier history, and Strong went in the second round to Philadelphia. They played a combined 23 seasons in the NBA. Aaron Williams, a freshman who came off the bench that year, went undrafted but

that our two big men, Tyrone and Derek, were the best tandem in the country.

Jamal was a terrific point guard. Jamie was a nice combo guard. Michael was a great shooter. Maurice Brantley was a talented wing, and Aaron Williams was

“THEY WERE ASKING OUR PLAYERS, ‘ARE YOU GUYS FROM NEW JERSEY OR CONNECTICUT?’ OUR GUYS WERE TICKED. THEY KNEW AFTER THE GAME WHERE WE WERE LOCATED.” —PETE GILLEN, XAVIER’S HEAD COACH FROM 1985–1994

eventually worked his way into the NBA, where he played from 1993 to 2008.

“I thought we’d have a good team, but I didn’t dream that we’d make the Sweet 16,” Gillen says. “I didn’t think that far ahead. Some scouts were saying to me

a very good player. It was a special team and a special moment...special because no one thought we could win.”

The upcoming college basketball season marks the 30th anniversary of that team and Xavier’s first Sweet 16 appear-

IT’S A CELEBRATION // Xavier fans watch the Musketeers’ 74–71 victory over the Hoyas in the basement of the University Center.

For any program to progress, at some point a team needs to take the next step.

The 1989–1990 Musketeers broke down the door that had been holding them back, and in the process, gave confidence to the teams that followed. “It was a special team,” Gillen says. “I had one at Providence that went to the Elite Eight in 1997...Those are the two best teams I coached.”

Xavier had three future NBA players on the roster. Hill, Xavier’s all-time leading rebounder, and Strong were seniors and they both heard their names called a few months later in the NBA draft. Hill went eleventh overall to Golden State,

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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

“THAT WAS ONE OF THE BEST TEAMS I’VE EVER COACHED”

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY THE ENQUIRER

HAPPY TALK // From left, Xavier coach Pete Gillen and players Tyrone Hill and Michael Davenport meet

with the media in O’Connor Sports Center on campus the day after beating Georgetown in indianapolis.

ance. In the years since, Xavier has made 21 NCAA Tournaments with seven more trips to the Sweet 16 and three Elite Eight appearances. “The biggest challenge was to make them believe we belonged,” Gillen says. “We were like the little engine that could, and we finally believed we could do it. That was a dream season, and the dream continues at Xavier.”

Davenport laughs when reminded it was 30 years ago. “I just turned 50 years old,” he says. “We’re talking 30 years.

It’s crazy. I don’t feel old. I talk to my kids about life and how things are. I’ve been a non-athlete longer than I was an athlete. My perspective and my appreciation of what we were able to accomplish and what we did is way different now with my adult lens than it was with my young adult lens.

“As I pull away from that as a 50-year-old man working 50 to 55 hours a week, thinking about what we had as 15 guys, what we had as a coaching staff, and what we were able to accomplish together is really special.”

Thirty years ago, Xavier was an unknown, scratching and clawing to be relevant. Today, the Musketeers are a

national brand, thanks in part to what happened three decades ago.

“The high schools that I work at, there are a lot of students who know what Xavier is,” says Gladden, who now lives in Atlanta. “When I was a freshman at Xavier, we could go places and people wouldn’t know who we were. Now we’re known all across the country. It really amazes me when I see students walking the halls with Xavier gear on. They’re extra excited to find out I actually played there.”

Gillen has always been quick to credit his predecessor, Bob Staak, for Xavier’s emergence onto the national scene. Staak took over Xavier’s program in 1979, and his first three teams went a combined 28– 54. But in 1982–1983, the Musketeers went 22–8 and to their second NCAA Tournament—and first in 22 years.

Gillen says that without Staak’s success before leaving to become coach at Wake Forest, he might not have taken the Xavier job in 1985. “The guy who started it was Bob Staak,” he says. “We took the quantum leap, but...he was the guy that took the first step, then we took the next big step.”

A version of this story originally appeared in The Enquirer and on Cincinnati.com. It was reprinted in Xavier Nation Magazine, with some additions, with The Enquirer’s permission.

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P H O T O GR A P H S B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A

Hometow Hometo 4 8 X AV I E R N AT I O N

XavierNationMagazine.com

Nick Hagglund wore FC Cincinnati’s captain’s armband September 7 against his former team, Toronto FC.

FORMER XAVIER SOCCER STAR NICK HAGGLUND HAS TAKEN XU VALUES WITH HIM TO A PRO CAREER WITH FC CINCINNATI. BY BOB JONASON

wn HERO XavierNationMagazine.com

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49

The 6-foot-1 defender was acquired in January by FC Cincinnati from Toronto FC, where he played for five seasons and helped lead them to their fi rst-ever Major League Soccer Cup in 2017.

Hagglund’s accomplishments at Xavier are well known. The Lakota West High School graduate played an integral part in taking XU men’s soccer to three NCAA tournament appearances and is a member of the 2019–2020 Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame class; the team had won just five games combined in the two seasons before Hagglund arrived. During his four years, he was fi rst team all-conference three times and conference defensive player of the year twice.

Toronto FC selected him as the 10th overall pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, making him the highest drafted player in Xavier men’s soccer history. “To be back here with family and friends, to be close to my high school, to the college that I went to—just to be back in the U.S., really—it has been a real blessing,” Hagglund says.

FC Cincinnati struggled throughout its inaugural MLS season while Hagglund hoped to instill in the club the same positive culture he experienced at XU. “The togetherness at Xavier was something you couldn’t beat,” he says. “No one guy was trying to be the star of the team. Everyone knew their role, and everyone took their role seriously.

They knew exactly what they needed to do to get results. I feel like I can take what I learned at Xavier and apply it here.”

The return to Cincinnati was a homecoming not only for Nick, but for his wife, Mary, who lived across the street from him growing up in West Chester. Nick’s in-laws still live across from his parents; in fact, Nick and Mary stayed with them for a while after making the move from Toronto. “We basically moved back to the street where we grew up,” Hagglund says.

The two families now help babysit the Hagglunds’ infant daughter. Nick’s sister, Jenna, a former international volleyball player, worked briefly with FCC and now

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works for Procter & Gamble. Club president and general manager Jeff Berding let Jenna know via text that her brother was coming home as soon as the deal was done, according to media reports.

Hagglund says he has several hundred friends in the area, and many have FC Cincinnati season tickets. “I always get texts, ‘I was at the game, it was great to see you.’ It’s really cool,” he says.

Xavier men’s soccer coach Andy Fleming believes Hagglund has taken on the role of elder statesman for FC Cincinnati, even though, at 27, he’s not exactly ancient. “There is defi nitely some ownership in the team and how he’s going to shape it because this is his hometown,” Fleming says.

Fleming recalls an FCC game when Hagglund was dressed but not in the lineup. After FC Cincinnati scored a goal, Hagglund jumped off the bench and was clapping and high-fiving teammates. “When players came out of the game, Nick was fi rst off the bench to congratulate them,” he says. “That’s

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P H O T O GR A P H B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A

Nick Hagglund got a chance to come home to Cincinnati, and he couldn’t have been more thrilled. “I always thought it would be amazing to be back and play in front of my hometown,” says the four-year Xavier soccer star, a fixture on FC Cincinnati’s MLS roster. “To think that when I was a kid, it wasn’t even possible. I couldn’t even dream of this.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED.”

( T O P) P H O T O GR A P H B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A / (B O T T O M) P H O T O G R A P H B Y M I C H A E L O C H OA , M L S

something I really liked seeing.”

It was Fleming who convinced Hagglund that he could be a pro, sitting him down after his freshman year at Xavier and telling him he had the athleticism and ability to make a living at the game. “I said, ‘If you let me push you and let us squeeze everything we can get out of you, you can do this,’” Fleming says.

“I saw a freshman who had a tremendous engine, a tremendous motor, great lateral movement for a big guy, obviously a physical frame and gifted in the air. I still to this day say he’s the best header of the ball that I’ve ever seen.”

From that point, Fleming says, Hagglund went from being an athlete who played soccer to an athletic soccer player. “He developed an IQ for the details of the game, specifically with how to be good defensively.”

One particular piece of advice from Fleming stood out to Hagglund. “He would say, ‘Just be Nick. It’s obviously nice to aspire to be like other players, but ultimately you’re the only Nick Hagglund on the field. Do the things that you do well, and the rest will take care of itself,’” Hagglund says. “And that’s what I’ve always tried to do.”

Former Xavier assistant men’s soccer coach Kris Bertsch, now an assistant coach in the St. Louis University men’s program, is sure Hagglund’s presence in the community will be appreciated. “I know that professional clubs have signups for community service—the players have to make a certain number of appearances,” Bertsch says. “That won’t be a problem for Nick. He just does it because he wants to. His day is busier with community service than it is with soccer and training.”

Bertsch says Hagglund was an ambassador for the university and will be an ambassador for FC Cincinnati. “Nick could be the mayor of Cincinnati one day because he’s so well-liked,” he says. “I don’t know if you’ll ever meet anybody who will say a bad word about Nick Hagglund.”

Fleming concurs. “Nick is really a man for others,” he says. “His faith, his upbringing, and his parents—there is a lot of Cincinnati in his personality, and there is a lot of Xavier in him as a man.

He took a lot of the values of the university with him to the pros.”

Hagglund has stayed in touch with his former Xavier teammates and coach-

XavierNationMagazine.com

es throughout his pro career, exchanging texts and Facebook messages, but the return to Cincinnati has made it much easier to see them in person. He’s looking forward to attending Xavier basketball games in the offseason and giving back to the university.

“I learned so much at Xavier, not just as a soccer player but as a student as well,” Hagglund says. “The intangible things I learned at Xavier helped me become the professional I am today. Some days, even if you’re not the best soccer player, you can step off the pitch and be a good teammate, and that takes you a long way.”

(ABOVE) Nick Hagglund enjoys interacting with fans. “Nick could be the mayor of Cincinnati one day because he’s so well-liked,” former Xavier assistant coach Kris Bertsch says. (BELOW) Nick Hagglund appeared in 22 matches for FC Cincinnati, starting 20, and had the fifth-most minutes played on the team, which finished 6–22—6.

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CHAMPIONS CENTER

THE MAKING OF CHAMPIONS

// CONSTRUCTION BEGINS EARLY NEXT YEAR ON XU’S STATE-OFTHE-ART FACILITY FOR STUDENT-ATHLETES. — X A V I E R N A T I O N

AVIER UNVEILED THE PLANS FOR THE HEIDT FAMILY CHAMPIONS

Center at the O’Connor Sports Complex a year ago. Construction on the facility, named for lead donors Dr. Rob Heidt Jr. and his wife Julia Heidt, will begin in early 2020 following the completion of the recreation center portion of the Health United Building.

Xavier Athletics will begin the transformation of the current O’Connor Sports Center into a state-of-the art training center providing nearly two-thirds of Xavier’s student-athletes a one-stop location for sport-specific training, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and locker rooms.

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“No project in Xavier athletics history will have a greater effect on more of Xavier’s student-athletes than making sure that the long-term home for our Olympic programs is secured,” says Greg Christopher, Xavier University vice president for administration and director of athletics.

“It will be a shot in the arm for me and the players,” says Andy Fleming,

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RENDERINGS COURTESY TK

CHAMPIONS CENTER

“IT’S EXCITING TO SEE THE IMPACT IT CAN MAKE ON WHAT’S ALREADY BEEN A SUCCESSFUL GROUP OF TEAMS”

RENDERING BY MSA DESIGN

—ANDY FLEMING, XAVIER MEN’S SOCCER COACH

men’s soccer coach. “It’s needed, and it’s deserved. A lot of the programs in that building have done very well. Now we actually have something to show off as a front porch, so to speak. It’s exciting to see the impact it can make on what’s already been a successful group of teams.”

The initial work on the Heidt Family Champions Center will begin in early

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2020, with completion targeted for early 2021.

Once the Champions Center is complete, plans will be fi nalized for the demolition of Schmidt Fieldhouse.

Dedicated with a men’s basketball game on March 7, 1928, it was the home of the Xavier men’s basketball team until games moved to Cincinnati Gardens in the 1983–1984 season. Schmidt also

served as the home of women’s basketball and volleyball until the opening of Cintas Center for the 2000–2001 school year.

If you are interested in learning more about this project and how you can support it, please reach out to an All For One Fund staff member at 513.745.3223 or AFO@xavier.edu

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| X AV I E R N AT I O N 5 3

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TECHNOLOGY

XAVIER NATION’S

Twitter 100

IN 2014, WHEN XAVIER NATION MAGAZINE LAUNCHED, WE PROVIDED THE 100 TWITTER ACCOUNTS XAVIER FANS SHOULD FOLLOW. FIVE YEARS LATER, WE THOUGHT IT WAS TIME FOR AN UPDATE.

XAVIER PLAYERS Dahmir Bishop @dahhbishop Jason Carter @Jason_Carter_25 Zach Freemantle @zachfreemantle Quentin Gooden @quentingoodin Myles Hanson @myleshanson4 Dontarius James @dontarius_james Tyrique Jones @TyriqueJones_ Naji Marshall @NajMarshall Dieonte Miles @DieonteMiles Bryce Moore @brycemoore96

Trey Scotti @TreyScotti Video coordinator Travis Steele @CoachSteeleXU Head coach Cintas Center @CintasCenter Xavier All for One @XavierAFO Xavier Athletics @XUAthletics Xavier Basketball @XavierMBB Xavier Gameday @XavierGameday Xavier Managers @XavierManagers Xavier Tickets @XavierTickets

LOCAL/REGIONAL MEDIA Adam Baum @AdamJBaum The Cincinnati Enquirer Joe Danneman @FOX19Joe Fox19 Paul Daugherty @EnquirerDoc The Cincinnati Enquirer Jed DeMuesy @Local12Jed Local 12 Mo Egger @MoEgger1530 ESPN 1530/700 WLW

Xavier University @XavierU

Lance McAlister @LanceMcAlister 700 WLW

Leighton Schrand @LSchrand10

FORMER XAVIER PLAYERS

Paul Scruggs @the1paulscruggs

Remy Abell @23Abell

Gary Miller @Local12Gary Local 12

Kyky Tandy @kykytandy

Malcolm Bernard @Malcolmabernard

XAVIER COACHES/ STAFF/UNIVERSITY

Trevon Bluiett @TrevonBluiett

Daniel Ramsey @Daniel_Ramsey5

Bo Burkhart @_Burkhart Graduate program assistant Greg Christopher @GC_XUAthletics Athletic director

Stanley Burrell @Sburrell34 Reggie Butler @Fullcourtvision Lionel Chalmers @lionelchalmers Semaj Christon @SemajChriston Jordan Crawford @Jcraw55

Tom Eiser @EiserXUSports Associate AD for communications

Dee Davis @DeeDavisX

Sam Frayer @sam_frayer Graduate program assistant

Josh Duncan @jd_513

Justin Doellman @J_Doellman

James Farr @JFarr2

Matthew Graves @CoachGraves10 Assistant to the head coach

Kevin Frey @CoachKevinFrey

Jonas Hayes @CoachJonas Assistant coach

Kaiser Gates @Kaisergates

Brian Hicks @Xumktgguy Associate AD for external relations

Zach Hankins @hankymckspanky

RaShid Gaston @3rsg5

Brian Grant @bwgrant

John Popovich @Popo_WCPOSports WCPO Jeremy Rauch @FOX19jeremy Fox 19 Shannon Russell @slrussell The Athletic Brandon Saho @BrandonSaho WLWT George Vogel @vogel_wlwt WLWT

Jim Jackson @jimjackson419 Fox Sports Andy Katz @ESPNAndyKatz ESPN Steve Lavin @SteveLavin64 Fox Sports Gary Parrish @GaryParrishCBS CBS Sports Jon Rothstein @JonRothstein CBS Sports/SI/WFAN Dick Vitale @DickieV ESPN Dan Wetzel @DanWetzel Yahoo Sports

NCAA TOURNAMENT/ RATINGS Joe Lunardi @ESPNLunardi ESPN/Bracketologist Ken Pomeroy @kenpomeroy kenpom.com Howie Schwab @howieschwab Fox Sports

BIG EAST CONFERENCE BIG EAST Conference @BIGEAST

NATIONAL MEDIA Jay Bilas @jaybilas ESPN Seth Davis @SethDavisHoops CBS/The Athletic

BIG EAST Conference Championships @BIGEASTchamps BIG EAST Conference men’s basketball @BIGEASTMBB BIG EAST Conference women’s basketball @BIGEASTWBB

Mike DeCourcy @tsnmike Sporting News

BIG EAST Coast Bias @becb_sbn

J.P. Macura @jpmacura

Jeff Eisenberg @JeffEisenberg Yahoo Sports

RECRUITING

Matt Jennings @_mattjennings Strength and conditioning coach

Brad Redford @B_RadXU12

Fox Sports: Hoops @HoopsonFOX

Rick Broering @musketeerreport Musketeer Report/Scout.com

Jalen Reynolds @JalenReynolds

Ben Johnson @CoachBenJohnson Assistant coach

Matt Stainbrook @mstainbrook40

Fran Fraschilla @franfraschilla ESPN

Mario Mercurio @MarioMercurio Associate AD for basketball administration

David West @D_West30

Dante Jackson @DanteJacksonXU Assistant coach

Kerem Kanter @KeremKanter

Edmond Sumner @edmondsumner

Aaron Williams @aaron34williams Darnell Williams @coachdwill

Pete Gillen @Gillenhoops Former Xavier head coach/CBS Sports Network

Evan Daniels @EvanDaniels Scout.com Brian Snow @BSnowScout Scout.com

Jeff Goodman @GoodmanHoops Stadium basketball insider

Steve Wolf @swolfhoops

5 4 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 9

XavierNationMagazine.com

Bookers know nothing beats seeing a buzzer beater live.

When given the choice of watching from the couch or the stands, Bookers choose the stands every time. Nothing beats watching sports live, in person. And with 25 million Bookable rooms, ÃÌ> Ì V wÀ >Ì ] > ` vÀii V> Vi >Ì Ã Booking.com, it’s never been easier to travel with the team.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

STAYING IN THE GAME // AFTER HIS XU PLAYING DAYS, BRIAN THORNTON HAS KEPT BASKETBALL AS HIS CAREER PATH. — K E V I N G O H E E N

ing was right,” Thornton says. “I being in the NBA one day. Brian Thornton was no have a young family and wanted to different growing up in Louisville. Well, maybe a take a little more control of my career little different. and what direction it’s going to go in.

“I was one of those guys who always thought of It has worked out.” myself as becoming more of an NBA GM than an NBA player,” says Thornton, a 2006 Xavier graduate and basketball player under Thad Matta and Sean Miller. He was the program’s first Academic All-American and earned his MBA from Xavier while serving as a volunteer assistant under Miller.

After 10 seasons working as an assistant at Xavier, Winthrop, Furman, and Ball State, Thornton accepted a job with the NCAA last October as an assistant in its basketball development office. The position offers him a chance to see the game from an administrative aspect while acting as a liaison between coaches, players, and the largest governing body of college athletics.

Thornton says he wasn’t looking to transition away from coaching, but when the new job was offered he embraced the opportunity. The game of college basketball and the NCAA are under the scrutiny of a highly publicized federal corruption scandal, and Thornton works behind the scenes in a preventive manner.

“My job is more on the proactive side,” he says. “I’m meeting with coaches and players and talking about things that might be coming down the pike from a legislative perspective, and I’m listening to them about things that can make their jobs better and make recruiting better. I’m working on the front end before it gets to that point.”

It’s a new perspective for Thornton, but one he’s enjoying. Living in Indianapolis with his wife Kelsey and their two children, daughter Makayla and son Deuce, allows the Thorntons to be close to family and provide a measure of stability that coaching doesn’t always afford, while also keeping an open eye on the future.

Brian Thornton with his wife Kelsey, son Deuce, and daughter Makayla. Thornton scored 1,175 “The NCAA reached out to me, and the timpoints in college—611 in two seasons at Xavier and 564 in two seasons at Vanderbilt.

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XavierNationMagazine.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY BRIAN THORNTON

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Judy Smith graduated in 1984 and was inducted into the Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. She ranks 14th on the school’s all-time scoring list (1,376 points), seventh in rebounding (760), and eighth in assists (351).

SEEING POTENTIAL

// AFTER A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN HUMAN RESOURCES, XU HALL OF FAMER JUDY SMITH IS HELPING OTHER WOMEN FORGE THEIR OWN PATHS. — K E V I N G O H E E N

J

UDY SMITH LOOKS AT A RÉSUMÉ AND SEES MORE THAN WORDS. SHE

sees people and all of their potential.

Smith spent three decades in the business world working in human resources after earning her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Xavier.

Her time on campus included four seasons starting for the basketball team, during which she averaged more than 12 points and nearly seven rebounds per game. She was a member of the 1982 AIAW Division II state championship as a sophomore and helped the program transition to the NCAA Division I level the following season. She is a member of Xavier’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

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Smith got her business start with the Square D Company before joining the The David J. Joseph Company in Cincinnati, where she rose to become a senior vice president of employee services. She retired in 2013, but all that did was free her to pursue two passions: traveling and volunteering.

A Cincinnati native and Oak Hills High School alum, Smith says she’s about 70 percent complete on her bucket list desire to visit all 30 stadiums in Major League Baseball.

When she’s not singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in various locales, Smith spends time at Xavier working with the business school as an advisory board member and mentor, teaching a class aimed at showing students, primarily women, how to negotiate salaries.

“The idea is to try and close the pay gap between men and women,” says Smith. “Women many times don’t know that they can negotiate salary, much less how to. We do it for underclassmen and alumni groups as well.”

Smith also volunteers with the Clermont County Animal Shelter and has invested in Big Ash Brewery, which opened in Anderson Township on Labor Day weekend. She focuses a lot of her time, however, on one specific charitable organization: Dress for Success.

The organization helps underprivileged women prepare for job opportunities with business-appropriate clothing and career coaching. That’s where Smith has found her skills to be most valuable. Whether it’s in a one-on-one basis with a client or in a classroom setting, the reward is seeing the personal impact she can have with others.

“You help a woman with a résumé and she says, ‘That looks so good,’” Smith says. “I tell them, ‘Do you know why? It’s because this is you. This is you on paper. You have a lot to offer.’

Their reaction is often, ‘Can I give you a hug?’”

XavierNationMagazine.com

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JUDY SMITH

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RECAP Xavier’s men’s swimming collects six event championships on the way to its fourth BIG EAST Championship in six years, coming from behind on the final day to top Georgetown despite not competing in diving.

PROGRAM UPDATES

XAVIER UNIVERSITY HAS APPROXIMATELY 300 STUDENT-ATHLETES PARTICIPATING IN 18 SPORTS DURING THE 2019–2020 ACADEMIC YEAR. HERE IS AN UPDATE ON EACH TEAM.

COACH: Billy O’Conner (Xavier ’09), third season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier returned to the BIG EAST Tournament in 2019, earning the No. 2 seed and advancing to the championship series at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio. Xavier will continue to serve as co-hosts of the conference tournament at Prasco Park until 2022. The trip to the BIG EAST Championship capped a season that featured a 12–4 record in BIG EAST play and a trip to Great American Ball Park, where the Musketeers played host to the University of Cincinnati and defeated the Bearcats 10–2 in the

6 0 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 9

regular-season finale. In June, Musketeers Conor Grammes and Chris Givin were selected in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

The two, unanimous first-team all-BIG EAST selections, made it the 12th time in 15 seasons that a Musketeer was selected, and it was the third time in four years XU had multiple selections in the draft. Grammes went in the fourth round to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Givin was selected in the 19th round by the San Diego Padres.

BASKETBALL MEN’S COACH: Travis Steele (Butler ’04), second season

NOTEWORTHY: Xavier is ranked in the top 20 in many major national preseason polls.

It returns four starters from last year’s team that finished 19–16 and reached the NIT second round, including seniors Quentin Goodin and Tyrique Jones and juniors Naji Marshall and Paul Scruggs. Goodin led Xavier in assists for the third straight season, ranking third in the BIG EAST (4.8 apg), and Jones led XU in rebounding (7.7 rpg) and was fourth in the BIG EAST. Marshall, a 2019 secondteam All-BIG EAST selection, led Xavier in scoring (14.7 ppg) and was second in rebounding (7.2 rpg). Scruggs, a 2019 All-BIG EAST Tournament selection, was second on the

team in scoring (12.3 ppg) and was the only Musketeer to start every game last season. Steele welcomes seven newcomers, including a pair of graduate transfers and a five-member freshmen class that is ranked by most experts in the top 20 in the country.

WOMEN’S COACH: Melanie Moore (Siena College ’99), first season NOTEWORTHY: Moore joined the Musketeers after a sevenyear stint at Michigan, most recently serving as associate head coach (see page 36).

Xavier returns 2018 All-BIG EAST honorable mention selection A’riana Gray. The junior

XavierNationMagazine.com

P H O T O G R A P H B Y K O S TA S LY M P E R O P O U L O S

BASEBALL

RECAP forward averaged 13.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game last season to go along with a team-high 58 steals. Her 11.5 rebounds per game led the BIG EAST and ranked 10th in the NCAA. Gray was named to the 2019–2020 All-BIG EAST Preseason Team.

CROSS COUNTRY MEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), eighth season NOTEWORTHY: The Musketeers opened the 2019 season at the Queen City Invitational hosted by Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. Xavier placed fifth in the team standings. Jack Hautz placed sixth overall in the 5K, posting a time of 15:20.00.

Xavier will compete at the BIG EAST Championships on November 2.

in the team standings. Xavier welcomed four newcomers, highlighted by transfer Ben Pirro.

WOMEN’S COACH: Breanna Jenco (Xavier, ’13), fifth season NOTEWORTHY: The 2019 spring season was the most successful in program history. Xavier won the BIG EAST Championships on April 21 in Okatie, South Carolina, while Mikayla Fitzpatrick won the individual title at the tournament. The team title was also the first in program history.

Jenco was BIG EAST Coach of the Year for the second time.

Fitzpatrick was named BIG EAST Golfer of the Year. Mikayla Smith and Lyndsey Hunnell also

earned All-BIG EAST honors.

Fitzpatrick qualified for the NCAA Championships in May in Fayetteville, Arkansas, becoming the first Xavier golfer to qualify for the NCAA Championships. The Musketeers picked up where they left off to open the fall portion of the 2019–2020 season, winning the Redbird Invitational September 9 in Normal, Illinois.

SOCCER MEN’S COACH: Andy Fleming (Marist, ’97) 10th season NOTEWORTHY: The Musketeers opened the 2019 season by defeating No. 3 Akron 2–0.

Xavier moved to 8–2–2 vs. top 10 opponents since the start of

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the 2010 season under Fleming.

On September 2, the Musketeers defeated Eastern Illinois 3–0 to give coach Fleming his 100th head coaching victory.

Xavier defeated Cincinnati 2–1 in the Crosstown Derby on September 6 at Nippert Stadium. The Musketeers extended their unbeaten streak vs. the Bearcats to 10 matches (7–0–3). Xavier has been ranked multiple times in the United Soccer Coaches Poll this season, ranking as high as 11th.

WOMEN’S COACH: Nate Lie (Miami ’00), third season NOTEWORTHY: Led by Preseason BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year Samantha

WOMEN’S

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHEN MORTON, BIG EAST CONFERENCE

COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), eighth season NOTEWORTHY: The Musketeers opened the 2019 season by winning the Queen City Invitational hosted by Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky—the program’s third Queen City Title.

Junior Anna Kostarellis won the individual title, finishing nearly 40 seconds ahead of the next competitor. Kostarellis’s 5K time of 17:07.80 established a school record. Xavier has been ranked multiple times in the USTFCCA Regional Poll this year, ranking as high as 11th.

The Musketeers will compete at the BIG EAST Championships on Saturday, November 2, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

GOLF MEN’S COACH: Brian McCants (Ferris State ’94), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: The 2019 spring season was highlighted

by Garrett Wood capturing the individual title at the BIG EAST Championships on April 28 in Okatie, South Carolina.

The Musketeers finished the championships ranked seventh

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Mikayla Fitzpatrick led the Musketeers to a BIG EAST Championship last spring, the first in program history. The Phoenix, Arizona, native also won the individual title at the championships and was named BIG EAST Golfer of the Year.

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Dewey, the Musketeers were 7–1–2 in 2019 non-conference play, moving up to as high as third in the United Soccer Coaches East Region poll and receiving votes in the National Poll. Dewey, 2018’s BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year, collected 21 points on nine goals and three assists in non-conference play. Her total goals through Xavier’s 10 non-conference matches were the top mark in the league and top five in the nation.

SWIMMING MEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald (Valparaiso ’03), 11th season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier continued its dominance since joining the BIG EAST, taking the top spot in the 2019 BIG EAST Championship despite not competing in diving.

The conference title is the program’s fourth BIG EAST Championship in the six years since joining the conference.

During the four-day meet, the Musketeers collected six BIG EAST event championships, including four of the five relays.

The 2019–2020 squad returns seven all-conference honorees: Brandon Abboud, Landon Clark, Ben Quon, Jared Ritz, Alex Sironen, Christian Thomas, and Cameron Weese. Xavier also added a freshman class of nine.

WOMEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald (Valparaiso ’03), 11th season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier is coming off its best finish in the BIG EAST since joining the conference in 2013, coming in second behind Villanova. That finish matched the program’s best finish in a conference meet, a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10 Champion-

ships in 2008. During the 2019 championship meet, Xavier collected the program’s first relay championship—in the 200 medley relay—marking the first time a BIG EAST team other than Villanova has won a relay in the conference’s new configuration. Xavier returns seven All-BIG EAST honorees from last season, including Emily Conners, Taylor Hogan, Ali Fort, Emily Saugstad, Lydia Schaeffer, Maureen Cummins, and Abigail Garner. The Musketeers also add a freshman class of seven.

TENNIS MEN’S COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fifth season NOTEWORTHY: The 2019– 2020 roster has two seniors (Matthew Graft, Michael Lee) and three juniors. Brett Winters

and Jan Vrba return from last season, and the Musketeers added junior Srdan Pejic, a transfer from Union College.

Xavier returns sophomore Dominic Macaluso. The Musketeers also added a three-man freshmen class: Shashank Reddy, Aaron Thompson, and Jake Zipoli.

WOMEN’S COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fifth season NOTEWORTHY: Women’s tennis put together a historic spring season in 2019, going 22–3 in the regular season and 9–0 at home. The Musketeers tied a school record with 22 wins and set a school record with 20 consecutive victories last season. They narrowly lost in the BIG EAST Championship final to DePaul, 4–3. Xavier returns eight players, including All-BIG EAST honoree Ahmeir Kyle and BIG EAST Freshman of

BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Emily Thomas clinches the final point against St. John’s to send XU’s women’s tennis team to the BIG EAST Championship match.

The victory was Xavier’s 20th straight and also matched a school record with the team’s 22nd win.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN CARLOS

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PHOTO GR A PH BY (A B OV E) SH AWN M C L AWS , R O O T ED M ED I A / (RI GH T ) NIC K B R OWN

(ABOVE) Sophomore Norah Painter goes up for an attack against crosstown rival Cincinnati on Sept. 19 at Cintas Center. (LEFT) Redshirt-senior Samantha Dewey led the BIG EAST with nine goals in non-conference play, including a pair in Xavier’s 4-0 victory over Northern Kentucky

the Year Emily Thomas. Xavier also adds the highest-rated recruit in program history, five-star Anna Roggenburk.

The No. 1-rated player in Ohio, Roggenburk went 37–0 her senior season at Magnificat High School and won two consecutive Division I state singles championships.

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TRACK AND FIELD (INDOOR AND OUTDOOR) COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), eighth season NOTEWORTHY: The 2018– 2019 indoor track and field teams set three school records at the BIG EAST Champion-

ships in February in Geneva, Ohio. The women’s 4x800 (Robyn Blackwell, Abby Fioresi, Anna Ramsey, Hannah Russell) team set a school record, while the men’s 4x400 (Luke English, Justin Hatchett, Michael Henning, William Roberts) and 4x800 (Andrew Dietrich, Jacob Lough, Connor Meehan, Grant Stapleton) teams also set records. The top individual finisher was Anna Kostarellis, who placed fourth in the 5,000-meter run. XU also set three school records during the 2019 BIG EAST Outdoor Championships in May in New York City: Kara Robinson (400 hurdles), Roberts (400 hurdles), and the men’s 4x400 (Roberts, English, Kevin Milligan, Henning). Roberts and Robison also picked up silver medals in the 400 hurdles.

VOLLEYBALL COACH: Christy Pfeffenberger (Dayton, ’05), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier opened the 2019 season by going 2–1 at the Utah State Tournament in Logan, Utah, with wins over Utah State and Eastern Michigan. The Musketeers also opened BIG EAST action with a five-set win at DePaul. Through 11 matches, the Musketeers rank third in the BIG EAST in blocks (2.17).

Sophomore Jayda Carlton leads the BIG EAST in blocks (1.19), while ranking 71st in the NCAA. Lauren Hanlon also ranks 10th in the BIG EAST in kills (2.83).

NOTE: For complete rosters and schedules for all teams, go to www.goxavier.com.

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POSTGAME INTERVIEW

JOHN BOEHNER

// THE FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE TALKS ABOUT HIS COLLEGE DAYS AND HIS INVOLVEMENT WITH XAVIER UNIVERSITY TODAY.

Favorite memory as a Xavier student? Graduation.

Favorite Xavier memorabilia item?

My class ring, which I won in a poker game.

How did Xavier impact you most?

The Xavier experience, and the Xavier family, made a huge impact on me.

My high school football coach, Gerry Faust, taught me there’s nothing you can’t achieve in life, nothing you can’t succeed at, if you’re willing to make

John Boehner, a 1977 Xavier graduate, served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. He was the House Minority Leader from 2007 to 2011 and the House Majority Leader from 2006 to 2007. In the background of this photo is a portrait of Boehner painted by former President George W. Bush.

It was a gift from Bush when Boehner retired from Congress in 2015.

the sacrifices necessary to succeed. I put that idea to the test when I was at Xavier, and thanks to the support of the Xavier family it paid off. I was able to succeed at something I sometimes thought might be out of reach. I’ll always be grateful for that.

Did you attend basketball games as a student? Yes. Could you have helped Tay Baker’s basketball teams? No. Could you have helped any Xavier sports teams? Yes. Football, when we had a team. While at Moeller I always dreamed of playing at Xavier, but I hurt my back and couldn’t pass the physical.

Favorite Xavier player of all time (and why)? Steve Thomas. He was a pure shooter.

How much do you still follow the team? I follow them closely.

How are you involved with Xavier University today? I try to stay involved where I can through The Boehner Institute and in other ways.

What inspired The Boehner Institute? Bill Smith taught me to aim high, believe in myself, and give back to others. I talked about that in my commencement address at Xavier years ago. After I left the Speakership, I was approached by Father Graham with the idea of creating a permanent institute at Xavier dedicated to those ideas. I was very honored, of course. But I’m not big on having my name on things, and I had to think about it for a while.

But ultimately I said that if it would help create opportunities for students, I’d be willing to do it. Check it out (xavier. edu/boehner-institute/index).

How happy are you to do an interview with no real political questions? I’ve very much enjoyed it.

For more information about The Boehner Institute, go to www.xavier.edu/boehner-institute

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P H O T O GR A P H B Y H A R T O N G D I G I TA L M E D I A

Why did you choose Xavier? My brothers and sisters and I, all 12 of us, attended Catholic schools every step of the way. It was important to my mother and father that we all received a Catholic education. My parents didn’t have much, but what they did earn they sacrificed so we could have that opportunity. College, though, was something we were going to have to earn and pay for on our own, if we wanted it. I enrolled at Xavier, but I was working all kinds of odd jobs and frankly wasn’t sure I was going to stick with school. I refereed for high school basketball games, and I met a guy named Bill Smith from Xavier University. He kind of took me under his wing and challenged me to make the most of myself. He convinced me to stick with college, go to night school, buckle down, and earn the degree.

That’s what I did. And when I finally got it, it was the biggest achievement of my life, up to that point.

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Trust the team that Xavier trusts for health, wellness and everything in between.

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