Dangerous Xavier chasing redemption

CINCINNATI - Xavier coach Chris Mack isn't ready to shout it from the nearby mountaintops, but his team is still here. Xavier is still not on your computer, fancy phone screen or newspaper ranked in the Top 25, but that's OK. It's an absence that's well earned, frankly, but one that's just wrong. And one that's not going to last much longer. A more reserved, more professional and very focused Xavier team won its fourth straight game in runaway fashion Wednesday night, holding a shorthanded St. Joseph's team to 16 second-half points in what became a 68-55 win. Stiffer competition is coming, and Xavier will have to prove itself all over again when it does. But this team is passing the eye test and, perhaps more importantly, has a bunch of talented players who can look one another in the eye again. Senior point guard Tu Holloway makes the Musketeers go, and Xavier has lots of guys who can go. Now, maybe at the right time, Xavier is playing like the hunter rather than the hunted and scorned again, with Holloway's 12 assists Wednesday night and Dez Wells' variety of acrobatic finishes serving as the best example of what Xavier was five weeks ago and what it could be five weeks from now. "I don't talk about (rankings), no," Mack said. "I did hear one of our players before the game reminding some guys we don't have a number in front of our name. "There's a lot of pride in that locker room, some hungry cats. We just have to continue to win and we'll get all that stuff later." Mack referencing the "hungry cats" is an upgrade from Holloway's now infamous "gangsters" comment back on Dec. 10 in the aftermath of a fight that ended the Musketeers' game with crosstown rival Cincinnati early and sent a promising season into a tailspin. Xavier was ranked No. 8 at the time of the fight, one spot short of the school record for highest ranking. But the Musketeers went 1-5 between the fight and the start of this four-game streak at Fordham on Jan. 7. Holloway was suspended a game, Mark Lyons for two and Wells for four, and even back at full strength something -- or lots of things -- was missing. The Musketeers went from one of America's hottest teams to probably its most puzzling, with clips from the fight and its aftermath played on repeat and Xavier's early-season successes all but forgotten. Now, Xavier is 13-5 and playing like the team that won at Vanderbilt, came from way back to beat Purdue and dominated Butler and Cincinnati on its way to 8-0. It's a team that has two players likely to be drafted in June in Holloway and 7-footer Kenny Frease, another that's certainly going to be drafted sometime -- Mack hopes not immediately -- in the freshman Wells, plus lots of complementary pieces. "At the beginning of the season we had the players and had the hype around us," Frease said. "A lot of things that have happened that have sort of derailed that a little bit. But we can play with anybody right now, I feel like." The Musketeers are getting around to proving it. Those complementary pieces include a pair of 3-point sharpshooters in Lyons and Brad Redford and quality size and experience. Holloway keeps everybody on alert, and in Wednesday night's decisive 14-0 run he had assists to Wells on three straight possessions. A guy who averaged 19.7 points per game last year shot just five times Wednesday night. Holloway was busy directing, guarding St. Joe's top offensive threat and throwing passes that not many point guards can throw through and around traffic. "He must have eyes in the back of his head," Mack said of one pass in particular. Of Holloway's overall performance, Mack said "you're playing at a high level when you can get 12 assists against a team that doesn't really extend much on defense." Xavier is gearing towards an extended run and relying on its experience -- the sum of its experiences, both this season and in seasons past -- in doing so. Xavier has been in the NCAA Tournament every year since 2006. Holloway and Frease played on Sweet 16 teams in 2009 and 2010. This team, when it's clicking, can be different. Wells changes games by playing above the rim. Frease is light years better now than he was then. Andre Walker is a senior transfer from Vanderbilt who's been in the big games, too. Jeff Robinson scored 12 off the bench Wednesday night. "They're the best team in the (Atlantic 10)...and it's a good league," St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said. "They weren't the best team in the league (three weeks ago) but these last three games you see it. It's like a giant stone or a boulder rolling at you and you're going, 'Holy mackerel.'" Mack and Company spent much of December seeing things roll at them. They survived. Now, Xavier is again starting to thrive, starting to roll, starting to get its swagger back. Nobody is going to forget The Fight. Not many teams want to see the team that Xavier is finally becoming after it.