By Bill Koch
When UC and Xavier take the floor at Cintas Center on Saturday for the annual Crosstown Shootout, it will be just one day removed from the 10th anniversary of the brawl that marred the rivalry on Dec. 10, 2011.
That game was also played at Cintas, with eighth-ranked Xavier blowing out unranked UC, 76-53. It was the ugliest game in a series that dates to 1928 and almost resulted in the rivalry being put on hold because it had become too heated.
The melee started with 9.4 seconds left when Xavier’s Tu Holloway said something to UC guard Ge’Lawn Guyn near the baseline in front of UC’s bench. Guyn said something back to Holloway. XU’s Dezmine Wells then pushed Guyn to the floor and both benches emptied.
Earlier, after he made his last field goal with 15 seconds left, Holloway said something to the UC bench as he ran down the court.
“I was just saying that it’s my city right here,” Holloway said in the postgame press conference. “I’m cut from a different cloth. None of those guys on that team are like me.”
During the fight, UC’s Yancy Gates landed a punch over the left eye of XU center Kenny Frease, who staggered to the floor, where he was kicked by UC’s Cheikh Mbodj. The final 9.4 seconds were not played.
After the game, two of Xavier’s players made comments unlike anything I have ever heard from a player in 35 years of covering college basketball.
“We got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out,” Holloway said. “We’re a tougher team. We’re grown men over here. We’ve got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room, not thugs, but tough guys on the court. We went out there zipped them up at the end of the game. That’s our motto. Zip ‘em up. And that’s what we just did to them.
“I was hearing on Twitter or whatever that one of their guys called me out, said I wouldn’t start on their team or whatever the case may be, and these guys saying they were better than us. You don’t talk before the game. It always goes down that you talk after the game. And you let your play on the court talk for you.”
Holloway was referring to comments UC guard Sean Kilpatrick made two days earlier an interview with RealTalk 1160’s Andy Furman. Kilpatrick said he was a better player than Holloway and that Holloway wouldn’t start for UC.
“At the end of the day, if someone puts their hands in your face or tries to do something to you, where we’re from we’re going to do something back,” Xavier’s Mark Lyons said. “We’re not going to sit there and get our face beat in by somebody like Yancy Gates. We’re not going to let that happen.”
UC coach Mick Cronin, now the head coach at UCLA, didn’t let any of his players talk to reporters after the game. During his postgame comments, he criticized the players from both teams.
“There is no excuse for any of it,” Cronin said, “on our side, on their side. Guys need to grow up. I’m not blaming anybody from our standpoint. We accept full responsibility. It will be handled. There is zero excuse for that in basketball. You’ve got to learn how to win on one side. You’ve got to learn how to lose on the other side.”
When XU coach Chris Mack, now the head coach at Louisville, walked into the media room for his press conference, I asked him if he knew what his players had just said. He didn’t.
“Those two kids are warriors on the basketball court,” Mack said after he was told of his players’ comments. “I think they’re competitors. I think at times they probably don’t represent themselves with their use of words real well, but I’m not necessarily going to sit up here and tell you that I feel like Tu and Mark are bad kids.
“They’re great kids. They have big hearts. They wanted to win this game more than any game we’ve played all year. How they might present themselves in front of a microphone, they’re not perfect.”
Cronin won praise locally and nationally for his comments after the game. As his players entered their locker room, he made all of them take off their jerseys.
“They will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school,” Cronin said, “and what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be there, let alone have a scholarship, because there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college.
“If my kids don’t act the right way, they will never play another game at Cincinnati. I just told my AD and my president I’m going to decide who is on the team going forward. That is what the University of Cincinnati is about. Period.”
Two days later, UC players Gates, Guyn, Mbodj, and Octavius Ellis apologized for their roles in the brawl. Ellis was suspended for six games for throwing three punches that didn’t land. Guyn was suspended one game for his verbal exchange with Holloway that triggered the fight. Gates was suspended for six games. Mbdoj was suspended for six games for kicking Frease while he lay on the floor.
Four Xavier players were also suspended – Dez Wells and Landen Amos for four games each, Holloway and Lyons for one game each. UC went on to win 10 of its next 11 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Ohio State. Xavier also played in the Sweet 16 before losing to Baylor.
For the next two years, the Crosstown Shootout became the Crosstown Classic and was played on a neutral court at U.S. Bank Arena before it returned to the schools’ campuses for the 2014-15 season with the Crosstown Shootout name restored.
When UC and Xavier take the floor at Cintas Center on Saturday for the annual Crosstown Shootout, it will be just one day removed from the 10th anniversary of the brawl that marred the rivalry on Dec. 10, 2011.
That game was also played at Cintas, with eighth-ranked Xavier blowing out unranked UC, 76-53. It was the ugliest game in a series that dates to 1928 and almost resulted in the rivalry being put on hold because it had become too heated.
The melee started with 9.4 seconds left when Xavier’s Tu Holloway said something to UC guard Ge’Lawn Guyn near the baseline in front of UC’s bench. Guyn said something back to Holloway. XU’s Dezmine Wells then pushed Guyn to the floor and both benches emptied.
Earlier, after he made his last field goal with 15 seconds left, Holloway said something to the UC bench as he ran down the court.
“I was just saying that it’s my city right here,” Holloway said in the postgame press conference. “I’m cut from a different cloth. None of those guys on that team are like me.”
During the fight, UC’s Yancy Gates landed a punch over the left eye of XU center Kenny Frease, who staggered to the floor, where he was kicked by UC’s Cheikh Mbodj. The final 9.4 seconds were not played.
After the game, two of Xavier’s players made comments unlike anything I have ever heard from a player in 35 years of covering college basketball.
“We got disrespected a little bit before the game, guys calling us out,” Holloway said. “We’re a tougher team. We’re grown men over here. We’ve got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room, not thugs, but tough guys on the court. We went out there zipped them up at the end of the game. That’s our motto. Zip ‘em up. And that’s what we just did to them.
“I was hearing on Twitter or whatever that one of their guys called me out, said I wouldn’t start on their team or whatever the case may be, and these guys saying they were better than us. You don’t talk before the game. It always goes down that you talk after the game. And you let your play on the court talk for you.”
Holloway was referring to comments UC guard Sean Kilpatrick made two days earlier an interview with RealTalk 1160’s Andy Furman. Kilpatrick said he was a better player than Holloway and that Holloway wouldn’t start for UC.
“At the end of the day, if someone puts their hands in your face or tries to do something to you, where we’re from we’re going to do something back,” Xavier’s Mark Lyons said. “We’re not going to sit there and get our face beat in by somebody like Yancy Gates. We’re not going to let that happen.”
UC coach Mick Cronin, now the head coach at UCLA, didn’t let any of his players talk to reporters after the game. During his postgame comments, he criticized the players from both teams.
“There is no excuse for any of it,” Cronin said, “on our side, on their side. Guys need to grow up. I’m not blaming anybody from our standpoint. We accept full responsibility. It will be handled. There is zero excuse for that in basketball. You’ve got to learn how to win on one side. You’ve got to learn how to lose on the other side.”
When XU coach Chris Mack, now the head coach at Louisville, walked into the media room for his press conference, I asked him if he knew what his players had just said. He didn’t.
“Those two kids are warriors on the basketball court,” Mack said after he was told of his players’ comments. “I think they’re competitors. I think at times they probably don’t represent themselves with their use of words real well, but I’m not necessarily going to sit up here and tell you that I feel like Tu and Mark are bad kids.
“They’re great kids. They have big hearts. They wanted to win this game more than any game we’ve played all year. How they might present themselves in front of a microphone, they’re not perfect.”
Cronin won praise locally and nationally for his comments after the game. As his players entered their locker room, he made all of them take off their jerseys.
“They will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school,” Cronin said, “and what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be there, let alone have a scholarship, because there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college.
“If my kids don’t act the right way, they will never play another game at Cincinnati. I just told my AD and my president I’m going to decide who is on the team going forward. That is what the University of Cincinnati is about. Period.”
Two days later, UC players Gates, Guyn, Mbodj, and Octavius Ellis apologized for their roles in the brawl. Ellis was suspended for six games for throwing three punches that didn’t land. Guyn was suspended one game for his verbal exchange with Holloway that triggered the fight. Gates was suspended for six games. Mbdoj was suspended for six games for kicking Frease while he lay on the floor.
Four Xavier players were also suspended – Dez Wells and Landen Amos for four games each, Holloway and Lyons for one game each. UC went on to win 10 of its next 11 games and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Ohio State. Xavier also played in the Sweet 16 before losing to Baylor.
For the next two years, the Crosstown Shootout became the Crosstown Classic and was played on a neutral court at U.S. Bank Arena before it returned to the schools’ campuses for the 2014-15 season with the Crosstown Shootout name restored.
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