Last Night in Maui

Posted on November 20, 2012 by itgoestoxi

The Butler Bulldogs defeated the Marquette Golden Eagles last night in the first game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Butler needed a ridiculous one-handed three-pointer from Rotnei Clarke at the buzzer to steal a 72-71 win. Click here for the highlights, including Clarke’s answered prayer.

After missing the NCAA tournament last season following consecutive national runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011, Butler looks to rebound this year. The Bulldogs with have to do so in a much tougher conference, though; they have departed the Horizon League and joined the Atlantic 10. This is a plus for local fans of coach Brad Stevens and his crew; Butler will play in Richmond on March 2 against fellow A-10 rookie VCU.

Back to Marquette for a minute: in the loss to Butler, two local players, junior Davante Gardner (Suffolk / King’s Fork) and freshman Jamal Ferguson (Norfolk / Maury) saw action for the Golden Eagles. Ferguson played only a single minute, but Gardner made the most of his 16 minutes off the bench, filling the box score with 12 points, 7 rebounds (5 offensive), and a blocked shot (also, 4 personal fouls). Gardner and Ferguson are doing the 757 proud: Ferguson has appeared in all four games for the 3-1 Eagles, and Gardner is the team’s leading scorer and rebounder despite not starting a single game.

Local fans who want to catch a Marquette game in person are in luck; the Eagles play Georgetown at the Verizon Center in D.C. on February 11. Road trip!

VCU’s David Hinton: A Gentleman of Refined Taste

Posted on July 16, 2012 by itgoestoxi

Chris Kowalczyk is the Director of Creative Content for the VCU Athletics Communications Department and maintains the Around the Horns Blog, which is a must-follow for any Ram fan.

On Friday, Around the Horns featured a video on rising (redshirt) senior David Hinton, who began his VCU career as a walk-on but appeared in 22 games for the Rams last season.

As a general proposition, It Goes to XI supports the hometown ODU Monarchs, but make no mistake: game recognize (shoe) game, even when it comes from Richmond. Forward to the 3:10 mark to see why Hinton may become a favorite on the blog in the upcoming season:

Check out the adoring look on his face when Hinton says that the Jordan XI (in the original colorway) “changed the sneaker game … forever.” Yes sir, this blog is named after that shoe for a reason.

Skip ahead to the 4:15 mark for a cameo by the new Hyperdunk London 2012, in the ridiculous Brazil colorway.

Well played, Mr. Hinton, well played.

Locals Only

Posted on June 15, 2012 by itgoestoxi

Jaquon Parker (44) of Suffolk in NCAA tournament action against Ohio State. Photo courtesy of BearcatsNation.com.

In his column on the “glue guys” to watch in college basketball next season, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports Network named Jaquon Parker of Cincinnati the “toughest player in college basketball.”

(Rothstein qualifies this remark by saying that Parker is the toughest player “pound for pound.” I didn’t realize that college basketball recognized weight classes. Rothstein could have just called Parker college basketball’s toughest guard.)

Anyhow, congratulations to Parker, who hails from Suffolk and graduated from King’s Fork High, for the well-deserved national attention. Parker was a key component for this year’s Bearcat squad, which overcame national attention of the negative variety before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen.

Parker made 24 starts in the 30 games in which he appeared this season. As Rothstein points out, Parker played out of position for much of the season, but still averaged 9.4 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game. Parker’s rebounding average was second on the team behind Yancy Gates, the Bearcats’ bruising 6’9″, 260-pound forward.

Parker will be a senior next season and will look to lead the Bearcats even deeper into March.

In other news, Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated has published version 2.0 of his NBA mock draft. Local fans will be disappointed to learn that Kyle O’Quinn of Norfolk State has dropped out of the first round.

Amick changed some things around following the draft combine, but Anthony Davis is holding steady at number one. In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning.