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PHOENIX -- Of course his nickname had to be Big Time.
Of course his jersey number is 11, because "I'm best at one-on-one." Of course he had to hit the two biggest shots of his life with everything on the line in overtime.
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| 'I was always the guy to shoot the last shot,' B.J. Raymond says. (Getty Images) |
Big Time's real name is Benjamin Eugene Raymond IV, nickname B.J. Pride of Toledo. The junior's 3-pointer with 61 seconds left put the Musketeers up 75-74. With the score the same and the game hanging in the balance again, Raymond somehow came open, unguarded all the way across the court, with 29.2 seconds left. After a timeout, Stanley Burrell found him with two seconds left on the shot clock with a cross-court pass from out of bounds.
As the shot clock hit zero, Big Time hit the big shot. It's now a big deal in Cincinnati. Xavier is in the Elite Eight for the second time in five seasons and beat its hated rival's former coach, two teams removed.
"I shot that shot probably about 100,000 times in my life," said Raymond, who scored all eight of his points in overtime. "It's easy once you've shot it that many times."
A hundred-thousand times? Really? There's a difference, though, between the practice court and games. Raymond earned his nickname at St. John's Jesuit, where he strung together a bunch of 30-point games in the state tournament.
"I was always the guy to shoot the last shot," the 6-foot-6 swingman said. "When you grow up you always do that 3-2-1, so maybe I shot it like that the whole time."
As for the one-on-one abilities? Not so much. Raymond is more of a pure shooter for Xavier, where he is the Musketeers' second-best 3-point gunner.
He and Xavier had been here before. They had No. 1 seed Ohio State beat in the second round last year in Lexington, Ky., leading the Buckeyes by 11 in the second half. Talk about choke jobs. Greg Oden was going to get a really early head start on his NBA career.
Then Ohio State's Ron Lewis hit a bomb of a 3 with two seconds left to send it into overtime where, of course, Ohio State won 78-71. Who was Ron Lewis? Almost a forgotten player on a team full of freshman stars, a fifth-year senior at his second school.
"It kind of just looked like last year," Raymond said. "Greg Oden fouled out. (West Virginia's) Joe Alexander fouled out. I was saying, 'Not this year, not again. We can't do it two times in a row.'"
Xavier led 28-10 with nine minutes left in the first half. Then Huggins clamped down with his signature defense.
