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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.
It seemed inevitable that Huggins would somehow drag the Mountaineers back. They started the game like they had just woken up from a nap. Huggins was so desperate to slow the momentum it looked like he made up sweat. During a first-half timeout he instructed official Rick Hartzell to clean up a spot on the floor. Neither Hartzell nor the ball boy could find anything resembling moisture. Shortly after, West Virginia made its move.
It took a while but Alexander, on his way to becoming a tournament poster boy, got it cranked up, staging a man-on-man battle with Xavier's Josh Duncan in the second half.
There were 10 lead changes in the second half and overtime. Alexander scored 15 of his 18 in the second half, but the game might have turned 30 seconds into overtime when the West Virginia forward got his fifth foul trying to guard Duncan. It's hard to say Duncan is Xavier's best player. He leads the Musketeers with a modest 12.1 points, but four players average double figures. But to look at his 6-foot-9, 238-pound body and he has to be good every night.
"He could have very easily been a candidate for the player of the year in our conference," Xavier coach Sean Miller said. "We brought him off the bench for no reason. We started to win with him and we kept it."
Duncan picked up his fourth foul with 12½ minutes left in the game, and lasted the remaining 17½ minutes on his way to a career-high 26 points. Alexander was gone after getting 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Still, the Mountaineers got up by six but had shaky knees at the foul line. With a chance to put the game away, they missed four of six in the final three minutes.
Xavier actually is one of Cincinnati's major-college teams, but who remembers the Bearcats since Huggins left? In his first year with the Mountaineers he took a fifth-place Big East team to the brink of the Elite Eight.
His defense inexplicably broke down late like a '72 Pinto. Where exactly was West Virginia's Wellington Smith, who Huggins seemed to indicate was supposed to have Raymond on the second 3? Nowhere close.
"Somebody fell asleep, I guess," Huggins said.
So did his shooters, who were a combined 1-for-11 from the arc. That was the second-worst total of the season, the worst being 1-for-22 against Cincinnati.
Bob Huggins can't seem to get away from his roots. He'll have all offseason to disconnect.