Ta'Shia Phillips Feature in the Enquirer

Dustin Dow wrote an interesting article in Sunday's Enquirer about Ta'Shia Phillips. You can read it here and find out just how tough she is. With Amber Harris out for 3-4 months, XU will be counting on Phillips shoulder a serious load (terrible pun intended).

A Little Love From Jay Bilas

From the blog of ESPN’s Jay Bilas… “The most underrated players in college basketball are E'Twuan Moore, Purdue; Stefon Jackson, UTEP; Lee Cummard, BYU; Derrick Brown, Xavier; and Damion James, Texas. You can throw in Kentucky's Patrick Patterson, as well. Patterson played on a much-criticized team and was injured at the end of the season. He could be SEC Player of the Year in 2009.”

Clark Kellogg Among Those Watching Xavier

Xavier men's basketball is getting ready for its third official practice of the preseason this evening at Cintas Center. CBS Sports Broadcaster Clark Kellogg was among the many visitors to Saturday's two-hour practice session. Kellogg said he tries to make it to at least 8-10 schools for at least one preseason practice. He's planning upcoming visits to see some familiar faces at Ohio State and Wake Forest. It's not the first time that Kellogg has seen XU this Fall but it's the first time he's seen the hoops team. Kellogg, whose daughter plays volleyball at Georgia Tech, saw XU volleyball play at Georgia Tech and at Ohio State this season. For the record, Kellogg said he's not sure if he'll be on the crew that calls the XU men's hoop game against Duke in December but he'd like to do the game. CBS has four big games slated that day and has not made the assignments yet.

Women's Hoops on ESPN.com

The women's basketball team will partake in what ESPN.com deems one of the "Top 10 Games to Watch of 2008-09". That game will be the Nov. 22 showdown at Cintas Center against Louisville. Xavier has been tabbed as a top-25 team by most preseason prognosticators while Louisville, a team that went to the NCAA Sweet 16 last season, is generally thought of as a top-10 team.

The contest will be televised nationally by CBS College Sports (formerly CSTV) and is set to tip-off at 12 p.m.

Musketeers Promote Reading in Florence

Volleyball's Lauren Kaminsky, men's soccer's Ricky Southerland and Andy Dimbi, and women's soccer's Kelly Farrell, Susan Loeffler and Carlyanne Wenzel traveled to Florence Elementary School to help promote the Xavier Reading Program, which the students started in September. The goal is for each student to read 15 books by mid November.

There are a few pictures here and the complete story written up in the Enquirer's Florence Community page can be found here.

Miller On The Air

Xavier head coach Sean Miller is on the national college sports show on CBS College Sports television (formerly CSTV) tonight at 7 p.m.

Miller has also been making the rounds today on radio in Cincinnati. Miller was a guest on Alan Cutler's show this morning on 1530 Homer at 7:30 a.m. and Lance McAllister's show this afternoon at 4 p.m. on 1530 Homer. Tonight he's on 700 WLW's SportsTalk with Paul Daugherty at 6:25 p.m.

Men's Soccer on Stingy Streak

Adam Sokolowski, Jake Vollmer, Ricky Sutherland, Tommy Clines and the rest of the Xavier men's soccer defense have not allowed a goal in the last 310 minutes. Xavier is 1-0-2 during that stretch and puts the scoreless streak on the line Sunday against Richmond. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at the XU Soccer Complex.

In other streaky news ... the Xavier Volleyball team defeated La Salle on Friday to improve to 24-0 all-time vs. the Explorers.

Women's Hoops Named as One of Nation's Top-16 Teams; McGuff Quoted in USA Today

Check out Dick Patrick's article on parity in the women's game, which was published in Tuesday's paper. Kevin McGuff was quoted in the article and Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair has some good things to say about XU.

Also, Xavier was rated as one of the best 16 teams in the nation by USA Today in it's 2008-09 Preview, which is available now.

Latest Feature Story

Check out Adam Kiefaber's latest feature story on XU tennis standout Doug Matthews. Adam has written several features on Xavier student-athletes and you can find these just to the right of the calendar on GOXAVIER.com.

Also keep your eyes peeled for an article in USA Today that will include a couple quotes from head women's basketball coach Kevin McGuff. USA Today, which owns the coutnry's highest circulation, has ranked the Musketeers in its preseason Top 16. Not bad for a little jesuit school in the Midwest.

Throwback Day

Mark your calendars ... The Xavier men's basketball team will be wearing "throwback" uniforms when it takes on George Washington on February 22. The team will don replicas of the unis it wore during the 1994-95 (Skip Prosser's first year at XU) and 1995-96 (XU's first year in the A-10) seasons.

Anyone know what is unique about these particular uniforms? The first one to post the correct answer will receive ... undying respect from the X blog.