CINCINNATI -- The Crosstown Shootout, the annual rivalry game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Cincinnati Bearcats, lately has developed a penchant for inserting conflict into those moments in college basketball when perfunctory sportsmanship generally prevails.
Saturday, the two teams nearly made it through the handshake line following Xavier's overwhelming 89-76 victory without an obvious incident. But then XU wing J.P. Macura said something after UC coach Mick Cronin passed him by without acknowledgement. Cronin turned and responded angrily before being escorted away by one of his staffers and game official Lamar Simpson.
Mick Cronin trying to fight the XU bench. #girlbye #LETSGOX @barstoolsports pic.twitter.com/MTza31iuMx
— mike (@IrishXMan) December 2, 2017
"I've never had a kid tell me to F off three times before," Cronin said in his post game press conference. "During the game, and after the game. You know who it was. Same guy it is every game. Fifteen years as a head coach. Five with Huggs, two with Coach Pitino. Never seen anything like it."
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Asked if he would speak with the player afterward, Cronin responded, "There's nothing to talk about. Where I come from, there's nothing to talk about. And if he was my player, he wouldn't play."
Xavier freshman Kerem Kanter said he was close enough to Cronin and Macura to witness the exchange.
"I saw what happened, but J.P. is a high-intensity player," Kanter said. "I guess it's part of basketball."
By the time Musketeers coach Chris Mack made it to the media room, Cronin's comments had been relayed to him.
"I know one thing: The narrative is not going to be J.P. Macura and Mick Cronin," Mack said. "Because there are two sides to the story. There's a reason their coach was issued a technical in that game. I know that reason because the official told me what happened. So, I'm not going to have the narrative be anything other than us playing better than Cincinnati and beating Cincinnati."
Cronin was issued a technical foul in the first half by official Doug Shows, who was standing near midcourt with a clear view of the Cincinnati coach as he went several feet off his bench beyond the baseline to yell criticism at ref Roger Ayers. Cincinnati guard Trevor Moore and Macura were tagged with technicals immediately afterward.
Mack refused to share what that official said. But he was not finished.
"As far as, 'He wouldn't play on my team,' I'm going to go back to 2009-10. And Lance Stephenson in front of me, right in front of me, called me the n-word three times and said, 'F you.' After the game, guess what I did? I shook his hand. That's it. So there is no narrative. We won. Last year, we got our ass kicked. Guess what Mack said? 'We got our ass kicked.'"
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It has been a half-dozen years since Xavier guard Tu Holloway's comments to the Cincinnati bench near the end of an XU blowout engendered an all-out brawl between the players from both teams that led to multiple suspensions and adjustments to the rivalry.
That this game ended in a distasteful manner was no particular letdown. The game itself, as so many Shootouts have been of late, was not much to see save for the fans of the winning team.
In the past 20 years, the average margin of victory has been 10.3 points, and there have been more 20-point margins than one-possession games.
Xavier All-American candidate Trevon Bluiett was magnificent, with 28 points. The Musketeers dominated the rebounding battle, something Mack emphasized to such a degree following last year's effort against the Bearcats he wore a replica of Joey Votto's Cincinnati Reds jersey to practice one day this week to remind his team how many offensive rebounds it had surrendered last season. Votto is number 19.
"I wanted to send a message," Mack said.
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Asked if it bothered him to have to discuss the post game circumstance after such an important victory, Mack said it was "crazy."
He defended Macura, a senior who was indispensable to last season's Elite Eight run. (Macura was not brought to the news conference afterward.)
"J.P. Is my guy," Mack said. "J.P. will fight for every inch on the basketball court. He's a great kid. He does things the right way. He's made mistakes just like every kid on their team, every kid on our team. And probably everyone in here in college. So to say, 'He wouldn't play for me,' I thought that was really disrespectful."
