(Image Source: The News Record)

BY MATT NOONAN

With less than a minute to go in the annual Crosstown Shootout between rivals Xavier and Cincinnati, it looked like bruised egos would be the only injuries of the day. But as ESPN shows us, chaos erupted in the game’s final seconds:

“This would get out of hand. Holloway just jawing with the Cincinnati bench. And then the benches clear. Take a closer look at this. Yancey Gates punches Kenny Freese in the head. Cold cocks him right in the side of his head, he wasn’t even looking. Freese falls to the ground, and then Sheik Mouj kicks Freese as he’s trying to get away.”

Cincinnati players were throwing punches on the court, but WCPO in Cincinnati shows us Xavier guard Tu Holloway threw this verbal jab following the game.

“We got disrespected a little bit before the game. Guys calling us out. We’re a tougher team, we’re grown men over here. We got a whole bunch of gangsters in our locker room -- not thugs -- but tough guys on the court. And we went out there and zipped em up at the end of the game. That’s our motto, ‘Zip Em Up,’ and that’s what we just did to them...

I’m cut from a different cloth. None of them guys on that team is like me.”

Although many in the media have teed off on the brawl and Holloway’s comments, one SLAM Magazine blogger writes that some positives can still be found in the melee.

“What matters is that this Xavier might have the one thing that we don’t usually expect to see from top teams from big time conferences -- toughness... Xavier stood tall against a rival who is perceived to be bigger and tougher … Holloway... and the rest of the Xavier squad took the bully’s best punch and will be better off for it in the long run.”

SLAM may like Xavier’s toughness, but a Cincinnati Enquirer columnist writes everyone involved needs an attitude adjustment.

“It's an attitude that's the problem. One that suggests nothing matters more than defending your honor. That the true test of a man's character is his ability to go gangster on anyone and everyone, when he feels he has been ‘disrespected.’ Even if it means embarrassing yourself, your school and the best intra-city rivalry in the country.”

Finally, while much of the blame has been laid at the feet of the teams, Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News says the game’s officials deserve a piece of it as well.

“I didn’t think the officials who worked this game did a very good job of understanding the game that they were working. I didn’t think they did a very good job of policing the by-play between the players and between in some instances the players and the benches. And I thought that at the end I didn’t think they did a very good job of controlling what became a combustible situation.”

In case you were wondering... Xavier won the real fight -- the game -- 76 to 53. It’s expected that multiple suspensions will be levied by both teams and their conferences.

Transcript By Newsy