ATLANTA – As long as he can remember, Queens’ Royal Ivey has wanted to the ball in his hands at crunch time and has come up big in big spots. And there will be few spots bigger than his Texas Longhorns’ Sweet 16 battle at 7:27 p.m. tonight against Xavier, the NCAA Tournament’s hottest team.
Seventh-seeded Xavier (25-10) has won eight straight, humbling then-unbeaten St. Joe’s and then second-seeded Mississippi State on Sunday. But third-seeded Texas (25-7) seems undaunted by the Musketeers’ backcourt.
“They’re the hottest team, but we’ve got one goal in mind: To win,” Ivey said. “We’ve played great guards before. It’s a challenge for me.”
Ivey has erased some of the country’s top guards; but he’ll have his work cut out against seniors Lionel Chalmers (16.7 ppg) and Roman Sato (16.2). Still, the Jamaica resident has always relished a challenge.
From earning the MVP in Cardozo’s PSAL crown at the Garden to his game-winning fade with 2.4 ticks left to beat Nebraska on Jan. 17, to scoring 10 points in overtime to beat Missouri three days later, Ivey loves pressure.
“I enjoy big games. I like when the game’s on the line; I want the ball in my hands,” said Ivey, shooting 64.3 percent in the Big Dance. “When the game’s on the line, I want to be a player: Take the last shot, make a nice pass, make a defensive stop. That’s fun.”
Facing a better squad of Musketeers than Dumas’ won’t be fun. After getting routed 81-60 at George Washington, then berated by Chalmers in the lockerroom, they lost their next game to fall to 10-9. They’re 15-1 since, with their three seniors averaging 50.8 points and 20.5 rebounds in the postseason.
“That was an embarrassment to the team and the university,” said forward Anthony Myles. “We fed off Lionel (after that). I’m a senior too; I was going to change whatever we needed to take it as far as we could go.”
Texas would tie its school record for wins with a victory, and face Duke or Illinois Sunday.
In his postgrad year at Blair (N.J.) Academy, Ivey was a teammate of Duke freshman Luol Deng, whom he tagged then for stardom.
“I saw greatness all over him,” Ivey said. “He was 14, and as soon as I saw him I knew he was going to be a great player.”
Small-school power
Xavier, with one of the smallest enrollments among schools that reached the Sweet 16, tonight plays Texas, the school with the most students.
Here’s a look at how the Sweet 16 ranked, by total enrollment:
School Enrollment
Texas 52,261
Illinois 38,291
Pittsburgh 30,030
Kansas 29,272
Oklahoma State 23,571
Connecticut 21,186
Alabama 20,333
Syracuse 18,200
UAB 16,357
Georgia Tech 15,000
Nevada 15,176
Duke 11,929
Vanderbilt 10,885
St. Joseph’s 7,180
Xavier 6,500
Wake Forest 6,444
