Getting knocked off of the pedestol

The Xavier Musketeers came back across the Atlantic Ocean on Monday with a championship trophy from their 63-58 victory over the Memphis Tigers in the championship game of the Puerto Rico Season Tipoff.
While the win was a significant step forward for the program, and answered many questions about the team's toughness, ability to handle the ball and point guard play, the Musketeers will now have to face the reality of a college basketball season, and a new slew of questions.
One of the more harsh realities of a five month basketball season is injuries, something Xavier has already had to deal with this season with Derrick Brown's left ankle sprain. The Musketeers will have to deal with injuries once again with the news on Monday that freshman point guard Terrell Holloway could miss an extended period of time with a stress fracture in his right foot, aggravated in Sunday's win over Memphis.
Holloway, who had averaged 9.0 points, 2.0 assists, 2.0 rebounds and was 20-20 from the free throw line in three games in Puerto Rico, could be out for an extended period of time if the stress fracture proves to be problematic.
In his absence, Xavier will have a hole at the point guard position that the young freshman had recently proven to be a reliable option at. One possible candidate for the position is Jordan Crawford.
Crawford, the sophomore transfer from Indiana, will likely hear a decision on his eligibility from the NCAA in the next week.
The prospects for Crawford's case appear to be slim, however, as NCAA president Myles Brand has made good on his promise this season to toughen up on immediate eligibility cases. In the past week the NCAA has denied the eligibility of Crawford's former Indiana teammate Eli Holman, now at Detroit, and USC center Alex Stephenson, a transfer from North Carolina who was seeking immediate eligibility as a result of health issues in his Los Angeles based family that necessitated the transfer to Southern California.
With the bleak outlook of the Crawford case coupled with the uncertainty surrounding Holloway, Sean Miller may be in a more ambiguous position with regard to his point guard position than when he began the season.
In the short term, Miller will have to rely on sophomore Dante Jackson to log major minutes at the point guard spot, something Jackson has struggled at the season, turning the ball over 10 times this season, but also picking up 10 assists. While Xavier may not be in its best flow with Jackson running the show, he is long and athletic enough to supply Miller with perhaps his best defensive lineup, something that the Musketeers will have to rely on even more if they do not have the services of Holloway and Crawford.
The headaches for Miller may start to come in when he thinks about what happens when he has to sit Jackson on the bench for long periods of time -- a realistic possibility considering Jackson collected 12 fouls in three games in Puerto Rico. The two options for Miller off the bench -- freshmen Brad Redford and Brian Walsh -- have not been wildly ineffective in the first five games of the season.
Redford is still obviously adjusting to the speed of the college game, as evidenced by his performance against Memphis, where he got his only three point field goal attempt blocked, turned the ball over once and broke down multiple times on defense in only five minutes of action. Redford is slowly improving, though, and is always a threat with his deadly jump shot.
Walsh is really not a point guard, but my have to handle the ball if Xavier really gets into a pinch in the coming weeks. He has not seen much time yet this season, as he battled a lower back injury in the preseason and appears to still be rounding back into shape. He does give Xavier good defensive ability, and can knock down a jump shot if given a spot-up opportunity.
With all of the uncertainty surrounding the Musketeers it will surely be right back to the grindstone for Sean Miller and the Xavier staff. With games against MAC favorite Miami and SEC contender Auburn looming in the next 10 days the chance to test the suddenly new-look Musketeers will present itself quickly.