Today is an incredibly special day in the annals of Xavier history!
Besides it being the date 32 years ago of the Jamal Jump shot that beat Cincinnati 90-88 in OT at the Gardens, and also the date of 24 years ago where the 24th ranked Muskies strolled into Temple and won a huge game vs John Chaney, it is also the date of two Musketeer legends Birthdays! Let’s all wish a huge Happy Birthday to Malcolm Bernard and Rashid Gaston, both born on January 31.
The highlights of the 2016-2017 season are too numerous to mention, but the value of these two players can be encapsulated in the microcosm of the Arizona/Xavier Sweet 16 game of March 23, 2017. A game that Xavier would have arguably never gotten too without the amazing locker room leadership of Malcolm and the on court contributions of he and Rashid. After Xavier had suffered significant injuries and had dropped 6 in a row, Malcolm took the Xavier Locker Room under his arm in a players only meeting and strongly informed every player in that room that he was not ending his college career that way and that they were gonna connect together and excel. The result was an Elite 8 with Rashid giving big contributions on the court and Malcolm again showing amazing leadership in the Arizona game when Xavier fell behind by 7 with 2:40 to go with a personal 5 point run to get X close. It was only fitting that the last Arizona miss rebound came to Malcolm to finish out the upset! What a karma moment for he and Xavier basketball!!
You can go back and review these legends Senior stats, but here they are irrelevant.
Happy Birthday guys and thanks for your play, leadership and giving us fans tremendous thrills!! ����
GO X!!!