Xavier guard Isaiah Walker is no stranger to rivalries on the basketball court.
In high school, Walker helped lead Wyoming to back-to-back conference titles in the competitive Cincinnati Hills League. Walker began his career at Belmont University in Nashville, where the annual rivalry “The Battle of the Boulevard” is against Lipscomb University. The two have split 152 career meetings, 76-76, after Belmont’s eight-point win Nov. 19.
However, nothing will compare to Dec. 5, when Walker suits up for Xavier in the 93rd Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout against UC at Cintas Center.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Walker said Dec. 3.
Walker is the son of Tyrice Walker, a former forward for the Musketeers from 1990-1994 who ended his prep career as the OHSBCA Mr. Basketball at Hamilton. Tyrice combined for 10 points in UC’s three-game Crosstown Shootout winning streak from 1991-1993.
“Playing that first game, it was like, ‘wow.’ Watching it on TV or hearing about it definitely doesn’t do it any type of justice,” Tyrice told The Enquirer. “When you see that crowd, then you see how intense the players are playing, it’s different.”
In 1994, Walker had 16 points and five rebounds to help lead the Musketeers to an 82-76 overtime victory at Cincinnati Gardens, when UC’s Bob Huggins refused to shake hands with Xavier head coach Pete Gillen.
“That seemed like bad blood,” Tyrice said. “Those two didn’t get along great. That rivalry was intense.”
Walker attended multiple editions of the Crosstown Shootout growing up, citing Edmond Sumner’s highlight-reel dunk in 2015 as a core memory of the rivalry.
“The crowd pop was crazy,” Walker said. “I know what this is about and it’s a cool opportunity to finally get to play in it.”
Any father-to-son advice for the magnitude of the Crosstown Shootout?
“My message to Isaiah has been that you are the local guy,” Tyrice said. “It’s hard to comprehend the intensity of the game until you actually play in it.”
Walker’s been doing just that as one of the only newcomers with any history with the rivalry along with Roddie Anderson (a redshirt for last year’s game) and coach Dante Jackson, who went 3-1 in the Crosstown Shootout as a player and 6-3 as a Xavier assistant.
“I was telling some of the guys it means a lot to a lot of people in the city,” Walker said. “I’ve been trying to make it a point to convey that to my teammates to make sure they know what this game means. We’ll be ready.”
Walker has played well in the big moment, too. Back to his prep days at Wyoming, he had 11 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in a win over defending state-champion Deer Park (coached by his dad’s former Xavier teammate Steve Gentry) in a 61-60 Cowboys’ win on Dec. 14, 2018.
One year later, Wyoming went 13-0 in CHL play and Deer Park was 12-1. The difference was Walker’s 28-point, 13-rebound double-double in a 74-69 overtime win over the Wildcats.
At Belmont, where the Battle of the Boulevard was decided by two points or less in each of his three seasons, Walker had 8 points and 7 rebounds in a 72-71 win in 2023. Last season, he recorded his second career collegiate double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and had the game-winning and-1 with three seconds left in Belmont’s 80-79 comeback win over Lipscomb.
“It (The Battle of the Boulevard) is honestly very similar because both schools are so close. It means a lot to a lot of people down there,” Walker said. “Regardless of records or what teams have done in the past, the rivalry is always a little bit different. You try to go out and leave it all out there for 40 minutes and live with the result.”
Xavier, UC players with Greater Cincinnati ties
From a Xavier perspective, Walker is expected to be the only Cincinnati native to get minutes in Friday’s Crosstown Shootout.
Xavier has a pair of local walk-ons in Ian Sabourin (Badin) and Henry Thole (Villa Madonna), but this rivalry doesn’t typically lend itself to lopsided scores that would lead to walk-on minutes. Each of the previous three matchups were decided by five points or less.
Backup center Anthony Robinson is from Atlanta, but his late grandfather, George Wilson, won a national championship with the Bearcats in 1962 and an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 1964. He was drafted in the first round of the 1964 NBA Draft by the Cincinnati Royals and spent seven years in the NBA.
“There’s a lot of connections to the Cincinnati area, obviously with the legacy that my grandpa left,” Robinson told The Enquirer at Big East Media Day. “My mom is from Cincinnati, too, so I have a lot of family around here.”
UC redshirt freshman Tyler McKinley was one of the top players in the 2024 class at Walnut Hills High School, just two miles away from Xavier, before leaving for Link Academy in Missouri. McKinley is averaging 2.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per gmae.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier guard Isaiah Walker has family ties in Crosstown Shootout
Reporting by Shelby Dermer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
