Xavier Women Invisible To Hometown

Amber Gray is used to the spotlight.  Her father played football in the NFL and she earned a name for herself at Lakota West High School with her own ability.

It is a different story at Xavier this season.  The Musketeers were a big story.  Barely missing the final four two years ago with two of the top three women basketball players in the country in Ta'Shia Phillips and Amber Harris.

This year the light is dimmer.  Would a player on a 3-15 team really want a spotlight shining on her?

Yes.

"We're never in the newspaper or on TV.  You always hear about UC or you always hear about the guys but the girls, it's like we don't exist.  It's hard for a lot of people to, even my family members want to see what was the score. Want to see an update.  They want to see us play."

It was different at the high profile program at Tennessee.

"Even when I was in high school the scores were always in the newspaper or the scores were scrolled across the bottom on Channel 5.  That's one thing that we need now more than ever is our fan support.  But they don't know what's going on or they don't know when our games are."

The season hasn't been the best after Xavier had been a program on the rise for so long but Gray is looking ahead to better days.  She should know surviving a brain aneurysm after her freshman year at Tennessee.  She sees light through the haze.

"We're not having the best of seasons right now.  It's going to turn around. We're going to get better but our fans don't know.  So it's hard for them."

"I've had people tell me the same thing," Wanniger said.  "They haven't been able to follow us. It's always on the internet but a lot of people can't find it."