Taxi-driving Xavier center Stainbrook enjoys ride

LOS ANGELES — He has sort of a goofy look.

He’s quirky. A little weird.

He’s the guy you purposely don’t select for your pickup basketball team, only to have him kill it on the court the next few hours.

The guy with goggles and kneepads who turns out to be a serious baller.

Matt Stainbrook has one of those stories only March Madness can relay to a nation of college fans, and there is also the part about him being a main reason Xavier has advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time since 2008.

He is a 6-foot-10-inch center averaging 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in two NCAA wins, a fifth-year senior who needs to be all that and more when the Musketeers face Arizona in a West Regional semifinal at approximately 7:15 p.m. today at Staples Center.

He also drives people around in his 2004 gold Buick Rendezvous to pay for graduate school.

What, no scholarship for a 1,000-point career scorer?

Stainbrook gave it to his little brother, Tim, a sophomore forward and former walk-on for Xavier. Matt has a mind for business and a degree in finance and owns thoughts of one day becoming a banker or owning a restaurant, so he understood what these numbers meant:

His graduate school tuition costs $14,000.

His brother’s undergrad tuition costs $43,000.

Solution: Give his brother the scholarship and fire up the Buick.

He began offering a taxi service around Cincinnati.

A big, goofy Uber with serious game.

“You know, it’s all right,” Stainbrook said. “It’s relaxing. It gets your mind off basketball because, I tell you, the majority of time you’re thinking about basketball and school. So when we have a day off, I drive. You get to talk to people who don’t want to talk about basketball all the time. It’s a nice change of pace.

“It’s the most typical old-person car you can have. It’s big. It’s boxy. It’s very bland. Tan inside. But it fits me, and it fits my passengers. It’s been kicking for 190,000 miles now, so it’s going good. It helps pay for rent, utilities, food, stuff like that. I’d say one out of every two people recognize me from (Xavier).”

Such celebrity will only intensify if the Musketeers can pull off what would be viewed as a giant upset against the Wildcats, but it’s also true Xavier is the last team standing from a Big East Conference that also had a No. 1 seed in Villanova.

The taxi driver could have a huge say in whether Xavier dances on or goes home.

He is Xavier’s leading scorer on the season and yet tonight will encounter an Arizona front line best described as really big and really athletic and really skilled. Stainbrook has averaged 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in 36 games, but hit a lull in February and then again at the end of the regular season.

Any lull tonight could send his team to a lopsided defeat.

Arizona, you see, knows all about Xavier.

Specifically, Sean Miller does.

The Wildcats coach spent five seasons running the Musketeer program, delivering it to four NCAA fields, including Elite Eight and Sweet 16 appearances. He arrived in Tucson in 2009, but understands better than anyone else what defines the team he will oppose tonight.

“It has done nothing but get better,” Miller said. “I mean, this is their third Sweet 16 since I left. They just have a quest to get better every year. Never satisfied. When everybody cooperates and thinks the same and you have really intelligent people at the top, great things happen.

“For me, I’ve tried to stay focused this week on getting our team ready to play. It’s difficult in some ways that it’s Xavier. We’re facing a very, very good team that is playing its best basketball of the year right now. We will have to be ready to have an opportunity to win, which is what you want when you’re here. You don’t want it to stop.”

Neither does the quirky, weird, goofy taxi driver.

Someone moves on tonight.

Someone drives away for good.

Xavier hopes it doesn’t do so in a 2004 gold Buick Rendezvous.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.