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Message: [QUOTE="CTFAN4LIFE, post: 4520544, member: 3328"] I watched the entire game. Here is how it went down: Xavier goes 5 for 5 and hit their first 2 FT's in the first 3 minutes as DePaul was playing soft man and getting beat constantly. DePaul then tightened up their man defense, did some pressing in the back court, and then some switching man to man which produced a 7 minute dry spell for Xavier. Does that sound like a microcosm of our game with them or what? Xavier ends the half with 40 points but it was largely on the back of that first three minutes... Second half is a blend of rag tag play, good defense, some open looks/some contested shots and they mostly hit the open ones and miss the contested ones. My bottom line on Xavier is if they get open they make shots (they feast, actually); if they are rushed and contested (yes, you need to do both to hinder their shooting proficiency) then you can contain them and compete on the scoreboard... I sure as hell wish that we had put more pressure on them, used more hard man to man, thrown in a decent amount of zone to confuse them, etc. and we might have beat them by 5 points on our home floor. Hurley seems reluctant to use zone (yes, some stubbornness showing through) but I think if we do blend both increased pressure and some zone to rest our guys then we will confuse Xavier in a potential future matchup at the BE tourney. Same can be deployed against other opponents as well. We shall see. [/QUOTE]