Having never been to Xavier before, I must say they have a very good basketball arena. Great environment and student section was huge, loud and definitely effected the game. Watching warm ups I was impressed with the length and athleticism of Xavier up close. They seemed bigger then uconn at every position. Once the game started I was equally impressed by uconns physicality on D. In my opinion, we played well, answered every run, but the difference was Nunge. Besides the fact that sanogo sat early, when he came back in, he was bothered by Nunges length, and could not establish any dominance or rhythm. Nothing fell for us most of the night, and fremantle, nudge and Scruggs prevented the offensive board edge we normally enjoy. I was impressed with uconn being able to stay in touch late in the game, but felt the refs started to key on hurley, and the crowd was demanding a T for last 10 minutes. Despite the home crowd tilt and poor shooting from 3 of the 5 starters, we should have won this game. Cole was clutch in the final 5 fighting through triple teams and obvious no calls. But the Jackson T killed all momentum and jacked the crowd to a deafening level, and I saw the defeat in uconns eyes. Tough loss, tough crowd. I will say our boys played very hard and battled like champions, despite the outcome. Our guys love hurleys Fire too and respond to it. Up close, martin is a monster and much leaner and athletic looking then on TV BTW.
