Xavier Post Game Thread

[Edward Sargent]

Pat Driscoll. Guy is a joke. I could tell from the upper deck that ball was off the Xavier player.

The call on ball off Reed was correct. What they didn't call was the defender hitting Reeds arm

 

[AtlantaHusky]

Hats off to Xavier, they shot the lights out. We will get these games in the BE it's an opportunity for our opponents to take down the King. Especially after the drubbing of X last year. Amazing composure by our team. Solo and Alex stepped up late. Reed is steady and making the idiot at sleepers media eat crow every game. McNeeley is so dynamic, will be super special come March. Took lots of gut punches and came back. Some good analysis on this thread! Cheers.

 

[uchusky32]

That's a BE grind game. And we won! I'll take it. Could have won comfortable if LM stayed on the floor in 1st half. AK showed up when needed. Big in 2nd half. But needs to start inside out from the 3. Like take your first couple from the corner or on the line. He got better around the rim late. He could have went for 30 if he made some rim shots in 1st.

Reed played big. But we got beat to the rim and gave up 3s. Can't give up both.

 

[housekeys]

Listen, UConn did not shoot particularly well, just like in Maui, BUT, the opponent was 8/10 from 3's in the second half. Shot out of their minds, stressed UConn, took UConn to overtime and LOST! So my question is, can the best team in the country, arbitrarily Auburn, play any better than Memphis or Xavier [ 50% 2FG, 55% 3FG, 87% FT ]? I can't see it. And if they do, UConn has shown it can win these games.

This is why, I believe we are final four good. Amazing resiliency of the UConn wagon, and it seems like the wagon has only 3 wheels at this point (injuries and AM not contributing like we know he can).

 

[Trudy Gay]

Gampel wishes it had a crowd like the XL tonight. They willed this team to victory. Too bad it's relegated to the back markers for the rest of the string.

I don’t know about that, the Baylor game was about as loud as I’ve ever heard Gampel or XL.

 

[Bomber36]

Thankfully we went 20-21 from the charity stripe. Needed every one of those.

The charity stripe won us the 2014 championship. Those guys didn’t miss. It hurts when you do. Remember (and I love him) Donyell.

 

[uconngb]

I was actually fine with them for most of the game. But the last like 5 minutes of reg through OT was one of the worst stretches of refereeing I’ve seen in a long time.

Agree w this. Homerism is always going to skew each sides view of the refs. But the last 5 min of the and the OT was a film on bad refereeing. Just awful refereeing. Objectively

 

[HooperScooper]

I don’t really ever complain about refs. But, man….

They definitely had a rough night. Even Seth Davis agreed. I think they were bad both ways.

 

[gsmooth]

The refs tonight were worse than Maui.

Holy hell.

One of them was in Maui for the UConn-Memphis game.

 

[RuffRuff]

How did Xavier lose to TCU...

Great to get the win. Little worried about only getting 6 points from the bench but feel like that will fix itself once we get Samson back

My biggest concern was that the bench provided so little tonight in an OT game.

Offense this year in key spots should be Liam with the ball creating with a take to the rim, or a dump in to Tarris. It would have worked in the last regulation posession but Liam took an outside route to the lane that went sideways. Tarris was isod down low with a guy he had a ton of size on and ate up all night.

Great character building win against a team that came in really hungry and hot from the field, and with a great coach. The immediate response after going down 5 in the last five minutes show resilience.

 

[3rdbass]

Hats off to Xavier, they shot the lights out. We will get these games in the BE it's an opportunity for our opponents to take down the King. Especially after the drubbing of X last year. Amazing composure by our team. Solo and Alex stepped up late. Reed is steady and making the idiot at sleepers media eat crow every game. McNeeley is so dynamic, will be super special come March. Took lots of gut punches and came back. Some good analysis on this thread! Cheers.

Don't forget Diarra playing great D and running the offense almost flawlessly.

 

[gsmooth]

I was actually fine with them for most of the game. But the last like 5 minutes of reg through OT was one of the worst stretches of refereeing I’ve seen in a long time.

That's exactly what I said in the chat.

 

[TheShot1990]

It's time for Sam Altman to create AI refs and put these geezers out to pasture.

 

[Palatine]

Great win. X shot the lights out. But.. they did shred our defense for long stretches in the second half. The switch to get Diarra low worked wonders for them.

Our offense is pretty darn reliable. Even with the six minute drought in the first half (after McNeeley went out) we were pushing 80 points in regulation. That's impressive.

 

[Kenny11]

Nothing negative to take from that. A 30% bench guy going nuclear with circus threes is pure luck. Loved how the team responded.

Hurley has said in the past that teams give us their best shot but after winning 2 straight national championships, teams are reallllllly giving us their best. I expect the 3 point percentage against us to be higher just based off that. But hopefully the extreme of what happened tonight doesn’t happen again.

 

[Husk1esB2B]

Hurley won another close game! They kept fighting even though it was awful down the stretch... not to be that guy but whats the excuse for the crowd this time? Back to back champs, Big East Home opener, close game.... all i heard was lets go huskies at some points. Are the students too used to winning, or do they just get "it", is it the the TV broadcast and it was wild in there, or is that a product of the XL center?

The students bring the juice.. in my opinion they didn't bring it today the way i'm sure a lot of people were expecting. Karaban, Hurley, the Social Media team, McNeeley, Diarra, pretty much everyone has said countlessly they need the fans. Hurley was outspoken when they went to Kansas last year and truly saw what court advantage looks like. Ready to be flamed but all you have to do is go back and watch replays of older teams to know what I'm talking about.

thats an odd take.. I'm sure XL exploded in those final minutes

 

[temery]

Diarra and Reed with double doubles.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

The foul call on Ross with 9 seconds left in regulation was BS. The Xavier player (Maddox?) threw his head back when he brushed his teammate who set the screen and got the call, Ross didn't touch the him. It smelled of a make-up call but the call on McNeeley was legit.

I was a bit relieved however as I was worried X would launch a contested three and hit it.

I also don't get how they missed McNeeley getting tripped at the end of regulation.

 

[El Obrero]

In a true democracy, the officiating at tonight’s game would warrant a congressional investigation. But we won, and I have weed, so, whatever…

 

[mauconnfan]

Their defense wasn’t great but it wasn’t awful. I mean Maddux was a 5pts a game guy and 32% from the floor and 30% from 3 he played a career game good for him.

Tough physical win against a very tough X team with a very good coach. Will sleep well.

 

[housekeys]

Hats off to Xavier, they shot the lights out. We will get these games in the BE it's an opportunity for our opponents to take down the King.

Exactly. Every team. Every opposing player will play with flair and "nothing to lose" attitude. They will play hero ball and depending on their individual skill set, they will deliver. UConn must take everyone's best shot, but I am guessing no team is good enough, but players having career nights will be a staple this year and will cause havoc.

 

[AtlantaHusky]

Don't forget Diarra playing great D and running the offense almost flawlessly.

Indeed! No forget. Lots of kudos to the entire team. Glad we ran a buzzer play without Hass with ball in his hands. We should have won with a trip with McNeeley shooting FT's which would have been ugly but justified.

 

[uconngb]

what are you going to do when the other guys shoot 63% from three? there is always room for improvement on closeouts, but we ain't THAT bad.

Maybe guard them??

 

[superjohn]

My biggest concern was that the bench provided so little tonight in an OT game.

Offense this year in key spots should be Liam with the ball creating with a take to the rim, or a dump in to Tarris. It would have worked in the last regulation posession but Liam took an outside route to the lane that went sideways. Tarris was isod down low with a guy he had a ton of size on and ate up all night.

Great character building win against a team that came in really hungry and hot from the field, and with a great coach. The immediate response after going down 5 in the last five minutes show resilience.

Liam was fouled.

 

[dennismenace]

Our offensive rebounding( 14 ) was a big factor in tonight’s win with a number of second chance possession's and points.

Also, great OT coaching by Hurley switching McNeeley and Ross for offensive and defensive possessions. Ross shut down Maddox in OT.

This is great news as far as Ross being a lockdown defender. We need to shutdown some of the perimeter 3 pt shooting going forward

 

[Revrat]

The foul call on Ross with 9 seconds left in regulation was BS. The Xavier player (Maddox?) threw his head back when he brushed his teammate who set the screen and got the call, Ross didn't touch the him. It smelled of a make-up call but the call on McNeeley was legit.

I was a bit relieved however as I was worried X would launch a contested three and hit it.

I also don't get how they missed McNeeley getting tripped at the end of regulation.

People kept saying that I dont think you saw the actual foul. Ross grabbed the guy on his cut there was nobody else near

 

[Bomber36]

Huge for game for Reed as far as fouls. If he fouls out, we probably lose. He needs to be smarter and not take offensive fouls. (2 in t he first half)

 

[superjohn]

Maybe guard them??

They did. We got way more open threes than Xavier did.

 

[caw]

Diarra 11 assists 1 TO - wow.

He's really grown as a player. I just wish his shot would return, he's pretty much playing great at PG aside from that.

If my math is correct he is at 74 assists on the year and only 25 TOs. A more than solid 3 - 1 ratio and a tad over 6 assists per game.

 

[BFieldHusky]

My biggest concern was that the bench provided so little tonight in an OT game.

Offense this year in key spots should be Liam with the ball creating with a take to the rim, or a dump in to Tarris. It would have worked in the last regulation posession but Liam took an outside route to the lane that went sideways. Tarris was isod down low with a guy he had a ton of size on and ate up all night.

Great character building win against a team that came in really hungry and hot from the field, and with a great coach. The immediate response after going down 5 in the last five minutes show resilience.

"Liam took an outside route to the lane went sideways." Is that another way of saying he was tripped on his cut to the basket? Smh.