Xavier Post Game Thread

[JungleLobo]

Might as well just pack the paint and forget about the 3 point line, teams can’t do much better than 65% with it wide open and least they can takeaway the 2

 

[specialisthusky]

Gutsy win. Team played tough and dug in during OT. X was shooting over 60% from three after regulation. Would prefer that trend ends ASAP.

Xavier came prepared and executed way better than I expected without Freemantle.

 

[TheHorde]

We did no favors for ourselves in Maui, it came Down to Liam’s over the back calls…but today….I truly thought I was watching HS JV refs the final 6 minutes+OT

They were abhorrent in both situations. I don’t understand how these crews have jobs and get repeat work and don’t seem to have any ramifications for their poor grades.

 

[controlfade]

Character building game for this team.

 

[Dibbie]

What an insane game. I’m starting to think we’re snake bitten from 3 on D. There were lapses, but a lot of them were tough shots. Just not sure how it happens every game.

 

[TheHorde]

Diarra 11 assists 1 TO - wow.

He played an ungodly amount of minutes. The first free throw of two late in OT was a tired shot. He was definitely gassed.

 

[superjohn]

We had a really ugly long stretch in the first half with McNeeley on the bench. It turned into an amazing game, X was making contested stepback three after contested stepback three and we always responded. McNeeley makes our offense go. Some of those dimes to Reed when we got him on the move were beautiful. Reed is a beast, he's a more physically impressive Sanogo when it's all said and done. Solo didn't shoot great but he's an incredibly clutch shooter, he seems to always make the big shot. I thought he played his most complete game. He's a baller. AK made huge plays in OT.

That was a lot better than our Big East season opener last year.


I'm sick as a dog, so glad we stepped up and took that win.

 

[KingAG]

After Maui these guys have no fear in the face of defeat. They’ve tasted their own blood and are tougher because of it.

 

[El Obrero]

Nice win. Lots of positives.
Defense a big negative

I totally disagree. They played very tight defense tonight. To me,that was the second most encouraging thing about this game. (The first being that they won a close game.) Xavier shot the friggin lights out tonight, but almost all of those shots were contested, from what I watched. Even Solo Ball stood out to me on defense a few times tonight!

 

[Bomber36]

My goose is cooked. Love the win, but not sure I can take the stress all year.

 

[HuskyFich]

Observations:

Solos Defense in the second half and OT was the best we’ve seen all season.

Reed needs 15-20 touches a game minimum.

AK does extremely well when Liam is in the game, but becomes doubled constantly when not.

Hassan was magnificent, moved the ball all game long.

Youssif with big minutes again!

Hustle plays all game.

Xavier made so many tough shots, I couldn’t believe it. Kudos to them for making it a really tough game.

 

[Bomber36]

Observations:

Solos Defense in the second half and OT was the best we’ve seen all season.

Reed needs 15-20 touches a game minimum.

AK does extremely well when Liam is in the game, but becomes doubled constantly when not.

Hassan was magnificent, moved the ball all game long.

Youssif with big minutes again!

Hustle plays all game.

Xavier made so many tough shots, I couldn’t believe it. Kudos to them for making it a really tough game.

Good stuff here.

 

[Dibbie]

What would we do without Hass?

We would have more losses. Nowell needs to get healthy and get PT, as we need a backup PG

 

[El Obrero]

Tarris Reed is a certified beast!

 

[tedsdrunk]

We are where we need to be on offense, but nowhere near the defense we will need to 3peat.

There is much work to be done, but it's coming along.

 

[Padutch5]

Worst officiating that I can remember.

I think we can put the "Hurley can't win close games" notion to rest.

Worst since two of those refs did their last game at XL. What is the process for reviewing and counseling refs in the Big East. Whatever it is, it isn’t working.

 

[aceboon]

Other teams might have fallen apart in the face of that otherworldly shooting and ref show. That showed real toughness and maturity for a lot of new pieces.

69-64 after Xavier went nuclear from 3 and they bounced right back, recovering from that and then exploding again after Gonzaga had tied it 55-55 was reminiscent of last year's team responding to runs.

 

[LetsGoUC]

That was fun. A gritty win!

 

[nashusky109]

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 not 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.

 

[BFieldHusky]

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

 

[Edward Sargent]

Our perimeter switches tonight were awful. The X plan was if Reed is on you shoot

 

[Vowelguy]

Both teams combined: 38-42 on FTs

 

[BFieldHusky]

69-64 after Xavier went nuclear from 3 and they bounced right back, recovering from that and then exploding again after Gonzaga had tied it 55-55 was reminiscent of last year's team responding to runs.

Great point. At 69-64, I was worried the game was slipping away with Xavier just raining 3s.

 

[uh-no]

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.

 

[EROCK CONN]

Reed was an absolute beast tonight. Almost seems automatic that he’ll score if gets the ball in the low post. 13 boards is 1 less than X’s starting 5 combined and 1 less than the rest of our starters combined. If the ball is within his reach — it’s his. He’s a monster. Ball and Karaban were awesome as well. Huge win. That was Xavier’s A+ game — they shot 54% from 3…. unreal. To put that into context, if we shot 40% from three and so did they, the final score is 100-80 good guys.

Something needs to be done about NCAA officiating. These guys are horrifically awful , like 100x worse than weather forecasters. They are killing the game.

 

[Gutter King]

I am in "Let's find a way to win these" mode, right now. Do not care about style points. The team got better tonight and love McNeeley driving. Should have been him ending this game at the FT line with that no-call block.

Proud of Tarris' FT at the end of reg. He showed out tonight in multiple ways.

 

[Waquoit]

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.

 

[Jhuskie89]

Big reeeeeeeeedddd! McNeeley please continue to drive to that hoop!

 

[HooperScooper]

A win in their first Big East game is better than a loss like they've had in 5 of the last 6 years before this.

I did have a question. Is their 3 point defense really as bad as the stats look? Xavier hit a lot of tough threes. When is that regression happening that Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports promised?

There's a real chance that UConn has some positive regression coming its way defensively. Even in Sunday's much-needed, 76-65 road win over Texas, UConn still did not have the Basketball Gods on its side. Texas attempted four guarded catch-and-shoot 3-pointers. It made every single one of 'em.

That was not an anomaly.

Teams are shooting 37% on contested catch-and-shoot treys against UConn this season. That's an absurdly high number. Opponents are also shooting a ridiculous 35% on off-the-dribble 3-pointers against UConn. Again, a ridiculously high number compared to most of UConn's peers.

Overall, top-100 teams are shooting 48% from 3-point range against UConn this year. Maui's generous rims could be fudging those numbers a tad, but that does not feel sustainable at all.

If UConn's defense starts stringing together better performances, there's a good chance the 3-point luck has swung back in its direction.

Trotter's 10 Trends: Iowa State's soaring offense, Kentucky's changed Lamont Butler among top takeaways

UConn's unlucky defense is also among 10 trends that Isaac Trotter is tracking.

www.cbssports.com

 

[Bomber36]

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.

Crowd was huge!