Texas game thread

[Kevin Reilly]

Go X. Good time for Foster to have his best game of the season. The Bench was huge tonight. Maddox , Hunter and Hugley were great off the bench. The team played very good DEFENSE in the second half. Illinois is going down. Freemantle hit some big free throws and had that great pass ( missing the rim ) to Swain at the end. Miller coached his ass off and the team played hard the second half. Can't wait till Friday night.

[muskieman]

Unlikely hero Foster 22 and 8 In your face analysis that said X would lose....looking at you Miami grad with the long name

[MarionHall4ever]

WOW! The game has been over for an hour and I am still replaying that second half comeback in my mind. What a game!

I live in Arizona for a good portion of the year and I don’t get to see Xavier play very often. . . so I was really looking forward to this game. Not only did it not disappoint, but it was easily the best game I’ve seen the Muskies play since they won the NIT three years ago.

I am SO HAPPY for Zach Fremantle. Despite getting off to a terrible start, he played his ass off and was a MAN out there when his teammates needed him the most. His dunk at the end of the game was pure storybook stuff. One of the announcers on the post-game show seemed to infer that his 15 points moved him up XU’s all-time scoring list to number 10. Can anybody confirm that?

Needless to say, I can’t wait for the game against Illinois.

I’m not aware of any Xavier Alumni Watch Parties out here in Scottsdale (or anywhere else in the Phoenix area), so I may have to start one of my own at the local BW3. Go Muskies!

MarionHall4Ever (XU ‘76)

[muskieman]

MarionHall he needed 15 points and he got that with the dunk at the end.

[skyhops]

Still can't believe we won the game, but great effort in second half. Conwell got hosed on two of the fouls in the first half as well as Free on one, which was a major reason why we were down along with poor perimeter defense. Texas was big and athletic and they seemed to hurt us. Foster, Maddox, and Hunter were huge for us. Illini are big and could cause issues inside, but if we played like we did in the second half we have a shot. I know Conwell was on the bench a lot, but I still don't know why we play McKnight for 35 mins. He didn't attempt a three, had a few bad turnovers, and was great defensively.

[Anti-Homer]

Two things to start:

Texas was even more athletic and talented than I gave them credit for. Sheer will, gutty performances, and great coaching won this game for X. They were also very deep, especially in the post, with 3 guys that could start for a lot of teams, as well as Weaver - 6th man, who is an outstanding guard.

Also, apologies to Tre Johnson. As great as Kam Jones and Luis Jr. are, Johnson is clearly a cut above.

X won because:

• Great play of Maddox and Hunter in the 1st half.
• Great play by Foster the whole game, including very solid D on Johnson when he guarded him.
• Elite D by Swain on Johnson, and anyone else he defended.
• Great team D by X in the 2nd half.
• X limited T.O.s

Texas came out with a great game plan and attacked X in the lane, knowing they had superior athleticism and length, and X lacked a shot blocker. They scored the majority of buckets in the paint in the 1st half. X flipped the script in the 2nd, where Texas got few open looks in the lane. X made them dribble parallel to the basket, conceding open wing-corner shots, and minimizing the deep dribble drives and dump-offs for labs Texas got in bunches in the 1st.

Foster and Swain held Johnson to an inefficient 23, just like X held Kalb to approx. the same amount ag. Creighton. No one can stop him, but he didn’t go 30+ like he has done multiple times in the best conference in the league. They also didn’t need help in containing him, so he didn't collapse the D giving a teammate an easy lab or open jumper. Two of his treys were Bluiett-like 28 footers, and he had few open looks on drives.

I could never have imagined that X could beat a team like Texas with Free and Conwell scoring only 26 cumulatively. It shows how explosive they are offensively when they share the ball and limit T.O.s. Really proud of their effort.