One shining moment
Dedrick Finn thumped his chest and shouted to the Xavier crowd, which was going bonkers. An exasperated Rick Barnes, sensing the shift in momentum, called a timeout despite the next TV break being less than a minute away.
Had Finn just drained a dagger three? Fed a teammate for an alley-oop? No -- he'd made a huge defensive play.
Following a Romain Sato 3 that broke a 50-50 tie, the Musketeers got steals on consecutive possessions and turned them into quick buckets, first by forward Justin Cage, who outleted to Lionel Chalmers for a layup and the foul (he missed the free throw), then by Finn, who found Sato inside to go up 57-50.
"That was a big momentum shift for us," said Finn. "We were getting kind of down, and that gave us a boost."
The sequence was emblematic of the entire night for Xavier, which won mostly by outhustling the Longhorns. The Musketeers shot just 29.6 percent in the second half and nearly their entire frontline was in foul trouble, but they consistently beat Texas to loose balls and, in particular, rebounds. Thought to be an area where the Longhorns had an advantage, Xavier held a 19-12 edge on the boards at halftime, including 9-3 in offensive rebounds, and won the final battle 39-35. (It didn't help Texas that its top rebounder, James Thomas, was able to play just two minutes).
Fittingly, it was the 6-foot-1 Finn who, when Royal Ivey missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining, emerged from a throng of bigger Texas players to grab the clinching rebound.
Player who impressed me
By the closing minutes, Anthony Myles was exhausted, sweating profusely, struggling at times to run down court. But as Xavier's lone experienced big man, there was no way he was going out in crunch time, not to mention failing to contribute.
With the Musketeers clinging to a three-point lead with 1:40 to play, Texas' P.J. Tucker grabbed an offensive rebound and went up for what he thought would be an easy turnaround put-back only to have Myles spring up and swat his shot out of bounds. "I had to push for that one," Myles conceded afterward. He would later block an Ivey shot with 19 seconds left, and though his final stats were a modest nine points and seven rebounds, Xavier coach Thad Matta couldn't stop singing his praises afterward.
"He was exhausted," said Matta. "We tried to use media timeouts to give him as much rest as we could. But he wanted to be in. I said to him, 'You're going to suck all the air out of this huge building,'" and he said, 'Just give me a second, I'll be ready to go.' Those blocks he had were huge."
Sato was the Musketeers' star on the night with 27 points, but it was the inside play of Myles, Cage and Brandon Cole that made the difference against a Texas frontcourt that could easily have worn them out.
Courtside confidential
Referee Ted Valentine's ejection of Texas coach Rick Barnes with 3.6 seconds remaining marked the tourney's most ungraceful exit since Iowa State's Larry Eustachy went ballistic at the end of a 2000 Elite Eight game against Michigan State. "If it's a foul on the perimeter, it's a foul inside," Barnes complained afterward about a perceived disparity that allowed Xavier to shoot 22 second-half free throws to Texas' four. ... Xavier's star of the first weekend, Lionel Chalmers, couldn't find his shot Friday, missing his first five attempts and finishing 4-of-15, but he still had a pair of huge 3-pointers. The first capped a 10-0 run that put Xavier up 32-30 late in the first half, the other gave them their biggest lead at the time, 42-38. ... A host of former Xavier players were in attendance for the school's first Sweet 16 appearance since 1990, including the star of that team, longtime NBA player Tyrone Hill. Last year's star, David West, hung out with the team in Atlanta Wednesday night before his New Orleans Hornets' game against the Hawks. ... Best sign of the night, from Xavier's student section: "Catholics vs. Cowboys." ... Early in the game, one of the Longhorns got in Finn's grill and said, "You're X-avier -- who the heck is X-avier?" Finn wouldn't identify the Texas player, but said after the game, "After that, there was no way I wanted to lose that game."
Championship formula
Despite beating St. Joe's, Louisville and Mississippi State within the past two weeks, Xavier's Matta was still concerned entering Friday's game whether his team truly believed it could win. "The last couple years, we'd get to the second round and it was like, 'OK, this is good.'"
Clearly, this team does not have the same problem. There were numerous occasions down the stretch where the Musketeers could have folded -- "We were in scramble mode the last seven minutes," said Matta -- but instead kept Texas from reclaiming the lead. Chalmers' bad shooting night, the foul trouble -- none of it seemed to matter. Freshmen Justin Doellman, Cage and Cole stepped up with big contributions, seniors Sato and Myles and sophomore Finn were money, and the rest will be history.
The Muskies will once again be the underdog Sunday as they play for their first Final Four berth in school history, but at this point, who would be brave enough to pick against them? The one problem area could be the fact they'll be playing against a substantially bigger opponent, but if Sato and Chalmers have big games, it might not matter.
