XL Center Nearly Collapses as No. 17 UConn Comes Back To Beat West Virginia

The chairs in the student section were falling over as if an earthquake were rolling through Downtown Hartford on Monday night and the XL Center, an old, unwanted dump, nearly collapsed from the loudest and rowdiest 16,000 people it has endured since the days of the UConn-Tennessee women's basketball rivalry.

Coming off two losses, the UConn men's basketball team dropped from eighth to 17th in the Associated Press Poll and despite at times allowing West Virginia to get the upper hand, finally put the Mountaineers away in the final minutes to seal a 64-57 victory in Hartford.

Last week was very unfriendly to the Huskies (13-3, 3-2 Big East). First, they were outplayed at the Prudential Center by now ranked Seton Hall and on Saturday in Jim Calhoun's return to the sidelines following a mandated three-game Big East suspension for failing to create an atmosphere of compliance, the Huskies lost at the RAC to rivals Rutgers.

Morale seemed down, especially after Shabazz Napier's comments about the lack of leadership and failure of the team to listen to him as captain and point guard.

The criticism has been the same for a long time: the Huskies play down to their opponent's level.

There may have been glimpses of that at times today, but when it mattered, UConn got the big shots, mainly from sophomore All-American Jeremy Lamb.

Coming off an eight-point performance at the RAC, Lamb never came off the court, though he never looked tired, reminiscent of Kemba Walker from a year ago. The Georgia native went 9-for-17 from the floor with 25 points, the most he's scored since scoring the same amount on November 20th against Coppin St. He was 2-6 from distance, hitting a clutch three in the final minutes to nearly bring down the house.

Napier struggled shooting the ball, but played 36 minutes and did produce eight assists.

Andre Drummond had a double-double on the night, recording 20 points including a monstrous dunk from the baseline and also pulled down 11 rebounds.

The crowd definitely played into the game. For most of the season, the UConn crowd has seemed silent and uninterested. The attitude was almost that the national champions didn't need the help of the crowd. How wrong they were.

With a lot of students busy over break, the student section had been relatively quiet in recent games, but on Monday, it came to life. Part of a packed house, the Dog Pound was full of energy from the tip until the final buzzer and even as they poured out onto Asylum Street at night's end.

Joining them in the action, to many's surprise, was the rest of the crowd. It took a Napier to Lamb alley-oop to get them on their feet, but from that point on, the Husky faithful were the rowdiest they had been at the XL Center in years, as UConn closed out the game on a fan-fueled 28-14 run.

The crowd got West Virginia (12-5, 3-2) and Bob Huggins rattled. Mistakes down the stretch for the Mountaineers really threw them off their rhythm and swung all momentum UConn's way.

The Huskies will be looking to use the momentum from last night's big victory to get something going and save their chance at at least a top four spot in the Big East. They will have to test their resolve in South Bend on Saturday in an 11 a.m. ET matchup with Notre Dame. It's been a tough year for the Irish (10-6, 2-1), but they are heading into Tuesday's bout with South Florida on the wave of a double overtime victory at Louisville.

If the Huskies can play the way they did down the stretch on Monday, they can definitely get back into the Big East conversation.