We are only a week away from the season's start.

Here is an article from the Asbury Park Press
http://www.app.com/story/sports/college/.../93053928/

The article notes that one of the 7 teams to beat Monmouth last year was Army.

Hopefully the players read this line and come in over-confident.
"Monmouth will not play a public exhibition this season, instead opting to go with two scrimmages. Drexel, however, played its one and only exhibition on Thursday, and it didn't go well. Hosting Keiser University, a Division II NAIA school from Florida, the Dragons were outscored by 11 in the second half and absorbed a seemingly unfathomable 76-71 loss."

(11-04-2016 04:36 PM)Water Boy Wrote:  Hopefully the players read this line and come in over-confident.
"Monmouth will not play a public exhibition this season, instead opting to go with two scrimmages. Drexel, however, played its one and only exhibition on Thursday, and it didn't go well. Hosting Keiser University, a Division II NAIA school from Florida, the Dragons were outscored by 11 in the second half and absorbed a seemingly unfathomable 76-71 loss."

The comment made last week at the welcome breakfast was that Spiker didnt coach the game the way he would have a real one. The game was more about conditioning etc. Heck, they played with 6 fouls per team.

Our pregame post is going up today, and I'll share that link when its live.

I am excited to announce that AlwaysADragon.com will be LIVE from Monmouth University tonight from the sidelines. Follow along for game updates and insight over on Twitter at our account: @AlwaysDU.

I am most interested in seeing style of play and just learn what this team is capable of doing. This is likely the toughest game we have in our OOC, which is not saying much. I do not expect to win this one but want to see whether or not we can achieve the goals set forth by Spiker.

Drexel- 68
Monmouth- 84

I think your score prediction is pretty accurate. Here is what I'm looking for tonight:

1. Take smart shots - I want to see the team execute, and not force the ball. Basically, I want more players to contribute like Mojica did a few weeks ago.

2. Rodney Williams on the block - Leave the kid down low and lets see what he can do. a double-double from Rodney and less than 4 fouls would be remarkable.

3. Open the back door - I want to see the team take some back door cuts. It is something that virtually never happened under Bruiser.

4. Inbound plays - While talking to Coach Justin Jennings at the breakfast last week, I commented on the quality of the inbound plays that I saw in the Keiser game. He told me that when he and Spiker were at Army they had one of the highest offensive inbound efficiency rating in the country.

One surprise from tonight's game was John Moran, who I never heard of until tonight, as I guess he was just added to the roster.

Moran played 16 minutes and scored a respectable 5 points, in giving Lee some rest. Not sure if he'll be the backup point guard, or if that will be Jonsson. Moran played a total of 19 games in 4 years as a walk on at Richmond. We're already seeing the difference between Flint and Spiker here. With Flint, a guy like Moran would be used as a practice player only and would never leave the bench unless the team was up by 30 or down by 30. I guess Spiker sees value in his bench and appears more likely to rotate more guys into the rotation and not wear down his starters like Flint did. We'll see if that pays off for the team down the road.

Other observations from tonight's game.

Kurt Lee was very impressive. When I saw him in person a few weeks ago and I saw his size, I thought he was another Aquil Younger. But talent wise, I hope that he can give Drexel what Terrell Allen gave to the team last year.

Overton - I was thinking that he would be the top scorer on the team. But after the exhibition game and tonight's game he's given the team nothing so far. Hopefully his shot will be more consistent and we'll get more scoring from him.

Moran was definitely a surprise (and a needed one at that with Major being out). He wasn't included in the game notes that were released just two days ago. He is no Chris Flemmings, but at least as this time we got a grad walk-on that actually was a basketball player before rather than a soccer player.

Have to agree on Overton, hopefully these first two offerings are just him getting the rust out.

Despite Drexel losing, the CAA looks to be off to a good start with a 6-2 record - although wins over Goldy-Beacom, Claflin, and William Peace isn't exactly setting the world afire - D1 teams never lose to those easy schools right?

On a more positive note, how about the women giving Penn State a thrashing?

The recap/postgame from last night is up! Check it out... http://alwaysadragon.com/868-2/