Its (supposedly) game day! Students are virtual but hopefully there are enough around to show up tonight. Big home game. We are expected to be 2 of the top teams this season in a jumbled CAA. So holding serve at home will be important if we wish to be at the top. Assuming we have a full complement of players, this could be a big game for Butler. Delaware us a guard driven team that relies on ball movement. Painter will likely get his, but they are thin on the bigs. Hopefully Butler is a go and healthy enough, otherwise could be a big Amari game. Mate and company will need to stay hot from 3 to give us a chance. I fully expect this to be a typical game that goes down to the wire.

UD- 73
DU-75

Edit:
Vegas: DU -2.5

Butler must be really sick not to play tonight

Congrats to Wynter 500 Assist and nice comeback! Just fell short

Feel 81-77. Down 22 with 13 to go. Ugly for points. Amari wasnt strong enough getting rebounds. Not having Butler really hurt us bad. Nice grit and fight, but you just cant dig a hole that deep. Delaware couldnt miss in the first half, but we have to do better closing out and defending against lots of motion and screens. Delaware was putting on an offensive clinic in the first half. Wish we had more movement in our offense.

Any word when Butler comes back?

i thought we started to rush things and lost our composure a bit when it was obvious delaware's offense wasn't going away. we've played really under control in the half court all year until last night. it's interesting saying that since spiker was advertised as an up tempo coach. our defense still leaves a lot to be desired but they knocked down shots all night especially ryan allen. delaware has traditionally lived and died with the jump shot and last night they lived by it.

i'm debating how the game would have been different without butler. at a minimum he gives us depth. amari played 12 and 13 minutes in the 2 games before our covid issues. last night he played 32. he's our future...but that's a lot to ask out of him. hopefully it will help him in the long run and it was nice to see us make him a focal point of the offense.

that was the other issue. you could tell we tried to get amari going...but outside of bell and martin getting going in the second half...it was hard to tell what we were trying to do. cam didn't have a great game again. he has to figure out how to get to the free throw line. we need somebody to steady us when things aren't going well and i'm not sure who that consistent scorer is for us right now.

Our offense has always been a mess lacking movement with far too much ISO. So last night was nothing new. When we make shots or Martin/Bell attack well it hides the fact that we still dont have an offensive identity. We say we work for good shots, yet a typical offensive possession has everyone standing around on the perimeter with our big working on posting up. That is easy to defend. As much as we all railed on Bruiser for his predictable offense, as least those hand offs and screens had lots of movement that created open looks (we just rarely had the shooters to make enough of those shots). This offense doesnt have enough movement and cuts and screens. We have small spurts, but nothing anywhere near consistently, regardless of personnel on the court.

With that said, it was another game where we didnt quit and fought back. It is always nice to see a team that doesnt break and continues to fight. Its worth something come tournament time. This was also our first home loss to the Hens since 2015

Amari just oozes potential. I hope this staff can help him realize it. He needs to be a bit more aggressive and be better recognizing and passing out of double teams, but seeing him live and in person made me almost forget about TJ. Agree about the offense, the #ThinkBigPlayFast philosophy as abandoned pretty fast and I don't know what our identity is supposed to be any more. I wish there were more movement to try and get Mate more looks in games or that the coaches would tell him to shoot more. It's ridiculous that he's only taken 10 more shots than Coltrane while playing 1 more game and close to double the minutes.

i noticed that too with okros. either they really defended him well or we're not doing a good job getting him open. he's been hitting more lately.

amari has all the tools. he's still a bit raw but i don't think there are many big things he needs to correct. sometimes he swats at rebounds instead of grabbing them and there are some simple plays he doesn't make...which he will eventually.