Drexel will face city foe LaSalle Thursday evening. LaSalle is currently favored by 9. The line opened at 10.5 though so it has moved our way some.
LaSalle is lead by BJ Johnson (21.6 ppg) and Pookie Powell (15.7 ppg). Johnson could prove to be a tough matchup; he is listed as a 6'7" guard. They generally have three other guards on the court as well so it might fall on Doles/Demir to guard him. If not, he would have a pretty good size advantage over Sammy. It would be a good time to get Overton back healthy.
This game should be a good measure of where we are at. The first road test at NJIT didn't go well, so hopefully they will come in ready to play this time. It could be a good time to catch LaSalle, they were over in Northern Ireland last weekend (where they lost to Towson) and could be looking forward to Villanova on Sunday.
I am not expecting a win, but 9 seems steep. LaSalle is tough to gauge this year. They beat Penn in a close one, lost to ranked teams in Northwestern and Miami in close games, but then barely beat Holy Cross and Towson and beat Temple in a close one. We know Towson will likely be a top 3 CAA team this year and Holy Cross seems to always be near or at the top of the Patriot, but hard to gauge if LaSalle is good or they are just play to the competition regardless. They seem to play at a low scoring pace, so that could benefit us. All depends which Drexel shows up tonight.
It is incredible to me that LaSalle managed this many home games. Penn was their only road game the rest have been home games. The only leave Philadelphia 1 time before Christmas and that is to Bucknell. They do not leave the state until the 3rd of January when they head to Rhode Island.
Drexel- 68
LaSalle- 75
(12-07-2017 08:14 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]I am not expecting a win, but 9 seems steep. LaSalle is tough to gauge this year. They beat Penn in a close one, lost to ranked teams in Northwestern and Miami in close games, but then barely beat Holy Cross and Towson and beat Temple in a close one. We know Towson will likely be a top 3 CAA team this year and Holy Cross seems to always be near or at the top of the Patriot, but hard to gauge if LaSalle is good or they are just play to the competition regardless. They seem to play at a low scoring pace, so that could benefit us. All depends which Drexel shows up tonight.
It is incredible to me that LaSalle managed this many home games. Penn was their only road game the rest have been home games. The only leave Philadelphia 1 time before Christmas and that is to Bucknell. They do not leave the state until the 3rd of January when they head to Rhode Island.
Drexel- 68
LaSalle- 75
Since LaSalle traveled to Ireland, I guess they wanted to try to limit the rest of their OOC travel. One correction....they lost to Towson.
(12-07-2017 08:14 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]It is incredible to me that LaSalle managed this many home games. Penn was their only road game the rest have been home games. The only leave Philadelphia 1 time before Christmas and that is to Bucknell. They do not leave the state until the 3rd of January when they head to Rhode Island.
A bunch of their games were on neutral courts outside of Philadelphia. Northwestern and Boston College were part of the Naismith Hall of Fame classic in Connecticut, they played Miami in Reading, then Towson and Holy Cross were in Belfast, N. Ireland.
(12-07-2017 09:46 AM)Water Boy Wrote: [ -> ] (12-07-2017 08:14 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]It is incredible to me that LaSalle managed this many home games. Penn was their only road game the rest have been home games. The only leave Philadelphia 1 time before Christmas and that is to Bucknell. They do not leave the state until the 3rd of January when they head to Rhode Island.
A bunch of their games were on neutral courts outside of Philadelphia. Northwestern and Boston College were part of the Naismith Hall of Fame classic in Connecticut, they played Miami in Reading, then Towson and Holy Cross were in Belfast, N. Ireland.
Ah ok. That makes more sense. Clearly I did not dive very deep in their schedule beyond who was listed as home and away
Here's Alan's take on tonight's game.
http://alwaysadragon.com/la-salle-pregame-2/
I see the final score being a little different but I'm the optimist of the group over at AlwaysADragon.com
I'll be on the sidelines tonight covering the game once again. I'll be tweeting both at the site's account, AlwaysDU, so I invite everyone here to follow along!
Let's Go Dragons!
We have one of the highest percentages of points scored coming from the line in the nation, and LaSalle has one of the lowest foul rates in the nation, so hope the shots are falling tonight. They look shallower than we are, so hope to catch them lethargic from their trip and looking ahead to their Nova game.
Minus Tramaine, we play probably the best half of the year to lead 43-30 at the half. Hopefully they can keep it up for 20 minutes more.
Wow!!! It's special any time Drexel beats LaSalle, since it doesn't happen often. But doing it without 4 players, including 3 guards, and arguably their best player, this is a huge win.
First road win for Drexel in almost a year. Last win on the road was at the Q on 12/21/16.
I heard Tubes mention it early in the radio broadcast that IF Drexel wins, it would be the first time ever that a single Drexel class would beat LaSalle twice.
Drexel also lead wire to wire in this one.
First time Drexel won 3 in a row since they won 6 straight CAA games in February 2015. First time Drexel won 3 out of conference games was when they won 4 in a row in November/December 2013 in the four games immediately after Drexel lost to Arizona and Lee got injured at MSG. That seemed like 10 years ago.
Nice to see us tough out the win. I'm not sure I ever believed it would happen until the final buzzer even though we led the entire game. It is not often the basketball gods forgive missing free throws like that.
Nice to see Lee step it up. Sammy had a good first 3/4 of the game but seemed to run out of gas coming down the stretch.
Robert Morris will be another tough one. Hopefully they can get some rest and get some people healthy.
(12-07-2017 08:02 PM)Water Boy Wrote: [ -> ]Minus Tramaine
Why? La Salle missed the game-deciding three-pointer. Drexel held on to win 72-70.
(12-07-2017 09:00 PM)EvanJ Wrote: [ -> ] (12-07-2017 08:02 PM)Water Boy Wrote: [ -> ]Minus Tramaine
Why? La Salle missed the game-deciding three-pointer. Drexel held on to win 72-70.
He had a foot injury.
Awesome for Coach to get his first city win!
For the love of god, could we have just one fricken season where we’re relatively healthy or actually get to see transfers play for us. Ahmad Fields, Miles, Troy and now Tramaine. At least we got the Freddie experience.
How bad is Isabells foot?
(12-07-2017 10:45 PM)Dragon For Life Wrote: [ -> ]How bad is Isabells foot?
Spiker was asked about it in the postgame and didn't really say much other than we'll see. He did say that he didn't know coming in that Isabell wouldn't be able to go. He did know there was an injury but it sound like it was a game time decision. According to those in attendance, he was in uniform (I guess in case everyone fouled out?) but was noticeably limping.
Given all that it does not seem that it is anything real bad. Although the way Drexel's luck has been recently, who knows?
I would guess back by temple game?
A very nice win minus our best player. Even with the big halftime lead it was always going to be a question if we could hold on with so few players playing. We definitely ran out of gas, but thankfully it was just enough to hold on. Absolutely a great a win, especially short-handed. FT's missed at the end luckily didnt hurt us, but I also am not too worried about that in this game since I am not sure anyone had legs left in them.
(12-08-2017 01:03 PM)MedicSBK Wrote: [ -> ]My recap of last night's game is up.. Have a look!
http://alwaysadragon.com/postgame-la-salle/
Great recap as always. Sorry to be the guy to correct you again, but Sunday's game will be at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and not at Robert Morris. RMU tore down their gym, which was built in the mid-80's and is building something new.
(12-08-2017 08:33 PM)J.B. Wrote: [ -> ] (12-08-2017 01:03 PM)MedicSBK Wrote: [ -> ]My recap of last night's game is up.. Have a look!
http://alwaysadragon.com/postgame-la-salle/
Great recap as always. Sorry to be the guy to correct you again, but Sunday's game will be at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh and not at Robert Morris. RMU tore down their gym, which was built in the mid-80's and is building something new.
Thanks and thanks for the correction. Its a home game for them, none the less. Also, two gyms in 40 years?! THEY MUST BE RICH!