We head east to face Princeton in the first of the string of 6 road games out of our next 7 overall games. This will be the stretch of games we find out where we stand. We face Princeton, Abilene Christian, Temple, CofC during this stretch. Are we a contender or a pretender? We are about to find out.
Princeton is 5-3 with wins over South Carolina, Oregon State, Marist and FDU who we just beat, and a losses to Monmouth, Minnesota and Hofstra. Pretty meh results from them. Decent name schools, not nothing to write home about. The 2 games that mean much are FDU and Hofstra
They led by 2 at half over FDU and got it up to a double digit game mid way through the 2nd half and then coasted the rest of the way to a 10 point victory. As we just saw, FDU is not a good basketball team. Against Hofstra, they got blown out in the first half and were down by 16 at the break, then climbed back late in the second half to a 4 point loss. They got within 1 before ultimately falling. They never led in the game and only had 1 tie (8-8).
Princeton is still Princeton. They will run a lot of motion and shoot plenty of 3 pointers, from all positions. They generally take care of the ball and dont turn it over very much (11 per game).They are not a big team so the dont block many shots or bang much donw low. We will have defend the 3 point line to give ourselves a chance. Butler and Amari should be able to get whatever they want down low.
They play about 10 guys, but really focus on their starters. 4 of their starters average double digit points. They play 4 guards and all seem eager to crash for rebounds. Ethan Wright is probably their best player. He is a 6'4" senior guard scoring 15 points per game while grabbing 8.4 rebounds per game. He came off the bench for 11 minutes against us last year and didnt score. He seems to be much more of a focus this season. Jaelin Llewellyn is their best scoring threat. He is scoring 15.5 point per game. He is a 6'2" senior guard. He scored 28 against us last season, so we will have to do a better job defending him. He is an excellent FT shooter, so if he drives we have to not send him to the line. He is 87% on the season and went 8-8 last year against us from the line.
We are 4-2 against the spread, Princeton is 3-4. There is no line yet, but I would guess they will be favored by about 2 points. This game feels like a pick 'em. They were favored against FDU by 15 (we ended at 14.5) and were favored against Hofstra by 3.5. I think they will get the couple points from being home and thats about it. I feel this is a one we really need to win.
Drexel- 83
Princeton- 79
This is not your father's Princeton team. Mitch Henderson doesn't seem to run the Princeton offense from a traditional sense. Going back 20+ years ago, I remember that they always led the country in fewest points allowed by slowing the offense a much as possible. Of course that was much easier to do with the 45 second clock. Penn fans would scream "Boring" every time Princeton had the ball. When they ran their offense back in the day, every one of their shots was either a well screened 3-point attempt or a backdoor cut. They rarely ever took midrange jumpers or drove to the basket. I think they have more athletic players now a days to run a more traditional offense.
Saturday's game vs. Princeton will be aired live on NBC Sports Philadelphia and ESPN+. The Ivy League appears to be the only league that I know of that has a contract with ESPN, but also allows for linear broadcasts on local affiliates. The American Conference and Atlantic 10 don't have those agreements.
SNY is showing a doubleheader of Bucknell at Hofstra at 2:00 P.M. and you at 4:00 P.M.
A couple of corrections:
1. Princeton led 11-10 for 16 seconds.
2. Princeton was an underdog by 3.5 at Hofstra, not a favorite.
Princeton had 32 rebounds at Hofstra, but only 2 were offensive. To compare, CAA teams are averaging 10.4 offensive rebounds.
Apologies Evan, thanks for the correction.
For today Princeton is 2.5 favorites
I'm surprised that nobody posted about this game yet. It was a real tough one to swallow, and the 2nd time this year that they lead by multiple possessions in the final minute or so and let it slip away. This was my first road game that I've been to a quite a few years as well.
Some observations, without looking at the box score...
1. I've mentioned this in the past, but Butler can really be a defensive liability on the court. Today, Princeton really exposed him. #20 was scoring at will with Butler in the game and he had no answer for Princeton's inside presence. When Williams replaced him, he could alter Princeton's shots and they really struggled to score inside.
2. Wynter (despite being the leading scorer) had an awful game, and he's been quite disappointing so far this season. He had 2 stand still open looks from 3 that were completely missed.
3. 3 point shooting needs to be better. They are just missing too many open shots when they have an offense that revolves around the 3 point shot.
4. The last play in regulation was a complete joke. For years, Drexel teams, whoever the coach is, is a afraid to run a stinking play. The "just let your best player score on his own" play NEVER WORKS. At least at the end of overtime, they ran a play and it almost worked. Despite Cam's shot not going in, at least they tried to do something different.
5. I hope this was another "learning experience", but they can't continue to let games like this slip away, especially in the CAA. Princeton is a really good team, and Drexel for most of the game showed that they're a talented team that can play with the best mid-major teams. But they have to be able to convert these close games into wins.
17 turnovers to Princeton's 7. We out shot them (from 3 as well), out rebounded them.... TOs were killer. We had 8 points from TOs, Princeton had 21.
Pretty much tells the story of the game.
i was good with seeing these games as learning experiences especially in the bahamas. my patience is starting to run out a bit. either i'm right in thinking we're a more talented than we've been in recent years and just don't know how to put it all together yet...or i'm wrong and we're just not a very good team. the jury is very much out after today.
spiker didn't have his best game today. they clearly had a good game plan for butler to double him on one end and go right at him at the other end. we never figured out how to pass out of the double team to the open man or give him help defensively. the results were a disaster. there's no way their big man should have dropped almost 30 points on us.
i just don't see us doing anything different especially defensively. princeton pressed us a few times too which got them some easy baskets. we have guys who are obvious defensive liabilities. teams go right at them and we just let it happen.
cam seems to skate by without much criticism. honestly...if a game is on the line...i'm not sure i trust him with the ball. he couldn't get off a decent shot at the end of regulation (i agree spiker should have drawn something up to hep him) and he blew the layup in overtime when a brilliant play was well executed. we should have drawn that play up for bell because he's not afraid to get hit on his way to the basket. actually cam's worst play was missing the front end of a one and one when i think we were up 3 in regulation. your senior point guard has to knock down two free throws there.
teams are going to figure out that cam has a tendency to dribble the ball way too much and turn the ball over. he might be a better shooting guard than point guard. i'm not sure he does a whole lot to make other players better.
just to throw a stat out...
we're 314th in average turnovers forced per game. we're not as bad in turnover differential...about midpack.
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-me...eam/931/p7
we had 17 turnovers to princeton's 7 so both numbers got worse today. we're not aggressive enough on defense. we also don't help well if a guy gets beat in man to man. it's way to easy to get a lay up against us.
Wynter missing the Ft before the end of the second lost us the game
Its a bad loss, no way around it. We had it won and found a way to lose. The play out of the timeout was awful, no doubt. However this season we have been really good out of the timeout, so Im not throwing the white flag yet because on this game. I agree Cam has had a rough year, its the first year he has not progressed, which is a concern. I also agree Cam isnt the one we shoud have the ball in his hands during end of game situations. He really isnt clutch and forces too much.
Turnovers were absolutely the key to this one. We are good at caring for the ball, and we didnt today and Princeton made us pay. I also will disagree, Princeton isnt that good, they will be 3rd or 4th in the ivy. With our experience that has to be a team we can beat anywhere.
we come off a bit as a team that i like to say spends too much time reading its press clippings. we don't get any press so it's hard to imagine. i guess cam got the preseason accolades from the conference so there's that. we play with some energy...but not with enough toughness and definitely not enough desperation. princeton outhustled us to rebounds and loose balls.
like i love the pregame drill where we defend the ball around the perimeter. and i love the atmosphere around this team. i like that we have fun. defense isn't necessarily fun though...at least not in the smiling, happy go lucky way. it's fun in the "i enjoy making somebody's life a living hell" way. that takes a mean streak that we don't have.
there has to be a middle ground between an angry program like we were under bruiser and having a good time under spiker. or at least learning how to turn on the angry when we need it.
We are 233 in defensive efficiency per Kenpom. We all know the struggles we have had under Spiker defensively. This season is no different. As hiroshima said, the intensity isnt there and we are still slow with moving our feet. The hope was we would have enough offense this season to overcome that. I think we do, it just is not as consistent as any of us would like. I would certainly like to see Cam try a little less hard. By that I mean do his thing within the offense but not force his own stats. He is a great passer, so make great passes if its not there to score. The better we move the ball, the tougher we are to stop. The spells where we let Cam or Butler try and do everything we struggle and allow teams back into games. Hopefully we can make some adjustments. We have a week off until Abilene, so we have time to get rest and be prepared against arguably the best team we will face all season long (not named Syracuse). Coming out flat on Saturday should be inexcusable.
i will say that place on saturday was about as dead as any gym i've ever been in. reminded me of when i played middle school basketball and we'd just have parents there. it's a big place to everything just felt empty. the band couldn't play anything coherent until the second half...and they were the whole student section. really nice scoreboard though.
still no excuse and all the more reason to go in there and beat them.
(12-06-2021 07:54 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote: [ -> ]i will say that place on saturday was about as dead as any gym i've ever been in. reminded me of when i played middle school basketball and we'd just have parents there. it's a big place to everything just felt empty. the band couldn't play anything coherent until the second half...and they were the whole student section. really nice scoreboard though.
still no excuse and all the more reason to go in there and beat them.
I was texting my brother (diehard Princeton fan) about it during the game asking him if students went to games anymore. There were some students in the bleachers on the other side but not many. It used to be that before the renovations, the entire sideline across from the benches was the student section, and I remember sitting in the Princeton student section when I was in high school and it was a pretty crazy experience. Jadwin is a very big place, so the sound escapes. I've been to several games there over the past 35 years or so, and this was the smallest crowd I've seen. Not sure if it's a downwards trend or Covid is a factor, but people just don't want to go to college basketball games anymore.
That said, when I was last there 9 years ago, Jadwin was a dump. The renovation was very nice. Seats are comfortable now. The whole lower level used to be wooden bleachers. The new scoreboard and sound system is fantastic and they did a really nice gameday presentation. But the no food or drink policy in the seating area is really weak. They at least used to let you bring food up to the 200 level orange seats. Maybe it's due to Covid, but it's the only sporting venue I've ever been to that bans food AND drinks, even water, from the seats.
(12-06-2021 07:33 AM)dan10 Wrote: [ -> ]We are 233 in defensive efficiency per Kenpom. We all know the struggles we have had under Spiker defensively. This season is no different. As hiroshima said, the intensity isnt there and we are still slow with moving our feet. The hope was we would have enough offense this season to overcome that. I think we do, it just is not as consistent as any of us would like. I would certainly like to see Cam try a little less hard. By that I mean do his thing within the offense but not force his own stats. He is a great passer, so make great passes if its not there to score. The better we move the ball, the tougher we are to stop. The spells where we let Cam or Butler try and do everything we struggle and allow teams back into games. Hopefully we can make some adjustments. We have a week off until Abilene, so we have time to get rest and be prepared against arguably the best team we will face all season long (not named Syracuse). Coming out flat on Saturday should be inexcusable.
Funny thing is it's the best ranked defense Spiker has put together in his time here and second best in his career behind his first year at Army when he took over right before the season with Jim Crews' players. The team is soft and makes too many mistakes for the amount of experience it has. We don't have players that will attack the rim when we have a late lead looking to get fouled and salt the game away at the foul line, instead settling for jumpers as the shot clock expires. We still struggle on the road in Year 6 (our best OOC road win in the Spiker Era is at LaSalle in Year 2).
We get our pockets picked at a bad rate and are heading down into a hornets nest in Abilene, could get ugly.
I feel like Bell could be that player who will attack to draw fouls. The only concern is whether he will attack recklessly or under control. But late in a shot clock he is the guy I want with the ball right now. He is not afraid to get to the basket
I'd take Bell or Martin. Okros started driving it a bit towards the end of last season too, though can't recall how much that occurred in late game situations.