Okay, we won the two games we were supposed to win. Now the fun begins, They have more returning talent and scoring but I absolutely love our two freshmen, the way Strong has stepped up and what we saw of Doherty in the preseason against superior teams. I'd rather face them later in the season but we'll be better by tourney time so let's see where we stand now. I also think we're one of the teams able to handle their 6'7" center.

(01-04-2021 12:01 AM)NUGUY Wrote:  Okay, we won the two games we were supposed to win. Now the fun begins, They have more returning talent and scoring but I absolutely love our two freshmen, the way Strong has stepped up and what we saw of Doherty in the preseason against superior teams. I'd rather face them later in the season but we'll be better by tourney time so let's see where we stand now. I also think we're one of the teams able to handle their 6'7" center.

I don't know about handling Kante, but we have Eboigboden, Doherty and Nwagha.

Hoffy also has two freshmen in David Green and K'Vonn Kramer who have played pretty well. I have some concerns about them.

I think the key will be not to let Jalen Ray have big games. He can be a difference-maker. NU has kept Tariq Coburn in check in prior games. I think that can also continue.

NU has to find a way to get a split.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not predicting a NU sweep and a shutdown of Kante. I'd be happy with a split and more respect than the CAA coaches gave us when the picked us for seventh preseason.

Kante will have his way with some CAA teams who have no one to put up against him. I just don't think we are one of those teams....if Doherty is able to play.

Hofstra has been hot and cold but so have we. It should be fun.

(01-04-2021 07:16 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  I just don't think we are one of those teams....if Doherty is able to play.

Listen, don't get me wrong, but I haven't seen enough to know that Doherty is this defensive stalwart. His rebounding is solid, but I need to see more to think he alone could contain a good big.

Like I stated, Eboigboden, Doherty and Nwagha should be enough.

I think we're saying the same thing....E, Doherty and Nwanga should be enough. E and only Nwanga probably won't be. To slow down Kante we need heavyweights. If we have to rely on guys **** Nwanga or Strong for a lot of minutes on him that's not good.

(01-04-2021 09:25 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  I think we're saying the same thing....E, Doherty and Nwanga should be enough. E and only Nwanga probably won't be. To slow down Kante we need heavyweights. If we have to rely on guys **** Nwanga or Strong for a lot of minutes on him that's not good.

I didn't know E was a lightweight.

(01-04-2021 09:30 PM)geewizNU Wrote:  

(01-04-2021 09:25 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  I think we're saying the same thing....E, Doherty and Nwanga should be enough. E and only Nwanga probably won't be. To slow down Kante we need heavyweights. If we have to rely on guys **** Nwanga or Strong for a lot of minutes on him that's not good.

I didn't know E was a lightweight.

He's not. E and Doherty are the heavies. Nwangha and Strong are the lightweights that Kante can bully. We need E and Doherty on Kante as much as possible.

Sometimes when I'm trying to make a point I slip into Mandarin. Is that what happened here?

(01-04-2021 10:42 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  

(01-04-2021 09:30 PM)geewizNU Wrote:  

(01-04-2021 09:25 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  I think we're saying the same thing....E, Doherty and Nwanga should be enough. E and only Nwanga probably won't be. To slow down Kante we need heavyweights. If we have to rely on guys **** Nwanga or Strong for a lot of minutes on him that's not good.

I didn't know E was a lightweight.

He's not. E and Doherty are the heavies. Nwangha and Strong are the lightweights that Kante can bully. We need E and Doherty on Kante as much as possible.

Sometimes when I'm trying to make a point I slip into Mandarin. Is that what happened here?

Sort of. No biggie.

I don't know why the game was moved up from 7:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. If you start watching at 7:00 P.M., you will get the final score or almost final score.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2021/1/5/mens...fstra.aspx is Hofstra's preview.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/h...game10.pdf is Hofstra's Game Notes.

Ray, Coburn, and Kante combine to average 48.2 points. Kante shoots worse than last season, but his rebounds are up from 7.7 to 11.4, which is sixth in Division I. Hofstra's players other than Ray, Coburn, Kante, Kvonn Cramer, and sub forward Kevin Schutte all shoot poorly.

Hofstra was down to eight scholarship players. Senior Stafford Trueheart, who hasn't played yet this season, and junior Omar Silverio, who played in the first six of nine games, may return from injury. Silverio averaged 4.7 points in 15.2 minutes. Trueheart is a 4 who averaged 1.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10.6 minutes last season. He liked to shoot threes, which he shouldn't. Last season he shot twos 16-30 (.533) and threes 4/31 (.129). His 45 career blocks are third among active CAA players.

Kante and Schutte never attempt threes, and everyone else has over 20 percent of his field goal attempts be threes. Cramer has had some dunks, and has only 11 of 50 attempts be threes. Cramer and David Green share the 4, but they're different. Green has 29 of his 44 attempts be threes.

Ray, Coburn, and Kante have 5 blocks; Cramer and Schutte have 4; and nobody else has any. The CAA doesn't have many shot blockers, so all five of them are among the top fourteen in the CAA. Only two CAA players are averaging at least 1 block. Ten seasons ago, eleven players did that.

Hofstra shoots threes only .291 because players other than Ray (.400) and Coburn (.358) combine to shoot them .184. Hofstra's opponents have an assist-to-turnover ratio of exactly 1 1/3, which is bad for Hofstra. Hofstra outscores their opponents by 1.7 points and has 335 rebounds for and against.

Looking forward to seeing how the young Husky pups make out against the brass. Next few weekends will be some real challenges but certainly tomorrow at the top of the list. As some of the guys pointed out, I think the bigs (E & D) containing Kante will be a huge key. Walker goes without saying...he's always the key. Hopefully, ball movement for NU is good and we limit turnovers. When we didn't turn the ball over, we got into the Syracuse zone pretty well but ended up missing a lot of shots. Hoping we get more makes tomorrow. Ray and Coburn as you pointed out can be real factors also (Ray especially is cooking right now)

Someone said they wished we played Hofstra a bit later and I agree. Oh well, let's see where we are at and keep learning. We caught a favorable opening weekend with Elon at least so we have our feet wet in the CAA now.

I have no knowledge but assume game moved to 5PM to allow NU to get home at a reasonable hour Thursday night

(01-06-2021 09:18 PM)NUFan35 Wrote:  Looking forward to seeing how the young Husky pups make out against the brass. Next few weekends will be some real challenges but certainly tomorrow at the top of the list. As some of the guys pointed out, I think the bigs (E & D) containing Kante will be a huge key. Walker goes without saying...he's always the key. Hopefully, ball movement for NU is good and we limit turnovers. When we didn't turn the ball over, we got into the Syracuse zone pretty well but ended up missing a lot of shots. Hoping we get more makes tomorrow. Ray and Coburn as you pointed out can be real factors also (Ray especially is cooking right now)

Someone said they wished we played Hofstra a bit later and I agree. Oh well, let's see where we are at and keep learning. We caught a favorable opening weekend with Elon at least so we have our feet wet in the CAA now.

I have no knowledge but assume game moved to 5PM to allow NU to get home at a reasonable hour Thursday night

I wonder who we will put on Ray

(01-06-2021 11:30 PM)NUGUY Wrote:  

(01-06-2021 09:18 PM)NUFan35 Wrote:  Looking forward to seeing how the young Husky pups make out against the brass. Next few weekends will be some real challenges but certainly tomorrow at the top of the list. As some of the guys pointed out, I think the bigs (E & D) containing Kante will be a huge key. Walker goes without saying...he's always the key. Hopefully, ball movement for NU is good and we limit turnovers. When we didn't turn the ball over, we got into the Syracuse zone pretty well but ended up missing a lot of shots. Hoping we get more makes tomorrow. Ray and Coburn as you pointed out can be real factors also (Ray especially is cooking right now)

Someone said they wished we played Hofstra a bit later and I agree. Oh well, let's see where we are at and keep learning. We caught a favorable opening weekend with Elon at least so we have our feet wet in the CAA now.

I have no knowledge but assume game moved to 5PM to allow NU to get home at a reasonable hour Thursday night

I wonder who we will put on Ray

I would think Tyson is the guy. They don’t have a true point guard but size wise he’s comparable to him.

I think I'd try and throw different people at him. Maybe have some of the guys with more length defend him and see if that disrupts him. This will give him different looks and also keep Walker fresher and out of foul trouble hopefully. You can always go with the best matchup in the last 8 minutes then. Coen has forgotten more about basketball this morning than I'll ever know so I'll be curious to see his approach

(01-07-2021 09:04 AM)NUFan35 Wrote:  I think I'd try and throw different people at him. Maybe have some of the guys with more length defend him and see if that disrupts him. This will give him different looks and also keep Walker fresher and out of foul trouble hopefully. You can always go with the best matchup in the last 8 minutes then. Coen has forgotten more about basketball this morning than I'll ever know so I'll be curious to see his approach

Makes sense to me. Give Walters the first shot at him and see how it goes.

Going with last week's starting lineup. E and Doherty both dressed

We need to get one of them in before Kante breaks the Hofstra scoring record

Emenga is really giving us a spark here in the 1st half. Still turning it over too much, but we'll probably just have to live with that for a while this year. Greg doesn't look available the way he's dressed. Doherty does though neither has entered yet

Beginning to think both must still be hurt.

They’re both out.

We’re not winning this one without them

You're right. Between that and the turnovers, we are on the brink of being run out of Hampstead. I feel like we have these lingering injuries every year. It's frustrating since so many of these games have been winnable