Nice win. Harper and Isabell combine to be 17-17 from the free throw line. As a team we outscore Houston 27-11 from the line.

Plenty of room for improvement though. Isabell has 16 rebounds - quite impressive for 6'1" guy but only 11 for the rest of the team (not counting team rebounds)

I just looked, Houston did what Drexel did late in games under Bruiser. Silly turnovers like offensive fouls and missed FT's. Nice to hit 87% of our FT's to their 50%. Attacking the basket works nicely when you you make your free throws.

A few more thoughts:
We've got to find somebody (perhaps Overton when he gets healthy) who can shut down a guy. Gray had 37 today and Turner had 33 in the Bowling Green game seemingly without much resistance at times.

Hopefully Doles didn't pick up an injury. He barely played in the second half after leading the team in scoring in the first half. Hopefully just the situation as things got tight.

You have to like the grit to pull out the win. It didn't seem like Lee was doing much for a lot of the game, but he always seems to show up down the stretch.

Gray scored as much as the next two leading scorers on either team.

In the last 4:45, Houston made 1 out of 6 free throws, which was kind of like 1 out of 8 because they missed the first of a one-and-one twice.

The American Athletic was seventh in the Conference RPI last season, but the CAA has done well against it, going 4-2 last season and this was the first meeting between the conferences this season.

So I see that they're playing Mercer tomorrow night. I don't know anything about them, but I'm glad that Drexel is avoiding the tournament host, so it will likely be played in an empty arena. They're a southern conference team who finished last year 13-17. Now we know that there is no such thing as a gimme game with this Drexel team, but I like that they're in a position where they can get to the championship game if they can beat an average mid-major team on a neutral court. Every time a Bruiser coached Drexel team played in one of these 8 team destination tournaments ended up in the losers bracket.

Drexel is now 2-1 and the last time that they had a winning record at any point of any season was at the end of the 2013-2014 season that ended 16-14. They haven't beaten a team from one of the power conferences since they beat Alabama in Madison Square Garden, 2 days after D Lee's season ending injury in November 2013. It's been downhill ever since.

Great win. Tramaine is a really nice dude. Happy for him.

Drake vs Colorado and Drexel vs Mercer. I'd like a Drexel vs Colorado rematch!

Mercer is also expected to end up a top 100 team so they are going to be a tough game and they completely lit up host Liberty yesterday. Just be glad we got the opportunity to play another good team to see how we respond in a tournament setting.

Obviously we all whiffed on our predictions yesterday but I think we are still in trouble here. I like the balance we showed with rotations yesterday, that depth helps in tournaments like this, but not sure we have enough on defense still to outscore this team.

Drexel- 71
Mercer- 86

Quote:Drexel- 71
Mercer- 86

I'd be surprised if Mercer scored that much. They are one of the lowest tempo teams in the country. Add to that, their average possession length is almost 20 seconds.
Interestingly, they are not a team that seems to force a lot of opponent turnovers too.

They've given up 55% of their opponents' points from inside the arc so far this year, and they are not blocking shots. They also are really lacking in the size department. Those are all factors that could play into our favor.

I'm going out on a limb here..

Drexel - 72
Mercer - 66

Drexel 82-72 but then a blow out by colorado tomorrow

Interesting note... our players have some notable fathers, so does Mercer. Jordan Strawberry is the son of Daryl Strawberry, an all-star and slugger for primarily playing for the New York Mets.

Congrats on the win Drexel. I have to say that I miss some of the epic battles that use to take place between ODU and Drexel during our time together in the CAA. I remember one game in Norfolk where Lee and Bazemore were shooting it out against each other. I think both had over 30 in that game, and if I am remembering correctly, Drexel got the win. Good luck this season.

FT shooting got us the win against Houston, in terms of them fouling us and them not being able to make theirs. Mercer will not give us that same advantage as they don’t foul as often and are a better FT shooting team. Mercer is a good, experienced mid-major, so this will be another tough matchup. They can be beaten inside, so we should continue to attack the rim. They’re also a good 3 point shooting team early on so we’ll have to stay with them and make sure we don’t give up as many second chances we did with the Cougars. They’ve gotten their wins against teams that play slow like them, they lost their only game against a team that pushed the pace. We aren’t UCF, but hopefully we can set the speed and make them play out of their element. No predictions since I suck at them, look forward to see these guys compete against another solid program.

(11-18-2017 12:14 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  Congrats on the win Drexel. I have to say that I miss some of the epic battles that use to take place between ODU and Drexel during our time together in the CAA. I remember one game in Norfolk where Lee and Bazemore were shooting it out against each other. I think both had over 30 in that game, and if I am remembering correctly, Drexel got the win. Good luck this season.

Kent’s final bricked FT from that game should be leaving the solar system by now.

(11-18-2017 12:14 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  Congrats on the win Drexel. I have to say that I miss some of the epic battles that use to take place between ODU and Drexel during our time together in the CAA. I remember one game in Norfolk where Lee and Bazemore were shooting it out against each other. I think both had over 30 in that game, and if I am remembering correctly, Drexel got the win. Good luck this season.

Funny you should stop by. I was just thinking that about the only thing I know about Mercer was that they were ODU's opponent in another game that ended up not featuring Kent Bazemore.

I must say I miss the old CAA too. Hopefully you guys are enjoying your frequent flyer miles from all those trips to Texas and the occasional trip to the Chef-Boyardee Bowl. I fail to see how that is a better thing than the CAA, but I know a lot of JMU fans are jealous even though they are winning national championships and having ESPN Game Day at their school, so I guess there is an appeal to FBS.

I should probably add that most Drexel fans would envy where the non-football schools that left, Mason and VCU, are. But even there George Mason has been cellar dwellers in the A-10 since leaving. VCU has been successful, as they were in the CAA, but now they are at a point where one of their leading scorers is a guy who couldn't even sniff the floor when he was at Drexel. (Okay that is probably more an indictment on us than them.)

(11-18-2017 07:35 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Obviously we all whiffed on our predictions yesterday

(11-17-2017 10:27 AM)Water Boy Wrote:  I guess I'm more optimistic that you guys. Drexel might not win, but I'll take them and the 14 points.

While I didn't outright say that Drexel would win, I didn't strike out like the rest of you. I should a least get credit for a line out or a deep fly ball to the fence.

I think Mercer will be a tough test. I think we can beat them, however consistency has not been a hallmark of the Dragons in recent years. We have better offensive weapons than recent years too. This is a good opportunity for Spiker and the Dragons to show some toughness and string some games together.

As far as a prediction, probably what I would have the most confidence in given our performances so far is that Ria'n Holland will score a lot of points. As far as the score, I'll go the less bold route again and pick us to win against the spread which I think is Mercer by 8.

Houston just squeaks by Liberty 68-66 with a shot a the buzzer.

Mercer line is 8 from what I saw. I agree about tempo but I am just not convinced we are going to stop anybody so if they are methodical and we dont stop them. Mercer will put up some points on us. They will have more possessions than they are used to by the shear fact they are playing Drexel who is going to push tempo.

I agree if we rebound and avoid giving many second chance points we have a chance, I am just not optimistic we will do so. Houston squeaked by Liberty. We needed help to come back and beat Houston, Liberty got thrashed by Mercer yesterday.

(11-18-2017 03:26 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Mercer line is 8 from what I saw. I agree about tempo but I am just not convinced we are going to stop anybody so if they are methodical and we dont stop them. Mercer will put up some points on us. They will have more possessions than they are used to by the shear fact they are playing Drexel who is going to push tempo.

I agree if we rebound and avoid giving many second chance points we have a chance, I am just not optimistic we will do so. Houston squeaked by Liberty. We needed help to come back and beat Houston, Liberty got thrashed by Mercer yesterday.

There were definite shortcomings in yesterday's game, turnovers being the biggest glaring issue. But overall? I was pretty happy with some of the performances we saw.

The other thing to keep in mind: Mercer's size, or lack of, is going to allow us to go small. I think that is going to be one of our strengths this year. This is a team we can put Harper, Isabell, and Lee on the floor together relatively safely.