Hopefully the team moved on from the Northeastern game at no later than about 9pm last night. What an awful performance coming off the team's best performance. I was hoping we could steal that game before heading to New York. It doesnt get any easier, unfortunately. Hofstra does one thing well and that is attack the basket. They are relentless in their pursuit of getting to the basket. This has also led to a lot of FT attempts. This reeks of trouble for our team. Our interior defense at the rim has improved, but is not good. I am expecting a lot of lay ups from the Dutchmen and when we challenge those, lots of FT attempts.

This is arguably the worst matchup on paper that Drexel has in the CAA. Hofstra is coming off of a home loss to Delaware, so they will be extra motivated. Will Drexel bother getting off of the bus for this one? To me if we wish to compete there really are only 2 ways, and only 1 is a reasonable option. 1st option is to play exclusively zone. Let them shoot and prove they can consistently shoot the ball. Clog the lane with the zone and push play outwards. This seems like the only real play we have. If we play man-to-man they will blow right by us and it will be a lay up line out there. Our foot speed is not strong enough to stay in front of them. The 2nd option is to make them pay when they attack the basket. By that I mean give some early hard fouls and send the message there will be no free buckets. The down side to this approach is they shoot 77% from the line as a team. So sending them to the line is to their benefit, but it would wear them down. While an ok option, I would not recommend this strategy because we need Butler in the game.

Spiker and his dragons put his 4-26 CAA road record on display here. I hope to be completely wrong here, but I do not see this game ending well. At. All.

Drexel- 61
Hofstra- 83

Free throw percentages:

Desure Buie: .883
Tareq Coburn: .806
Eli Pemberton: .805
Jalen Ray: .788
Isaac Kante: .618 (it was .576 before he shot 8-9 yesterday)
Bench: .575 (only 9.3 percent of Hofstra's attempts)

There's a big difference between fouling Kante, who only shoots twos, and fouling anyone else.

You're worried about Hofstra scoring by the basket. Kante leads the CAA with a .624 field goal percentage, but Hofstra shoots twos .498, and the NCAA average is .500. Hofstra has 4 more rebounds than their opponents, with the averages 35.7 to 35.5. Hofstra blocks only 1.9 shots, and nobody has blocked more than 8. Last season Jacquil Taylor averaged more blocks than Hofstra's team is averaging now. Hofstra's strengths are defending threes (opponents shoot .317), getting to the free throw line (differentials of +6.5 makes and +7.1 attempts), not fouling (4.0 fewer per game and only 1 foulout), and not committing turnovers (1.9 fewer per game). Hofstra has a point differential of -25 (-1.2 per game) from field goals, including -26 (-1.2 per game) twos made which is -52 points from twos, but a great +136 (+6.5 per game) from free throws. Hofstra has 20.7 percent of their points from free throws, which is higher than the NCAA average of 18.4 percent, and I guessed Hofstra would be even more above average.

If Hofstra loses, I'll give up on the regular season title. After tomorrow and at Elon, Hofstra will hopefully be 7-3, which okay but not great for the team picked first, and then Hofstra has a tough stretch at W&M, hosting Northeastern, and hosting Charleston. If Hofstra does the same as W&M in their next two games and loses at W&M, Hofstra will be 3 games back with W&M Having the tiebreaker.

As I said a slashing team to the rim is a problem for us and the only feasible method for victory is playing 100% zone and letting your team shoot the ball. I am well aware if your team does not get to the free throw line, you struggle. The point of strategy #2 was to make guys think twice about attacking the basket, I openly said that still benefits you by putting you on the line.

Hofstra favored by 8.5 today

Delaware came from 16 down to stun Northeastern on the road today. Delaware sweeps the road weekend and things are getting really interesting in the CAA.

(01-25-2020 02:08 PM)J.B. Wrote:  Delaware came from 16 down to stun Northeastern on the road today. Delaware sweeps the road weekend and things are getting really interesting in the CAA.

Northeastern had deja vu from last Saturday. Last Saturday they led 57-41 and lost 76-74. Today they led 58-42 and lost 76-42. Nate Darling scored 34, but none of his teammates scored more than 12. Forwards Dylan Painter (4 points), Justyn Mutts (6 points), and Colln Goss (no shots) combined for only 10. Darling went from 11 on Thursday to 34 today, and Mutts went from 30 on Thursday to 6 today.
Jordan Roland scored 27 and Maxime Boursiquot scored a career-high 18, but second leading scorer Tyson Walker and third leading scorer Bolden Brace struggled. "Second leading scorer" and "third leading scorer" refer to the season, not today. Northeastern entered third of 353 teams in free throw percentage, but with the 12th fewest attempts per game. They shot 13-15 to match that. They miss only 2.7 free throws per game. To show how impressive that is, Hofstra's fewest missed free throws per game is 4.3 last season, and that goes back to 1947-1948.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=289708 will have statistics. The starters aren't posted yet.

https://www.flohoops.com/live/16759-2020...basketball has video if you pay.

Total meltdown in the 2nd half. Looked like they went zone and nobody was willing to attack it. Hofstra was taking bad shots but nobody rebounded them. Spiker didn’t seem to mix things up to counter. Looking more like last Saturday was the exception to the rule.

Turnovers were killer. We had no idea how to attack the zone. A shame really after that quick 2nd half start. Road upsets all around the association (UNCW, Delaware, Towson) and we didnt get to join the party. What a mess the CAA is. Should be a fun tournament. Delaware is a HUGE game next weekend.

2 games separate 1st and 7th

You play well some of the time, but your first half at Northeastern and second half of the second half today were horrible.

(01-25-2020 06:12 PM)dan10 Wrote:  2 games separate 1st and 7th

Which is fewer than the 3 games between 7th and 8th. If it's any consolation, winning at Hofstra and Northeastern didn't move Delaware up if you factor in that they're the bottom team of a three-way tie, so as of now they're 5-4 and would have to play in the First Round. The packed CAA standings are:

W&M 7-2
Charleston 6-3 (2-0 three-way head-to-head)
Hofstra 6-3 (1-1 three-way head-to-head)
Towson 6-3 (0-2 three-way head-to-head)
Drexel 5-4 (1-1 three-way head-to-head, beat W&M)
Northeastern 5-4 (1-1 three-way head-to-head, lost to W&M, 2-1 vs. teams tied for second)
Delaware 5-4 (1-1 three-way head-to-head, lost to W&M, 1-2 vs. teams tied for second)
Elon 2-7 (beat UNCW)
UNCW 2-7
JMU 1-8

Edit: The CAA's Bill Potter corrected me about 6 and 7. After Drexel's win over W&M makes Drexel 5, it goes back to the beginning and Delaware wins head-to-head over Northeastern. Northeastern, who was picked third, and JMU, who was picked fourth would both play in the First Round if the season was over now.