So The BIG ONE, gets two big wins today over the LITTLE FIVE.

half court heave misses. 43 year drought over. 78-75

First win at St Joes since 1978!

Only 1,669 at Hagan tonight. That's they kind of crowd that you'd see at the DAC. 3,500-4,200 was always the norm at that place. And when the arena was being renovated, they averaged well over 6,000/game when they played their home games at the Palestra. How the mighty have fallen. And we see how well firing Phil worked out for them.

it was actually a better turnout than i expected. lots of seats were available when i bought tickets yesterday so the walk up crowd must have been decent. point well taken though that they used to sell that place out i believe.

it was a relief to see butler play a great game tonight. i'm not thrilled with the threes he took...even though he made them...but he balanced that out with getting to the basket and the free throw line. they had a nice 2 man game going with wynter driving down the lane and dishing. we posted up williams a number of times. he missed some but he'll get better if we keep feeding him. it wasn't all about the three tonight and we actually make their post players look soft.

this team showed poise again. spiker let the game play out at syracuse without using time outs to slow their momentum. tonight he used them and we executed a couple times out of the time out when we really need a basket. drexel teams in the past would have let the game get away completely. free throw shooting wasn't great down the stretch. we made enough to win though so i'll take it.

hall is not my favorite player in the world to put it nicely and it made the win sweeter that his blown layup cost them the game. i like having the team with the good guys.

Bored out in the dog house so figured I'd make an Amari block gif

Random question but, does Wynter have one more year after this? Because of Covid last year I forgot.

(11-18-2021 01:34 AM)Dragon For Life Wrote:  Random question but, does Wynter have one more year after this? Because of Covid last year I forgot.

Melik Martin is the only one who will have used up their eligibility at the end of the year. That doesn't mean everyone is staying though - they have already have commitments from 3 guys for next year.

(11-17-2021 11:42 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  it was a relief to see butler play a great game tonight. i'm not thrilled with the threes he took...even though he made them...but he balanced that out with getting to the basket and the free throw line. they had a nice 2 man game going with wynter driving down the lane and dishing. we posted up williams a number of times. he missed some but he'll get better if we keep feeding him. it wasn't all about the three tonight and we actually make their post players look soft.

I was thinking that Butler should have shot more from the top of the key. They were sagging way off him. If they are going to do that you have to make them pay. Even though he hasn't shot many, he has shown he can make threes. He is 8 for 14 over the past three years. I wouldn't want him forcing shots from out there, but if the defense gives him so much room he needs to be in a position to at least be a threat to shoot. By forcing the defender out a step or two, it would help open the inside for the guards to drive.

I agree that if the defense give it to you and you have the ability you take it. I also like that we didnt shoot that many 3's, despite having plenty of shooters. We truly took what the defense gave us, which was giving us the lane all game. We missed far too many easy looks, but we had some really nice finishes too. Butler did well. Amari had a couple nice back downs. Bell had a few drives with some nice finishes, Cam did too. Showing teams that we can drive and make buckets will only help open up our shooters. That can make this team, really really dangerous. The best play/sequence of the night was that massive block by Amari that led to an -and 1 for cam in transition. It was a thing of beauty. When Amari went up for the block I was expecting him to get posterized or foul the crap out of the guy. The fact he was able to get a clean block with that type of authority was amazing.

We did very well out of timeouts. Usually timeouts had been poorly executed in the past with forced shots. I felt like we were able to get anything we wanted last night, at any time whether it was out of a timeout or during normal play. That is why it was so frustrating that this game was so close, which comes to my last point

The defense was still not good. It seemed like our defense and defensive intensity died with about 8 minutes left. From that point on it seemed like we couldnt stay in front of anyone and st joes was able to also get any shot they wanted. We had opportunities to really pull away and our defense let us down from doing that. It got paired with a few untimely turnovers that St Joes made us pay for as well. We did respond to those momentum gains by St joes well almost every time. That is not something that teams in the past have done. So to beat teams when we play well, and pull away the only way it will happen is with solid defense for 40 minutes. I am hoping we can improve in that area. If they clean that up, this team can be real special.

(11-17-2021 11:42 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  this team showed poise again. spiker let the game play out at syracuse without using time outs to slow their momentum. tonight he used them and we executed a couple times out of the time out when we really need a basket. drexel teams in the past would have let the game get away completely.

This was incredibly important (and noticeable). For someone who watched Drexel fail after timeouts for years, it's nice to see them come out afterward with a solid play, execute it well and score. A ton of that is on the coach.

Spiker had the right idea against Syracuse. The Dragons had a gameplan and it worked well for a half. We just had no answer for their athleticism in the 2nd half. The Orange got more active on defense and used the missed shots/turnovers to run out on offense.

Anyway, really satisfying win over the Hawks. It's early and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this team has a good chance to go 3-0 vs. the Big Five this year. Really wish we could get Penn back on the schedule.

(11-16-2021 03:27 PM)DrachenFire Wrote:  Don't feel good about this game at all as they're comparable in size to Syracuse. We only beat them by 4 last year and they didn't have Cameron Brown in that game and also didn't have anybody like Obinna or Coleman that Butler had to deal with. Feels like an 8-12 point Holy Matrimony War loss and a lousy Thanksgiving dinner next week.

I know what you'll be wearing the Thanksgiving dinner this year. And the turkey will taste mighty sweet this year.

(11-18-2021 02:15 PM)J.B. Wrote:  

(11-16-2021 03:27 PM)DrachenFire Wrote:  Don't feel good about this game at all as they're comparable in size to Syracuse. We only beat them by 4 last year and they didn't have Cameron Brown in that game and also didn't have anybody like Obinna or Coleman that Butler had to deal with. Feels like an 8-12 point Holy Matrimony War loss and a lousy Thanksgiving dinner next week.

I know what you'll be wearing the Thanksgiving dinner this year. And the turkey will taste mighty sweet this year.

it would've been disappointing to lose mostly because it was our game to win. it occurred to me how much things have changed around philly college basketball...and not necessarily for the good. villanova is so far out in front of everybody. martelli, chaney, and dunphy are all gone. those aren't guys you easily or quickly replace. everybody is rebuilding and it hasn't been going well for most of them.

i was lucky to go through drexel when i did. i saw all those legendary coaches. most of the city games were still at the palestra or packed gyms on campus. penn had great teams and i could walk down for the games. student sections have become almost obsolete probably as a product of the bad teams. the sju group was decent in numbers but didn't say anything the whole game. i could barely hear them do the hawk cheer at the beginning. this is not a knock on the dac pack since they haven't had much to cheer for lately and we're still building our tradition. i do hope we will see them in good numbers at home and maybe a decent group at some road games next year if not this year.

spiker has us playing well when we need it. bruiser let us slide the last time things re-aligned. we're as attractive as anybody around the city if you're looking to expand a conference. we're also attractive to a lonely college basketball fan who can't stand watching meaningless power 5 basketball and needs a local mid-major type to root for.

i also read sju had a number of recruits at the game on wednesday night. imagine what we could do with some of the local philly talent. winning a game in front of them can't hurt our chances to land a few of them. apparently a pcl kid we're recruiting was there too.

(11-18-2021 02:15 PM)J.B. Wrote:  

(11-16-2021 03:27 PM)DrachenFire Wrote:  Don't feel good about this game at all as they're comparable in size to Syracuse. We only beat them by 4 last year and they didn't have Cameron Brown in that game and also didn't have anybody like Obinna or Coleman that Butler had to deal with. Feels like an 8-12 point Holy Matrimony War loss and a lousy Thanksgiving dinner next week.

I know what you'll be wearing the Thanksgiving dinner this year. And the turkey will taste mighty sweet this year.

Turkey brined in the tears of SJU fans

SJU Hawks lost 87-75 at home to the Monmouth Hawks. In their 4 games at Hagan this year, SJ is AVERAGING 1,549 fans per game.

Just 6 years ago, Phil Martelli's Hawks were 28-8, and an 8 seed advancing to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. The post-Martelli Hawks are 13-43 and 0-2 vs. Drexel.

they shouldn't be this bad with players like hall and funk. reynolds looks like a really talented freshman. that points to bad coaching. they are definitely soft especially in the post. one of their big guys is built like a poor man's dwight howard but we pushed him around.

hall strikes me as very talented but a cancer in the locker room. couldn't hit the big shot so doesn't put his money where his mouth is. reminds me of harper. spiker learned a lesson there and seems to be bringing in character guys.

William and Mary could be dealing with the same issues that St. Joseph's is dealing with. Both schools had new athletic directors who both canned 2 very popular and very successful head coaches who were both getting up there in age. Now Dane Fischer at W&M is had a lot of success in his first season with Shaver carryover players, the direction of their program seems to be headed in the wrong direction.

that's a good comparison. there's always that lure of something better. you have to realize who you are though especially if the bottom doesn't completely fall out which would make your decision easier. it doesn't seem like either situation was handled very well which made it worse.

this is a little different...but it's amazing how fast things went downhill at florida. i remember watching a game and somebody saying dan mullen was the greatest playcaller they've ever seen. they hung in with alabama. now he's unemployed.

SJU had to make a move where WM didn't. Their fans had become tired of Phil and their attendance was going to take a hit if there wasn't a change made. Their mistake was in ignoring Jameer which pissed a lot of them off before settling on a sub .500 coach that hadn't led a program in 8 years.

(11-22-2021 01:33 PM)DrachenFire Wrote:  SJU had to make a move where WM didn't. Their fans had become tired of Phil and their attendance was going to take a hit if there wasn't a change made. Their mistake was in ignoring Jameer which pissed a lot of them off before settling on a sub .500 coach that hadn't led a program in 8 years.

Why would their fans have been tired of Phil? He had just won 28 games a few seasons prior? I just goes to show you how greedy and out of touch St. Joe's and La Salle fans are. La Salle had a great program many moons ago, and SJU more recently, but times have changed and these schools are nothing more than mid-major programs. But their out of touch fan bases still think they can be perennial top 25 programs again. No going to happen.