MBB Game 29 vs. James Madison on February 23 4:00 P.M.

[EvanJ]

https://twitter.com/EvanJ3535 has 5 tweets I made including that we broke our team record with 27 assists. I tweeted about Lewis. I'm not saying it's good to lose, but we wouldn't have broken the team assists record (for the second time this season after we had 26 hosting Rosemont) if we won in regulation. I e-mailed Stephen Gorchov because Hofstra's recap didn't note that we broke our assists record.

[Hof_Judge99]

There are no excuses for what is happening...and like I said earlier all teams are tired and beat up a bit at this point...not just Hofstra

The difference is we only play 6/7 guys when normal teams play 9/10. Starting to catch up with us unfortunatley. Gonna have to win on the road or else we’ll be the 2 seed. Sigh.

[Wags]

There are no excuses for what is happening...and like I said earlier all teams are tired and beat up a bit at this point...not just Hofstra

The difference is we only play 6/7 guys when normal teams play 9/10. Starting to catch up with us unfortunatley. Gonna have to win on the road or else we’ll be the 2 seed. Sigh.

I might buy that thin bench theory if I didn't see JMU go on a 17-4 run -- EARLY, long before anyone should be tired -- after Hofstra took a 9-4 lead and then see Hofstra start the second half with a 20-4 run when they actually looked like they cared again.

This isn't about the bench. It's about those who are playing needing to play with the urgency befitting a team that's been in first-place all year. Inferior teams are wanting it more over the past few games and that shouldn't be.

[EvanJ]

Our assist/turnover of 3 was our best in a loss since we had 19 assists and 6 turnovers in an 83-74 loss hosting La Salle on December 23, 2014. It was the fifth time in 14 seasons that we had an assist/turnover of at least 3 in a loss.

[Jordan]

No need to blame officiating, defense, or even free throws.

I've worn the same hat for almost every single game this season. We've had a very winning season. I decided to buy a new Hofstra hat just recently. Every time I've worn the new hat we've lost in conference. Planning on burning the new hat. Sorry for the inconvenience today everyone; I made this realization just now!

Problem solved.

[Wags]

No need to blame officiating, defense, or even free throws.

I've worn the same hat for almost every single game this season. We've had a very winning season. I decided to buy a new Hofstra hat just recently. Every time I've worn the new hat we've lost in conference. Planning on burning the new hat. Sorry for the inconvenience today everyone; I made this realization just now!

Problem solved.

LOL, don't burn it. They'll start winning when you wear it at some point. To save your hat, instead blame it on this alarming recent defensive trend:

First 7 games: allowed >75 points in regulation 3 times (Record: 4-3)
Next 17 games: allowed >75 points in regulation 0 times (Record: 16-1)
Next 5 games: allowed >81 points regulation 5 times (Record 3-2)

[Flying Dutchmen]

Now that the sting of the loss has faded a little, I can gather my thoughts on the game.

First off, this game had the best atmosphere of the year. The students really came out, I don't know what that one student is talking about. They weren't super loud, but they were pretty into the game, like their best turnout in years, best of Mihalich Era. Very strong overall turnout too, the place was packed. Good to see the Hofstra Football alums get some recognition. I thought Cole was going to announce he was bringing football back for a minute, but I must have just been high on the fact that there were actual students in the Lion's Den.

As for the game, we were great offensively, we were so good in the second half. 27 assists on 34 field goals. We just couldn't get a stop, and we missed more FT than usual. We botched the end of the game too. What the hell was Joe doing calling that timeout? JMU was out of TO's, why would we give them more time to come up with a play. Such a chokejob by the staff, he probably feels that game's on him, and I would agree. I'm not big into fouling in those situations, but we probably should have thought about it after JWF got picked.

Overtime was BS. What a shinebox referee crew. Not why we lost, because there's no doubt we should have had it in regulation, but a 5 point play? Were those idiots serious? Then a 4 point play on no contact from my viewpoint? How much did Rowe pay those guys to save his job for a few more weeks? Credit to JMU though, they hit all their shots. We clearly should have put them away, but I have to objectively acknowledge that JMU hit some well contested shots, and in many ways played their perfect game. I was impressed with those guys, maybe Rowe deserves to stick around.

Polito mentioned it before, Hofstra and Mikey in this thread, we perform poorly in big games. This one was to clinch the regular season at home, and we failed. We perform poorly in these big games because we can't get a stop if our lives depended on it. Marshall, VCU, this game, every game. The offense was awesome tonight, but you can never guarantee a shootout win. We frankly had a great effort tonight too, I didn't see any laziness, or lack of focus.

This year has been an illusion in some ways. We've been so perfect with our turnover ratio, our FT shooting, and our ability to keep the opposition off the free throw line that we haven't noticed that defensively, we bleed like Frank Pentangeli in a bathtub.

Even the coaches don't really acknowledge it, they give us platitudes all day, but nothing has changed in three years. We're 254th in defensive efficiency after this game, I would say we're terrible in that area. It's their greatest failure as a coaching staff. They have elevated the program in many other ways, but their terrible defensive coaching/recruiting will be the reason we don't get over the top, if we don't get it done this year. Or Jordan just needs to get a new hat.

[triplec2195]

If you listened to the post game you saw a very somber Joe and and a totally distraught Justin. Joe said that in the 2nd half JMU went 8 possessions twice where we didn't have one stop. He blamed the team defensively and only took the blame for the last possession and contemplated fouling(after the fact) too little too late! What a disgrace!!

[garyg]

Hope the coaches read these boards...does anyone know if they do or not ???

[EvanJ]

First off, this game had the best atmosphere of the year. The students really came out, I don't know what that one student is talking about. They weren't super loud, but they were pretty into the game, like their best turnout in years, best of Mihalich Era.

RIP_HOFUSA said the students told him to sit and cursed at him. Neither of those things is something you could find out just by observing how many students and how loud they were. I don't like standing up, and I don't post about atmosphere or noise other than citing the attendance, but I sometimes like stories told by fans about what only fans in a certain area would know. For example, a few years ago a UNCW fan got ejected from a game on TV and posted about what he did.

No need to blame officiating, defense, or even free throws.

I've worn the same hat for almost every single game this season. We've had a very winning season. I decided to buy a new Hofstra hat just recently. Every time I've worn the new hat we've lost in conference. Planning on burning the new hat. Sorry for the inconvenience today everyone; I made this realization just now!

Problem solved.

LOL, don't burn it. They'll start winning when you wear it at some point. To save your hat, instead blame it on this alarming recent defensive trend:

First 7 games: allowed >75 points in regulation 3 times (Record: 4-3)
Next 17 games: allowed >75 points in regulation 0 times (Record: 16-1)
Next 5 games: allowed >81 points regulation 5 times (Record 3-2)

We're allowing 8.4 points more in CAA games than we did out of conference. We've scored more, had a worse point differential, and had a better winning percentage in CAA games than out of conference.

[HUSID74]

Couldn't bring myself to visit the boards until this morning after this heartbreaking loss. I agree with just about all that has been said here; lack of defense, a bad coaching decision, finally getting great crowds and then a disappointing finish etc. but I believe the effort has been there it is just that teams know EXACTLY what to expect from us defensively all game and they're taking ADVANTAGE of it.
Over the last several games, teams have POUNDED us in the paint against our zone, then we adjust and double up down low and they start to hit from outside. The zone worked ok earlier in the year but we need to add something different to change things up a bit to get back to our earlier success. I'm not a coach but how about we press once in awhile and play some man to man for a minute or two just to make our opponents think once or twice coming down the court?

I for one still believe in this team and am looking forward to clinching the one seed and making some noise in Charleston.

[Wags]

Couldn't bring myself to visit the boards until this morning after this heartbreaking loss. I agree with just about all that has been said here; lack of defense, a bad coaching decision, finally getting great crowds and then a disappointing finish etc. but I believe the effort has been there it is just that teams know EXACTLY what to expect from us defensively all game and they're taking ADVANTAGE of it.
Over the last several games, teams have POUNDED us in the paint against our zone, then we adjust and double up down low and they start to hit from outside. The zone worked ok earlier in the year but we need to add something different to change things up a bit to get back to our earlier success. I'm not a coach but how about we press once in awhile and play some man to man for a minute or two just to make our opponents think once or twice coming down the court?

I for one still believe in this team and am looking forward to clinching the one seed and making some noise in Charleston.

To your point, it's not the NBA. College kids normally don't handle different looks well offensively. I've long been a proponent of switching up defensive looks between zone and man-to-man. If you want to go even go with the usual 2-3 and matchup zones, and change to a 1-3-1, whatever, but switch to man and then back to zone, and back again. It confuses teams, especially at the college level. Hard to implement at this last stage of the season though, when you haven't done it often. Should've been done a lot earlier, especially during this latest poor five-game stretch defensively.

[triplec2195]

Couldn't bring myself to visit the boards until this morning after this heartbreaking loss. I agree with just about all that has been said here; lack of defense, a bad coaching decision, finally getting great crowds and then a disappointing finish etc. but I believe the effort has been there it is just that teams know EXACTLY what to expect from us defensively all game and they're taking ADVANTAGE of it.
Over the last several games, teams have POUNDED us in the paint against our zone, then we adjust and double up down low and they start to hit from outside. The zone worked ok earlier in the year but we need to add something different to change things up a bit to get back to our earlier success. I'm not a coach but how about we press once in awhile and play some man to man for a minute or two just to make our opponents think once or twice coming down the court?

I for one still believe in this team and am looking forward to clinching the one seed and making some noise in Charleston.

Yes John its really tough revisiting such a gut wrenching game. I had to have a few glasses of wine before I could even comment on this latest debacle. Over and over again we let teams score on 10 foot jumpers in the paint. This has turned into a syndrome with us a whole multitude of defensive deficiencies rearing their ugly heads game in and game out. I don't want to sound like a prognosticator of doom and gloom but beware I'm very worried as to what our plight may be once we get into the playoffs. We're playing our worst basketball and it seems like we can't stop anybody right now defensively. IDK if anyone saw this apparent back and forth bickering I believe in the O/T game between Justin and Desure. This on the face of it looked like a serious disagreement about something and it went on for a while. I sit in row C 101 so I wasn't too far from it unfolding right in front of me. It was too noisy couldn't hear anything but thought to myself this shouldn't be going on now. There r no easy answers to this free fall as some of us are suggesting. A guy who scores 15 points a game has a career day against us on senior day in a very important game for us and this has been a pattern against us just remember last year against UNCW. This was a game we had worked hard all year to get to. This is a team that is in disarray and needs an intervention for someone who can right this ship. We have somehow become unglued and need someone who can get the cohesiveness back. More mental here then physical I believe. HELP...................

[daHUPride]

I feel like we play soft in the 1st half to avoid foul trouble – knowing we are NOT going to use our bench. Every year we talk about our depth – and it is a silly conversation to have – as we are never going to go deeper then 7-8 guys. KW, MR and ST all had significant minutes (combined 1,108 minutes) in 2017-18…this year (to date 409 combined minutes) much less…did they get that bad? If theyre bad kids – fine don’t play’em…if they are dogs in practice – I get it sit’em. But a deep bench is academic for us – its 7-8 guys and that’s it!

Tired legs – yeah NO – as other have stated the league has the same schedule – other teams are playing the same minutes, the same teams on the same night. BUT – I do believe that a guy or two on our team could get tired and in a spot or 2 in SINGLE game because he’s playing 35, 40, 45, or 55 minutes and his opponent is getting a few blows during that same game.

The league is tough – I know some say its down – but these teams are tough. I hate giving up serve on our court and was hoping that a W yesterday would have been a nice jewel on our crown and being undefeated at home for a season. These opposing teams are on missions coming in here and trying to knock us off our block; JMU did it!
We need to finish up the next 2 games and get back to what we were – would you've taken a conference record of 15-3 if asked in December? I know I would’ve – but as we were piling on wins early in the season our expectations, rightfully so – got loftier. We are in 1st place – we need to regain our confidence, our balance and our (D) energy – and take into March!

I’m still ALL in!

[EvanJ]

I feel like we play soft in the 1st half to avoid foul trouble – knowing we are NOT going to use our bench.

I know we don't use our bench much but I didn't think about doing what you said. In our last 5 games, we have 30 fouls (39.0%) in the first half and 47 fouls (61.0%) in the second half. The denominator of 77 excludes fouls in overtime. We fouled intentionally at the end at UNCW, but it's still a significant difference in fouls by half that weren't out of desperation. Some forums have reputation points, and I would you give reputation if I could.

[HUSID74]

Kudos to our in game experience from a JMU fan.
"Also, one last point about the fan experience/arena:
I haven’t been to a JMU home b-ball game in probably 5 years. But I watch nearly every game with regularity on Madizone. The experience at hofstra yesterday felt like a big time program. They had a large security presence, decent amount of concessions, and apparel stores. They had activities set up inside the arena for kids (cornhole, pop a shot, etc). What I was most impressed with was the production team. They had music pumping leading up to the game (it sounded like state of the art speakers), and their in-arena announcer sounded like he was very excited to be there. The whole thing had a big time feel to it. I even saw scalpers, SCALPERS, at a regular season CAA game. I couldn’t possibly imagine a scenario where someone would scalp a ticket outside of a sold out game in Harrisonburg I hope those in charge of planning out the game day experience at our new arena use Hofstra as a template, because it’s certainly one to emulate."

[Cards]

Kudos to our in game experience from a JMU fan.
"Also, one last point about the fan experience/arena:
I haven’t been to a JMU home b-ball game in probably 5 years. But I watch nearly every game with regularity on Madizone. The experience at hofstra yesterday felt like a big time program. They had a large security presence, decent amount of concessions, and apparel stores. They had activities set up inside the arena for kids (cornhole, pop a shot, etc). What I was most impressed with was the production team. They had music pumping leading up to the game (it sounded like state of the art speakers), and their in-arena announcer sounded like he was very excited to be there. The whole thing had a big time feel to it. I even saw scalpers, SCALPERS, at a regular season CAA game. I couldn’t possibly imagine a scenario where someone would scalp a ticket outside of a sold out game in Harrisonburg I hope those in charge of planning out the game day experience at our new arena use Hofstra as a template, because it’s certainly one to emulate."

Very cool post - and I fully agree. the few games that were pushed turned out to be great game experiences. Its simply good fun all around entertainment. Would love to see this continue next year even during break (at least for weekend games). And then full court press (no pun intended) as soon as the spring semester begins.

Like many on the board, I do not think our recent issues have been because of our guys being gassed, or lack of depth, or player usability, or whatever you want to call it. Although I am a sound supporter of going with at least a solid 8 man line up (maybe even 9), I am willing to concede that many coaches play with less and haven proven to make it work. Can't argue with that.

I think I am with Wags on this one - and he has explained it well. Its attitude, attitude, attitude! Right now, our guys don't have a good one, and that is obvious. Yes, our defense around the FT line is weak, but its always been weak. Yes, the other teams are making adjustments, but those adjustments don't add up to explain the drop off in quality of play by HU that we have seen the last 5-6 games. I see slow sliding back to the defense of previous years, and its not pretty. I see (as some have said) disagreement among some players on the court -- JWF, DB, and EP, and its not just the last game or two - its been building for the past month. Don't know what the deal is, but its obvious. Also see guys forcing things on offense. Some of that has been very obvious also. Maybe it started with the pressure of the streak, maybe it was all the scouts coming to see JWF, maybe its the pressure of being the 1st place leader in the conference. Whatever it is or was, some of those pressures have been removed. Time to get over it and play ball! I was watching Villanova play today and everytime a Nova player had a foul called against him, or any kind of a questionable call, that player and some of the others simply clapped and they cheered each other on. there was never any questioning of the refs, never any questioning of thier teammates, never any arms outstretched with palms facing up and complaining. The Nova players just let it go, supported each other, and moved on. That kind of attitude is what we had starting CAA play this year -- but the attitude has changed. Time to get it back.

And I will add to the list of fan experiences. Like some others, I have had several experiences with people sitting behind me (in section 101) telling me to sit down when I stand up to root the team on. I'm talking about times like during the Towson OT. Are these people for real, everyone in the building should have been standing for those key few minutes. I told them to get up and cheer, as I REFUSE to sit at such times! OMG, this wasn't a chess match, its NCAA hoops!

[joeg1]

Great environment- its a shame we let it slip away. IMO you ALWAYS foul up 3 in that scenario. Joe blew it.

Could be a blessing in disguise- if we screw our heads on straight and win two on the road, all will be forgotten and we will have momentum going into the CAAs.

[Wags]

Great environment- its a shame we let it slip away. IMO you ALWAYS foul up 3 in that scenario. Joe blew it.

Could be a blessing in disguise- if we screw our heads on straight and win two on the road, all will be forgotten and we will have momentum going into the CAAs.

I get both sides of the argument with fouling, but I don't think you can say ALWAYS at all. I personally don't like to foul because too much can go wrong sometimes. They can make the first FT, miss the second, it can get tapped out for a 3 and you lose. Or, they can make the first, miss the second, get the offensive board, go back up with it and get fouled, make the FT and you lose that way. If you think that can't happen, look no further than the way Hofstra beat Monmouth last year. And look at the 4-point play JMU used in this very game to take the lead for good in OT if you happen to foul too late, before the shot is released. If you just play defense, the odds are still in your favor about 60/40 that they'll miss and you'll win even with a good 3-pt. shooting team. If they're only a decent 3-pt shooting team, it's about 65/35 in your favor, and if you're keying on stopping the 3 because you know that's what they need, it's maybe 70/30 in your favor or even better. If you execute, you'll stop it. But like Joe said, they didn't execute defensively, and even with that, it took a very tough shot that Lewis might make only 30% of the time at best in that situation.

On the second point, I agree - get the defense corrected and win the next two... even just one, really, to secure the 1 seed (though 2 would be better for momentum, as you said), and they have as good a shot as anyone in the CAA tourney. Do that, and this bad stretch of D over the past 5 games, during which they were lucky to go 3-2 and could've easily gone just 1-4, will soon be forgotten. Even just one win on this trip plus a solid CAA quarterfinal win, and this bad stretch will be forgotten, with the focus on a big semifinal game and a chance to play for a title.

[triplec2195]

I have to agree with Joeg here that Joe blew it and Joe himself said in post game that he probably should have fouled and it was his fault. The same thing he admitted after he benched Justin against NE for 8 minutes of the first half. I look at this game and it was the perfect environment. Senior day a packed house a send off for Justin who arguably may be the best player ever to play for us. We don't play well in the first half come out in the second half and with determination and purpose we turn an 8 point deficit into an 8 point lead within minutes. A great turnaround and you can point to whatever plays you want in this game like the ball Taylor had go off his hands on a great pass by Justin which would have been a flush when you get down to the bottom line we had a three point lead in our house with 3.8 seconds left in this game. The 4,600 + people should have left this game happy and Justin's career at home should have ended with an exclamation point not a question mark. Us fanatic fans should have left elated not in a totally depressed mood saying to ourselves What just happened here and how could this have happened. IDK what the probability of JMU making that three with 3.8 seconds left was but IMO a lot less then 40%. IMO if we contested the inbound that shot probably would have had to have been taken from around half court. Now you tell me what the probability is of hitting that shot from half court. Just being reasonable and using common sense maybe 5%? There's no doubt in my mind in the absence of a HAIL MARY that we win this game if we just pressure the ball or slow Lewis down so he has to launch this from around half court. The shot he took he was hitting all day long we made it easy for him. A total blunder IMO!!