MBB: Game 34 - CAA Finals

[Polito]

Back at you HUSID, appreciate all your about bud. Yep, I’m angry, and have every right to be. It’s the same shit every single year. Literally every single year.

But I’m not backing down from calling out the yearly choke jobs. And I won’t be jumping out of any window for any HU team program staff or player. Lol.

Angry yes. Embarrassed for them yes. But they have to live in it, not me – I’m just mad for tonight. And I will move on and not think about this team or program until the start of next year.

But I also will not sugarcoat it and pretend like winning a bunch of regular season games somehow makes up for blowing it when it matters the most. No one, not one single person outside of the handful of us gives two friggin shits about the regular season. Once again Iona goes dancing and HU is relegated to some shit and NIT game that they will most likely blow in glorious fashion, just like Greene’s team because they are just as disheartened.

I don’t find this at all enjoyable just because they won a bunch of games. Many will crucify me for it, and so be it. I still love and appreciate all these guys do, they are tremendous character people, give their all and give their heart – but it ain’t enough. Sorry - that’s sports, it’s about winning what matters.

[Jordan]

Nice take triplec. Well said.

It feels like it's pointing out the obvious, but not one person is happy on this board right now. I doubt anyone is even content with this outcome. We all wanted the same thing. Given the momentum and magic of this year, I can even admit to saying that I even EXPECTED a different outcome.

Maybe that's naive, but I think that it's fair to say that despite pointing out and noticing the flaws on defense, ball movement, etc. that we are all at least a little shocked right now.

Again, I appreciate triplec's take. To say that there was ZERO adjustments just doesn't feel fitting. Coming back from a 16 point deficit is a huge adjustment. Of course in the title game it's unacceptable to start off like that, but hey, clearly sh*t happens. It did. And whatever coach said in the locker room changed the momentum of the game. That to me is an adjustment within itself. Maybe not every defensive adjustment we desired, but in a mid-major title game I don't think it's time to start toying around with a man-to-man defense that we almost never use.

I will also add in that I know this isn't the last time the finals will be seeing us. I don't know about you guys, but I remember feeling pretty hopeless after Juan'Ya left, and what do you know? JWF came rolling in. If there's one thing in JAM I trust, it's his eye for talent. Zeke, Juan'ya, Ameen, Deon, JWF, Jacquil, Desure, Eli. These guys are studs. No doubt there'll be another Juan'ya, and JWF taking us to the finals.

Maybe the wound is too fresh to add this: I am not sure about you guys, but I'll be watching every NIT game. Possibly another game or two at the Mack? Sure! MSG in the Final Fours? Let's do it.

Well played by Northeastern. Pusica was no joke. They played tough and deserve the win with the performance they gave.

I can't dismiss the sting that tonight brings. It was brutal. But I certainly won't let this cloud my perception of this season and team (coaching staff included). This is a mid-major program that exceeded preseason expectations with flying colors. They showed up every game and gave the crowd something to cheer for. That will always be salient to me.

[Wags]

16 point deficit, with Pusica on the bench. Pathetic performance so far, in pretty much all aspects.

Said it when it happened - this is where they lost the game the most. As much as Pusica hurt them, going 7/12 from 3, it was allowing NU to grow the lead significantly when he was on the bench with the two fouls in the first half. Can't do that at ANY time in the season, least of all a championship game. That's obviously the time to draw closer, not have it go the other way. Inexcusable.

[Wags]

I’ll never understand for the life of me why they can’t have this tournament at campus sites. Criminal to steal home games from the top seed and play in an empty gym

The way the two teams approached this game tonight, good chance Northeastern still wins anyway. Remember, they had Hofstra down 9 with 4 mins left before JWF's miracle buzzer-beater to win in Hempstead.

[Wags]

What’s the over under number of POYs this fing program will blow in our lifetime??

I think of this a lot. 6 CAA POYs in the past 13 years and no CAA tournament titles to show for it.

But that says exactly what it is, and it's something I've said here before... other teams recruit in a more balanced way with pieces that fit better. HU recruits in a top-heavy way. Better than anyone at finding all-time CAA talent, but the dropoff after that is severe. And then the workload falls too heavily on guys like Jenkins and JWF. It's crazy that JWF had to score 37 in the second half just to beat W&M at home by 6, or that he had to score 23 of Hofstra's 29 in the second half last night, just to get a 13-point halftime lead to OT against a 5 seed that they had already beaten by 45 and 22. Something's drastically off if that's how your team is built. And you may get by for a while that way, and even overachieve (going 15-3 and winning your first outright regular season title after being picked 3rd). But eventually, that's going to catch up with you in a big spot (almost did last night; it did, tonight).

On this board, we tend to overrate the other guys who are supposed to be complementing the greats. Pemberton is good, but is he First Team good? Will he be a legit POY contender next year? Not so sure. Buie's solid, but he can't touch Pusica. And, on and on. At some point, the quality has to be deeper than merely finding that one GREAT guy who's better than anyone else in the league, with a big gap thereafter. Sometimes it's better to lack that, so long as you have 3 or 4 good, very reliable players, with a few others who fill their roles very well, while having a great overall fit from top to bottom. That's what Northeastern has, and that's why they're champions tonight.

They have also recruited from all over, too, for several years, while Hofstra mainly looks locally and only in a couple of other places. I remember saying that about HU and NU on CAAZone in the Pecora days. And I was saying then that NU would beat HU to cutting the CAA nets because of it. That has now come to fruition twice. Queens is great (for POY talent like Jenkins or JWF), and yes HU has gone as far away as Lithuania (Rok) and in the states, VA (Ray) or CT (Pemberton) but Northeastern gets guys from Serbia, Canada, FL, CA, MN, Syracuse, in addition to MA, and they've been doing that kind of thing since the end of the Pecora days. Maybe it's time to branch out.

[Hofstra]

Wags, very solid points. We have to be better top to bottom here. Very top heavy, and we have not, and will not win that way.

[Wags]

Freeze this at 1:23/1:24 and look at the floor. How did this happen???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15Zwmfx ... e=youtu.be

Taylor down low guarding no one, Occeus with at least 10 feet of open room in any direction to take a 3 that couldn't be more open. Luckily, he misses it.

But then, roll it...

No box out from Taylor or JWF on the long rebound, as JWF lets Brace sneak by him from the corner to the foul line to gran the long offensive board...

Then, Brace with the quick, smart kick (like I said elsewhere, the way NU constantly looks for and trusts each other to get great, open shots, is done very well) to the opposite wing to Roland, who makes a big 3 at the time (broke HU's spirit at that point and forced Joe to call a timeout, down 23-12)... after Buie chose to leave Roland and then tried to recover with only a weak, half-hearted attempt at doing so. Typical type of play that sums up what went right for NU and what went wrong for HU tonight.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Terribly disappointed but in reality the better team won. NU was predicted to win the conference and if not for a bunch of injuries probably would have. They lost a heartbreaker in Hempstead and beat us easily in Boston. Not that upsets can't happen but the "guys with the crooked noses" had NU the favorite tonight. We made a helluva comeback but our porous defense let us down again and as pointed out those two missed one and ones blunted our rally and we never recovered. Wished we developed a deeper bench and tried some man and press D so if they were needed were in our arsenal. Playing zone against a team which loves to shoot 3's not the way to go.
PS-Too bad CC got screwed on charge call against Riller or we probably would have played Charleston

Great post Zman, you're 100% right.

Truth be told it was a very good game. I can't believe we came back from 18 down, 16 at the half. I respect Northeastern, but I hate losing to them more than anyone in the CAA. I just don't like how they play the game, we lost to a soft team, we let a soft team win the CAA Title, and they deserved to win it!

We lost this game in December. Our defense sucked all year, the only difference from last season was Taylor over Rok. We sold out for offense so significantly that it hindered us in the conference tournament setting. We can't just outscore teams in these 3 games in 3 days scenario. We clearly didn't have the legs tonight to hit perimeter shots, Pemba only had one 3 point attempt! Northeastern hit 14, it's crazy we were even in this game after looking at the statline. That's the testament to the character of our players and coaches.

The real question that remains is if Joe's system can win the CAA Championship. It's objectively leaning towards no. When he was hired, I wasn't really a fan because I remembered some of those Niagara teams, and did not like their style of play. I thought Joe was a conservative pick to right the ship from a character standpoint. I just didn't think Joe's coaching would translate to the CAA. I was wildly wrong, Joe's done an amazing job here, 20 games over .500 in CAA play including that brutal first season where he had no talent.

But this year was the perfect execution of his system, and it wasn't enough in a down CAA year. We are 10th nationally in effective FG%, 2nd in FT shooting, 11th in 3 point FG%, 4th in turnover %. We are 14th nationally in FTA/FGA, which means we have done an excellent job not fouling, and keeping the opposition off the FT line. We have played as clean and efficient as a team can play, yet we can't knock off Northeastern.

There's like no margin for error. Despite going 22-25 from the FT line, we couldn't overcome a 39% shooting night. Again because our defense sucks, and we have no bench to sub struggling or tired players. For about three years, I've been convinced that we really don't recruit that well. We've done a somewhat poor job developing four year players, especially in the frontcourt, and there's an inherent volatility of always relying on grad transfers to fill out starting positions. There's a bit of a positive bias towards our players getting conference awards because they log so many minutes, but the lack of size and depth has hurt us in tournament play the last 3 years.

We have to get some bigger, longer guys playing more minutes to improve our defensive ability, even if it sacrifices some offensive skill. If we had 2 or 3 more perimeter closeouts tonight, we may win the title. There just seems to be a stubbornness from the coaching staff to make any wholesale changes that sacrifice offense.

27-7 was fantastic, but feels empty.

[daHUPride]

Terribly disappointed but in reality the better team won. NU was predicted to win the conference and if not for a bunch of injuries probably would have. They lost a heartbreaker in Hempstead and beat us easily in Boston. Not that upsets can't happen but the "guys with the crooked noses" had NU the favorite tonight. We made a helluva comeback but our porous defense let us down again and as pointed out those two missed one and ones blunted our rally and we never recovered. Wished we developed a deeper bench and tried some man and press D so if they were needed were in our arsenal. Playing zone against a team which loves to shoot 3's not the way to go.
PS-Too bad CC got screwed on charge call against Riller or we probably would have played Charleston

Great post Zman, you're 100% right.

Truth be told it was a very good game. I can't believe we came back from 18 down, 16 at the half. I respect Northeastern, but I hate losing to them more than anyone in the CAA. I just don't like how they play the game, we lost to a soft team, we let a soft team win the CAA Title, and they deserved to win it!

We lost this game in December. Our defense sucked all year, the only difference from last season was Taylor over Rok. We sold out for offense so significantly that it hindered us in the conference tournament setting. We can't just outscore teams in these 3 games in 3 days scenario. We clearly didn't have the legs tonight to hit perimeter shots, Pemba only had one 3 point attempt! Northeastern hit 14, it's crazy we were even in this game after looking at the statline. That's the testament to the character of our players and coaches.

The real question that remains is if Joe's system can win the CAA Championship. It's objectively leaning towards no. When he was hired, I wasn't really a fan because I remembered some of those Niagara teams, and did not like their style of play. I thought Joe was a conservative pick to right the ship from a character standpoint. I just didn't think Joe's coaching would translate to the CAA. I was wildly wrong, Joe's done an amazing job here, 20 games over .500 in CAA play including that brutal first season where he had no talent.

But this year was the perfect execution of his system, and it wasn't enough in a down CAA year. We are 10th nationally in effective FG%, 2nd in FT shooting, 11th in 3 point FG%, 4th in turnover %. We are 14th nationally in FTA/FGA, which means we have done an excellent job not fouling, and keeping the opposition off the FT line. We have played as clean and efficient as a team can play, yet we can't knock off Northeastern.

There's like no margin for error. Despite going 22-25 from the FT line, we couldn't overcome a 39% shooting night. Again because our defense sucks, and we have no bench to sub struggling or tired players. For about three years, I've been convinced that we really don't recruit that well. We've done a somewhat poor job developing four year players, especially in the frontcourt, and there's an inherent volatility of always relying on grad transfers to fill out starting positions. There's a bit of a positive bias towards our players getting conference awards because they log so many minutes, but the lack of size and depth has hurt us in tournament play the last 3 years.

We have to get some bigger, longer guys playing more minutes to improve our defensive ability, even if it sacrifices some offensive skill. If we had 2 or 3 more perimeter closeouts tonight, we may win the title. There just seems to be a stubbornness from the coaching staff to make any wholesale changes that sacrifice offense.

27-7 was fantastic, but feels empty.

Ahhh boy – I feel bad for this team.

Frustrated I am – less for me and more for these players.

Giving up on a team that I have been on board with for the past 5 months (and the program for 20 years) – I am not.

This team gave me so much joy this year and will go down as one of my favorites and I am not going to just disregard those first few months of play for the frustration of these last 40 minutes – not me.

This team had the make up to win – but it was going to take a game played with little margin of error – that didn’t happen last night.

Good points here –
Northeastern was the better team
Coen out coached JAM
D was not, and probably never will, be a priority under JAM (it was better this year – because of Taylor and Buie)
The statement about how many POY we’ve had without a CAA tourney crown – that’s a tough one and the reality is our O lets those players excel and our D lets us down in big (championship games).
We need more size - those lineups with 4 athletic guys that are 6'5" - 6'7" are tough to go against for TC, EP and JR - they battle but it is tough for us to defend

My thoughts –
We need to develop, use and trust our players and use a deeper bench – I bang the table year in and year out about this - this year I laid off a bit due to our success/our record – but it doesn’t change the way I have always felt. In games guys get tired (other then or top 6 guys - others played only 23 minutes in the 3 games this weekend) - to me JFW and EP looked gas'd last night - as opposed to NE top scorer, Puscia, who played 28 minutes last night - Coen gave him rests so he can go all out in those 28 minutes.
We never ever mix up our lineups – I have to think it must be pretty easy for opponents to game plan against us – knowing we are going to play our only O one way; we are only going to give a limited amounts of looks on D and we are only going send out a precious few guys that are going on the floor.
JAM (and staff) is a pretty darn good recruiter, the players seem to like him, he runs a clean program, planyers usually stay and graduate…game strategy, in game adjustments – nope – not his strong bailiwick.

I always thought this year’s team had the personnel to make or opponents occasionally adjust to us.
Send out a –
DEFENSIVE TEAM – and press – ST, TC, EP, JFW, DB
BIGGER LINE UP – and bang – JT, ST, TC, EP, KW
RUN and GUN – like and old Don Nelson lineup – ST, TC, EP, JR, JFW
I talking about using these strategies and lineups at 2-3 minute clips per game…we never made teams adjust to us, we never utilize what we have – I know a lot of guys don’t like ST or DD – but it was we have and guys that started/played significant minutes never saw the light of day this season (ST, KW, MR).

I assume that us getting an NCAA at-large bid are slim to none – and IF we get a home NIT game I AM going – this is OUR team – and these players deserve our support – they’ve earned that. I am not coming to games just because they have winning streak, or on ABC 7 or I saw them hit a buzzer beater last night on ESPN. They run a clean program, graduate kids and damn they are worth of better support then what the rest of LI and students give (this is NOT a KNOCK on anyone here – I am talking about the band wagoner’s that show up when they are winning) – The Mack should easily have 2,000+ per game – winning or losing.

Thanks for the season HUBB team, players and staff.
Thank you guys here - with like-minded fans that all just want something better in March.
Great season - bad ending.

[Cards]

But that says exactly what it is, and it's something I've said here before... other teams recruit in a more balanced way with pieces that fit better. HU recruits in a top-heavy way. Better than anyone at finding all-time CAA talent, but the dropoff after that is severe. And then the workload falls too heavily on guys like Jenkins and JWF. It's crazy that JWF had to score 37 in the second half just to beat W&M at home by 6, or that he had to score 23 of Hofstra's 29 in the second half last night, just to get a 13-point halftime lead to OT against a 5 seed that they had already beaten by 45 and 22. Something's drastically off if that's how your team is built. And you may get by for a while that way, and even overachieve (going 15-3 and winning your first outright regular season title after being picked 3rd). But eventually, that's going to catch up with you in a big spot (almost did last night; it did, tonight).On this board, we tend to overrate the other guys who are supposed to be complementing the greats. Pemberton is good, but is he First Team good? Will he be a legit POY contender next year? Not so sure. Buie's solid, but he can't touch Pusica. And, on and on. At some point, the quality has to be deeper than merely finding that one GREAT guy who's better than anyone else in the league, with a big gap thereafter. Sometimes it's better to lack that, so long as you have 3 or 4 good, very reliable players, with a few others who fill their roles very well, while having a great overall fit from top to bottom. That's what Northeastern has, and that's why they're champions tonight.

You are 100% correct Wags in your observation regarding lack of balanced scoring, however, I think it is only partially a result of the players recruited. I put this more on JAM and his coaching style and lack of player development. There are zero, I mean ZERO reasons why a coach cannot instill a "find the open man" mindset into his offense. For goodness sake, he's the head coach! He would rather let guys go one on one and shoot contested shots or drive (hoping to get fouled) because we shoot FTs well. JAM got absolutely schooled yesterday in fundamental basketball team play. It was really, really sad to watch. Geeez, the guys is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and he can't convince or teach his players to make the extra pass or two?? Absolutely no excuse - NONE. Does anyone think that if EP or DB had open shots that they could not shoot a better percent than they do now? Even against good defensive teams, a mindset of finding the open man usually prevails.

What we have with JAM is what we are stuck with. We will always have good teams, we will always be in the playoffs or in the "conversation", but we will fall short when the competition level improves beyond the typical CAA level opponent.

[triplec2195]

Freeze this at 1:23/1:24 and look at the floor. How did this happen???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15Zwmfx ... e=youtu.be

Taylor down low guarding no one, Occeus with at least 10 feet of open room in any direction to take a 3 that couldn't be more open. Luckily, he misses it.

But then, roll it...

No box out from Taylor or JWF on the long rebound, as JWF lets Brace sneak by him from the corner to the foul line to gran the long offensive board...

Then, Brace with the quick, smart kick (like I said elsewhere, the way NU constantly looks for and trusts each other to get great, open shots, is done very well) to the opposite wing to Roland, who makes a big 3 at the time (broke HU's spirit at that point and forced Joe to call a timeout, down 23-12)... after Buie chose to leave Roland and then tried to recover with only a weak, half-hearted attempt at doing so. Typical type of play that sums up what went right for NU and what went wrong for HU tonight.

Crazy defensive breakdowns in the first half this was only one. You know you're in trouble when you are so out of position that u have 2-3 players watching your opponent line up a wide open uncontested three!

[Jojogunne]

Justin and Jacquil made the All-Tournament Team:

https://caasports.com/news/2019/3/12/me ... ath=mbball

[Wags]

Justin and Jacquil made the All-Tournament Team:

https://caasports.com/news/2019/3/12/me ... ath=mbball

"Hofstra, which fell to 27-7, will compete in the NIT after claiming the CAA regular-season title."

Although we know there is probably a 0.5% chance at an at-large, isn't CAASports assuming this a little early in this article?

[Mikey77]

Probably needed two more wins or a signature win for an at large and no major upsets in higher conferences like last night with the Zags losing. I'm guessing we get a Providence or a G'town in the NIT since it is somewhat geographically sensitive and they might even give us a home game.

[Cards]

I'm guessing we get a Providence or a G'town in the NIT since it is somewhat geographically sensitive and they might even give us a home game.

Right now we are bracketed as a 6 seed (8 total seeds). That really sucks given that we will have one of the best records of the 32 teams in the NIT. What kills us is that we have one of the worst Strength of Schedules (SOS) of the 32 teams in the NIT. Recall that after a full season of play, it turns out that we actually had a pretty easy schedule. Bottom line is that I don't think we will be viewing any more games at the Mack this year!

[Wags]

Probably needed two more wins or a signature win for an at large and no major upsets in higher conferences like last night with the Zags losing.

Agreed, but you can't write that in the article until it's actually happened. You can write that it's very likely they are NIT-bound (instead of NCAAT-bound), but you can't actually write it before it's official. I mean, you can, because they did, but that's not how it should be done.

[Jojogunne]

I'm guessing we get a Providence or a G'town in the NIT since it is somewhat geographically sensitive and they might even give us a home game.

Right now we are bracketed as a 6 seed (8 total seeds). That really sucks given that we will have one of the best records of the 32 teams in the NIT. What kills us is that we have one of the worst Strength of Schedules (SOS) of the 32 teams in the NIT. Recall that after a full season of play, it turns out that we actually had a pretty easy schedule. Bottom line is that I don't think we will be viewing any more games at the Mack this year!

Whose bracket has us a 6?

[HUSID74]

Probably needed two more wins or a signature win for an at large and no major upsets in higher conferences like last night with the Zags losing.

Agreed, but you can't write that in the article until it's actually happened. You can write that it's very likely they are NIT-bound (instead of NCAAT-bound), but you can't actually write it before it's official. I mean, you can, because they did, but that's not how it should be done.

Agreed Wags, the damned CAA should be doing EVERYTHING IT CAN TO LOBBY FOR HOFSTRA TO GET AN AT LARGE...not conceding an NIT bid in public...just another example of this conference's ineptitude.

[Mikey77]

Wags, okay, I see your point.

[Wags]

Probably needed two more wins or a signature win for an at large and no major upsets in higher conferences like last night with the Zags losing.

Agreed, but you can't write that in the article until it's actually happened. You can write that it's very likely they are NIT-bound (instead of NCAAT-bound), but you can't actually write it before it's official. I mean, you can, because they did, but that's not how it should be done.

Agreed Wags, the damned CAA should be doing EVERYTHING IT CAN TO LOBBY FOR HOFSTRA TO GET AN AT LARGE...not conceding an NIT bid in public...just another example of this conference's ineptitude.

Well, then it's two errors - just from a writing standpoint, but yes, also from an advocacy standpoint. The first shouldn't happen no matter who's writing it. As for the second, the CAA should be the last ones to do that because of exactly what you said.