Coach MIHALICH
Coach MIHALICH
I have been very critical of coach Mihalichs Defense over the last few years including this year but the last three games I have seen a big change in the defense. The team has been boxing out much better and we have been rebounding much better.I always thought Desure Buie, Eli Pemberton, Tareq Coburn, Jalen Ray, were good defenders, but as a team Hofstra was not very good on defense. The very big blowout at St Bonaventure may be a blessing because the last three games I have seen Hofstra play the best defense I have seen a Mihalich coached team play. The biggest change I have seen is the play of Isaac Kante, he is mach more active and is not just backing off his man. I also like that he is playing Stafford Trueheart, Hal Hughes,and Kevin Schutte more because they are very active on defense. I hope all is well with Omar Silverio but when he comes back i hope he only adds to our depth and not cut Stafford Tuehaerts time. I would love to see Coach Mihalich have a 10 man rotation. Isaac Kante showed he can be a Beast vs Manhattan. I see a great year coming up if Hofstra can play the defense we saw Sunday. Great job coach Mihalich .
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Hof_Judge99
- Posts: 237
- Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:08 am
Re: Coach MIHALICH
Sounds like Mike Farrelly runs the defense more than Joe but he is the head coach so he’ll get some credit if they play well. Our last 3 opponents are a combined 14-19 against D1 opponents so I’ll hold my excitement until conference play. I am getting a little tired of Joe always saying how amazing this conference is. As we all know it’s not that great anymore.
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Flying Dutchmen
- Posts: 927
- Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2014 5:09 pm
Re: Coach MIHALICH
It's tough to say, it's not like SB, Princeton, or Manhattan had much size, and Manhattan is one of the worst offensive teams in the nation. Our non-con schedule was ranked the 323rd best offensively, 7 of the 10 CAA teams are in the top 160, so we're going to face better offenses in conference play.
I agree that we have looked more active defensively, and we've flashed some man to man which has been very rare in the Mihalich era. I think it's been at the expense of our offense though, which has looked lackluster this month. I think Coburn and Pemba have to expend so much defensively, to essentially play bigger, they lose their legs on perimeter shots in the second half.
Personally, I rather win defensive battles than shootouts, but having the ability to win both ways may make us more dynamic than in years past, and may be our ticket to breaking through. My concern is still in the frontcourt though. The CAA has some bigger teams like W&M, UD, JMU, and Towson, and we're going to struggle to defend them. But I like that the staff is actually giving Hughes and Schutte some burn, because they might be more effective defensively than Kante in some matchup-dependent situations. I think Hughes is looking a little better, he needs to find some more confidence because he has some shot-blocking ability that we need.
Like you were saying budman, ST has put together a solid stretch here too, 18 mins vs Princeton, 12 against Manhattan. I think he's played with some renewed confidence. We're dead last in bench minutes nationally, and we have a tough stretch of 4 games in 7 days coming up. We're going to need some more minutes from ST and hopefully Silverio to get through it unscathed. Hope to see a little more from Burgess too as the season goes on.
I agree that we have looked more active defensively, and we've flashed some man to man which has been very rare in the Mihalich era. I think it's been at the expense of our offense though, which has looked lackluster this month. I think Coburn and Pemba have to expend so much defensively, to essentially play bigger, they lose their legs on perimeter shots in the second half.
Personally, I rather win defensive battles than shootouts, but having the ability to win both ways may make us more dynamic than in years past, and may be our ticket to breaking through. My concern is still in the frontcourt though. The CAA has some bigger teams like W&M, UD, JMU, and Towson, and we're going to struggle to defend them. But I like that the staff is actually giving Hughes and Schutte some burn, because they might be more effective defensively than Kante in some matchup-dependent situations. I think Hughes is looking a little better, he needs to find some more confidence because he has some shot-blocking ability that we need.
Like you were saying budman, ST has put together a solid stretch here too, 18 mins vs Princeton, 12 against Manhattan. I think he's played with some renewed confidence. We're dead last in bench minutes nationally, and we have a tough stretch of 4 games in 7 days coming up. We're going to need some more minutes from ST and hopefully Silverio to get through it unscathed. Hope to see a little more from Burgess too as the season goes on.
Re: Coach MIHALICH
Saturday-Monday-Thursday-Saturday is 8 days, not 7, but it is hard if the bench hardly plays. The good news is that the last game is hosting Elon, so we could win that game even if we're tired.