MBB @ Charleston, Thursday, 1/27/22, 7 PM

[Hofstra]

Cant say its a good win, but its a win. Estrada is on another level. What a game from him.

Unsure why Speedy didnt use a timeout on the 2 possessions to end the game. The offense was stagnant and we had 2 piss poor shot attempts. Just happy we won.

Stop! We won the game on the road and covered. We are not the Warriors.

We had a 13 point lead to start the game, and blew the lead late in the game. We can be happy with the win, but lets call it like we see it. This was ugly late, and I felt Speedy could have managed the game better late. Overall, like others said, a win is a win. Onto Saturday.

[Wags]

HU ahead by 3 with only a few seconds left, why doesn't Speedy have the team foul? I am not sure that this was the only time Speedy has decided on the strategy of not fouling. Does anyone know why? Wags, you are very good at explaining why this was the choice.

It's just playing the odds. If it's against a team shooting 3s well, you might want to foul. It's personal preference. Some teams foul, some don't, and they have success or get burned either way.

In this particular case, Charleston was bad from 3 (26.5% - 9/34) before that final shot. Their top two scorers this season - Meeks and Smith - both had bad offensive games, especially from 3. Meeks was only 2/8 and 0/5 from 3, and Smith 1/10 and 0/8 from 3, before Charleston's final possession. Charleston also had 14 offensive rebounds tonight. So, if you're playing the odds, you think that maybe too much can go wrong if you foul -- maybe they make the first and miss the second, get an offensive putback and get fouled, and all of a sudden, you lose on a three-point play. Or maybe after a made free throw and then a missed free throw, there's a tapout and someone you weren't expecting to take a final shot, someone you're not keying on, gets an open look off of a missed free throw and wins the game on a lucky 3 that way. And of course, you could foul at the wrong moment, maybe a little too late, and you foul when you don't mean to on a 3-point attempt.

If you foul, you have to worry about all of those kinds of things. Maybe those odds are still not very high for Charleston, but maybe you figure there could be a 35% or 40% chance of any one of those scenarios playing out.

But if you don't foul just play good, solid D for just a few seconds, knowing Charleston is only shooting 3s at 26.5% before its final possession, and knowing they need a 3, you can really key on stopping that instead of worrying about them scoring anywhere from inside the arc, and maybe that percentage goes down to just a 20% chance for Charleston. And sure enough, Meeks missed again on that last trip, to finish the night 0/6 from 3.

Not saying I necessarily agree either way (although I think in most cases, but not all, I like just playing good D and getting a stop instead of fouling), but I think that's the logic and thought process - at least tonight, with Charleston shooting the 3 poorly tonight - with not fouling there.

[The Shadow]

Wags, I knew you would come up with a very good, logical response. I now see your point. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer.

[Wags]

Cant say its a good win, but its a win. Estrada is on another level. What a game from him.

Unsure why Speedy didnt use a timeout on the 2 possessions to end the game. The offense was stagnant and we had 2 piss poor shot attempts. Just happy we won.

Stop! We won the game on the road and covered. We are not the Warriors.

We had a 13 point lead to start the game, and blew the lead late in the game. We can be happy with the win, but lets call it like we see it. This was ugly late, and I felt Speedy could have managed the game better late. Overall, like others said, a win is a win. Onto Saturday.

You have to expect the home team will make a run to get back in it. The main thing is just holding on for the win. And it's all perspective on when Hoftra's big run comes. Had Hofstra started slow and trailed for as much time as Charleston trailed tonight, but then Hofstra finishes the game on a 13-0 to win by three, instead of saying "ugly win late" we'd be saying something like "Wow, great comeback, they showed great tonight!" Whenever the runs come for either team, the W is all that matters in the end.

[stuball888]

Lets put this another way. In conference record now 5-2. We are 2-0 at home and 3-2 on the road. break it down like this 5 road games and only 2 home games and our 5-2 record looks pretty good.

[EvanJ]

Estrada had 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists. He made 4 of 8 threes to tie his career-high in three made on February 14, 2020. We had 14 assists and 16 turnovers, which will make our ratio much worse. Dubar scored 16. He made all 6 twos, 1 of 5 threes, and 1 of 2 free throws, which was our only miss in 11 attempts. His 4 rebounds were below his average. He had 3 of our 5 blocks, and tied our season-high for blocks by a player, which was when he had 3 in a 81-68 loss at Richmond on November 22, 2021. Those were our only double-digit scorers. Silverio shot 4-8 and had 9 points and 2 steals. Cooks shot 4-9 and had 9 points and 3 assists. Iyiola shot field goals 1-2 and free throws 2-2 to score 4. He had 12 rebounds, was the only double-digit rebounder on either team, and had 1 block. Burgess shot 1-2 with both attempts being threes, and had 2 assists. Ray shot 1-6 including threes 1-4. He had his third block. He tied JWF for second in career threes made, and tied Buie for first in career games. Simmons did not attempt a field goal and made 2 free throws. Carlos played 4 minutes, and his only nonzero statistic was 1 steal.

Ray played 19 minutes, which was our seventh most. Silverio played 24, and Burgess played 23. Iyiola and Simmons had about the same amount of points per minute and rebounds per minute. Simmons had 5 rebounds in 12 minutes, but what makes him look bad is that we were +13 with Iyiola and -10 with Simmons. Iyiola played when we took the early lead.

We led for 34:23 with a largest lead of 15, Charleston led for 4:16 with a largest lead of 4, and it was tied for 1:21.

We shot every type of shot better than Charleston. There were a lot of steals, with 9 by us and 12 by them. According to the Sports Reference College Basketball Play Index, we are 4-2 in the last 6 games in which our opponent had at least 12 steals.

Drexel won 88-82 at JMU. Elon won 61-54 hosting W&M. UNCW won 67-62 hosting Northeastern. Delware at Towson was suspended with 18:42 left. Charleston's announcer read a tweet that said the court became unplayable. I don't know why.

[Wags]

Lets put this another way. In conference record now 5-2. We are 2-0 at home and 3-2 on the road. break it down like this 5 road games and only 2 home games and our 5-2 record looks pretty good.

We'll see what happens, but keep up that type of pace, you finish 14-4 in the league (9-0 home, 5-4 away). So, for now, nothing wrong with it. And yeah, some of those five Ws so far could've gone either way, but there are no style points, just wins and losses.

[triplec2195]

An ugly win is an ugly win but even if it's ugly it still is a good win. No wins IMO are bad wins so lets be happy its in the left column. I just can't help thinking that with the Ray stats in the last two games that something isn't wrong with him. Not playing a lot of minutes in this game makes no sense to me so unless Speedy spills the beans we probably won't know. Maybe not an injury but possibly an illness. Who knows just not making a lot of sense. So the new norm is both Cooks and Ray off the bench in every game. It's like Speedy said if it's not broke why try to fix it. We also need to protect the ball better on D rebounds our bigs seemed to have coughed the ball up which led to scores for them. Frustrating.

[HUSID80]

We won another important game on the road. Got off to a big lead and then withstood everything they threw at us…well done! Big game Sat against the CAA leaders. Statement game for us.

[ZMAN3]

Ray is lost in the offense. Estrada and Cooks are too ball dominant. Ray rarely touches the ball and often rushes a shot when he does.

Exactly - they make very little effort to get him involved. Amazing after 10 years (lol) on team Ray can't drive for a layup - you'd think he'd have worked and mastered it by now.

[Pride97]

Happy they got the win (road. wins always important) but was concerning that we handed them the ball so often. Didn't do a great job securing rebounds or seeing players around them at times. Estrada is clearly the best ball handler (and player) on the team. Burgess handles the point well too, but I feel there is a fall off after that. Dubar is the unsung hero. 2nd best player tonight and many nights - very consistent when not in foul trouble. Hopefully they can work Ray in more and he can find his role. He starting to remind be of Bernardi years ago that was a 3 point sniper when hot but not much else. Ray has been been better with other areas of his offense in the past. Im not sure what happened.

[Wags]

Amazing after 10 years (lol) on team

agree, sure feels like it

[Wags]

Happy they got the win (road. wins always important) but was concerning that we handed them the ball so often. Didn't do a great job securing rebounds or seeing players around them at times. Estrada is clearly the best ball handler (and player) on the team. Burgess handles the point well too, but I feel there is a fall off after that. Dubar is the unsung hero. 2nd best player tonight and many nights - very consistent when not in foul trouble. Hopefully they can work Ray in more and he can find his role. He starting to remind be of Bernardi years ago that was a 3 point sniper when hot but not much else. Ray has been been better with other areas of his offense in the past. Im not sure what happened.

He was sometimes one of the lead scorers, or a good complementary scorer, by default before this season. This year, with Estrada stepping into the role of the top scorer, Cooks capable of that as well, Dubar doing his thing as a solid complementary scorer and (as well as doing a number of other positive things), and even Silverio going on his short hot streaks in between his cold ones, Ray just isn't relied on as heavily anymore. When he's hitting early on, they'll find him, like in the wins over Delaware and Drexel. But when he's off early, he becomes an afterthought this season because, as we've seen in the past two games (HU scoring 72 and 76 with Ray scoring only 3 and 2), they are capable of generating enough scoring to win without him scoring. The problem is, I'm not sure how well that will work for three straight days in March should Estrada and/oe Cooks be off in one game or another. That's why they better figure out a way to mix Ray in more consistently without significantly sacrificing how Estrada, Cooks and Dubar can score.

And I don't think it's the injury issues from early in the year still affecting Ray because then how do we explain some of his very productive and efficient games in between the no-shows like we've seen the past two games and a few others like that this year? I thought this new bench role might've fixed him after the Delaware and Drexel games, but these past two games (even though they won both) unfortunately spoiled that theory and now it's back to the drawing board with him.

[Wags]

Ray is lost in the offense. Estrada and Cooks are too ball dominant. Ray rarely touches the ball and often rushes a shot when he does.

Exactly - they make very little effort to get him involved

This is very true, but he is also too passive and doesn't exactly go out of his way to get open or aggressively find ways to get more involved in the offense sometimes -- which is a strange mentality to have so often for a guy who will also never shy away from taking the big shots in the biggest of spots (like in the title game to help beat NU two years ago).

[daHUPride]

Ray is lost in the offense. Estrada and Cooks are too ball dominant. Ray rarely touches the ball and often rushes a shot when he does.

AGREE 100% - said it after Saturdays W vs NE - dont see Cooks and Ray games being compatible - Estrada is able to play with both in my opinion

Would love to see - Ray come off the bench - without Cooks in the game and let him let it fly

LAST WEEK after NE game:
triplec2195 wrote:
Wags wrote:
Congrats to Cooks, who with his 19 points yesterday, reached exactly 2,000 points in his career.


WHAT A DIFFERENT TEAM we're when Cooks is on the floor. He can shoot from all over the court and when he drives he creates havoc. The D has to collapse on him leaving people open for good looks. Also a threat to steal and lead the fast break. Hope he stays healthy!

daHUPride wrote:
Agree - Cook is a very different player for us - however I do wonder if his game and Ray's game are compatible -
Cooks is a guy that has the ball and breaks his man down and creates his own shot
Ray is a guy that makes his bones with ball movement and setting up in his favorite spots
Would love for them to gel and be dynamic duo down the stretch
daHUPride

Posts: 940
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:48 am

[cactus]

Ray is lost in the offense. Estrada and Cooks are too ball dominant. Ray rarely touches the ball and often rushes a shot when he does.

AGREE 100% - said it after Saturdays W vs NE - dont see Cooks and Ray games being compatible - Estrada is able to play with both in my opinion

Would love to see - Ray come off the bench - without Cooks in the game and let him let it fly.

All 3 are scoring guards so it's a hard mix to get to work. Estrada is playing the point but he takes the most shots on the team. Ray gets pushed out as the least aggressive/skilled at driving to the basket.

[triplec2195]

Ray is lost in the offense. Estrada and Cooks are too ball dominant. Ray rarely touches the ball and often rushes a shot when he does.

AGREE 100% - said it after Saturdays W vs NE - dont see Cooks and Ray games being compatible - Estrada is able to play with both in my opinion

Would love to see - Ray come off the bench - without Cooks in the game and let him let it fly.

All 3 are scoring guards so it's a hard mix to get to work. Estrada is playing the point but he takes the most shots on the team. Ray gets pushed out as the least aggressive/skilled at driving to the basket.

It isn't rocket science to come to the conclusion that Ray with this three headed monster is not going to get as many shots and needs to make the most of the shots that he takes. He certainly can be unconscious from beyond the arc but does also have a mid range game. He only played 19 minutes last night while he averaged well over 30 minutes last year. He wasn't in foul trouble and Omar was having a decent game especially in the 1st half. You guys make lots of good points about a need for chemistry and this is ever so true but to limit his minutes what is really the bottom line here. Speedy talked about Ray and Cooks in the post game how they didn't have productive games but will be needed down the stretch so did Speedy just keep him on the bench because he wasn't contributing? It looked to me that Ray at least yesterday was buying in to the hot hand of Estrada as was Cooks both were feeding him but at some point soon he's going to be double and triple teamed and that's when everybody else will have to step up. JWF had to deal with the same thing and learned to pass the ball. For me this sounds like a very good problem for a team and a coaching staff to have. Right now he's the POY in this conference.

[HofstraMathew]

At the end of the day we have more depth on this team overall then we have ever had in recent history. Unfortunately that means less touches for Ray and really Cooks as well compared to what they were getting in prior years. Hopefully when those double teams to Estrada happens Cooks and Ray just light it up. Everyone won't be able to score 20+ a night but we have multiple players with the ability to do that which is what will help us out. Let's get Crramer back and have him playing the 4 and this team really will go deep at all positions.

[EvanJ]

Iyiola is third in the CAA with 8.8 rebounds, and the top three all round to 8.8. He leads in offensive rebounds. We could be the second team in 34 seasons to have the CAA leader in scoring, rebounding, and assists. In the last 33 seasons, which is what the CAA has annual leaders for, and is most of CAA history, the only team to do that was Delaware in 2004-2005 when Harding Nana led in scoring and rebounding, and Mike Slattery led in assists. Our only players to lead the CAA in rebounding were Kenny Adeleke in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, and Rokas Gustys in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. In the 20 complete seasons with northern schools, 10 had the rebounding leader be part of him leading in consecutive seasons. In those 20 seasons, JWF was the only player to lead in scoring in consecutive seasons. Jenkins was a little short as a junior as he averaged 20.6, and JMU's Denzel Bowles averaged 20.8.

We knew we had Ray, Cooks, and Estrada at the start of the season. If Ray and Cooks can't play at the same time, it restricts their minutes. Ray was able to play at the same time as three other guards in Pemberton, Buie, and Coburn. It makes it harder to plan if Ray, Silverio, or anybody else can shoot 4-8 or 2-10.

A Drexel fan said that the wet court at Towson made Delaware star Dylan Painter and sixth man Ebby Asamoah (who shoots threes .436 excluding the part of yesterday's game before it was suspended) left on crutches. Delaware has only eight players average at least 4 minutes per team game, so I don't see how they can win a title without Painter and Asamoah. I don't know why the court was wet.

Edit: Charleston pointed out that Estrada scored our last 15 points. I checked, and it was actually 14 from two threes, two twos, and four free throws. Our last points by anybody else were Dubar's three with 6:24 left, so Estrada was our only scorer in the last 16 percent of the game.

Edit: Our free throw percentage is up to .806 and up to second behind Villanova's .823. Villanova is on pace to break the record of .822 by Harvard in 1983-1984.

[HUclassof19]

im not sure how anyone could have watched last nights game and be disappointed in the team in any way. it was a road win in a hostile environment. double digit leads in college basketball mean nothing anymore. esp in the first half.

its almost like some of you choose to be negative for no reason.

team is playing really well right now and has a HUGE game tomorrow.