MBB Game 5 - @ Saint Mary's College, 11/19/22, 8:30 PM EST

[Jojogunne]

Get ready for a "massive battle" with Saint Mary's College of California Saturday night at 8:30 EST. This will be the first meeting between both teams, which are both undefeated. The game appears to be free on the WCC Network:

https://gohofstra.com/news/2022/11/18/m ... wdown.aspx

The Gaels seem to have a balanced attack, with four players averaging between 11 and 13 ppg:

https://smcgaels.com/sports/mens-basket ... ts/2022-23

Three players are from the same school in Australia:

https://smcgaels.com/sports/mens-basket ... ath=mbball

Dare I ask: Will we see Warren Williams on the court? I assume everyone who is not redshirting and has not played is injured to one degree or another.

[stuball888]

MY god they are even bigger than San Jose State. 7ft4 7ft0 6ft10 and 6ft9. Well at least they should prepare us for 7ft4 Eddy of Purdue.

[Polito]

MONSTER mid major game - this is a national level game folks, there will be a LOT of hoops eyes on this one - kudos to both programs for putting themselves in this position - this is about as big as it gets for mids OOC. A win here would be HUGE for HU - they will be a national hoops story.

That said, SMC is once again LEGIT. This is a very, very good team. They are annihilating opponents, and doing so by playing stifling D, and playing a smart and balanced offense.

Yep, they have size, but that isn't why they win. They are deliberate, calculated, well coached, and of course talented. And they are nasty at home.

But they aren't unbeatable.

HU needs to run them ragged, run them right out of their own gym. To do this, they'll need the bench to come up big. Shots need to fall. Ball protection is key. Don't turn over and give them unearned chances.

AE can't have a quiet game here - this is where you need your POY to ball out. But of course not by himself. This team has played really complimentary ball, and it's been a huge difference from the past. That will be required to have a chance here.

Lazy D, settling for bad shots, poor ball movement, do that kind of silliness and the Gaels will bury them. Play HU's game, and I do believe this team could steal a massive W.

Hoping to find a way to watch - a chance for early season national fame here folks, ROLL PRIDE!!!!!

[EvanJ]

We're 7th in the RPI. Saint Mary's is 109th because their SOS is 240th. All their games were at home, and the teams they beat combined to have a 2-5 record against Division I teams other than them (a team's opponents' games against them do not count in their opponents' winning percentage in their SOS because counting them would make team's SOS better if they lose). The NCAA starts making the NET later, and the formula is not available. Saint Mary's is on a 22 game home winning streak, which is tied for the third longest active streak. Gonzaga's streak is as long as the next three combined. Arkansas was on a 15 game home winning streak when we beat them last season, and is on a 12 game home winning streak now. There will be 53 games between two Division I teams tomorrow, and this is one of three games between two undefeateds.

[Wags]

Saint Mary's is on a 22 game home winning streak, which is tied for the third longest active streak. Gonzaga's streak is as long as the next three combined. Arkansas was on a 15 game home winning streak when we beat them last season, and is on a 12 game home winning streak now. There will be 53 games between two Division I teams tomorrow, and this is one of three games between two undefeateds.

This is good stuff. Thank you.

Although not in the Top 25, SMC is ranked 41st in the AP poll and 35th in the Coaches poll.

I wonder how much Hofstra has worked on pressing and trapping D. SMC is very deliberate and fundamentally sound. The more total possessions in this one the better for Hofstra. SMC is perfectly happy playing a slow pace, playing sound offensively, locking down defensively and winning by a lot without scoring much (see their 63-33 win over North Texas this season), though they will also score in the high 70s or 80s too, if you let them. Since it's hard to get them to turn the ball over and to get them to miss that many shots, there aren't a lot of other chances to run if not off one or both of those. So, pressing and trapping D in certain spots might be the only way to speed SMC up and make the tempo more to HU's liking and less to SMC's liking. This will obviously be a LOT of fun if HU can at least stay competitive throughout most of this game.

[ZMAN3]

Don't get your hopes up - I've seen St Mary's play Gonzaga at home - they are tough (not breaking any ground) We don't have enough size to play with them.

[ZMAN3]

I see St M 14 with a138 total -playable numbers

[triplec2195]

They're 13.5 point favorites and honestly don't know much about this team other then they win at home. They start a 6'10, 6'8,6'7, 6'4 and a 6'2. They have some size that comes off the bench. Nelson will have his hands full and needs to stay out of foul trouble. IDK if any of our other bigs will play so again Dubar will have to help out and rebound. Our guard play is strong so hopefully we can make up for what we lack in height in the post. I don't see us losing by that much so I'm predicting a closer game here. A very challenging game for us and we usually get up for these kind of games.

[HUSID80]

ESPN has the line the same as Zman 14 points and the over under stands at 139.
I agree with most that this will be a near impossible game without our big...we must get out the break and run their bigs if we can. That will require hitting shots and getting defensive rebounds.
Anyhow should be fun!

[Polito]

Eh LOTS of respect for them, truly one of the great mid major programs, but not intimidated and neither will the team be. HUs program is legit too, Arkansas was and is better than SMC, and nearly toppling Houston (WAY better) and Maryland (on par) too, and all on the road.

I have confidence this group is coming to PLAY and to WIN - this team has big game players

Now actually executing is of course what makes the difference

What makes SMC so tough is that so far they look pretty complete - hard to find many weak spots: they play lock down D, hit 3’s at a high, rebound very well, and have plenty of size across the board.

I think HU needs to press them, esp the ball handler - they will need to be crisp with their ball movement, and shots need to fall. Rebounding will be tough so positioning is key. Can’t just not try like last game, gotta crash the boards at least some.

Keep this close and this could be fun. Let it slip and it could be ugly lol. But I’m feeling optimistic. Big time game, let’s get it on and see what we got, ROLL PRIDE!!

[EvanJ]

They wrote one preview at https://smcgaels.com/news/2022/11/15/me ... -week.aspx for their games against Southern and us. It is their homecoming. The West Coast Conference (WCC) does not exist in Football. Brigham Young (BYU) plays Football as an Independent, San Diego plays in the Pioneer Football League for teams who play non-scholarship Football, and the other eight WCC teams do not play Football.

67 teams, which is 18.5 percent, are undefeated.

I wonder if we will get any poll votes if we win.

[Wags]

Eh LOTS of respect for them, truly one of the great mid major programs, but not intimidated and neither will the team be. HUs program is legit too, Arkansas was and is better than SMC, and nearly toppling Houston (WAY better) and Maryland (on par) too, and all on the road.

If it wasn't for this, I'd expect a blowout loss. But, because of this, even with the new pieces that weren't there for the games you mention above, I expect Speedy and staff to have this team fully ready for this challenge, and who knows? From what I have also seen from Thomas on the floor in a Hofstra uniform, and from hearing him speak this so far this season, he is one new piece that is absolutely looking forward to this and who will not back down from any opponent. Will he be able play big in a very difficult spot like this? I don't know, we'll see. But I know he will definitely one visiting player who will at least be trying to go right at SMC tonight.

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2022 ... marys.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Saint Mary's." The 85-76 win over San Jose State was our third unicorn score of the season, meaning the first time we won by that score. I wonder how many scores we won by and what our most common win score is, but I am not typing all the scores in Excel to find out. Estrada is the only player to have at least games with at least 27 points.

Saint Mary's links to statistics from Sidearm Stats at https://smcgaels.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary so I was surprised the Jerry linked to http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/sta ... 1&gid=hofs which links to http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcas ... slive=hofs that is the format that all CAA teams use and that I prefer. I do not remember any recent games having two statistics formats during the game.

[Wags]

Jeff Goodman lists this as one of his top games today:

https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops/status ... 3371695104

[Wags]

If anyone needs the direct link to watch:
https://wccsports.com/watch/?sid=493986

Lunardi is doing color. He said since HU has a DStone, he wants to be J-Lu.

Can we go 2-0 against the Gaels this year?

[Wags]

17-10, SMC at the U12 (9:52)

Both teams shooting <40%.

Boards: 13-7, SMC
2nd-Chance Pts: 5-0, SMC

[Pride97]

Can’t buy a bucket. Ice cold. Shockingly not taking many threes but missing layups.

Surprised to see Tomasco in. Actually has a block so far.


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[Wags]

Hofstra only 1/9 after starting 4/8.
But SMC only 2/10 after starting 5/11.

Saint Mary's up, 17-10, at the U8 (7:14).

Tomasco and NBY doing a good job against SMC's bigs to keep HU in the game thus far.

[Wags]

SMC defense not what HU used to - on three different occasions, they were forced into travels or a 3-second violation in the paint (3 TOs they probably wouldn't have had against other teams).

[Wags]

SMC scored the last eight of the half to break it open. Gaels lead, 34-18.

May be too late, but I think Hofstra needs to do what I said yesterday - press and trap (if they can) in the second half to speed the game up. They will never rally playing at SMC's pace. Pride has more TOs (10, already a season-high) than FGM (8). HU 0/7 from, SMC 4/7 from there. No assists yet for Hofstra!