Hofstra vs. William & Mary, Sunday, March 4 at 12 Noon

[dutchPride86]

It really is incredible how bad this conference has gotten. But it's also really incredible the level Speedy is getting this team to consistently play at

[Polito]

Absolute straight FIRE - that might be the most dominating half we’ve seen in modern HU ball - love EVERY bit it

THIS is what I want to see from this program - focused, on a mission, making a statement.

Now finish this strong and fast, NO let up, and rest for tomorrow.

[Hofstra]

1 down. 2 to go. Lets gooooooo

[Cards]

That was truly embarrassing for a once solid program.

Keep it up Pride!

[mikey75]

W&M has never recovered from the firing of Tony Shaver and they fired him when he might have had his best team. Many of his players transferred out to programs higher on the food chain.

[Wags]

HU set CAA tournament records for biggest halftime lead and for biggest win.

First half: W&M 14, Estrada 14. Everyone else: 37-0, Hofstra.

Another game this year that Hofstra could have won had they gone scoreless in the second half.

[HUSID80]

Ok one down, two to go, it was not so much how poor WM was it was how GOOD we were especially coming right from the start!
We need to do that 2 more games, take our opponents out right from the start.
Message sent to the rest of the League.

[EvanJ]

We won 94-46 to more than double William & Mary. There were no team timeouts that did not double as media timeouts, and the teams combined for 16 fouls. Our margin was one-third greater than the previous CAA Tournament record of 36 in Monmouth's 100-64 win over Hampton on Friday. We used all 13 players, but our 71 bench minutes still were not much compared to what other teams would do in blowouts. Estrada and Thomas led us with 32 minutes, and six players including Washington played at least 20 minutes. I wish I could find out the fewest minutes by a player who had a four-point play because Aiden Best did that as part of scoring 6 in 2:14. Thomas (9-11) and Estrada (9-13) scored 22 by chooting 18-24 (.750) inlcuding threes 7-9 (.778) and free throws 1-2 (1-2 by Estrada). Estrada had 10 rebounds for the only double-double on either team, and had 3 assists. Carlos scored 15 and led all players with 4 assists. Dubar and Washington scored 9, Best scored 6, Williams scored 4 and had 9 rebounds, Marshall scored 3, and Tomasco and Boachie-Yiadom scored 2. Plotnikov (0-3), Barrouk (0-1), and Galgano (0-1) did not score, but all thirteen players shot. It was the first time we had at least thirteen players attempt a field goal since a 74-59 win hosting Dartmouth on December 17, 2005, which was 570 games ago. Antoine Agudio (14), Loren Stokes (13), Adrian Uter (6), Zygis Sestokas (5), Carlos Rivera (5), Aurimas Kieza (3), Kenny Harris (2), Arminas Urbutis (2), Greg Johnson (2), Mike Davis-Sabb (1), Chris Gadley (1), Ryan Johnson (1), and Jorge Lebron (1). What I remember about Lebron was when we fouled to try to come back in a 77-68 loss at UNCW on February 15, 2006. Since we did not want other players to foul out, Lebron got the job of fouling, and he fouled out while playing 1 minute. Stokes, Uter, and Greg Johnson also fouled out of that game. We had 19 more rebounds 44 to 25, which was our best margin since we had 43 rebounds and allowed 21 rebounds in a 96-88 win at Monmouth on December 15, 2020. Anders Nelson was William & Mary's only double-digit scorer with 15. Ben Wight and Chris Mullins had 9 points and led them with 6 rebounds. Wight shot 4-13 while attempting 1 three. Miguel Ayesa shot threes 2-9 and did not attempt any other shots. He blocked a shot for the first time since February 1, 2020, which was hosting us. He is a senior who has never blocked a shot by another CAA team, and has blocked more of our shots than against all other Division I teams combined.

Jameer Nelson Jr. needs 10 points against Towson to remain above Estrada in scoring. Cameron Holden needs 6 assists against Delaware to pass Carlos for the CAA lead.

Through six of twelve games, winning teams outscored losing teams 484-341, which is an average margin of 23.8, and only Delaware won by fewer than 15. 15 of 117 CAA regular season games (12.8 percent) were decided by at least 24.

[Wags]

Monmouth and William & Mary had a combined 125-point swing from their first CAA tournament games to their next ones.
Monmouth: 55-point swing, from winning by 36 to losing by 19.
William & Mary, a 70-point swing, from winning by 22 to losing by 48.

[daHUPride]

WOW

[HofstraMathew]

I am going to say we need this to be a blowout. With 3 games in a row and us actually having a deep rotation we need to take advantage of that. Have our key guys play 30 minutes per game. Get the bench playing 50-60 minutes in this game. Help set us up to be rested for Monday.

Got a bit more bench minutes that I hoped. Great game to set us up well for two more in a row.

[EvanJ]

We shot so well that we made 7 of our last 9 field goals after we played, as my screen shot shows.

Drexel led by 12 in the second half, but UNCW went on a 16-0 run, and won 73-68. Neither team had depth. Drexel had Yame Butler play 6:26 and get injured, and they still only used eight players. UNCW used ten players, Eight played at least 15 minutes, one played 3 minutes, and one played 7 seconds. UNCW's Nick Farrer played 17 minutes off the bench and led all scorers with 19. UNCW's Trazarien White had 14 points by shooting field goals 6-7 and free throws 1-3, and led all players with 8 rebounds. Justin Moore led Drexel with 16 points and 4 assists, and was second on his team with 6 rebounds. Amari Williams had 13 points and 7 rebounds. All four CAA teams that played today committed under 10 turnovers, with UNCW and Drexel committing 8. UNCW and Drexel did not block any shots, which is surprising for a game with Williams, who entered leading the CAA by far with 2.31 blocks. Drexel entered leading the CAA in scoring defense, with UNCW second, and Drexel still leads in that category.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=459218 will have statistics for Stony Brook vs. Charleston. The line and over/under make a score of 83-64. KenPom expects Charleston to win 81-63 with a 95 percent chance of winning.

KenPom expects us to beat UNCW 72-66 with a 71 percent chance of winning.

[Wags]

Asked UNCW Coach Sidle about the two very different halves in Hofstra's win over UNCW earlier this year. He said "Hofstra is the best defensive team in our league."

[triplec2195]

I mean could there have been a more dominant win. I watched the entire replay of this game and just couldn't believe how one sided it was. This is a bit like a deja-vu from our 12/22 game against Old Westbury a D-2(3) team where we won 96 -48 except that we were playing a D-1 team. Of course Estrada didn't play in that game. When we have both D-Stone and Carlos contributing and playing in your face man to man D almost any team will be hard pressed to beat us. Just way too many options. A good point made by Wags about not scoring in the second half and still winning this game. Not trying to compare W&M to a D2 team here and be disrespectful but my God very hard to figure this game of basketball. UNCW is going to have their hands full tomorrow unless we totally choke and we know that's not going to happen. Kudos to us on a incredible win.

[Wags]

I mean could there have been a more dominant win.

Well, it's 15-2 Charleston at the first MTO (15:24) off of a 40-point Charleston win over Stony Brook to close the regular season. Hoping Hofstra's record stands for more than just a few hours.

[Jojogunne]

Asked UNCW Coach Sidle about the two very different halves in Hofstra's win over UNCW earlier this year. He said "Hofstra is the best defensive team in our league."

https://youtu.be/EYkYpd9-Uto?t=348

[triplec2195]

I mean could there have been a more dominant win.

Well, it's 15-2 Charleston at the first MTO (15:24) off of a 40-point Charleston win over Stony Brook to close the regular season. Hoping Hofstra's record stands for more than just a few hours.

Isn't that crazy the two sided coins in this tourney so far. S.B. played well yesterday but just look at the competition. It says it all.

[Wags]

I mean could there have been a more dominant win.

Well, it's 15-2 Charleston at the first MTO (15:24) off of a 40-point Charleston win over Stony Brook to close the regular season. Hoping Hofstra's record stands for more than just a few hours.

Isn't that crazy the two sided coins in this tourney so far. S.B. played well yesterday but just look at the competition. It says it all.

Shows just how top-heavy this conference is. They often talk about the eye test with Power 5s. Hofstra don't have the resume and Charleston's resume may fall just short, but both teams pass the eye test right now. Yet we never hear about the eye test with mid-majors.

[Flying Dutchmen]

That's how you start the tournament. May have closed out the Dane Fischer era for W&M.

Nice to see Carlos find the range, it will be tough to overcommit to Estrada if everyone is scoring.

[Polito]

Asked UNCW Coach Sidle about the two very different halves in Hofstra's win over UNCW earlier this year. He said "Hofstra is the best defensive team in our league."

That is high praise, and the kind of stuff that really matters. And quite different from the first half of the year when this team looked lost everywhere in every way for way too long. We can't deny that the CAA overall is a terrible league with awful basketball in 80% of it, and that is a big part of HU's (and CofC's) success... BUT this has also become a very good team, one of the best mid majors - both can be and are true.

That statement has me feeling even better than I already do. CofC is going to be a monster to take down, but IF HU truly does have the best D in the league, with their talent and coaching, I will feel pretty confident in the odds of this group cutting nets.