MBB Game 15 Delaware, Jan 4 (Sat), 2 PM

[triplec2195]

As if it hasn't been said enough Thomas needs to shoot less and pass more. We need to get away from the Tyler Thomas show the same way we used to preach this about JWF. At times too many times our PG passes the ball to Tyler who goes into his one on one routine while everyone watches. Like has been said on two occasions that I recall he passed once to Plotnikov who had a wide open three the other when he was on the left wing and being double teamed he made a nice pass to Carlos who finally hit a wide open three in the left corner. This is what he needs to do more and Carlos has to shoot better. He missed wide open shots in this game and I would love to see him perfect his floater. I rarely see him hit that shot.

I'm hoping that we'll see moving forward more of a balanced attack and not just scoring from three players. We were able to benefit from our size in the post in this game as Delaware plays small but what happens to Fritz when he has to play against the bigger PF's and centers in this league. We again gave Washington minutes and he answered the bell and made some contributions. The balanced scoring in this game with fewer Tyler shots needs to be more of the prototype moving forward.

[HUSID80]

The emergence of Fritz will be critical to the success of this team going forward...we need to keep him involved in the offense...so far of what I've seen he is the best big man in the CAA when he playes like he did yesterday...also the most athletic.
Poor Plotnikov, he has to guard oppoent's big men as Sunday is not agile enough to handle the chore, hence he's in fould trouble due to those mis-matches.
As for Thomas agreed, Dubar should get more touches, but that up to the guards to get him the ball...during that lull in the second half we ran NOTHING for him....a mistake!

[Wags]

Poor Plotnikov, he has to guard oppoent's big men as Sunday is not agile enough to handle the chore, hence he's in fould trouble due to those mis-matches

Speedy said this of Plotnikov after yesterday's game:
“He’s interesting for us because we kind of move him around, from the 3, to the 4, to the 5, and to his credit, he knows exactly what to do at every position. He’s a valuable piece to the team and we’re happy to have him.”

As for Thomas agreed, Dubar should get more touches, but that up to the guards to get him the ball...during that lull in the second half we ran NOTHING for him....a mistake!

What are the film sessions, practices, and in-game media timeouts and other timeouts for if this is not recognized and not directed to the guards from the staff?

And, how can this be true?
“He’s a really good shooter. He had great looks. I’ll take those looks any day [or] night from Tyler. I know more than likely, he’s going to make those shots, so I’m not worried about it at all.”

I would rather hear, "We need to get him better looks and put him in a better position to succeed with his shooting" or "we need to change his shot selection a little" because if he is getting "great looks" and he's missing them, then how can he be a great shooter? That logic doesn't work. Yes, he's a great shooter sometimes, but great shooters are great consistently. Again, he's shooting 41% or less in 8 of 14 games this year, and some of those have been well under 40%. He was great when he started 4/6 (all from 3) yesterday, but terrible when he finished 0/9 from 3 yesterday. He was great going 6/8 from 3 against St. John's, but terrible going 2/10 otherwise against St. John's. Are they ALL good looks? I don't think so. The facts that he airballed two heavily contested ones yesterday and ariballed another against Charleston when it looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to shoot or pass on that one says he needs a bit more direction on his decision-making and shot selection to improve his efficiency.

Every shooter has what works for them, and it may be too late at this point to adjust mechanics to something that's still comfortable for him, but it seems he's not getting the ball up high, he's holding it directly in front of his face and he's also placing his left hand too much on top of the ball rather than where you'd normally see it for a right-handed shooter, on the left side of the ball, even though his right hand is where you'd expect it (behind the ball) for a right-handed shooter. I don't know if it's that because he's shown that shooting that way, he can have success, so it's still the first one, about the looks and shot selection. But what we're hearing doesn't quite jive. I think they need to reel him in a little bit with selection and find some ways to take some pressure off of him with opponents keying on him, doubling him, and making it difficult for him - it's not an easy adjustment to take over Estrada's role as the #1 every night even though he did do that fairly often down the stretch last season. He needs help from his staff and teammates to put him in the best possible position to be as efficient as he can be because without an efficient Thomas the rest of the way, they won't cut the nets in DC.

[Polito]

Ok, much better game and start, very good to see. Now we have to be fair and admit UD played terrible - that's part of this win. But HU clearly did their part. I even enjoyed the post-game for once - usually useless, but this one finally had something, and it was great to see Speedy, Dubar, and Fritz interacting like that.

Agree fully wags, the lies or delusions or coach speak about TT's shooting is asinine. I have to believe this is Speedy protecting TT. He just can't be this foolish with his experience (I hope). Anyone with stats and a pair of eyes knows this kids shooting is horrendous. Can't even make FT's. As all have said, he HAS to take less shots. His efficiency is garbage and frankly he kills the teams momentum. He's not a 1, end of story. And fine, he will flourish again once that expectation is removed from him.

As I have said for weeks, and Speedy finally confirmed, a change in strategy was much needed. Not sure why it takes weeks and mounting losses for that to be recognized and actioned, but at least it's been acknowledged. This team was different in the first half because they stopped running the entire O through TT and allowed the rest of the team to perform. Guys like JC shined. In the second half, they stupidly went back to forcing TT, or perhaps TT stupidly went back to forcing it, and the team tanked allowing UD to catch right back up in a game that shouldn't have been close.

SPEEDY has GOT to stop this nonsense. My expectation of this staff is to handle things like this with urgency - they are leaders and paid to adjust, develop, and maximize productivity from the team. If they don't, they're weak and won't dance. This is simple - have a heart to heart with TT and correct this going forward. Having crucial conversations is what you have to do as a leader for the betterment of all, period.

Dubar is your stud, it's not a question, maximize him all game and this team can win. It's amazing how they "magically" played better yesterday - why I've been so frustrated is because they SHOULD be better. The coaching and team play has been unacceptable and unsustainable. This definitely isn't the most talented HU team, but they can certainly play well enough in this crappy league. They didn't all of a sudden become better, they just finally took the right approach. This has been squarely on the staff, as I've said. And the lagging player development still is.

I'm not a big fan of Fritz style, but I loved his energy yesterday - he needs to bring that fire every game, and he said so himself post-game. He made a difference yesterday. Still gets his butt beat way too often, but I'll take that stat line from him any time.

HUSID, pump the brakes lolol. He isn't the best big in the CAA, not yet at least. Not sure how you got there after one decent game and literally just got annihilated by CofC And he's been lit up all season - Dubar does half the work for him down low - couple of decent games sprinkled in, but he's had way more bad than good - how about let's just see him do it again next game on the road. Needs to build a track record.

All in all, better - very long way to go, I don't believe in this team yet, but this was a start. Let's see them show this wasn't an anomaly now.

[EvanJ]

Thomas made 2 of 3 free throws yesterday and 4 of his last 8, but he's still shooting them 36-42 (.857), so you can't complain. Fritz is shooting .679. In recent seasons, we got great shooting from guys who rarely or never shot threes. Fritz this season; Warren Williams and Nelson Boachie-Yiadom in 2022-2023; and Abayomi Iyiola, Kvonn Cramer, and Jarrod Simmons in 2021-2022 all shot over .600. Jacquil Taylor shot .713 in 2018-2019.

Thomas shoots threes well, averages 4.7 rebounds that is great for a player as short as 6-3, and his 3.1 assists are more than some point guards while being teammates with a guy who ranks seventh in Division I. Hopefully he is just in a slump, but having a slumping shooter shoot more than he usually does is a bad combination. In his last four games he shot 29-90 (.322) including twos 13-41 (.317) and threes 16-49 (.327). The threes were 10-41 in the three games other than 6-8 against St. John's. It's the .317 shooting twos that is the problem, and he shoots twos 55-128 (.430) for the season. His 19.3 field goal attempts per game lead the country, and the second most is 18.2 by Denver's Tommy Bruner, who leads in points per game, and I saw him play at Omaha, where I live. As seniors, Charles Jenkins had the 37th most field goal attempts per game, and Justin Wright-Foreman had the eighth most field goal attempts per game.

[Wags]

The problem with Thomas is the streakiness and not recognizing when to get better 2s or pass rather than forcing 3s or not so great 2s. And above all else, it's taking way too many 3s vs. 2s and looking to get to the line in games when he's not hitting the 3 (see below - in all of his bad shooting games this year, which is now more than half of the games played this season, the 3 attempts are at least half of significantly more than half of his total shots while not making many 3s).

No problem at all with starting 4/6, all from 3, yesterday. It's what helped them to the 12-point halftime lead. But when he then goes 4/20 including 0/9 from 3 after that, to finish the game 8/26 and 4/15 from 3, when no one else on the team is getting more than 13 shots - not even Dubar, who shot a typically efficient 7/13 - that's bad decision making and hurts the offense. He, his teammates, and the staff, have to recognize when he has the hot hand and to go with it vs. when he's being keyed on more and has cooled off significantly and to adjust rather than just allowing him to shoot themselves out of a big lead or out of a game completely.

And particularly yesterday, on the heels of an almost identical 9/26 and 3/15 On Thursday night, to go then go 8/26 and 4/15 despite a hot 4/6 start all from 3, where is the learning and adjusting off of Thursday? Can't say those two games are an aberration rather than a trend at this point, either:

vs. Princeton 4/16, 2/8
at GW 8/22, 4/12
at Iona 3/12, 2/7
at St. Louis 10/25, 3/12
vs. Norfolk State 7/17, 5/14
at UNLV 4/20, 3/11
vs. St. John's 2/10 from 2 despite 6/8 from 3
vs. Charleston 9/26, 3/15 (one airball)
vs. Delaware 8/26, 4/15 (two airballs)

[dutchPride86]

So I think what's been so confounding about this season for me is that offense has NEVER been the main issue with this team. As much as we're all rightly critical of the staff for the shot selection and letting Thomas' hero ball attempts get out of hand... the staff really does deserve some credit for changing the culture defensively. I know there are occasional lapses guarding the 3-ball, but for the most part really think they've been better than expected on that end...

They held Charleston to 73 pts... is that great? No. But in context of Charleston averaging nearly 80 and scoring at least 84 in each of the other 6 games on their current 7 game win streak (including dropping 93 on Stony Brook yesterday), they actually held up well on that end.

Delaware had scored 80+ in 3 straight games going into yesterday's game. Dubar almost completely neutralized a first team CAA lock in Jyare Davis, his 11 pts yesterday was his 2nd fewest in a game this season. And even though they almost collapsed in the 2nd half, Hofstra did clamp down enough and held Delaware to just 2 FGs in the final 4 minutes yesterday.

For the season Hofstra is 3rd best in the conference in opponents FG%, 5th in ppg allowed, and somehow 3rd in blocks. If this was even an average offensive team by Hofstra's standards that level of defense would be more than enough to win the league

But the schedule really does open up now, after playing 5 of 6 against teams ranked in the top 135 in both the NET and KenPom, Hofstra has a stretch of 10 straight games before seeing another team ranked that high again (at Drexel on Feb. 15). And their only losses to teams ranked worse than 135 were the two A10 road games. Here's hoping they can find a groove now and Thomas gets his mojo back (by shooting less of course!).

[Wags]

So I think what's been so confounding about this season for me is that offense has NEVER been the main issue with this team.

Very true - and despite some offensive issues, they normally, one way or another, find enough points. Even yesterday, they found a way to 76 and a win, but the 61 against Charleston, with similar offensive issues, was way too low and not enough to beat a team like that. So it has to be fixed if they want to beat the best in the CAA.

the staff really does deserve some credit for changing the culture defensively.

No argument there. They are 106-19 (.848) over the past 10 seasons allowing <70 pts. A good chunk of that (30-4) has already come in the 2+ years of the Speedy era, so major kudos there.

Also, they didn't ask for Wilmouth to be out or for Silas to be fairly ineffective, and dealing with that on the fly, finding creative ways to use Plotnikov at the 3, 4, even the 5, for instance, to help out, deserves credit.

Yesterday, Davis came in as Delaware's leading scorer at 19.3 ppg. He started with 7 early pts on 3/4 fg in the first 8:25 and then scored 4 pts on 1/8 fg the rest of the way. That was a huge reason for the win. Speedy noted it yesterday: “It started with ‘Stone. I think he did a tremendous job on Davis, who’s a very tough matchup, and he took it upon himself to shut him down… he's a load down there.”

And as you said, Stony Brook put up 87 and still lost because Charleston scored 93 on the back end of two Long Island games in about 48 hours. So, to hold Charleston 73, when the Cougars should have been more fresh on that short trip, definitely wasn't the problem.

But the schedule really does open up now, after playing 5 of 6 against teams ranked in the top 135 in both the NET and KenPom, Hofstra has a stretch of 10 straight games before seeing another team ranked that high again (at Drexel on Feb. 15). And their only losses to teams ranked worse than 135 were the two A10 road games. Here's hoping they can find a groove now and Thomas gets his mojo back (by shooting less of course!).

There are definite opportunities ahead with the schedule. That's why, like every year, I always say - give it the first six CAA games, one-third of the way through before we have some idea where things are headed. And even then, maybe the next six games to really know. Right now, at 1-1 and looking at the rest of the schedule, I see about 12-6 in the CAA. I see them holding serve at home with possible road losses at Stony Brook, Monmouth, Drexel, UNCW, and Charleston, but if they can fix some things, there is the potential to get to 14-4, maybe even 15-3. Time will tell.

[HUSID80]

Polito, "HUSID, pump the brakes lolol. He isn't the best big in the CAA, not yet at least. Not sure how you got there after one decent game and literally just got annihilated by CofC And he's been lit up all season - Dubar does half the work for him down low - couple of decent games sprinkled in, but he's had way more bad than good - how about let's just see him do it again next game on the road. Needs to build a track record."

Ok Pols, he was NOT annihilated vs Charleston. In fact over the course of the first wo CAA games he is AVERAGING nearly a DOUBLE/DOUBLE, 9.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game...NOT SHABBY and he appears to have a higher ceiling than most with his agressive play, intelligence and athleticism.

[triplec2195]

In retrospect I wasn't thrilled with Fritz' game until I looked at the box score and grabbing 10 boards was definitely significant against a team that rebounds well. He also had 3 assists a block and a steal. Would like to see him get more O rebounds only 3 and also score of that O rebounds. Being at that game it seemed like he was being out rebounded by much smaller players at times.

[Wags]

In retrospect I wasn't thrilled with Fritz' game until I looked at the box score and grabbing 10 boards was definitely significant against a team that rebounds well. He also had 3 assists a block and a steal. Would like to see him get more O rebounds only 3 and also score of that O rebounds. Being at that game it seemed like he was being out rebounded by much smaller players at times.

(actually nine boards but same point)

Did you see the 15 pts on a perfect 6/6 fg and 3/3 ft? They lose the game without that. That's why he was very deservedly at the postgame presser.

[triplec2195]

Gohofstra shows him getting 10 boards in the COC game but why quibble. He played a heck of a game against Delaware.

[Wags]

Gohofstra shows him getting 10 boards in the COC game but why quibble. He played a heck of a game against Delaware.

This is the Delaware game thread, so I thought you were talking about that game. But yeah, 9 and 10 in his last two games - good sign.