MBB @ Drexel, Thursday, 2/10/22, 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

Our men hit the road for three games in six days, starting at Drexel Thursday night. Hofstra has won 10 of the last 11 games with Drexel. All three games are on Flohoops:

https://gohofstra.com/news/2022/2/8/men ... rexel.aspx

Hofstra and Drexel have met on the basketball court 95 times, with the Pride leading the series by one game. The only team we have played more? Delaware who we will take on Saturday for the 99th time.

[EvanJ]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... game25.pdf is our Game Notes. Ray has more career 20 point games than the rest of our players for us combined. Estrada has more 30 point games and more 10 assist games (the only one) than the rest of our players for us combined. Iyiola has more 10 rebound games for us than the rest of our players for us combined. Two seasons ago when we started Ray, Buie, Pemberton, Kante, and Coburn, I doubt anybody had more than the rest of the team combined like that.

Camren Wynter has gotten closer to Estrada for the lead in assists. Estrada has 4.8, and Wynter has 4.6. If it ends that way, Wynter will finish second behind a different player in four consecutive seasons including a Hofstra player in three consecutive seasons (Buie and Burgess). It looked like Wynter's 541 assists are tenth in CAA history, but I checked our Record Book, and it turns out that Buie's 548 are tied for ninth before this season, but they left him out.

[triplec2195]

So just thought I would throw it out there. James Butler who has been there rock down low has missed some games and recently has been coming in off the bench. He has played well against us and had some epic battles against Kante. So has he been beaten out of the starting roll here by Amari Williams who's a BIG BOY or are they just easing him in since returning from his injury? Also just an FYI neither Butler or Cooks played in the first matchup in Hempstead. If Cooks continues to elevate his game he could be the X-FACTOR in this one.

[EvanJ]

A Drexel fan wants them to have Butler and Williams play together sometimes. Williams improved his field goal percentage to .046 worse than Butler, with very few threes made (6 by Butler and 2 by Williams). What makes Williams special is that he is tied for 44th in the country with exactly 2 blocks. Butler has blocked 3 shots, which is very low for a big man. Williams has blocked 40 shots in 4 fewer minutes. Lamar Oden Jr. (5.4 points and shoots threes .451) and Trevion Brown (2.5 points) were injured when they played us.

[HUSID80]

ESPN has Drexel as a 1.5 point favorite and gives the Dragons a 54 plus percentage chance of winning.

I think this is a pretty even game with only the home court tilting it in Drexel’s favor.

The next two road games are critical as both the Dragons and Delaware are right behind us in the standings.

[EvanJ]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... conference is titled "Who could win Player of the Year in every college basketball conference?" It says:

"Colonial Athletic Association

Aaron Estrada, Hofstra Pride

If you go back to his freshman year of high school, Estrada is on his fifth stop. He attended two different high schools, and Hofstra is his third college after stints at Oregon and Saint Peter's. But he's found a home with the Pride. The 6-3 junior is averaging 24.1 PPG in conference action for a squad that entered the week in a tie for third place in the league. He's also made 59% of his shots inside the arc during league play. Estrada's a difference-maker for the Pride: Hofstra has averaged an additional 13 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor compared to when he's on the bench, per hooplens.com.

Top Competition: Camren Wynter, Drexel Dragons (16.7 PPG and a perfect 29-for-29 mark from the free throw line in CAA action entering the week)
Wynter leads a Drexel squad that is fourth in offensive efficiency in the CAA, per KenPom."

What makes Estrada better than Wynter is shooting. Wynter averages 0.2 rebounds and 0.2 assists fewer than Estrada. What would help Wynter is if voters think he is the star of his team and think Estrada is a co-star. Of the thirteen individual statistics, the one that Wynter is above Estrada in is minutes, where Wynter leads the CAA.

[triplec2195]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... conference is titled "Who could win Player of the Year in every college basketball conference?" It says:

"Colonial Athletic Association

Aaron Estrada, Hofstra Pride

If you go back to his freshman year of high school, Estrada is on his fifth stop. He attended two different high schools, and Hofstra is his third college after stints at Oregon and Saint Peter's. But he's found a home with the Pride. The 6-3 junior is averaging 24.1 PPG in conference action for a squad that entered the week in a tie for third place in the league. He's also made 59% of his shots inside the arc during league play. Estrada's a difference-maker for the Pride: Hofstra has averaged an additional 13 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor compared to when he's on the bench, per hooplens.com.

Top Competition: Camren Wynter, Drexel Dragons (16.7 PPG and a perfect 29-for-29 mark from the free throw line in CAA action entering the week)
Wynter leads a Drexel squad that is fourth in offensive efficiency in the CAA, per KenPom."

What makes Estrada better than Wynter is shooting. Wynter averages 0.2 rebounds and 0.2 assists fewer than Estrada. What would help Wynter is if voters think he is the star of his team and think Estrada is a co-star. Of the thirteen individual statistics, the one that Wynter is above Estrada in is minutes, where Wynter leads the CAA.

Good post Evan and what a lot of us have been saying for quite some time now. He has one strong game after another and covets the rock. His three point shooting has drastically improved and he has few flaws. We'll see both him and Wynter tonite in the same game so lets see who shows out.
The game in Hempstead we were fortunate to win after Wynter's shot rimmed in and out. Probably a very close game.

[EvanJ]

https://drexeldragons.com/news/2022/2/9 ... e-dac.aspx is titled "Dragons and Hofstra Meet in CAA Clash on Thursday Night at the DAC." They wrote a preview yesterday, but have not made Game Notes yet.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-941968.html is a topic that starts with dan10 predicting us to win 84-76.

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=367237 will have statistics.

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2022 ... rexel.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Hofstra at Drexel." Burgess became our first player since at least 2002-2003 to have no points and at least 7 assists. It was the first time we had eight players play at least 17 minutes against a Division I team since
an 80-69 loss at Maryland on November 16, 2018. KenPom expects Drexel to win 74-72. Hofstra has won 15 of their last 17 against Drexel to lead the series 48-47.

We are the only one of 358 teams to have at least 6 wins while allowing at least 77 points.

[Wags]

Burgess became our first player since at least 2002-2003 to have no points and at least 7 assists.

Interesting stats here and on allowing 77+ pts. Kudos to Burgess to get this many assists despite not scoring a point in a very big game.

KenPom expects Drexel to win 74-72. Hofstra has won 15 of their last 17 against Drexel to lead the series 48-47.

Hope it goes the other way, of course, but this kind of score would go right along with HU's last two games after regulation (71-71, 73-71). Rinse, repeat. Not sure why some think it should be much easier to win this conference. A lot of the games are scores like those. It's a very competitive league, one that's tough to win.

We are the only one of 358 teams to have at least 6 wins while allowing at least 77 points.

My first instinct is, not good. Need much better D than that. But then, it says something positive about the offense and about the team that they are the only team in the entire nation that can win that way that frequently.

[Polito]

This teams D has left a lot to be desired considering how much Speedy has talked a big game about it being a focus and necessity under his leadership - haven't seen that - it's been pretty soft on this team as the season has gone on. They need to step that up.

Wynter and Estrada bring a lot of excitement to this matchup. Feb is when it all matters, this is the time to progress towards playing your best ball in time for March. HU has battled on the road, let's see how they handle this road trip. At this point, you hope to see a team ready and fully focused for a straight 'business trip'...

[Wags]

Never heard a call like this for a dunk before. LOL

Nice one though by Dubar.

https://twitter.com/HofstraMBB/status/1 ... 3478516736

[HUSID80]

This teams D has left a lot to be desired considering how much Speedy has talked a big game about it being a focus and necessity under his leadership - haven't seen that - it's been pretty soft on this team as the season has gone on. They need to step that up.

Wynter and Estrada bring a lot of excitement to this matchup. Feb is when it all matters, this is the time to progress towards playing your best ball in time for March. HU has battled on the road, let's see how they handle this road trip. At this point, you hope to see a team ready and fully focused for a straight 'business trip'...

Come on Pols. We win handily on the road to give us some separation for third place. I will take this win anytime.
Also Estrada solidifies his position as the CAA POY!

[Pride97]

Estrada was unstoppable tonight. Solid win. Grabbed a lead in the 2nd half and closed it out without any excitement. Good to see Ray contribute tonight.

I really like Bey, but he has so many issues finishing. Simmons looks like the better offensive player lately.

[Cards]

Also Estrada solidifies his position as the CAA POY!

Both HU and Estrada would have to crater over the remaining games for him not to win it. Geez, if he has a typical "Aaron" game on Saturday, he'll win player of the week again!

[HofstraMathew]

Didn't get a chance to watch the game as I am still grinding away at the office but the live stats looked like we played a solid game and closed it out in the 2nd half. 2/3rd's of the way through the season and we have split with the top team in the conference, lost both to the 2nd place team and a bad loss to W&M. Now we have a key game on Saturday with the team we are tied in the loss column with.

[stuball888]

Lost in Estrada and Rays great games. Bey with 10 and 10 and Simmons with 6 points and 8 boards. Our centers combined to give us 16 points and 18 rebounds. Sign me up for that every time.

[Cards]

Lost in Estrada and Rays great games. Bey with 10 and 10 and Simmons with 6 points and 8 boards. Our centers combined to give us 16 points and 18 rebounds. Sign me up for that every time.

You're right Stu, quietly putting up good numbers. Might not be pretty, but the numbers don't lie!

[Wags]

This teams D has left a lot to be desired considering how much Speedy has talked a big game about it being a focus and necessity under his leadership - haven't seen that - it's been pretty soft on this team as the season has gone on. They need to step that up.

Wynter and Estrada bring a lot of excitement to this matchup. Feb is when it all matters, this is the time to progress towards playing your best ball in time for March. HU has battled on the road, let's see how they handle this road trip. At this point, you hope to see a team ready and fully focused for a straight 'business trip'...

Come on Pols. We win handily on the road to give us some separation for third place. I will take this win anytime.

In fairness, he posted that about the D before tonight's game.

[EvanJ]

Our centers combined to give us 16 points and 18 rebounds. Sign me up for that every time.

Amari Williams and James Butler combined for 6 rebounds. Butler entered averaging 8.0, and Williams entered averaging 6.8. It was the fifth time from 2010-2011 to now that we had at least 11 more rebounds and at least 9 more turnovers. Those games include us scoring 43 and 96.

We shot threes 9-16 (.563), which is our highest since we shot threes 14-23 (.609) in a 91-46 win hosting Delaware on December 28, 2018. That was 103 games ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRTKDuizQQ8 is highlights.

W&M led 41-33 early in the second half before host Towson won 75-60 on CBS Sports Network. After showing our game on Monday, today CBS Sports Network got the CAA game with the biggest margin.

Delaware hosted Northeastern. Delaware went from up 19-7 to down 47-42 to up 72-55 to win 74-61. Kevin Anderson, Jameer Nelson Jr., and Jyare Davis combined to score 52 and shoot 24-33. Delaware shot free throws 2-6. All of the attempts were by Andrew Carr, who entered shooting .750. Five of Delaware's players scored at least 8, and the other three did not score.

Elon won 70-66 at JMU. Elon had only one player score double-digits. It was Hunter McIntosh, who made 5 threes and scored a season-high 23. Both teams shot 22-54.