Game 17 vs. Elon on 1/4/2020 at 4:00 P.M.

[EvanJ]

Don’t see Trueheart or Hughes on the bench.

Both were out with the flu. Whole team has been fighting it the last few games.

Coburn committed his second foul under 6 minutes in, he sat for the rest of the half, and he played 17 minutes. Trueheart is useful if Coburn gets cold or in foul trouble. Hughes wouldn't be a big loss if Kante and Schutte remain healthy. Pemberton would be a big loss. After having 10 turnovers at halftime, we committed only 2 in the second half, and we went 13:49 without a turnover, which is over a third of the game.

The attendance was 1,809.

In the first 33 games I went to, the most a team scored was William & Mary's 95-93 win on January 2, 2017. In the last two games, three of four teams exceeded that, with JMU's 104-99 win in our Senior Day and today.

If you include the NCAA Tournament Second Round game that I was at until the first timeout when Purdue's Carsen Edwards scored 42 against Villanova, somebody has scored at least 40 in the last four times I went to a game. That was JWF's 42 hosting Northeastern including his winner at the buzzer after Vasa Pusica shot too soon, Matt Lewis with 40 against us on Senior Day, Edwards (I saw Florida State who I like beat Murray State in the first game of the doubleheader without anybody scoring 40 and left early in the second game to not pay for a hotel), and today.

Coburn committed his second foul under 6 minutes in, he sat for the rest of the half, and he played 17 minutes. After having 10 turnovers at halftime, we committed only 2 in the second half, and we went 13:49 without a turnover, which is over a third of the game.

The attendance was 1,809.

In the first 33 games I went to, the most a team scored was William & Mary's 95-93 win on January 2, 2017. In the last two games, three of four teams exceeded that, with JMU's 104-99 win in our Senior Day and today.

If you include the NCAA Tournament Second Round game that I was at until the first timeout when Purdue's Carsen Edwards scored 42 against Villanova, somebody has scored at least 40 in the last four times I went to a game. That was JWF's 42 hosting Northeastern including his winner at the buzzer after Vasa Pusica shot too soon, Matt Lewis with 40 against us on Senior Day, Edwards (I saw Florida State who I like beat Murray State in the first game of the doubleheader without anybody scoring 40 and left early in the second game to not pay for a hotel), and today.

[Cards]

Like to see more of Miranda today...he looked pretty good Wed.

Totally agree Husid. He came in today only for the last 2 minutes. Had a very strong spin move into the paint for a short jumper. I like this kid - not only a decent size guard (height wise) but has some beef to him also, looks to be pretty strong and does not play with timidity. I like CB as well, but he is the opposite in terms of timidity and confidence (typical freshman).

Elon is really bad. They have some halfway decent midsize guys, but they have no one of consequence over 6'5". I was hoping our bigs would really take them to school, but even with the decent numbers our guys had, there was not too much to get excited about. Lots of missed box outs, missed rebounds, and missed passes against poor competition. I was willing to cut our guys some slack for the first 15 games or so, but I am concerned with the play of our 5s. I'm still hoping for significant progress because it looks like these are "the guys" for the next several seasons.

Good to see OS hit some shots. I agree with others that he is clearly a shoot first and pass second guy (probably a shoot too much guy) but heck, if he's gonna shoot, hopefully he stays in the groove because he brings the potential for immediate offense.

Elon or not, DB was on fire today. Happy for him to have such a great game. As I have said, he is the glue for this team this year......and HU goes as DB goes!

[triplec2195]

I think we got the message the first time Evan but thanks for giving it to us twice Lol. I like for people here to give credit where credit is due and for everyone who casts shade on Kante lets give him some credit for stepping up his game and playing decent against W&M which Husid mentioned in a prior post and playing well tonight. His game is starting to evolve. Also lets give credit to Silverio for having a nice game and lets not nit pick the small stuff. This kid was playing with some poise tonite and has skills which I believe are going to help us immeasurably if he can stay consistent. He plays D, rebounds and can put the ball on the floor and we know he can shoot although he's been inconsistent for sure. Lets focus on the positive here a nice win against a team that played W&M tough. Kudos to Buie just an unbelievable game maybe our ticket to the dance!

[HofstraMathew]

EvanJ - I tried to look it up but what is the most points scored in a game by a Hofstra player? And where does buie’s 44 rank? I feel like JWF has a high 40’s game last season but before that can’t remember anyone being in the 40’s.

[HUSID74]

Like to see more of Miranda today...he looked pretty good Wed.

Totally agree Husid. He came in today only for the last 2 minutes. Had a very strong spin move into the paint for a short jumper. I like this kid - not only a decent size guard (height wise) but has some beef to him also, looks to be pretty strong and does not play with timidity. I like CB as well, but he is the opposite in terms of timidity and confidence (typical freshman).

Elon is really bad. They have some halfway decent midsize guys, but they have no one of consequence over 6'5". I was hoping our bigs would really take them to school, but even with the decent numbers our guys had, there was not too much to get excited about. Lots of missed box outs, missed rebounds, and missed passes against poor competition. I was willing to cut our guys some slack for the first 15 games or so, but I am concerned with the play of our 5s. I'm still hoping for significant progress because it looks like these are "the guys" for the next several seasons.

Good to see OS hit some shots. I agree with others that he is clearly a shoot first and pass second guy (probably a shoot too much guy) but heck, if he's gonna shoot, hopefully he stays in the groove because he brings the potential for immediate offense.

Elon or not, DB was on fire today. Happy for him to have such a great game. As I have said, he is the glue for this team this year......and HU goes as DB goes!

Cards, Farrelly said in the pre-game talk that Miranda is great when just playing basketball. He is having trouble working within the offense and defensive sets and calls. I think he is also having language issues. Joe mentioned this several times earlier in the year...I think he has great potential!

[HUSID74]

Kudos to Desure, Kante and the much maligned Silverio....limited roster due to illness yet we took care of business!

[Wags]

EvanJ - I tried to look it up but what is the most points scored in a game by a Hofstra player? And where does buie’s 44 rank? I feel like JWF has a high 40’s game last season but before that can’t remember anyone being in the 40’s.

JWF's 48 vs. W&M last year (the all-time Hofstra Arena/Mack record) and Bill Thieben's 48 vs. Union in 1954-55 are the Hofstra all-time single-game records. I believe Buie's 44 now ranks third.

[EvanJ]

EvanJ - I tried to look it up but what is the most points scored in a game by a Hofstra player? And where does buie’s 44 rank? I feel like JWF has a high 40’s game last season but before that can’t remember anyone being in the 40’s.

Here are the games with at least 44 from Hofstra's Record Book:

Tied 1. JWF vs. William & Mary in 2018-2019: 48
Tied 1. Bill Thieben vs. Wilkes in 1954-1955: 48
3. Steve Nisenson vs. Wagner in 1964-1965: 47
4. Steve Nisenson vs. West Chester in 1962-1963: 45
Tied 5. Demetrius Dudley vs. Central Connecticut State in 1992-1993: 44
Tied 5. Steve Nisenson vs. Catholic in 1963-1964: 44

Here is how many times each player scored at least 40:

JWF: 3
Nisenson: 3
Thieben: 2
Rich Laurel: 2
"Speedy" Claxton: 2
Dudley: 1
Bernard Tomlin: 1
Charles Jenkins: 1
Buie: 1
That's 9 players who did it 16 times.

There were five times when a Hofstra player in the CAA scored 37 to 39, with three by JWF, one by Jenkins, and one by Zeke Upshaw.

Edit: I used Page 105 of https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... de_Web.pdf and Wags posted a different opponent for Thieben's 48 point game.

[Wags]

Asked Joe after the game if he ever imagined Buie putting up numbers like 35 and 44, and he honestly and flatly said, "No."

As a senior, we all expected him to improve - assists up maybe, scoring up some, steals up a little, defense even better than before, etc., but I don't think anyone imagined him posting the 29, 35, and 44 that he's already scored in games this season. That part has been pretty shocking. I think we imagined Pemberton doing that if anyone at all on the team this year. But for Buie to score like that, while running the offense, while playing the good D he plays, has been pretty remarkable growth from that part of his game. This is now three times, and twice in the past three that he's putting up JWF-like scoring numbers. I don't think anyone saw that coming, maybe not even him. But after UCLA, Towson and Elon, it's definitely no fluke and likely more of that is yet to come, including in the CAA tourney at least once, I think.

[Wags]

EvanJ - I tried to look it up but what is the most points scored in a game by a Hofstra player? And where does buie’s 44 rank? I feel like JWF has a high 40’s game last season but before that can’t remember anyone being in the 40’s.

Here are the games with at least 44 from Hofstra's Record Book:

Tied 1. JWF vs. William & Mary in 2018-2019: 48
Tied 1. Bill Thieben vs. Wilkes in 1954-1955: 48
3. Steve Nisenson vs. Wagner in 1964-1965: 47
4. Steve Nisenson vs. West Chester in 1962-1963: 45
Tied 5. Demetrius Dudley vs. Central Connecticut State in 1992-1993: 44
Tied 5. Steve Nisenson vs. Catholic in 1963-1964: 44

Here is how many times each player scored at least 40:

JWF: 3
Nisenson: 3
Thieben: 2
Rich Laurel: 2
"Speedy" Claxton: 2
Dudley: 1
Bernard Tomlin: 1
Charles Jenkins: 1
Buie: 1
That's 9 players who did it 16 times.

There were five times when a Hofstra player in the CAA scored 37 to 39, with three by JWF, one by Jenkins, and one by Zeke Upshaw.

Edit: I used Page 105 of https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... de_Web.pdf and Wags posted a different opponent for Thieben's 48 point game.

The Hofstra media guide I have (and the one you linked to) lists Thieben's 48-point game being against Union (on page 101), but Evan, I do recall Wilkes being mentioned when JWF's 48-point game occurred last year.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Excellent rebound win tonight.

Buie's the man, he's the undisputed go-to guy, and he put the whole team on his back tonight. We played great overall, it's like a switch went on when we went down 9 early and that was it.

Kante showed some nice moves inside, and had his best game. Elon didn't have much size or put up a fight inside, but it was nice to see IK show some confident play. Nice to see Silverio make some buckets, we could use a Bernardi like perimeter shooter in this offense.

As mentioned before, the team is fighting the flu pretty badly. ST and HH out, Coburn is still fighting it, got sick on the bench Thursday, he's probably not 100% yet. Eli rolled his ankle, frankly he shouldn't have played the rest of the game, he was limping around when he was in there, he rolled it in Thursday's game too, I really don't get why he went back in, the game was under control. We need him as close to 100% as possible, pointless to risk it.

Love the resiliency of this team. Thursday was a brutal performance, maybe flu-induced, but a performance that could have lingered nonetheless. Apparently not with Buie leading the way. Huge test on Thursday, Northeastern's good, they shoot and move the ball as well as W&M, they don't have the same size due to some frontcourt injuries, but I watched them put on a clinic against JMU. Highly impressed with their offense.

[Wags]

The scoring jump for Buie this year is remarkable.

Prior to this season, Buie reached 20 pts a total of 3 times in 107 career games and he never scored more than 22 in a game.

This season, he's reached 20 pts 5 times in 16 games, including scoring outbursts of 29, 35 and 44.

[garyg]

Like to see more of Miranda today...he looked pretty good Wed.

Totally agree Husid. He came in today only for the last 2 minutes. Had a very strong spin move into the paint for a short jumper. I like this kid - not only a decent size guard (height wise) but has some beef to him also, looks to be pretty strong and does not play with timidity. I like CB as well, but he is the opposite in terms of timidity and confidence (typical freshman).

Elon is really bad. They have some halfway decent midsize guys, but they have no one of consequence over 6'5". I was hoping our bigs would really take them to school, but even with the decent numbers our guys had, there was not too much to get excited about. Lots of missed box outs, missed rebounds, and missed passes against poor competition. I was willing to cut our guys some slack for the first 15 games or so, but I am concerned with the play of our 5s. I'm still hoping for significant progress because it looks like these are "the guys" for the next several seasons.

Good to see OS hit some shots. I agree with others that he is clearly a shoot first and pass second guy (probably a shoot too much guy) but heck, if he's gonna shoot, hopefully he stays in the groove because he brings the potential for immediate offense.

Elon or not, DB was on fire today. Happy for him to have such a great game. As I have said, he is the glue for this team this year......and HU goes as DB goes!

Cards, Farrelly said in the pre-game talk that Miranda is great when just playing basketball. He is having trouble working within the offense and defensive sets and calls. I think he is also having language issues. Joe mentioned this several times earlier in the year...I think he has great potential!

This is why they should have redshirted Miranda...give him an extra year to get acclimated and adjust to things

[triplec2195]

Maybe they should have redshirted Miranda but he's gaining invaluable real game experience right now not much yet but you never know. We're starting to see Joe play more of the bench and Burgess is getting minutes and so is Silverio. If Silverio can come off the bench and HIT a few three's we will be in a good place and Burgess is a steady ball handler who plays ferocious D. He needs to improve his shooting. You look at the block of the Elon player who was on a breakaway yesterday. Impressive. IDK why they put Pemberton back in the game yesterday it was a deja -vu of when they did the same for Ray who was limping on the court. Eli didn't even take a shot after coming back in.

[EvanJ]

The Hofstra media guide I have (and the one you linked to) lists Thieben's 48-point game being against Union (on page 101), but Evan, I do recall Wilkes being mentioned when JWF's 48-point game occurred last year.

The one I linked to has the records on Page 103 where it gives the 48 point games and a bigger list on Page 105. Hofstra obviously made a mistake. The announcers during JWF's 48 point game could have been right or wrong about Thieben's opponent depending on if their source was correct. Since you're in the media, would you like to ask Hofstra who the opponent was? They have been listing Union in one place and Wilkes in another place every season. They did that in the 2003-2004 Media Guide, and without checking I think it's safe to assume that they made that mistake in every Media Guide in between.

This is why they should have redshirted Miranda...give him an extra year to get acclimated and adjust to things

I disagree. Teams get 13 scholarships, and we won't use more than 13 players this season. That includes a walk-on with 13 minutes and Gibson Jr. with 6 minutes who plays less than a walk-on. If you take out Miranda, Klementowicz, and Gibson Jr., it makes a five man bench of whom two only play the 5. Then all you need is one starter unavailable one game to make Silverio start and Burgess be the only sub guard, with Trueheart, Schutte, and Hughes as sub forwards.

[Wags]

The scoring jump for Buie this year is remarkable.

Prior to this season, Buie reached 20 pts a total of 3 times in 107 career games and he never scored more than 22 in a game.

This season, he's reached 20 pts 5 times in 16 games, including scoring outbursts of 29, 35 and 44.

More on Buie's scoring and shooting leap this year:

Not including the small 8-game sample size he played in 2016-17, here are his numbers each year...

3.0 ppg / 32.5% FG / 22.4% 3pt FG

6.4 ppg / 43.4% FG / 34.9% 3pt FG

10.7 ppg / 43.8% FG / 34.4% 3pt FG

18.8 ppg / 45.9% FG / 41.8% 3pt FG

And, he's made that significant jump offensively without the other good parts of his game suffering - he's averaging the same 2.3 steals per game that he averaged last year when he was the CAA DPOY, and he's gone from 5.2 apg last year to 5.4 apg this year.

[Cards]

Cards, Farrelly said in the pre-game talk that Miranda is great when just playing basketball. He is having trouble working within the offense and defensive sets and calls. I think he is also having language issues. Joe mentioned this several times earlier in the year...I think he has great potential!

Thanks HUSID. Thats good to hear that it is not basketball nor physical ability that Miranda is dealing with. I have never dealt with a language issue like JM must be dealing with, but I would imagine that over time that issue will dissipate. Hope is works out because I think many of us believe that he can really contribute.

I commented earlier that CB does not play with much confidence, kinda like a typical freshman. To be clear, my comment referred to his shooting/scoring only. CB has shown a solid ability and doggedness (as Polito would say) playing defense - the type of D that we have all been wanting for many seasons. He also handles the ball fine when coming up court. Its during the offensive sets and shooting opportunities where his youthfulness shows. I have no doubt that will disappear over time. I don't know or not if he will develop into a real scorer or not, because I don't know what kind of shooter he is or can develop into - time will tell.

[stuball888]

We are a communications school
. Buie is a linguistic major. Surely we can figure this out

[EvanJ]

We are a communications school
. Buie is a linguistic major. Surely we can figure this out

My guess is that nobody on the team thought of that or that Miranda will be used so little that they don't think it's worth Buie's time. It's a good idea, and one that could apply to athletes on any team including teams without Linguistics majors. Even if it's not enough work for a full-time employee, athletic departments should be able to provide help to athletes with a limited knowledge of English. MLB has many players who speak Spanish or Japanese with a limited knowledge of English, but baseball doesn't require as much communication between teammates and knowing what your teammates will do.

In the highlights, our announcers pronounced "Jermaine" with a "J," but our pronunciation guide says it's pronounced as a "Y" (like NHL star and former New York Ranger Jaromir Jagr). It's bad if our announcers can't pronounce our player's names.

[cactus]

Did not think I would see 35+ from Buie, ever. 44 pts in a regulation game is somewhat mind blowing, on 19 shots no less. Bummed to have missed this one live.