MBB Game 27 vs. UNC Wilmington on 2/15/2020 at 4:00 P.M.

[EvanJ]

We're 14.19 points in the overall Sagarin and 17.95 points better in KenPom without home court. We now lead the CAA in the NET, RPI, the Sagarin (overall and three components), KenPom, and ESPN's BPI, while Seven Overtimes slightly favors Northeastern but still ranks us better than other rankings because they rank the CAA better.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2020/2/14/me ... urday.aspx is Hofstra's preview titled "MBB: Red-Hot Hofstra Hosts UNCW On Saturday." We haven't made Game Notes yet. UNCW leads the series 22-21.

https://uncwsports.com/news/2020/2/14/m ... fstra.aspx is UNCW's preview titled "Seahawks Play Road Finale At Hofstra."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... 021520.pdf is UNCW's Game Notes. Page 3 lists all 43 head-to-head games, and Pages 4 and 5 write about every game. If you want to read about players you forgot about, you can. The first head-to-head game was our second loss in 41 home games. Stokes scored 6 of his 30 points in triple overtime in a 92-87 win on January 14, 2006, but UNCW beat us in Wilmington and Richmond, we got snubbed, and George Mason went to the Final Four. I don't remember when in the game it was, but Stokes banked in a three. It was a Saturday and on TV. In a game that was televised and ended at 11:59 P.M., we won 80-69 in double overtime in Wilmington on January 3, 2007. Lester made a three at the buzzer to force overtime in our loss on December 1, 2007. Urbutis made a layup at the buzzer to win 80-78 away on January 28, 2009. UNCW had the ball while tied and the shot clock off, so I thought our only hope was overtime, but they committed a turnover. Jenkins scored 35 in an overtime win on his 20th birthday on February 28, 2009. Our 93-54 win on January 27, 2010 made them make their first coaching change during a season, and their second coaching change during a season was before hosting us this season. Vines tied a team record with 7 threes in an 87-70 win away on February 13, 2010. With a horrible offense in 2012-2013, we outscored them 44-25 in the second half to win 65-56 away on February 3, 2013. Upshaw tied our team record with 7 threes in a 69-64 win away on January 15, 2014. In 2015-2016 when we won the tiebreaker over them for the 1 seed, the away team made a comeback both times. We blew a 38-18 lead at home and lost 70-67 on February 4, 2016. 21 days later, we trailed by 18, trailed by 11 with 6 minutes left, allowed a three with 1:45 left to go down 7, and won 70-69 from two free throws by Green with 27 seconds left. Denzel Ingram missed with 12 seconds left, stole the ball from Koon so they didn't need to foul, and missed a three. Chris Flemmings got the offensive rebound, but the clock ran out before he could shoot. Our largest lead was 9-7. UNCW took the lead with 14:37 left in the first half and held it until there were 27 seconds left. They messed up the 2016 CAA Tournament Final score by claiming a 90-73 win, when it was 80-73, and they neglected that it went overtime. On February 2018, both teams won by 20 at home. On January 16, Kante scored with 6.5 seconds left to win 63-61 in Coach Burke's first game.

Four of the 43 games went at least one overtime, and they were in a nine game span from January 14, 2006 through February 28, 2009. We are 11-8 against UNCW in February, which is the only month we are above .500 against them. 17 of the last 22 games (77.3 percent) were decided by single-digits.

UNCW is 22-21 (.512) against us and 11-5 (.688) against the other nine New York teams they played.

[triplec2195]

We are 14 point favorites in this game and we need to play like 14 point favorites, 40 minutes of intense basketball!!

[daHUPride]

This 2019-20 Hofstra team is playing as well as I have seen –

DEFENSIVELY – we are defending as good as ever; during the game we are pacing ourselves and limiting our fouls; Kante has played better and better and feel Schutte is giving us limited but quality minutes. The Core Four has defended very well.

OFFENSIVELY – our Core four has provided us with 75% of scoring; they are a group that on any given night can light up for 25+ points on any given night – Kante has been steadily improved as the season has progresses.

BUIE – has had a really good year; knows when to step up and be a scorer (never thought he’d be that guy when seeing him as a Freshman) and knows when to defer to the teammate with the hot hand; consistent; leader; sneaky defender

PEMBERTON – a really good Hofstra career – every year I feel he has given so much for the good of the team; plays hurt; gets banged up; I feel he rarely gets a call from the refs – for sure has his ebbs and falls but the past few games he's been playing better – need him for a big weekend at the conference tourney

RAY - never thought of him as a starter (always thought of him as a 6th man) – I was WRONG he is a quality starter- . I feel he shot better in prior years but he is ice under pressure/rarely rattled.

COBURN – like this kid a lot. Feel he had a better year last year (shooting-wise), offensively he is the streakiest ever – but still feel hes struggled a bit this year – but never afraid to shot and certainly has hit big shot or 2, Coburn like Pemberton he battles against bigger players and also feel he never gets a favorable call

KANTE – is rabidly growing on me – stays out of fouls trouble, has improved game after game , misses a chippy here and there but has vastly improved (he is going to miss Buie)

BENCH – gets only 20 % of the total minutes this season (less and less as the season progresses); scores 10% of our points; but 50% of blocked shots!!! LOL – I guess our starter play passive to preserve the fouls
Schutte – gives us energy; knows his role…has improved from a non-entity; I don’t mind when he is in the game for the minutes he plays
Truehart – I have been a big fan of his potential; as coach said “If ST plays like he can we’d give teams fits; he is lightening in a bottle when he's good; he's confusing when he's bad

COACH – they done a good job this year better D; less collapses; more consistent team

I hope we can pace ourselves into March and the brutal CAA Tourny weekend

Go Pride Beat UNCW!!!

[HUSID74]

ESPN's matchup predictor gives us a 94 percent chance of winning and has us as 13.5 point favs with an over/under of 143.5.

UNCW usually plays us tough, so I anticipate a relatively close game, especially early.

We need to come out like we did vs. Charleston, get on top quickly, hit our shots and make them chase us.

Looking forward to us hopefully notching another 20 win season and Joe's 400th!

[EvanJ]

We are 14 point favorites in this game and we need to play like 14 point favorites, 40 minutes of intense basketball!!

We're 14.08 points in the overall Sagarin and 17.68 points better in KenPom without home court. Both of those gaps got slightly smaller yesterday. I'm surprised we're only favored by 14.

OFFENSIVELY – our Core four has provided us with 75% of scoring; they are a group that on any given night can light up for 25+ points on any given night – Kante has been steadily improved as the season has progresses.

For the Yankees, I don't like that the "core four" included Posada, but not Bernie Williams. The Yankees decided they didn't want Williams after 2006, whereas Posada retired after 2011, Pettitte and Rivera after 2013, and Jeter after 2014. However, I think Williams was better than Posada. For Hofstra, I don't like "core four" because Kante has scored 2 fewer points than Coburn and 57 more points than the bench. Saying 89% of our scoring is from our starters is more fair than saying 75% are from the core four. "Core four" works better for JMU where their top five scorers average 18.7, 13.2, 10.3, 10.0, and 6.5.

UNCW usually plays us tough, so I anticipate a relatively close game, especially early.

UNCW had a horrible start at Northeastern with 7 turnovers before they scored.

[triplec2195]

UNCW played us tough at home right after their coach was fired but this will be a totally different game with us looking to stay in 1st place as Eli stated post presser after beating Charleston. They have their eye on being the #1 team again in this conference and I believe will ride this right thru the CAA playoffs.

For daHUPRIDE you left out Silverio and Burgess in your assessment of the bench I just wondering if this was intentional??

[EvanJ]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=289711 has statistics. For the second consecutive game, UNCW's leading scorer, Jaylen Sims, is not starting. Ty Gadsden, Brian Tolefree, Mike Okauru, Shykeim Phillips, and Marten Linssen are starting. Just like us, they have two forwards who don't shoot threes, but Linssen (524 minutes) and Imajae Dodd (440 minutes) split their time way more equally than Kante and Schutte. Dodd is tied for third in the CAA with 1.1 blocks per game while averaging 16.3 minutes.

Yesterday's small amount of games without any CAA games moved the CAA up to 16th in the Conference NET. There are 32 conferences, so 16th is in the top half.

Edit: We lead 13-6 with 15:55 left in the half. Phillips has 4 points, drew his second foul, and will shoot 2 after the timeout. Kante scored 4, three players scored 3, and Buie hasn't shot. Kante drew 3 fouls in the first 3:38 including a three-point play. Each team has 2 turnovers, all of which were steals, and UNCW knocked two balls away that we recovered, one of which led to Pemberton's three-point play.

Edit: Our lead peaked at 15-7, went down to 4, and we lead 23-14. Buie hasn't scored.

Edit: UNCW hasn't scored in 5:40. We're on an 14-0 run to lead 31-14. Marten Linssen committed has third foul, Imajae Dodd has 2, and neither of them has a rebound. Kante leads us with 9 points and 7 rebounds, and he has more rebounds than UNCW, who has 5. We have 7 second chance points before they have an offensive rebound. Mike Okauru made 2 free throws to end their drought at 6:00 and made a two to go down 31-18. Pemberton put us up 33-18.

Edit: We lead 38-23 with 3:50 left in the half. Coburn has 3 assists for the first time this season. His career-high is 4.

Edit: We lead 48-27, which is our largest lead. We're on a 7-0 run. Both teams scored more per minute in the last 8 minutes. Pemberton leads all scorers with 14, but he didn't do much else with 2 rebounds, no assists, and 1 steal. He's 4 points behind David Taylor's 1,818 for eighth. Kante scored 12 by shooting field goals 3-3 and free throws 6-10. We shot free throws worse than our average at 12-17 (.706), and Buie missed his second. Buie has shot free throws worse in CAA games. Including today, his season percentage is .863. In his first 14 games, which includes 1 CAA game, his percentage was .915. In his last 12.5 games, his percentage is .792. Coburn and Buie have 8, Ray has 6, and the bench hasn't scored. In 2:42, Trueheart missed a three, committed 2 fouls, and didn't have a positive contribution. In 2:47, Schutte didn't shoot, and 1 rebound has his only non-zero statistic. In 2:20, Silverio missed a three and had no other non-zero statistics. Buie played the whole half, and Kante's 2:47 off was the most by our starters. Kante has 9 rebounds, which is more than the next three players on the teams combined! Coburn and Mike Okauru have 3, and to take the third highest other than Kante each team has two players with 2. We had 5 turnovers in the first 10:28, but none in the last 9:32, and we have a good ratio with 8 assists. Buie has 4, Coburn has 3, and Ray has 1. UNCW committed 14 fouls. We committed 6, but our first five were in the act of missed twos. Coburn's foul with 1:01 left was our first foul that didn't give free throws. I don't have a way of finding out, but I would expect it to be really rare for a team to take 18:59 to commit their first defensive non-shooting foul. Mike Okauru leads UNCW with 6. Brian Tolefree scored 4, which were on consecutive possessions 43 seconds apart, and he's their only player to make more than 1 field goal.

[EvanJ]

We lead 51-30. Drexel leads 46-44 at Elon, and the teams have combined to shoot threes 17-30 (.567).

Edit: We led by 28 at 66-38, it went down to 19, and Pemberton made a two with 7:45 left to go up 70-49. That gave him 1 more point than David Taylor, so with 6:49 left we could honor him at the media timeout. He's 196 points behind Claxton, so Pemberton will probably finish ninth. When I said he could pass Taylor for eighth, I was wrong. It's 72-51.

[Wags]

Kante grabs a career-high 13th rebound. He also has a career-high-tying 19 pts with 6:49 left.

Pemberton just reached 19 pts on a driving layup to give him 1,819, moving him into 9th-place all-time at Hofstra (David Taylor: 1,818).

Good take-care-of business win today. One more of those at Drexel, if they can get it, before what might be a big first-place showdown again, this time, at Delaware... though, the lead has swung back and forth at W&M today, and the Tribe now leads by 6 with 3:59 left. CofC lost by 14 at NU today.

[Wags]

Career-high 21 pts for Kante now. He and Pemberton with 21 each.

74-57, HU at the U4.

[EvanJ]

We won 78-64, which was half of our largest lead. I wonder if our starters get tired. Mihalich shouldn't expect anybody to play 110 minutes in three CAA Tournament games without getting tired, and the bench isn't getting experience. Having more starting guards (4) than minutes by bench guards (2:43 today and none on Thursday) is ridiculous. Even with a big lead, our bench played 18:23. Klementowicz played the last 23 seconds. Trueheart scored with 8:57 left to keep the bench from going scoreless. Burgess, Miranda, Hughes, and Gibson Jr. remained on the bench. Miranda and Gibson Jr. last played on January 4, and Hughes last played on December 28. Before his 23 seconds today, Klementowicz hadn't played since January 30. Our eleventh through thirteenth players in minutes haven't played since January 4.

Edit: Kante had a career-high 23 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Pemberton tied him with 23. He had 5 rebounds, no assists, 1 steal, and with 2:01 left when I was watching Delaware at W&M and Drexel at Elon, he had his sixth block of the season. Coburn scored 12 and shot 3-8, with twos 0-2, threes 3-6, and free throws 3-4. He had 8 rebounds, tied his career-high with 4 assists, and had our other block. Buie's double-digit streak ended with 9. He shot field goals 3-11 and free throws 2-4 when shooting free throws 3-4 would have extended his streak. He had 7 assists and 1 of our 4 steals. He hasn't had as many steals recently, and going into today he lost the steals per game lead to Brevin Galloway, who had 2 steals today. Ray tied Buie with 9. Ray shot 3-6 and did not attempt a two or free throw. He had more fouls (4) than other positives combined (1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, and no blocks). Trueheart made a two with 8:57 left for our only bench points. He and Silverio missed 1 three, and Schutte and Klementowicz (in 23 seconds) didn't shoot. The bench had 3 rebounds (2 by Schutte and 1 by Trueheart), 1 assist (Trueheart), 3 fouls (2 by Trueheart and 1 by Schutte), 1 turnover (Trueheart), and no blocks or steals. Averaging 4 points and 2 rebounds is hard for Schutte and Trueheart when they often play single-digit minutes and/or don't attempt enough shots to score 4. Trueheart plays and shoots more than Schutte, and Kante contributing more can make Schutte be used less.

Most of the statistics don't show domination. UNCW shot threes and free throws better. We had 10 more rebounds and 13 fewer fouls. All 4 of our steals were early, and we didn't have any fast break points.

With losses by Delaware and Charleston, we lead second place W&M by 1.5 games and 2 in the loss column. If we win 3 of 4, we finish first alone. W&M's next game is hard at Towson, before going to JMU, having off, and hosting Elon. If they win at Towson, they could win out. If we go 2-2 to finish 13-5, we will probably have lost to Delaware. In that case we would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to Delaware. If Delaware is above everyone other than the top two and optionally Charleston, we will lose the tiebreaker to W&M. If we are in a three-way tie with W&M and Delaware, W&M wins the three-way head-to-head. They're 3-1, and us and Delaware are 1-2. For the sake of tiebreakers, we should root for Towson and Northeastern other than when we play Towson. Towson end at Northeastern on Sunday March 1 on CBS Sports Network one day after the rest of the teams end, and hopefully we'll have clinched the 1 seed by then. If that game matters to us, it's too early to tell which way we would be rooting.

[Polito]

Team is really clicking, firing on all cylinders - lookin focused and balanced

CofC is reeling a bit... surprising. Some of their fans think something hasn’t been quite right with Riller for awhile.

The W is showing why the last leader was canned. Rough yr, will be in for a transition once they hire. How long will depend on who they land.

For now, HU is taking full advantage as I’ve called for them to do during this downtime for them, and boy EP is starting to show what we hoped to see when he signed - flexing some muscle

Kante continues to develop into a huge boost, so happy to see, and a massive turnaround of diff making proportion

Congrats to Joe and staff on a milestone win. Things are getting very exciting. Home stretch, let’s finish.

[EvanJ]

CofC is reeling a bit... surprising. Some of their fans think something hasn’t been quite right with Riller for awhile.

If you bet $100 on Riller and Buie playing most or all of their games and ending their double-digit streaks, maybe you could have won a year's salary. That isn't a bet you could have made, but I meant in terms of the X to 1 odds on that if Vegas had to decide. Pemberton now has our longest double-digit streak at 7. None of our other starters scored double-digits in all three games of the homestand. Here are the points per game changes:

Buie: 18.5 to 18.1
Pemberton: 16.0 to 16.3
Ray: 12.3 to 12.2
Kante: 10.6 to 11.1
Coburn: 10.69 to 10.74 (increased but stayed at 10.7 rounded to one decimal place)

[Wags]

Fouls Committed: UNCW 26, Hofstra 13
Fouls Drawn: Kante 13

So, Kante obviously drew half of the fouls on UNCW and as many as Hofstra committed.

Since I started seeing Fouls Drawn added to the box score a few years ago, I think 6 or 7 was the most I had seen in a game, and often, it was Pemberton doing that. 13 drawn was in insane number for Kante today.

Just for fun, I asked JWF's prediction on the CAA Finals... he had Hofstra 80, Charleston 75

The way HU is playing D, it should be lower scoring. I think this is their year. Not that they don't have flaws or that they can't shoot something like 31% in a given game in D.C., but just by default, I don't see a real strong team besides them which could stand in their way this year. I have a feeling Northeastern could get the 6 seed and upset a 3 and then a 2 (whoever that may be), and maybe have a rematch with HU. But, I think the defense is the difference this year... yet another time (which we've seen a few times this year) with the opponent either not scoring or not getting a FG for a long stretch. Today it was UNCW going 7:48 between FGs in the first half. They've shown they can do that defensively often this year. That could be huge in the tourney in D.C. Can change a game, like it did today.

[Pride97]

Great win today. They were in control from the start and took care of business against an inferior team.

So happy for Kante. His development has been very impressive and is becoming a force down low. Is now a scoring threat and his confidence is growing. Also his positioning for defensive boards has been a huge improvement. Very few 2nd chance opportunities. Kudos to him and everyone who said give home some time. We haven’t had a scoring threat in the middle like that since Rok was being fed by Green.

Eli has stepped up his game big time and has been hitting on all cylinders inside and out. Always has been an unselfish hard worker but it appears he now sees how important his offensive contributions are night in and night out. Takes some pressure off Buie as well.

Was a really enjoyable game to be at. Never in doubt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HUSID74]

I've said all along that Kante is a beast...just a matter of time for him to mature and gain confidence...nice to see...as for the tournament, still feel we will need more from our bench our hopefully we get a blowout in one game to rest our starters, although the history of this tournament tells us otherwise.

[daHUPride]

I've said all along that Kante is a beast...just a matter of time for him to mature and gain confidence...nice to see...as for the tournament, still feel we will need more from our bench our hopefully we get a blowout in one game to rest our starters, although the history of this tournament tells us otherwise.

Kante has improved game after game this year -
he has gotten into better game shape/ learned his role/ become an integral part of this teams success
nice work young man
nice call HUSID74

[garyg]

Another big win [every game/win at this time of year is big] and another small crowd...2505...it is really a shame !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wags]

Another big win [every game/win at this time of year is big] and another small crowd...2505...it is really a shame !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lion's Den was mostly empty. And check out the pics toward the end of this gallery, of Kante dunking at the other end of the floor - how much better would those pics be with fans into it behind him instead of mostly empty blue seats? Shame. Long Islanders don't know what they're missing.
https://gohofstra.com/galleries/mens-ba ... 5-20-/3215

[Wags]

I've said all along that Kante is a beast...just a matter of time for him to mature and gain confidence...nice to see...as for the tournament, still feel we will need more from our bench our hopefully we get a blowout in one game to rest our starters, although the history of this tournament tells us otherwise.

Kante has improved game after game this year -
he has gotten into better game shape/ learned his role/ become an integral part of this teams success
nice work young man
nice call HUSID74

What's great is that unlike some other good bigs HU has had (like Taylor or Uter), Kante will still be here a while. It'll obviously be very tough to replace guys like Buie and Pemberton, but with Coburn back for another year and Kante only a sophomore, it'll be nice to have a big like that to be a force in the CAA for a couple more years - something that outside of Gustys in recent years, HU was often lacking over a multiple-year period.

I hope this also quells the future knee-jerk reactions and we've learned our lesson after doing this two years in a row. We jumped all over Taylor at first before praising him later and we did the same with Kante. Gotta have patience with these bigs and allow them to get comfortable and develop.