MBB Game 28 at Drexel on 2/20/2020 at 7:00 P.M.

[EvanJ]

https://gohofstra.com/news/2020/2/18/me ... pride.aspx is our preview titled "MBB: Drexel Next Up For Streaking Pride."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... game28.pdf is our Game Notes.

https://drexeldragons.com/news/2020/2/1 ... fstra.aspx is Drexel's preview titled "Dragons Begin Final Homestand on Thursday vs. Hofstra."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/drexeldragons. ... _notes.pdf is Drexel's Game Notes.

https://static.caasports.com/custompage ... m#team.ind is Drexel's season statistics. They have only eight regulars, and only three good scorers with fourth averaging 5.8. James Butler's 11.7 rebounds are fifth in Division I, and there are 353 teams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BUoermuoU4 is "CAA's On The Line | Hofstra's MBB Joe Mihalich & Desure Buie." When asked about our six game winning streak, Mihalich said to the CAA that they must not have watched our practice because they would be talking about the end of the winning streak because it was a horrible practice. He said that before the loss to W&M and maybe the loss to Delaware. It's a good step to identify horrible practices, but it's his job to reduce how often the players have horrible practices and/or have them play well in games after horrible practices.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=285379 will have statistics.

The CAA has four games tonight, and they are all at 7:00 P.M. Here are the other three games:

W&M at Towson: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=282556 will have statistics

Elon at JMU: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=285651 will have statistics. It is the last CAA game of the season on SNY.

Northeastern at Delaware: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=278239 will have statistics

[HUSID74]

Interestingly, ESPN only has us as 4 point favorites while giving us a 68.1 percent chance of winning.

Sagarin has us as around 7 point favs.

Joe returning to his hometown to hopefully begin working on the next 400 victories!

[Wags]

Interestingly, ESPN only has us as 4 point favorites while giving us a 68.1 percent chance of winning.

Sagarin has us as around 7 point favs.

Joe returning to his hometown to hopefully begin working on the next 400 victories!

Sagarin seems high. I'm seeing -4 with a 145 O/U, which would be an expected 74-70 or 75-71 Hofstra win. Sounds about right for HU's score, but I think DU is held in the 60s. HU won the first meeting 72-59 this year.

Also, tonight:
W&< +4.5 @ Towson
Northeastern -1 @ Delaware
Elon +3 @ JMU

[HU87]

Uh oh. Stopping in Philly on the way to Delaware for a HUGE match up in Newark on Saturday. Only a 4-point spread. Playing in a gym we've classically under-performed in.

I hate to say it, but this screams TRAP GAME.

[Flying Dutchmen]

The second half in the Drexel game at the Mack was a bit of a turning point for us. We've played at a slower pace since that big run to close out Drexel in the first game, and our offense has taken off.

Drexel is a good test, this is the first game where we're really considered the top dog, and Drexel needs a win badly to stay out of the Saturday games in the CAAT. Must win for us as well, we will have an opportunity to eliminate UD on Saturday with a win tonight. The key will be to keep Drexel from getting hot from the perimeter. 3 point defense has been one of our calling cards, it will be pivotal tonight.

[Hofstra]

I love going to that dump of an arena. I wont be able to make it tonight though.

I hope this game isn't a trap game like some stated above. Would be a nice win heading into Showdown Saturday at the Henhouse

[dan10]

The line definitely points to Vegas liking Drexel tonight. It is indeed a trap game and Drexel has been good at home. history against Spiker is badly in your favor. I just dont like the matchup for Drexel at all. I hope I am wrong

[HUSID74]

ESPN spread now up to Hofstra by 4.5 points...here comes the Hofstra money!

[Flying Dutchmen]

The line definitely points to Vegas liking Drexel tonight. It is indeed a trap game and Drexel has been good at home. history against Spiker is badly in your favor. I just dont like the matchup for Drexel at all. I hope I am wrong

This game doesn't slap the way it did when Bruiser was HC, and Hofstra and Drexel had vicious smack talk on the CAAZone. Epic games in the '06 and '07 seasons, still kind of ticked about the drubbing in the '99 AE Semis to be honest! This rivalry is too cordial nowadays!!

[Hof_Judge99]

We definitely haven’t underperformed in the DAK in recent years as coach Mihalich has won 5 straight games against Drexel in his hometown. However, on CAA sports he admitted the team had a “terrible” practice yesterday. It’s hard to believe a coach would admit something like that but Joe tells it how it is. Hopefully they can shake that off. As far as the OOT scoreboard goes we want Towson to beat W&M tonight as W&M is a bigger threat to us for the 1 seed. Roll Pride.

[EvanJ]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=285379 has statistics. Both teams are starting their usual starters. Coburn scored to go up 2-0.

[Wags]

Butler was the only one who did damage for Drexel last time. He's already 4/4 from the floor tonight, but it's tied, 15-15, nearing the U8.

[Wags]

We definitely haven’t underperformed in the DAK in recent years as coach Mihalich has won 5 straight games against Drexel in his hometown. However, on CAA sports he admitted the team had a “terrible” practice yesterday. It’s hard to believe a coach would admit something like that but Joe tells it how it is. Hopefully they can shake that off. As far as the OOT scoreboard goes we want Towson to beat W&M tonight as W&M is a bigger threat to us for the 1 seed. Roll Pride.

Joe says things like that a lot. He'll also say the reverse.

After the last game against UNCW, he said the team's focus in practice was "elite."

And this is not great to hear, as they usually don't play well after they don't practice well. But, so far, not too bad. Tied up.

[HUSID74]

Down 1 at the half. Coburn misses the first of a one and one at the end of the half for the lead.

[HUSID74]

Where is everyone? Good gut check win against a team with a great home record. We hold serve against the rest of the CAA. Kante awesome with 20 points and I think 8-8 from the line. Desure as usual controlling the game with 26 and Eli with 19, most in the second half.

Our vaunted bench with no points.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Good game. That was a battle!

Drexel carved us up, but Buie and Pemberton carried us in the second half. Kante was money as well, he was our most steady guy tonight.

Seemed like we were feeling the pressure tonight, I thought we forced it a little too much offensively. 16 minutes from the bench is a joke. We could have used some subs tonight, we looked gassed at points, Ray didn't have a great game, could have used a few minutes to gather himself on the bench.

Gutty win though, it was a huge game for both teams. Everything seemed to be dropping for Drexel, but they had a miracle 3 pointer that looked like it got off in time, called back in a 4 point game. Then Spiker getting the tech after the Buie steal to make it a 7 point game, really tipped it in our favor. Onto Delaware, who are coming off their best performance of the year, wiping the floor with Northeastern tonight. Every game until the season is over will be a battle.

[Wags]

What a two-game stretch for Joe. After winning his 400th on Saturday, he wins No. 401 on his wife Mary's birthday tonight, one day before Buie's birthday, fittingly in Philly, where he of course played and started cutting his teeth as a college coach.

20 pts on just 7 shots for Kante and 8/8 at the line, where he continues to improve greatly.

He's now 71/106 (67%) at the line for the season. He's 37/47 (78.7%) in his last eight games.

In some different ways, Kante is doing for this year's team, as the season progresses, what Taylor did last year as the season went on.

Before the game, Joe noted that Kante hardly played at Georgia and had to sit out after that, so that's basically two years of not playing much, and it's quite understandable that it took him some time to get going before he truly got comfortable. Once he did, he hasn't looked back and at this point, I think we can safely say that he's reliable and can very likely be counted on in big spots in D.C.

Buie's 22 shots were twice more than the next closest (Pemberton, who was 6/11). But hey, when you make half (11) and still get 6 asts (though the 4 TOs a bit too much), can't complain. Nice game for him on his Birthday Eve.

And, I love the 81 pts scored with only 10 3s attempted - and that's while shooting a good percentage (40%) from 3, too. But they didn't over-rely on that. Instead, they got good 2s, where they fairly pretty well (24/44) and got to the line 24 times, making 20, while Drexel was only 4/6 at the line (there's your ballgame). And Butler was 3/5, so only one other guy shot a FT.

[EvanJ]

Everything seemed to be dropping for Drexel, but they had a miracle 3 pointer that looked like it got off in time, called back in a 4 point game.

They didn't show one replay with the shot and shot clock (from the DAC, not from the feed) together, but I agree that I thought the shot was in time. Buie, Pemberton, and Ray played the whole game, and even if they were tired we did best at the end.

Where is everyone? Good gut check win against a team with a great home record. We hold serve against the rest of the CAA. Kante awesome with 20 points and I think 8-8 from the line. Desure as usual controlling the game with 26 and Eli with 19, most in the second half.

Our vaunted bench with no points.

I posted in the Drexel forum of CSNBBS tonight instead of here. Drexel doesn't have many fans there, but I like Drexel's fans better than others. I knew I would post here after the game.

The bench didn't score because they didn't shoot. I wish I could find out the last time a team did not have a shot from its bench. After tonight, Trueheart averages 2.4 points, and Schutte averages 1.7. Schutte shoots .553, but he can't score without shooting.

and got to the line 24 times, making 20

We made 21, We probably re-entered the Top 10 in Division I in free throw percentage. Northeastern made 2 of 6 (Jason Strong shot 0-4 and Roland didn't attempt any) to fall to .792, and we're at .780. The other seven CAA teams averaged exactly 9 free throws made, and we made 2 1/3 times 9.

Buie led us with 26 points. His bad statistic was 4 turnovers, but he made up for it with 6 assists and 3 steals. Kante scored 20, and by shooting field goals 6-7 and free throws 8-8, you could argue he was better than Buie, but we were +1 with Kante and +6 in Schutte's 9 minutes. Pemberton scored 19, shot well, and tied Kante for our lead with 6 rebounds. Coburn had 6 points, 4 rebounds, a career-high 3 steals, and tied his career-high with 3 blocks. He also had 3 blocks in the overtime Senior Day loss to JMU last season. He became the third Hofstra player from 2010-2011 to the present to have at least 3 steals and at least 3 blocks. Hunter Sabety had 3 steals and 3 blocks in a 73-65 win hosting Delaware on February 2, 2017; and a player who stole in real life, Jimmy Hall, had 3 steals and 3 blocks in an 80-56 loss at George Washington on November 24, 2012. With 3 blocks by Coburn and 1 by Kante, we had 4, and we're averaging 3 in our last 5 games. From our last nonconference game against Manhattan through our first ten CAA games, we had 16 blocks in 11 games for an average of 1.45, so 3 is over double that.

James Butler was on pace for a triple-double at halftime and came up just short with 23 points, 14 rebounds, and 9 assists. Zach Walton scored 21, but had 5 fouls and 5 turnovers. Camren Wynter had 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists, which was 1 more assist than Buie. He scored 14 in the second half. They combined for 60, and Drexel had four players score 3 and one player score 2. They entered the game with 59.2 percent of their points from those three, and they had 81.1 percent of Drexel's points tonight to raise the season percentage to 60.1 percent. To compare, including tonight we have 61.1 percent of our season points from Buie, Pemberton, and Ray. Drexel had 23 assists on 32 field goals, and they had the most assists by one of our opponents in over a year since W&M had 24 when we won 93-87 hosting them on February 9, 2019. Before tonight, the last three times we allowed at least 23 assists were all by W&M, and the most recent team other than Drexel and W&M to have at least 23 assists against us was when Northeastern was home and had 28 when we won 96-92 in triple overtime on January 21, 2016. Only 20 of those assists were in regulation.

[Hof_Judge99]

W&M has two cupcakes left so they’ll probably be 13-5 and hold the tiebreaker (since they swept Delaware) meaning we’d have to win 2 of the last 3 to get the #1 seed. Very doable but if we drop Saturday’s game they’ll be some pressure to hold serve at home both Thursday and Saturday. I’m assuming the spread for Saturday will be right around PK, huge game, and a good test to see exactly where we are.

[cactus]

Refs tried to make this one interesting late!

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