MBB Game 01 vs. St. Joseph's (LI), Nov 6 (Mon), 11:30 AM

[Jojogunne]

We kick off the 2023-24 season by hosting St. Joseph's University of Long Island in a rare morning game this coming Monday, Nov. 6. The contest is part of a promotion for local elementary and middle schools called Class at the Court. About 2,000 young students are expected to attend.

St. Joseph's (15-9, 11-5) plays in the D3 Skyline Conference, which also includes Farmingdale State and SUNY Old Westbury.

Xavier Allen, a 6-3 JR guard, was first-team all conference and Spencer Malloy, a 6-4 SR forward, made the second team last year. Allen also made the All-Met D3 team.

Both MSG and FloHoops will carry the game.

Who do you think will start for our team? And who will have the most points?

[Cards]

Barring any banged up players or injuries that we are unaware of - Fritz, Dubar, Plotnikov, Carlos, and Taylor. I would assume that anyone who is healthy will see a decent amount of minutes. I would also guess that the 8-9 man rotation probably saw more time in the secret scrimmages than they will on Monday. The scrimmages would have provided much better competition and given Speedy a better idea of what he has re some of the newer guys.

[triplec2195]

I guess Taylor is our newest mystery recruit Cards. Lol

[triplec2195]

We start our starters if my memory serves me well and usually win these games by 40-50 points. Hopefully not building a false sense of greatness going into a game against Princeton. A team we beat last year but one that went to the Sweet16. Good or Bad choice for a 1st game??

[Polito]

Think that's a safe starting bet, and would agree that likely every healthy player will play. Sure would like to have some feedback on the exhibition games to help get some juice going.

Not a big fan of any games like this, but better for game 1 and HU has a killer OOC, so no biggie. The Princeton game should be a good one - they lose a couple of key guys, return a couple from the starting lineup - they open vs Rutgers. Sure they will be hungry for revenge. I do believe HU matches up well with them position by position, with a big HU advantage in the post, but likely to be a battle. Anyway, different game...

May try to get myself over to the St Josephs game that morning just for kicks - will see how the day shapes up.

[Cards]

I guess Taylor is our newest mystery recruit Cards. Lol

Tyler or Taylor, you can call him anything as long as he averages 20+ pts this season!

[triplec2195]

Yeah I will take 20+ a game and will just call him T.T.

[Wags]

As of tonight, ESPN gives St. Joseph's about the same chance (5.4%) of winning this game as it gives Elon (5.5%) to win its opener at Wake Forest.
The second one makes sense, but not buying the first one. If Elon is at 5.5% for that one, St. Joseph's should be 1% or less for this one.

Tipping at 11:30 am ET, this will be the second game of the entire college basketball season. Spalding at IUPUI tips the same day at 11 am ET.

[triplec2195]

So prior history says that in games we played against D-3 teams(talking off the cuff) probably D-2 as well we have won by 40-50 points. We beat Old Westbury by 48 points last year. 1% sounds about right playing our bench the entire game.

[Jojogunne]

Hofstra preview:

https://gohofstra.com/news/2023/11/3/me ... t-day.aspx

[Wags]

Hofstra is one of 185 men's hoops D-I teams playing today and one of 72 playing against a non-DI team.

Do we not have separate divisions for a reason? Teams should only be playing against their own divisions.

But teams like HU have certainly not shied away from challenging themselves, especially over these last three years in the Speedy era. This is on those potential opponents. If they were more willing to schedule teams like Hofstra, HU wouldn't have to fill in its schedule with teams like it's playing today.

[HofstraMathew]

Hofstra is one of 185 men's hoops D-I teams playing today and one of 72 playing against a non-DI team.

Do we not have separate divisions for a reason? Teams should only be playing against their own divisions.

But teams like HU have certainly not shied away from challenging themselves, especially over these last three years in the Speedy era. This is on those potential opponents. If they were more willing to schedule teams like Hofstra, HU wouldn't have to fill in its schedule with teams like it's playing today.

Essentially this is a glorified scrimmage for Hofstra. They didn't even include this game in our season tickets (we can request a ticket if we wanted but not our specific seat; which is completely ok with me) and are using this as a community event to get kids interested. Hopefully it works and a couple kids from each class get excited and maybe get their parents to bring them to another game or two during the season.

[Jojogunne]

Just a reminder, the game is on MSG, which means they will probably show it more than once.

[Wags]

Aaaaaaand, we're off. Welcome to Hofstra men's hoops season No. 88!

Thomas misses his the season's first shot but Carlos hits his first (a 3), and it's 3-0, Pride.

[Wags]

Hofstra will not win its opener wire to wire as St. Joseph's scores the next four to lead, 4-3.

[Wags]

Thomas looking good from deep to start the season... 4/7, all from 3. HU up, 23-12.

[HofstraMathew]

Pulling away now. Up 31-13 with 6 minutes to go.

Starting to play some of the bench players too.

[Wags]

Now 44-19 at halftime. Closed the half 29-7 after it was 15-12. HU outscoring St. Joseph's 24-0 from 3 and 14-0 off turnovers.

[HofstraMathew]

Not sure how much we can take out of this game considering the opponent. But so far have to be happy with the play of teveryone. Fritz doesn't have much in the box score but he is very active on defense in covering from the basket to the three point line.

[Wags]

30-2 to start the second half as the lead grows to 74-21. I think a tough practice among themselves would have served them better.