MBB Game 07 South Florida, Nov 30 (Thu), 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

We have a week until our next game, when we host the University of South Florida Bulls, who beat us last year on their court, 77-70. Estrada led us with 21 points, but Thomas and Dubar both added 17.

As Captain noted in the High Point thread, USF is off to a mixed start, defeating Northern Iowa (traditionally, a strong mid-major team) and losing to Maine, a team we used to face regularly when we were in the America East. (Aside: I remember some fierce battles between Maine's Andy Bedard and Speedy in the 2000 and 2001 AE playoffs.)

USF's last four games were all on ESPN+, for those who want to see how the Bulls played.

Our USF game will be available on both FloHoops and MSG.

[HofstraMathew]

Jewish heritage night for the game.

Got a few friend socming to this game. Hopefully we can get a solid crowd.

[Polito]

USF isn't a power this year, but wow losing to Maine is shocking and a terrible L.

That said, HU need only be inward focused and continue to build themselves up - they are on the right track, keep developing - let's use the momentum and protect the home floor - about to hit a serious portion of this OOC with some real deal programs. The sharpening of iron begins...

[HofstraMathew]

Surprised there isn't more posts in this thread. I have been itching to get to this game since its been a long stretch without games and even longer without a home game.

Hoping to see Hofstra have a strong game after what seemed like some soldi gelling as a team in the tournament last week; albeit the opponents weren't the greatest.

[Polito]

Yeah, a super long week of no hoops, I def felt it and ready to get back to the action! Hoping to be there as well, and hoping to see continued progression from this team - they are about to hit the national level portion of the OOC...

[Jojogunne]

So tomorrow is the second of three home games we have before the end of the year. We have played South Florida three times and have never beaten the Bulls. Let this be our first win over them.

We should have an advantage. The Bulls are only 2-2 and this will be their first road trip of the season.

Here are the previews:

Hofstra:

https://gohofstra.com/news/2023/11/28/m ... orida.aspx

South Florida:

https://gousfbulls.com/news/2023/11/29/ ... fstra.aspx

[Wags]

Hofstra -5.5
O/U: 146.5
Equates to a 76-70 HU win
ESPN matchup predictor: HU 83.6%

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2023 ... orida.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Hofstra vs. South Florida." The win over High Point was our third unicorn score of the season, meaning the first time we won by that score. Three of the four wins have been unicorn scores. Half of the games have been unicron scores, so we are on pace to exceed the 12 we had last season. La Salle’s Jhamir Brickus joined Thomas is players with a 40 point game this season, although he had help from triple overtime. La Salle is Joe Mihalich as a special assistant. High Point's 43 free throw attempts were the most we allowed since Maryland attempted 55 when they won 87-72 hosting us on November 29, 2003. Showing the impact of realignment, we are 7-22 against teams that were in the American Athletic (AAC) last season, and 17-27 against teams that are in the AAC now.

South Florida has freshman Jayden Reid from Westbury, who averages 6.5 points, 4.8 assists (as many as their next three players combined), and 1.3 steals.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2024.html has South Florida's statistics. They and their opponents combined to shoot threes 37-157 (.236).

KenPom expects us to win 77-70, so that is very close to the 76-70.5 from the line and over/under.

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=484929 will have statistics.

[EvanJ]

https://www.flohoops.com/live/87604 has video.

South Florida is starting Jayden Reid (guard, 6.5 ppg), Chris Youngblood (guard, 16.0 ppg), Kobe Knox (guard, 7.0 ppg), Corey Walker Jr. (forward, 5.8 ppg), and Sam Hines Jr. (forward, 4.5 ppg). They have twelve new players this season.

We are starting our usual starters.

Edit: We lead 15-4.

Edit: We lead 22-9. Tomasco and Plotnikov are injured, so we have to hope Fritz doesn't have foul trouble. He has no shots, no fouls, 1 rebound, and 2 assists in 8 minutes.

[dutchPride86]

Broadcast just said both German and Tommasco out with injuries. I know hofstra is a black box with that stuff but anyone know what happened to either of them?

[EvanJ]

We lead 44-23 at halftime, which tied our largest lead. Dubar scored 17. Thomas made 3 threes in the first 6:15, and it took him 13:39 (over a third of the game) to get his next points when he made a two with 6 seconds left to get to 11 points. Thomas has 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Dubar leads all players with 6 rebounds. Carlos made a three that was his only shot, and had 5 assists and 1 turnover. Sunday scored 6, Washington scored 4*, and Robinson scored 3. The teams combined for 9 fouls and 4 free throw attempts. Jayden Reid led South Florida with 5. We had 6 more rebounds.

* Washington made a three that the statistics have as a miss. StatBroadcast says 41-23. ESPN says 44-23. Even if we don't need that three to win the game, I want statistics to be accurate.

[Wags]

Hofstra is +55 in three halves against the Bulls over the past 11 nights.

[EvanJ]

The statistics are fixed with Washington having 7 points. The second half started, and Carlos got fouled in the act of shooting a three and made all three free throws.

Elon leads non-Division I Warren Wilson 67-22 at halftime. Five players made at least 4 field goals. They made 25 twos and 3 threes.

[Wags]

We lead 44-23 at halftime, which tied our largest lead. Dubar scored 17.

They changed it from 17 to 14 first-half points and the numbers still add up for the first half and for the game. I think they took a made first-half 3-pointer away from Dubar and gave it to someone else.

[Wags]

The only competitive things left in this one:

Will HU (up 30 at the U8) beat these Bulls by more than it beat the Buffalo Bulls (by 34)?

Will Thomas & Dubar alone (46 combined points thus far) outscore South Florida (45 points)?

[EvanJ]

We lead 44-23 at halftime, which tied our largest lead. Dubar scored 17.

They changed it from 17 to 14 first-half points and the numbers still add up for the first half and for the game. I think they took a made first-half 3-pointer away from Dubar and gave it to someone else.

It was given to Washington.

We won 82-63. After the lead peaked at 32, South Florida outscored us in the second half. We made 4 of 14 twos in the second half. After taking a 71-39 lead with 11:47 left, we scored only 11. The bench played 32 minutes in a blowout, and it would have been a little less if Carlos hadn't missed a little time when he bled. Robinson played 18 minutes, Sunday played 9, Barrouk played 3, and Farmer played 2. We have used 11 players this season, and it is a bad sign for everybody else that we didn't use any new players today.

Thomas scored 25. Dubar had a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Carlos had a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. It was our first points and assists double-double since Desure Buie on January 30, 2020. Carlos had a rebounds and assists double-double on February 4, 2023.

South Florida had more points off turnovers, second chance points, fast break points, points in the paint, and bench points. I wish I could find out how rare it is for a team to have more points in all five of those categories and lose by at least 19 points. As Jayson Stark says about baseball, the game doesn't make sense.

Elon defeated Warren Wilson 127-56. Elon had eight players score double-digits, with nobody scoring more than 14, and those players did not include Zac Ervin, who is in his fourth season for them.

[triplec2195]

Finally got to a home game after missing the first two and what a stark difference in the officiating from the championship game in Florida versus High Point. This game was a very physical game that I was surprised there weren't more fouls called. It was like a war out there and the refs were letting them play. Speedy was working the officials and seemed quite upset at the non calls.

Anyway for most of this game we were playing like a finely tuned machine with most everything clicking. As super as Tyler played Dubar overall played better and was really locked in. If he continues to play the way he is playing we're going to be a very tough team to beat. He also was an animal on the boards. JC doing his thing and dishing but still showing he can hit a three when need be. Washington just a really high non stop motor that I think can wear out the opposing teams defense. Thought Fritz could have played better just seems to have problems holding onto the ball. Sunday as well who just needs more experience.

Although we had a 30 point lead for a lot of this game it seemed to me we were running on empty when USF went on that run towards the end of the game. Just a very fast paced game wearing out our starters but a really dominant win.

[Pride97]

Was also at the game. Can’t remember that relaxing a win against a D1 team in a bit. Jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Played really good D in the first half aided by the refs letting them play as mentioned. Final score was much closer than the game actually was.

Definitely a short bench tonight given the apparent injuries. Thomas was lights out and Dubar played strong. I thought Sunday had his best game so far. Not a ton of minutes but was active on D and took some nice shots. Hands seemed much better.

Hoping the Fla tourney jump started something. Nice decisive win tonight.


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[HUSID80]

Agree with triplec on the officiating. SF was crawling up our backs on every rebound and there were no calls. Speedy was incensed! Glad he didn't get a technical!

[triplec2195]

To comment on the official scoring on who did what I noticed that on gohofstra the box score shows that Carlos went 6-6 from the foul line when in reality he went 6-7 after missing the front end of a one and one. Crazy they can't get this right.

Also for all the talk about Pack the Mack and just based on a visual there seemed to be a lot of people at this game but the official attendance was listed as 1,758. It seems like we had more then that there. Does anyone feel that way also??