MBB Game 08 @Iona, Dec 6 (Wed), 7 PM

[cactus]

Worst game they've played this year and still managed to win. But they'll lose by 50 if they play Duke like that. Couldn't inbound or break a press, and gave up a ton of open 3s.

[dutchPride86]

Survive and advance in Dec? lol

In all seriousness, I know good teams find ways to win ugly but man that was really ugly. They are not winning many games with Thomas and Dubar shooting a combined 7-25 and Carlos turning the ball over 6 times. Fritz played well and Dubar crashed the boards, but not too many other positives for me.

Sometimes bad habits get glossed over when you win, tonight proved that was clearly the case off the High Point game. This team still has no idea how to break a press or close out a close game. Still early, but concerning that didn't improve at all.

Also thought Speedy has some questionable subs in the 2nd half... Bryce was starting to find it, why was he sitting down the stretch for Farmer? And I get putting better FT shooters in, but what was that putting a freshman in cold with Kijan at the end there?

Gonna need to tighten a lot of things up if they're beating St Louis or competing with Duke. I really want to give them credit for bending but not breaking tonight, but my gut is telling me that had more to do with Iona being down and not Hofstra.

[Cards]

At least Iona has some valid excuses for not playing well! We do not. Of course a few guys can have "off" games on the same day, but this was a total team let down.

[Wags]

Didn't get to watch this one since my own team had a game at the same time in the weekly league I play in. For those who saw it, was this good D from HU or Iona just missing shots? Sounds like the latter from some comments above. If it was the former, I'll say that some games can be looked at in context along with the rest of the season - as in, this would show versatility, that they can win a high-scoring shootout with High Point as well as a low-scoring game with Iona on a night when Thomas and Dubar combine for only 20 pts on 7/25 shooting while holding Iona's leading scorer to just two points on 0/9 shooting.

[Jojogunne]

Hope your team won, Wags.

[Wags]

Hope your team won, Wags.

Lost by three. We forced a loose ball down one with :10 left, had three guys there and somehow, we didn't come up with it. Had to foul, they made two FTs with :06 left, we missed a forced 3 at the end. Annoying lol. But still fun.

[Wags]

Tonight's win makes it six straight years with a winning streak of at least five games for HU. Over that time, they have not lost more than four straight (which was only in one of those seasons).

[triplec2195]

A street yard game where both teams played D but didn't shoot well. TT had only 8 points all in the first half and no longer the leading scorer in the country. That won't happen very often and now we can get back to building a team that can win the CAA tournament. All wins are really good wins even UGLY WINS and I believe we led wire to wire. I like Farmer getting minutes because we need to know who the next guy up is going to be in any given game. God forbid someone fouls out or goes down with an injury. Robinson has been a little tentative of late and put up a couple of bricks in that first half. Also wonder why Barrouk not getting more minutes. No sooner does he get in the game he hits a three and he has good size. Is his D game that bad?? Also Fritz developing and getting better after every game really getting into the flow just like Nelson did last season. Nobody mentioned that he hit a three from the top of the key!! How about that for a secret weapon.

[dutchalum01]

That 3 was a thing of beauty! Fritz really turning it up.


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[HUSID80]

Sometimes you win ugly and this game certainly was ugly but we'll take the win...first time in their building in 15 years!
Really liked what I saw from Fritz tonight, maybe he felt comfortable in a MAAC gym!
Dubar and Thomas going 7-25 does not cut it...they can't take alot of those forced shots...and as for substitutions, felt Speedy was trying some things as I don't believe he ever felt threatened by Iona.
Need to clean it up for St. Louis!

[stuball888]

I will take this ugly rock fight win over a pretty loss any day
Time to learn from the mistakes we made in this game and move on
need our A game If we want to pull off a win in St. Louis

[EvanJ]

I believe we led wire to wire. I like Farmer getting minutes because we need to know who the next guy up is going to be in any given game.

We never trailed. One of Washington and Farmer played at a time. We were +13 while Washington played, and -8 while Farmer played.

The bench played 35 minutes. I would not be surprised if we average the fewest bench minutes per game in the last ten years.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2023/12/6/me ... t-win.aspx says we won 8 in a row and 30 of our last 42 against teams from New York. We won 47 in a row when allowing under 60 points.

I wish I could find out the last time the national scoring leader played a whole half without scoring, and where our 44 games with Iona ranks among the most games between any two teams that each team won half of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4YTJBvVekU is highlights.

William & Mary had only six scholarship players available, and used seven players in a win hosting Old Dominion. The CAA went 4-2 yesterday.

We rose 11 spots to 51st in the NET. I'm surprised that winning by 5 as a 3.5 point favorite helped that much. The CAA moved up 1 spot to 21st in the Conference NET.

KenPom expects the CAA to be full of close games on Saturday, with us beating Saint Louis 78-75, Drexel losing at West Virginia 62-60, Towson winning at Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) 76-72, Monmouth winning 80-79 hosting Northern Illinois, and Stony Brook losing 70-69 hosting Bryant. KenPom has North Carolina A&T with the worst defense in Division I, and expects them to lose 94-72 at High Point tomorrow.

[Polito]

Not great to see them pay so poorly, but great to see them win a tough road game w/out Thomas and Dubar on their game. Also shut down their top guy. Considering it's been 15 years, which is pretty shocking, I'll take it and run.

Much to clean up, still a work in progress. But again staff is working that bench big time in ways we really haven't seen here. Going to pay off in the long run and for the future. I also think it's a MUST in todays transfer world. The days of waiting 2-3 years to make your mark are largely over - kids want to opportunity and PT in all sports, so I think this is a helpful approach for HU to maintain some roster consistency as best it can.

Speedy said that guys like Farmer and Barrouk are earning more time from their practice efforts. Good to see.

Really hard to get on JC this year, super high on this kid, but man he has got to learn how to break a press - how in the world this is still an issue as a Jr with his skill level is baffling. Gotta figure out my dude - you're a starting D1 PG on a championship level squad - the TO's need to stop.

On the flip side, this might be the best HU team I've ever seen for inbound plays! I'm loving what I'm seeing! HU NEVER does that well, always been a disaster - kudos to staff and players for making that a new strength. To me, the points off inbounds are kinda like hidden yardage in football (like field position from kickoffs / punts) - sneaky ways to help win games.

Team battled, it was physical, a strong test, and they got the W. Watch film, learn and get better. Keep it moving...