MBB Game 19 @ Stony Brook, Jan 22 (Mon), 9 PM

[Jojogunne]

Monday is the first of two Battles of Long Island ... Hofstra at Stony Brook. The game starts at 9 pm because it's on the CBS Sports Network.

I haven't looked closely at the stats, but it appears the two teams are evenly matched. Both are 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the CAA. SBU has beaten NU and W&M, and has lost to Charleston, Towson and Delaware -- three good teams.

Tyler Stephenson-Moore from LI Lutheran (15 ppg) is SBU's leading scorer, followed by Aaron Clarke (12 ppg), a graduate transfer from Sacred Heart, and Keenan Fitzmorris (11 ppg), their big center, a Stanford transfer.

The two teams will meet again in 10 days (Feb. 1) at Hofstra.

[HUSID80]

This has now become a bigger games than it usually is...we are fighting for survival in the CAA and so are our rivals to the East...NO MORE PATHETIC STARTS GUYS!
As of right now, ESPN gives us a 63.8% chance of winning.

[Jojogunne]

Hard to believe that SBU has won only 6 of the 26 games vs. Hofstra. Seems like they have won more than that:

https://gohofstra.com/news/2024/1/20/me ... onday.aspx

Also, Thomas needs 21 points to reach 1,000 in his Hofstra career and 20 points to reach 2,000 for his entire career.

[Wags]

Hard to believe that SBU has won only 6 of the 26 games vs. Hofstra. Seems like they have won more than that:

Probably feels that way because that includes 1-5 against Hofstra prior to Stony Brook joining D-I and the 5-15 vs. Hofstra as a D-I program included a decent amount of competitive games mixed in with the others that Hofstra won easily.

[EvanJ]

Both are 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the CAA.

I wonder if Jerry Beach or anybody else can find another conference game we played where both teams entered with the same overall record and conference record other than 0-0.

I went to another ESPN page that coincidentally linked to https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... /401600680 which is a preview by AI.

Stony Brook will host three games in six days, with two on CBS Sports Network.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2024/1/20/me ... onday.aspx is our preview titled "National Television For Battle Of Long Island On Monday."

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... game19.pdf is our Game Notes. Plotnikov is a tentative starter.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2024.html has Stony Brook's statistics. They have eight regulars. They did not write a preview.

[Jojogunne]

Found this interesting dashboard of Hofstra-SBU game data over the last 10 years:

https://stonybrookathletics.com/sports/ ... versity/27

[triplec2195]

3.5 point favorite in this game and a must win not only for local supremacy but to get back on the right track and keep us from falling further in the CAA standings.

[Cards]

I've seen the SB center (Fitzsimmons) play a few times - it will be interesting to see how our boys defend him. He's a 7 footer and has some skills. Hope our guys don't end up in early foul trouble.

[HUSID80]

We'll just put Tomasco on him...LOL!!!

[triplec2195]

Love it HUSID maybe we'll find out when we see him on the transfer portal.

[triplec2195]

I've seen the SB center (Fitzsimmons) play a few times - it will be interesting to see how our boys defend him. He's a 7 footer and has some skills. Hope our guys don't end up in early foul trouble.

Last year he scored 12 points in each of the games against us had 1 rebound in 1 and 4 in the other. He only averages 4 rebounds a game. He's scoring 10+ points a games and he isn't a post player. He plays like a guard and likes to shoot the ball mid range. Fritz or someone will have to guard him. Our biggest problem in this game will be Stephenson-Moore who scores 15 a game and their other guard Clarke who scores 12 and was Tyler's backcourt teammate at Sacred Heart. This will be no easy game for us especially if we fall behind.

[EvanJ]

Found this interesting dashboard of Hofstra-SBU game data over the last 10 years:

https://stonybrookathletics.com/sports/ ... versity/27

It brings back bad memories of the first game I went to, which was as a freshman on December 13, 2003. We trailed 70-69. We missed, had to foul, Stony Brook missed the first of a one-and-one, and we missed the game-deciding shot. That site mistakenly says "home" for that game. It says Hempstead or Stony Brook, so it is not necessary to have a home or away column also. The opponent that provides the most detail before we play them is UNCW, who includes a paragraph about every game between the teams.

KenPom expects us to win 72-71, so it takes Stony Brook against the spread.

Thomas leads in threes made per game. Arkansas-Pine Bluff's Joe French is up to second, and he also plays tonight. If Thomas does not make a three, French needs to make seven to pass him.

No games start after 9:00 P.M. today. I wonder if this is the first time we played in the Eastern time zone and it was the latest start time that day.

[stuball888]

this game scares the hell out of me
While Stonybrook is a mediocre team, they always play us tough at their place
Even when we had some very good teams, they gave us all we could handle at their place
To me, this is a watershed moment of this season
Come in and play a full 40 minutes and I’ll feel a lot better but if we struggle or lose this game, it could be a very long season for us

[dutchPride86]

Totally agree with everyone must win game tonight. Only so many chances we can give this team to prove there's more there than what they've shown so far and play a complete game up to their talent.

Considering 4 of our last 6 games are against Drexel (twice), Charleston, and UNCW (including all 3 on the road), a loss here and we could be staring at the unthinkable notion of dropping into that bottom 4 playing on the opening Friday of the conf tourney, let alone crawling back to .500 in the league

[EvanJ]

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... fstra.html is Jerry Beach's "Stony Brook at Hofstra," which is mistitled. Dubar passed Thomas for our lead in his 3 Stars of the Game standings. The win over Hampton was our second 86-77 win, and the first one was over Chicago State in the East Coast Conference Tournament on March 4, 1994. The comeback from down 18 was tied for our largest comeback to win in the Defiantly Dutch era. Jerry wrote "As far as I can tell, Dubar is the first player since at least the 2002-03 season to lead or share the team lead in all five of those statistical categories in the same game."

[Wags]

Wearing the yellows for the first time this season.

[Wags]

Up 10-4 at the first MTO but it's been a lousy showcase for the CAA nationally in the early going. Stony Brook 1/10 FG, Plotnikov missed everything twice and Fritz the same once.

[Wags]

Trying out a different problem tonight? A good start (15-4) for a change, then letting that slip away right after (15-13). But hey, that's progress. Better than battling uphill from the start again.

[The Shadow]

So far, about 70% of the shots taken by HU have been from 3! No driving to the basket.

[Wags]

Plotnikov off the backboard, no rim, twice from 3.
Fritz the same from in the paint.
Thomas off the side of the backboard on a baseline jumper.

But don't worry, "We have good shooters."