MBB Game 24 @ Hampton, Feb. 8 (Thu), 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

Our next game takes us south to Virginia to take on Hampton (4-18, 0-10).

The Pirates have not been competitive in the CAA. Most of their losses have been by I would say an average of 10 points. Their closest chance at winning in the CAA came against NC A&T, but the Aggies beat them twice by one point! That's got to be tough to take.

Despite their record, the Pirates will be on national TV tomorrow (Sat) vs. Howard at 4 pm on TNT.

FloHoops will carry our game next week.

[cactus]

Hofstra needs to take these next two very winnable road games to have a shot at finishing in the top 4 and avoiding a Saturday game in the conference tournament. They now have the tiebreaker vs Towson if they tie for 4th.

[dutchPride86]

Hofstra needs to take these next two very winnable road games to have a shot at finishing in the top 4 and avoiding a Saturday game in the conference tournament. They now have the tiebreaker vs Towson if they tie for 4th.

Hofstra's lost the right to overlook ANY opponent the rest of the year, but since we can for them...

Drexel has the UNCW/Charleston road gauntlet this week, which guarantees that at least 1 of the current top 4 teams will have 4 losses by week's end. And as long as Drexel loses at least one of those games, Hofstra would actually be in position to jump them in the standings with a win on the 15th if they take care of business this week

[Wags]

The Pirates have not been competitive in the CAA.

They were competitive at Hofstra and even dominated the first half. As far as Hofstra's concerned, that's all that matters. That alone should be enough to as the program has been saying (but sometimes not actually doing consistently) going back to Mihalich, "Respect the game, respect the opponent."

The first two down south on this three-game trip before it closes in Philly are must wins but given that Hofstra's six CAA wins (including one against Hampton) have been by 5, 9, 6, 9, 1, and 3, they need to treat everyone going in like they're Drexel, UNCW, or Charleston. Thanks to this 5-1 stretch they're on, the opportunity is now before them. Will they approach it seriously enough and execute well enough to take advantage of that? We'll see. But the chance is now there. Take full advantage of it. Get to 8-4 and then it's suddenly a showdown at Drexel. But do not merely assume that Hampton can't get it's first league win on Thursday. Make sure they don't. Business trip.

[EvanJ]

The Pirates have not been competitive in the CAA. Most of their losses have been by I would say an average of 10 points.

They lost by 34, 27, 11, 12, 1, 9, 8, 21, 6, and 1. That is an average of 13.0, but it goes down to 8.6 if you take out the first two. The blowouts were by 34 at Drexel, by 27 at Delaware, and by 21 hosting Charleston. They have not played UNCW or Towson.

Hofstra needs to take these next two very winnable road games to have a shot at finishing in the top 4 and avoiding a Saturday game in the conference tournament. They now have the tiebreaker vs Towson if they tie for 4th.

If we lose at UNCW and/or Charleston, we would need to do 3 games better than them in our other games to pass them, which will not happen. Unless we sweep Drexel, we need to gain at least 2 games on them in our other six games to pass them. Wins over Towson and Delaware could be useful for tiebreakers. If we win all of our easiest four (at Hampton and North Carolina A&T and hosting Northeastern and Elon) and one of our hardest four (two against Drexel and at UNCW and Charleston), we will finish 11-7, which is very unlikely to be good enough for the top four. We will need to win at least one upset to finish in the top four.

[joeg1]

Hampton was winning at the Mack with under 6 minutes. By no means should we take anyone lightly

[EvanJ]

Hampton has 11 players who played in a majority of their games and average at least 12.8 minutes. They include Tre Thomas and Amir Nesbitt. Thomas scored 17 points against us, 4 points in each of his next three games, and did not play either game last week. Nesbitt had consecutive scoreless games and did not play in the last two weeks. I do not know if they are available tomorrow.

Hampton shoots better than their opponents .444 to .435. One thing that hurt them is their opponents shoot free throws .766, which is the seventh highest by an opponent out of 362 teams. They average fewer field goal attempts and free throws attempts than their opponents, but not by much. They average more rebounds and more assists than their opponents. Their point differential per game is -2.9. Looking at their statistics you would not expect them to be 5-18 and 0-10 in an average conference.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/sc ... /2024.html has Hampton's statistics.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2024/2/7/men ... swing.aspx is titled "Hofstra Heads To Hampton To Begin Road Swing."

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... game24.pdf is our Game Notes.

Hampton did not write a preview yet.

Last season Hampton did not provide statistics during the game. I hope they provide statistics.

[triplec2195]

We open at 11.5/12.5 favorites hopefully we can come close to covering the spread.

[EvanJ]

https://hamptonpirates.com/news/2024/2/ ... clash.aspx is titled "Hampton Men’s Basketball Host Hofstra in CAA Clash." Hampton is 40th of 362 teams with 27 bench points per game, and 51 of their 63 points on Saturday were bench points! We average 7.8 bench points in ten CAA games. Hampton gave statistics about us including that we lead the CAA in effective field goal percentage at .553, Dubar being second in the CAA with seven double-doubles, and Thomas's awards this week.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... ofstra.pdf is Hampton's Game Notes. They include the record of all of their opponents, and their record under Coach Edward Joyner Jr. against the 120 opponents they played under him. They say their enrollment is 3,244, and Wikipedia says they are the smalles in the CAA with 3,516. Wikipedia says we have 10,871, which is over three times as many, and Stony Brook leads the CAA with 26,782. The normal feature they do not have is their statistics, which can easily be found elsewhere.

Here is today's CAA schedule, line and over/under from ESPN, KenPom predictions, and statistics links that are available so far:

Northeastern at Campbell at 7:00 P.M.
Northeastern is favored by 2.5, over/under of 134.5, which makes a score of 68.5-66
KenPom predicts Northeastern to win 69-68 with a 52 percent chance of winning
https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=483776 will have statistics.

Stony Brook at Elon at 7:00 P.M.
Stony Brook is favored by 3.5, over/under of 142.5, which makes a score of 73-69.5
KenPom predicts Stony Brook to win 76-72 with a 62 percent chance of winning
https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=484388 will have statistics.

Drexel at UNCW at 7:00 P.M. on Bounce (WECT 6.2)
UNCW is favored by 4.5, over/under of 137.5, which makes a score of 71-66.5
KenPom predicts UNCW to win 70-67 with a 60 percent chance of winning

Delaware at Towson at 7:00 P.M. on MeTV Baltimore
Towson is favored by 3.5, over/under of 132.5, which makes a score of 63-59.5
KenPom predicts Towson to win 68-65 with a 61 percent chance of winning

William & Mary at Monmouth at 7:00 P.M. on SNY and NBC Sports Philadelphia
Monmouth is favored by 8.5, over/under of 142.5, which makes a score of 75.5-67
KenPom predicts Monmouth to win 79-67 with an 86 percent chance of winning
https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=485921 will have statistics.

Us at Hampton at 7:00 P.M.
We are favored by 10.5, over/under of 148.5, which makes a score of 79.5-69
KenPom predicts us to win 78-67 with an 84 percent chance of winning

North Carolina A&T at Charleston at 8:00 P.M. on CBS Sports Network
Charleston is favored by 21.5, over/under of 156.5, which makes a score of 89-67.5
Of 62 games with lines tonight, Charleston is the biggest favorite. The next biggest is Wright State (13-11) hosting Detroit Mercy (0-24 after one of the top scorers of all-time, Antoine Davis, played his fifth and final season last season, Mississippi Valley State is the only other winless team of 363)
KenPom predicts Charleston to win 88-70 with a 94 percent of winning
https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=483820 will have statistics.

Except for William & Mary at Monmouth, the home team is south of the away team.

[Wags]

Detroit Mercy (0-24 after one of the top scorers of all-time, Antoine Davis, played his fifth and final season last season

With that record, Mercy is a very appropriate part of their name this year. Yikes!

[EvanJ]

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... mpton.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Hofstra at Hampton." He posted a photo with the caption "Raise your hand if you also forgot Rick Mahorn played for the Nets." I remember Rick Mahorn because of a game when the Knicks and Nets were playing. I am a Knicks fan, and Knicks had the much better record, so it was disappointing that they trailed at halftime. Late in the first half, or possibly after the half ended and players were on their way to the locker rooms, Patrick Ewing and Rick Mahorn fought, and both were ejected. Since Ewing was a much better player, the ejections were expected to help the Nets, but the Knicks came back to win.

The 59-56 win over Towson was our second consecutive unicorn score, meaning the first time we won by that score, and our sixth unicorn score in 13 wins. Thomas scored or assisted on 69.5 percent of our points, which is the highest by one of our players since Charles Jenkins scored or assisted on 74.6 percent of our points in a 63-59 loss hosting Florida Atlantic on December 11, 2010, which was 433 games ago. Farmer and Sunday each scored for the first time since the loss to St. John's on December 30.

Our nine game streak of games decided by single digits tied our longest such streak, which was the last nine games of 1985-1986. That streak was almost longer, as the game before it and the game after it to start 1986-1987 were decided by 10. Tonight could be our first double-digit streak of games decided by single digits, but hopefully we win by more than 9.

We are 1-9 against the spread in CAA games.

We have had a Player of the Week every season we have been in the CAA except for 2002-2003, including one of the thieves in 2012-2013.

Hampton is 345th in KenPom, which is 18th worst. As I typed yesterday, their statistics are better than what I expected from a 5-18 team, so I checked their Luck according to KenPom. They rank 314th in Luck with -0.063. We are 208th in Luck with -0.009.

https://www.flohoops.com/live/87736 will have video.

Edit: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadca ... ?id=484860 will have statistics.

Edit: We are starting our usual starters. Hampton is starting Tedrick Wilcox Jr. (guard, 12.1 points), Tristan Maxwell (guard, 7.4 points), Ford Cooper Jr. (guard, 2.0 points), Joshua Lusane (forward, 6.0 points), and Jerry Deng (forward, 9.3 points). Here are players who are not starting. Kyrese Mullen (14.7 points and 8.9 rebounds) started every game except for one that he did not play in. Jordan Nesbitt (10.5 points) was ineligible in the first eight games, and played every game after that. Trey Thomas (7.6 points) played in 12 of 23 games, and his 17 points against us tied his season-high. He has not started, so not starting today is normal. Ja'von Benson (6.4 points) started half of his 22 games and missed 1. Amir Nesbitt (4.0 points) started 9 of his 14 games. If Mullen does not play, we should do okay at rebounding, and maybe it will keep Fritz out of foul trouble. 1 of Hampton's 16 players have started.

[Jojogunne]

Here's the link to our game:

https://www.flohoops.com/live/87736

[triplec2195]

Everything Hampton is throwing up is seemingly going in. 11-5 Hampton. Scary!

[dutchPride86]

Anyone know what happened to Bryce Washington now? Looked like Bryce was in the grey sweats along with Barrouk and Wilmouth.

[triplec2195]

Thus has the makings of another lackluster half fir us. Down 15-10.

[Cards]

Anyone know what happened to Bryce Washington now? Looked like Bryce was in the grey sweats along with Barrouk and Wilmouth.

You mean there was nothing posted in the pregame injury report...

[Cards]

Thus has the makings of another lackluster half fir us. Down 15-10.

It sure has that "feel" triplec.

[triplec2195]

Looking very lethargic at least it hassnt been a three point nightmare

[triplec2195]

Were 0-7 from three. Awful

[triplec2195]

Hampton turning the ball over at record number's and we don’t capitalize. We haven’t hit a three yet.