MBB Game 30 @UNCW, Feb. 29 (Thu), 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

whenever things get tight they give the ball to Thomas and stand around and watch
Pecora's MOVE coaching would be of help

[Flying Dutchmen]

Very composed performance, great work down the stretch to get good shots and shake off the UNCW run.

[joeg1]

Kudos Speedy. I was critical earlier in the year, but this was an impressive performance.

[dutchPride86]

By virtue of tonight's results Hofstra and Drexel should have clinched the 2 and 3 seeds. Only question for Saturday is which finishes where. But Hofstra will be able to avoid both Charleston or UNCW until a potential conference title game. Just a gigantic swing of events tonight

[triplec2195]

D-Stone just loving the N.C. air. We need to play more games there!

[stuball888]

defense reminds me of the 2019 season
offense wins games Defense wins championships.
We all would have signed up for a split of these 2 games.
We win the first and are now playing with house money
Let go to Charleston on Saturday and make a BIG statement

[EvanJ]

By virtue of tonight's results Hofstra and Drexel should have clinched the 2 and 3 seeds. Only question for Saturday is which finishes where. But Hofstra will be able to avoid both Charleston or UNCW until a potential conference title game. Just a gigantic swing of events tonight

Drexel has not clinched the 3. If we win, they lose, and UNCW wins, UNCW will be tied with Drexel. They split, and UNCW would win the tiebreaker from a better record against Charleston. If we lose, they lose, and UNCW wins, there will be a three-way tie. We are 2-1 against Drexel and UNCW, Drexel is 2-2 against us and UNCW, and UNCW is 1-2 against Drexel and us, so that would make Drexel the 3 seed. If UNCW and us win, Drexel will go into their game needing a win for the 3, and a loss would give them the 4. If UNCW and/or us lose, Drexel will clinch at least the 3 before they play.

Charleston clinched the 1.

The winner of Towson at UNCW gets 4 or better, and the loser does not. Delaware cannot get a double bye because Towson and UNCW cannot both lose.

I am not doing tiebreakers between Delaware, Monmouth, and Stony Brook. All of them clinched 8 or better.

Northeastern and Campbell are tied for ninth. Northeastern won the only head-to-head game, so they finish above Campbell with a win/or Campbell loss. Elon is 1 game behind that tie, but Northeastern and Campbell both went 2-0 against Elon, so Northeastern and Campbell will be 9 and 10 in some order.

Elon is 1 game above North Carolina A&T. Elon won both head-to-head games, so Elon is 11, and North Carolina A&T is 12.

William & Mary and Hampton are tied. William & Mary hosts Hampton, with the winner being 13, and the loser being 14.

Charleston, Elon, and North Carolina A&T are the teams that clinched their seeds. None of them are playing each other, so there are no meaningless games.

Charleston's Reyne Smith made 10 of 15 threes to make a five-way tie for the most threes in a game by a CAA player behind Omar Silverio's 11. That made the end be interesting even when Charleston was up big, and Charleston won 96-73. Charleston used 16 players, and 14 of them shot. Anthony Dell'Orso shot well and led Campbell with 21 points and 7 rebounds.

Dan Banister Jr. scored 18 off the bench in Hampton's 64-56 win hosting Monmouth. Javon Benson scored only 4, but had 13 rebounds and 5 blocks.
He became the first player in over a year to have 4 or fewer points, at least 13 rebounds, and at least 5 blocks. Monmouth's Jack Collins led all players with 19 points and had 8 rebounds. Xander Rice scored 16, but shot 4-20 with 5 free throws made. Nikita Konstantynovskyi had 3 points and 14 rebounds. I wish I could find out how rare it is for both teams to have a player with 4 or fewer points and at least 13 rebounds.

Delaware won 73-67 hosting Northeastern. Both teams had their leading scorer just miss a double-double. Northeastern's Harold Woods led all players with 20 points, and had 9 rebounds. Teammate Chris Doherty had 17 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks, 4 turnovers, and 5 fouls. Jyare Davis led Delaware with 19 points, and had 9 rebounds. Delaware had six players play at least 25 minutes, and their only other player played 9 minutes. Four of Delaware's starters had exactly 3 assists, as did Northeastern's assists leader.

Drexel won 90-86 hosting Stony Brook. Stony Brook led 35-30 at halftime, but Drexel scored 60 in the second half. Drexel's Justin Moore led all players with 25 points and 6 assists. Amari Williams had 16 points and 8 rebounds. Stony Brook got 21 points from Dean Noll, and 20 points from Tyler Stephenson-Moore.

Towson won 84-58 at North Carolina A&T. Towson used 13 players and had balanced scoring, with Christian Ray leading them with 15 points. Nendah Tarke had the only double-double on either team with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. North Carolina A&T's Jalal McKie led all players with 16 points, but he shot 4-15 and made 7 free throws.

Elon won 76-71 hosting William & Mary. KenPom's prediction of 75-71 was very good. Elon's TK Simpkins led his team with 18 points, and led all players with 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Max Mackinnon had 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. William & Mary's Gabe Dorsey shot 6-11 with all of his attempts being threes, and led all players with 20 points. Chase Lowe had 10 points, 5 rebounds, and led all players with 6 assists.

[EvanJ]

Dubar shot 11-13. I did not realize that he shot that well.

The bench played 21 minutes, which is low even by our standards. Washington played 15, Sunday played 4, and Robinson played 2.

Here are the Analytics leaders. In efficiency, Dubar had 32, Carlos had 26, and Trazarien White had 12. In game score, Dubar had 22.4, Carlos had 18.7, and White had 9.2. In net points, Dubar had 12.5, Carlos had 5.4, and Noah Ross had 0.5 in 10 minutes. Dubar and Carlos were our only positive players, and it added to -9.8 for us, and -21.1 for UNCW.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-baske ... =401600751 is titled "Dubar scores 28 as Hofstra takes down UNC Wilmington 69-58."

[Wags]

defense reminds me of the 2019 season
offense wins games Defense wins championships.
We all would have signed up for a split of these 2 games.
We win the first and are now playing with house money
Let go to Charleston on Saturday and make a BIG statement

Not quite at that level but really good.

Been saying it all along, D is the key.

They have won 8 of 9 and are locking down. In their past 7 wins, they have allowed 56, 59, 49, 62, 57, 64, 58 (that's 57.9 ppg in those 7 wins).

The first and most recent wins in this 8 of 9 stretch were accomplished with no bench points. But who needs bench points when Dubar (28 pts, 11/13 fg) and Carlos (18 pts, 8/12 fg) were as efficient as they were tonight and when Hofstra continues to guard as they have?

I am a little bit concerned about Thomas, who even if they lose on Saturday, I think needs to get back in that game to what he was doing for weeks before these past two games. I know he won the POW last week, but it wasn't a good shooting game (9/26 with too many 3s attempted - 14) and tonight, just 13 pts on 4/13 shooting (though 3/7 from 3 was fine) as Dubar carried them. Would feel better about him if he gets back to that kind of 11/21, 4/9 from 3, a few trips to the line kind of game in Charleston even if they lose. You don't want three bad shooting games from him (even with 2 or 3 wins) heading into the tourney. Then again, with an eight-day layoff and the mental change from the regular season grind to playing for a championship at a neutral site, maybe that doesn't matter so much and he'll get it back when the lights are shining the brightest.

Again, here is the link if you want to try different outcomes for Saturday and see how the tiebreakers and standings fall:
https://bball.notnothing.net/bracket.php?conf=caam

Tonight's win means that Hofstra isn't playing in the tournament until the quarterfinal evening session. So, if anyone's headed down there and doesn't care that much about missing other games that day as long as you see Hofstra play, you won't have to rush as much. They'll be playing at 6 pm as the 2 seed or at 8:30 pm as the 3 seed. But don't forget to spring ahead for DST at 2 am that morning.

[dutchPride86]

Evan good catch on Drexel thanks. Maybe Hofstra should lose the Charleston game on purpose to lock UNCW into the 4 seed or worse then (95% kidding).

Another thing on Dubar, he's accepted the challenge big time in his lone matchup with each of the arguably 2 other elite wings in the CAA:

vs Delaware:
Dubar: 18 pts, 9 reb, 4 steals
Jyare Davis: 11 pts (4-12 FG), 5 reb, 5 ast, 5 turnovers

tonight:
Dubar: 28 pts (11-13 FG), 8 reb
Trazarien White: 13 pts, 5 reb

[Wags]

Evan good catch on Drexel thanks. Maybe Hofstra should lose the Charleston game on purpose to lock UNCW into the 4 seed or worse then (95% kidding).

Lol. We should be fair here and give Hofstra a bunch of credit for putting themselves in the position they're in because I know for sure that we would all be destroying them here if they had just done what UNCW did - losing 3 of 4, favorites in all 3 losses, with 2 of those at home - to fall from 2nd to 5th.

[Polito]

HUGE win tonight, very gutsy performance - love the D we are seeing, the team has really improved on that front. They seem to have embraced that being the key, and not trying to force themselves to be some kind of offensive powerhouse that they aren't. Finally.

Holding the W under 60 on their home floor in a game they were desperate to win is nothing to sniff at - props where it's due, kudos to this team for showing up, showing out, weathering the 2nd half storm and putting on a mature showing at the mighty Trask, a place HU has actually played well in of late.

Dubar was a man among boys - he is looking and playing like the kind of stud we all wanted and believed he could and should be. Keep this up and it could be enough. Although...

...TT was, eh. He forced some bad shots tonight - hasn't had a good couple of games. Need him to shake this off and play to his ability Sat and in the CAAT. Dubar could be enough, but would be a stretch, much better odds with TT up to par as well.

Washington... I'm sorry, needs to stay on the bench. He has really tailed off and kills momentum more than he fuels it. Not impressed.

Really like German's growth on the other hand, he needs the ball a bit more IMO.

On to the finale - the pressure is off after this win. Now we'll see just how bad HU actually wants it this year, when they don't have to have the win do they have enough fight / dog / killer insinct to go take it anyway. Not a must win at all, but a must be competitive with a real chance to win. Do that and let's see how this thing shakes out in the CAAT.

CofC is still the top dog until proven otherwise, but HU could be peaking at the right time here, step by step...


P.S. Clutch heads up on the free YT stream, appreciated - watched start to finish.

[Wags]

They don't call February Speedy Month for nothing:

Hofstra in the last three Februarys: 8-2, 8-1, 8-0 (24-3 total).

[Jojogunne]

It’s going to be hard for us or anyone to win three games in three days without any bench points.

[Wags]

It’s going to be hard for us or anyone to win three games in three days without any bench points.

It would be hard for anyone to win ONE game in DC without any bench points. Fortunately, that's only happened twice this season and it's good that they're 2-0 in those games.

[daHUPride]

They don't call February Speedy Month for nothing:

Hofstra in the last three Februarys: 8-2, 8-1, 8-0 (24-3 total).

Speedy = Mr February

(Reggie = Mr October / Jeter = Mr November)

NOW we need a Mr March ... Dubar / Thomas ?????

[daHUPride]

D-Stone just loving the N.C. air. We need to play more games there!

Dubar - has all the tools in a tool box - I always said he was our best player - and still believe that - if he could be more consistent and go to the hoop more he'd be one of the all-time greats here - his size athleticism and ability on both ends of the court make him a stud!

I am BIG FAN of Double D's!

[Dooku25]

It’s going to be hard for us or anyone to win three games in three days without any bench points.

This of course appears to be true Jojo, but hopefully this makes you feel better- take a look back at our 2020 championship team and you will see the starters carried us all 3 games. The bench scored a grand total of 2 pts in 3 days. So it can be done this way. The big 3 this year have to carry the team and they are more than capable. Plotnikov as the 4th option has been a key, the team has been winning since he was inserted into the starting lineup. If he can stay out of foul trouble along with Fritz, then the starting 5 has what it takes to win the tourney. Nobody scares me in this league this year, so if our starters bring their A game for 3 straight days, they have a great shot of taking the whole thing.

Great performance last night, always love being UNCW, a team that has caused us so much misery over the last 20 years. Kudos to Speedy and staff, 24-3 February record the past 3 seasons is remarkable. But happy March 1st, its go time!!!!

[Wags]

They don't call February Speedy Month for nothing:

Hofstra in the last three Februarys: 8-2, 8-1, 8-0 (24-3 total).

Speedy = Mr February

(Reggie = Mr October / Jeter = Mr November)

NOW we need a Mr March ... Dubar / Thomas ?????

Actually, I meant to list it in order, by year: 8-2, 8-0, 8-1.

Since an inexplicable 81-55 home loss to Elon on 2/24/22 that came nine days after an earlier 97-64 win at Elon, Hofstra is 18-1 in its last 19 February games, the only blemish in those 19 games being the narrow 79-77 loss at Drexel on 2/15 this year.

[cactus]

They don't call February Speedy Month for nothing:

Hofstra in the last three Februarys: 8-2, 8-1, 8-0 (24-3 total).

Speedy = Mr February

(Reggie = Mr October / Jeter = Mr November)

NOW we need a Mr March ... Dubar / Thomas ?????

Randy Johnson is Mr November