Game 4 vs. Iona, 12/5/20, 4 PM on Flosports

[Jojogunne]

Rick Pitino makes his Hofstra debut.

[Polito]

Looking forward to this one for sure! Iona is really early in their transition of course, still a hodgepodge group getting settled - all are with COVID but Iona even more-so with a TON of new guys, new HC, and new system. And they have at least 2 important guys out injured I believe, Gist and someone else.

This seems like a really nice opportunity to grab a good one against what will eventually be another really good Iona team.

[Jojogunne]

Iona is hosting Merrimack at 6 p.m. Thursday on ESPN3:

https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=52 ... e02543d3a2

[Polito]

... annnnnd cancelled due to Merrimack COVID testing. Beat you to it Wags lol

A tad more time for them to prepare for HU and less film for HU to see them in action. Should be a contest on Sat, get ready fellas, they will have their runs but I think HU is just a hair further along - weather their storms with continued strong D, produce on O, stay unified on the floor, take advantage of their early chaos, and outlast them in the end.

I'm hoping that halftime of FDU was an early turning point for this teams focus, energy, aggressiveness, etc. Let's see that continue in game 3!

[triplec2195]

Speedy talked about this game last night saying he never played against Pitino but he workout for the Celtics when Pitino was coach there and they had the 9th pick in the draft. He said even though he had a good workout they drafted some guy he mentioned his name and Cobian said WHO Speedy said exactly they made a mistake not drafting me. Sounded like Speedy has a bit of an axe to grind with Pitino. They mentioned that they were going to use the game as a learning tool to see how Iona plays their offense against Merrimack's zone but now that's a moot issue. Speedy did say that one of the keys to this game will be to limit turnovers. He said that Iona may try to go with full court pressure so we will have to be prepared to break it. Take note though that Iona in the game against Seton Hall turned the ball over 22 times and S.H. had 22 fast break points to Iona's 4. What kept Iona in the game for a while was their 3 point efficiency which was 45%. Things we need to be prepared for.

[HU87]

Interesting nugget from this great KVonn Cramer article: https://www.cityofbasketballlove.com/ne ... ow/1135625

"The interim head coach brought up the CAA’s Sixth Man of the Year award as a realistic goal for Cramer this season, and shows his budding star tape of former Archbishop Carroll standout Derrick Jones as inspiration for how Cramer can use his athleticism to the greatest effect."

This could confirm what a few have said-- It seems they see Cramer as someone who is purposefully brought off the bench to differentiate the second unit and keep energy/athleticism up. I'm not opposed, unless he keeps evolving and seems too good to keep out of the starting lineup.

We'll see if that's the case on Saturday.

[HofstraMathew]

Interesting nugget from this great KVonn Cramer article: https://www.cityofbasketballlove.com/ne ... ow/1135625

"The interim head coach brought up the CAA’s Sixth Man of the Year award as a realistic goal for Cramer this season, and shows his budding star tape of former Archbishop Carroll standout Derrick Jones as inspiration for how Cramer can use his athleticism to the greatest effect."

This could confirm what a few have said-- It seems they see Cramer as someone who is purposefully brought off the bench to differentiate the second unit and keep energy/athleticism up. I'm not opposed, unless he keeps evolving and seems too good to keep out of the starting lineup.

We'll see if that's the case on Saturday.

If they like Cramer as the spark off the bench (which I tend to agree with) then I wonder if they would put Omar in the starting lineup at the 3 and move Coburn back to the 4 to start.

[Jojogunne]

Good idea.

[EvanJ]

If we start Ray, Silverio, and Burgess, will we get enough rebounds? Those three combined to get 2.6 rebounds per 30 minutes last season. Pemberton and Coburn, who are good rebounders by guard standards, combined to get 4.6 rebounds per 30 minutes. Unless a team's top rebounder can average double-digits, the third leading rebounder should be able to average at least 4. Can any of Ray, Silverio, and Burgess do that if they started? Ray averaged 2.9 last season. Kante, Coburn, Ray, Silverio, and Burgess could be too small.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2020/12/3/me ... urday.aspx is Hofstra's preview, but it doesn't say much. The all-time series is tied at 20. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... game3b.pdf is the Game Notes. Iona hasn't written a preview or game notes.

[Flying Dutchmen]

If we start Ray, Silverio, and Burgess, will we get enough rebounds? Those three combined to get 2.6 rebounds per 30 minutes last season. Pemberton and Coburn, who are good rebounders by guard standards, combined to get 4.6 rebounds per 30 minutes. Unless a team's top rebounder can average double-digits, the third leading rebounder should be able to average at least 4. Can any of Ray, Silverio, and Burgess do that if they started? Ray averaged 2.9 last season. Kante, Coburn, Ray, Silverio, and Burgess could be too small.

I agree, and I do not think it would happen, but I suppose it would ultimately depend on how many minutes that lineup plays. I think the expectation is that Cramer plays about 25 minutes whether he is the starter or not.

Green's had a slow start but the coaching staff clearly thinks highly of him. He just needs that first bucket to drop. I don't really believe in that "energy off the bench" idea, Cramer should start if he's the best option, unless the coaching staff wants to intentionally limit his minutes right now to protect his knee.

As for Iona, they're ridiculously inexperienced, but I watched their game against Seton Hall and they look talented with some size. Obviously, Pitino is a HOF coach so I expect them to be good, but other than Isaiah Ross, they have almost no D-1 game experience. Very excited for the game, hopefully it stays on schedule!!

[RollPride15]

Don't know a ton about Iona's roster but yes they look pretty big and have some athletes. Nelly Junior Joseph, a 6'9 FR from Africa who put up 9/6 against Seton Hall, should test Kante. Isaiah Ross can really shoot but advanced stats say he is a sieve on defense. Should be a fun matchup for two NY teams trying to find their identity, a good learning moment for both squads.

[triplec2195]

A back and forth game with plenty of scoring but as I previously mentioned against Seton Hall they turned the ball over 22 times giving S.H. fast break opportunities and were out rebounded but they hit 9/20 from beyond the arc so this is an area that needs to be focused in on.

[Polito]

Ditto on Cramer FD, he's a starter all day long from what I see. But very valid point on protecting his knew with a more controlled return - certainly can't argue it if that's the case.

I think they're forcing Green a bit unnecessarily. To me why try to force him to be what Cramer already is? Let the kid acclimate - I'm sure he's been killing it in practice, and I do believe he's going to be another star, has all the tools to do so; but he is a true frosh and doesn't look like he's ready yet, as is expected.

But if the plan is a safer play with Cramer, then I get it.

For those asking about ST, he's not going to see much of the floor with ability Green and Cramer bring to the table now - just the way it is. Although right now he's prob thinking shoot I can do what Green is doing!

Here what you're saying on rebounds Evan, but don't think you can use those stats - 2 of those 3 didn't even play last year basically, so the data is skewed. Burgess (and Cowart) are bigger than Buie, so that might help. Not sure about Silverio yet, but all of them seem energetic to crash the boards among the big fellas. I'm not too worried about that right now, and I hope I don't ever need to be! lol

[triplec2195]

From every source I've seen we're favored by 9 points in this game. We'll see how that plays out. Will there be any changes in our starters or the way they divvy out minutes in this game??

[Polito]

Iona will have their runs, but I do feel relatively good about this one. Expecting a pretty tightly contested battle with HU rising when it matters.

Big moment for Coach Farrelly too, going up against a legend! Go get 'em Mike!

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2020 ... -iona.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Iona." The 3 Stars of the Game standings have Coburn, Ray, Kante, and Cramer tied with 3. Jerry uses a 3-2-1 point system, so the sum of the points is six times the amount of games. The 73-58 win over FDU wasn't a Unicorn Score, but it was our first win by that score since we beat Bates in 1951-1952. He refers to what I tweeted:

"SPEAKING OF (THE GOOD KIND OF) STEALS…

Here’s a note from Sunday I forgot to include on Monday. Loyal reader EvanJ notes the Dutchmen had seven players record a steal against Rutgers (Cramer led the way with three thefts). That was tied for the most players to record a steal for the Dutchmen since 2010-11, the start of the Play Index era at CollegeBasketballReference.com. The Dutchmen also had seven players with at least one steal in a 91-69 win over Holy Cross on Dec. 1, 2019."

He said "the good kind" because Cramer's double-double in his second career game was the earliest since dorm thief Jimmy Hall in his debut at Monmouth on November 9, 2012. Hall did enough for Kent State that he's fourth in career points with 1,683 and second in career rebounds with 867. Hall's career of hardly playing a freshman was similar to JWF, but for different reasons. Kent State's most career points is only 1,820, which would be tenth in Hofstra history.

Because nobody scored in double-digits against Rutgers and FDU, it's the first time we don't have anyone on a double-digit streak of more than one game since January 31, 2013. That excludes the last game of a season and first game of the next season. January 31, 2013 was during a 7-25 season. Other than 2012-2013, the last time we won 7 or fewer games was 6-21 in 1987-1988.

David Green is our first player with consecutive scoreless starts since Jamall Robinson on January 7 and 12, 2017.

Iona is our third most played out of conference opponent behind 53 games against Wagner and 46 games against Manhattan. We're 20-20 against Iona. Other teams we have played at least 30 times out of conference are Adelphi, Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Long Island University-Brooklyn, Queens, Rider, St. Francis (BKN), and U.S. Merchant Marine, but you may have to get rid of some of those that we were with in the East Coast Conference when I don't have the teams memorized. I really did see "BKN" meaning Brooklyn as part of the St. Francis name. Hofstra says they are 24-42 against Manhattan, which is 66 game, not 46 like Jerry said.

We are favored by 9. KenPom agrees and predicts 76-67. https://www.vegasinsider.com/college-ba ... las-vegas/ has a line of 8.5 and over/under of 148.5, which makes 78.5-70.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=321362 will have statistics. We are using the same starters.

[EvanJ]

We went from up 6-2 to down 7-6. Iona blocked 3 shots in 2:24, two of which were by Kante.

[Wags]

Second media timeout (11:36).

13-3 run for Iona has the Gaels up, 15-9.

Hofstra with a first-half cold spell for a third straight game to start the year. The first two times came over the final 10 minutes of the first halves. Today, the Pride starts just 2/13.

[Wags]

HU settling too much at the start.

10 of the Pride's 17 shots from 3, where they are only 2/10. Have to move the ball and move people and get some better looks, even if from 2.

18-6 Iona run. Gaels up, 20-12. 8:26 left in the half.

[Wags]

HU settling too much at the start.

10 of the Pride's 17 shots from 3, where they are only 2/10. Have to move the ball and move people and get some better looks, even if from 2.

18-6 Iona run. Gaels up, 20-12. 8:26 left in the half.

On cue, Burgess pulls up for a left elbow jumper and on the next trip, HU gets the ball down low to Kante (off an assist from Burgess) to get within 24-19. Don't always have to chuck 3s. Play smart, know what you are and play to your strengths.