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

[HUSID74]

Is anyone having trouble with the feed? Every time there's a break in the action I have to refresh...then early the sound was horrible....this sucks!

[Wags]

Halftime. Tied, 34-34.

16-3 spurt had Iona up 18-9.

Gaels led 24-15 before #Hofstra closed the half on a 19-10 run.

Hofstra started 3/18 (2/11 from 3) but finished 7/10 with only one 3 attempted (and made). Not saying don't shoot 3s but don't think you're Steph Curry when you're not. Definitely shoot the good ones. Ray made the lone 3 over the final 10 shots of the half with a good look from straight away. But it was the vastly different approach that got them back in the game. That approach also resulted in 11 more FT attempts (14-3) and eight more made (11-3).

[CTDutch]

Having the same issues. Game sound is awful

[HofstraMathew]

Sounds is terrible but the feed has been working otherwise.

[Hof_Judge99]

Pros: I see a lot of Desure Buie in Burgess, granted he’s much younger but really strong on the defensive side especialy in forcing turnovers. Coburn looks like a man on a mission which is awesome.

Cons: Granted I don’t watch every second of every game but man whenever I see Silverio he’s either chucking a wild 3 or turning the ball over. Don’t want that.

[jaspegs]

Definitely need to get the audio issues fixed and random commercials just popping up. Been better for me in the second half.

Big three by Coburn cuts lead to 6. Need to stop turning the ball over.

[HofstraMathew]

The live states has Hofstra with 2 less points than the scoreboard on the stream. Does anyone know which one is accurate?

[Wags]

The live states has Hofstra with 2 less points than the scoreboard on the stream. Does anyone know which one is accurate?

They've been behind in a couple instances.

It's 79-70 Iona right now with :40.2 left

[cactus]

Opportunity was there to win this game. Turned the ball over too much and did not capitalize at the free throw line.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[HUSID74]

Very disappointing loss....nothing from Green again and you'd think Silverio was playing for Iona....turnovers and missed shots everywhere....he killed any chance of us coming back.

And also where was Ray? Pretty much a non factor

Their press also Hurt us but you have to expect that from Pitino teams.

On the other hand Burgess looked much better at the point, aggressive to the hoop and a couple of nice dishes underneath to Kante.

Lots of work to be done with this team...we were Really spoiled by the last couple of years.

[Polito]

Hugely disappointing and uninspiring game from this team. Iona is without 1-2 starters, still barely even a team at this point, was going to be tight a bit but HU has no business being down all game and losing the way they did. Need to see a lot better or the predictions for this season are going to change quite a bit.

Pitiful from the line, still too inconsistent shooting, nothing from the 1, seasoned Srs Ray and Coburn making lots of silly mistakes - I know Coburn put up some points, but his and Ray's play needs to elevate if this team expects to do anything. Green continues to be awful. Frosh so can't beat him up, but certainly isn't helping.

Love Burgess's play minus his scoring. He's actually a point and runs a real O. But staff needs to teach this kid how to put the ball in the basket. Thought that's what they would've done from last year - small offseason I'm sure hurts, but geez kid your in D1, score some points.

Eh, frustrating L.

[Polito]

Oh, and coaching staff should be upset with themselves - lot of love for them, but also disappointed esp in Speedy and Farrelly - need to win this 1st game in the series, it's only going to get tougher once they build the new program - I know we're going to hear about the Pitino excuse every time we play these guys, and I get it, he's top notch, but Iona has played together for like a hot minute, missing Gist, and HU has 3 returning starters - at home.

Kante another disappointing game to me - where's this kids head at? Sure RU is one thing, but he should be MUCH more effective than I see.

All around pretty crappy - losing all game, I mean c'mon.

And in addition to the inconsistent shooting from this team, the fact that Coburn and Ray continue to disappear for chunks of games or full games altogether is a huge concern. This team needs leadership in the worst way, a true go-to, and if they don't get it from one of those 2 they'll be in trouble.

So far the 3 returning leaders have been relatively mediocre to me - and the guy that can be a superstar is a RS freshman, so not fair to put all that on Cramer. I hope this is part of the learning process and is going to change before Jan. But again, need to see it in reality.

[EvanJ]

It ended 82-74. Coburn scored a career-high 28. After missing his first 3 field goals, Kante made 5 of 6 to finish at 5-9, and he made all 7 free throws to score 17. Ray scored 15 with average shooting. Cramer scored 9 by shooting field goals 4-4 and free throws 1-6. He shot free throws 2-10 in his career. Burgess (1-7), Silverio (0-4), Green (0-2), and Cowart (0-1) combined to shoot 1-14. Schutte didn't shoot. Neither Masic nor anybody who didn't play in the first two games played today. We used nine players. Ray (38), Coburn (35), Burgess (33), and Kante (32) combined to play 138 minutes. Silverio and Cramer played 19, and Cramer would have played more if he didn't commit two fouls in his first 3:40. Green (10), Schutte (8), and Cowart (7) played the rest of the minutes, which add up to 201. The box score will take away one minute from somebody. If you take everybody's playing time and round to the nearest minute, the sum could be higher or lower than 200. Kante led us with 8 rebounds, Cramer had 6, and Ray and Coburn had 4. Burgess had 7 assists, Ray had 2, and nobody else had any. We had 6 steals and 12 turnovers. Iona blocked 7 shots, and we didn't block any. We made two-thirds of our 39 free throws, and we had our most attempts and most misses since a 91-86 loss hosting Towson on February 24, 2018, which was our last game before the CAA Tournament. That was 73 games ago.

[Polito]

Thanks Evan for the stats - feel the need to come back now as I've laid into the 3 starters - the points are there, but it really just doesn't feel like they are playing at a high level - guess that's what I really mean in my frustration, certainly Coburn and Kante stats are not 'bad', but it just doesn't feel the way it reads - too many missed opps, key mistakes, etc.

Ray a really poor game - this kid reportedly was ready to take the reins... haven't really seen it yet. Again, Ray and Coburn HAVE to be studs together, not trade off each game - these 2 can't disappear in games, not enough scoring to make up for it - all back to leadership - who's the alpha that's going to physically (verbally) direct this team???

I really want Kante to be a LOT more aggressive I guess - he should have way more attempts than he does IMO

The 1 spot (largely Burgess) and Silverio really hurt the scoring this game - Omar looked like last year.. Gotta get some consistency on this team.

[triplec2195]

It ended 82-74. Coburn scored a career-high 28. After missing his first 3 field goals, Kante made 5 of 6 to finish at 5-9, and he made all 7 free throws to score 17. Ray scored 15 with average shooting. Cramer scored 9 by shooting field goals 4-4 and free throws 1-6. He shot free throws 2-10 in his career. Burgess (1-7), Silverio (0-4), Green (0-2), and Cowart (0-1) combined to shoot 1-14. Schutte didn't shoot. Neither Masic nor anybody who didn't play in the first two games played today. We used nine players. Ray (38), Coburn (35), Burgess (33), and Kante (32) combined to play 138 minutes. Silverio and Cramer played 19, and Cramer would have played more if he didn't commit two fouls in his first 3:40. Green (10), Schutte (8), and Cowart (7) played the rest of the minutes, which add up to 201. The box score will take away one minute from somebody. If you take everybody's playing time and round to the nearest minute, the sum could be higher or lower than 200. Kante led us with 8 rebounds, Cramer had 6, and Ray and Coburn had 4. Burgess had 7 assists, Ray had 2, and nobody else had any. We had 6 steals and 12 turnovers. Iona blocked 7 shots, and we didn't block any. We made two-thirds of our 39 free throws, and we had our most attempts and most misses since a 91-86 loss hosting Towson on February 24, 2018, which was our last game before the CAA Tournament. That was 73 games ago.

This to a large degree sums up why we lost this game. Thanks for the stats Evan however without seeing Iona's stats I'm going to say we got out rebounded and they also had more assists and they shot the 3 far better then we did, that's probably the understatement of the year. As far as Flo sports ditto like everyone has reported interruptions in the transmission bad audio with a hum from the feed initially going to commercials when the game was playing on and on AMATEUR HOUR! I won't pull any punches in this one we won many a game from the foul line last year however we now have a team that's capable of losing it from the foul line. Caleb Burgess while he has his strengths on D is an inept offensive player to date who has yet to show he can hit an open shot. Heck he's looks very uncomfortable from the FT line. Cramer while it appears evident he's going to be a great one here needs to also work on his game from the FT line because he's going to spend a LOT OF TIME THERE. Put last years players on the court today everything remaining the same and we win this game from the FT line period. I know I've come to bat for Omar time after time but not today missing open three's making bad decisions on offense and turning the ball over at critical times. David Green not sure what has happened to him although I've watched some of his H.S. games in their entirety and this is not the same kid, tentative and just not confident. We knew Iona was going to press us we knew Iona could shoot the three and honestly whatever our game plan was it wasn't effective against either. I'll say what a lot of others are thinking but Cramer needs to start and get a lot of minutes. Green should come off the bench and build up his confidence his shots were as bad as Caleb's shots and that's pathetic.

[EvanJ]

I'm going to say we got out rebounded and they also had more assists and they shot the 3 far better then we did, that's probably the understatement of the year.

Rebounds: Iona 43, Hofstra 31
When Hofstra missed: Iona 30, Hofstra 6 (83 1/3 percent defensive and 16 2/3 percent offensive)
When Iona missed: Hofstra 25, Iona 13 (65.8 percent defensive and 34.2 percent offensive, they more than doubled our offensive rebound percentage, and they more tha doubled our second chance points 19-9)
Assists: Iona 17, Hofstra 9
Threes: Iona 10/30 = .333, Hofstra 6/23 = .261

CAA teams played consecutive halves in which both teams scored 34. Furman led 47-23 at halftime at College of Charleston in a game that started at 2:00 P.M. In the second half of that game, each team scored 34 for Furman to win 81-57. A Furman player had a combination of statistics for the first time from 2010-2011 to the present. I'm going to tweet it at twitter.com/EvanJ3535 and you do not have be logged in to read Twitter.

[Mikey77]

I know I sound like Captain Obvious, but we are getting nothing from anyone, except the three seniors. Omar S is what he has been, awful, a turnover machine with a bad shot. Rhode island's loss is now our loss. Green? I get he's a true freshman, but , , , Has anyone seen Truehart? He's better than what I'm seeing from many of the guys playing.

[Dooku25]

That was painful. I thought it was a bad day for the coaching staff. The team came out flat AGAIN.. And really had no energy for most of the game. You think Pitino was going to lose to a guy coaching his 3rd career game? Iona had THIRTEEN offensive rebounds and 7 blocks. They had no answer for the press, and allowed Iona’s best player to go off for 33 pts while making no visible adjustments in defending him reminiscent of Joe’s early teams here. And to top it off, they lost a game in which they attempted 39 free throws to Iona’s 19. That’s a bad loss.

As for the individual player performances, obviously Green and Cowart have been a big disappointment 3 games into their Hofstra careers. We have to give them some time, especially the true freshman, but the early returns are not encouraging. Second year players Silverio and Burgess also continue to disappoint in my view. I know we have been spoiled at the PG position the last several years with Green and Buie, but it seems Burgess cannot put the ball in the basket. A couple of nice passes and steals in 32 minutes is not enough production from a starting point guard. He could be serviceable because of his defense, but it looks like this kid doesn’t have a high ceiling. And Silverio is what he is- an enigma. I don’t think we’ll be able to count on him for any consistency. Hope I’m wrong on that.

As for the big 3, Jalen Ray only took 11 shots today. That cannot happen. He needs to average 18-20 pts a game as does Coburn. I agree with you Polito, they cannot take turns being the guy every other game. They have to be the top guys each game together. We can’t afford any off nights from them, because it seems like we are not going to get scoring elsewhere. Kante had a quiet 17 and 8 but to be fair, Pitino utilized his two 6’ 9 bigs on him and they totaled 9 fouls between them. Tough for Kante to go against, I know he lacked some aggressiveness on some 50/50 balls against Rutgers but I’m not worried about him yet. He’s still putting up numbers without a standout PG feeding him the ball.

This is Ray/Coburn/Kante’s team. They need to be out there 35+ minutes every game and the ball needs to be in there hands the majority of the time. We cannot see long stretches of games where any one of these 3 are not out there or not touching the ball otherwise I think we in for a very mediocre season.

[Wags]

Lots of work to be done with this team...we were Really spoiled by the last couple of years.

Exactly what I said earlier, after Rutgers, even after FDU. The team cannot shoot consistently from deep and they're pretty stubborn about it rather than admitting what they are and playing to their strengths. All we keep hearing is, "We have good shooters, the shots will eventually fall, we trust our shooters." The numbers, the results say otherwise. Doesn't mean they can't hit 3s, they can. But it should be more in moderation, picking their spots, sticking with other things that work. And no matter what they shoot, how about some pick-and-rolls and screens? Saw so little of that today. Mostly stagnant and 1-on-1 all game - which doesn't work when you lack JWF, Pemberton, Buie and no longer have guys who can create their own shots. Very little movement with the ball or with the players on the floor today, which led to settling for bad 3s and going 6/23 from there out of 54 total shots.

Everything they did offensively today (54% from the floor), getting back into the game and taking the lead, getting to the line 39 times (even though they missed 13), was a result of being aggressive, taking better, mid-range shots, attacking and setting up guys for layups. Every time they fell behind (in the beginning of the game and in the second half), they instead started settling and missing 3s. I get that we're in this analytics age and the math says you should hoist 3s over mid-range shots, but when you shoot 54% from 2 and less than half that (26%) from 3, nearly half your shots (45% today) shouldn't be from 3. Read the game. If you're hot from 3, keep at it. But recognize when you're not and stick with the things that work, that change the game and the score in your favor. Today, they did that in the first half to erase a 9-point deficit and take the lead early in the second half, but then they went right back to settling fpr bad (often contested) 3s and the same things that didn't work earlier, falling behind by double digits again.

To me, that was all expected though. What was disappointing was the defense. And what was alarming was Coburn after the game saying three guys would sometimes play D and two wouldn't and they all lacked communication. That is not like them at all, especially under Farrelly defensively the first two games this year and with him leading the D last year. I'd expect that to change on Wednesday, but we'll see.

On the other hand Burgess looked much better at the point, aggressive to the hoop and a couple of nice dishes underneath to Kante.

1/7 fg - again, one more that can't shoot. Expected. But, what was encouraging from him was 7 assists and only 1 turnover. Would be nice to see him build on that aspect.

As for Green, it's time to let him play off the bench. He's 0/11 for the season, he's played 11, 15 and 10 minutes and hasn't contributed much. And Hofstra can't afford this first-half lulls anymore. They don't shoot well enough to have those every game like they have for the first three games. Yes, Cramer provides a spark off the bench, but after the first three games, it's apparent the team needs that spark early on. Let him start and let Green give him a breather when he needs it, since Green is only playing limited minutes anyway, even as a starter.

[Jojogunne]

Future trivia question: Who did Rick Pitino defeat in his first coaching win at Iona? Answer: Hofstra.