Game 7 @ Richmond, 12/22/20, 2 PM on SNY & ESPN+ - Note Time

[The Shadow]

Did any of you notice that OS did not get any playing time? Possible injury? If Hofstra can improve on the free throws, it might make a very big difference to the CAA games.

[Hof_Judge99]

Awesome game, wasn’t expecting to win this one. I think Silverio not playing was a huge lift for the team. I don’t think we win if he chucks his normal five wild three pointers a game that have no chance of going in. What a performance by Cramer off the bench, guy is loaded with potential. Jalen Tareq and Isaac continue to be awesome as well.

[HofstraMathew]

Did any of you notice that OS did not get any playing time? Possible injury? If Hofstra can improve on the free throws, it might make a very big difference to the CAA games.

My guess is it was more green and Cramer playing well which means they didn’t need to expand the rotation.

[cactus]

Really? I didn't at all - I mean cactus their A10 Richmond announcers, not sure what you expected lol - they were EXTREMELY fair, complimented HU constantly, shouted out JM and Farrelly, knew the team well, I mean these guys were quite good IMO.

They did a good job and did compliment the team, I'm referring to the in game complaining about calls/fouls not going their way. Did it quite a bit. No I didn't expect differently but can't call them unbiased either

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[cactus]

Did any of you notice that OS did not get any playing time? Possible injury? If Hofstra can improve on the free throws, it might make a very big difference to the CAA games.

My guess is it was more green and Cramer playing well which means they didn’t need to expand the rotation.

Masic is ahead of him now, too

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[Polito]

Yep, did notice - Masic play a lot, essentially did nothing - I don't really see it yet with him, but then again he also didn't force chucking 3's either, at the least didn't do anything to hurt the team or momentum, so perhaps addition by subtraction there.

How about that drive from Kante at the top of the key towards the end, that big fella is deceivingly quick!

As predicted Spidey fans feeling some kind a way about this one

Also, should be noted that HU has been MUCH better than I can ever remember coming out of timeouts and in various inbounding situations - they are running some great play calls - Farrelly is impressing big time.

Rest up, practice, keep getting better, it's conf time next - the official defense begins!

[Pride97]

Great win - i had to watch on delay so catching up now.

Kante was awesome. Really coming into his own now and scored a lot of different ways today. Showed some nice moves and looked VERY confident (can i even say DOG Polito?). Very excited to see him dominate in conference play.

Coburn was solid. Ray - what can you say. Big shot after big shot. Not sure why it seems he waits until the 2nd half to let it fly, but really took things over. May not be vocal, but leading with his play.

Have to be excited by the 4 spot. Cramer's play has been well documented. I thought Green played well today (i know i complained about him shooting too much last game at SBU). He played more inside - helped on the glass and didn't just sit at the 3 pt line on offense. Hopefully this is signs of things to come because we could have a big advantage at the 4 in conference.

Super excited about today's win and great way to end the OOC. Let's Go!!!!

[EvanJ]

We won 76-71. Ray led all players with 23. He scored 19 in the second half, which is more than the next highest score on either team (Kante's 16) and the next two highest scorers in the second half (Blake Francis scored 10 and Kante and Jacob Gilyard tied with 8). He shot threes 5-8 = .625, and shot twos 2-6 = .333. Kante had 16 points, shot field goals 7-8, had 11 rebounds, and even had as many assists as fouls with 2 of each. Before today, he had 27 assists and 100 fouls with us. I know assists and fouls aren't a normal comparison, but I just wanted to point out something good. His career-high was 3 assists, which he did once, and he didn't have any assists this season before today. We committed only 14 fouls, and we didn't have a starter commit more than 2. Cramer and Schutte had 3 each. Cramer played more minutes than Green, 21 to 19. He led all players with a +10, Green was -7, and we were +2 in the 16 seconds at the end when neither of them played. He shot 6-6, didn't attempt a free throw, and was second on us with 5 rebounds. Coburn scored 15 and shot well, but had only 2 rebounds. Schutte had a good rebounding rate with 3 in 9 minutes. Masic didn't score in 11 minutes, and we have to find out why Silverio didn't play. We used eight players as opposed to using Cole Eiber or Carl Gibson Jr. It may have been pointless to get Eiber for one season if we're not going to use him in a game when we had only nine scholarship players available assuming Silverio, Trueheart, and Bethea were unavailable. Green scored 8 and shot threes 2-4, which is better than twos 1-3. Burgess had 2 points, 2 field goal attempts, 1 assist, and 4 turnovers in 34 minutes. 54 points from our top three scorers and 74 from five players will win a lot of games. Here are how some players' season statistics changed:

Ray: 18.3 to exactly 19 points, 4.2 to 4.3 assists
Coburn 18.7 to 18.1 points, 4.2 to 3.9 rebounds
Kante: 12.8 to 13.3 points, 10.67 to 10.71 rebounds, .500 to .555 field goal percentage, .758 to .692 free throw percentage
Cramer: exactly 7 to 7.7 points, 6.5 to 6.3 rebounds, .543 to .610 field goal percentage
Burgess: 5.3 to 4.9 points, exactly 4.5 to exactly 4 assists
Green: 1.8 to 2.7 points, .160 to .219 field goal percentage

I'm happy that SNY stayed with postgame coverage after 2:00 P.M. as opposed to leaving the feed before Richmond's announcers were done.

W&M lost 76-40 at Virginia, and W&M scored 49 in their previous game. We shouldn't allow a team that scored under 50 in consecutive games score much when we host them in the next two games for each team. VCU leads JMU 38-25.

Edit: I looked at the Analytics. Kante was our best player in Efficiency and Net Points. In Efficiency he led all players with 21, and in Net Points his 3.9 was second to Grant Golden's 5.2. Ray led all players in Game Score at 15.7. I don't like the name "Net Points" because it adds up to negative sums, not 0. Our Net Points was -19.3, and Richmond's was -23.4. Ours was 4.1 better, and we won by 5, so Net Points was reasonable by that measure, but that doesn't help for individual Net Points. Net Points = Points Produced-Points Allowed. The statistics give the formula for statistics, but they don't give the formula for Points Produced and Points Allowed, so giving the formula for Net Points doesn't help. The Stop Percentage is 0 for some of our players, which makes their Defensive Rating wrong. Even though some Analytics are wrong or not explained, it's better than not having any Analytics. Point differential, which is in the regular section of the statistics, is easy to understand and calculate, but it's not an individual statistic or in box scores. We had only 4 steals, and Richmond had 6. Nobody blocked a shot, and it was the seventh time that happened this season, which includes two Division I vs. non-Division I games. It's our third game this calendar year where neither team had a block. It happened in our 74-72 win at Northeastern on January 9 and our 97-81 win hosting James Madison on February 29. It was the 271st time from 2010-2011 to the present that it happened unless there was another game without a block today to make it the 272nd or higher time. In addition to the three games this calendar year, neither team had a block in our 84-61 win at Towson on January 26, 2019. From 2010-2011 to January 25, 2019, all of our games had at least one block. We're 4-0 including 3-0 away when neither team has a block.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Kante was awesome today, very strong, very aggressive. Happy to see Green make his presence known. He's a far better perimeter shooter than Cramer, and if he's hitting buckets it's gives us another shooting dynamic that we will need in conference play. Cramer was great in his own right though, he is money around the hoop. We have a Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside dynamic working with Cramer and Green, and both roles seem to compliment Kante well. It's exciting to see these guys thrive against a top-25 foe as freshmen.

We were a little sloppy with the turnovers, but overall I thought guard play was solid. Ray is the go-to guy, I'm glad he's running with this chance. We need 15 from Coburn every night. I know TC had a rough shooting game against Bonnies, but I think him and Ray have been more assertive with their roles in the offense, and it's given us more of a team identity. I think everyone is on the same wavelength with Burgess, he needs to keep attacking the hoop, it keeps defenders honest. I don't know if other people have noticed, but it kind of appears like he doesn't always look at the hoop when he's shooting/driving, I have to wonder if that's causing some of his accuracy issues.

Overall a great win on the road against an impressive Richmond team. We can't expect to always shoot that well, but there's a lot of room to improve the 13 turnovers and 8-15 from the line. We seem to just be scratching the surface of this team's potential. Can't be more excited to see what we do in CAA play.

[Dooku25]

Great college basketball game and win for the program! Glad it was televised. And love the 2pm start time even though it was hard to get any work done this afternoon.

Isaac Kante has been a BEAST the last few games. Now averaging 13 and 11 on the season, he could turnout to be one of the best bigs we've had if he keeps this up.

Jalen Ray is now playing on another level which I knew he would get to eventually. Last 3 games averaging 27 ppg and 62% from 3, that's more like it!!

Richmond was ranked #23 in coaches poll, last win against ranked team was 06 George Mason? Richmond might not be a power conference school like UCLA or Florida St but I would put this win in the same category.

Great way to head into conference play.

[EvanJ]

Our Game Notes can change our Win Over Ranked Team from our 77-66 win at George Mason on February 23, 2006, which was 5,416 days ago. Both George Mason and Richmond were ranked in the Coaches Poll but not the AP Poll. Does anybody know when the last time we beat a team ranked in the AP Poll or know that we've never done it?

VCU had a continuous double-digit lead for 69.4 percent of the game and held on to win 82-81 hosting JMU. JMU scored 17 in the last 3:24. The game ended with VCU fouling JMU in the act of shooting a three, and JMU made all three free throws. I'm assuming that the clock ran out while the shot was in the air, in which case the free throws ended the game with no possibility of a rebound. A four-point play is the only thing that could have helped JMU. The statistics don't give tenths of seconds, so I don't know if there was enough time for an intentionally missed free throw, rebound, and shot. JMU was an underdog by 20, so they beat the spread by 19, which is more than us. We beat the spread by 17.

Edit: https://gohofstra.com/news/2020/12/22/m ... d-win.aspx is titled "MBB: Hofstra Stuns #23 Richmond For Second-Ever Ranked Win," so beat George Mason was our first ranked win, and we have never beaten a team that was ranked in the AP Poll.

[triplec2195]

I thought at some point in time we beat Louisville when they were ranked top 20 in the AP??

[Mikey77]

Really quality win. As one poster noted it had a UCLA feel to it. Need to keep growing, especially Cramer, Green and the kids. Can't shoot 53% from the free throw line. That's not us and Hofstra lost some momentum when Kante missed those four straight. Thankfully, regained it with those 3 or 4 threes late in 2nd. What's the deal with Trueheart? He can contribute, especially on defense. Guards have a tough time passing through and shooting over his 6'8" frame. On to the Tribe who are better than yesterday's beat down.

[cactus]

I thought at some point in time we beat Louisville when they were ranked top 20 in the AP??

The press release touts this game as the program's second ever ranked win.
https://gohofstra.com/news/2020/12/22/m ... d-win.aspx

[HofstraMathew]

Our Game Notes can change our Win Over Ranked Team from our 77-66 win at George Mason on February 23, 2006, which was 5,416 days ago.

Just an FYI; the GMU game was a home game. One of the best games I was at as a student.

[stuball888]

According to the Louisville website we played them in 1997 and lost 76-66 also played the in 2013 and lost by 28

[Cards]

Yep, did notice - Masic play a lot, essentially did nothing - I don't really see it yet with him, but then again he also didn't force chucking 3's either, at the least didn't do anything to hurt the team or momentum, so perhaps addition by subtraction there.

Masic getting 10-15 minutes per game may have provided us with a look at this years 8-man rotation.

IK and KS
DG and KC
JR, TC, CB and Masic

Realize that if VM keeps getting minutes, he will soon have close the the game experience that OS has. (OS did not really play at URI, and got minimal minutes last season). Recall that although a true freshman, VM has quite a bit of international experience. Of course its not the same as D1, but it helps. Also note that although OS plays better now than his initial games (last season) with HU, he still is not reliable. Add that VM shows great hustle on D, seems to be quickly fitting into the zone, adds length (at 6'5"), and it easy to make a case for him getting 10-15 minutes per game (essentially providing a breather for the starting guards). On offense, VM has made some nice passes (assists) and scored some keys points. With OS, he's fine on offense when he's hot, but those days are far and few between. IMO, I am fine with VM getting minutes over OS.

Not sure what the coaches are going to do with ZB when he is ready. He has missed the entire OOC season and I can't envision him getting many minutes in conference games as a true green freshman. Maybe has has been running through defensive sets in practice without really having to handle the ball (due to injury). Anyone know anything??

[HofstraMathew]

I think Zion will get minutes when he returns and is healthy. Still wondering about Trueheart but if DG plays like he did yesterday there doesn't seem to be minutes for him.

[RollPride15]

If Zion is still a few weeks away it may make more sense to redshirt him...to Cards' point it's unlikely he'd see a ton of minutes and he hasn't been able to grow into the season like the other young players. A FR class of Carlos, Bethea, Barrouk and ??? feels pretty darn good to me.

[EvanJ]

Our Game Notes can change our Win Over Ranked Team from our 77-66 win at George Mason on February 23, 2006, which was 5,416 days ago.

Just an FYI; the GMU game was a home game. One of the best games I was at as a student.

You're right. The next season we won there on ESPN2.

This was a Quadrant 1 NET win, which we didn't have in the last two seasons. In 2017-2018, which was the season before the NET, we had a Quadrant 1 RPI win at Rider who was 67th, but that didn't impress people like we did yesterday. Richmond is 38th in the NET. To finish as a Quadrant 1 win, they must finish in the Top 75.

Newsday wrote about our games at St. Bonaventure and Richmond. It's nice that they didn't just use the tiny AP recap. The last couple of years the AP recap just gives a few statistics without commenting on what the score was at any time. We'll see what they do for CAA away games.

We're 118th in the NET, 40th in RPI, 112th in Sagarin, and 143rd in KenPom. We lead the CAA in all four. The RPI (which I look at but is no longer the Selection Committee's most important factor) likes the CAA better than the NET, Sagarin, and KenPom. In the RPI, UNCW is 43rd. Every CAA team except for Northeastern is at least 60 spots apart in the NET and RPI. Richmond is 59th in Sagarin and 58th in KenPom. VCU is 60th in Sagarin and 57th in KenPom for the same average of 58.5. I wonder how rare it is for two teams in the same conference and city to be consecutive in something that ranks every team.