Game 13 @ Delaware, Sunday, 1/17/21, 1 PM

[Jojogunne]

Season midpoint. Time to turn things around.

[Hofstra]

Hopefully they cancel it. I cant watch another game like Friday. Dont want to ruin my weekend. We have to wait for Jaquan Carlos next year. Lets pack it up

[Wags]

Season midpoint. Time to turn things around.

Definitely time to turn it around after the last three games, but for the part of the season that counts, it's only one-third of the way through. Still plenty of basketball left even if they lose this one.

[triplec2195]

Hopefully they cancel it. I cant watch another game like Friday. Dont want to ruin my weekend. We have to wait for Jaquan Carlos next year. Lets pack it up

Yes a brutal game to watch and I have to admit I was watching it on and off a real frustration when you believe that your team that we are so passionate about has somehow done a 180. We certainly believed that our beloved team picked to win the CAA AGAIN was all that but a team that would take time to gel with the new players. Where has this all gone astray and in such a short time span. Everyone found out that playing us man to man with the focus on Ray and Coburn was the game plan on the outside and when our big guy a force to be reckoned with got the ball inside we could double down on him knowing that Cramer couldn't shoot the three ball 1/14 or Masic 3/20 can't shoot the three ball. If Burgess gets an open look we'll take our chances with him shooting 8/29 or 28%. So how do we right this ship that has clearly steered off course? It's not like we're going to become now a prolific 3 point shooting team overnight and with Jalen Ray scoring 25 points in a Ray against the entire Delaware team resulted in a close loss of 18 points. Is our focus now to become a team that scores the bulk of its points inside the arc and become a mid-range shooting team. Do we get three's when they're wide open shots not trying to create when there's nothing there to create. What are the adjustments that we have to try an implement??? If we don't implement something soon this pre -season favorite could be a middle of the pack or worse team.

BTW I heard one of the Delaware announcers say Cramer is wide open for that three then said yeah by design he's an awful three point shooter!!

[HUSID74]

Right now we are a flawed team that apparently is down to seven bodies...on Fri our only reserves were Masic and Truehart...a sad state of affairs. Even a full strength we are prone to extremly long scoring droughts because of our horrid trhee point shooting. Now teams are daring us to shoot thress and doubling down on Kante, making him less effective.
Defensively teams have figured out our zone and its real hard to play zone when you're down ten...Team needs to add some wrinkles defensively, get some players back healthy and take it from there.
I still beleive in these guys but Friday was the first time I turned off a game in something like ten years!
Also I don't understand what's going on with Bethea...he lost his father almost a month age...where is he?

[stuball888]

Even after that horrid game on Friday Vegas has us at 3 point favorites today.

[EvanJ]

Also I don't understand what's going on with Bethea...he lost his father almost a month age...where is he?

Somebody said he had to quarantine after coming to campus, not because he was sick but because that's what everyone has to do.

Jerry Beach hasn't written a preview yet.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=318319 will have statistics.

[EvanJ]

We are starting the same starters as on Friday.

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2021 ... re_17.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Delaware." We are 6-6 for the first time since 1995-1996. Ray passed Ameen Tanksley for 33rd in career points. Ray is 3 behind Richie Swartz, 24 behind Mike Moore, 28 behind Wandy Williams, and 35 behind Nathaniel Lester. Hopefully by the end of Saturday's game hosting Towson, he will be 29th. 13 of the top 30 spent some or all of their time in the CAA.

https://www.flohoops.com/live/23711 has video.

Edit: We quickly ended the 14-0 run leftover from Friday. After 1:48, we lead 9-0. We scored four times, and Delaware had turnovers the three times in between. I wonder when the last time we scored 9 before allowing a field goal attempt was. As I'm typing, Cramer blocked a shot, and Coburn committed an offensive foul.
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Edit: We lead 13-0 with 15:58 left in the half. In 1:21, Cramer had a block, offensive rebound by the basket and scored, a second block, and a steal by knocking the ball off Ebby Asamoah and out of bounds. Delaware has shot 0-3 with 6 turnovers. The only bad thing is that Coburn has 2 fouls, and Masic replaced him.

[Wags]

Have to love the start, playing with purpose coming out with the 13-0 lead, defense turning into offense.

But now, can they keep that up and sustain that level of focus and energy or will they give up one of those big runs the other way later on, like we've seen? For now, still up by the same margin, leading 20-7, at the under-12.

[EvanJ]

With Cramer, Trueheart, and Kante, he had a rare time with three forwards playing. Since Coburn's three, neither team has made a three in 7:28. Delaware has 8 turnovers. We have 6 fouls, so Delaware is in the bonus.

Edit: We lead 32-15 with 6:47 left in the half. We've played just under a third of the game, so we're on pace to win about 96-45. I thought we had at least 9 fouls, but we have 7, albeit Cramer just joined Coburn and Burgess with 2 fouls. Ray has 14 points.

Edit: We lead 39-21 with 2:50 left in the half. Burgess didn't draw a foul like he wanted, but the shot banked in to get him up to 13 points, which is 1 fewer than Ray. That gave us our first 20 point lead at 39-19. Schutte played, so we have at least eight players available, albeit it could be down to seven because Masic got hurt, was helped off the court, and couldn't put his left foot down. Trueheart got his first 2 points and first block of the season.

[Hofstra]

Looks like Delaware has us right where they want us. We are up 13 at the half. They only need to hit 5 uncontested 3's to take this from us. Very doable. after watching our last few 2nd stanzas, I just hope we dont embarrass ourselves again. Good job, good effort.

[HUSID74]

Much better energy and effort...we need to maintain it in the second half....FINISH THIS!

[Wags]

41-28 halftime lead built on Burgess (13 pts on 6/7 fg), Ray (14 pts on 6/11 fg) defense (Delaware shot just 9/24, 0/6 from 3) and a fast start (13-0, the difference in the game right now).

After the good start, the half was even (28-28) - not a big problem because it's hard to build on an already sizable lead, but have to get Coburn going. He's only 1/6, 1/4 from 3, and NO FT attempts. As I said in the thread from the last game, he's a guy who should be attacking and getting to the line double-digit time every game. He can't just settle for missed jumpers. He has to attack and get involved more. Maybe they won't need that today, with this halftime lead, but they're going to need that approach from him the rest of the way. It's masked by Burgess (already 2 pts shy of a career-high), Ray and the good start today, but that's something that has to change with Coburn moving forward.

[EvanJ]

We lead 41-28 at halftime. Our offensive has slowed down, with only 23 points in the last 14:01. Cramer and Trueheart have 2 blocks, and I will check the last time we had at least two players with at least 2 blocks. We shot threes 1-8, Delaware shot 0-6, and after Coburn's three he didn't score in the last 19:18, and neither team made a three. I have no way of finding out, but I wonder if that could be longest stretch in Division I all season without either team making a three. Ray scored 14, Burgess has 13, Kante has 7, Coburn has 3, Cramer has 2, Trueheart has 2, Masic missed his only shot, and Schutte didn't shoot. We have only 12 rebounds, and our only player with more than 2 is Burgess with 4. He entered averaging 2.5 rebounds, and he will go up to at least 2.6. It's shocking that we lead by 13 and don't have a forward with more than 2 rebounds. We have 5 assists, with 3 by Burgess and 2 by Ray. Coburn, Burgess, Cramer, and Trueheart have 2 of our 10 fouls. Ray has 3 steals, and Cramer has 2. We made 4 of 5 free throws, and Delaware made 10 of 13. Delaware made more free throws than field goals. Andrew Carr leads Delaware with 11 points, but he has more fouls (3) than rebounds (2). Dylan Painter has 7 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Anthony Ochefu scored 4, Ryan Allen scored 3, Gianmarco Arletti scored 2, Johnny McCoy scored 1, and Ebby Asamoah shot 0-3 and didn't score. Delaware's 21 rebounds are 9 more than us. Their 9 offensive rebounds are more than our 7 defensive rebounds. Delaware has 4 assists without anybody having more than 1, and 13 turnovers.

[Wags]

8-2 Delaware run to start the second half sliced the lead to 43-36 but Coburn hit a 3 to get the lead back to double digits. Still want to see him getting to the line!

[EvanJ]

Asamoah stole and scored, and Delaware scored again in the first minute. They made it 6-0 to start the half to go down 41-34, Coburn made a three, and Delaware scored 2. Delaware has 3 fouls and we have 2, so there could be a lot of free throws late in the game.

Edit: We lead 52-42 with 10:37 left. Delaware's announcers wanted us to be called for a foul. Burgess got a steal without a foul, and Asamoah committed his fourth foul, which was his third in the last 5:26. It was Delaware's sixth foul, so we are in the bonus after Delaware's next foul.

Edit: The lead was 8 or 10 for 7:12 until Cramer had a second chance dunk that the announcers said shouldn't have counted because he touched the ball when it was on the rim. Andrew Carr, who entered shooting threes 5-20, made Delaware's first three to go down 56-47. He has 20 points and a career-high for the second consecutive game after he scored 19 on Friday.

Edit: Delaware's timeout with 8:35 left was great for us. Ray made a three, he had a block from behind, and Cramer got a basket and the foul with the free throw after the break with 7:56 left. We lead 61-47.

Edit: Cramer made the free throw to go up 15, and Delaware responded with a 10-0 run. That included one possession when we got three offensive rebounds that ended with a turnovers. Schutte had an earlier time when he got two offensive rebounds by the basket and missed both times. Ray ended Delaware's run, and Delaware scored 2 to go down 64-59 with under 4 left.

Edit: Ryan Allen made his first three to go down 66-62 with 2:11 left. Delaware called their last timeout. Delaware has 7 fouls, but only 1 in the last 8:26.

[Wags]

A 61-47 lead has been cut to 68-67 in the final minute.

Coburn still no FTA in this game.

[HUSID74]

Whew! We hang on to win...give up a 20 point first half lead and I think a 14 or 15 point lead in the second.

We've got to get the ball in the hands of our best scores down the stretch.

Good to get the W and work this week to get better.

[Wags]

Delaware, which closed on a 14-0 run to beat HU by 18 on Friday, closed on a 20-7 run today, but HU escapes with a 68-67 win to snap a three-game losing streak and even its CAA record at 3-3 while moving over .500 (7-6) overall.

Big win because there's a big difference between 3-3 and 2-4. And they just needed to get back in the win column again after the prior three games. But there is still so much work to do. The game should not have come to the end like that after being up 61-47 with under 8 minutes left. Delaware shot 65% (17/26) in the second half.

Got a lot to work on, but if they can sweep Towson at home and get to 5-3 one game before the CAA midpoint, that could give them some much-needed momentum. The Tigers haven't played much due to Covid and are scheduled to host UNCW Mon and Tue before traveling to Hempstead. So that extra rest could help HU. Hofstra also doesn't have any seemingly (though, who knows?) tough road trips left, playing back-to-back at UNCW, JMU and Elon.

[Polito]

This team is infuriating. Not sure I've been so frustrated after a loss lol

Very poor display at the end, and frankly they deserved to lose - guy shoots it a half second faster and they lose in devastating fashion. Getting crushed by 18 before and barely winning by 1 really doesn't give much to be excited about. Not really sure I can watch this nonsense every game all year long. Not a single guy can hit a 3 in any reliable fashion, it's unreal. Any team that can shoot even reasonably well is going to sink this club, and as UD started to shoot just a tad better HU fell backwards like clockwork. HU won the first half big, but UD lost this game in the end more than HU won.

Take the W (and the obvious luck) and run of course, snapped the 3 game losing streak, use that positive, but not impressed one bit. What I see here is a team that will be fortunate to finish above .500 in conf, and does not presently have what it takes to win 3 in 3 and a championship. Still time, but they don't give confidence, quite the opposite - find myself waiting for them to blow it every game...

Some nice positives though:

- MUCH better defensive effort and energy all game. Also some man, thumbs up. TO's were abundant and a huge part of this win.
- A clear focus on attacking the mid range game, which is exactly what they need to do. Good adjust from the staff, it works, as expected.
- Ray had another really good game, this is exactly what this team needs from him. He's still TO prone, but he has done enough to make up for that.
- Burgess, love what I'm seeing overall, one of the few who's actually developing and getting better with time.
- Cramer, continues to do a lot and with great energy. Still working on his game, but brings a lot to the stat line, plays really hard, and has a bright future.
- Kante is working his butt off out there. He's productive and the team needs him, every single game.
- Nice to see Trueheart do a couple of decent things. He's a bit of a chicken with his head cut off out there, a ball of energy but it's often ineffective unfortunately. But it's good to have a body out there with some size and athleticism who can do a few things at times.


The bad:

- Zero ability to hold a lead and/or finish a team.
- Zero ability to make open 3's. 3 for 17 today. Their % is embarrassing for a D1 conf champ team. Has to be one of the worst in the country... or I'm just exaggerating because this is my team haha. But I'm pretty sure this board could take 20 a game and make at least 5. Cold, right out of the stands.
- For the love of all, please tell Cramer to stop shooting the 3. STOP. Drive and attack the basket. Every time he does it wastes a possession and gives the opponent the momentum. Play to your strengths please!!
- Coburn has been really disappointing on O lately. Making up for it a bit with some of the other things in the game, but man he really needs to produce more.
- Masic has quickly reverted to playing and shooting poorly - freshman, comes with the territory, but he's not been a help lately.


Where is Green? Where is Zion? Where is Silverio? We've been told numerous times these guys should be back any day, but they've been saying that since the end of Dec. Where are these guys?