MBB Game 27 @UNCW, Feb 14 (Sat) 4 PM

[Wags]

We now have 17 wins in 26 games and we have played relatively few at home…just 9, which is tied for lowest in the CAA.
UNCW has played 14 home games. I guess they didn’t need the road game money.
In any event, we have become the road warriors.

Only two CAA teams are over .500 on the road, UNCW (9-2) and Hofstra (8-7). With Hofstra now in 3rd and beating CofC last night, and Hickman out maybe for the season, it could very well end up that the two best CAA road teams will be the two teams that meet (once again) for a CAA title.

[HUSID74]

As of right now, ESPN is giving us only a 33.6 per cent chance of winning.

[82hawk]

Long time lurker and Seahawk fan here. Thought i'd give you some info on the finances at UNCW.

1. I have no idea how much NIL we have, but LaMothe made a social media comment that "you can get six figures" in the CAA when he transferred from A&T to UNCW. I have to assume he isn't our highest paid basketball player.

2. In the State of NC the athletic programs at public universities have to be self funded, so there is no "college money". The only employee paid with funds provided by the university is the athletic director.

3. If you've been around awhile, this is not your fathers UNCW. In 2010 our student enrollment was around 13,000. It is now around 19,000 which has a huge impact on athletic fees for students. Our goal is to get to 25,000.

4. June 2023 the NC Legislature legalized sports bettting, allocating a large amount of the betting proceeds for UNC system athletic departments, with a minimum of $300k per year for non football schools like UNCW plus a share of 20% of the revenues. Last year that amounted to an unrestricted $3.1 million distriution to UNCW that is projected to increase each year.

5. We hired a new AD who was an associate AD at UConn when he came and also had experience at LSU. His expertise is in fundraising, and with his time at UConn he had great insight into a top level basketball school. He has made significant changes and increased fundraising very quickly. UNCW is on the verge of a major upgrade to Trask colisuem as opposed to building a new facility. A large survey was sent out to alumni, donors and citizens in Wilmington and the overwhelming response was to keep Trask and upgrade.

Basketball at UNCW has been a matter of feast or famine. Our coaches who have done well have won multiple CAA championships and gone to the NCAA tournament multiple times. TThose coaches have been scooped up by P5 programs And the ones who haven't done that have failed misreably and been fired, one in the miidle of conference play. Win or lose, we don't keep coaches long. If Siddle goes to the NCAA tournament this year, I fully expect he will be gone. If he leaves, and we somehow finish in the top four the following season, it will be the firt time that has happened at UNCW.

As for this game and this season. This is a really even matchup, but I think we have a slight advantage for several reasons.

1. Experience. All of our players who see the court are upperclassmen and grads except one. Hofstra has relatively young roster
2. Pat Wessler. He has been an absolute stud this year and seems to revel in facing off and beating other big men. He can score and rebound and bring a lot of troughness in the paint.
3. We have an equally good three point shooting team that has really caught fire over the past four games with several guys averaging in the 40% range
4. Overall size. Our PG is 6'5" 190, May 6'5" 210, Hodge 6'7" 190, Ross 6'7" 190, Wessler 7'0" 250. Bench Durr 6'5" 195, Lamothe 6'4" 192, Mabor 6'11" 240. The particular advantage is with our guards who've been really good at taking advantage of smaller guards and your primary scorers are both smaller guards.

Both teams rebound well and shoot the three well. However, we played CofC on Monday, Elon last night and then a short turnaround against Hofstra at 4 tomorrow so it could affect our legs on the three pointers. Our achilles heel is we're an awful FT shooting team even though we go to the line alot. I fully expect this to be no more than a five point win that stays close the entire game either way,

[triplec2195]

We're 2.5 point underdog in this game. Thanks for all the above info. 82hawk sounds like money is not a problem at UNCW!

[Captain]

Very informative 82Hawk
I wonder if NY State would consider gambling proceeds to fund college athletics.Nil dollars at Hofstra May become an issue.
Also I could not find an active UNCW fan forum. Does one exist?
Thanks

[Pbdutch]

Thx 82hawk. Loved hearing and getting intel/info.

Let’s not forget that we (Hofstra mbb) isn’t hurting for money. I’ve said this on multiple occasions that we have invested money into our men’s ball team. The difference is like 82hawk said it’s feast or famine. You get to the dance or you’re gone. There is no acceptance of oh we are consistently good and at the top of the conference. It’s either you dance or it’s a failure.

That right there is the mentality that I have for us and what the administration/fellow fans need to have. We have had and will continue to have the resources to dance but at the end of the day if you don’t dance it’s a failure.

[EvanJ]

And the ones who haven't done that have failed misreably and been fired, one in the miidle of conference play.

On January 27, 2010, we beat UNCW 93-54, which got Coach Benny Moss fired. On January 13, 2020, UNCW fired Coach C.B. McGrath. At that time they were 5-14, and 2-14 vs. Division I. Interim Coach Rob Burke's first game was hosting us. I remember as the game returned from the last media timeout, UNCW announcer Mike Vaccaro said UNCW would have been thrilled if you told them before the game that they would be tied then. It was 57-57 then, and we won 63-61. I wonder if any other teams defeated the same opponent in an opposing coach's last game and an opposing coach's first game in the middle of a season under ten years apart.

UNCW used to make game notes that included text about every game between the teams, but they did not write a preview or game notes for this game. It is their homecoming.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... ngton.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: UNC Wilmington." He wrote:

"A CLOSE SERIES

The Dutchmen edged Charleston 66-62 after dropping the first game of the season series 66-64 at the Arena on Jan. 29. I'm not very good at math, but even I know that means the Dutchmen outscored Charleston 130-128 in the regular season series. That’s the narrowest net margin between the Dutchmen and a CAA opponent in a two-game regular season series since the 2015-16 campaign, when they were outscored by two points by both Charleston (135-133) and UNC Wilmington (139-137) while splitting with the Cougars and Seahawks."

The 2015-2016 games against UNCW were crazy. We blew a 20 point lead at home to lose 70-67, then came back from down 18 to win 70-69 at UNCW. I wonder how many times two teams hosted the other in one season, and both of them led by at least 18 at home and lost.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2026/2/13/me ... wdown.aspx is our preview titled "Hofstra, UNCW Meet In Nationally-Televised CAA Showdown."

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... game27.pdf is our game notes.

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=613437 will have statistics.

[dutchPride86]

Gonna give up more offensive rebounds in 10 minutes today than in the whole game vs Charleston. Fouls already piling up too. Hard to win that way

[HUSID74]

This game is a war and we are playing tough. Got their big guy out with two fouls...HUGE!

[dutchPride86]

This game is a war and we are playing tough. Got their big guy out with two fouls...HUGE!

Unfortunately Victory with his usual foul a minute forcing Speedy to go to Alex T. He tries hard but cant hold up defensively. Back to back possessions with 2nd chance points for UNCW on him

[HUSID74]

We're down two at the half. Tell me who on these boards would not have signed up for that...also with Edmead on the bench for the last five minutes or so.
This is a winnable game...DeCady coming up BIG.

[dutchPride86]

Pretty amazing we're only down 2 at the half imo. Getting murdered on the boards, -8 pts off turnovers. Uncw is 6-13 from the line this could be a lot worse.

Tell me how off the game against Charleston German didnt get a single shot attempt that half? And I know DeCady got off to a hot start, but 2 minutes for Biggie is inexcusable.

Love the team is fighting though

[mikey75]

Don't get me started about Victory dutchPride86. Geez.

[dutchPride86]

Don't get me started about Victory dutchPride86. Geez.

Lol. But not so funny after that tough 3rd foul on Sunday

[dutchPride86]

Speedy knows we're not up 20 right? Playing milk the clock Cruz iso ball just bad offense. Feel like we missed the chance to open this game up

[dutchPride86]

Biggie finally sees the court and IMMEDIATE impact

[dutchPride86]

Brutal. 3 timeouts left and you wind up with DeCady attempting the tying 3.

Cruz made the shots down the stretch vs Charleston, didn't today. He just was not good down the stretch

We're well past moral victories. Gotta close that game out and didn't. Is that coaching? The environment? Attrition after the Charleston game? I'm sure a bit of everything

Bottom line, only way we win the league now is if thats our last loss of the year today. 12-6 i think will get us a top 4, too many tiebreaker scenarios likely come into play at 11-7 or worse. This league is too tough to win 4 in 4 days

Hats off to Siddle and the UNCW administration. Bought themselves a hell of a team and built a hell of a college basketball atmosphere

[triplec2195]

I didn't see the game but just looking at the stats with German playing 35 minutes scoring 1 point that Biggie should have had more minutes. We played tough but just three players scoring in this game. No offense from our bigs but 12 boards. Why limited minutes for Biggie?

[Pbdutch]

I didn’t get to see the game Dutchpride and was having to watch the gamecast on my phone unfortunately.

We were down 2 at the half and it was pretty close down to the wire. What did you think of the play today? I saw you mention something about coaching…any thing that stood out to you? It’s obvious we can compete with them but curious to hear your thoughts on our play today and everything else?

[Pride97]

They played well until the last 5 minutes when they went ice cold. We were up 9 at one point but starting missing some shots and settling for bad looks.

I recall some saying 1-1 and being in the game they lost would be a good trip which is exactly what happened. I think they proved they can play with the best in the conference. Would have been nice to get today’s game but still have a good shot at top 4. The took the #1 team in the toughest environment to the brink - I can’t be too upset about that. During the 5 game losing streak I thought this was impossible.

Agree Biggie should have played more and not sure why German wasn’t shooting. Having to have Decady shoot the final three was bad ball movement. He was open and played well but not who to want shooting there.

Overall positive trip in my opinion. Hope this gives them confidence moving ahead and peaking at the right time.


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