MBB Game 30 Stony Brook, Feb 28 (Sat) 7 PM

[EvanJ]

Stony Brook came back from down 10 to tie it at 32 at halftime. Davis has 3 points on 1-5 shooting, and has been guarded to make him not shoot much. Edmead got two early fouls, and I am surprised that he did not re-enter. He had 3 points in 9 minutes which were from being fouled in the act of shooting a three. Patterson and Plotnikov have 11. Sunday and Patterson lead all players with 5 rebounds. Davis leads all players with 3 assists and 2 steals. Sunday leads all players with 2 blocks. I wonder how rare it is for a team to have the player with the most points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, but not be winning. Sunday committed two fouls close together to make three, and Onuetu committed two. 20 of our 27 attempts were threes. Stony Brook shot .323. Ethan Simmon leads them with 8 points. Both teams used nine players. Even without Pratt, Stony Brook had nine players play at least 8 minutes. We get the ball to start the second half.

[Wags]

Stony Brook ended the half 6/12 after starting 4/19.
Hofstra ended the half 3/13 after starting 7/14.

[Wags]

32-32 at halftime after leading, 23-13.

Both teams settling too much:

Stony Brook 10/31, 6/19 from 3.
Hofstra 10/27, 7/20 from 3.

Stony is playing their game. Hofstra is settling, playing right into Stony's plan.

Geno Ford continues to coach circles around Speedy... he'll let German and Biggie take a thousand threes before Cruz or Edmead takes a shot, and that's exactly what's happened. Meanwhile Hofstra doesnt respect Stony's role players ability to knock down 3s. 3rd straight really bad half on the offense end from Sunday as well, and what the hell is Speedy doing leaving him out there to pick up a 3rd foul there at the end of the half?!

Cruz is gonna need to start forcing the issue in the 2nd half. We are really lucky Pratt is suspended.

We'd have very little offense right now without Biggie and German combining for 6/12 from 3 (18 of their 32 pts at the half). They should have taken control after going up 23-13. Disappointing end to the half.

[dutchPride86]

Any else watching on Flo and having feed issues? First half was fine 2nd half been nearly unwatchable freezes every 2 seconds

[EvanJ]

Flo has been fine for me.

Stony Brook made a three to take their first lead at 35-32. We lead 44-40 with 11:40. Davis had a three-point play to get to 6 points, and he will shoot free throws after the timeout. It was Stony Brook's sixth foul, so they cannot commit any more defensive fouls without allowing free throws. Sunday committed his fourth foul, so Sunday re-entered with three fouls. We will see if foul trouble gets Tsynkevich in the game.

Edit: Edmead made a three with 6:38 left to go up 57-50 and make Stony Brook call timeout. It is our largest lead of the half. Edmead is our third double-digit scorer, and Davis has 8 points. We are shooting the double bonus the rest of the game.

[dutchPride86]

Had to go the iPad for the 2nd half. My viewing experience was much like Hofstra's performance on the court.... very subpar but still found a way

Yes it was ugly. Yes it was Cruz's worst game of the year. But just like the first Monmouth game they found a way to gut it out. Many Hofstra teams over the years couldn't win the game if their star had an off night like Cruz did. German and Biggie continue to be the x-factors for this group.

Clinching the double bye only thing that matters ultimately off this (and hopefully Sunday is ok after limping off late).

We can fret about seeing W&M or Stony again next week. Double bye gives us a fighting chance in DC

[EvanJ]

Here are the Analytics leaders. In efficiency, Plotnikov was first with 20, and Patterson and Oleg Kojenets tied for second with 16. In game score, Plotnikov was first with 15.2, Edmead was second with 10.3, and Patterson was third with 10.2. In net points, Kojenets was first with 5.8, Onuetu was second with 2.6, and Edmead, DeCady, and Ethan Simmon tied for third with 1.0. Plotnikov was -4.2. I wonder how rare it is for the player with the best efficiency and game score to have that low a net points. I never would have expected the top five in net points to not have Patterson or Plotnikov.

We shot threes better than twos.

Davis had 6 assists, which was as many as the next two highest players on either team combined.

Chandler Cuthrell scored 23, while Davis scored 8, and D.J. Smith scored 5. Cuthrell increased his chance of leading the CAA in scoring after all games, but with 20 points fewer than Davis from the same amount of games, it will be very hard for Cuthrell to pass Davis in one more game in the statistics when the awards are decided.

W&M leads the CAA in free throw percentage at .7447, and we shoot .7446.

https://gohofstra.com/sports/mens-baske ... core/13856 is the box score. The attendance was 2,516, which is bad for a weekend against Stony Brook.

It was the first time from 2010-2011 to now that we made 7 or fewer two-pointers in a win. Before today, CAA teams were 2-16 in their last 18 games with 7 or fewer two-pointers.

[triplec2195]

If this was our CAA tourney tuneup we're in trouble. We're fortunate to have won this game and if S.B. fans should lament about losing their leading scorer and believe they could have won with him playing I don't think I could argue this point. An off game for Cruz having to deal with double teams and turning the ball over 5x but still contributed with 6 assists. Got to give him a lot of credit though playing all 40 minutes and diving for loose balls. There's no quit in this kid and he has to be given credit even on his less then stellar days. Patterson has to be the MVP of this game with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Just a force to be reckoned with and to watch him in person he exudes so much confidence makes you wonder why he doesn't start over Decady. I actual like both of them on the court at the same time gives us both D and size along with offense. Another big game for Plotnikoff with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Edmeade who sat a lot of the first half hit big three's at crucial times in the game just is super reliable 14 points. I don't believe they should have sat him in the first half that automatic rule can be so overrated. He only picked up 1 more foul the rest of the way playing 25 minutes. We're a very different team without him on the court.

I know Sunday has been playing better lately but this was not one of his great performances turning the ball over 4x and not scoring. He had 8 rebounds though but clearly he's not the athlete that Victory is. He's so much slower on the court but Victory has to stay out of foul trouble and that's not an easy task. He played well today with 7 points and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes.

We got the W but we need to play far better then this to punch our ticket this year. Hopefully we put it all together vs Drexel on Tuesday.

[HUSID74]

32-32 at halftime after leading, 23-13.

Both teams settling too much:

Stony Brook 10/31, 6/19 from 3.
Hofstra 10/27, 7/20 from 3.

Stony is playing their game. Hofstra is settling, playing right into Stony's plan.

Geno Ford continues to coach circles around Speedy... he'll let German and Biggie take a thousand threes before Cruz or Edmead takes a shot, and that's exactly what's happened. Meanwhile Hofstra doesnt respect Stony's role players ability to knock down 3s. 3rd straight really bad half on the offense end from Sunday as well, and what the hell is Speedy doing leaving him out there to pick up a 3rd foul there at the end of the half?!

Cruz is gonna need to start forcing the issue in the 2nd half. We are really lucky Pratt is suspended.

The difference is that we have guys who can step up when you game plan for our top guys.

[HUSID74]

The wonder of it all, Newsday gave the game a page...https://paper.newsday.com/html5/reader/ ... 065ae5ed99

Surprising as it gave St. John's two stories...very important to read that Pitino wore his white ice cream suit.

[Wags]

The wonder of it all, Newsday gave the game a page...https://paper.newsday.com/html5/reader/ ... 065ae5ed99

First time I saw them at Hofstra all season. Was it only because the other Long Island CAA school was there?

[HUSID74]

Wags you're probably right, surprised they remembered how to get to the Mack!

[dutchPride86]

The attendance was 2,516, which is bad for a weekend against Stony Brook.

Shame that's a really disappointing number. Do we think the 7p start hurt attendance? If so, why was it a weekend night game to begin with?

[Polito]

Ugly game, and Cruz was terrible. But this was a must-win, and HU did - it just wasn't a statement and not any confidence builder at all. This game being tied at half was a joke. SBU is absolutely terrible - they can't shoot at all. And they were without their best player, yet it took all HU had to beat them - on our home floor. Yes, take the W, and it was a scrappy win and great to see other guys step up, but not a great showing at all, and SBU didn't even have their best player - this should've been a butt kicking.

The Good:
Defense was energetic and attacking all game - team played hard and did their best to make it tough on SBU.
Biggie and German really showed up, had great games.
Edmead wasn't amazing, but certainly serviceable, ran the point well as a frosh.
Bigs played hard, Sunday pulled a lot of boards, and Victory played high energy and physical, made his presence known.
Crowd wasn't big but I thought it was lively.
Great to see the team apply pressure from full court all game.
Speedy was active and on his players rears.
Team win in a must-win.

The Bad:
Cruz. Awful.
Team overall was VERY sloppy.
Sunday needs stronger hands.
Victory plays a little loose cannon at times.
Team looked confused a few times with Speedy going bananas on the sidelines - some miscommunication perhaps.
Team is super streaky - plays in spurts - inconsistency is a killer.


Can someone tell me why Cruz constantly passes up wide open looks in the lane for easy 2's to automatically kick out for a 3? Is this being coached by Speedy? Or does he really not have any ability to hit a wide open lower mid range shot in the PAINT? It's maddening. He NEVER finishes his drives - he's always looking for the escape - and yes there are times finding the open man in the corner is the right play, but it's EVERY time. And he passes the ball before he even gives the D a chance to foul him, which is so utterly stupid because he's a great FT shooter. Attack the basket and draw the foul. Never does it. Such a waste to me - he creates space for super looks at the basket and passes it up - it looks like he's soft and scared. If he's being coached to do this it's bafflingly dumb and a waste of what's supposed to be our star player. Yes, double teams, blah blah, it's SBU. Attack and finish man, show some balls, be the leader, and take some shots.

In all, had a good time at the game, but didn't leave feeling the confidence that should've been palpable. I don't see a tourney team here. BUT they are scrappy, there are lots of options to win games, and I do believe they can get to the championship game - and hey, once you're there, anything can happen in one game. Would love one more crack at the W. I still think they're the best team and will ultimately dance, but I'd love to get on TV and give them a heckuva game.

One more, finish strong, and let's see how this team shows up on Sunday to get their party started.

P.S. Great to see Jay and Joe and the game - appreciate hanging in the lounge area at halftime - hope we can all get together again in an NCAAT

[joeg1]

Glad we got the win and all, and kudos to SBU for a good effort without their best player, but we looked awful.

I guess we hang our hat on the defense. Speedy does not run an offense...he has the best 2 players and any other hot hand try to break down the defense. I think this has become pretty easy to game plan against, and we have extended stagnant streaks.

[Pbdutch]

Yes. I’m happy with the W. It was a must win and we got it done. As others have mentioned, SBU is bad. But a conference win is a conference win I guess.

Agree with Speedy and his game plan. Sometimes I feel as if he’s not even coaching…he’s such an easy coach to plan against I don’t understand it. He played in the NBA. Does he not know how to game plan against other coaches and their teams. Kind of scary…but I just want to get to the damn tourney!!!!

[Wags]

The attendance was 2,516, which is bad for a weekend against Stony Brook.

Shame that's a really disappointing number. Do we think the 7p start hurt attendance? If so, why was it a weekend night game to begin with?

It was a good crowd except in all sections except for the Lion's Den. Saturday night, students back for a while now, local rival. Still largely a no-show. Credit to the few who show up and are very into it, but they're SO few in number now. What the Lion's Den has been reduced to from where it was before is extremely disappointing.

[Wags]

Attack the basket and draw the foul.

Cruz FINALLY did this with 12:55 left in the second half, on a really nice, tough take, absorbing the contact, finishing a tough shot, and making the FT for a key 3-point play that gave them a 42-37 lead. It was at a great time, as that play ended a stretch in which both teams had combined to miss 14 straight shots (seven per team). When he did that, I said, "Where has that been all game?! Be aggressive like that!"

He has said himself after some other games recently when he didn't do that enough, "I have to be more aggressive."

I don't think he's being coached to not finish and to kick out. I think Speedy and the staff would prefer him being aggressive and attacking unless someone else is wide open for a great look for him to kick to. I think it's just his mindset. To his credit as the CAA's leading scorer, he has been right up there with his own PG, near the top of the CAA in assists all year. He is currently 3rd in the league with 4.7 apg, Edmead is 4th with 4.6. He relishes being a good teammate and sharing the ball as much as scoring. That's all great but sometimes it's to his detriment, when as you say, he should be looking to score or get to the foul line rather than kicking the ball out.

A true POY should involve others and be up there in both assists and scoring as he is. Look at the Knicks. They are much better when Brunson takes fewer shots, scores a little less and gets more assists. They start losing when he takes too many shots and puts it on himself too much.

BUT, if Hofstra is going to seriously compete for a title in DC, Cruz needs to know when to be a little more selfish and take it more upon himself to score at times rather than being too unselfish. Not a huge swing with that. Basically, keep that similar balance, but maybe to a lesser degree, and to read the game better, to know when it's time to set others up and when it's time to get his. It'll be better for him and for the team.

[Wags]

https://www.midmajormadness.com/coastal ... third-seed

[HUSID74]

Glad we got the win and all, and kudos to SBU for a good effort without their best player, but we looked awful.

I guess we hang our hat on the defense. Speedy does not run an offense...he has the best 2 players and any other hot hand try to break down the defense. I think this has become pretty easy to game plan against, and we have extended stagnant streaks.

By the way, Speedy runs at leat 6-7 offensive sets...if you went to practice you would know that and his press counter has improved tremendously this year.