MBB Game 31 Drexel, March 3 (Tue) 7 PM

[Wags]

In case anyone hasn't seen the video going viral tonight that the team posted... they surprised Sunday by flying his Mom in for senior day. Apparently she hasn't seen him play in 9 years. Very cool, kudos to all involved in making that happen...

https://x.com/i/status/2028608610503156165

Great post dutchPride very moving brought tears to my eyes having lost my son in the last year due to stage 4 cancer. Thanks for posting this and kudos to Hofstra for making this happen!! Luv it!!

Was not aware about your son. So sorry to hear. You have support from your Hofstra Hoops family here.

May your son's memory forever be a blessing.

[Jojogunne]

Very sorry to learn of your loss, TripleC.

[Cards]

So sorry for your loss triplec. May God bless and be with your family.

[HUSID74]

So sorry for your loss TripleC, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

[The Shadow]

To TripleC, Condolences from my family on your loss.

[triplec2195]

Thank you all so very much for the kind words it means a lot. Just remember even though we all get passionate here there are more important things in life then sports. The meeting of Silas and his mom really struck a nerve with me! God Bless!!

[EvanJ]

It is 12-12.

The announcers are mistakenly saying that Drexel needs a win and a Monmouth loss to get the 4. Drexel gets the 4 if they win. The announcers are probably looking at the tiebreakers between Drexel and Monmouth now while forgetting that if Drexel beats us, that will give them the tiebreaker against Monmouth.

[dutchPride86]

Drexel obviously playing with a level of desperation that we don't have and can't fake, even if everyone is playing. But 2 things from that half schematically that do concern me for DC because Drexel has exploited our weakness here:

- On offense: there's just no plan for what to do if teams successfully trap Cruz off ball screens. Cruz finally tried to force the issue a little bit late in the half there but couldn't finish around the rim. Yes Drexel is an excellent defensive team, and yes they have a lot more to play for, but the ball isnt moving fast enough

- On defense: As improved as the team is on that end, just don't defend the 3pt line well enough, especially against opposing bigs. Richard Goods had like 5 open 3s in the first half Saturday too, just didnt make them the way Drexel's guys are. This is why W&M scares me

[Wags]

That was a very strange first half. Drexel's first 24 pts came exclusively on 3s.

Hofstra started 12-2 on the offensive glass but only had an 8-6 edge in second-chance points.

Davis still struggling (2/8 fg). Dragons did a good job of forcing the ball out of his hands initially, but then he starting missing some he should make.

That half, on the heels of Saturday's win, did not inspire much confidence for DC.

On the other hand, any time you have EIGHT fewer 3s (Drexel 9/17, Hofstra 1/10) and you're only down six at halftime, you'll take it. But they really need to show something, especially Davis in the second half. They have also forgotten about Plotnikov again (1/1 fg).

[Wags]

That was a very strange first half. Drexel's first 24 pts came exclusively on 3s.

Hofstra started 12-2 on the offensive glass but only had an 8-6 edge in second-chance points.

Davis still struggling (2/8 fg). Dragons did a good job of forcing the ball out of his hands initially, but then he starting missing some he should make.

That half, on the heels of Saturday's win, did not inspire much confidence for DC.

On the other hand, any time you have EIGHT fewer 3s (Drexel 9/17, Hofstra 1/10) and you're only down six at halftime, you'll take it. But they really need to show something, especially Davis in the second half. They have also forgotten about Plotnikov again (1/1 fg).

Sure enough, German gets the first shot of the second half and hits it.

[EvanJ]

We scored the last 4 points of the half including at the buzzer to have momentu down 32-26 and started the second half with the ball. Sure enough, we lead 37-35, and Drexel called timeout. Shane Blakeney scored 15. Edmead and Patterson scored 9. The other CAA games have margins of at least 10.

[Wags]

Can they ever set a screen for Davis to free him up? He struggles because he always has to do it all by himself off the dribble. You have the top scorer in the conference. Maybe free him up once in a while? Even away from the ball, if nothing else?

[dutchPride86]

Can they ever set a screen for Davis to free him up? He struggles because he always has to do it all by himself off the dribble. You have the top scorer in the conference. Maybe free him up once in a while? Even away from the ball, if nothing else?

I live up in Uconn country so have watched a lot of the Huskies... I just marvel at how Hurley has them move off the ball. So many of Karaban's 3s are catch and shoot where he's running in circles off multiple off the ball screens to get an open look. That's what I wish we could do once in while. It would be so beneficial for German, or in games like the last 2 to get Cruz an open look to help him find his rhythm

[dutchPride86]

So coming back from 10 down to comfortably beat a team that had SIGNIFICANTLY more to play for should be a nice confidence boost for the guys heading into DC, and everyone came out healthy, so I'd deem tonight a success.

Hofstra raised the effort level in the 2nd half and it showed. Much better 3pt defense and guys besides Cruz made some shots. Biggie should be heading to DC with his confidence sky high.

As for Cruz, yes it's concerning. But I'm still not worried about him, though can't really argue if others are.

If we win in DC the defense will have to be what continues to carry us

[EvanJ]

We won 62-51. Drexel shot .327. It was the fifth time in our last seven games that we held our opponents to a field goal percentage under .330. Our eight games of that this season are tied for the second most of 365 teams. We allowed 6 two-pointers. It was the 42nd time this season that a team allowed 6 or fewer two-pointers, and the 28th time a team allowed a 6 or fewer two-pointers against a Division I team. The only previous CAA team to do that this season was us against Old Westbury. We joined South Alabama as the only teams to do that against a Division I team and a non-Division I team this season.

Davis tied Ameen Tanksley for 37th with 1,090 points.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... rexel.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Drexel." I did not get a chance to read it before the game. It was our first home CAA game on a Tuesday since February 14, 2012.

[triplec2195]

Can they ever set a screen for Davis to free him up? He struggles because he always has to do it all by himself off the dribble. You have the top scorer in the conference. Maybe free him up once in a while? Even away from the ball, if nothing else?

I was saying this as I watched Davis frustrated as hell trying to go around two defenders and every team employs the same D KNOWING THAT WE HAVE bigs that suck at setting screens and picks. Sunday tries to compensate for his bad picks and gets called for a moving pick like tonite. Cruz didn't have a good game but you have to feel bad for him with the help he's not getting. We should be able to get more open looks and easier basket on this every game "CRUZ DEFENSE". With two guys coming out on Cruz every time he touches the ball we need to have an offensive set that exploits this D. Let him pickup assists when he can't shoot the ball.

[Wags]

Can they ever set a screen for Davis to free him up? He struggles because he always has to do it all by himself off the dribble. You have the top scorer in the conference. Maybe free him up once in a while? Even away from the ball, if nothing else?

I was saying this as I watched Davis frustrated as hell trying to go around two defenders and every team employs the same D KNOWING THAT WE HAVE bigs that suck at setting screens and picks. Sunday tries to compensate for his bad picks and gets called for a moving pick like tonite. Cruz didn't have a good game but you have to feel bad for him with the help he's not getting. We should be able to get more open looks and easier basket on this every game "CRUZ DEFENSE". With two guys coming out on Cruz every time he touches the ball we need to have an offensive set that exploits this D. Let him pickup assists when he can't shoot the ball.

Even Biggie, Plontikov. or DeCady can set a screen for him. It doesn't necessarily have to be Sunday or Victory. And those guys would be much better than their 5s with pick-and-rolls anyway, to give Cruz the option of shooting, driving, or passing off the PnR. Or they can set an off-ball screen for him, especially since compared to last year, he was excelling more as a dangerous scorer this year, playing off the ball with a PG like Edmead vs. having to handle the ball more last year. But they basically never do that either.

I don't understand how they can have the leading scorer in the conference and do very little, actively, to free him up to score like he's capable of doing.

He has three single-digit scoring games this season, and two of them are the last two, on 6/22 total shooting, going into the CAA tournament. That's not the way to go into the tourney.

It's good that they were able to win by 9 and 11 with Davis scoring only 8 in the last two games, but his other single-digit scoring game (7 pts) is the only one out of 19 this year that they lost when allowing under 70 pts (the home loss to Charleston).

He still has the scoring lead (20.3 ppg) over Cuthrell (20.0) by just nine total points (628-619) in the same amount of games (31 each).

[triplec2195]

Just wanted to add how disappointed I was to see such a small crowd at the Mack(1,402) for our final home game and senior day. On the one hand we should of promoted this better then give away bobble-heads but realistically people should have come out knowing this was our final home game and pay tribute to the kids that helped to shape this program and are playing their last game here! Also major disappointing is how we had no students in the Lions Den. Very disheartening!!

[Pride97]

I hate that they ended the season and had Senior Day on a rainy Tuesday night. I missed the ceremony rushing home from work.

It used to be on the weekend and was a much better event then. You are never going to be a similar crowd on a weeknight - a school night as well so that limits kids (and some parents) too. Hope they go back to weekends in the future.


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[triplec2195]

I hate that they ended the season and had Senior Day on a rainy Tuesday night. I missed the ceremony rushing home from work.

It used to be on the weekend and was a much better event then. You are never going to be a similar crowd on a weeknight - a school night as well so that limits kids (and some parents) too. Hope they go back to weekends in the future.


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Good point Pride I always think of things from my perspective having been retired now for a number of years. Thanks for your input!