Game 2 - Sacred Heart

[Jojogunne]

We can now stop saying that Hofstra is "better than" another team or "should beat" anyone. I know it's early and meaningless in the long run, but it was a terrible way to finish a game and exposed some issues.

Amen.

Northeastern beat UConn and we lost to Sacred Heart. Guess we are in really different places.

How overrated is UConn this year?

[Wags]

JAM blamed the horrendous defense for the loss in post-game remarks. We've all heard similar comments from him before, when will it actually change?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVyvZM_FbQM

The comment that stood out to me was this one, at the end:

"I don't think our guys are valuing practice the way they need to, and we've got to change that."

If that's the case, then allowing 90 and losing this game rather than if they had squeaked by with say an 86-85 win, might become the best thing that could have happened to them this season. I believe JAM and his staff will get the team right in practice and then we'll see if that carries over to the games. If so, then giving a game like this away late to a team like Sacred Heart, could serve as a much-needed wake up call to nip some things in the bud early, rather than allowing them to fester and become much longer lasting problems later on, when the season means much more.

Of course, that's the optimistic view. A more negative and pragmatic view might be that certain coaches and certain programs have certain identities and they don't often stray too much from that. Regardless of the players that come and go, Syracuse and Boeheim will always give you a tough time with their 2-3 zone. Michigan State may or may not be able to score easily some years, but Izzo's his teams will almost always defend and rebound, and play with grit, toughness and intensity. Some other programs will always run and shoot a bunch of 3s but not put much into defending or rebounding. Pecora's teams always had trouble scoring but would often stay in ugly, lower scoring games because of their defense and rebounding. For as long as JAM has been a head coach, be it at Niagara or Hofstra, his teams -- even though he always SAYS all the right things (and he did again tonight) about defense -- never had the reputations of being defense first, but rather, teams that could score well and would would simply try to outscore their opponents rather than putting the emphasis on stopping other teams from scoring. So to put up as many as 86 and still lose, isn't really surprising -- even against a team like Sacred Heart -- knowing JAM's history with his teams.

I'm hoping it's more the former scenario than the latter, and everyone, all of the coaches and players, make the necessary adjustments. But sometimes the identities of a coach and of a program are what they are and don't often change that much in college hoops.

[ProudofPride]

We can now stop saying that Hofstra is "better than" another team or "should beat" anyone. I know it's early and meaningless in the long run, but it was a terrible way to finish a game and exposed some issues.

Amen.

Northeastern beat UConn and we lost to Sacred Heart. Guess we are in really different places.

How overrated is UConn this year?

Uconn is very overrated, at least so far. I actually live in Connecticut, so a lot of people here essentially eat sleep and breathe uconn basketball. Many people are even more livid about their 2 losses than we are about losing to sacred heart. Uconn dropped off the rankings after losing to Wagner, and Wagner was blown out out in their next game to a mediocre team. The first quote here by Pride97 actually echoes a similar sentiment for both teams. It's a good win for Northeastern in terms of a "name" win, but the CAA treated their win again st an unranked and not good uconn team like it was a win against Duke or Kentucky. The bright side for both us and Uconn is that it's still very early, there's plenty of time to figure things out and make adjustments. I'd rather have clunkers like this now that later on in the season when it's conference play, especially since last year proved to us that non-conference schedules are essentially meaningless to the selection committee.

[daHUPride]

Wow that was the ugliest finish.
Pemberton - he looks really good, much needed compliment to Gustys
Gustys - looks a bit frustrated and less enthused - some nice moves to the basket
Robinson - where was he? didn't see him on the bench (is he hurt?)
BB - better game - but I have seen him trapped to many times and never ends well for us
JFW - I like him
Sabaty - nice compliment to Gustys - don't have to change much of what we run - as if we run any sets - when he is in and Gustys is out
Walker - is it possible that he plays less every year he is here - what a shame
Greer - nice compliment player
Powers - haven't seen enough of him
Buie - like to see him get more minutes
Someone else said what I was thinking in comparing Pecora's rock fight/grinding style that kept us in games - as opposed to JAM lets score as many points as we can and hope we out score them that keeps our opponents in the game.

[Polito]

WOW... I'm with you Wags, that comment about not valuing practice is flat out ALARMING. That tells me one thing:

This team currently has NO leadership. And that is SCARY.

That's not a wake up call to the players, it's a wake up call to us fans. This could be a very long season unless some of these upperclassmen step it up quick.

Very very disappointed in Rok, Powers, and Bernardi. These 3 should've been ready to take fiery command from the game 1 tipoff... and they've not shown that at all. I get Rok is hurt, but if it's that bad then he needs to sit and heal so this team can run some O in the post through Sabety. An injured Rokus is doing nothing to help.

Watching a TRUE FRESHMAN be the only one with the balls confidence and leadership to demand the rock in key big spots and knock down shots is unacceptable from those 3 in particular.

I LOVE that for EP and his future, but holy cow, where are the Jrs and Srs of this team??? Where's the LEADERSHIP???

And you're right PoP, the OOC for miss is meaningless in terms of the postseason...but it means a heckuva lot in terms of setting the tone of the program for the season.

I know I'm hammering them right now - I just can't stomach no leadership and disrespecting the game by not caring about practice or D. That's CYO nonsense. The expectations at this level in this conf are much MUCH higher.

I get JMs approach, and I'm not against a fast paced high scoring strategy. What I am against is the above. That is NOT OK.

But no time to sulk now, college hoops moves quick - Manhattan is likely licking their chops at what they've seen thus far. HU needs to get serious fast, and go 1-0 in this game.

Let's go Rokus. Let's go Bernardi. Let's go Powers. Calling you upperclassmen out - time to get right and LEAD this team.

[Dooku25]

This was the most disturbing loss of the Michalich era in my opinion. SHOW EFFORT on the defensive end of the floor. Giving up 90 to Sacred Heart is an absolute embarrassment. And I don't think having new players is a valid excuse because anyone can TRY to play defense. We don't even pretend like we are trying!!

[Cards]

There is not much left to say that has not already been said by others. Very sad to see them play without desire and commitment.

Love watching EP play, but I wish one or more of the upperclassmen would tell him to stop with the arm raising, three finger, and shocked facial expressions when he hits a 3 pointer. It's kind of embarrassing. I guess that its all part of the lack of leadership we are seeing.

I hope the lack of feeding the ball to Rok is only a function of him not being at 100% shooting health and not a lack of the ability of others to run a rick and roll, or the lack of a game plan to utilize one of our strongest scoring options!

[Mike34]

Can we get a rotation of the bench for defense?? Considering Sabety is being benched basically entire games yet he is the best blocker on the team... this holds for him even in his mere minutes of playing time across the past two games. I can't have sympathy for the situation until they start making proper rotations and utilizing their players correctly. It's no excuse that 3 awesome players left when we know of 2-3 great players who came in this year. I will be completely shocked if changes aren't made for Friday's game at Manhattan.

[joeg1]

Buie, our best on ball defender, needs to play more...he creates chaos. And it would not be a terrible experiment to have Sabety playing the 4, giving us two big bodies guarding and attacking the rim. Coach needs to be able to adapt when things aren't working. Eli basically replaces Bernardi, but coach refuses to sit BB. Bernardi is being asked to do too much, and he gets exposed - he is bad off the dribble and a mediocre defender.

[Polito]

I am definitely expecting a LOT more out of Powers - he was brought here to LEAD, period. After sitting out and getting acclimated for a year, he should've been able to hit the ground running - dishing the ball, running the O, etc. I'm not seeing enough of it yet.

Buie is the future there is no question in my mind. He's a tremendous talent, on both ends. Needs to work on his offensive game though, clearly. But he can run the offense.

Not going to get on Eli for his excitement - I can see that being a little much, but for goodness sake this team shows no emotion outside of Eli and Sabety. This team NEEDS some passion - hate to use the word, but it needs some swagger. I'm not interested in the meak softness. I want killers out there with the guts to display some FIRE. Until I see that from any of the 'leaders', then Eli is welcome to do his thing IMO. Let's see someone else step up and take control for petes sake.

And Eli isn't a BB replacement IMO, he's a Robinson replacement at the 3. JWF is BB's replacement - and JWF needs to play liberally. He and BB should be splitting minutes... but as mentioned, they seem hell bent on playing him 35 a game for some reason. I think they are continuing to force/expect him to be a player he is not. He is catch and shoot, with the occasional drive - he's one of the few strong FT shooters on the team, so he still has great value. I just think he and the team are better served with him for a few less minutes but in more key situations. PT with a purpose, not just because he's a Sr shooter.

JWF can score from anywhere, and brings that threat, he just needs PT experience.

From a talent perspective I think in general the younger/newer guys are the spark and the future. But from a leadership perspective, I'm really putting the pressure on Powers, Gustys, and Bernardi. Those 3 need to step it up big time as upperclassmen.

[Jojogunne]

Love watching EP play, but I wish one or more of the upperclassmen would tell him to stop with the arm raising, three finger, and shocked facial expressions when he hits a 3 pointer. It's kind of embarrassing. I guess that its all part of the lack of leadership we are seeing.

Agree. It's especially embarrassing when you lose.