MBB Game 11 - LaSalle - 12/23/14, 4 PM

[Polito]

The way HU has started this game is unacceptable - but there are some positives, esp Robinson who's playing and shooting well

LaSalle playing strong, aggressive, active, hungry - making HU look like crap - on D HU running around like chickens with their heads cut off- strong ball movement

really not pleased with HU's look to start this game - must play better in a big game at home - fully understand the points in the paint, but HU is sloppy and it's not because of the post

LaSalle is just playing aggressively and strong D - exactly what HU SHOULD be doing

[EvanJ]

Hofstra started Malik Nichols, Juan'ya Green, Ameen Tanksley, Brian Bernardi, and Moussa Kone.

La Salle started Steve Zack (center), Cleon Roberts (guard), Jordan Price (guard), Khalid Lewis (guard), and Jerrell Wright (forward). The positions are from ESPN.

La Salle leads 44-36 at halftime.

[ProudofPride]

Per a NYC Buckets writer, La Salle has averaged 25.7 points in the first half this year… We've allowed 44.

[Polito]

Is this for real?!?! What the hell am I watching - did I just see Green AIR BALL a wide open jumper in space HE created for himself??? wasn't even going to mention the 'easy' dunk Nichols botched at the start, but now seems appropriate

wow.

Green Tanksley and Bernardi have done jack - and the D... holy cow... it's pitiful

I will say Dion is one fast fella - he can get to the hoop at will, just a danger to be blocked due to size

These guys best make some adjustments and come out remembering they're good, or this will get u g l y...

[Polito]

yep, they just got their a$$es beat for 44 points in a half - and I'm sorry but LaSalle is not that kind of team - although after Columbia, apparently HU can make any team look like a scoring machine

this really infuriates me this deep in the season (can ya tell?! lol) - pitiful D is not acceptable, EVER, and def not at this stage in the game - shots don't always fall, but you damn sure better play some friggin defense

I love these players and staff - alas, no one's perfect, guess I was due to see something off! This D performance is on both groups.

[EvanJ]

Hofstra is down 52-49. Green has 10 assists.

[ProudofPride]

We're still allowing 60% shooting with 10 minutes left in the game. I hate to be negative, but the team is lucky students are on break right now, because this is exactly the type of performance that would make students stop going to games.

[Polito]

this is unbelievable - just pitiful - no one can make a shot - had who knows how many opps that last possession and couldn't get the damn ball in the hoop - every shot, 3, jumper, lay up, putback, every shot missed - I can't watch anymore, sorry - I'll catch the recap

2nd straight bad game for Green, and this one is REALLY bad - he looks just bad, don't know how else to say it

[Polito]

normally would be very happy with his 10 assists, and that's always a good thing as he is a great distributer - but holy cow he looks terrible in this game - he's done jack in another BIG game - not the performance of a leader

he was excited for this? Tanksley too? can't tell

the team looks like spent and defeated and there's still 9 min left - can't tell you how disappointing this effort has been to watch

[ProudofPride]

Hard to believe we were favored in this game. Looks like no one on our team cares about this game, and they've basically already checked out for Christmas break.

[HofstraHockey]

I finally am able to get to a game in person, and I'm pretty sure that everyone has been lying all year about how good they were!

[ProudofPride]

The 82 points we gave up to Columbia was the most we've allowed all season. Apparently we learned nothing from that defensive performance, as we're about to give up even more.

La Salle ended the game shooting 58.6%. There is absolutely no excuse for that. Terrible loss that's no one's fault but our own.

[EvanJ]

Hofstra lost 83-74. Hofstra had a great assist/turnover ratio of 19/6 but Hofstra shot poorly. Tanksley scored 23. Two Hofstra players didn't score (Gonzalez in 2 minutes and Walker in 4 minutes) and our other seven players scored at least 6 points each. Green had 11 assists and if everybody else remains the same he would climb to 10th in Division I.

[HofstraHockey]

The numbers all look to be in Hofstra's favor, except for shooting %. To be a little fair (and believe me, everything I saw said this was an ugly one), La Salle players hit some RIDICULOUS shots at moments. Reverses, 3s with guys in their face and from a mile away, left handed falling down behind the back layups (at least it felt like it). There were times that it seemed like they had the NBA Jam "He's on fire!" going for them.

Bernardi didn't seem to have a great shooting night. That to me felt like the difference. He had a few looks to tie it or give them the lead, and he couldn't hit any of them.

And Kone's two early fouls left them totally exposed down low for almost the entire first half. And to be honest, even when he was in there, he looked a little lost.

To JAM's credit, he didn't stop coaching. He was getting on guys until the end, even when they were down by ~15, when they definitely looked checked out.

[Cards]

1 - we did not shoot well at all
2 - they did make some tough shots and Price scored at will
3 - green looked out of it, poor shot selection
4 - poor HU 3 point shooting
5 - lack of low presence on defense - LaS had many drives to the basket that were weakly defended. They had too many easy drives.
6 - Nichols is high energy and plays hard, but needs to make better decisions.
7 - Walker comes in to spell Kone and picks up 2 quick fouls. He is still green (not his fault).
8 - As a team - it was a flat performance.
Bottom line, without doing much different, this still could have been a close game or win. HU needs to step up against decent competition - currently they are not.

[Dooku25]

I took a half day at work to attend today’s game. This was a tough one. I thought LaSalle would be the best opponent we would face this season, and I was right. They impressed me more than NC State. Their size was just too much for us at this time. Moussa picked up 2 early fouls and sat the rest of the 1st half. He still needs a few games to shake off the rust. We needed Gustys in this type of game also. Their guards were 6’ 5 and their bigs were 6’ 8 and 6’11. Some of these guys have played in a Sweet 16 game. This was a well coached team who hit some ridiculous 3’s and defended all game long. It should also be noted that we didn’t get any help from the officials today.

Offensively, it was a poor shooting day. Nesmith missed some open 3’s. He has been a 40% three point shooter for us and finished 0 for 5 from three. I was disappointed with Green’s performance as well. He doesn’t seem to be a very good shooter in traffic. He is good at drawing fouls and hitting his free throws, but I was hoping he would be more of pure shooter. We need him to heat up. Right now, Tanksley is the best player on the team. He can shoot the 3, drive to the basket and he also possesses a polished mid range game. Excellent player.
Overall I say there is no need to panic. At full strength, I’m still convinced we will compete for the CAA title. What else can we ask for???

[Polito]

What else can we ask for?? Ha don't even get me started - and spare me the nonsense about how amazing LaSalle is just because they made HU look amateur - good team, but lets be realistic

I am LIVID at this loss and completely DISGUSTED with their performance - they played lifeless and flat out gave up - UNACCEPTABLE - I hope they got an earful from the staff

Green was horrid, dejected all game, complaining, contesting every call... Officials? Baloney - no excuses - he constantly forced awful shots and tried to bulldoze his way thru 3 defenders in the paint and got stuffed 95% of the time - he's looked lost for 2 straight games - this is supposed to be the team leader for goodness sake - all great that he can assist but this team needs a LEADER who can be a scoring catalyst - where is it???

Tanksley scored the quietest 23 Pts - those 2 made little to no impact - cant have that fellas you 2 need to LEAD - and no more talk about how excited you are to mix it up with the Philly folks - cant stand unfulfilled talk

Bernardi hasn't made a big impact in who knows how long - regularly scores 10 or less... That is just not going to cut it from a leader who's supposed to be a lights out shooter - on top of missing who knows how many shots he got beat silly on D - I mean if your shots aren't falling play some damn defense for frig sake

Kone? Sheez... I know he's prob rusty but c'mon, he was out a couple of weeks, not years

Walker is a true frosh, nothing should be said

Dions been mentioned, Nichols lost me when he botched a friggin dunk at the start - should've known it was going to be a long day - this isn't on the post guys, game wasn't lost there - guards were awful - no excuses

This was a very important OOC game and they failed miserably - not just the loss, the way they lost is offensive - they've now beaten no one of substance (still not convinced SBU wins AE and even if that's not a big feather in the cap) and from what I see they've learned absolutely NOTHING from the losses - still can't step it up when it counts at the end of a winnable game, and the D is Swiss freakin cheese

I'm actually so frustrated that I've lost my interest and excitement for the LIU Brooklyn game - if they play like that again they will lose and I wont be able to stay and stomach watching that kind of mess for $40

Panic button has been hit for me - sorry, but this was a sh!t show, 2 games in a row - seeing no improvement and Green stinking it up consistently is a major red flag - they keep this trash up and they will barely scrape out 15-18 wins, and you can forget NCAA or NIT - maybe a CIT game - northeastern will eat them alive playing like that

Have I said I'm furious???

[HUSID80]

Wow! How fast we jump off the bandwagon! This is a year for transition and perhaps we were deluded into thinking we had something more than real after all those patsys we have been playing. Fact is we're a pretty small team playing w/o some of our bigs and when we don't hit threes consistently we do NOT look very good. Yes Green has had two poor games in a row and Dion was not himself yesterday but it had a lot to do with LaSalle, they were big/active and contested everything...clearly wanted the game more and were the tougher team...OK so I predicted that we would win one out of two vs. Columbia/LaSalle and we didn't...No real harm if we learn from this, get Rokas back healthy, play well against two more non-cons that we should beat and get ready for the CAA...that's all that matters!

[Jojogunne]

Why isn't Rokas playing? He doesn't appear to be hurt. Is he taking a medical redshirt?

Good analysis from Big Apple Buckets:

http://www.nycbuckets.com/2014/12/hofst ... -la-salle/

[Jojogunne]

Wow! How fast we jump off the bandwagon! This is a year for transition and perhaps we were deluded into thinking we had something more than real after all those patsys we have been playing. Fact is we're a pretty small team playing w/o some of our bigs and when we don't hit threes consistently we do NOT look very good. Yes Green has had two poor games in a row and Dion was not himself yesterday but it had a lot to do with LaSalle, they were big/active and contested everything...clearly wanted the game more and were the tougher team...OK so I predicted that we would win one out of two vs. Columbia/LaSalle and we didn't...No real harm if we learn from this, get Rokas back healthy, play well against two more non-cons that we should beat and get ready for the CAA...that's all that matters!

Hofstra has a tendency to overhype minor successes ("Red-Hot Hofstra Headed To Columbia For Huge Non-Conference Contest," "Hofstra Routs Coppin State For Fourth Straight Victory," etc.), which raises fans' expectations unfairly. We are playing without a true center -- Moussa and Nichols are better 4s than 5s -- and our three-point shooting has been erratic, so we have to temper our hopes.