MBB Game 28 vs. Towson on February 21 7:00 P.M.

[Wags]

Coburn has lost it. Not sure what happened to his energy and aggressiveness, but if he's not showing it and not producing, have to go to Trueheart. Joe did that in the first half and Trueheart hit his first shot (a 3).

The whole team has lost it at this point. Another big run for Towson. This is pretty pathetic.

Yeah, but he's the x-factor. Team feeds off his energy. They're a different team when he plays well and when he doesn't.

[Wags]

9/30 from 3.
9/18 from 2.

Where is the staff to tell them to attack instead of settling?

[Wags]

Buie hits the game-tying jumper with 1:49 left and Joe calls timeout. Now down to one left. Really want to burn that there? Could be costly,

[HofstraHockey]

If you told me they were going to win by 9, wouldn't have been ideal, but I'd take it. If you told me it would take 2 OTs, however...

[EvanJ]

Four of the CAA players in my Lineup of the Day were from this game. They were Ray (first time I honored him), Taylor, Buie, Fobbs, and Knight in an 86-84 overtime win hosting Charleston. JWF scored 28 and shot field goals 11-for-23. Pemberton scored 11, shot field goals 3-for-15, and missed all 6 threes. JWF had 8 more makes and 8 more attempts. However, JWF lost 7 possession with 1 rebound and 8 turnovers, and Pemberton gained 6 possessions with 7 rebounds and 1 turnover. Both of them had a weakness. I only honored 2 of the 8 highest scorers. In addition to JWF with 28, I left out Steven Santa Ana (who led all CAA players with 31), Matt Milon with 27, Jarrell Brantley with 26, Jeantal Cylla with 24, Grant Riller with 22. Taylor had 14 points, 17 rebounds, 7 blocks, and did not miss a field goal. He's the only player since at least 2009-2010 to do all four of those. His previous career-high was 4 blocks. He didn't get closer to the CAA blocks lead because Knight had 8. Ray scored 17. He became the ninth player since 2009-2010 with at least 5 threes, at least 5 rebounds, at least 5 assists, and 0 turnovers. JWF did it on December 30 hosting Drexel. Of the last 6 times a CAA player did it, 2 were by JWF and 1 was by Green. Only 2 of those times were by other CAA teams, and 1 of those two was Elon's Tanner Samson against non-Division I Wesley.

[Hof_Judge99]

Man what a ballgame, from the opening tip you knew TU meant business tonight. Incredible performance by JT tonight, played an insane 43 minutes against a really tough matchup. Got no help from Eli who was baby powder soft down low and got out muscled time and time again. Really worrysome that every star player has a monster game against us (Riller, Knight, Fobbs etc) defense needs to be a LOT better. Tareq’s confidence looks shot, hopefully he gets it back. So many things went our way, JWF’s 3 that stuck wedged in the rim/backboad and spun back in, the technical foul called on TU, etc. The biggest of all being Sanders fouling out as he was a nightmare and wanted the ball more than anyone wearing white. Was a real bend but not break performance tonight. Thank god Towson has no ability to shoot 3s outside of Fobbs as the rest of their team was 1-12 from 3. Ugly but it’s a win that gets us to 15-0 at home. Best part of the night was the crowd, really loud and full for a weeknight, so much so that the traffic in the parking lot was a nightmare but so be it. One more for a perfect 16-0 at home and that #1 overall seed. Roll Pride.

[Wags]

Several concerning trends of late (getting beat up badly in the paint, having trouble on the glass, Coburn providing little offensively and not being that needed spark and infusion of energy for others to feed off of) continued tonight.

BUT... When you lead for just 12:33, trail for 28:46, get outscored in the paint by 28, miss 26 3s, trail by 10 with under 9 minutes left in regulation, trail by six in overtime, and you STILL win, I think there are still more positives to take away from this game than negatives. Those types of numbers should ruin any hopes of winning. But when you can win in spite of all that, I guess it says something good about your team.

And in the bigger picture, if they get the last three and finish 16-2, you look back on this game as one of those that you are lucky to win, but still win in spite of yourself, one of those that has to happen along the way to putting up a great conference record- because when you do that, not all of those wins will be pretty. They've had their share of wins by double digits, including wins by over 40 and by over 20, etc. When you're 13-2 in the conference, and if you finish 16-2, you're not going to win all of your games in league play like that. To finish with a record like 16-2 or 15-3, you're bound to have some ugly wins, when you should lose, but manage to win anyway. This was one of those. However, they better correct some of the trends I mentioned above soon, before they had back to Charleston. They don't have to have advantages in the paint or on the glass, or have Coburn score 20 and play amazing D, but they can't have those three trends go the way they've been going too often lately, or they're going to have trouble in the CAA tourney. So, good win, two-game lead with three to play puts them in great position, but they better have not peaked too soon and better still have their best basketball ahead of them, or someone like W&M, NU or CofC will be waiting to put an end to their NCAAT pursuit next month.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Incredible performance by JT tonight, played an insane 43 minutes against a really tough matchup....The biggest of all being Sanders fouling out as he was a nightmare and wanted the ball more than anyone wearing white.

JT was a beast tonight he saved our bacon on a bad shooting night. Sanders was great, 6 offensive rebounds, he had a huge impact on the outcome, once he fouled out, we had it in the bag.

We let Towson play their game tonight. They gave us the perimeter and pretty much said, "If you hit your shots, we're taking the L." Unfortunately we struggled until OT. 40 3 point attempts has to be close to a school record. From there, Dobbs did his thing, and they bullied us inside, specifically Sanders. If we don't have JT, I think we lose that game by a considerable margin. Dottin did a good job slowing JWF down too, tough shooting day, but impressed with the frosh overall. Towson plays well in close games or when sitting on the lead because they suck the air out of the ball, and rebound well.

We never really had an opportunity to extend a lead in regulation, if we could have gotten a 2-3 possession lead at any point, I think we could have put Towson away fast because when they're forced to shoot the 3, they spread out and lose a bit of their effectiveness on the offensive boards. It would have opened up the transition offense for us as well. The game in Towson could have went just like tonight, but we hit so many shots early in that one, they could never execute their gameplan, and we coasted.

We showed a lot of resilience down the stretch, Ray hit a big 3 to get it going, when we were down 10, Buie hit a big three and some FT, and we got a stop to send it to OT. The first OT was a rollercoaster, but again Buie and Ray hit some big 3's to settle us down. The Sanders foul-out was a dagger, and we did a great job closing out the second overtime. No points allowed. JWF came alive in OT, it wasn't a classic, but 28 points on 11-23 shooting is a big day for most people.

The defense was rough again though, against a poor offensive team. The CAA is prepared for our zone, and the boost we got from Coburn early is gone. Our lack of size is hurting us badly. In regards to a question about our defense in the pregame chalk-talk, Coach Barrett said, "hey if it's not broke, don't fix it." Well, it's pretty busted, especially if Towson's lighting you up. Players and staff have to dig deep and find a new wrinkle for the CAAT.

We're kind of limping to the finish line here, gotta turn it up on JMU Saturday to essentially lock up the regular season, and beat Delaware on March 2 to lock CoC into the third seed. Any win is a good one at this point though, I'll take a gritty win at the end of February any day.

[Wags]

Incredible performance by JT tonight, played an insane 43 minutes against a really tough matchup....The biggest of all being Sanders fouling out as he was a nightmare and wanted the ball more than anyone wearing white.

JT was a beast tonight he saved our bacon on a bad shooting night. Sanders was great, 6 offensive rebounds, he had a huge impact on the outcome, once he fouled out, we had it in the bag.

We let Towson play their game tonight. They gave us the perimeter and pretty much said, "If you hit your shots, we're taking the L." Unfortunately we struggled until OT. 40 3 point attempts has to be close to a school record. From there, Dobbs did his thing, and they bullied us inside, specifically Sanders. If we don't have JT, I think we lose that game by a considerable margin. Dottin did a good job slowing JWF down too, tough shooting day, but impressed with the frosh overall. Towson plays well in close games or when sitting on the lead because they suck the air out of the ball, and rebound well.

We never really had an opportunity to extend a lead in regulation, if we could have gotten a 2-3 possession lead at any point, I think we could have put Towson away fast because when they're forced to shoot the 3, they spread out and lose a bit of their effectiveness on the offensive boards. It would have opened up the transition offense for us as well. The game in Towson could have went just like tonight, but we hit so many shots early in that one, they could never execute their gameplan, and we coasted.

We showed a lot of resilience down the stretch, Ray hit a big 3 to get it going, when we were down 10, Buie hit a big three and some FT, and we got a stop to send it to OT. The first OT was a rollercoaster, but again Buie and Ray hit some big 3's to settle us down. The Sanders foul-out was a dagger, and we did a great job closing out the second overtime. No points allowed. JWF came alive in OT, it wasn't a classic, but 28 points on 11-23 shooting is a big day for most people.

The defense was rough again though, against a poor offensive team. The CAA is prepared for our zone, and the boost we got from Coburn early is gone. Our lack of size is hurting us badly. In regards to a question about our defense in the pregame chalk-talk, Coach Barrett said, "hey if it's not broke, don't fix it." Well, it's pretty busted, especially if Towson's lighting you up. Players and staff have to dig deep and find a new wrinkle for the CAAT.

We're kind of limping to the finish line here, gotta turn it up on JMU Saturday to essentially lock up the regular season, and beat Delaware on March 2 to lock CoC into the third seed. Any win is a good one at this point though, I'll take a gritty win at the end of February any day.

All true, but one thing I don't understand is why they had such poor focus and concentration and such a nonchalant attitude during the walk-through earlier in the day and then had that carry over into the game to dig a hole. You'd expect that from a team in Towson's position, headed for a losing season and a likely quick CAA tourney exit. And you'd expect Hofstra, coming off of an upset loss to the then-last place team in the conference, on the verge of locking up a one seed and only their second CAA regular season title in the 18 years they've been in the league, playing at home, where they're undefeated this season, to be the ones playing with energy, passion and fight. Yet for most of the game it was just the opposite for Towson and Hofstra. Until the end, Towson wanted it more. That's headscratching, but I guess we'll see how they close on Senior Day and then the last two on the road. If they get their old level of focus back and get to 16-2, this approach on Thursday before the game and for much of the game will be forgotten. For right now though, it's puzzling, given what's at stake for them.

[daHUPride]

Tough W last night.

JT had a great night - a lot of boards, many blocks and a few buckets - but the key were 3 hustle plays were the 6'10" big was diving across the floor to save the ball at key parts of the game. I LOVE what he has brought to HU.
JR hot or cold - he never shies away from taking a long 3 - thankfully from 3's he was mostly hot yesterday. Because of the team we have and need to have smaller guys on the floor he is often mismatched against a bigger 3-he battles but it is a liability
DB had a good game a couple 3's assists - but I see frustration in his eyes.
JFW for the first time I saw him pressing and trying to force his game - on more then a few drives he dribbled into traffic losing the ball; dribbling on the perimeter while the other 4 sit around waiting. The guy is great and unfortunately it took 45 minutes - a bit longer then usual - to get a run of back to back buckets and slay the opponent.
EP off night for sure - but its NEVER because of effort - he battles every play and is often, to often, is asked to cover on D a much bigger foe.
TC when he plays good we are usually a tough out - to call him streaky is an understatement. Sadly - his streakiness is game to game - its all or nothing - last night was a nothing.

Last few games I feel we are having a tough time finding our mojo.
5 guys were in double figures last night - they played 85% of the time; besides those 5 only 3 other guys got a total of 36 (of the 250) minutes those 3 scored 3 points amongst them.
Gave up way to many 2nd shots off of long rebounds.
Felt JFW was pressing his game to much yesterday - unusual for him.
Going to miss JT - and the little things he does - big shoes, literally, to fill.
Tough playing these teams that are a bit bigger then us in frontcourt without having TC or ST on the floor at the same time as with JT - they need to step up.
Nice crowd last night - hope a better crowd Saturday - these seniors deserve a token of appreciation for what they have done this year (and some over 4 years).

[Polito]

Glad to have the hard fought W, but wow, my concerns are growing. Do not like what I am seeing - this team is scary right now, in the wrong way. They have reverted back to the last 5 yrs in some ways - starting games off poorly, bad D, missing open looks (and layups for that matter), constantly having to dig themselves out of holes. That kind of play is what sends you home early.

This is actually the second or third game recently I personnaly have felt that JWF is pressing - this is not good, need Speedy to help get him under control ASAP. He’s feeling the pressure and surprisingly to me is cracking a bit at times (I really hold this kid in tremendously high regard). If this continues in the CAAT, well, let’s pray it doesn’t or the fans will be spending the majority of their time touring Charleston than cheering HU.

Agree on Ray, TC, and ST continue to be so streaky, hit or miss, so hot or cold, it is brutally frustrating - can’t depend on any of them game in and out, no clue what you are going to get any game - I’m going whacky about it, can’t imagine how the staff feels!

I think opponents have figured out how to battle this team and how to knock JWF off his game at times. Staff so far seems to have not caught up with that in terms of a counter - JM said so himself after, they give it all to win, but boy they really need to get some things righted in a hurry before the CAAT. I think he’s feeling like we all do -> team is regressing at the most important time of the yr instead of peaking.

I’ve heard things like:

Tired legs this time of year: Sorry but that’s not going to fly. Haven’t played since Sat and played their best ball in double OT - program has great training staff, they can do it. AND frankly, they have no choice - 3 in 3, being tired is a tired excuse at this level. This is their style of play, they are recruited for it, developed for it, and they are sticking to that strategy like glue apparently, so fine, go win the crown with it.

Bad Officiating: Yeah, agreed, and so? Should never come to that for this team, they are too good to have to blame refs - they won’t get any favors in Charleston so they’ll have to figure it out and play above it - I know it’s a factor, but we just can’t blame that. This game shouldn’t have even been close quite honestly...

Now the good side of the coin from last night to me is this: this team has crazy fight in them, they refuse to lose, and showed some incredible grit, never give up attitude, and poise last night. And I do still think they have talent, leadership, and dog in them that can win it all IF they get a couple of things corrected. Need to find a way to kill off the crazy pressure I think they are all feeling, and get back to having fun playing the game together as a family. Perhaps this is the kind of game that does just that, rejuvenates them and brings them back to win streak play...?!?!

Agree on all the JT praise, season difference maker, and boy did JWF put on a clinic when it mattered. Would prefer to see it about 40 min sooner from here on out!

Agree on crowd, was a nice size and lively as things got more intense - players really fed off it in the OTs

Final stretch here - hope to see them reset, get back to basics, remember to have FUN and play loose and confident - all goals still right in front of them and THEY control it all - can’t ask for more, time to execute!

[EvanJ]

In the 14 of 21 CAA team statistics categories that don't involve rebounds, we lead in 8.

40 3 point attempts has to be close to a school record.

We're kind of limping to the finish line here, gotta turn it up on JMU Saturday to essentially lock up the regular season, and beat Delaware on March 2 to lock CoC into the third seed. Any win is a good one at this point though, I'll take a gritty win at the end of February any day.

It is a school record. I looked at the box score yesterday, but I didn't think about that until Wags pointed out that we missed 26 threes in the post before yours.
The old school record was 38 and https://static.caasports.com/custompage ... /jmu25.htm is the box score from February 7, 2016 when we attempted 38 in a 98-95 overtime loss at James Madison. Despite last night being 5 minutes longer, we attempted 8 fewer field goals last night than in that game, when half of our attempts were threes.

Northeastern has the tiebreaker over Charleston with a head-to-head split and a win over us that Charleston doesn't have. Northeastern just needs 1 win or 1 Charleston loss to get the 2 seed (or 1 if we screw up). If us, Northeastern, and Charleston all win tomorrow, all of them will be locked into their seed. Charleston plays last tomorrow. If us and Northeastern win and Delaware loses, Charleston will be locked into the 3 seed about when they tip-off. They start 2 hours after Delaware.

Nice crowd last night - hope a better crowd Saturday - these seniors deserve a token of appreciation for what they have done this year (and some over 4 years).

If you don't count senior but not last season player Buie, other than JWF we lose a two season player and 2 one season players who have 441 points at Hofstra combined including Wormley last season.

[HUSID74]

Incredible performance by JT tonight, played an insane 43 minutes against a really tough matchup....The biggest of all being Sanders fouling out as he was a nightmare and wanted the ball more than anyone wearing white.

JT was a beast tonight he saved our bacon on a bad shooting night. Sanders was great, 6 offensive rebounds, he had a huge impact on the outcome, once he fouled out, we had it in the bag.

We let Towson play their game tonight. They gave us the perimeter and pretty much said, "If you hit your shots, we're taking the L." Unfortunately we struggled until OT. 40 3 point attempts has to be close to a school record. From there, Dobbs did his thing, and they bullied us inside, specifically Sanders. If we don't have JT, I think we lose that game by a considerable margin. Dottin did a good job slowing JWF down too, tough shooting day, but impressed with the frosh overall. Towson plays well in close games or when sitting on the lead because they suck the air out of the ball, and rebound well.

We never really had an opportunity to extend a lead in regulation, if we could have gotten a 2-3 possession lead at any point, I think we could have put Towson away fast because when they're forced to shoot the 3, they spread out and lose a bit of their effectiveness on the offensive boards. It would have opened up the transition offense for us as well. The game in Towson could have went just like tonight, but we hit so many shots early in that one, they could never execute their gameplan, and we coasted.

We showed a lot of resilience down the stretch, Ray hit a big 3 to get it going, when we were down 10, Buie hit a big three and some FT, and we got a stop to send it to OT. The first OT was a rollercoaster, but again Buie and Ray hit some big 3's to settle us down. The Sanders foul-out was a dagger, and we did a great job closing out the second overtime. No points allowed. JWF came alive in OT, it wasn't a classic, but 28 points on 11-23 shooting is a big day for most people.

The defense was rough again though, against a poor offensive team. The CAA is prepared for our zone, and the boost we got from Coburn early is gone. Our lack of size is hurting us badly. In regards to a question about our defense in the pregame chalk-talk, Coach Barrett said, "hey if it's not broke, don't fix it." Well, it's pretty busted, especially if Towson's lighting you up. Players and staff have to dig deep and find a new wrinkle for the CAAT.

We're kind of limping to the finish line here, gotta turn it up on JMU Saturday to essentially lock up the regular season, and beat Delaware on March 2 to lock CoC into the third seed. Any win is a good one at this point though, I'll take a gritty win at the end of February any day.

All true, but one thing I don't understand is why they had such poor focus and concentration and such a nonchalant attitude during the walk-through earlier in the day and then had that carry over into the game to dig a hole. You'd expect that from a team in Towson's position, headed for a losing season and a likely quick CAA tourney exit. And you'd expect Hofstra, coming off of an upset loss to the then-last place team in the conference, on the verge of locking up a one seed and only their second CAA regular season title in the 18 years they've been in the league, playing at home, where they're undefeated this season, to be the ones playing with energy, passion and fight. Yet for most of the game it was just the opposite for Towson and Hofstra. Until the end, Towson wanted it more. That's headscratching, but I guess we'll see how they close on Senior Day and then the last two on the road. If they get their old level of focus back and get to 16-2, this approach on Thursday before the game and for much of the game will be forgotten. For right now though, it's puzzling, given what's at stake for them.

Had a cup of coffee with Joe on Tuesday and funny he told me that according to old coach lore one of the toughest things to do is to win at home after beating the same oppoent on the road...that was Towson in a nutshell. Obviously the team beleived, rightly or wrongly, that they could waltz through this one. Instead they had a war and the officials let Towson play their style. I brought a good friend of mine to the game who is a Big Ten and Penn State fan. He said the Big Ten officials would NEVER allow what was going on on the court last night. There was one sequence where Trueheart was THROWN to the floor two times! No call...AMAZING...Yet we won the game in the end...Hopefully lesson learned.

[cactus]

Had a cup of coffee with Joe on Tuesday and funny he told me that according to old coach lore one of the toughest things to do is to win at home after beating the same oppoent on the road...that was Towson in a nutshell. Obviously the team beleived, rightly or wrongly, that they could waltz through this one. Instead they had a war and the officials let Towson play their style. I brought a good friend of mine to the game who is a Big Ten and Penn State fan. He said the Big Ten officials would NEVER allow what was going on on the court last night. There was one sequence where Trueheart was THROWN to the floor two times! No call...AMAZING...Yet we won the game in the end...Hopefully lesson learned.

Have to agree with the refereeing, very frustrating. Not just in this game but the last few it's been exceptionally poor, even for this league's standards.

The overtime period started with an over the back on Pemberton where he got pushed into the first row and no call that changed the whole first overtime. No calls throughout getting mauled on drives to the rim. Multiple incorrect possession calls on out of bounds and they only fixed a few on the monitor.
Missed inbounds violation at the end of the first overtime (a high school referee in front of me was adamant that your entire foot has to be over the line for it to be a violation - so not much promise in the refereeing getting better any time soon)

[Wags]

Had a cup of coffee with Joe on Tuesday and funny he told me that according to old coach lore one of the toughest things to do is to win at home after beating the same oppoent on the road...that was Towson in a nutshell. Obviously the team beleived, rightly or wrongly, that they could waltz through this one. Instead they had a war and the officials let Towson play their style. I brought a good friend of mine to the game who is a Big Ten and Penn State fan. He said the Big Ten officials would NEVER allow what was going on on the court last night. There was one sequence where Trueheart was THROWN to the floor two times! No call...AMAZING...Yet we won the game in the end...Hopefully lesson learned.

Spoke to Joe 1-on-1 about this too, after the postgame. He mentioned the monotony of going through a 28th walkthrough this season. It should be monotonous if you're 10-18 Towson. If you're first-place, 23-5 Hofstra, preparation should be nothing short of exciting, because you can almost taste the regular season title and a 1 seed in the CAA tourney. So to think they could waltz through this one is inexcusable with what they have at stake.

This, from JWF, on the walkthrough earlier in the day, is very concerning at this stage of the season, especially for a team that constantly preaches the mantras "Respect the opponent, respect the game, respect yourselves":

“Our energy was way down. We weren’t talking. The whole aura of the whole walk-through was wrong. That translated to the game."

HOW can that possibly happen when you'e had good chemstry all season, you're coming off only your second loss since Thanksgiving weekend (epsecially, against the last-place team), you're home, where you haven't lost all season, and are trying to hold onto a two-game lead for first place down the stretch?! It's the complete antithesis of the mindset the team should have had for the great position they're in. I don't get it at all. They've worked all year, but if they suddenly think that now entitles them to believe they're better than they are, and they can stop working just as hard now as they had been, they will have a rude awakening and heartbreak yet again in the CAA tourney.

Bottom line is they mailed this one in for about 30 minutes before they finally decided to get serious over the last 20. It wasn't ALL what Towson allowed on the perimeter and took away in the paint which caused Hofstra to take a school-record 40 3-pointers out of 68 shots (58.9%) when they only made 14 of those. A lot of those were with plenty of time on the shot clock. That's settling, that's the mindset of a team that figured it would have some fun trying to go bombs away rather than taking Towson seriously. For most of the game, Towson (going nowhere this season) wanted it way more than the team that's been in first place all year, protecting a long home court winning streak. It should be the other way around in terms of mindset and effort. The fact that it wasn't is mindboggling at this stage of the year, with how hard Hofstra has worked all season to put itself in the good position its in (up two first place with three to play). That's on the players and the staff. Joe said he expects something very different in terms of the approach on Saturday, but it will also be an emotional day, and I saw JWF limping around a bit, looking sore and fatigued (but not injured) with his hand on his back, well after the game last night, after playing all 50 minutes. MUST reset the collective mindset and approach over these final three games before North Charleston. Anything less is as Joe admitted last night is "flirting with disaster." After this amazing season they've had this year, it would be a real shame to throw that all away simply because of something they can easily control - guarding against complacency and overconfidence.

[garyg]

I know guys are tired and a bit beat up but there are 350 other D1 programs that can say the same thing...

[HUSID74]

Had a cup of coffee with Joe on Tuesday and funny he told me that according to old coach lore one of the toughest things to do is to win at home after beating the same oppoent on the road...that was Towson in a nutshell. Obviously the team beleived, rightly or wrongly, that they could waltz through this one. Instead they had a war and the officials let Towson play their style. I brought a good friend of mine to the game who is a Big Ten and Penn State fan. He said the Big Ten officials would NEVER allow what was going on on the court last night. There was one sequence where Trueheart was THROWN to the floor two times! No call...AMAZING...Yet we won the game in the end...Hopefully lesson learned.

Spoke to Joe 1-on-1 about this too, after the postgame. He mentioned the monotony of going through a 28th walkthrough this season. It should be monotonous if you're 10-18 Towson. If you're first-place, 23-5 Hofstra, preparation should be nothing short of exciting, because you can almost taste the regular season title and a 1 seed in the CAA tourney. So to think they could waltz through this one is inexcusable with what they have at stake.

This, from JWF, is very concerning at this stage of the season, especially for a team that constantly preaches the mantras "Respect the opponent, respect the game, respect yourselves":
“Our energy was way down,” Wright-Foreman said. “We weren’t talking. The whole aura of the whole walk-through was wrong. That translated to the game."

Bottom line is they mailed this one in for about 30 minutes before they finally decided to get serious over the last 20. It wasn't ALL what Towson allowed on the perimeter and took away in the paint which caused Hofstra to take a school-record 40 3-pointers out of 68 shots (58.9%) when they only made 14 of those. A lot of those were with plenty of time on the shot clock. That's settling, that's the mindset of a team that figured it would have some fun trying to go bombs away rather than taking Towson seriously. For most of the game, Towson (going nowhere this season) wanted it way more than the team that's been in first place all year, protecting a long home court winning streak. It should be the other way around in terms of mindset and effort. The fact that it wasn't is mindboggling at this stage of the year, with how hard Hofstra has worked all season to put itself in the good position its in (up two first place with three to play). That's on the players and the staff. Joe said he expects something very different in terms of the approach on Saturday, but it will also be an emotional day, and I saw JWF limping around a bit, looking sore and fatigued (but not injured) with his hand on his back, well after the game last night, after playing all 50 minutes. MUST reset the collective mindset and approach over these final three games before North Chalreston. Anything less is as Joe admitted last night is "flirting with disaster." After this amazing season they've had this year, it would be a real shame to throw that all away simply because of something they can easily control - guarding against complacency and overconfidence.

Wags totally agree with you from an intellectual standpoint but from an athletic standpoint it is not that easy...the season becomes a grind, sometimes a monotonous grind and these are kids...They spanked Towson away and they expected they could do the same on their home court...that's sports and you can't always be "UP" when you want to be or just turn it on...Expect some REAL energy in the building on Saturday however.

[HU87]

We're the #1 team in the conference... every team is going to come into our building bringing their absolute A-games. UNCW's win over us made their season, and Towson/JMU/UD/etc. will have the same mindset. It's our job to be our best every night and pull out W's, period. It's only going to be harder in Charleston.

With that in mind, JM has to know this, has to see that our plays that have worked all season will become less effective over time as opposing teams get smarter and more prepared, and be ready to bring out a second line of plays/approaches/strategy to help us continue to win. I love Joe, but I'm worried about this actually happening.

Contrary to what's being said, I think the difference this year is our depth, specifically of reliable scorers. Yes, JWF will always get us 20+ in some way-- Almost every year, HU has that guy (not trying to minimize JWF contribution, he's easily in the convo for GOAT). This year, we have FIVE other guys (Pemberton, Ray, Buie, Coburn, JT) who can put up 10-15 points or more in any given game.

This was not something our team normally had in the past, and the key really comes down to role players like Ray and Coburn being able to contribute, and JT + Buie holding down our defensive presence.

My point- JM needs to coach his ass off over the next month and our role players need to be ready to step up... that's what makes this team special compared to team's from past years.

[Wags]

Had a cup of coffee with Joe on Tuesday and funny he told me that according to old coach lore one of the toughest things to do is to win at home after beating the same oppoent on the road...that was Towson in a nutshell. Obviously the team beleived, rightly or wrongly, that they could waltz through this one. Instead they had a war and the officials let Towson play their style. I brought a good friend of mine to the game who is a Big Ten and Penn State fan. He said the Big Ten officials would NEVER allow what was going on on the court last night. There was one sequence where Trueheart was THROWN to the floor two times! No call...AMAZING...Yet we won the game in the end...Hopefully lesson learned.

Spoke to Joe 1-on-1 about this too, after the postgame. He mentioned the monotony of going through a 28th walkthrough this season. It should be monotonous if you're 10-18 Towson. If you're first-place, 23-5 Hofstra, preparation should be nothing short of exciting, because you can almost taste the regular season title and a 1 seed in the CAA tourney. So to think they could waltz through this one is inexcusable with what they have at stake.

This, from JWF, is very concerning at this stage of the season, especially for a team that constantly preaches the mantras "Respect the opponent, respect the game, respect yourselves":
“Our energy was way down,” Wright-Foreman said. “We weren’t talking. The whole aura of the whole walk-through was wrong. That translated to the game."

Bottom line is they mailed this one in for about 30 minutes before they finally decided to get serious over the last 20. It wasn't ALL what Towson allowed on the perimeter and took away in the paint which caused Hofstra to take a school-record 40 3-pointers out of 68 shots (58.9%) when they only made 14 of those. A lot of those were with plenty of time on the shot clock. That's settling, that's the mindset of a team that figured it would have some fun trying to go bombs away rather than taking Towson seriously. For most of the game, Towson (going nowhere this season) wanted it way more than the team that's been in first place all year, protecting a long home court winning streak. It should be the other way around in terms of mindset and effort. The fact that it wasn't is mindboggling at this stage of the year, with how hard Hofstra has worked all season to put itself in the good position its in (up two first place with three to play). That's on the players and the staff. Joe said he expects something very different in terms of the approach on Saturday, but it will also be an emotional day, and I saw JWF limping around a bit, looking sore and fatigued (but not injured) with his hand on his back, well after the game last night, after playing all 50 minutes. MUST reset the collective mindset and approach over these final three games before North Chalreston. Anything less is as Joe admitted last night is "flirting with disaster." After this amazing season they've had this year, it would be a real shame to throw that all away simply because of something they can easily control - guarding against complacency and overconfidence.

Wags totally agree with you from an intellectual standpoint but from an athletic standpoint it is not that easy...the season becomes a grind, sometimes a monotonous grind and these are kids...They spanked Towson away and they expected they could do the same on their home court...that's sports and you can't always be "UP" when you want to be or just turn it on...Expect some REAL energy in the building on Saturday however.

I know, that's why I gave the pass for the loss at UNCW last week, especially with UNCW amped up for Senior Night. But to lose that game and not respond with determined focus, and to rather mail it in during the walkthrough and then allow that to carry over for the first 30 minutes of the game last night, isn't the mindset that wins championships. It comes down to... do you REALLY want to win a championship? Do you REALLY want to go to the NCAA tourney? If you do, then yes, you have to get up for the walkthroughs and the games you should get up for. Just like the walkthrough can carry over to the game, what they do now in this home stretch can carry over to the CAA tourney. Can't let all the prior good chemistry and hard work built up over months go to waste at the end here because "it's a long season." It's long for everybody in the league, for everybody in D-I. But only one team in the league can control its destiny to be the 1 seed. Approach the game like it. Play like it. If you preach that "respect the game, respect the opponent" mantra, LIVE it always, not just when you pick and choose.

[Wags]

https://twitter.com/HofstraMBB/status/1 ... 3497835520