Game 21 at James Madison on February 14, 2021 at 2:00 P.M.

[Polito]

Win the damn game. Period.

[Wags]

Hofstra hasn't held an opponent under 73 points in its past five games, not since the home sweep over Towson (71-58 and 74-69).

Especially after yesterday's no-show on D, they need to bring the defense from the start and maintain it for a full 40 minutes today. Even if they go through another offensive lull, missing 8 or 16 shots in a row (though, better not be the latter), they cannot hang their heads. No more excuses. Their offense cannot dictate their level of intensity or their communication on defense. They have to show some pride at that end of the floor and play defense like a team competing for a championship with only five regular-season games left because if it's not now to establish that on a consistent basis, it'll be too late to establish that before they make their next trip to Harrisonburg.

[Hofstra]

No need to watch. We will have an 11 point lead, and lose by 4. Just saved everyone 2 hours. Enjoy your Sunday

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2021 ... dison.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: James Madison." Among teams with every game decided by 18 or fewer points, we have the most games this season. We have had 30 consecutive games decided by 18 or fewer since we won 83-60 at William & Mary on February 1, 2020. We won 17 consecutive games in which we scored 80, with the ends being yesterday and the 104-99 loss hosting JMU on February 23, 2019 when Matt Lewis scored 40 on JWF's Senior Day. "It was the first time the Dutchmen have had nine players score in the first half since a 107-54 win over Division III Rosemont on Dec. 22, 2018 and the first time they’ve had nine players score in the first half against a Division I opponent since a 79-61 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Nov. 9, 2018." Ray has 1,155 points and is 31 behind 21st place Mike Tilley, so Ray will probably end his streak of moving up every game since he reached 1,000 points. Moving into a tie or above a previous tie counts as moving up. He was tied for 38th after he reached 1,000 on December 22, which was our fourteenth most recent game. Cramer's 8 points moved him above Shemiye McLendon in 2010-2011 for the eleventh most by a Hofstra freshman in the CAA. Cramer is 6 behind Nathaniel Lester, who is tenth with 189. 20 freshmen have done that in 20 seasons in the CAA.

https://static.caasports.com/custompage ... M#team.ind has our statistics.

https://static.caasports.com/custompage ... M#team.ind has JMU's statistics.

Statistics links:

Us: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=318717

Northeastern at Towson at 1:00 P.M. http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=325717

Elon at Charleston at 1:00 P.M. http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=318189

[HUSID80]

No need to watch. We will have an 11 point lead, and lose by 4. Just saved everyone 2 hours. Enjoy your Sunday

Unfortunately that is spot on...let's see if we can avoid Ground Hog's Day and change the narrative.

The JMU boards are really crowing as usual...if not for anything else I would like to muzzle them!

[Wags]

Bad start shooting-wise: just 3/14, but the game is tied, 8-8, after a little over 7 minutes.

Have to keep defending no matter how many shots they may miss. That's been a big problem this year. The defensive lulls often happen when the offensive ones happen, causing big opponent runs.

[Wags]

Already two fouls on Burgess by the under-12 timeout (11:13).

15-11, JMU.

HU 4/16 fg
JMU 4/8 fg (3/4 rom 3)

Silverio, Green, Schutte, Ray, Masic on the floor. Can't remember that group on the floor much this year if at all.

[Wags]

Elon up 7 with a little over 7 left in Charleston.
Northeatern down 10 at Towson with a little over 7 left.

Makes today's game even bigger - HU getting help it needs elsewhere, needs to take advantage at JMU today.

JMU up 21-15, now 4/5 from 3 with four different players 1/1 from there. This is what I was afraid of today, since JMU was 7/24 from 3 yesterday. HU got beat up in the paint yesterday, so I was hoping they wouldn't figure: just sure that up today and we'll be okay. No, have to guard the perimeter too, because JMU might even things out from 3 today off of the way the Dukes shot it from there yesterday.

[Polito]

Completely unimpressed with this teams start, poor. Zero inside game, why? This isn't an opponent known for their post play. Ray missing FT's already, Burgess awful, no one making shots, and down of course on the scoreboard.

Just pitiful first few minutes. Shooting nothing but threes, Farrelly c'mon you've got to get your team running real plays for higher % shots. This team has plenty of height to attack the lane.

[Wags]

Been waiting for JMU to fall back Earth this season, but it's looking like being picked 9th in the preseason was way off.

NU about to lose at Towson, so JMU can take over sole possession of first place with a win today.

Looks like JMU really is legit. Of course, HU has also made them look good this weekend.

30-21, Dukes at the under-4 (3:48).

[Hofstra]

With all these ankle injuries maybe they have to replace the hardwood ala Metlife stadium

[Polito]

Eh, whatever about JMU.

HU has completely regressed, awful first half so far. Losing interest. So far it's been terrible shooting, terrible decisions, terrible plan of attack, terrible ball handling, and terrible FT shooting. This group looks pitiful right now. Very disappointed in the players and the staff. There's no reason for this in a game that is a must-win.

Someone needs to wake this program up. This would be where actual leadership comes in, if there is any.

[Wags]

Someone needs to wake this program up. This would be where actual leadership comes in, if there is any.

I think this is where they miss Buie the most.

[Hofstra]

At least we arent waiting for the collapse to happen today. Its still continuing from yesterday. This team is gross. We need Carlos to come in next year.

We have talent, just not enough of it.

[Pride97]

They don’t even look like they want to win - total lack of effort. 22 points in a half?? This is the team that the coaches keep saying are a good shooting team??

Also TO before the last possession - down 8 did MF draw up a play that Ray holds the ball for 15 seconds and passes to Coburn for a contested 3?


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[Wags]

At least we arent waiting for the collapse to happen today. Its still continuing from yesterday. This team is gross. We need Carlos to come in next year.

We have talent, just not enough of it.

I think they have the talent to win the league again this year. But I'm not sure they have the will required to win. They have been a rollercoaster this year with their effort and focus. You can accept a team that always brings it but lacks talent. I'm not sure that's this team right now. I think they're the opposite. Not as talented as last year, but talented enough to win the league again if they could maintain focus. I hate to say it, but it falls on Coburn and Ray the most, because those are supposed to be the two primary leaders this year. But we've seen too much of what we've seen this weekend from them: 28 & 26 yesterday, 0 & 7 in the first half today. Can't win anything when you can't rely game in and game out on your two best scorers and when you can't rely on your defense, game to game, half to half or even media timeout to media timeout.

[Polito]

Embarrassing first half - at least I hope they are embarrassed. Pitiful.

This group is sinking fast.

I've been calling that out all year Wags, not just Buie, but leadership in general. Said it from game 1. Got some flack for jumping the gun a bit, I'll admit I was early with the concern, but sadly I wasn't wrong.

I don't care how many points Ray has or individual accolades, he and TC simply haven't provided the type of leadership a championship team needs. Ray playing poorly, and TC once AGAIN completely disappearing. Just mind boggling and maddening. This is not Sr leadership from champions in any way.

Staff needs to get this program fixed. Right now I see a weak flawed squad with zero fight energy dog proper fundamentals you name it that showed a small burst of becoming something weeks ago and has now been showing themselves to be perhaps just a flash in the pan.

Awful. Wake the hell up, start playing proper ball in the 2nd, and win this game or say goodnight.

[EvanJ]

The leading scorer is Michael Christmas with 8. Going into the game, he averaged 6.1, which was sixth on JMU and eleventh among the teams combined. Our starters, Masic, and seven JMU players played a majority of the half. I don't have a way of finding out, but it must be rare to have thirteen players play a majority of a half. Kante is tied with Terrence Edwards for the most rebounds with 5, and Edwards entered averaging 3.9. Burgess and Lewis have 2 assists and nobody else has more than 1. Ray leads us with 7 points, but he has 4 turnovers. Masic has 3 rebounds. His career-high is 4, which he did in the last two games.

[Wags]

Embarrassing first half - at least I hope they are embarrassed. Pitiful.
I've been calling that out all year Wags, not just Buie, but leadership in general. Said it from game 1. Got some flack for jumping the gun a bit, I'll admit I was early with the concern, but sadly I wasn't wrong.

Yeah, I was with you from that at the start when I said the problem for them is they didn't really have a No. 1 option and the trickle-down problem that would cause. I said it in some thread somewhere early on, that everyone got moved up by default as a result, with the departure of Buie and Pemberton. Ray's not really a No. 1, but had to be. Coburn is really a No. 3 at best, but had to become a No. 2, and so on, throughout the roster. The hope was, they grew into those new roles, and that others would do the same, but that adjustment is still happening at this late stage of the season, so here we are. On the flip side, you have a guy like Cramer, who is probably doing more than should be expected of a freshman, but alone has not enough been enough to mask the fact that Ray and Coburn haven't taken that jump from their prior roles into reliable Nos. 1 & 2, and then down the line.

I guess there's still time (maybe??) but with only 4 1/2 regular-season games left and down 10 in the one that has a half left, is that going to happen in time for the CAA tourney? It could, but not looking good right now.

If they lose this game, Farrelly should start the next practice by not saying a word, then bringing a big full-length mirror to midcourt and have the players get in a straight line, and one by one, take a couple of minutes staring into the mirror to make the point about accountability and that each player on the team literally needs to look in the mirror and reassess whether they're each willing to do all they possibly can in every way to help this team defend its championship.

[Flying Dutchmen]

I don't think the problem is Ray and Coburn, we're missing our HC and we have a bunch of underclassmen playing like underclassmen.