Hofstra vs. Charleston, Sunday, 3/6/22, 8:30 PM

[ZMAN3]

We have Forwards (Dubar and Cramer)- Speedy just won't play them at the same time - instead he plays Cramer as the backup (3rd string) Center- What's wrong with a backline of Dubar, Cramer and either Iyiola or Simmons ? Since there's no depth it can't be used for too long in any game but at least it's worth a try - at least it shouldn't get pounded on the boards.
Throwing a zone was even worse since A) They don't play it, (B) Never get good rebounding from it. This team's heart was never in playing D. In Blue Ribbon Yearbook Speedy said they would play pressing man to man D - they only did when down a bundle and desperate. And as pointed out - Down 20 before a TO - Unheard of! - Cooks was horrendous most of season- Bad shots, bad passes and bad D!
PS-Sorry for rambling

[Wags]

In addition to what we've all already said here, it's also disappointing that having a starting, fifth-year guy (in Ray) and a head coach who went through winning the same tournament two years earlier, seemed to be of no help in this year's tournament. Where was the leadership there?

In sharp contrast, after Hofstra got the deficit from 24 down to seven, and a couple of Charleston players were bickering in the huddle during a timeout, Kelsey said he didn't have to say anything at that point because Meeks stepped in and handled it. 22-9 Charleston run after that point to put the game away.

Hopefully, add that to some of the lessons learned from this.

[ZMAN3]

Rebounds CC 38-19

[stuball888]

All year long this team tried to finesse its way to a win
In other words they are soft

[triplec2195]

I watched this game in its entirety for the first time on replay really give you guys a lot of credit for sticking with it after the horrific first half where clearly we lost this game. We showed some heart in the second half but after we got within 7 it was throwing up a lot of three's and honestly they were good shots but unfortunately not many went in. When I watch this game and try to be analytical there are so many points to be made which in reality have already been made before but aside from the rebounding, shooting efficiency give credit to COC for taking care of the ball with only 13 turnovers(27 last game). The mismatches in the paint due to their height advantage and maybe even athleticism was huge. They had 46 points in the paint to our 30 and second chance points 17 to our 9. Honestly if we had played better in the first half this game might have gone down to the wire but we got what we deserved.

A lot of this loss IMO is on the coaching staff who had a week to get this team ready and failed. Speedy needs to reflect on this loss and move forward as he will and get us some height and rebounders. Maybe some junkyard DOGS??

[joeg1]

We have Forwards (Dubar and Cramer)- Speedy just won't play them at the same time - instead he plays Cramer as the backup (3rd string) Center- What's wrong with a backline of Dubar, Cramer and either Iyiola or Simmons ? Since there's no depth it can't be used for too long in any game but at least it's worth a try - at least it shouldn't get pounded on the boards.
Throwing a zone was even worse since A) They don't play it, (B) Never get good rebounding from it. This team's heart was never in playing D. In Blue Ribbon Yearbook Speedy said they would play pressing man to man D - they only did when down a bundle and desperate. And as pointed out - Down 20 before a TO - Unheard of! - Cooks was horrendous most of season- Bad shots, bad passes and bad D!
PS-Sorry for rambling

Agree 100%. And Ray and Cooks on the floor together does not work. Too small. Both gone next year. Ray had a nice career, just not as good this final season.

[dutchPride86]

This is the 3rd time in 4 seasons that the team has been non-competitive in the conference tournament. I don't remember 18-19 well enough to say if that year was more ran out of gas with no bench or an effort thing but Northeastern destroyed them in the 1st half of that title game. And now 2 years in a row getting blown out as the higher seed... speaks to something larger going on with the program that coaching staff is gonna have to figure out. The more the evidence mounts, the more the 19-20 team feels like the exception.

As for their lineups...Cramer is a 4 and not a 5. If the coaching staff is unwilling to play him with another big and Dubar at the same time next season, I honestly couldn't blame him if he explored the portal.

My ideal lineup for next season:

PG - Estrada
SG - find a 6'4ish lockdown defender who can shoot 35-40% from 3 (ie a better, more consistent, smarter version of Silverio)
G/F- Dubar
PF - Cramer
C - Someone more physically imposing on the defensive end that Bey

But if they want to stay 4 guards with Dubar as the "big" guard I just don't see how Cramer fits...that team is too small and shorts bursts off the bench doesn't best utilize his unique skill set

[Flying Dutchmen]

This years team was dying for a big man who could work off a pick and roll and move the ball from the post. If we have a guy like Rok on this team we could have won the league. No frontcourt presence made us too one dimensional offensively at times, and made us cheat inside defensively, which led us to our worst 3 point defense % in school history.

I like Cramer, but I don't think he's close to healthy. He's also not a good defender, which is why Speedy buried him in the rotation and never really played him at the 4.

For a big portion of the year, I kind of saw the team as lacking identity. Whether we won or lost just depended on how well we shot the 3 ball, there was no other part of the game where the team's play had any impact on the outcome. But I thought the team broke out in the second half of the game at Drexel. We started moving better offensively, and put better defensive possessions together. Ultimately I just felt like Speedy didn't have the players to match the identity he wanted the team to have, they gave it a good ride with what they had, but got exposed and somewhat outcoached by Charleston, who has a better team than their record shows.

Dubar and Estrada are awesome building block players, I hope Carlos stays, maybe Burgess can take the big leap with his jumper his senior year, then just find forwards.

[Wags]

Could have used Kante this year. Shame he decided to leave.

[triplec2195]

This years team was dying for a big man who could work off a pick and roll and move the ball from the post. If we have a guy like Rok on this team we could have won the league. No frontcourt presence made us too one dimensional offensively at times, and made us cheat inside defensively, which led us to our worst 3 point defense % in school history.

I like Cramer, but I don't think he's close to healthy. He's also not a good defender, which is why Speedy buried him in the rotation and never really played him at the 4.

For a big portion of the year, I kind of saw the team as lacking identity. Whether we won or lost just depended on how well we shot the 3 ball, there was no other part of the game where the team's play had any impact on the outcome. But I thought the team broke out in the second half of the game at Drexel. We started moving better offensively, and put better defensive possessions together. Ultimately I just felt like Speedy didn't have the players to match the identity he wanted the team to have, they gave it a good ride with what they had, but got exposed and somewhat outcoached by Charleston, who has a better team than their record shows.

Dubar and Estrada are awesome building block players, I hope Carlos stays, maybe Burgess can take the big leap with his jumper his senior year, then just find forwards.

Nothing personal FD can't say I agree with much here but do agree with this team lacking identity and where our prior teams revolved around a player like JWF this team ran everything thru Estrada. It was much too much of a one on one playbook while too OFTEN THE OTHER 4 PLAYERS WERE ALONG FOR THE RIDE. Just watching him and standing around beyond the perimeter. When the game was on the line they were looking for Estrada(JWF) ALTHOUGH we had plenty of capable players on the floor. It worked most of the time considering our success but it got old and every team we played tried to confine Aaron outside the perimeter. He actually started to struggle as teams made adjustments to him.

As far as the 5 is concerned we got good play from Bey who was relatively solid and could block shots. He played hard and left it on the court. He had weak hands and also missed easy layups all the time but was a plus considering all facets of his game. Simmons helped as well and had good games but couldn't hold onto the ball and found himself in foul trouble a lot in the 1st half but gave us valuable minutes. When you mention ROK I remember a kid who could rebound with the best of them although he had little vertical rise. A lot of us forget how many players went past him to score easy layups without getting contested and what really I remember his stella shooting from the foul line somewhere around 25% so IMO not the answer here I'd rather have the kid who transferred from Purdue(Taylor). He blocked shots and could hit a foul shot. Also I think Cramer is a good defender with his high rise ability and he blocks shots. For the limited minutes he played he had respectable numbers. We should have tried him at the 4 with Dubar playing the 3 as ZMAN stated here. He's such an athletic kid we need to have him on the floor. You bring up the possibility of Burgess finding his jump shot? We would all love to see that but don't think that that's going to happen. We needed a kid who could score at that position and play D. Teams just left Burgess alone not showing him much respect and rightfully so he only shot 22% from beyond. A good defender and an assists guy who had a poor game against Charleston. Maybe instead of Rok we needed Buie on this team??

[HUSID80]

Could have used Kante this year. Shame he decided to leave.

With Kante we would have been a different team IMO...he could have brought us over the top.

[ZMAN3]

I don't know if Cramer is a bad defender - but he's lost at the 5 - giving away weight and size and does try to block everything. If he's the tallest defender out there and goes for the rejection it leaves us decidedly undersized if he doesn't get it. He's just not a 5! Out on the wing he should be able to check any 4's in the CAA. Few if any have his quickness and leaping ability. He could and did collect putbacks on the weak side last year.

[ZMAN3]

Could have used Kante this year. Shame he decided to leave.

With Kante we would have been a different team IMO...he could have brought us over the top.

He definitely would have

[Hof_Judge99]

Cramer and Burgess have entered the transfer portal. Could care less about Burgess but Cramer I thought had some potential.

[Pride97]

Cramer and Burgess have entered the transfer portal. Could care less about Burgess but Cramer I thought had some potential.

Cant say i surprised about either by the way Speedy used them, but would have rather they stayed. We just got worse defensively and less athletic. Not saying they aren't replaceable, but could have been good pieces of next years team.

Speedy has a lot of holes to fill.

[triplec2195]

Cramer and Burgess have entered the transfer portal. Could care less about Burgess but Cramer I thought had some potential.

Cant say i surprised about either by the way Speedy used them, but would have rather they stayed. We just got worse defensively and less athletic. Not saying they aren't replaceable, but could have been good pieces of next years team.

Speedy has a lot of holes to fill.

This does come as a shocker for me especially seeing this early in the morning. I don't so much care about Burgess but he did play a role here but surprised he would try to transfer have to wonder who would would be interested? As for Cramer such potential and the way this school believed in him and let him redshirt. We gave him time to ease back into basketball but at the end of the day everybody wants to play. Where's his next stop?? Hope we start to have pieces of this puzzle in mind because this could start to smell like a rebuild year!

[Wags]

Cramer and Burgess have entered the transfer portal. Could care less about Burgess but Cramer I thought had some potential.

Cant say i surprised about either by the way Speedy used them, but would have rather they stayed. We just got worse defensively and less athletic. Not saying they aren't replaceable, but could have been good pieces of next years team.

Speedy has a lot of holes to fill.

This does come as a shocker for me especially seeing this early in the morning. I don't so much care about Burgess but he did play a role here but surprised he would try to transfer have to wonder who would would be interested? As for Cramer such potential and the way this school believed in him and let him redshirt. We gave him time to ease back into basketball but at the end of the day everybody wants to play. Where's his next stop?? Hope we start to have pieces of this puzzle in mind because this could start to smell like a rebuild year!

Pretty surprised to see this too, especially that these decisions were so immediate, right after the season. They didn't even take time to think about it. Doesn't help the team's defensive issues that one of their best defenders and a guy that got assists on a team that didn't get many (n Burgess) other than Estrada is leaving and Cramer's athleticism and energy that was infectious for the whole team was wasted. Injuries played a part for him, but he overcame that and could have (and should have) been used more after that. Judgment should be reversed on these two decisions thought. These could potentially be significant losses, but let's see how they are replaced and if upgrades are brought in before seeing whether this is bad news or not. At least it helps the team that they made their decisions very early to give the team more time to find good replacements.

[HUSID80]

Surprised by Burgess, he was a starter, unless he feels he will sit next year behind Carlos. Disappointed in Cramer but he's kind of a misfit...not a good enough shooter to play the wing and not big enough to play upfront consistently.

As we have seen so far with Speedy, he has replaced guys with BETTER players...let's see what happens.

You never know, those guys may have been TOLD that their roles would be changed/limited for next year, so they decided to enter the portal.

[cactus]

I get different rules now, but Cramer is more talented than anyone that left during Mihalich's tenure.

[HUSID80]

I get different rules now, but Cramer is more talented than anyone that left during Mihalich's tenure.

True, but what did he give us this year? A few minutes of highlight dunks? He was hurt, had COVID and then didn't play for other reasons unknown to me.
He's a freak athlete yet he can't shoot and is too small to play inside consistently...let's see what happens with recruiting.