MBB @ W&M 2/11 7pm

[Flying Dutchmen]

MUST WIN GAME!

In all honesty, it's not anymore, but I think it would be good for the team's confidence to just close out a game the right way. I think this team has the capability to take care of business in Baltimore, we've proven that we can take double-digit leads on every team late into the game.

The bright spot in these last two games is that in the limited minutes JWF and Walker have received, they have looked pretty good! Wright-Foreman is a great athlete, and you can just see his confidence improving every game. I think Walker has gotten more aggressive, and I've been impressed with his athleticism as well. I know a lot of people believe Walker will leave after the season, but I think that would be a big mistake for him, he can be an elite shot-blocker on the CAA level, and with Buie feeding him the ball, he will have big offensive games.

I know he never will, but Joe should consider slightly modifying the offense and get Rok and Walker out there at the same time when opponents put a big lineup on the court. Both guys run the floor very well for their size, but maybe that's more of something the staff could work on for next season.

[ProudofPride]

We should be ok if JAM remembers that we have a bench in the 2nd half of the game. Also, Gustys again needs to assert his dominance over the man bun, just like he did at the game in Hempstead. Hopefully the whole team comes out with some fire, still mad about the last 2 results. A big win tomorrow would be a nice confidence booster.
I agree about Walker being an elite shot-blocker. In his first collegiate game, last year's home opener, he had 6 blocks. Granted, that was against much lesser competition, but that was his college debut. As he plays more and gets more comfortable, he could eventually be a force in the paint. Also, Rokas Gustys did an interview with WRHU a few weeks ago, and said a lot of what has helped with develop so much in a relatively short amount of time was working with Coach Akbar Waheed. He should be helping to develop Andre as well, not necessarily to the extent of being another RG, but to at least be a very serviceable big man.

[stuball888]

I am hoping that AW stays. There are enough teams out there that can use a player like Andre. I can see a couple of local teams making a play for him if he decides to leave.

[garyg]

I have posted before that I really believe AW can be a significant contributor in his JR and SR years meaning he should definitely be part of rotation

[HUSID80]

I am hoping that AW stays. There are enough teams out there that can use a player like Andre. I can see a couple of local teams making a play for him if he decides to leave.

Stu you said the other day that Walker was with his GIRLFRIEND....if she is a Hofstra student he will stay....there was speculation about leaving last year as well...maybe he just likes it here and if he were to leave he would probably go someplace near home in Maryland...I vote he stays.

[stuball888]

We all want him to stay but wasnt he a three star recruit. Look if I am a three star recruit and getting in my soph year what amounts to walk-on minutes I would look at all my options.

[Polito]

I like your style FD lol - every game title from here on out is MUST-WIN!!

Even if all else fails, I want HU to demolish the little napoleons Every time. EVERY TIME. Even if it was the only win of the season, that would still feel great (I jest, I jest... sorta)

How amazing, JWF and AW get more PT and like magic they start to improve and show some ability - who would've thunk it?!?!?! Sometimes I feel like I've been posting on some alternate universe forum all season... or that I'm taking crazy pills!

As much as it infuriates me that it's taken nearly the entire season for JM to realize his mistakes with bench use, because I've been saying it since friggin NOVEMBER, I am very thankful the man has seen the light, admitted it to the fans, and taken accountability for it - that right there is a stand up guy, and a class act - even though I'm pissed at the blown games, I have a lot of appreciation and respect for JM and his staff - no staff is perfect, very glad to have them

I only hope his statements will pipe down the insane back and forth on this topic - there is NO discussion anymore, the facts are right there from the HC's mouth:
- The bench needs to be used more and used properly
- RG is DOMINANT and needs to be used throughout the game

If in fact AW finally receives real PT and is used the right way, then I would agree he should and would stay - he would be a super compliment to RG and HS

Anyhoo, I expect W&M to come out swinging this game - RG needs to dominate, and be allowed to do so in the gameplan - he has become the best big in the league (a true first for HU), and IMO is becoming unstoppable - play like it, use it, go BEAST MODE with him

Loved what we saw from BB against JMU, I want MORE - drive baby drive, and mix in a handful of deep 3's, and boom you are right back to the player you should be and are fully capable of being - that OOC guy that can take over games, and WIN them.

Shaver is a good coach, I would expect them to come out with a better game plan this time - let's play the bench guys early, exploit the man-beast RG, shoot well, and defend like a mother

A W here would do this team WELL. And all of us!

[Flying Dutchmen]

William and Mary is a much better matchup for us this year now that Thornton graduated. Besides for Prewitt, maybe Cohn, I don't think their scorers are particularly dynamic. Good shooters? Yes, just that they don't have many guys that I feel can endlessly attack our zone like UNCW did last week. More importantly, I don't think they're a great defensive team either, we murder zone defenses. Probably because that's what the team sees in practice all day.

Not trying to take a shot at W&M at all, they can get on fire and blow us out just like what we did to them, but I do believe we have the matchup advantage due to Rok and Green.

I liked what Bernardi was doing as well on Sunday, he was driving with more authority, but it's not his forte'. Some of those shots were very lucky to drop, and have not dropped all year. He needs to continue to get out of his three-point shooting funk, it opens so much up for our offense. If Bernardi and Tank are hitting some shots, Juan'ya becomes this maestro, who goes on epic stretches of making the right decision with the ball, getting easy looks for everyone.

I still have a lot of faith in this team to overcome the issues, but the Coaching Staff needs to do something, whether it be more personnel early, or different personnel late, or just don't take the foot off the pedal at all late. Let's take care of business on the road this weekend! 3 of our last 4 are at home, and we can finish 14-4 and still get the regular season title!!

[Jojogunne]

We need to bring our "A game" tonight, coaches as well as players. Can't afford to lose another close one.

[dutchalum01]

I feel like this is a make or break game for our players mentality down the stretch here. Win on the road and it will give us the boost we need for in Baltimore.

[Polito]

This is no doubt a MUST-WIN game... for the COACHING STAFF

I get the players play the game and need to execute - but they also need to be put in a position to win - that is the job of the coaches - and I don't think there's any question at this point they directly contributed to, and made decisions resulting in, the complete choke jobs the last 2 huge games - it's time to redeem themselves and coach this team to a big road W.

Let's get that mean mug on and go out there and bury the opponent.

[Wags]

Will be interesting to see which HU team shows up tonight -- the one that trailed W&M by two with about 15 minutes left in Hempstead a few weeks ago?

Or the one that closed 45-15 from that point and beat W&M by 28?

Can be be somewhere in between, as long as it's a W.

[HUSID80]

The W&M board guys are crowing like they never lost to us by more than 20 two weeks ago. They are delusional and it makes me want to beat them BADLY.

What excuses will they come up with if we beat them twice?

[ProudofPride]

The W&M board guys are crowing like they never lost to us by more than 20 two weeks ago. They are delusional and it makes me want to beat them BADLY.

What excuses will they come up with if we beat them twice?

They're more than delusional. I couldn't help but laugh when the NIT projection was posted here in another thread yesterday, and has William and Mary in it, with the same seeding as we have (5), since they act like they're so superior and they think they deserve an at-large bid for having no top 50 wins and losing to Howard. They have a coach that has been there for 13 years, has been to the NIT twice and never to the NCAA tournament with a division 1 team.

But anyway, their style of plays works well for us this year since they don't have a dominant big man, at least compared to Rokas. They don't tend to force turnovers, which helps us. That's part of what caused us to lose a big lead against UNCW. We also have more scorers than they do, so we're harder for them to guard since no one can be left open. If we limit Omar Prewitt's touches, that eliminates their biggest threat. With us, it's more of a "pick your poison" type of thing. If they guard the perimeter, we can just get the ball inside to Gustys and score, but if they try to stop him, everyone on the outside will score. If Brian Bernardi continues his great performance that he had at JMU, and everyone is playing as well as we know they can, we should be able to win again.

Btw, Vegas has W&M favored by 3. Apparently they missed the score of the previous meeting as well.

[Wags]

The W&M board guys are crowing like they never lost to us by more than 20 two weeks ago. They are delusional and it makes me want to beat them BADLY.

What excuses will they come up with if we beat them twice?

They're more than delusional. I couldn't help but laugh when the NIT projection was posted here in another thread yesterday, and has William and Mary in it, with the same seeding as we have (5), since they act like they're so superior and they think they deserve an at-large bid for having no top 50 wins and losing to Howard. They have a coach that has been there for 13 years, has been to the NIT twice and never to the NCAA tournament with a division 1 team.

I believe they're one of only five original D-1 men's teams to have never made the NCAAT. So, wrong fan base to be acting that way.

[Wags]

Don't want to depress anyone ahead of tonight's game, but a couple of very interesting stats from Jerry Beach which don't bode well for Hofstra tonight or the rest of the way:

https://twitter.com/defiantlydutch/stat ... 8498885632
https://twitter.com/defiantlydutch/stat ... 0069244930

Time to start changing these trends FAST.

[EvanJ]

The W&M board guys are crowing like they never lost to us by more than 20 two weeks ago. They are delusional and it makes me want to beat them BADLY.

What excuses will they come up with if we beat them twice?

They're more than delusional. I couldn't help but laugh when the NIT projection was posted here in another thread yesterday, and has William and Mary in it, with the same seeding as we have (5), since they act like they're so superior and they think they deserve an at-large bid for having no top 50 wins and losing to Howard. They have a coach that has been there for 13 years, has been to the NIT twice and never to the NCAA tournament with a division 1 team.

But anyway, their style of plays works well for us this year since they don't have a dominant big man, at least compared to Rokas. They don't tend to force turnovers, which helps us. That's part of what caused us to lose a big lead against UNCW. We also have more scorers than they do, so we're harder for them to guard since no one can be left open. If we limit Omar Prewitt's touches, that eliminates their biggest threat. With us, it's more of a "pick your poison" type of thing. If they guard the perimeter, we can just get the ball inside to Gustys and score, but if they try to stop him, everyone on the outside will score. If Brian Bernardi continues his great performance that he had at JMU, and everyone is playing as well as we know they can, we should be able to win again.

Btw, Vegas has W&M favored by 3. Apparently they missed the score of the previous meeting as well.

William & Mary being favored by 3 at home means Vegas thinks the teams are equal, and so does that NIT projection website. However, William & Mary is 35th in the RPI and Hofstra is 78th.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcas ... islive=hof will have statistics.

[Wags]

The W&M board guys are crowing like they never lost to us by more than 20 two weeks ago. They are delusional and it makes me want to beat them BADLY.

What excuses will they come up with if we beat them twice?

They're more than delusional. I couldn't help but laugh when the NIT projection was posted here in another thread yesterday, and has William and Mary in it, with the same seeding as we have (5), since they act like they're so superior and they think they deserve an at-large bid for having no top 50 wins and losing to Howard. They have a coach that has been there for 13 years, has been to the NIT twice and never to the NCAA tournament with a division 1 team.

But anyway, their style of plays works well for us this year since they don't have a dominant big man, at least compared to Rokas. They don't tend to force turnovers, which helps us. That's part of what caused us to lose a big lead against UNCW. We also have more scorers than they do, so we're harder for them to guard since no one can be left open. If we limit Omar Prewitt's touches, that eliminates their biggest threat. With us, it's more of a "pick your poison" type of thing. If they guard the perimeter, we can just get the ball inside to Gustys and score, but if they try to stop him, everyone on the outside will score. If Brian Bernardi continues his great performance that he had at JMU, and everyone is playing as well as we know they can, we should be able to win again.



Btw, Vegas has W&M favored by 3. Apparently they missed the score of the previous meeting as well.

William & Mary being favored by 3 at home means Vegas thinks the teams are equal, and so does that NIT projection website. However, William & Mary is 35th in the RPI and Hofstra is 78th.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcas ... islive=hof will have statistics.

W&M -3 isn't unreasonable considering the relative RPIs, that W&M is home and 9-3 in the CAA, and HU is 8-4, and that they played pretty even through the first 25 minutes in Hempstead. The last 15 minutes of that game, which were all HU, was an aberration. Vegas doesn't make the odds based on aberrations, they make odds based on the most likely scenario to occur. If these teams played 10 times this year, we'd probably never see anything close to that 15-min. stretch to close the last meeting between these teams. That said, I hope that happens again and that Vegas is very wrong!

W&M could just be a good matchup for Juan'ya. He had one of the best all-around games of his career against them last time: 30 pts, 10/17 fg, 6/9 from 3, 8 reb, 7 ast, and NO to's in 34 min. Wouldn't expect THAT again, but off of that, I would expect at least another very solid outing from him.

[EvanJ]

Hofstra is starting Green, Tanksley, Gustys, Koon, and Bernardi. William & Mary is starting Daniel Dixon (guard), Omar Prewitt (guard), Terry Tarpey (forward), Sean Sheldon (center), and David Cohn (guard). http://www.caasports.com/custompages/st ... m#team.ind has William & Mary's statistics.

[Wags]

W&M scored the first 9 points and leads 10-2.

Hofstra started 1/7 from, the floor with four different guys shooting (and mostly missing). Does anyone STILL think this is a great shooting team?