MBB Game 20 @NC A&T, Jan 22 (Thu) 7 PM

[Pbdutch]

WTF. This is EMBARRASSING. Are we serious right now. I’m like sick to my stomach over this garbage

[Hofstra]

This is pathetic. Season turning into another dumpster fire. To blow a 13 point halftime lead is inexcusable. The team has no fire in them. No adjustments, so hard to watch this.

[mikey75]

Disgusting. Pathetic. I guess you can't coach character.

[Hofstra]

Disgusting. Pathetic. I guess you can't coach character.

Unsure we have a coach that can even coach basketball at this point.

[RainDelay]

That was straight up atrocious. Blowing that to an 0-6 team? Horrible!

[triplec2195]

Thank God for Roberts in this game or we would have been blown out. They went to the FT line 35X to our 20 take away what you will from that and clearly we would have been better off with Plotnikoff in this game assuming he would have been playing for Biggie who shot 1-10, 0-7 with 2 rebounds.Maybe just all that inactivity but he hurt us!!

[RainDelay]

Biggie and Victory net negatives out there right now, there’s a lot of resetting to do.

[Pbdutch]

IM SO LIVID over this. Where is Polito so we can gather his thoughts. I’ve had it with this. I can get in to the details at a later time if you guys want to hear, but Hofstra is and has invested money into our men’s bball program whether you want to believe it or not. I’ve had communications with a former coach of an opponent.

And at this point, if you blow games like this and lose to stony brook (Elon is a decent team) then this is on the coaching and it starts from the top. I love speedy, but let’s be real here. He needs to step up and get these guys playing and fighting till the end. This is why I’ve constantly said speedy needs to tell these kids to slit the opponents throats and suffocate them until they can’t breathe. Domination is what’s needed and he can’t get that through to them. He’s a friend to these guys and this isn’t coaching. I’m out. I’ve had it. I’ll check back in for the CAA tourney but I can’t handle this shit anymore

[triplec2195]

They killed us on the boards with 45 rebounds to our 30 getting 16 O rebounds. Too many second chances. Just inexcusable.

[dutchPride86]

I dont want to hear anything about the officiating, Biggie being rusty, or German being out. That was a straight choke job. Team showing an alarming level of immaturity and coaching severely lacking right now. Also Victory has to get his head out of his you know where, really really miss his production.

Season just about on life support, esp if (and when the way theyre playing) they lose to W&M on Saturday. Maybe that 8th place preseason ranking wasn't so crazy. If this continues to spiral, it could quickly be time to have some uncomfortable conversations about Speedy.

[RainDelay]

It’s all so surprising based off what we’ve seen from this team and what we know they can be capable of. That’s the difference between this year and last - last year’s team never had the flashes of brilliance. Very frustrating but this should never have been a loss, let alone close.

[RainDelay]

Side note: Victory has 10 fouls in his last 16 minutes.

[cactus]

I saw a second half struggle coming, points came way too easy in the first half. But did not expect them to lose, damn.

[dutchPride86]

Side note: Victory has 10 fouls in his last 16 minutes.

Ill take this one step further. Victory has fouled out of 4 of the last 5 games. In the 7 conference games he is averaging all of 3 ppg. Over the last 5 games he has 9 total points and 23 fouls. This guy was almost averaging a double double in non conference. They have to get him right if there's any hope of digging out of this

[Wags]

This may be the most disappointing loss in a game they should've won easily since the season opener against San Jose State six years ago. One thing about that is that team went on to win the CAA tournament. The CAA is SO unpredictable and there is a LOT of ball left, so if they can somehow get back to how they WERE playing rather than the bad ball they've shown over the last six games with exception of only four good halves (the first half at Drexel, the whole game at Towson, and the first half, offensively anyway, tonight), there is still plenty of time to right the ship and contend. That's not just glass half-full, it's reality in the CAA, with the ups and downs for every team in the conference.

Now the glass half-empty, which is also reality: HOW can you possibly lose to the lone team that was previously winless in conference play when you have a 30-point scorer and two 20-point scorers, AND a 15-point lead just before halftime?! If anyone had said that before the game, it would have been unfathomable against most CAA teams, but especially against a last-place team without a conference win!

But this is what happens when only three guys are basically doing all of your scoring. Of COURSE the body language was bad! Why wouldn't it be when 51 of the 53 first-half points and 70 of the 78 were scored by three guys? You have to involve other players more and keep them engaged if you want to have a good TEAM.

NC A&T adjusted after the first half, and limited the three who hurt them in the first (because, why wouldn't they, when they can key on them with on one else scoring?) and there was just no counter-adjustment. That's on the staff in the second half and I hope they can take some ownership of that and learn from it.

But even with all of that, that's not often what they do - that was more rare tonight as far as the severe scoring distribution, with basically only three guys. And 78 should always be enough against a team like NC A&T. They lost the game just as much, if not more so, defensively. Their D was really solid when they were winning, and although we've seen offensive struggles at times over these last six games, their defense has slipped more, and it did tonight. Can't allow 40 and 39 to a team like NC A&T, which just had trouble scoring at Hampton on Monday. 15 more FTA, where the Aggies made nine more. Move feet, communicate, play D as a unit, and don't send your opponent to the line so much, with three guys fouling out, including both centers - speaking of which: Victory fouling out in just 11 mins. He has only played 20, 16, 29, 5, and 12 min in the past five games and has fouled out in four of them!

As Speedy said, they'll have trouble beating anyone getting outrebounded as they did. But again, when both your centers, who had almost half (14 of 30) of your rebounds, can't stay on the floor and both foul out (though they did play a full 40 min between them), and then you have a second starter (DeCady) foul out in 24 min, and you're also down Plotnikov, it doesn't give Speedy many options to put a big enough lineup out there to get enough rebounds over the course of the game.

And why is Biggie, first game back after being out, able to go 1/10 including 0/7 from 3 in 25 min when Edmead and Roberts are a combined 10/15 from 3? Limit him when he's missing and get the ball to the guys who are hot. It seems that's something we have to keep saying in general, even in past years. But, recognize the hot hands and ride them until they cool off. Yes, as I said above, you want to engage more people so it's not all on 2-3 guys, but you can't also keep firing away when you don't have it at the expense of others who were feeling it.

The worst part is they missed a golden opportunity to get within a game of 1st place (with UNCW losing its first CAA game), and to stay within that top tier along with UNCW and Charleston. Instead, they fall into a muddled mix of nine teams that are all within a game of each other, in that next tier down.

This is not good either. Suddenly...

Start: Hofstra 4-0, Towson 0-4, Stony Brook 1-4
Now: Hofstra 4-3, Towson 4-4, Stony Brook 4-4

[HUSID74]

So everyone couldn't wait to get Biggie back...and he hurt us badly. Plotnikov is a glue guy and we missed him badly last night....we STILL SHOUD HAVE WON THIS GAME HANDILY...this team is flawed as once again, it relies on guard throwing up threes to win...I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in this team after such a promising start.

[triplec2195]

So everyone couldn't wait to get Biggie back...and he hurt us badly. Plotnikov is a glue guy and we missed him badly last night....we STILL SHOUD HAVE WON THIS GAME HANDILY...this team is flawed as once again, it relies on guard throwing up threes to win...I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in this team after such a promising start.

Absolutely at least in this game I'm sure German would have had a better line then 1-10 so everyone clamored for Biggie but to be fair he hadn't played in a while and most of his shots were short. Yes he had a bad game and yes he hurt the team but he deserves at least a pass of sorts. He's not the sole reason we lost this game so in a 1 point loss if you want to put it under a microscope you could look at missed free throws etc. Just no excuse for losing this one it hurts!!

[Wags]

So everyone couldn't wait to get Biggie back...and he hurt us badly. Plotnikov is a glue guy and we missed him badly last night....we STILL SHOUD HAVE WON THIS GAME HANDILY...this team is flawed as once again, it relies on guard throwing up threes to win...I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in this team after such a promising start.

I was one of those. I'm surprised. He didn't even rebound (2 in 25 min), and they desperately needed that last night. At least do that if you're chucking and missing 3s. We did miss Plotnikov, but he too, went 3/16 at Stony Brook, so who knows at this point?

I said above the worst thing was missing a chance to gain on UNCW and remain with them and Charleston in that top tier. I'll revise - even worse than that is the way they got up 15 and blew this by one late against an inferior opponent, it looked a lot like last year. I thought with the departures from last year and the new mix of guys along with last year's carry-overs, they were past that. But here we are again. Hopefully, that's the last one. They really can't afford another.

I asked DePaoli after the Elon loss if Biggie being out had affected roles down the line. He didn't think so then, but Speedy mentioned last night, not having a full team has affected roles in that way. And we do know that when Biggie and German, along with everyone else, were all healthy, they were playing a lot better. So maybe if German comes back soon, and everyone else remains healthy, they can all settle into their roles and get back to how they were playing before. But if German's not ready soon, they can't wait for that. The schedule won't wait for them and they have to find a way regardless.

[Wags]

So everyone couldn't wait to get Biggie back...and he hurt us badly. Plotnikov is a glue guy and we missed him badly last night....we STILL SHOUD HAVE WON THIS GAME HANDILY...this team is flawed as once again, it relies on guard throwing up threes to win...I'm VERY DISAPPOINTED in this team after such a promising start.

Absolutely at least in this game I'm sure German would have had a better line then 1-10 so everyone clamored for Biggie but to be fair he hadn't played in a while and most of his shots were short. Yes he had a bad game and yes he hurt the team but he deserves at least a pass of sorts. He's not the sole reason we lost this game so in a 1 point loss if you want to put it under a microscope you could look at missed free throws etc. Just no excuse for losing this one it hurts!!

Hate to mention Davis with how great he's generally been this year, but this is what I was saying after the Elon loss about his streakiness and how I said then, I'd rather he go 4/8 and then 5/9 with others getting opportunities in between than him going, as he did in the second half against Elon, 8/9 and then closing 1/8 in a close loss. Once again last night, 8/12 in the first half but then just 2/10 in the second half. That 2/10 hurt almost as much as Biggie's 1/10 overall, but it's not noticed as much because of his big first half. He just needs to be more consistent and less streaky, even if the total points are the same. I think that would open it up more for others.

[Mikey77]

This loss is the most disheartening loss that i can remember. I am frankly livid about it. This team went from beating the likes of
Pitt, Syracuse, Penn, Towson all on the road, to perhaps another lost season. This really cannot be explained and this coaching staff has a lot to answer for in my view.