Flying Dutchmen Fans

Hofstra looks out of gas. Gonna be tough to hold this for another 10 minutes. Cruz might have to start forcing the issue on offense here

Ref show ruining another CAA game now what a shock.

Unrelated, every team in the CAA has learned how to trap and double off Hofstra's high ball screens. Does Speedy have ANY adjustments?

Well that just might be a wrap for this season. Hard to believe it fell apart so quickly. The effort was there tonight but without DeCady and Victory they just didn't have enough. I really dont even care about the last 20 seconds they had already lost that game regardless of what the score was.

Ultimately this coaching staff failed in 3 ways:

1. Gameplans. The book on Hofstra's offense is out, but they run the same sets over and over and over again even though every coach in the CAA is prepared to stop them now. Also in conference the possessions inside the final minute of games have been ATROCIOUS. Finding German for a corner 3 against Cuse feels like a lifetime ago. While not an issue tonight, they've had some highly questionable defensive strategies as well

2. Built a roster without any frontcourt depth. Is it unfortunate that Hofstra has had a key frontcourt player injured for almost every game of CAA play? Of course. But its inexcusable to not have enough players to be able to withstand missing anyone. Victory's immaturity has also cost the team dearly.

3. Not using their backcourt depth. Cruz is shooting 8-35 over his last 2 games. You're telling me the workload hasnt caught up with him?

Someone care to explain why, on a night that Cruz and German couldn’t hit water from a boat, that Jaeden Roberts only played to foul guys and didn’t get any real action?

This team finds new ways to lose and self-destruct. There seems to be something seriously wrong in that locker room. What a reversal of fortune from the 8 game streak to now.

The five-game losing streak by a total of 19 points.

All nine losses this season by a total of 38 points, none by more than eight points (4.2 average).

Suggests that they should have been good enough to avoid many of those losses if they could've made the right adjustments and just found a way (like they did at Syracuse, like they did against Monmouth in OT, like Charleston did tonight).

Might be even more frustrating than last season. Hopefully they can figure it out in the second half and peak at the right time, but this feels like it's spiraling right now.

RainDelay wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 10:20 pm Someone care to explain why, on a night that Cruz and German couldn’t hit water from a boat, that Jaeden Roberts only played to foul guys and didn’t get any real action?

Wish I could. Ya think they could've used a couple 3s from him with Davis and Plotnikov not shooting well? And with Davis playing all 40 yet again? That may have been enough to pull out yet another close loss.

We lost this game right after that ridiculous flagrant 3 on Victory. What a SH---T call and there were several others...Silas getting a third foul as soon as the second half started, etc.
Agree that Cruz should have sat down for a bit to give Roberts a shot...he has been instant offense but our weakness was upfront with Victory and DeCady out.
As for our offense ALL TEAMS run some basic sets as we do....and then with variations as we do...we don't have the depth to run full or even half court defenses but we have on occasion run some zone like Charleston did to us with a change up 1-3-1 that resulted in several blocksfor them.
Right now we are wounded and we look tired...hopefully Speedy gives other guys some run Saturday at Monmouth.
And yes, Alex gave us some good minutes.

Couldn't believe that was a flagrant, and yeah, it was a big factor, especially when Reeves got going for them in the second half. Victory's size and athleticism, both of which Reeves had, and which hurt Hofstra a lot in the second half, might've slowed Reeves down enough to get the win. Counter (20) and Reeves (14) combined for 34 of Charleston's 43 second-half points and together, matched Hofstra's 34 second-half points. So, if Victory were available, Counter might not have had enough help in the second half. Counter and the Lion's Den were shouting at each other after the final buzzer.

But, as much as that hurt, they simply couldn't shoot, and that's where they really lost the game. They were moving the ball better and getting open looks early (they started 10/19 in taking the 24-14 lead), then that disappeared in favor of becoming too stagnant and going one-on-one too much. Sometimes, they did move it well to the corners or to the wings, and simply missed a decent look. They finished just 16/59 (27.1%) after that 10/19 start.

After the game-high lead at 40-29, they let CofC hang around instead of putting them away (that's when they could've used some buckets from Davis or from Plotnikov). I felt at 42-36, that it was going to slip away (because we saw that movie on repeat last year and we're seeing the sequel this year). That's when Charleston started picking up their energy offensively, getting second chances, getting to the line a lot more than Hofstra did, and Hofstra just started feeling out of sync offensively, and the offense dried up. The next thing you know, it was 47-47, and once Charleston got over that hump and completely erased the 11-point deficit, you could just sense they would go on a run and take a lead they wouldn't relinquish, and that's exactly what they did (shades of last year, unfortunately).

And, okay, I admit now, I was wrong about German needing more shots. He was almost as off (3/13) as he was at Stony Brook (3/16). Or maybe he just need the right shots, although many of the misses seemed to be pretty good looks, he just misfired.

Spoke to Mack after the game, and before he talked about stopping Davis, he said Davis got much better this year. He said they would force him to his right and cause him some problems with that last year, but they weren't able to do that as much last night. He said they would often put two guys on him when he had the ball, and he said they did a good job of not allowing Davis to turn the corner and get past them. Credit to Charleston's D. They made it very tough on Davis. I felt he was sort of under duress all game, to get the ball, and even more so once he had it. Charleston was generally just very active and aggressive and made it difficult for Hofstra to get many looks (except for Edmead in the second half) during that 16/59 stretch, following the good start. But Hofstra also has to find a way to counter that so Counter & Reeves couldn't counter-punch them (sorry for the puns but it's true).

p.s. Weird how that 3/16 keeps coming up. Like I said above, German at Stony Brook, Charleston started 3/16 last night, Cruz was 3/16 last night, and Cruz is 3/16 from 3 over his last two games.

p.s.s. As Jerry Beach and I were commenting to each other, the game had a Mack winning at The Mack, a Reeves on one team and a Reaves on the other, and two types of cats (Cougars and Pride) going at each other before Mack fittingly said that the Charleston was ready for Hofstra to play desperate, "like stray cats," with Charleston "scratching" out a close win.

Obviously the double teams are hurting Cruz not to mention the overuse. Don't know if anyone noticed Cruz playing with tape on his shooting hand. Tsynk played hard, ran out of gas but he smoked a number of layups which hurt. Edmead is a solid offensive player but Roberts and Ed need to put on some pounds because they are getting torched physically - especially Roberts which is probably the reason he doesn't play much. Plot's shot is flat too many times - when he puts some arc on it is when he makes them. As pointed out that might have been a flagrant but certainly not an F2. Don't know what happened to Victory but his game has gone right in the shitter.

ZMAN3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:40 pm Obviously the double teams are hurting Cruz not to mention the overuse. Don't know if anyone noticed Cruz playing with tape on his shooting hand. Tsynk played hard, ran out of gas but he smoked a number of layups which hurt. Edmead is a solid offensive player but Roberts and Ed need to put on some pounds because they are getting torched physically - especially Roberts which is probably the reason he doesn't play much. Plot's shot is flat too many times - when he puts some arc on it is when he makes them. As pointed out that might have been a flagrant but certainly not an F2. Don't know what happened to Victory but his game has gone right in the shitter.

Was literally typing up something about Victory as you posted this, so just to expand on your point on him...

Intentional or not, Victory hit a kid in the face with a closed fist. Can argue how can you tell intent for a flagrant 2 there when they were battling for a rebound, but it was gonna be a flagrant 1 at least no matter what.

With that, Victory has now either fouled out or been ejected in 5 of their last 7 games. He's been disqualified one way or another in 12 minutes or less in 3 of the last 4 games, with 0 total points in those 3 games.

He attempted 4+ shots in 10 of 13 non conference games. Hes attempted 4+ shots just twice in 9 conference games (and only once over the last 7).

Ive found him to show a lot of immaturity, from his body language it seems like opposing players, fans, and refs all get in his head very easily. Maybe the lack of touches on offense has frustrated him as well. At any rate, the coaching staff has failed to develop him and its another major reason this season has fallen off a cliff

Wags wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 4:03 pm

Jojogunne wrote: ↑Thu Jan 29, 2026 1:52 pm I don't know what the record is this year, but it appears that most CAA teams do much better at home than on the road.

Your feeling is correct, Jojo, for actually every CAA team so far this year:

UNCW 11-1, 7-2
CofC 9-2, 2-4
W&M 9-0, 3-6
Hofstra 5-1, 6-7
Drexel 8-2, 2-7
Hampton 7-1, 2-7
Elon 7-4, 5-5
Stony Brook 9-2, 2-6
Monmouth 6-3, 3-7
Towson 7-2, 2-7
Campbell 7-1, 1-11
NC A&T 6-3, 3-6
Northeastern 2-5, 3-9

I think this is almost always the case each year, but it may be even more pronounced for some teams this year. Of course, the above is for the whole season, not CAA play only, and a lot of teams play some weaker opponents at home early in the season. I haven't checked, but it would be interesting to see the same kind of breakdown for CAA play only (cue Evan?).

Including yesterday's games, home teams are 39-20 (.661), which is the fifth highest of 31 conferences. Last season the CAA was ninth at .619. https://kenpom.com/conf.php?c=CAA has that is you pay $24.95 per year.

dutchPride86 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:50 pm

ZMAN3 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 30, 2026 12:40 pm Obviously the double teams are hurting Cruz not to mention the overuse. Don't know if anyone noticed Cruz playing with tape on his shooting hand. Tsynk played hard, ran out of gas but he smoked a number of layups which hurt. Edmead is a solid offensive player but Roberts and Ed need to put on some pounds because they are getting torched physically - especially Roberts which is probably the reason he doesn't play much. Plot's shot is flat too many times - when he puts some arc on it is when he makes them. As pointed out that might have been a flagrant but certainly not an F2. Don't know what happened to Victory but his game has gone right in the shitter.

Was literally typing up something about Victory as you posted this, so just to expand on your point on him...

Intentional or not, Victory hit a kid in the face with a closed fist. Can argue how can you tell intent for a flagrant 2 there when they were battling for a rebound, but it was gonna be a flagrant 1 at least no matter what.

With that, Victory has now either fouled out or been ejected in 5 of their last 7 games. He's been disqualified one way or another in 12 minutes or less in 3 of the last 4 games, with 0 total points in those 3 games.

He attempted 4+ shots in 10 of 13 non conference games. Hes attempted 4+ shots just twice in 9 conference games (and only once over the last 7).

Ive found him to show a lot of immaturity, from his body language it seems like opposing players, fans, and refs all get in his head very easily. Maybe the lack of touches on offense has frustrated him as well. At any rate, the coaching staff has failed to develop him and its another major reason this season has fallen off a cliff

ZMAN and dutchPride both brought up some really good points.



CRUZ is obviously dealing with an injury, since his left-hand fingers have been taped for several games. That looks like his main problem. Now, opponents are doubling him before our bigs can set a pick, which leaves our bigs open down low. Unfortunately, our bigs missed a lot of those easy shots last game.



VICTORY has played 18 minutes in three of the last four games, not counting the W&M game, before fouling out or getting disqualified. With our frontcourt bench so short—especially since Biggie, German, and DeCady have all been out during the losing streak—it’s been hard to manage. I had high hopes for him because he’s big and athletic, but his slow development and body language have been frustrating.



BIGGIE, GERMAN, and DeCADY might not be our stars, but we really need all of them. We lose a lot whenever even one of them is out.



EDMEAD and ROBERTS are both on the smaller side, and I’m not sure how much more muscle they can put on. I never doubt their effort, but I did notice ROBERT seemed a bit frustrated from his body language last game. Opponents definitely take advantage of their size on both ends of the court.



We really need to turn things around, and soon.

DP86, spot on with those 3 points. 100%.

Some will not like this, but IMHO we have a Speedy problem in this program. We will ride his great recruiting and scheduling, but suffer with his poor game coaching and roster management.

This will largely produce what we’ve seen since the start - double digit wins and top 4 spots most years with the 1-2 “name” wins… and between 0-1 NCAATs in his career here.

His legacy thus far is ‘close but not quite’. Thought he turned a corner this year but nope. Still the same.

I really do hope he figures it out cuz he’s all we’re gonna have until he moves on. Pulling for him - just highly skeptical based on the current evidence. Gonna need more than the excuses and all the lip service every year. Show me state.

Jerry Beach wrote that Edmead became our first freshman to have at least 10 points, at least 7 rebounds, and at least 7 assists since Chaz Williams had 20 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists in a 75-64 win hosting Drexel on Feb. 10, 2010. Charles Jenkins and Antoine Agudio did not have any games with at least 10 points, at least 6 rebounds, and at least 6 assists as freshmen. Loren Stokes had 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists in an 84-76 loss at George Mason on January 14, 2004; and 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists in a 66-51 win hosting Virginia Commonwealth on January 5, 2004.