Hofstra @ UNCW

[Mikey77]

Joe M has lost me. That was a disgrace. That team was not ready to play this game. I'm sure Hofstra is not going to eat his contract but we'll have another 2 or 3 years of this nonsense.

[HUSID74]

just hilarious! Down by 20 with 33 seconds left and JM is arguing foul calls. Is that all he has!

You defend your players...in good and bad times...hoping Justin and Desure are ok...this schedule, on the road Thursday and sat them they get a full week's rest was a prescription for disaster...

Regroup and beat W @ M on Thursday.

[krood]

Most disappointing loss of the season.
Think UNCW showed the difference a crowd makes - they looked like a factor.
Hope we can get that 4th spot by beating WM on Thursday - represent!

[HUSID74]

Joe M has lost me. That was a disgrace. That team was not ready to play this game. I'm sure Hofstra is not going to eat his contract but we'll have another 2 or 3 years of this nonsense.

You've got to be serious, what are you talking about? Not much apparently...So he's coach of the year Thursday and a dog on Sat....do you REALLY THINK THIS LOSS IS ON COACHING? IF YOU DO YOU ARE CLUELESS!

[krood]

Joe M has lost me. That was a disgrace. That team was not ready to play this game. I'm sure Hofstra is not going to eat his contract but we'll have another 2 or 3 years of this nonsense.

Come on Mikey77!!

Disappointing loss, YES!
Sitting 5th with a chance to secure the automatic bye for the tourney.
Still contending for a 20 win season with the top 4 scorer and top 4 rebounder....
Hate to be in the foxhole with U!

[Polito]

krood, you have experience and insight beyond anything I ever will... I need to know from you, and I want the truth - not what you feel obligated to say, the TRUTH:

Do you see JM getting the job done within his contract (3 yrs?) and leading HU to the NCAAT?

I'm not talking about 'chances', that's baloney - we all have a chance to win the mega lotto. I'm talking based on real hoops knowledge, what do you see happening here?

[triplec2195]

Joe M has lost me. That was a disgrace. That team was not ready to play this game. I'm sure Hofstra is not going to eat his contract but we'll have another 2 or 3 years of this nonsense.

Come on Mikey77!!

Disappointing loss, YES!
Sitting 5th with a chance to secure the automatic bye for the tourney.
Still contending for a 20 win season with the top 4 scorer and top 4 rebounder....
Hate to be in the foxhole with U!

This is what drives me crazy from one game to the next. After a win accolades for the coaching staff but if we lose let's have a fire sale and get rid of the coach. We knew we could lose to UNCW in their last game they took NE to O/T on the road. The focus is on W&M now!

[Hofstra]

I mentioned in the last thread people shouldn't let one game influence opinions. This loss sucks, didn't see a single second of the game though, so I don't have much to say tonight. Typical Hofstra loss though.

[Polito]

lol who are all these people you speak of giving the staff awards after a win? We must be on different boards - no denying some of us are tough on the staff win or lose!

But rest easy friends, I spent some great time with HUSID recently, have promised to be more open and enjoy the season so no fire sale from me... YET. If JM goes out this yr like he did last yr, in fiery flames in round 1 against a vastly inferior opponent, then it's time to get truly nasty.

Flip side, if he can lead HU to the CAA title game, I'm good with that regardless of what happens - ONLY because I know this team isn't going dancing. They don't have the consistency to go 3 for 3, BUT they could get to the championship, and that would be great - roll the dice against CofC (likely), give it your best on nat tv, and let chips fall where they may. Either way, at least some positive exposure that may help recruiting.

I actually don't think this game was as huge as a lot of others... even HUSID. Win or lose, UNCW is not a threat to win the CAA IMO - they are in no way better than CofC or NE, and the little napoleons is a push, so I'm not concerned with them. Play again, I think HU gets the win.

But I also think we should calm down with the 5th place 'hype' as if that's something we should be proud of or rally behind with the #4 scorer and rebounder in the nation... that's not a positive guys, it's a major letdown right now.

I absolutely cannot stand the little napoleons and want nothing more than to absolutely annihilate them on Thursday. ANNIHILATE.

[krood]

krood, you have experience and insight beyond anything I ever will... I need to know from you, and I want the truth - not what you feel obligated to say, the TRUTH:

Do you see JM getting the job done within his contract (3 yrs?) and leading HU to the NCAAT?

I'm not talking about 'chances', that's baloney - we all have a chance to win the mega lotto. I'm talking based on real hoops knowledge, what do you see happening here?

At the moment, I'd say CoC is the favorite to win the CAA bid, having beat us twice and playing the conference championship 'on their home court'.

In my opinion, NE coach is Coach of the Year and as we split its a coin flip vs. The Ducthmen.

I'll reserve judgement on W&M until our home game on Thursday.

Frankly, we can beat any of these teams on a given night, but winning 3 in a weekend on CoC home court would be memorable!

Our 76 team beat LaSalle and Temple BTB in The Palestra to win the NCAA-T bid and it will take that type of weekend to get it done- but as Tug said, 'You Gotta Believe"!!

What kills me is those who take our season and this staff for granted.....

We have been in the CAA hunt each year since Green, and were a 3pt shot away from the NCAA-T.

Then, two years later post Green-era, we are back in the hunt with the JWR-era. That's not easy to do my friends!!

[Wags]

This team cannot handle prosperity and doesn't learn from the past.

They were playing well coming into this one and in their most recent half of basketball, gave up 20 second-half points in a 19-point win at Elon on Thursday night.

So what do they do two days later? They allow 48 points in the second half and get blown out by 20.

At what point do they want to win badly enough that they don't simply say it, but actually consistently commit to the type of defensive effort they displayed during that second half at Elon?

As for all that talk here about Rok showing Cacok who's boss after the last meeting with UNCW, and Joe fearing he'd see a different player in this game, well Joe was right... Cacok puts up a game-highs of 25 pts (on 11/13 fg) and 16 rebs.

Those were just the defensive problems. Offensively...

- JWF only 6/17 and Pemberton just 3/11 while Rok (efficient yet again from the field) only gets 8 shots (making 6). A bucket is a bucket, efficiency is efficiency, no matter the source, and Rok is shooting 61.4%. They don't take advantage of that nearly enough, especially when the guards are shooting inefficiently (like JWF and Eli going a combined 9/28 today; when they're off, get a few more of those 28 attempts into the hands of the guy who normally give you over 60% shooting in the paint).

- HU is now under .500 (10-11) when JFW takes >16 shots this season; they're 5-0 when he takes <17 shots.

- Nearly half their shots from 3 (28 of 61), despite making only one-quarter of those (7/28 from 3). Too much settling.

[Dooku25]

This loss didn't really bother me. As I said, this would not be an easy game, and it wasn't. Anyone who follows the CAA since HU joined, knows that UNCW is one of the toughest road games of the year. Throw out team records, they play in front of near sellout crowds each game, and that that was the case last night. Add in that UNCW was fully rested and we were coming off a big win 2 nights prior and it played out exactly how I thought it would. I also knew Cacok would bounce back and play much better than he did in Hempstead.

I thought we came out of the gate strong. Just had a scoring drought at the end of the half. But we played a much better 1st half than we did at Elon. I thought they gave effort on D when it was still a game. I was pleased with their effort on D at Elon, but I wasn't throwing out accolades like others did. I thought it was more Elon playing terrible. They missed tons of open shots. The difference last night was UNCW made their open shots and played with more energy than Elon did, because they had more in the tank on full rest.

I missed the first part of the 2nd half, but saw the JWF and Buie injuries. Definitely thought the season was over when JWF was down on the court. I was thinking here we go again with our Hofstra "luck" but was relieved and surprised to see him reenter the game later on. Hope Buie recovers quickly as well. I thought he played a fantastic game. Picking his spots to score and had great vision with his passing. If he can find that consistency, he is our answer at PG for the next few seasons.

Now.. let's go kick William and Marys ass..

[triplec2195]

lol who are all these people you speak of giving the staff awards after a win? We must be on different boards - no denying some of us are tough on the staff win or lose!

But rest easy friends, I spent some great time with HUSID recently, have promised to be more open and enjoy the season so no fire sale from me... YET. If JM goes out this yr like he did last yr, in fiery flames in round 1 against a vastly inferior opponent, then it's time to get truly nasty.

Flip side, if he can lead HU to the CAA title game, I'm good with that regardless of what happens - ONLY because I know this team isn't going dancing. They don't have the consistency to go 3 for 3, BUT they could get to the championship, and that would be great - roll the dice against CofC (likely), give it your best on nat tv, and let chips fall where they may. Either way, at least some positive exposure that may help recruiting.

I actually don't think this game was as huge as a lot of others... even HUSID. Win or lose, UNCW is not a threat to win the CAA IMO - they are in no way better than CofC or NE, and the little napoleons is a push, so I'm not concerned with them. Play again, I think HU gets the win.

But I also think we should calm down with the 5th place 'hype' as if that's something we should be proud of or rally behind with the #4 scorer and rebounder in the nation... that's not a positive guys, it's a major letdown right now.

I absolutely cannot stand the little napoleons and want nothing more than to absolutely annihilate them on Thursday. ANNIHILATE.

You know as well as I that there r people here that believe you are only as good as your last game. Maybe even our last shot(missed) that is. People always ready for a Mutiny on the Bounty. I'm more of the belief we're in it for the long haul and we need to take the good with the bad. The five year rule is not etched in stone and you need to be more open minded. If we go out the way we did last year I'll be part of the mutiny and throw fuel on the fire but until then I'm part of the solution and will back the staff here until the final buzzer goes off. So on a lighter note where does the reference " Little Napoleons" come from???

[HUSID74]

By the way, aren't we in fourth place still? Exactly where we were supposed to be...

[stuball888]

Yes but as fans our expectations were higher for this season. What frustrates us is we see how good this team can be. But the inconsistency from not only game to game but half to half makes me want to reach for the tums. Besides Cacock two other players for UNCW were both just a rebound away from double doubles

[Wags]

This loss didn't really bother me. As I said, this would not be an easy game, and it wasn't. Anyone who follows the CAA since HU joined, knows that UNCW is one of the toughest road games of the year

So is the CAA tournament in Hempstead?

If we're going to excuse this loss because it was in a tough environment on the road, that doesn't say much this late in the regular season for the team being able to get it together enough to have a real chance at getting the job done in three weeks down in Charleston, and against much better competition than UNCW.

That's (possibly) a January excuse, not a February one. Joe said this after the previous time HU played UNCW on the first day of February:

"It’s February and we want to be good in February. To be good in March, you’ve got to be good in February.”

So then, regardless of the venue, why are excusing going from a 20-point win on 2/1 to just the opposite ten days later against the same team?

By now, this team, if it truly is going to compete for a CAA tourney title, should be able to beat a lower-echelon CAA team no matter where the game is played. And if it can't, it certainly shouldn't get blown out anymore, against anyone.

Three weeks is a very short time to suddenly figure it all out when you've been playing for the past three months. That's why it's concerning.

[Wags]

By the way, aren't we in fourth place still? Exactly where we were supposed to be...

Mainly by default because there are only four teams in the conference with league records over .500.

Fourth place, but playing with the inconsistency of a team at least a couple of spots lower and playing in a way which inspires little confidence that this team, if it heads to Charleston as the four seed, can compete the way it did three years ago in Baltimore, when HU was the five seed, but had a legit chance to take out No. 1 W&M, sneak into the finals and take the whole thing. I don't see that from this team right now if it's a four or five seed.

Forget the seeds, THAT'S what I want to see. It's how they're playing. Now's the time to be far more consistent than they are right now, in the final third of the CAA slate. I really expected them to build off of holding Elon to 48 and winning by 19. Allowing 90 and losing by 20 was about the furthest thing from that.

That said, I'll go back to the team I referenced three years ago, and what that team did in February before playing well in the CAA tourney and very nearly getting to the finals:

Won at Delaware at home by 10
Beat Elon at home by 11
Lost at (eventual CAA tourney champ) NU by 11
Won at Drexel by 24
Won at Towson by 5
Lost to W&M by 2
Beat Charleston by 33
Lost at JMU by 9 (after losing earlier in the season to JMU by 6)... before beating JMU by 17 in Baltimore

So there was some inconsistency then too, and yet they turned it completely around against JMU and were late Daniel Dixon left-corner 3 from reaching the finals.

Based on that, I could be reading a little too much into the inconsistency right now, but I also had a different feel about that team three years ago and it's ability to be more consistent than with this current team because of Juan'ya and Tanksley. I guess we'll have to see. Maybe this team can still surprise in Charleston, but a 20-point loss at UNCW on the heels of a 19-point win at Elon is a fairly big red flag to me. Let's see what they show in these last four regular season games.

[ProudofPride]

So on a lighter note where does the reference " Little Napoleons" come from???

It all stemmed off of W&M fans' reactions when Pemba de-committed from there and chose Hofstra. They were bad mouthing HU big time, saying how the school is basically a community college compared to W&M, and how unclassy JAM was for stealing him away. Essentially, they just had a little Napoleon Complex going on.

[Wags]

So on a lighter note where does the reference " Little Napoleons" come from???

how unclassy JAM was for stealing him away.

They said unclassy? Not at all. That's what he's supposed to do. That's just good competition and good recruiting. You compete on the court and you compete for recruits. Kudos to Joe for stealing Eli away. Their problem if they can't understand that.

[triplec2195]

This loss didn't really bother me. As I said, this would not be an easy game, and it wasn't. Anyone who follows the CAA since HU joined, knows that UNCW is one of the toughest road games of the year

So is the CAA tournament in Hempstead?

If we're going to excuse this loss because it was in a tough environment on the road, that doesn't say much this late in the regular season for the team being able to get it together enough to have a real chance at getting the job done in three weeks down in Charleston, and against much better competition than UNCW.

That's (possibly) a January excuse, not a February one. Joe said this after the previous time HU played UNCW on the first day of February:

"It’s February and we want to be good in February. To be good in March, you’ve got to be good in February.”

So then, regardless of the venue, why are excusing going from a 20-point win on 2/1 to just the opposite ten days later against the same team?

By now, this team, if it truly is going to compete for a CAA tourney title, should be able to beat a lower-echelon CAA team no matter where the game is played. And if it can't, it certainly shouldn't get blown out anymore, against anyone.

Three weeks is a very short time to suddenly figure it all out when you've been playing for the past three months. That's why it's concerning.

What surprises me about these posts and the constant references as to how on two separate occasions there can be big score swings and a team will beat a team on a given day even blow them out but when they play again that they themselves get blown out. Guys we all have watched hundreds of games I'm sure over the years and this is the nature of this beast they call basketball. Lot's of variables from one game to the next and coaches making adjustments so as not to repeat blow out losses. Players having off nights on and on! Just a small sampling of this comes with Drexel's games this year. In January they lose to UNCW BY 20 BUT BEAT COC in their next game by 5 lose to W&M by 22 then to Delaware,Hofstra,Towson and JMU probably the worst team in this league. They come back and beat Elon and NE. THEY THEN BEAT JMU and W&M by 12 a team they lost to by 22 points. That's a 34 point turnaround. Yesterday they lose to COC by 22 a team they beat by 5. If you want to talk about consistency there's a lack of it in this league and I'm sure in all of college basketball. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone that there are big disparities from game to game. The one thing that we have working in our favor is that we have played well all year on the road and have to think that this will continue. In spite of our non rebounding and poor defense in the last game if we shoot decent percentages this game is a lot closer. Let's keep the faith and hope we play well at home vs W&M who are the #1 3 point shooting percentage team in the country! It's all about defending the perimeter.