MBB Game 6 At Cal State Fulleron

[HUSID74]

Ok, enough of UCLA, great victory, perhaps the program's finest moment in history but now it's time to re-focus and take care of business against a tough Fullerton team. Newsday has us as one point favorites...Evan need you to post all the rest of the relevant data.

I believe there will be free streaming of this game...GO PRIDE!

[Cards]

I will definitely be watching.

A week ago I had posted that I thought the team would struggle in Cali and then bounce back in Florida, returning to the Mack with some momentum and an approximate .500 record. It would be great to grab a W tonight, finish the Cali swing later this week with momentum and be the team to beat in the Florida tournament. IMO, we need two things 1) DB to keep leading the team from tip-off to final buzzer and controlling the game flow/pace and 2) better production from the 5 spot - rebounding, defense, offense - basically all aspects of the game.

[EvanJ]

The game is at 8:00 P.M./5:00 P.M. local. In the last 15 days of November, it's our only game that starts before 10:00 P.M.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2019/11/22/m ... c-win.aspx is Hofstra's preview titled "MBB: Hofstra Returns To Action After Historic Win."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... 0game6.pdf is Hofstra's Game Notes.

https://www.fullertontitans.com/sports/ ... 1121qz5jhr is Cal State Fullerton's preview titled "MBB Welcomes Hofstra to Titan Gym."

https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/l ... _Notes.pdf is Cal State Fullerton's Game Notes. The Big West Preseason Poll was close, with Cal Irvine getting 15 first place votes and 258 points, while Cal Santa Barbara got 15 first place votes and 256 points. The Big West has 9 teams, and every conference other than the Ivy League now has at least 9. All Big West schools are public, and all are in California except for Hawaii. Cal State Fullerton was picked fifth. The Big West is 14th of 32 in the Conference RPI and 18th in the Sagarin. The NCAA has not made an NET yet, and I'm wondering if they eliminated it after a one season trial. Last season the Big West was 25th in the Conference RPI and 22nd in the Conference NET.

https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/e ... _Stats.pdf has Cal State Fullerton's season statistics and results.

https://bigwest.org/watch/default.aspx? ... _fullerton will have video.

https://www.fullertontitans.com/sports/ ... 4_8mo5.xml will have statistics.

[HUSID74]

ESPN now lists us as 3.5 point favs.

[triplec2195]

This is a team we match up well against as far as size goes so I don't expect we'll get beat up in the paint. This is an "in guards we trust game" so I very much like our chances providing we're playing defense.

[Wags]

ESPN now lists us as 3.5 point favs.

This is what I'm seeing elsewhere as of now.

Hofstra by 3.5 with a 145.5 O/U, which would equate to an expected 75-71 Hofstra win.

A few things that could help in this game:

- While Hofstra is, of course, coming off the win at UCLA, CSF hasn't played in eight days and hasn't played a D-I opponent in 11 days.

- CFS's scorers are all guards; their 4th and 5th scorers are forwards, scoring 7.3 ppg and 6.0 ppg respectively, so they don't seem to possess the size that would play to Hofstra's Achilles heel. Along the same lines, CSF also doesn't have anyone with big rebounding numbers.

- CSF doesn't seem to shoot or score that well (63.5 ppg, 40.2% FG, 30.4% from 3).

Taking all of that into account, if HU's guards play their best tonight (as we saw from Buie and Ray at UCLA), they should outplay the CSF group of guards and it should simply come down to that rather than having to worry about opposing bigs in this one.

Looking ahead, San Diego is at No. 25 Washington tonight (if you want to get a sense of them) before they host Hofstra on Wed.

[EvanJ]

KenPom agrees with the line and expects us to win by about 3.25, but I can't tell exactly because it doesn't have a home court value. The Sagarin and its components think the game is even, with our margins being .18, .45, .31, and -.63. The last one is the Recent component. Our Recent is a little better than our overall, but Cal State Fullerton's Recent is better than their overall by more than us.

Towson, who was a 1.5 point underdog, leads St. Joseph's 28-12.

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2019 ... erton.html is Jerry Beach's "I’ll Be Quirky: Cal State Fullerton." Cal State Fullerton's alumni include MLB players Chad Cordero, who led MLB with 47 saves in 2005 pitching for Washington, and Jeremy Giambi, who got out on Jeter's flip play.

https://bigwest.org/watch/default.aspx? ... _fullerton has video. The score is on the top left, which is annoying because I'm used to the score being on the bottom.

Edit: We lead 15-2. We led 8-0 after a minute and a half. The statistics aren't working, and the clock on the screen goes down every 10 seconds when the time ends in 0 or when there is play stoppage. Pemberton made 2 threes.

[daHUPride]

WOW what a start ,,, 15-2 lead

[Flying Dutchmen]

Kante's serious tonight, the undershirt is off.

[Cards]

live stats not working???

[EvanJ]

live stats not working???

We led 25-11, it went down to 8, and we lead 34-23. The statistics still haven't started, and ESPN doesn't have a box score probably because they don't have the statistics from Cal State Fullerton.

Edit: With 3:26 left in the half, we lead 39-28, and Coburn hasn't scored.

[Wags]

live stats not working???

Seems so. Can't seem to get live stats elsewhere, either.

At least the video feed is and it's showing a strong first half for Hofstra! Up 46-28 now. And Pemberton playing well, a good sign.

[Wags]

Pemberton 12 pts, Ray 11 pts, Buie 10 pts.

Hofstra up, 48-28, at the half. All you could ask for following the UCLA win. No letdown whatsoever.

[Cards]

Most guys playing pretty well - EP, DB, JR look good.

TC looks a little off tonight.

Kante looks terrible - I'm one who is OK with giving him some slack, but Jeeeeesh, lets see some progress! His numbers likely look OK, but they don't tell the real story - looks slow and plodding and out of shape. KS looks OK.

[EvanJ]

Kante, Coburn, and Pemberton had 5 rebounds, so Pemberton is on pace for a double-double, and all five starters are on pace for double-digits in something. Pemberton had exactly 1 double-double in each of his first three seasons. Silverio, Schutte, Trueheart, and Burgess played at some point.

[Flying Dutchmen]

Kante looks terrible - I'm one who is OK with giving him some slack, but Jeeeeesh, lets see some progress! His numbers likely look OK, but they don't tell the real story - looks slow and plodding and out of shape. KS looks OK.

I think he looks fine tonight.

Good effort by us, we got a little sloppy for a few minutes, but really locked back in late. We are turning them over a lot, Buie and Ray with a bunch of steals. The offense looks really good right now, we're moving the ball well, seems like Fullerton runs the same optional D scheme we do, and we're exploiting it well.

[Wags]

Kante
looks slow and plodding and out of shape. KS looks OK.

This is the thing that immediately stood out to me too, from the first game against San Jose State. Problem with that is, I'm not sure that's something he can change quickly enough, if at all. This may just be what he is, physically. That could be a problem in CAA play. He also doesn't rebound much. This isn't the game or the week for this to be the focus, after UCLA and up 20 now, with the guards leading the way, but something to keep an eye on later. He does look a little better tonight, however. But then, CSF doesn't really have bigs to contend with.

[Jojogunne]

There's a Hofstra fan sitting courtside left wearing blue face paint and yellow fright wig.

[EvanJ]

We lead 55-31, and the statistics started. We have balanced scoring with 14 by Ray, 12 by Pemberton, and 12 by Buie. All of them have more than Austen Awosika, who leads CSF with 11 points but is on the bench for 3 fouls. Coburn leads all players with 8 rebounds, we have the top five rebounders, and CSF doesn't have anyone with more than 3 rebounds. Buie leads all players with 4 assists. With 14:03 left, Hofstra has 6 fouls, and CSF has at least 6, so all defensive fouls will make free throws to slow the game down. The second half started before 9:00 P.M.

Edit: In addition to the four bench players I named earlier, the statistics say Gibson Jr. played, but the statistics don't include minutes. Trueheart had a basket and an assist. Silverio is up to 10 points on 4-5 shooting including threes 2-3. One announcer didn't know that the shot clock only resets to 20 after offensive rebounds. CSF has a .364 field goal percentage.

Edit: Our lead went down from 24 to 15. Pemberton made a 3 to go up 73-55 with 3:39 left.