Game #11 vs. Stony Brook 12/10 7PM

[daHUPride]

Stony Brook made two threes to tie it at 54 with 8:06 left..

\
The first of those two 3s was off of HU's fourth airball of the night.

HU shooting 19/59. This team's shooting in a major funk over several games right now. Everyone trying to create a shot 1-on-1, off the dribble. No player movement, no cutting, no ball movement to get open 2s, only for 3s.

Silverio took three 3s and none even hit the rim. On a brighter night despite not shooting well Tareq was huge tonight with so many key rebounds. Also good to see Jalen with a pep in his step so to speak, looks like he’s over whatever injury he had. Jalen is .397% three point shooter for his career and over 40% so far this year which is really impressive especially considering he shoots from the corners so much. As dreadful as Kante is I will admit he was a lot better late in the game. I’ll gladly take the win as Hofstra is now 24-2 in their last 26 games at the Mack.

that was ugly -

Kante - is a "Beast"? hes a forward not a center (plays even smaller then his size) hope there are better things to come - right now he is the Beast with the Least
Hughes - first guy off the bench; manos de Piedra
Truehart - had so much hope for him; seems happily content with getting his few minutes hoisting a 3 or 2
Schutte - hard worker; goes right up with ball; would be a nice back up if he was a 8-9 player
Pemberton - getting the minutes with little rest; battles; gets beat up (still believe that Politio, LOL); he was gased last night
Coburn - the streakiest player of all time; will always take an open shot no matter how cold hes been; never realized how high he gets up; a huge block, some steals and few nice boards made up for an terrible shooting night
Ray - our best player after Buie; our best shooter; much better all-around player then I've given him credit for
Buie - the point guard of point guards; does it all; if we had a Taylor from last year Buie would have double digit assists every night and probably 2 more steals a night
JAM - in prior seasons I have argued the JAM does use his bench enough; honestly I have to say - as of now I don't love anyone coming off our bench - so I concede that JAM is going play DB, JR, EP and TC 38+ minutes a game and it'll hurt us but I see no other alternative.

last night - a win is a win

[Pride97]

Gotta give Tareq a lot of credit. I know he maybe should pass on a few 3s when he is as cold as he was last night, but it certainly does not affect his energy or drive - 12 boards - 6 offensive. I’ll take that any day. He was all over the place hustling after the ball. I know Eli gets beat up a bunch, but Coburn is really banging with the big boys and constantly peeling himself off the floor.

They are desperate for an inside presence. Defensive is obvious, but offensively it’s really a hinderance. Buie and Eli both tried to drive and dish, but Kante and Hughes couldn’t handle the passes and they are forced to go away from that. The way they play, that option is there the whole game and it’s unfortunate they can’t capitalize on it. Could easily see a Green/Rok situation with Buie if we had anyone with hands under the basket.

Quite honestly, I’m starting to think Schutte may be the best of the three “centers” if he can stay out of foul trouble. He’s very vocal on D and is strong to the hoop when he gets the ball.

They missed so many layups last night. Convert those and that game isn’t close. Also very few FTs - settled for 3s way too much.

Agree a win is a win, but need to improve to make noise in conference play.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[triplec2195]

Stony Brook made two threes to tie it at 54 with 8:06 left..

\
The first of those two 3s was off of HU's fourth airball of the night.

HU shooting 19/59. This team's shooting in a major funk over several games right now. Everyone trying to create a shot 1-on-1, off the dribble. No player movement, no cutting, no ball movement to get open 2s, only for 3s.

Silverio took three 3s and none even hit the rim. On a brighter night despite not shooting well Tareq was huge tonight with so many key rebounds. Also good to see Jalen with a pep in his step so to speak, looks like he’s over whatever injury he had. Jalen is .397% three point shooter for his career and over 40% so far this year which is really impressive especially considering he shoots from the corners so much. As dreadful as Kante is I will admit he was a lot better late in the game. I’ll gladly take the win as Hofstra is now 24-2 in their last 26 games at the Mack.

This is only the second game I've seen live so I'm happy that at least you are giving Kante some credit at the end of the game on a big O rebound that he converted into a 3 point play. A big play at a crucial time. Clearly didn't have a good game overall where both him and Schutte missed easy off the glass buckets. Frustrating to see us missing chip shots and IRON HANDS on good passes. I have seen Omar shoot "air balls" time after time and I just can't figure it out for a kid who everyone knows can score. He needs to give us points when he's in the game. Buie is emerging as the go to guy and is having himself some year so far. All aspects of his game are solid. A really nice comeback game for Ray who played 39 minutes.
Someone commented on how Schutte may be the best overall in the post which there can be some truth to. A big plus for us if he can emerge. A lot of credit for Coburn's tough play and huge rebounds especially on the O glass and Eli the same and Eli also played tough D on that kid Garcia who's a handful. A gut it out tough win on an off shooting nite!

[HUSID74]

OK, we won the game! Wasn't pretty but SB was VERY TOUGH in the paint with their size and shot blocking ability, they made us force a lot of shots and we missed many of them.
Yes Kante is NOT the savior he was made out to be but by the time this season is over I believe he will end up averaging about 12 points and 7 rebounds a game...which will be fine.
Our bench right now is HORRIBLE...Schutte gave us some good minutes but he is SO limited...Silverio a huge disappointment so far...have to believe it's a confidence issue as he CAN play.
And yes, our good friends at Newsday shi__ed on us again...read their story and you'd think we lost the game! Horrible!

Hopefully we can use the next nine days to regroup, get some rest and then get our bench in order for the CAA's against what looks to be weak Princeton and Manhattan teams

[garyg]

Silverio may be leading the NCAA in air balls....any truth to that Evan ? KS may be our best option at the 5 because he is active both offensively and defensively....

[cactus]

Have to give credit to the defensive side of the ball yesterday - usually you lose a game when you score less points than shots taken while getting outrebounded. But they forced 15 turnovers between Olaniyi and Garcia and actually rebounded well (especially Coburn) based on Stonybrook's size.

Silverio is what we used to call a "chucker" back in the day. It's still kinda early (although not that early - over 1/3 of the regular season has been played) but the only pleasant surprise has been Schutte - the play of the rest of the newcomers has been disappointing so far, to say the least.

[Polito]

Yep, a W, take it and run. This is not a great team, has some talent, but super inconsistent, incomplete with no bench, and therefore extremely limited. Shaping up as a very seesaw year. Glad to be back in the win column, good bounce-back against a rival.

Pemba def gets beat up, that wasn't my point from before - my point is that, so what? He's a 3, it happens. That position plays against big guards and stretch wing/forwards. It is what it is. It's not like it's Buie going up against a PF every play. I don't mean to sound insensitive, I'm not ignoring the fact that he faces physical battles and the wear and tear that causes, but what I'm saying is, yep that's the nature of the position.

cactus you said it, next to nothing positive seems to have been added to the team this year, and the stress/pressure on the same 3-4 guys every single game is brutal. Silverio and Kante were musts IMO to be impact players - team is suffering tremendously from the lack of production there. Coburn's streakiness isn't helping - seems to have a limit of the amount of dependency he can carry - he's just not 'that' guy - I was hoping he was.

Schutte only decent positive surprise, as noted - but he's not CAA starting quality - a really solid backup, but just not enough.

Gonna be a long hard season. These kids are gonna put in some serious blood sweat and tears this yr. But still can be a mostly positive / exciting one I think. I don't see them sniffing the conf champ, but this conf is poor so who knows. Stranger things have happened lol.

IF, big one, but I F either Kante or Silverio can produce at a high level, then it could be enough of an impact to make a real difference. On to the next...

[Wags]

OK, we won the game! Wasn't pretty but SB was VERY TOUGH in the paint with their size and shot blocking ability, they made us force a lot of shots and we missed many of them.
Yes Kante is NOT the savior he was made out to be but by the time this season is over I believe he will end up averaging about 12 points and 7 rebounds a game...which will be fine.
Our bench right now is HORRIBLE...Schutte gave us some good minutes but he is SO limited...Silverio a huge disappointment so far...have to believe it's a confidence issue as he CAN play.
And yes, our good friends at Newsday shi__ed on us again...read their story and you'd think we lost the game! Horrible!

Here's a different kind of take, HUSID:
https://twitter.com/HofstraMBB/status/1 ... 0244225024

[Wags]

Pemba def gets beat up, that wasn't my point from before - my point is that, so what? He's a 3, it happens. That position plays against big guards and stretch wing/forwards. It is what it is. It's not like it's Buie going up against a PF every play. I don't mean to sound insensitive, I'm not ignoring the fact that he faces physical battles and the wear and tear that causes, but what I'm saying is, yep that's the nature of the position.

Eli also has the body to handle it. I worry more about Buie drawing contact because although he's kind of wiry strong, he's slight and can get hurt on the wrong type of play in any game.

Something about Eli last night though -- he drew a game-high 6 fouls (love that they have that stat in the box scores the past few years)... 6 of the 16 Stony Brook fouls. The last one, in the final couple of minutes, was a really hard one that sent him to the floor after he snuck in for a huge offensive board and two very big FTs at the time which put HU up 66-61. About 45 min after the game, I saw him shooting around, working on his shot (something which JWF took note of, responding in a tweet with a simple exclamation point... because, as we know, JWF was a workaholic on his game, which got him drafted). Eli's tough and can handle the contact.
https://twitter.com/JonathanJWagner/sta ... 3564235776

[Jojogunne]

Ugly game, not at all enjoyable to watch. We have only three players who can score 15+ ppg consistently, and they are playing too many minutes. Young talent has no chance to develop (where was our backup PG last night?).

This is going to be a long season.

[HUSID74]

Ugly game, not at all enjoyable to watch. We have only three players who can score 15+ ppg consistently, and they are playing too many minutes. Young talent has no chance to develop (where was our backup PG last night?).

This is going to be a long season.

Wow, just think if we were 4-7 or worse can you imagine these Boards...Perhaps we all should visit Fordham's Boards after they lost to Bryant!

[HUSID74]

OK, we won the game! Wasn't pretty but SB was VERY TOUGH in the paint with their size and shot blocking ability, they made us force a lot of shots and we missed many of them.
Yes Kante is NOT the savior he was made out to be but by the time this season is over I believe he will end up averaging about 12 points and 7 rebounds a game...which will be fine.
Our bench right now is HORRIBLE...Schutte gave us some good minutes but he is SO limited...Silverio a huge disappointment so far...have to believe it's a confidence issue as he CAN play.
And yes, our good friends at Newsday shi__ed on us again...read their story and you'd think we lost the game! Horrible!

Here's a different kind of take, HUSID:
https://twitter.com/HofstraMBB/status/1 ... 0244225024

Love it Wags! Keep it coming!

[Wags]

Ugly game, not at all enjoyable to watch. We have only three players who can score 15+ ppg consistently, and they are playing too many minutes. Young talent has no chance to develop (where was our backup PG last night?).

All true, although I'll say the defense (forcing 22 TOs and the adaptability to switch well to man and generally defend well & force a lot of the TOs out of man, after SBU shot HU out of the zone) and the offensive rebounding were good to watch.

This is going to be a long season.

I think it's far too soon to say this. Every team in the CAA has its flaws. Nothing will be easy this year, but I think HU is at least realistically in the mix to win the CAA and to get to the NCAAT, especially with the tourney moved to D.C.
Maybe Northeastern and/or Charleston establish themselves as clear favorites (as I expect), and we'll see what Delaware does, but I think there's a decent chance. We'll know more once we start to see how CAA play begins to unfold.

[triplec2195]

I enjoyed watching this game a very tough competitive game with some high stakes on the line at least for the bragging rights to L.I. Obviously not a great game from an offensive perspective with tons of missed shots and a lot of turnovers by S.B. credit our defense at least for some of those. I get the feeling that if we had lost this game there could be a mutiny on the bounty posts like we have seen over the years here and maybe somebody would be calling for Joe's head so I feel good we walk away with a W on a night where we had a lot of off shooting.
Also not casting aspersions at anyone in a game that was this close and Buie our best player on the floor why would we look to get minutes for our back up PG?? I like this kid and there will be more opportune times for him to get his minutes but not in this game. I don't know if he has even scored for us yet in a real game?
Anyway I'd rather view the glass as half full not half empty. I'll gladly take the win.

[HUSID74]

Interesting how everyone, including the SB coach said/thinks that SB forced out of our zone. If you attended the Pride Lounge briefing before the game Coach Farrelly said the PLAN was to play a lot of man to man and they specifically practiced it for Stony Brook!

It was not anything used in desperation...nice to see us play it and play it well...gives our upcoming opponents something to think about.

[triplec2195]

Interesting how everyone, including the SB coach said/thinks that SB forced out of our zone. If you attended the Pride Lounge briefing before the game Coach Farrelly said the PLAN was to play a lot of man to man and they specifically practiced it for Stony Brook!

It was not anything used in desperation...nice to see us play it and play it well...gives our upcoming opponents something to think about.

Agreed HUSID but can we play it almost exclusively without burning out our main 4 without a contributing bench. We're a better defensive team playing man to man. In this game it didn't get us into foul trouble either a big plus.

[Wags]

Interesting how everyone, including the SB coach said/thinks that SB forced out of our zone. If you attended the Pride Lounge briefing before the game Coach Farrelly said the PLAN was to play a lot of man to man and they specifically practiced it for Stony Brook!

It was not anything used in desperation...nice to see us play it and play it well...gives our upcoming opponents something to think about.

Would like to see them switch it up more often throughout the course of games (unless what they decide to go with - which is usually the zone - is working well, then just stick with it). That usually throws opponents offenses off, especially at the college level, to have an opponents' offense get used to one defense, and then you switch it on them, they may adjust, and then you switch back again. By the time they adjust each time, their offense is in a funk for a few minutes and you can make a run offensively, yourself, during that time. Of course, that also depends on HU's foul situations during the game.

[Wags]

Interesting how everyone, including the SB coach said/thinks that SB forced out of our zone. If you attended the Pride Lounge briefing before the game Coach Farrelly said the PLAN was to play a lot of man to man and they specifically practiced it for Stony Brook!

It was not anything used in desperation...nice to see us play it and play it well...gives our upcoming opponents something to think about.

Not doubting Farrelly said that in the Pride Lounge at all, but if it was by design, Joe didn't mention it during the postgame. He was asked about it and said they switched because Stony Brook hit some shots (he said 5 in a row) against the zone, so they switched to man to counteract that - that would be consistent with SBU Coach Ford thinking his team shot HU out of its zone. Either way, the latter shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. Just the opposite, that HU can be adaptable with its defense and can change to something that works better during a game.

[HUSID74]

Farrelly credited Speedy's scouting of SB and recommendation to go to man...I think Joe opted to start with zone over his assistants' recommendations...only when SB hit a few bombs did he then go to man...

[Wags]

Farrelly credited Speedy's scouting of SB and recommendation to go to man...I think Joe opted to start with zone over his assistants' recommendations...only when SB hit a few bombs did he then go to man...

Sounds about right. Good insight. I like Speedy getting involved in the defensive side of things. I thought of him having more of a recruiting and offensive focus, but all the better to prepare him to be a HC down the road (maybe at HU? though, as the Associate HC, Farrelly might be in line first?).