MBB Game 15 Delaware, Jan 4 (Sat), 2 PM

[Jojogunne]

Looking ahead, we host Delaware (8-5) on Saturday. The Blue Hens have defeated Xavier and URI, but suffered close home losses in their last two games, vs. Rider (OT) and Princeton (by 2 points).

Jyáre Davis, the 6-7 Providence transfer, leads Delaware with 19.5 ppg and three other players are averaging about 11 ppg, so this will be a tough one for us.

The game will be on MSG and FloHoops.

[HUSID80]

Jojo, this game is on Jan 6 not Jan 4.

[Jojogunne]

Got it, thanks.

[Wags]

Looking ahead, we host Delaware (8-5) on Saturday.

Uh oh, I hope this didn't jinx them. Can't look ahead to anyone, least of all Charleston (I know you're not - it's good to have this thread ready since this game is so soon after the Charleston one).

[Wags]

Jojo, this game is on Jan 6 not Jan 4.

Tough enough to play Charleston on Jan 4, don't want to have to play Charleston AND Delaware at the same time!

That reminds me of something I saw on TV recently... Omegaball - it was women's soccer but it was a round field with three goals and three different teams playing at once.

[Wags]

Jyáre Davis, the 6-7 Providence transfer, leads Delaware with 19.5 ppg and three other players are averaging about 11 ppg, so this will be a tough one for us.

Delaware visits Hempstead off of an 80-53 home rout over Hampton last night. Besides, as Jojo mentioned, the Blue Hens' top four scorers (still) averaging double digits, led by Davis, they also have two others each at at least 8.5 ppg. So there will be a lot for HU to pay attention to defensively.

Common opponents:
Delaware lost at home to Princeton, 84-82 (trailed by 16 at halftime), two games ago; Hofstra lost its first D-I game of the season to Princeton at home, 74-67.
Delaware lost to GW in the Bahamas, 81-71 (led 38-25 at halftime, outscored 56-33 in the 2nd); Hofstra lost at GW, 71-60, the game after the Princeton loss.

A much better first 5-10 minutes than we saw last night and in other recent games is a must in this one.

Not sure of the scheduling patterns for next year off of this year, but with the imbalanced CAA schedule and this one being at home, and with Delaware's departure for C-USA, could HU play UDel only once next year (like this year) and could that be on the road, making this the last chance to see HU's biggest rival at home? At least for a long time? Or ever?

[EvanJ]

I looked at the CAA's schedule article, which says each team has two opponents they play twice every season, which for us are Stony Brook and Northeastern. Of the other eleven teams, each team plays three twice, four only at home, and four only away. I am assuming that if we do play Delaware once next season, it will be away, not home in consecutive seasons. If you think about it as being random, we have a 3 in 11 (27 percent) chance at hosting Delaware next season, but it is possible the CAA already determined who every team plays home and away for future seasons without announcing it. If the CAA made a schedule plan that includes Delaware for 2025-2026 and later, it will need to be redone, and even if 2024-2025 was done, it could be modified to make us play Delaware twice before they leave. I don't want the CAA to add a team, but an odd number of teams means not every team can play on the same day, and teams will have unequal amounts of CAA games played.

Here is the schedule:

Delaware at Us at 2:00 P.M. on MSG
UNCW at Towson at 2:00 P.M. on Monumental
Campbell at Hampton at 2:00 P.M.
Drexel at William & Mary at 2:00 P.M.
Charleston at Stony Brook at 6;31 P.M. on SNY
North Carolina A&T at Elon at 7:00 P.M.
Northeastern at Monmouth on Monday at 7:00 P.M. on CBS Sports Network, so Northeastern will have less rest before we go there on Thursday

[triplec2195]

According to Yahoo sports we're 5.5 point favorites and ESPN has us as 4.5 point favorites with a 77% chance of winning. Sound familiar!!

[HUSID80]

Too bad we don't play up to ESPN's predictions!

[Polito]

Yeah, I give this team zero benefit of any doubt. This does not feel like a good game for them. But perhaps they will actually come out, fired up and ready to play division one level basketball when the ball gets tipped for once.

I know most would like to see more German in the game, and I agree something with this lineup has got to change, but he’s looked terrible since his injury – his first two games back have been extremely bad. Lost on the floor and his shot from deep has been way off. I’m not sure what value he’s really bringing right now.

Then again, quite frankly, half of this team seems to be nothing more than fouls to give.

Even though I am very down on the staff and team at the moment, I can’t quite call this a must win game yet. But I will say this is absolutely a ‘must show up’ game – if they continue to trot out the same garbage product we’ve seen, then the writing may be on the wall.

I’ve said since before the start of the season, this is a make or break year IMO for Speedy’s reputation as a head coach. He has got to prove that he can coach a winner without a POY. So far he’s failing…

There’s still a little time. Let’s see if these guys can get their act together in a home rival game.

[triplec2195]

For sure need a better game plan then to play one on one and try to hit difficult long three's. Lets move the ball and not have to heave desperate shots as the shot clock expires. Give me more JC a lot more of JC getting some points along with assists and if its not too much to ask lets get some O REBOUNDS. SOUND GOOD.

[dutchPride86]

Same starting 5 today. So much for that

[HUSID80]

Not surprised. Speedy not about to hit the panic button...Yet

[EvanJ]

I know most would like to see more German in the game, and I agree something with this lineup has got to change, but he’s looked terrible since his injury – his first two games back have been extremely bad. Lost on the floor and his shot from deep has been way off. I’m not sure what value he’s really bringing right now.

He's been back for four games. In 44 minutes, he has 9 points on 4-7 shooting. He made 1 of 2 threes. He has more fouls (6, with 5 against St. John's) than rebounds (2) and assists (3) combined.

We need to have more than three players shoot. I wonder if Thursday was our record for fewest field goal attempts by players other than our three players with the most attempts, as everybody else totaled 6 points (0 bench points) and 6 field goal attempts.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... fstra.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Delaware at Hofstra." It was our first game without any bench points since January 15, 2021, when Vukasin Masic and Stafford Trueheart were our only subs. It was the first time since November 11 and 18, 2006 that we had consecutive games with two players scoring at least 20 but we lost. Dubar needs 10 points to be our 41st Hofstra player to 1,000. Carlos Rivera, Nathaniel Lester, Juan'ya Green, Ameen Tanksley, and Rokas Gustys had 990 points in the game before getting to 1,000. Thomas attempted 26 shots against Charleston. He and Justin Wright-Foreman are our only players to attempt at least 26 field goals since 2010-2011, which is as far back as the Sports-Reference College Basketball Play Index goes. That was Charles Jenkins's senior season. I checked his junior season, and his career-high for attempts was 26 on February 10, 2010. Thomas attempted 26 field goals in the overtime win over High Point, and the Charleston game made him our first player to attempt at least 26 field goals in regulation since Wright-Foreman on January 5, 2019. That game was tied with the shot clock off when Northeastern's Vasa Pusica, who got the second most points in CAA Team voting behind Wright-Foreman, shot too soon, missed a three, and Wright-Foreman had time for a three at the buzzer to win 75-72. KenPom expects us to win 74-70. It is the first time since 1982-1983 that we are in the same conference as Delaware but only play them once. Jerry said that when Delaware, Drexel, Towson, and us moved to the CAA, the initial announcement was to move one season later, so he wonders if Delaware could leave after this season.

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=484932 will have statistics. It has the rosters. Delaware has eight guards and six forwards on their roster. Zion Bethea, who played three games for us, is on their roster, but he is one of two who has not played. Ten players have played in at least half of their 14 games. We are starting our usual starters. Delaware is starting Jalun Trent (guard, 11.6 points, 3.7 assists), Cavan Reilly (guard, 10.7 points), Niels Lane (guard, 8.5 points), Christian Ray (guard, 8.7 points, 8.8 rebounds), and Jyare Davis (forward, 19.3 points). Here are the team statistics with us followed by Delaware:

Points per game: 75.9, 77.4
Rebounds per game: 34.2, 35.5
Offensive rebounds per game: 8.5, 9.4
Assists per game: 15.9, 15.1
Steals per game: 6.2, 6.6
Blocks per game: 4.0, 2.9
Turnovers per game: 11.1, 10.2
Assists/turnovers: 1.43, 1.48
Field goal percentage: .466, .472
Three-point field goal percentage: .368, .345
Free throw percentage: .765, .728

Delaware is better in seven of eleven categories. https://www.warrennolan.com/basketball/ ... le/Hofstra says our SOS is 53rd, and the page for Delaware says their SOS is 299th.

[EvanJ]

We gave up a three on the first possession, and now lead 10-3. We have 3 steals. Thomas made 2 threes, and 7 of our 9 attempts are threes.

Edit: Our largest lead was 20-12, but Delaware has the ball down 20-14. Carlos has 3 assists, and our ratio of 5 assists to 1 turnover is great. Thomas made 4 of 7 threes and did not attempt any twos. Plotnikov and Robinson played, but did not shoot. The bad thing is that Delaware has not committed a foul.

[dutchPride86]

Wow can't believe Speedy actually subbed Thomas out. Good for him, Thomas' shot selection still awful even though he's made a few more so far

[dutchPride86]

21 3pt attempts in the half is just insane. But outside of a couple from Thomas actually didn't feel like too many were forced. Speedy consolidating the lineup pretty interesting... no Sunday or Farmer at all.

Baby steps in right direction, let's see if they can keep it up

[EvanJ]

Our largest lead was 39-25, and we lead 44-32 at halftime. Thomas missed his last 5, and did not score after reaching 12 points with 13:33 left, which was under a third of the way through the half. He and Dubar tied with 12, and Dubar reached 1,002 points for us. Fritz scored 8 from 3 field goals and 2 free throws without missing. Washington scored 7, which were all in the last 2:32. That includes the difficult shot of banking in a three from the corner with 9 seconds left. Plotnikov made a three from his only shot. Carlos shot 1-6 and scored 2. He had 8 assists without any turnovers or fouls, and we assisted on 13 of our 17 field goals. Robinson missed his only shot. The fact that neither Farmer nor Sunday played makes me wonder if one or both of them are injured. In the 6:48 that Plotnikov played, we did not use a forward. Dubar and Fritz had 5 rebounds, so both of them are on pace for double-doubles, and Thomas had 4 rebounds. Our only 3 turnovers were by our bench. Delaware shot threes 7-16 (.438) and twos 3-14 (.214), which means they shot threes over twice as well as twos. Jyare Davis and Christian Ray tied for Delaware's lead with 7 points, and Gerald Drumgoole Jr. shot 1-6 in 10 minutes off the bench, but led them with 5 rebounds. The other three CAA games have halftime margins of 6, 3, and 2, so our lead is larger than thre other three combined.

[Wags]

In Thursday night's loss, Thomas, Carlos and Dubar took 56 of Hofstra's 62 shots, shooting a combined 37.5%.

Today, they have 18 pts on 8/9 fg from Fritz (3/3 fg), Washington (3/4 fg), and Plotnikov (1/1 fg). So much easier to win when you remember you have other guys on your team.

[Wags]

Thomas 0/8 (0/5 from 3) since starting 4/6 (all from 3).