Game 11 @ Northeastern, Saturday, 1/9/21, 12 Noon

[Jojogunne]

We never play well up there. Maybe it's the ice rink under the hardwood? Let's change the pattern.

[triplec2195]

I think we need to send NE a message here after a loss in a game that we should have won easily. I think it's an important game for Hofstra's MOJO!! Maybe a very physical game??

[4EverDutch]

If Ray shoots well they win this game. It may be this simple this year.

[Polito]

Agree with you all, this is an important game today, I think they need to show something here with not just a W, but a bit of a strong ‘answer’ to that disappointing L

And I think not just for the players, for the staff as well to dust off the clear frustration - enter this game with a return message that HU May bend, but they ain’t breakin’

[EvanJ]

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2021 ... ern_9.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Northeastern." We are expected to lose 70-69 by KenPom and are 1 point underdogs according to that, but https://www.vegasinsider.com/college-ba ... las-vegas/ says we are favored by 2. We are 5-5 against the spread, but 0-3 against the spread in the CAA.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=319164 will have statistics.

Edit: We are using the same starters as on Thursday. Northeastern is not starting their second leading scorer, freshman Jahmyl Telfort, so I wonder if he's available. Quirin Emanga is starting for the first time.

[Hof_Judge99]

We never play well up there. Maybe it's the ice rink under the hardwood? Let's change the pattern.

This game is actually being played at the Cabot Center, so no ice under the court today!

[Pride97]

Did anyone else catch the announcers saying that we want to take the ball inside since we are the worst 3pt shooting team in the CAA. Maybe the staff needs to hear that and stop giving everyone the green light from deep.


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[Polito]

That was awful. Fully outcoached and outplayed. A lot of work to do in the second. Turn it around.

[Cards]

Zero ball movement - all one on one

[Pride97]

Shot selection was atrocious. So many forced shots and I hate to say it but the seniors have taken a lot of them. Coburn has been consistently taking bad looks and trying to force inside. Kante being doubles means someone is open and they never find him.

Also, can we take a timeout during a NE run??? JAM did that but MF doesn’t. Starting to think staff may have too much confidence in this team and may need to take some control back.


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[EvanJ]

We trail 30-21. I wonder when the last time a teams trailed by at least 9 at halftime while having at least 11 more rebounds (24 to 13) and not allowing a free throw. We have 1 assist and 9 turnovers. Northeastern has 9 assists and 3 turnovers, so their assist/turnover ratio is 27 times ours, and we entered with a better ratio. Kante has 9 rebounds, and Northeastern's top three three combined for 8. Jahmyl Telfort shot 0-5, and Quirin Emanga shot 4-5 and leads all players with 9 points, so starting Emanga was a good decision. At one time the announcers mistakenly said we changed four players. Silverio and Trueheart haven't played. Northeastern entered averaging 1.4 blocks, and they have 5. That's their most blocks since January 24, 2019. They haven't had more than 5 blocks since they won 81-67 at us on January 25, 2018.

[Hof_Judge99]

16-0 Hofstra run to start the second half. Coach must’ve peeled some paint off the walls in the locker room at half.

[Pride97]

Much better energy to start the 2nd half. Burgess is really developing quickly and is starting to show some leadership that they desperately need.

Keep it up!


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[Hofstra]

YIKES!!!!!!

This team just isnt it. Young. But brutal to watch for now.

Hoping for a turn around. Just seem lost on offense. Defensively, well, Northeastern made about 100 3's in a row

[The Shadow]

NU 15 3s to HU 5 3s. That is the easy stat of the game. HU TO 27.4% to NU 14.8%. With about 7 minutes left in the 2nd half and HU ahead by 8,NU outscores HU by 37 to 18. HU cannot close out the last 2 games against a very good NU team. As we remember, this almost happen against SBU in December.

[Polito]

Humbling series. They looked terrible for 3 of 4 halves. Continued to be ompletely outplayed and outcoached on all sides. Terrible response to the last game. This might be one of the worst 3pt HU teams in the modern era, both on O and D.

Farrelly has just been smacked right in the mouth. His first real faceplant. Big opp and need to grow from this Mike. This team is in some trouble as it currently stands.

[EvanJ]

This might be one of the worst 3pt HU teams in the modern era, both on O and D.

We shot threes 5/14 = .357. That wasn't the problem.

After starting his career shooting free throws 3/15 = .200, Cramer has made 5 of 10 to raise his percentage to 8/25 = .320.

Northeastern won 67-56. They became the first team from 2010-2011 to the present to score 67 or fewer points, win by at least 11, make at least 15 threes, and make 2 or fewer free throws. My source is the College Basketball at Sports-Reference Play Index.

[Mikey77]

Geez. What's happened to Ray? Awful shooting, turnovers? No imagination on defense. We are easy to scout and prep for. That's on the coaching staff. We have (or had) the depth to press more which would have diminished their time to shoot the three (which killed us both games) but nothing. What's up with Trueheart? Thought we were supposed to see him in this series.

[Polito]

3pt shooting is definitely a big part of the issue, but the D from the perimeter is even bigger, absolutely horrific, HU is routinely getting torched there.

I think this staff needs to re-evaluate a few things. Not calling for a total overhaul by any means, a lot of good things with this group still, but a few key things have not materialized, and they have got to find a better path.

There is never any shame in losing to NU and Cohen - guy is fantastic, and his program is always a tough out - but this HU team doesn't look primed to defend their crown yet. I was a bit more optimistic prior to this game - after a terrible showing today in response to the brutal OT L at home, and way too close W&M games, the concern is rising. They need to be better.

To Hofstra's point, agree fully they just don't have "it" yet. Still time to mature... but not much. Everything is expedited and magnified in this covid season. They need to hunker down and get some things straightened out and find some answers.

[Wags]

3pt shooting is definitely a big part of the issue, but the D from the perimeter is even bigger, absolutely horrific, HU is routinely getting torched there.

Again, like I said after Thursday night's loss, the defense has to be the key with this team, especially as Polito says here, on the perimeter. Northeastern took 57 shots today. 37 of those (almost two-thirds!) were from 3, where HU allowed NU to make a good percentage (40.5%).

How much did that matter? Well, HU starts the second half on a 17-0 run, NU goes scoreless for the first 7:15 of the second half, NU got to the line 3 timed all game - THREE - and despite all of that, because of the 3s HU gave up, NU still nearly got to 70 points and still won by 11.

We didn't care against Monmouth, when they were bombing way, because HU scored at will at it didn't matter. But more often than not, HU will not score at will and will sometimes even struggle to score much (like today). Can't rely on an offense or shooting that will sometimes be there and sometimes won't. Have to figure it out defensively.

That Thursday game though is the one. You can accept splitting with NU, losing the road game. But you can't get swept by NU when you led them by 19 at home in the second half. And right now, there's a big difference between 3-1 (a good CAA team) and 2-2 (a mediocre CAA team). But that's right now, still a small sample size within the league, still 14 CAA games to go. Plenty of ball left to be a legit CAA contender. But like Polito says, they better start figuring out how to guard on the perimeter. Change up looks if they have to, to confuse opposing offenses, and don't stick with the zone so much. Whatever it takes, but you can't keep allowing that, not the hot-and-cold way this team shoots. They are way too streaky offensively to not bring the perimeter D (and the D overall) every game for 40 minutes.