Game 17 at UNC Wilmington on January 31, 2021 at 1:00 P.M.

[EvanJ]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=319123 will have statistics. As I said yesterday, I would start Silverio over Masic. Here are the other CAA statistics links:

William & Mary at Towson at http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=319838

Elon at Delaware at 2:00 P.M. at http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=318321

Drexel at James Madison at http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=328517

Through yesterday, the CAA played 31 of 45 scheduled games in Men's Basketball and Women's Basketball, albeit that includes Drexel and William & Mary playing three times.

[RollPride15]

The freshman poured on nearly 30 points combined yesterday in Coburn's absence, we'll need them to step again today. I have faith, you can see it coming together.

[HUSID74]

Surprising we're only 2 point favs after yesterday's game and the fact that UNCW does not play the second game of a back to back particularly well due to their lack of depth.

Hope we continue what we've been doing, pound it inside to Isaac which will open it up for our shooters.

[EvanJ]

The statistics list the rosters and normally include injured players, but they don't include Coburn or Jaylen Sims. They do include Cowart. Some teams don't know that he left. The starters are not available yet. Schutte leads us in rebounds per minute. The only CAA players with more rebounds per minute are Delaware Odunayo Ogunbo (2 in 3 minutes), Elon's Michael Graham (18 in 33 minutes), Delaware's Dylan Painter (153 in 388 minutes), Delaware's Anthony Ochefu (36 in 99 minutes), and Northeastern's Alexander Nwagha (8 in 22 minutes). Painter is the only player with more rebounds and more rebounds per minute. Schutte averages 0.359 rebounds per minute, Kante averages 0.322, and Cramer averages 0.252. At the other extreme, William & Mary's Miguel Ayesa has 1 rebound in 107 minutes.

[Polito]

So far I only hear a dial tone on the HAWC... reported it to WRHU.

And Burgess coming out hot after having a some tough O lately - man, this team at full roster has SO many potential weapons that can hit in any game at any time. Getting good...

[RollPride15]

It is clearly starting to click for Cramer...dude has flipped the switch and realized he can get buckets

[Wags]

Surprising we're only 2 point favs after yesterday's game and the fact that UNCW does not play the second game of a back to back particularly well due to their lack of depth.

Not going to be favored much on the road (even with no fans) when your second-leading scorer is out. Looks like they got that correct - it's been a tight game, and right now, they're right on the money with that spread, with HU up 78-76 with 4:07 left.

Hope we continue what we've been doing, pound it inside to Isaac which will open it up for our shooters.

Yes, finally! I've been saying this for a while. Glad to see they're doing it.

[RollPride15]

Wasn't pretty but they got it done. Cramer with 8 offensive boards??? Evan, when was the last time a Hofstra freshman pulled down eight offensive rebounds?

[Wags]

Another good offensive showing in Wilmington with Coburn out, and another W. 89-83 final.

Five in double figures, all efficient:
Kante: 21 pts on 7/10 fg (this is what I've been begging them to do - let him lead the way and let that help the previously-struggling guards to be more efficient).
Ray: 18 pts on 7/16 (not that efficient, but not bad)
Cramer: 17 pts 7/11 fg and always active
Burgess: 15 pts on 5/10 fg (nice bounceback after the 1 pt on 0/7 fg yesterday)
Silverio: 10 pts on 4/8 fg (what can you say about him this weekend? Yesterday was no fluke - played great after the long layoff but no fallback from him today).

Get home safe, before the storm gets too bad around here and rest up for Drexel next weekend, heading into that with a 5-game streak, tied in the win column with NU and just one game out of first-place, knowing Northeastern is off again next weekend.

[The Shadow]

To Wags, Do you know when NU makes up their missed games? Do you know what the CAA protocol might be if some of the games cannot be rescheduled? Also, how are you feeling? Best wishes on a continued good recovery.

[Wags]

To Wags, Do you know when NU makes up their missed games? Do you know what the CAA protocol might be?

Next week's NU games are already on hold going back to the latest positive tests they've had in their program, since I think they have to quarantine for 14 days from that positive test. As of now, they'll have to wait and see when they can make up the games, because it's obviously not only about them, but when Drexel and Delaware might be able to make up those games against NU and what may be going on with their own programs over the coming days and weeks. As of now, that's all undecided, TBD over the coming days.

The league will continue to shuffle things around and play whatever games they can, when they can, like Drexel suddenly playing at JMU today after they couldn't play NU this weekend. They'll of course stick to the regular schedule as much as they can, but things will continue to be in flux and change as we progress. Tomorrow is already February. The CAA tourney is scheduled for Mar 6-9. It'll be very interesting to see if that and many other conference tourneys are delayed or just canceled because I doubt the NCAA wants to delay the NCAA tourney at all. That's why winning the regular-season title might be more important than ever this year. By default, some conferences (including the CAA) may have to send their regular-season champs as their conference rep to the NCAA tourney.

Hofstra has been very lucky so far - they're tied with NU for most CAA wins largely because of their current five-game winning streak, but also partly because they're the only team in the conference that hasn't missed a CAA game.

[EvanJ]

RollPride15, thank you for mentioning that Cramer had 8 offensive rebounds. 8 offensive rebounds is tied for the most rebounds by a Hofstra freshman from 2010-2011 on with the top rebounder of the four thieves. If he had his career rebounds per game in four seasons in the CAA, he might have finished second to David Robinson, but Rokas Gustys and Devontae Cacok would have knocked him down to fourth by now. Him, Nathaniel Lester, Stephen Nwaukoni, Ameen Tanksley, Gustys seven times (which is more than everyone else combined), and Jacquil Taylor also did it. The only Hofstra player with double-digit offensive rebounds in that time is Gustys with 12 in an 85-76 loss at Siena on November 25, 2017. Hofstra is only 6-7 when a player does that. That includes 2-2 against UNCW. Cramer scored a career-high 17 and had a career-high 3 blocks, which were in a span of 9:59. I checked every box score for eight season farther back than the College Basketball at Sports-Reference. Cramer is the first player from our second season in the CAA in 2002-2003 through now to have at least 7 points, at least 8 offensive rebounds, and at least 3 blocks.

Mike Okauru became the first UNCW player to score at least 30 since Jordon Talley scored 37 against us in the 2018 CAA Quarterfinals. His 26 field goal attempts were the second most against Hofstra from 2010-2011 to the present. William & Mary's Marcus Thornton shot 13-29 and scored 37 in the double overtime game that Daniel Dixon won at the buzzer on March 8, 2015 in the CAA Semifinals. Thornton had 22 attempts in regulation, so Okauru had the most field goal attempts in regulation against Hofstra from 2010-2011 on.

UNCW had 41 points and no offensive rebounds in the first half.

I'll post more later.

[Polito]

Love this W, huge series sweep, and doing it with multiple guys - this team is starting to show some champ metal IMO - still some things to work on of course, D a bit loose today, but I really like what I'm seeing recently, and they are just scratching the surface now that the roster is nearly 100%

Cramer, goodness, running out of adjectives - kid is a flat out stud, and it's just the beginning for him - he can take this conf over as he matures.

Ray is showing that real leadership so desperately needed - he is looking fantastic, better and better each game lately.

Silverio, makes another strong impact today, back to back - this is HUGE. Burgess big bounceback game, and Kante is beasting this conf right now - after some questions previously, he is really finding his stride - matter of fact, it feels like this TEAM is - starting to feel different in a great way.

Seeing some exciting things here that have been missing, playing in a lot of battles and winning close games - would rather safer W's, but that's the nature of things right now and the fact they are holding down the game when it matters is the mark of a winner - let's go HU, get on that champ stride and don't look back

[Wags]

Hofstra fans are getting used to extended winning streaks over the past several years:

This is HU's sixth winning streak of at least five games over the past seven seasons (four of them in the past three years):

6 straight in 2014-15
8 straight in 2015-16
16 straight in 2018-19
5 straight in 2019-20
8 straight in 2019-20
5 straight (and counting?) in 2020-21

[Wags]

Ray passed some big names in Hofstra history today:

He passed Norman Richardson (192 3-pointers) with his 193rd 3-pointer, to move into sixth-place on the all-time Hofstra list.

Getting to 1,194 points, Ray passed Juan'ya Green and Brian Bernardi (1,186 each) as well as Rokas Gustys (1,184), to move into 25th-place on the all-time Hofstra list.

[EvanJ]

If Ray scored his average in two games next week, he will be up to 22nd. He will pass Carlos Rivera for eighth most points by a Hofstra player in the CAA. The top seven are Jenkins, JWF, Agudio, Stokes, Pemberton, Buie, and Adeleke.

We had only 3 assists on 14 field goals in the second half, and that includes Ray getting an assist by saving the ball from going out of bounds and having Burgess make a three.

Bethea didn't play, and only six players played double-digit minutes. There's a big gap Masic's 22 as the sixth most to Schutte's 8 as the seventh most.

Kante increased his points per game from 12.8 to 13.3, Cramer increased for 8.6 to 9.1, Burgess increased from 7.4 to 7.8, Silverio increased from 6.4 to 6.9, Schutte increased from 1.6 to 1.9, Green decreased from 3.2 to 2.9, Masic decreased from 2.5 to 2.4, and Trueheart decreased from 2.8 to 2.3. Ray's 18 made a negligible increase of his average of 17.9.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2021/1/31/me ... -five.aspx is titled "MBB: Pride Clip Seahawks; Hofstra Extends Win Streak To Five."

My CAA team of the today has Cramer, Okauru, Elon's Hunter McIntosh (30 points and 7 assists in a 75-70 loss at Delaware), Drexel's Camren Wynter (29 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in a 73-64 loss at James Madison), and William & Mary's Connor Kochera (30 points and 12 rebounds in a 75-74 win at Towson). Delaware's Ryan Allen had 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and shot well, so you could take him over Cramer. That's for today, not today and yesterday combined. Kochera is a freshman, so Cramer has competition for Rookie of the Week. Kochera scored 23 yesterday, so he averaged 26.5. Looking at the Analytics, McIntosh was the best player by Game Score, and Kochera was the best player by Net Points.

[Hofstra]

Defense was GROSSSSS today. Late though, we got it done. Cramer and Kante were on another level today. Love that frontcourt. Great win.

[Wags]

Defense was GROSSSSS today. Late though, we got it done. Cramer and Kante were on another level today. Love that frontcourt. Great win.

It was, but I'm going to be positive looking at the big picture here.

This weekend, the defense was bad but the offense was good, even with Coburn out.

Other times, the offense has struggled a lot but the defense was much better.

Bottom line is 7-3 with five straight wins and only a game out of first-place with 10 to play is still 7-3 with five straight wins and only a game out of first-place with 10 to play, however they got there.

So, I'm going to say that while you'd love to see more consistency both offensively and defensively, the record is still good and the big-picture optimistic view is that they've shown they can be versatile, that they can win a game when both teams are in the 80s and they can win when they only score in the low 60s while holding the opponent under 60. Ultimately, I'll stick with what I've said all season, that they'll need to rely on good defense the most to win another CAA tourney title (IF Covid doesn''t mess with the CAA tourney and it still takes place).

That versatility could be to their advantage. They may have to win a low-scoring game with defense in the tourney. They may have to win a shootout in which they can't get stops but can win and advance with offense. And they may have to win somewhere in the middle. So as long as they're winning, which they're now doing after putting that three-game losing streak behind them, it's good that they're showing they can do that in a variety of ways, even if there are times when they struggle at each end of the floor.

[triplec2195]

Defense was GROSSSSS today. Late though, we got it done. Cramer and Kante were on another level today. Love that frontcourt. Great win.

Coach even said as much about the D and sometimes it's just about out scoring the opponent in a shootout. Our claim to fame used to be in guards we trust but now there's more balance and we're a team to be reckoned with in the post so is it too far fetched to say that Cramer could out rebound Kante. Just looking at CAA stats Cramer is getting 7.4 to Kante's 9.4. Cramer has really been coming on lately and has elevated his game. As a side note I also look at FT% CAA stats only and both Cramer and Burgess shooting 58.3 which clearly is an improvement for Cramer but not a good stat for Burgess. I know someone posed the question whether Silverio will start in the absence of Coburn not knowing how long he will be out. I'm not knocking Vukasin's game because he's contributing but Silverio playing with a lot of confidence right now. Both getting valuable experience which will behoove us when we defend out title.

[HUSID74]

Triplec I kind of like Silverio coming off the bench for an offensive spark...which he provided in both UNCW games