Game #18 vs Drexel Feb 6 2pm

[Polito]

Kicking off the thread...

This should be an interesting series, Drexel has been tough, and despite their record may be a formidable opponent again. Will be intently watching the 2 obvious big matchups in Kante vs Butler, and Burgess vs Winter. Likely to be some war going on in both spots!

Butler has played HU very well over the years, and we know what Winter can do. The interesting factor may be the 3rd option for both - how well can HU neutralize Walters, and who from HU continues to show out... will be tough for Drexel to handle the 2/3 combo of Ray, TC, Silverio, Masic, and Green - that talent depth should be key here.

Drexel, and really the CAA, do not have the matchup with Cramer, so I will be looking for him to flex. But IMO that 2/3 spot seems like it will be intriguing for this game.

Starting to get things right, let's keep the hammer down, go HU!

[EvanJ]

Butler has played HU very well over the years

In 2018-2019, he averaged 10.3 points and 8.2 rebounds. Against us, he averaged 12.0 points and 6.5 rebounds for the same sum of 18.5. In 2019-2020, he averaged 13.2 points and 11.7 rebounds. Against us, he exceeded that with 19.3 points and 13.3 rebounds. His sister Natalie graduated from George Mason and has the Women's Division I record for rebounds in a season. As I typed later, they have several players in basketball families. We won all five times we faced him, and we've won the last 8 games to make the all-time series tied at 46. He averages 13.8 points and 9.4 rebounds, which is 2.3 rebounds fewer than last season. His field goal percentage is up from .530 to .586, (68-116 including threes 1-2) and his free throw percentage is up from .637 to .808. He also has more assists (19) than turnovers (17) which he also did last season. To compare, Kante has 11 assists and 39 turnovers, and Cramer has 10 assists and 19 turnovers. His free throw percentage and turnovers per game are great for a big man. He averages 0.9 blocks. Wynter shoots threes .404, which is way up from .355 last season. His 5.5 assists lead the CAA and is tied for 35th in Division I. He only attempts exactly 4 threes per game, which is low for a point guard.

how well can HU neutralize Walters

You mean Zach Walton. Walters is on Northeastern. Walton averages 11.2 points and 4.5 rebounds. He's tied with Wynter for their most threes made with 21.

Their only starter who didn't start last season is T.J. Bickerstaff, who averages 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds. He attempts mostly twos and shoots threes 3-17. His dad J.B. Bickerstaff is the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have a very good top four. Their last starter is Mate Okros, who averages 6.3 points and doesn't do much in other areas. 62 of his 78 attempts are threes, and he's made 19 threes for a percentage of .306. He leads them in threes attempted. Matey Juric averages 3.4 points, and Lamar Oden Jr. averages 3.2. Three more bench players have played in at least 11 of 13 games for a total of ten players. Xavier Bell averages 1.8 points, Amari Williams averages 1.5 points, and Tim Perry Jr. averages 1.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 7.9 minutes. He's similar to Schutte. Tim Perry averaged 6.8 points and 4.0 rebounds in 481 NBA games from 1988-1989 through 1995-1996, and that includes 211 games for Philadelphia. Oden Jr., Bell, and Williams are freshmen. Coletrane Washington, who averages 5.1 points and shot threes .439 last season, missed this season due to injury. They shoot threes .312 because players other than Wynter (.404) and Walton (.362) combine to shoot threes exactly .260. They shoot free throws great at .774. Their five players who attempt at least 1 free throw per game are Wynter (.850), Butler (.808), Walton (.778), Bickerstaff (.778), and Juric (.714), so if we're trailing late there isn't a bad free throw shooter to foul. They lead the CAA with 14.9 assists and 1.20 assists per turnover. They have 51.6 percent more assists than their opponents. I don't have a way of finding out, but I would expect it to be very rare to have over 50 percent more assists than your opponents. They lead the CAA in defensive rebounding percentage at .788. That's a team's defensive rebounds divided by the sum of their defensive rebounds and their opponents' offensive rebounds. Their rebounding margin of exactly +5 per game and opponents rebounds of 29.5 per game lead the CAA. They lead the CAA in field gaol percentage at .458 and points per game allowed with only 64.9. Of the 21 team statistics, Drexel leads in 8, James Madison leads in 7, Delaware leads in 3, three teams lead in 1, and four teams including us don't lead in any category.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2021/2/4/men ... e-set.aspx is our preview titled "MBB: Hofstra Hosts Drexel For Two-Game Set."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/ ... game18.pdf is our Game Notes.

https://drexeldragons.com/news/2021/2/5 ... unday.aspx is Drexel's preview titled "Dragons Visit Hofstra on Saturday and Sunday."

https://s3.amazonaws.com/drexeldragons. ... _notes.pdf is Drexel's Game Notes.

https://static.caasports.com/custompage ... M#team.ind is Drexel's statistics.

https://csnbbs.com/forum-681.html is a Drexel forum that doesn't have a topic for this yet.

[triplec2195]

This has the makings of a tight game. I don't see any line on this game as yet. Too close to call??

[cactus]

Hearing the women's side of this matchup was cancelled

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[HofstraMathew]

This has the makings of a tight game. I don't see any line on this game as yet. Too close to call??

Caesars has Hofstra 3.5 point favorites.

[EvanJ]

Hearing the women's side of this matchup was cancelled

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Our Women had a positive test. https://gohofstra.com/news/2021/2/2/wom ... ities.aspx is titled "WBB: Hofstra Pauses Team Activities."

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=318622 will have statistics.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=318186 will have statistics for Towson at Charleston at 1:00 P.M.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=318386 will have statistics for UNCW at Elon at 4:00 P.M. UNCW's Ty Gadsden has made 44 consecutive free throws, which is 1 short of the CAA record by VCU's Willie Taylor in our first season in the CAA in 2001-2002, so if he gets fouled and makes 2 he will break the record. I'm happy he didn't break the record against us. His .9531 free throw percentage is third in Division I, and it's above the CAA record of .9213 by JMU's Kent Culuko in 1993-1994. The two highest percentages while we were in the CAA were by Towson's Four McGlynn, with W&M's David Cohn third, and Buie's 2018-2019 fourth in those seasons and eighth in CAA history. 16 Division I players are at at least 90 percent.

[HUSID74]

ESPN has us as 3.5 point favs and gives us a 57.4 percent chance of winning.

Look for us to get a big lead, lose it and then a close game down the stretch.

Sound familiar?????

[4EverDutch]

Peripherals laid out by Evan are impressive, and NET and Sagarin ranking them in top three in CAA. So how does that reconcile with 2-4 in CAA?

ST Joes defeat and playing PITT tough help in the rankings, and their four CAA losses were by a total of only 21 points. Recent JMU 9 point loss when they played an unusually sloppy game with 15 turnovers indicates they were off their game or perhaps JMU just that good.

Important test for the Dutch they will need to play and shoot their best.

[EvanJ]

At 1:47 P.M. the starters haven't been posted.

http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/2021 ... rexel.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Drexel." We have a streak of seven consecutive seasons with a winning streak of at least four games, which is the most consecutive seasons we did that in since nine consecutive seasons from 1957-1958 through 1965-1966. Those were our last nine seasons before Division I. He wrote:

"It was the first time the Dutchmen have had three players drain at least seven field goals in consecutive games since at least the 2002-03 season, which is as far back as my game-by-game records go at home. Not too bad for a team not even a month removed from scoring 56 points in back-to-back games.

UNCW at Elon today and tomorrow were postponed.

Edit: The lineups are posted, and Coburn is starting. Drexel has a change as their worst starter, Mate Okros is not starting. Xavier Bell, who is a freshman averaging exactly 6 minutes, is starting. Before today, Okros missed one game and started all 12 he played in.

[Wags]

Hofstra is doing a good job containing Wynter, but not so with T.J. Bickerstaff (10 pts on 4/5 fg), who has already surpassed his season average of 9.8 ppg entering the game.

Ray was hot early, helped HU get out to a 20-17 lead, but the offense has dried up since. Drexel on 10-2 run to lead, 27-22.

Hofstra looks sluggish today. Forced a Drexel shot clock violation on the game's first possession, so they came out the right way from the start. But Drexel has slowly imposed its will on the game.

[Mikey77]

The inability of this team to shoot on its home court is inexplicable.

[Wags]

Welp, another one of those early-season huge scoring droughts. This time, credit Drexel's intensity on D. The Dragons have really picked it up and are guarding well. But HU is also taking some bad, rushed shots.

24-4 Drexel run makes it 41-24, but finally, Ray hits a 3 to end that. 41-27 with :35.8 left in the half.

[Hofstra]

What an embarrassment that half was. We never play defense, but our offense didnt make it to the gym today either. Sucks to have to watch this.

[Wags]

Halftime. Drexel up 41-27.

HU started 7/11 from the floor before missing 16 straight shots and 18 of 19. OUCH!

Yet AGAIN, that's why this team MUST guard for 40 minutes. They are way too offensively streaky not to. Had they done a better job defensively, they might be down by a more manageable single-digit margin instead of 14. Lots to talk over at halftime.

While HU was ice cold, Drexel made six straight shots and 8 of 10 late in the half.

[Mikey77]

That was inexcusable. Did they shoot at all during the week? And on their home court. Need their butts chewed out. As do the coaches, this team is not ready to play. If you don't want to wear the uniform - go home.

[Wags]

That was inexcusable. Did they shoot at all during the week? And on their home court. Need their butts chewed out. As do the coaches, this team is not ready to play. If you don't want to wear the uniform - go home.

Drexel played the final 10 minutes with purpose. Hofstra did not match that at all.

But I think we'll see a lot better intensity and smarter play offensively from HU in the second half. I don't think this game is over yet.

[Wags]

Coburn hits two free throws to make it 49-39. That came after some good hustle following his own miss, for HU's 13th offensive rebound of the game - already five in the first 5:05 of the second half. Drexel has five for the game.

Before that, Cramer got three consecutive offensive boards and a layup (missed the FT), leading to Coburn's first 3.

So all that hustle for seven big points, total and in the case with Cramer's offensive boards, a five-point trip.

[Wags]

Down as many as 16 (this half) HU is in the game at the under-8 (7:59).

59-51, Drexel.

Ray leads all scorers with 20, but he's HU's only double-digit scorer.

[Wags]

We've got a ball game... Ray in such a zone... 8/10 from 3, 5/6 this half.

A 16-point deficit has but cut to just 64-63 with 3:46 left.

[Wags]

House (a D-II transfer) hit two 3s in a short span late in the first half... didn't take another shot until he just hit another big 3 to make it 67-63, Drexel.

But Ray gets 2 FTs... he now has 28 (one shy of his career-high)... HU ball now, down 67-65, with 2 1/2 left.