joeg1 wrote:
Cooks has the talent to be an honorable mention AA. You heard it here first
Every conference's POY gets at least an honorable mention, and I doubt he will get an honorable mention if he doesn't win POY. Winning POY is possible.
I don't think Ray is fully okay. He played the first 4 minutes, and all of his statistics other than minutes are zeros.
Now 25-19 after an Iona 3. Not bad at all considering the start. Showed they can deal well with adversity. That second PF on Joseph really helped. But you still have to make a run and take advantage of that and they have.
One troubling trend I'm noticing is a total imbalance of free throw attempts...5 to 25 attempts at houston, 8 to 17 at Duquesne, and midway through the first half here it's 0 to 7. Guys need to find ways to get to the line or we're going to be way too dependent on the 3.
RollPride15 wrote:One troubling trend I'm noticing is a total imbalance of free throw attempts...5 to 25 attempts at houston, 8 to 17 at Duquesne, and midway through the first half here it's 0 to 7. Guys need to find ways to get to the line or we're going to be way too dependent on the 3.
Those FT disparities are BECAUSE they have been way too dependent on the 3.
We trail 39-32. After 9:04 on the bench, Ray returned and shot 2-3 only attempting threes. He had 6 points, 1 defensive rebound, 1 foul, and 1 turnover. We used nine players, including Iyiola, Carlos, and Burgess who did not score. Everybody else scored 8 (Estrada), 6 (Ray and Silverio), or 4 (Dubar, Cooks, and Cramer), so everybody scored an even number of points. Cooks shot 2-10, and Estrada shot 3-10.
Fell apart down the stretch. Burgess had another tough time. Cooks and Estrada both struggled all game. Nice to see Ray back and hitting shots. Dubar is a nice role player. Need to improve perimeter defense.
Burgess became the sixth player from 2010-2011 to now to have 0 points, 0 turnovers, at least 6 assists, and 5 fouls. The last five players (including Burgess) to do that played for New York teams, and four of the last five times were for and/or against an MAAC team. The prevois five players to do that were Manhattan's Nehemiah Mack at Rhode Island on November 27, 2019; Columbia's Isaac Cohen hosting Princeton on February 13, 2016; Marist's Eric Truog at Rider on January 14, 2016; Manhattan's Tyler Wilson hosting Fairfield on February 15, 2015; and the time without a New York team was Wright State's Jason Cuffee hosting non-Division I Kenyon on November 13, 2011. My source is the Sports-Reference College Basketball Play Index.
This is the first game I watched this year and what a disappointment mainly concerning how bad defensively they played. They gave up a lot of open three's in the first half while having to work their butts off to score. The only open three I remember them getting in the first half was a wide open look that Silverio buried. While Iona was creating havoc and forcing turnovers with their full court press and really slowing our offense down we didn't press them the entire game. I thought this was the Speedy game plan?? Maybe we were in foul trouble but both big guys had to sit a lot of the first half which should have been a plus for us but turned out to work in their favor as they were hitting more threes. We only came back in the second half when Ray tried to single handedly bring us back from the grave. Ugh a year later and Caleb still can't shoot F.T.'s. Awful while their big guy I believe hit 6 in a row. IMO they out hustled us out coached us and clearly out played us especially DEFENSIVELY. We weren't getting many open looks. Also Dubar may be able to score around the basket but in this game he didn't look like a very good shooter. We were overmatched in terms of size for sure but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The fact that this game was close down maybe to the three minute mark was a miracle. I sure hope we play better then this at home.
If they're going to have a good season, a contending season in the CAA, their guards are going to have to shoot the lights out from 3 and/or be more aggressive with getting to line, and they absolutely can't take games off defensively - that has to be a constant, more like what we saw against Houston (for the first 32 minutes) and Duquense.
Apparently none of you were at the game…biggest issue is for the first time this year we did not match our opponents intensity from the start which created a huge hole for us that we ALMOST dug ourselves out of. And to that Cook’s worst game of the season and we were in trouble…
Yet WE STILL CAME BACK AND WERE IN IT TIL THE END… this team showed a great deal of resilience….many previous Hofstra teams would have been blown out,
It was fun to see Pitino begin to get real nervous and at one point slammed his fist on the scorers table after a Jaylen three.
As for their size we handled it pretty well. Ilyola did a credible job against their bigs and I think the rebounds were about even.
I ytuly think that if we played them again we would win the game…Speedy won’t let us come out flat like that again.
Garbage. Just like that HU falls right back. Exactly what you fear, Ray returns and no one does jack squat. Bad coaching, bad leadership, bad play.
These 3 guards need to figure out how to play together off each other - instead Ray’s presence totally derailed them. Cooks nothing Estrada nothing.
And like I said, no interest in another 3 point bombing team that has no other way to win. Cmon Speedy you and TP better be a whole lot better than that. That crap doesn’t win championships. Will be really bored if that’s their continued strategy from JM. Hope they’ve learned to balance their roster next time and have more in the post and more than the deep ball.
Totally deflating loss getting beat by Iona yet again. Prob not beating them until Pitino is gone. Very very disappointing. Burgess regressed and Cramer, as I feared, continues to underwhelm.
Yawn. Expect a lot better. Sure hope this isn’t going to be another JWF deal where no one does anything and Ray is all they depend on. This is why no one knows or talks about HU, continued failures to gain name making wins - beating Pitino would’ve been something - and why the Houston choke was big. Iona owning this city along with St John’s until this program figures out how to step up.
Gonna be a long OOC if they don’t show up better, esp on D. You wanna do nothing but chuck 3s then you better play some killer D.
Weak sauce Speedy and staff and team - better come correct against UMD and UR or gonna get run out of the gym.
Polito wrote:
Sure hope this isn’t going to be another JWF deal where no one does anything and Ray is all they depend on.
Time will tell as the season progresses, but I don't think that will be the case. What SHOULD happen and what might've been expected tonight was that Ray makes it easier for Cooks and Estrada, but sometimes that doesn't happen right from the start. If it's a trend over a few games, it's concerning (we'll see). But first game together for that trio, I'm not too worried (yet). Cooks knew he had to be the guy the first two games with Ray out. That changed for him tonight with Ray in and hitting a bunch of 3s. I think Cooks and the team will adjust over the next several games now that Ray is in the mix. Cooks can play, he can score. We know that's the same for Ray. I think they'll figure it out as consistent, reliable 1-2 or 1-1A options and then Estrada will find his role and be a nice complement to them, with the rest all filling in their roles. As we know well, November basketball is so different than January, February, March basketball. I'm not too concerned about a competitive road loss at Iona in November following a solid win at Duquense and a mostly very good showing in Houston. Most concerned with everyone just finding their roles in November and December and seeing what they'll truly be as they start CAA play (which is ultimately what really matters) at the end of next month.
p.s. Virginia was blown out by 20 and held to only 47 in Houston on ESPN tonight.
You have to love the way Pitino coached this game with a lot of subs and playing without his leading scorer and big guy for a lot of the first half. Still they lead by 7 at the half. Obviously he has more depth especially serviceable depth and size. He puts in this freshman 6'9 Jordan Wildy and we leave him wide open at the top of the key and dare him to shoot. So he shoots and hits both of his threes and scores 8 points playing 6 minutes. Not only did they wear us down pressing us the entire game but they contest(big time) every in bound pass which gave us fits so much so that we had to throw the ball into the backcourt to get it in. It was very frustrating to watch very much like last year. Say what you will but it was a classic example of an experienced coach schooling an upstart coach and will all the talk about our guards their leading scorer was their guard Tyson Jolly who had 21 points in 35 minutes and only picked up 1 PF. I do like the resiliency we showed here but other then that the only major positive was Jay Ray and like what has already been said we don't need Jay Ray taking on the opposing team by himself like in some games in the CAA last year. We have so many more scorers now that there's no need for that.
Also of note Carlos getting 7 minutes but still not on the scoreboard. He has been a pass first guard giving up wide open shots. I'm sure that will start to change. No sign of Bethea,Marshall,Barrouk, Tomasco YET!!
In the first 6-7 minutes - we were down 14-2 - down 12 points...FLAT; we put ourselves behind the eight ball right from the opening tip. Points in the Paint - Iona 38 Hofstra 26 - 12 point difference...with Simmons we have limited bigs (all I could think of watching last night was how much I miss a J Taylor/I Kante)...our guards aren't drivers that draw contact... Points Off the Bench - Iona 23 Hofstra 12 - almost 12 points...Nothing from Burgess, Silverio 6 in the 1st half (don't think he played in the 2nd half)...to Iona's/Pitno's credit - they have a talented, athletic, balanced, aggressive bench.
COOKS - was outsized and clearly the focus of Iona's defensive game plan
ESTRADA - got off to a tough start - didn't play much in the 2nd; which was perplexing as it was Burgess that got big 2nd half minutes...
RAY - cool cutomes - WELCOME BACK - clearly wasn't physically himself - looked tired and limited - but 20 points with a solid shooting night that we know and love
DUBAR - played OK - has a funky 3-point shot that hasn't dropped but a few nice slashing plays - nice stroke from the line
IYIOLA - what I've seen I can live with this guy - moves well; battles; plays within himself and rebounds and knows his roll (our pick and roll - which he worked to perfection a time or two last night).
BURGESS - he got most of the 2nd half minutes over Estrada last night - not sure why - not sure his role when he is in the game with our full complement healthy guards - missed to momentum changing free throws (ahhh) - no points (ughhhh)
CRAMER - a bit lost to start the year - clearly a different role under Speedy
SILVERIO - not many 2nd half minutes that I remember - not enough for me to remember to comment
CARLOS - has a nice handle got a board or two - but nothing to report - seemed to got in the game to eat some minutes
US - we were lost at times, used the 5 guard set and at times we looked good but others guys had no idea what to do...we are going to into the CAA battle tested and possibly with a sub-.500 winning percentage - IF we can come out the OC play healthy - experienced and a new built continuity we might make some noise in the CAA. You can see we need sometime to play together 6 (I included Simmons) of our top 10 guys never played with each other until last week - there is a learning curve, I believe we will jell and this brutal OC schedule will pay dividends in January and February.
IONA - big balanced athletic well coached team - that plays good solid aggressive pressure D; and have more then a few can and will shot - could we beat them sure - but Iona Isn't a team that we should expect to win much more then half the time.
Not happy about the way we played (especially the 1st 6-7-8- minutes).
Yeah good point about Estrada who didn't play a lot of minutes in the 2nd half and Caleb really not helping us or himself. He doesn't seem to exude a lot of confidence. He needs to shoot more. Nice article about the game and a comment by Pitino that he will be surprised if we don't win 22/23 games this year. https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/coll ... 628498002/
triplec2195 wrote:Yeah good point about Estrada who didn't play a lot of minutes in the 2nd half and Caleb really not helping us or himself. He doesn't seem to exude a lot of confidence. He needs to shoot more. Nice article about the game and a comment by Pitino that he will be surprised if we don't win 22/23 games this year. https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/coll ... 628498002/
Also good points - don't think CB looks at all confident and thought although AE was having a tough start but seeing him vs Houston and Duquesne - he handle the ball, rebounds and clear will shot more/better then CB...
Didnt read the article but by what your saying I think we are a 20+ win team...
Think we will be OK (better then OK) in the CAA
The game was lost at 14-2. You can't start down 12 on the road to anyone and expect to win. The team did battle back and tied the game a few times in the 2nd half but it was a struggle all night. You have to know that playing a Pitino coached team is going to be a war. He pressed for 40 minutes. His plan was to wear down Cooks and bother him all night and his plan succeeded. We have a mostly different team from last year and a new head coach but for the second year in a row the team could not match Iona's intensity. I expected a better effort out of the gate since Speedy was on the staff last year and knows what to expect from Iona and the fact that he preaches tough man to man defense as opposed to the previous regime's style of play of letting the opponent's best scorer go off with no adjustments- last year's game (Ross 33 pts). But this year's game ended with the same final score as last year, 82-74.
One other thing I want to call out is the usage of Burgess down the stretch. To me, the last 8 minutes of the game should have been Cooks, Ray, Estrada, Dubar and Iyiola. Burgess played 27 minutes and had 0 pts. He also missed 2 big free throws in crunch time. He should be used sparingly like Silverio IMO. If he was going to be a great player, we would have seen it by now unfortunately.
Re: Game 3 - @Iona, 11/16/21, 7 PM EST