MBB Game 16 Charleston Jan 9 (Thu) 7 PM

[EvanJ]

The statistics now have the rosters, and Charleston has 16 players. Here is a statistical comparison with us followed by Charleston:

Points: 67.9, 79.7
Field goal percentage: .427, .462
Three-point field goal percentage: .337, .362,
Free throw percentage: .740, .772,
Rebounds: 34.8, 36.5
Offensive rebounds: 7.1, 8.4
Blocks: 4.9, 1.9
Steals: 6.4, 7.3
Assists: 13.1, 16.3
Turnovers: 12.1, 13.1
Assists/turnovers: 1.08, 1.25
Efficiency (Points + Rebounds + Assists + Steals + Blocks - Missed shots - Turnovers): 75.1, 89.2

Charleston is better in ten of twelve statistics, but they don't including opponents' scoring and shooting.

[dutchPride86]

Damn hope that Tavarez half court shot doesn't kill all the momentum from a terrific defensive effort that half. Thought Graham set the tone early on the boards.

Not taking anything away from how hard Hofstra is playing, but having watched Charleston some this year they played that half at half speed. Whether it's the sparse crowd or them not respecting us this year, let's hope they don't find their best gear in the 2nd half.

Also, anyone know what happened to Sanders now? Doesn't look like he's even on the bench tonight

[Wags]

This is not the game I thought they'd turn it around on the glass, but happy to see it. 29-19 including 10-3 on the offensive boards.

Up 31-27 (and could've been 31-24 without that lucky heave) isn't bad considering they went on a 4/22 shooting stretch at one point. But Charleston was only 2/17 during much of that same period of time.

[Wags]

8-0 Charleston out of the locker room to extend it to 11-0 with that heave to end the first half causes Speedy to use a timeout just 1:27 into the second half and now it's 13-0 and a 37-31, Cougars lead.

[dutchPride86]

8-0 Charleston out of the locker room to extend it to 11-0 with that heave to end the first half causes Speedy to use a timeout just 1:27 into the second half and now it's 13-0 and a 37-31, Cougars lead.

This is the Charleston team I know and hate. Lol

Don't know what that first half effort was from them

[Wags]

8-0 Charleston out of the locker room to extend it to 11-0 with that heave to end the first half causes Speedy to use a timeout just 1:27 into the second half and now it's 13-0 and a 37-31, Cougars lead.

This is the Charleston team I know and hate. Lol

Don't know what that first half effort was from them

Hofstra's D and rebounding had a lot to do with that. Still hanging in. Charleston has been better in the second half overall but not nearly as good as that early run after halftime.

[dutchPride86]

Shame this was a winnable game. Effort was there, they took the Charleston wings out of the game. Just not gonna beat a lot of teams when you can't score. The sets suck, way too many difficult shots, costly turnovers, and bricks on rare good ones. But bring that effort level against the rest of the conference, on the boards esp, and they'll win some games here and there.

Thought it was arguably Graham and Araguren's best games of the year, but one of Cruz's worst.

My expectation for where this program SHOULD BE is that any loss in the CAA, esp at home, is bad and borderline inexcusable. But based on what this team IS at this point, I guess a moral victory tonight, sad as that is

[Mikey77]

Sanders? Does this team practice shooting? Geez we miss Jalen, Tyler, Justin etc.

[Jojogunne]

Charleston Coach Chris Mack made his debut at The Mack tonight.

Here's his backstory:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/309670 ... very-well/

[Pride97]

Graham played well defensively but 8-18 in the paint hurts. Make 2-3 more and it’s a game. That said, much improved on the boards tonight.

Are they ever going to reel Robinson in? Takes bad shots from anywhere (long distance 3a, off balance fade away) and ends up going 3-11. Hard to win when you add in Cruz’s 2-10.

Better effort than the last home game for sure, but they have to find some efficient scoring to hang in this league.


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[Wags]

Aside from the highly unlikely case in which an opposing coach named Calkins may have visited Hofstra for a game during Hofstra's earlier years, this was probably the first time an opposing coach's name matched Hofstra's arena name.

[cactus]

As noted above this was a winnable game, one that Charleston didn't seem to want.

First half they put some points on the board and played some really excellent defense, things went about as well as you could hope for with this team.

For 19:59, at least.

The whole game changed with the 3/4 court heave at the end of the half. Within a minute and a half they were down 4 from being up 7 and played catch up the rest of the game, and they can't win games with this personnel playing catch up. Especially not with Robinson dribbling for 20 seconds at the top of the key possession after possession - may have been part of the gameplan in the first half if/when they had a lead, but maddening to watch down 5+ the back end of the 2nd half, especially when it results in repeated rushed/forced shots with the shot clock expiring.. Maybe they hoped Sanders would be a 3 level scorer but I don't think they have anyone on the roster who has the potential to take over a game late against a good team.. Also disappointing in the second half was as much as I would like to see them play DeCady at the 4, for the few minutes he was in, the defense was all out of sorts and scrambling on every possession.

[RainDelay]

Once again a mix of encouraging and disappointing. As some of you have said, this team is not built to play from behind. That being said, the defensive effort and result against a high-powered Charleston team was incredible. They looked uncomfortable all night, German had his covers in a straightjacket and save for a few possessions, Graham did a decent job bothering Brzovic.

This team showed they can compete with the very top of the league, just have to keep ironing out what needs to be ironed.

[RainDelay]

Winning the rebounding battle was also a major positive. If they do this against other opponents and keep the defense up, wins will be there for the taking - they just need to take them.

Side note, *anyone* know what happened to Sanders?

[HUSID74]

Rebounding and defensive intensity was off the charts! That heave and the early run in the second half doomed us in this game but we still hung in there.
Right now we area flawed team on offense...we have no real shooter we can count on and we'll need to win these type of roack fights.

Good news is Charlestonin the best team in the League by far and we went toe to toe with...

As for Sanders IMO he is done. Once he was pulled out of the starting lineup he checked out...farewell.

[Cards]

Agree that HU defense was good yesterday - especially in the first half. We have to acknowledge, however, that CoC was "off" of their offensive game. They only hit 21% on threes (many of which were open shots) and 57% on FTs (pretty ugly).

HU just has no firepower - and against decent competition they have to play lock down D as well as move the ball on O to win games. They had both yesterday for the first 20 minutes. The ball movement disappeared in the second half, and we missed a boatload of bunnies (to be fair, so did Coc). I realize that our guards are young (most are sophomores), but geez its frustrating to watch them and see that they think they can go one on one as much as they do. We all have said it before and will continue to say it - MOVE YOUR FEET AND MOVE THE BALL!

[triplec2195]

I missed this game unfortunately but there’s a lot of talk concerning Sanders. I’d like to know whether people think we would have won this game with a healthy Sanders playing??

[HUSID74]

In Speedy's presser after the game he was asked about Sanders.
Speedy said he will be back and back soon; said he's "working out some issues" for what its worth.
If he comes back with the right attitude and can shoot it will make a big difference.

[Cards]

I missed this game unfortunately but there’s a lot of talk concerning Sanders. I’d like to know whether people think we would have won this game with a healthy Sanders playing??

Only if his 3 pt shooting efficiency was higher than what we've seen so far this year. Unfortunately, I have no reason to think it would have been!

[Mikey77]

On Sanders - the above comments are true. I don't know what the issues are. The kid can play it seems but is a bit on an enigma to say the least.