MBB Game 16 Charleston Jan 9 (Thu) 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

After barely squeaking by an anemic Northeastern team, we return home to face two challenging rivals: Charleston on Thursday and UNCW on Saturday.

Post away, earlybirds. More details to follow.

[HUSID74]

I wouldn't call an 18 point win in a rock fight barely squeaking by!

[Wags]

I wouldn't call an 18 point win in a rock fight barely squeaking by!

Nor would I label Northeastern anemic. They put up 80 points in a win over Delaware. No credit for Hofstra's defense making Northeastern look anemic?

And usually Jojo's a positive one around here.

[stuball888]

They were missing two starters
I know JoJo hates the term rock fight
Let's call it a pillow fight now

[Jojogunne]

I don't mind a rock fight.

I still think that was a poor effort yesterday, our 18 point-margin notwithstanding. And Northeastern's 37 points in 40 minutes IS anemic.

[Wags]

I still think that was a poor effort yesterday, our 18 point-margin notwithstanding.

The first half, yeah. But even offensively, Hofstra was good in the second half.

And Northeastern's 37 points in 40 minutes IS anemic.

It was but Hofstra's defense had a lot to do with that, no?

[triplec2195]

Give Hofstra credit in this game and move on from the W&M shellacking. We played without Sanders in this game but honestly I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Between Gadsden and Robinson they had all of 4 points in 47 minutes. Sanders was the leading scorer in the W&M debacle. We beat a team coming off a nice win over Delaware so lets look at this game as a positive.

[HUSID74]

They were missing two starters
I know JoJo hates the term rock fight
Let's call it a pillow fight now

The second starter who was out in the first half played in the second half when we made our run.

[HUSID74]

OK, shouldn't all of this be on the Northeastern thread?
Does anyone have any insight into DeCady's injury...I know he was hit in the eye but he could have a scratched cornea and I know from expereince that is extremly painful and sometimes slow to heal.
Come on you sleuths, let's get some information here!

[HUSID74]

ESPN gives us a 40.6% chance of winning this game.

[EvanJ]

Charleston made 22 free throws in the second half, and Towson made 1. Ante Brzovic's 16 were only the third most on his team, but it was still enough for him to be the first player to win Player of the Week twice this season.

https://cofcsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats has Charleston's statistics.

[dutchPride86]

So I think I'm finally getting over the 5 stages of grief for the Hofstra offense we've come to know and love, and starting to slowly accept the reality of what this team is this year. Have to approach these games, esp against a team like Charleston, the same way a late 2010s Towson or Drexel type team would approach a game against us... slow it down and make it ugly.

Charleston has scored 70+ pts 12 times in 15 games, and are 12-0 when they do. The 3 times a team has held them under 70, they've lost. They are also 16th in the country in tempo (W&M is 39th for comparison). So how do you slow a team like them down?

1. Keep Charleston off the foul line. Charleston has already attempted an obscene 66 FTs in their 2 CAA games, and we foul almost as often as any team in the conference. Finding a way to keep them off the line will be critical

2. Don't let their wings get comfortable from 3 (a challenge against another weakness of ours). Charleston crushed the portal with 3 impact transfers on the wings, and Tavarez and Boyd in particular are quality 3pt shooters. Brzovic is a star, but I'd still rather see him go for 35 pts rather than the 3 wings all go for 15+

3. Charleston is not elite defensively, but they do get steals and force turnovers. Taking care of the ball will be key

So should be easy right? Lol.

It's a shame Charleston has on paper jumped this far ahead of us as a program, but that's why they play the games right?

[triplec2195]

After watching them beat Towson and lead the whole way I said to myself this could be an attempt in futility. This team is quick they're physical and like you said dutchPride their guards can shoot. Towson had the size and physical bigs to play Brzovic one on one which didn't leave their guards with open 3's. IDK what we will do to keep the score down. When Towson tried to leave guys behind to pick up O rebounds they got burned a few times on full court passes for easy layups. I suspect we'll play into their hands just like we did against W&M and shoot and make no attempt for any O rebounds. I like to be an optimist and crazy things happen in this game but unless we're shooting the lights out and/or get Brzovic in foul trouble I really don't see how we can win this game. Everything and I mean everything will have to go our way and if we run into foul trouble the end will be near.

[HUSID74]

Updated odds. ESPN now gives us a 43.2 % chane of winning this game.

[EvanJ]

So I think I'm finally getting over the 5 stages of grief for the Hofstra offense we've come to know and love, and starting to slowly accept the reality of what this team is this year. Have to approach these games, esp against a team like Charleston, the same way a late 2010s Towson or Drexel type team would approach a game against us... slow it down and make it ugly.

Charleston has scored 70+ pts 12 times in 15 games, and are 12-0 when they do. The 3 times a team has held them under 70, they've lost. They are also 16th in the country in tempo (W&M is 39th for comparison). So how do you slow a team like them down?

1. Keep Charleston off the foul line. Charleston has already attempted an obscene 66 FTs in their 2 CAA games, and we foul almost as often as any team in the conference. Finding a way to keep them off the line will be critical

2. Don't let their wings get comfortable from 3 (a challenge against another weakness of ours). Charleston crushed the portal with 3 impact transfers on the wings, and Tavarez and Boyd in particular are quality 3pt shooters. Brzovic is a star, but I'd still rather see him go for 35 pts rather than the 3 wings all go for 15+

3. Charleston is not elite defensively, but they do get steals and force turnovers. Taking care of the ball will be key

So should be easy right? Lol.

It's a shame Charleston has on paper jumped this far ahead of us as a program, but that's why they play the games right?

Believe it or not, on KenPom, Charleston is better at defense (120th, 2nd in the CAA behind us) than offense (159th, 4th in the CAA). That is because of tempo. By playing at a fast tempo, the same quality defense will allow more points per game. Our games have had a combined 1,984 points. Adjusting it to Charleston's tempo measured by possessions per game would make our games have 2,228 points, which is 16.13 more per game for the teams combined.

https://gohofstra.com/news/2025/1/7/men ... rsday.aspx is our preview titled "Pride And Cougars To Battle On Thursday." We are 10-10 against Charleston.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... game16.pdf is our Game Notes.

https://cofcsports.com/news/2025/1/8/me ... fstra.aspx is Charleston's preview titled "Men's Basketball Set to Face Hofstra."

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... ofstra.pdf is Charleston's Game Notes.

https://cofcsports.com/sports/mens-bask ... individual has Charleston's statistics. They have used fifteen players including nine regulars. That include Lazar Djokovic, who last played on December 23, and has played in 11 games, but not 75 percent of his team's games to qualify. Including him, they have six players averaging 24 to 34 minutes. Jaxon Prunty is averaging 22 minutes in 5 games, he has not played since December 22, and I did not include him as a regular. Only three players have played in every game. They have regulars who missed one or two games and played in the last game.

Aranguren is one of five players averaging at least 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal in at least 10 games, and he is the only player in the Eastern Time Zone doing that. Ante Brzovic isn't far from that, as he averages 3.6 assists and 0.8 steals. Aaron Estrada did not do that combination because he never averaged more than 5.7 rebounds.

[HUSID74]

Boy are these boards dead considering this is one of the biggest weekends for this team this season!

Strangely enough, ESPN now has us as 1.5 point favorites in this game, yet it gives Charleton a 56.6 % chance of winning.

Thoughts?

[dutchPride86]

Boy are these boards dead considering this is one of the biggest weekends for this team this season!

Strangely enough, ESPN now has us as 1.5 point favorites in this game, yet it gives Charleton a 56.6 % chance of winning.

Thoughts?

We have NO business being favored in this game, it's a laughable line. But hey Vegas had the jets as favorites for like 75% of their games this yr too so who knows what they're thinking anymore

Hope there's at least a decent crowd tonight. I haven't been able to get down to the Mack yet this year, but on "tv" it sounded absolutely dead for the Temple and W&M games... have been wondering if that's contributed to how poorly they've played at home recently if that is indeed how it's felt in the building

[HUSID74]

Agree on the last two crowds....there were almost 2,000 people for the W&M game but we were getting crushed so the crowd just sat on their hands.
Tonight will be tough as it's freezing and the first of the college football semi-finals goes at 7:30 pm with a top matchup in Penn State and otre Dame.

[dutchPride86]

Well the line has completely flipped, Charleston now -1.5. Must have been some heavy early action on Charleston, not surprising

[EvanJ]

Boy are these boards dead considering this is one of the biggest weekends for this team this season!

Strangely enough, ESPN now has us as 1.5 point favorites in this game, yet it gives Charleton a 56.6 % chance of winning.

Thoughts?

ESPN's bottom line gives the line and ESPN's probability of winning for pro and power conference games. When the line is close, ESPN sometimes expects the underdog to win, and the line turned out to move toward Charleston.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... tgame.html is Jerry Beach's "Keep It Perky: Northeastern postgame." The 55-37 win over Northeastern was a unicorn score, meaning the first time we won by that score. The previous closest score to 55-37 was a 55-36 win over Fort Totten in 1942-1943.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... fstra.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Charleston at Hofstra." Our win over Northeastern made us join Marist as teams with two wins with 55 or fewer points scored this season, and our win over Seton Hall is the only time a team won with under 50 points. It is the first season that we had two wins with 55 or fewer points since a 55-42 win hosting Stony Brook on November 22, 1996, and a 55-54 win at Florida International three days later. That was when Claxton combined to score 35 points in his first two career games. Northeastern's .213 field goal percentage was the lowest we allowed since Columbia shot .193 when we hosted and beat them 64-40 on December 22, 2004. We have wins with scores in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 110s to be the first team since 2021-2022 to have seven starting digits. The last team to win with those starting digits but not the 100s was California-Irvine in 2013-2014.

Here is tonight's CAA schedule with all of the games at 7:00 P.M.

Charleston at Us on MSG2: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=547146
KenPom expects Charleston to win 69-68 with a 54 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect Charleston to win 70.5-69.

Campbell at Hampton: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=547069
KenPom expects Hamptonto win 71-65 with a 69 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect Hampton to win 71.5-67.

Elon at William & Mary on CBS Sports Network: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=551098
KenPom expects William & Mary to win 78-77 with a 51 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect William & Mary to win 77-74.5.

Delaware at North Carolina A&T: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=548280
KenPom expects Delaware to win 84-81 with a 59 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect Delaware to win 83-78.5.

UNCW at Monmouth on NBC Sports Philadelphia: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=548063
KenPom expects UNCW to win 75-71 with a 64 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect UNCW to win 75-70.5.

Northeastern at Towson on Monumental: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=550193
KenPom expects Towson to win 66-64 with a 57 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect Towson to win 67.5-62.

Drexel at Stony Brook on SNY: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=549896
KenPom expects Drexel to win 70-64 with a 70 percent chance of winning.
The line and over/under combine to expect Drexel to win 69-64.5.