MBB Game 24 Thu, Feb 6 vs Northeastern 7 PM

[Jojogunne]

We return home to face Northeastern (12-11, 4-6), the first of four teams we will host this month.

We beat the Huskies, 55-37, on Jan. 4. They have also lost to Charleston, Elon, Towson (twice), and UNCW. Their wins have come against Delaware, Drexel, Hampton, and Stony Brook.

FloCollege and MSG will carry the game.

[Mark19th]

Win one, lose one. Expect a win Thursday night. Mediocrity is this team’s middle name. Not Speedy’s best coaching job this season.


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[HUSID74]

Win one, lose one. Expect a win Thursday night. Mediocrity is this team’s middle name. Not Speedy’s best coaching job this season.


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Our CAA schedule eases up significantly now...I expect more from this team to close out conference play.

[Wags]

Win one, lose one. Expect a win Thursday night. Mediocrity is this team’s middle name. Not Speedy’s best coaching job this season.


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Our CAA schedule eases up significantly now...I expect more from this team to close out conference play.

I don't know why I still look since this very often doesn't pan out, but FWIW, the game at W&M is the only one of the final eight in which ESPN gives Hofstra a lower percent chance to win.

[RainDelay]

Can I get a win for my birthday tomorrow? Let's hope so!

[stuball888]

Happy birthday rain, delay, and many more

[cactus]

HBD to mike hargrove!

[EvanJ]

https://gohofstra.com/news/2025/2/2/men ... stern.aspx is our preview titled "Hofstra Returns Home To Host Northeastern."

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... game24.pdf is our Game Notes, which continue to list Plotnikov as a tentative starter.

https://nuhuskies.com/news/2025/2/5/men ... mpton.aspx is Northeastern's preview titled "Northeastern Travels To Hofstra, Hosts Hampton." It does not say anything about us or Hampton other than our records and our all-time 32-26 record against Northeastern.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/side ... _Notes.pdf is Northeastern's Game Notes. William Kermoury returned from injury. The notes column says for him "Minutes restriction (foot)." If you include players who have not played in 75 percent of their games to qualify, he is fifth with 9.7 points. Masai Troutman averaged 13.5 points, but he missed ten games including the previous one. They used thirteen players. Three played in all 23 games, and eight played at least 19 games. Northeastern scored 1 fewer point than they allowed.

Did you know that Parnell attempts more field goals per minute he plays than Davis?

[triplec2195]

We're 4.5 point favorites and I'm sure along with a lot of people I expect us to win this game. ESPN as well but I won't post the % I think it's becoming BAD luck. Lets get 2 wins this week especially against that team out east!

[Wags]

Can I get a win for my birthday tomorrow? Let's hope so!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, a great year ahead, and many more!

However old you are today, I hope that's exactly how many points Hofstra wins by tonight for you!

[EvanJ]

We have eleven players with at least 65 minutes, which is our most players to do that since 2012-2013. That season we had fourteen players do that, but it goes down to ten if you exclude the thieves who played six or seven games. The last time we had eleven players have at least 65 minutes without being criminals was 2008-2009. We had eleven players with at least 65 minutes and thirteen players used this season and in 2008-2009.

I am surprised that we lead Division I in opponents' two-point field goal percentage at .414 after how well Campbell shot. After we played, Duke led at .410. Duke won their last two games by a combined 46 points, but did not defend two-pointers well, and their opponents went up to .417.

https://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com/202 ... stern.html is Jerry Beach's "I'll Be Quirky: Northeastern." Our 75-52 loss to Campbell tied for our eighth largest margin of defeat in a CAA game, and our record is 85-50 to Georgia State in the CAA Tournament First Round on March 2, 2012, which is our only CAA Tournament loss by at least 23. We had our largest halftime deficit since it was 25 in a 77-46 loss at Old Dominion on March 1, 2003. We went 8-21 (.276) that season in our second season in the CAA, and it was our second lowest percentage since joining the CAA above 7-25 (.219) in 2012-2013 with the aforementioned thieves. Those are our only two seasons in the last 29 in which we had single-digit wins. It was the first time our only lead was 2-0 since a 62-54 loss hosting James Madison on January 5, 2017. Davis, Sunday, and Aranguren made it the first time we had a three-way tie for our scoring lead since 668 games earlier on February 28, 2004. That was a 64-56 loss at UNCW, and Loren Stokes, Aurimas Kieza, and Woody Souffrant scored 13.

Northeastern joined the CAA in 2005-2006, and they are the only team that we faced twice in each season since then. We are 32-26 (.552) against Northeastern, and have won 15 of the last 21.

Northeastern's Matthews Arena is expected to be razed this season. It opened in 1910.

Flo is streaming this game on YouTube for free. https://www.youtube.com/@FloCollegeBasketball/streams will have a link.

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=547150 will have statistics.

Here are tonight's other six CAA games:

NC A&T at Charleston at 6:00 P.M. on CBS Sports Network
The line and over/under combine to make Charleston win 84-66.5.
KenPom expects Charleston to win 88-71 with a 93 percent chance of winning.

UNCW at Delaware at 6:30 P.M.
The line and over/under combine to make UNCW win 79.5-75.
KenPom expects UNCW to win 81-76 with a 69 percent chance of winning.

Towson at Stony Brook at 6:31 P.M.
The line and over/under combine to make Towson won 68.5-61.
KenPom expects Towson to win 69-62 with a 73 percent chance of winning.

Hampton at Monmouth at 7:00 P.M.
The line and over/under combine to make Monmouth win 72.5-69.
KenPom expects Monmouth to win 70-68 with a 59 percent chance of winning.

W&M at Drexel at 7:00 P.M.
The line and over/under combine to make Drexel win 74.5-72.
KenPom expects Drexel to win 75-72 with a 60 percent chance of winning.

Elon at Campbell at 7:00 P.M.
The line and over/under combine to make Elon win 70-68.5.
KenPom expects Campbell to win 68-66 with a 56 percent chance at winning, so KenPom disagrees with the line.

In KenPom, the Big South passed the CAA for 16th, so the CAA is 17th. There are 31 conferences, so 16th is the median. Because the top conferences have more teams, a minority of conferences have positive values. 11 conferences are positive, and 20 are negative. UNCW (115th), Charleston (151st), and Elon (160th) are the only positive CAA teams. Towson (173rd), Campbell (176th), and us (180th) are in the top half of teams with negative values. Our KenPom is -1.13. KenPom is per 100 possessions. -1.13 makes us about -0.75 per game. We lead the CAA in defense in 65th. Our offense is 308th, which is only above NC A&T in 310th, and if NC A&T's top two scorers remain suspended, their offense will probably remain below ours.

[HUSID80]

So we give them the 3 because they couldn’t hit anything in Boston and now they shoot 50 percent.
We can’t hit bunnies underneath.
If we don’t win this one we are DONE.

[dutchPride86]

It wasn't technically a buzzer beater, but yet again team takes the end of the 1st half off and it costs them. The lack of any real growth or improvement from this group has been staggering. A bad 20 mins away from being in real danger of having to play in that embarrassing Friday play-in round

[dutchPride86]

Today is Thursday I'm not crazy right? Could swear its a Saturday with the refs tonight.

One of the many, many issues with this conference

[dutchPride86]

Wasting a 35 pt night from Jean what shame. But just not gonna win too many games when you only have 3 players make more than 1 FG. And now as the team continues to lose confidence the defense is starting to show cracks. Oh and now have to worry about German and Graham being hurt.

This is just a lousy basketball team plain and simple. Gadsden and Sanders were total whiffs in the portal, Robinson hasn't developed, German can't stay healthy, Farmer is nothing more than an average bench player, Sunday just isn't good enough, and the staff is trying to turn DeCady into a spot up 3pt shooter... anyone have any confidence in their ability to properly develop him? Cruz and Jean give them a start for next year if they stay, but that's about all they got.

Side note... I haven't been able to get down from CT to the Mack this year, are the crowds all as awful and lifeless as they've seemed to be? Is that part of the reason they're struggling to protect home court?

I feel like we're approaching an existential crisis for the program going forward between the lack of NIL and fan turnout and the quality of the product they're putting out there this year

[Wags]

So we give them the 3 because they couldn’t hit anything in Boston and now they shoot 50 percent.
We can’t hit bunnies underneath.
If we don’t win this one we are DONE.

But then they go 0/8 from 3 in the second half and yet the margin goes from 7 at halftime to 9 at the end? That's exactly the decline you wanted from 3 and the margin ends up worse. Hard to fathom. But as Speedy said, they couldn't stop the drive.

I always feared they would finally go the route of many others in sports and wear black. Was happy they were one of the holdouts on those until tonight. Not a fan at all. They have great yellows if they want to wear alternates. I get that it was for Black HIstory Month but I don't like when teams don't wear their colors. Providence? Iowa? Even Northeastern (which should be in red but still has black as a secondary color)? Fine, wear black. They first two should, the last one can. But not when you're only blue, white, and yellow (even though they call it gold). It may have been fitting to debut those tonight though because at 4-7, that could be the funeral for the season unless there is an unlikely turnaround from here.

Aranguren drawing 12 fouls was a crazy number but aside from him and Davis, no one else scored more than 6 pts, and aside from those two and Graham, no one more than 3 pts. Tough to win that way.

I think they really lost the game with the 8-0 run to close the first half. Sure enough, they never led again and tied it only once late (at 56-56) in the second half. They aren't built that way. They must play from in front.

45 of the 51 free throws in the game were in the second half. Both teams were in the bonus (6 team fouls each so the next one to be in the bonus) from 13:32 on. Very tough flow after they let them play in the first half. A lot of it was legit but some were just too many whistles.

Sorry they didn't get a win for you, but happy birthday again nonetheless, Rain Delay!

Campbell wins big again. They are +102 since trailing at Hofstra by 18 three games prior.

[dutchPride86]

I think they really lost the game with the 8-0 run to close the first half. Sure enough, they never led again and tied it only once late (at 56-56) in the second half. They aren't built that way. They must play from in front.

One of the common denominators at the end of both halves was Robinson being in the game. I don't usually take a lot of stock into +/- at this level, but Robinson being a -16 in 14 minutes is pretty telling

[HUSID74]

Robinson should not be on he court period...I don't understand why he plays. This game was hard to swallow and yes the crowd looked PATHETIC.
Are the students back? That section was EMPTY. No energy in the building whatsoever.

[Wags]

Robinson should not be on he court period...I don't understand why he plays. This game was hard to swallow and yes the crowd looked PATHETIC.
Are the students back? That section was EMPTY. No energy in the building whatsoever.

Only 1,224 in attendance last night but for that size of a crowd, there were actually a group of kids and others in the sections opposite the Northeastern bench that were pretty loud and into it at times. But it's tough to keep a crowd into it when you start the game with 5 straight misses, then end the first half missing 8 in a row, and then in the second half have two more stretches when you miss 6 straight and then another 5 straight.

That's been a problem all season and it's one of the issues for a mid-major like Hofstra in today's NIL landscape. Just about every game this year, they have multiple stretches when they miss 3, 4, 5, or more shots in a row because there is no JWF, Buie, or Tyler Thomas, etc. who will make a shot or two to stop a streak like that. Jean and Cruz are doing what they can but they're sophomores being asked to shoulder a go-to type of role and it's a lot on them right now, especially with limited or at best, inconsistent help around them. It puts a lot of pressure on their defense (which has mostly held up very well this year) when no one can make a shot at the other end in a while. It's very tough to win games like that. It leaves them so little room for error defensively even when they've been solid almost all year at that end of the floor.

Six CAA POY awards in the past nine years, so we're used to either not seeing those kinds of stretches at all or seeing them stop quickly. But as much as Jean and Cruz are trying (and Jean has improved and been very good and efficient a few times recently), they're not like those past POYs, at least not yet. That's where the new NIL world is really have an effect. If we were still in the old era, Carlos would've set someone up for a bucket or made a shot himself or Dubar would've stopped a team cold spell with a couple of shots last night. But in this current era, those guys are gone and Jean and Cruz are being asked to do way more than they had to before they arrived. I think they've adjusted well for the most part, especially Jean, but it's still a lot, and then that affect all of the other roles down the line.

[HUSID74]

Totally agree Wags on Cruz and Jean. Someone else needs to step up...it has not been Sanders, a huge disappointment and last night Graham had a tough night and he's now injured although hopefully not seriously.
We desperately need a CONSISTENT third option.