Tiger93

4 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Maybe it’s because our rims are uneven?!  I joke, sort of. 
it is random-ish. We hedge and over rotate a lot. That can lead to some open threes. This is a stat I would expect to get closer to average as play goes on

It is a very random stat, but although I don't love our switching defense at times it really feels like we have good depth and personnel for it this year. Last year's team seemed like a bad fit for it. I agree it will even out a little, but I still think it can be a strength. We will find out this week because Bill Coen often figures out ways to match up well against our defense and they had one of the most efficient offensive games anyone has had against us earlier this year. Hofstra also tore our defense apart in the second half at their place last year. 

I know 3-pt shooting percentage can be random and there is an element of make or miss luck, but I still think our opponents 3-pt shooting percentage of .246 (35-142) in conference play is the most impressive stat of the year so far. It is especially impressive since we have faced four of the best 3-pt shooting teams in conference play so far, and we are No. 2 on that list. We have the best differential in 3-pt pct (.368) to 3-pt pct against (.246) in conference play at +.122. 

Another way to translate it is we have scored 180 points in conference play off three-points and our opponents have scored 105, which puts us at +75. I am still working on the full conference breakdown, but I would have never predicted what a huge advantage this would be for us. 

Attached is our opponent's game-by-game 3pt FG pct. breakdown. 

1 minute ago, Tgr4life said:

I understand that the team is now playing better than they (Towson) have in a while. The players seem to be doing well. 

You may view this as negative rather than realistic....but as Ravens fan currently know......winning in the regular season is nice and enjoyable, but you are judged by what you do in the post season. If this team maintains and wins the championship, then there is something worthwhile to celebrate. All you have to do is read about a player going from MVP on a Saturday to (according to Stephen A. Smith) a choke artist in 24 hours. 

Just the way sports works. 

There is no doubt that postseason in American sports is the end all be all and the bottom line for your how your results are measured. However, it is about 10% (if that) of what you watch as a real fan during the year. While it controls the whole narrative, there has to be some enjoyment of the journey and it can't all be wiped out by the postseason results. Yes, I realize I am making a statement that will rehash the same old tired arguments we always have here. For our particular program, we are all in agreement the NCAA Tournament is the thing, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy smacking Charleston and grabbing a win at their place, ending Drexel's unbeaten run, taking down UNC-W, or completing the first half of sweeping the chickens out of this conference. To me it is about staying in the present and seeing what this interesting mix of young and more experienced players can do, and then hoping and praying when we get to March that we can get it right finally. 

28 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Have we ever had two in the same week??!

I did a quick scan and our Rookie of the Week history was not very plentiful before this year. It looked like our last Rookie of the Week before this season was Jason Gibson on January 27, 2020. Prior to that it was Mike Morsell on February 2, 2016. Jerome Hairston won it four times in 2012-13.

On December 31, 2012, Jerelle Benimon was named Player of the Week and Hairston claimed Rookie of the Week honors. It also happened on January 16, 2006 when Gary Neal won Player of the Week and Tim Crossin won Rookie of the Week. 

Other Rookie of the Week honorees included Troy Franklin November 24 & December 8, 2009, Tim Crossin December 5, 2005, January 16 & February 20, 2006. Trevan Jackson on December 1, 2003, and Lawrence Hamm on December 16, 2002, January 20 & February 3, 2003. 

This year and 2012-13 are the only times we have had four Rookie of the Week selections. It looks like Hairston (4), Crossin (3), Hamm (3) and Tejada (3) are the only ones to win it three or more times. This year, I believe is also the first time we have had two different players named Rookie of the Week in the same season. 
 

This was a quick scan so I may have missed some on my scanning. https://caasports.com/documents/2023/4/6/recordbook23mbask.pdf

23 minutes ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

No he does not.  Before Drexel he had UNC Wilmington in there.  I’ve been following all season long. 

You might be right as I haven't checked for a good part of the year, but from a quick check on Twitter it looks like on January 12, 2024 he had Drexel after the week where Drexel and Towson both beat UNC-W. I think Drexel has been there ever since. The last week I saw UNC-W there was December 29, but I couldn't find one for the next week. 

I think Lunardi just puts whoever is in first place in one-bid conference leagues during the regular-season. You might be giving him too much credit for following what is truly going on at a mid-major level. 

This was one of those games that felt like it was closer than it should have been throughout the entirety of the contest. It felt like we should have been leading by double-figures for much of the second half, but from the 1:37 mark of the first half at 28-24 all the way until Sulaiman hit his final two free throws at the 15-second mark this game lived in a 4-to-9 point margin window the whole time. As much criticism as I will give for not winning by more, I will give credit for never letting Delaware getting it any closed than four on the road. 

This was another one of those offensive efforts that makes you worried about when this team gets in big games, but it was also an excellent defensive effort on the road. Delaware's previous low for points in a game was 65 against Air Force, and we held them to nine points below that total. This was also the first time all year they did not reach double digit assists with only 8 for the game. It also tied for the third-highest turnover total at 14. Their only two losses at home were by three in OT to Rider and by two against Princeton, so winning by 11 there is a big deal. At least for now until we see what others teams do there. 

Individually, it was another game where guys stepped in and made plays to fill their roles. Christian May was great for the first 2/3rds of the game scoring 23 points in the first 29+ minutes. For the second straight game, he led the team in rebounds (eight boards). He also was a game-high +16 today. May did not score the final 10:35 and Williamson was there to pick up where he left off. Williamson only had three points until the 7:56 mark of the second half. With Towson on nearly a 3-minute scoring drought, he scored the next nine Tigers points between the 7:56 and 4:05 mark (3:51 game time). He had 13 points in the final 7:56 including an awesome stop-on-a-dime playground crossover that looked like it was part of the And-One Mix Tour.

Outside of May and Williamson, the rest of the team shot 8-36. However, there were players that filled roles in another way. Even though Tarke was 2-17 from the field and 0-6 from 3ptFg, he did grab six boards and two steals. The best supporting performance came from Chase Paar who stepped up and played good defense against Davis after Thompson's ejection. Paar finished with four points, five rebounds and two steals, but the boxscore doesn't fully show his contribution. Paar, Tarke and Messiah Jones all had two steals, and tied Towson's high steal total in a D-1 game with the nine they had against Colorado.

Jones is now 13-16 (81%) and is +50 in 71 minutes over the last four games. The Jones-Sulaiman combo has been interesting one. Sulaiman hasn't scored much, but he has grabbed 21 rebounds (6 vs. Delaware) in his last 60 minutes of play. He only had three rebounds against College of Charleston, but had three steals in that game. I know +/- can be a random useless stat, but our top +/- guys in conference have been Tejada (+49 in 22.3 minutes per game), Jones (+45 in 16.6 mpg), May (+43 in 31.8 mpg), Williamson (+32 in 23.5 mpg), Thompson (+32 in 27.6 mpg) and Tarke (+27 in 30.6 mpg). 

Towson averaged 1.00 points per possession in what I believe was a season-high for D-1 of possessions per game in regulation (they had 92 in 2OT against Bryant). They held Delaware to 0.872 points per possession in 65 possessions, which is three below their average. We probably played closer to their pace today, but our defense and both teams shooting percentages (37.3% for Towson and 39.1% for Delaware) had a great deal to do with the lack of offense on both ends. 

It was also good to see Stony Brook take down UNC-W yesterday. I think this win makes me feel like we can be a top 3-4 team in the conference. The Monmouth and Northeastern losses make it tough to think about being a top two team with what our remaining schedule looks like. Although, the Charleston road win is probably one not many others will have.

Charleston has only lost to us at home and UNC-W on the road, while Drexel lost to us on the road. Neither really has what you would call a bad loss. We can't really afford to lose to anyone outside of the top 4-5 teams (Hofstra is probably rounding its way to this list) on the road or at home if we want to really think about being at the top of this conference.

I like the way this team is playing on defense, and it will be interesting to see if we can keep having these quality role player performance on the road. I would say to this point we probably have two of the four best conference wins with the Charleston road win and the Drexel home win. Charleston at Hofstra and UNC-W at home against Charleston are probably the other two. I might be missing the others, but for right now this Delaware win is probably close behind those wins. 

To your point, Delaware is averaging 74.4 ppg in conference play and giving up an average of 70.7. They are 3-0 at home and averaging a little over 80 ppg at home in conference play against NC A&T (90), Stony Brook (71), Hampton (80). Delaware is also shooting 46.2% FG in conference play and 35.9% from 3pt FG. 

Road teams are 18-32 in conference play. When you look at the winning teams right now (Drexel 7-1, Charleston 5-2, Towson 5-2, UNC-W 5-2, Delaware 4-3, Hofstra 4-3, Campbell 4-3, NC A&T 4-3), that group has 4 of the 18 home losses. Charleston beat Hofstra, Drexel beat NC A&T, Delaware beat Campbell and Towson beat Charleston. 

We have lost two of the last three at Newark since 2020, but we also won four straight there before that stretch. Towson is also 12-4 against Delaware in the last 16 meetings (which I didn't remember). 

They are middle of the road in pace at 171 (68.1 possessions per game). We moved up two spots to 360 (61.5 possessions per game). I was wondering what our conference looks like overall. Here is the list of possessions per game/tempo for the whole CAA:

Hampton (35), Charleston (36), NC A&T (100), Elon (140), Delaware (171), Monmouth (185), Stony Brook (220), Hofstra (235), William and Mary (246), UNC-W (257), Northeastern (296), Campbell (316), Drexel (348), Towson (360). 

To the point on Davis, we did a decent job against him at home and in the CAA Tournament last year. He scored 16 points and was 8-13 in Newark, but averaged 10.7 ppg and was 16-33 from the field in three games. He has obviously been great this year at 18.6 ppg and 7.1 rpg. Last year Christian Ray averaged 15.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg and was 19-26 from the field. 

I am seeing Delaware -1.5  and a 133.5 over-under. Getting this win, would make me a believer that we can be a top 3-4 team in this conference. It would also be a nice statement to win two straight tough road games. 

That is a very interesting list of transfers with a variety of paths to find themselves in the Black and Gold. I have all the confidence in the world in this coaching staff to retool with these players and continue to uphold the high level we become accustomed to with this program. 

The one thing I have really liked to see from this team lately is role players stepping in and contributing effectively in a variety of ways.

Messiah Jones is averaging 7.3 ppg, shooting 10-12 (83%) and is a +41 in an average of a little over 17 minutes over the last three games. Toniya Sulaiman had 4 offensive rebounds (8 overall), has contributed 9 offensive rebounds in the last two games and leads the team with 15 offensive rebounds in conference play. Chaase Paar chipped in 6 pts, was 3-4, and was a +9 on the floor in 14 minutes. Dylan Williamson didn't have a great game and only played 18 minutes, but knocked down the last two free throws, which we desperately needed and was a +8 on the floor. 

Skerry has figured out the Tarke, May and Thompson are the only guys he trusts playing 30 minutes per game. May led the way with 34 minutes, and it was good to see him score 15 points on only nine FGs while also grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds (only one less than Williams). Tarke continues to be our alpha player, and is not scared of any moment. Sometimes that doesn't lead to the greatest shot selection, but he had a couple of great hesitation shot fakes to score over Williams. Even though it took him 14 shots to get 18 points it is helpful to have his aggressiveness, because it opens up offensive rebounding and other opportunities.

Charles fouled out in 25 minutes, but I thought he played really well defensively when he is in the game. It might not look like it statistically, but I feel like he gets the better of Williams in these matchups. He scored 12 points in 25 minutes has to be one of most explosive outputs, and he had a couple of key blocks. He is shooting 61.5% from the field in conference play. He does not qualify, but that would be second behind Williams if he did. Charles leads the team in conference play in rebounding, FG%, steals, blocks and is only two behind the lead in assists. 

One of the interesting things when you look at the conference-only stats is that of the top four teams (Drexel, Charleston, Towson and UNC-W) they only have three players in the top 25 of minutes played. White is 18th, May is 20th, Tarke is 22nd and Charleston and Drexel have no one on that list.

The rotations of those teams and how they evolve throughout the year (probably not much) will be interesting to track. Going back to my original point I feel like Skerry has been doing a solid job rotating players and having them understand strengths when they get in the game. This might be the deepest Towson team from an athletic standpoint I can remember, so it is good he is doing that well because it was one of my primary criticism of him heading into conference play. 

Now it is time to send Delaware off to their new conference with a couple of Ls the next couple of weeks. 

Two trends I would love to keep up in conference play that I think are a mix of good defense by Towson and a little bit of luck is our three-point shooting compared to opponent's three-point shooting and our assist-to-turnover ratio compared to opponents. 

We are currently second in CAA Play in 3pt-FG pct. at .394 (52-132). In our first six games we are 6-28 (Monmouth), 9-18 (UNC-W), 10-25 (Stony Brook), 6-16 (Northeastern), 10-19 (Charleston) and 11-26 (Campbell). Of course the team in front of us is Drexel, who is shooting .427 (56-131) in seven conference games.

Conversely, we are holding a opponents to a .229 3pt-FG pct. at 24-105, which is .59 lower than anyone else (NC A&T is second at .288). Not only that, but we have allowed the second-lowest attempts in conference play as well. This seems to be a mix of quality defense and the slow pace I often criticize. I don't have anything to back this up, but Skerry's demanding switch defense which looked awful at times last year seems like it is a lot tighter this year. We seem to overall have more players capable of doing it, and more athleticism. In our first six games opponents are 1-15 (Monmouth) 4-17 (UNC-W), 4-19 (Stony Brook), 4-10 (Northeastern, who was on fire with 2pt-FGs), 8-28 (Charleston) and 3-16 (Campbell). 

Another thing is that our opponents have 45 assists while committing 67 turnovers. That is an average of 7.5 assist per game. We are going to the line 17 times more than opponents 109 to 92, but only making two more free throws. 

In conference play, we are averaging 1.084 points per possession on an average of 61.6 possessions per game (we are 9-0 when we get to 1.1 on the year). That is slightly above our overall pace (61.1 possessions per game). We are limiting our opponents to 0.957 points per possession on 62.5 possessions per game. Drexel is averaging 1.307 points per possession on 62.7 possession per game. They are also limiting opponents to .903 points per possession on 63.1 possession per game. They are shooting 51% in conference play too. 

I will say so far their tough games against Monmouth, UNCW and Delaware have all been at home. They have played NC A&T, Hampton, Elon and William & Mary on the road, while we have player College of Charleston, Northeastern and Monmouth. This will obviously still be a very difficult game. 

As others have said, good to avoid the letdown after the big win in Charleston. That felt like the type of win we were getting over teams in our conference in 2021-22 when things were humming along. Our biggest margin of victory against a D-1 team was 10 before today against UMass and Nicholls. To that point, it matched the biggest blowout by any team in the CAA this year (Drexel beating Hampton 99-65 on January 1 was the other). 

For Campbell, this was their lowest scoring game of the year. Previous to today, 16 points was the most anyone had beaten them by this year. The 43 points was their lowest total since they scored 42 against Longwood on December 31, 2022. It was their most lopsided defeat since November 11, 2016 when Oklahoma State beat them 102-65. 

Several on here predicted this would be a big offensive rebounding and those individuals were correct. The 18 offensive rebounds were our most since the Nicholls game when we grabbed 21. It was the seventh time this year this team has had 18 or more offensive rebounds in a game (our 22 against Wake is our highest total). We limited Campbell to .683 points per possession in 63 possessions. 

We had 1.242 points per possession in 62 possessions (which actually wasn't as efficient as our 1.281 against College of Charleston). I believe was are 9-0 when averaging 1.1 points per possession or better. It was good to see Tejada put up 18 points, grab six boards and had a +20 in 25 minutes. Tarke played a team-high in minutes for a second game in a row with 27 minutes, and also had a game-high +22 with 12 points and four rebounds. It doesn't feel like have many games where guys have big assist numbers, so good to see Williams dish out 7 dimes, 7 points and a team-high 2 steals. 

You expect this more at home, but there were some great performances off the bench for a second game in a row. Lowry was +21 with 7 rebounds (4 offensive), 4 blocks and 3 assists in 18 minutes. Him and Sulaiman continue to be active, as Sulaiman grabbed 5 offensive rebounds (7 overall) in 17 minutes. Thompson leads the team in offensive rebounds, but Messiah Jones and Sulaiman are the best per minute. Jones has 41 on the year (1 every 8.3 minutes he is on the floor) and Sulaiman has 36 (1 every 9.4 minutes). Speaking of Jones, he had 7 points on 3-3 FGs. 

The only real negative was finishing down low. We had 18 offensive rebounds and only 15 points off that. The extended stats also said we were 9-22 on layups today. 

Huge game on Thursday. If we can somehow win these next two games we can really start increasing our expectations for this team in conference play. 

2 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

Yesterday after seeing our team over/under posted at 63 1/2, it sent me down a rabbit hole of our history against Charleston.  Starting last night, here's our last totals against CoC -- 82, 72, 75, 74 (OT), 80, 74, 53, 88 (2OT), 70, 69.  That goes back to the 2019-20 season.  So even though we struggle with offense at times and winning vs Charleston in particular, there's something about playing them that brings out our offense.  We're certainly not going to throw in a 10-19 effort from 3 every game but finding an ounce of that consistency from the outside is gonna go a long way in these last 6 weeks of the season.

I think a lot of that is pace of play. We have played four teams that are in the top 100 of KenPom's Pace of Play (Bryant No. 4, UMBC No. 5, College of Charleston No. 33, UMass No. 83). We shot over 50% against UMBC (35-67 and 11-23 (42.3%) from three) and College of Charleston (30-58 and 10-19 (.526) from three). Against UMass, we shot 48.1% (26-54, only 6-16 from three). We didn't shoot great against Bryant, but part of that was a 1-13 FG and 0-8 3ptFG performance in the second OT. My point isn't that we would play better with a faster pace, but that we seem to play better when teams to try to force us into a faster pace because it seems easier for us to slow them down then us speeding them up.

We had our most efficient game that I can tell last night scoring 1.281 points per possession on 64 possession. Charleston was very efficient at 1.200, but went down from their average of about 72 possessions to 65. The only other game I can find where we over 1.2 was against UMass at 1.209. I can't find the numbers against UMBC, but they we were either way up in possessions in that game or we were pretty efficient. I think we are now 8-0 when we score 1.1 points per possession or more. Our average is 1.045. Of course, that takes all sorts of things into account like turnovers, FG, 3pt and FT pct. I don't know if I have an overriding point, because I don't think this means if we speed it up we will better. It just shows that we seem to match up better against these types of teams. 

Great game all the way around for Tarke, who just brought up the aggressiveness and physicality to another level in this one. May also caught fired from three. Both of those guys got us off on the right foot and we were pretty comfortable for most of the game, because of what they opened up. I know we are critical of what Williamson did down the stretch free-throw wise, but don't forget that he also kept us in the game by catching fire at the end of the first half by scoring the final eight points for Towson in the last 2:05. If those are empty possession, we easily could have been trailing by 5 or 7 points after leading for most of the first half. 

We rip Skerry for substitution patterns and not letting guys get comfortable, but this game was a good example of what he is trying to do. I still don't love it, but when it works it is effective. By the way, Kelsey probably does it to more of a degree than Skerry. Only one player, played more than 30 minutes for either team and that was Tarke, who was imposing his will on the game singlehandedly at times.

The mixing and matching also produced some good sparks from Sulaiman, Jones and Paar. Sulaiman had five points and three steals, and was active as he always is rebounding and defensively. Paar was at his best in the 12 minutes he played, scoring six points and grabbing four rebounds in 12 minutes. He was a +11 during that time and hit both his free throws. Jones also seven points and five rebounds in 19 minute and was a +10 on the floor. These are great contributions from role players on the road where those tend to happen less in general. 

This was only the second time all year that Charleston was held under 40% shooting at home this year. I only watched the game once, but from a simple eye test I thought we played very solid defense. In handing Charleston their first home loss of the year, Towson and UNC-W are the only teams who haven't lost at home this year (knock on wood). Drexel, Charleston and Monmouth have all lost only one game at home so far. 

It is great that we have grabbed wins against UNC-W and Charleston in our first five games. My only worry is we shot over 50% from three in both those games, and they were both tight contests. I think the good news and bad news from last night is while we played well statistically the only outlier from what we usually was the three-point shooting. That is a big outlier thought, I hope we don't need 50+% 3pt FG nights to beat the top teams because those are hard to come by no matter who you are. Another piece of good news is for the first time in conference play we won the battle in the paint 34-30. 

This is a big three-game stretch coming up. We can't let Campbell be a letdown performance in any way. Next week home against Drexel and at Delaware could tell us what type of expectations we can really have for this team as we progress in the season. I expect 2-1 at least, and 3-0 would possible give us hope that we are a top 3-4 team in this year's conference.   

This is a real contrast in styles. College of Charleston is 33rd in the nation in tempo averaging 71.9 possessions per game, while we are playing at the slowest tempo with 60.7 possessions per game. I don't think anyone has had over 70 possessions against us this year in regulation (Bryant had 92 in double OT, but less than 70 in regulation). Charleston is 8-0 at home this year and has scored 80 or more in every game except the season opener.

They are 272nd in the nation in field goal percentage and 265th in three-point field goals, but they have the third-highest total of three-points attempted in the nation. To go along with the pace theme, they have 1,102 field goal attempts in 17 games (64.8) to our 956 in 17 games (56.2). Conversely their opponents have taken 1,066 shot while ours have taken 914. Interesting that when you look at strength of schedule in KenPom we are 180 and they are 183.

They seem to try to play a decent amount of solid mid-major teams like we do, but traveling to Charleston probably has a little more general appeal than Towson. I really hope after these first two road games that we can come out a little stronger. If we play a first half like we have against Monmouth and Northeastern we will get buried in this game. I think it will be decently close, and as crazy as it may sound I would take Towson +11 (not with a ton of confidence). I think the pace will fall somewhere in between their pace and ours.  

6 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

Ugh, I still have PTSD from that parade to the free throw line. 
 

Charleston beat the Twerps in 97. 

Don't forget Hampton's 15-seed over 2-seed win against Iowa State in 2001. They weren't in the CAA then, but they are now. 

4 hours ago, Blazer49 said:

A great sign of just where this conference is, is that in an article where they mention a small nugget about 32 conferences the thing they have to say about the great Coastal Athletic Conference is that a 6'7" player from Delaware is shooting 88% from the free throw line.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39321121/32-intriguing-men-college-basketball-storylines-midway-2023-24

The conference is fine. It is not great, but it is not horrible. I know it was called out how bad we were in the conference NET rankings earlier this year. It should be noted we have jumped to 17 of 32 (I think it was like 23 or 24 when this last shared). The average is only slightly above the Big South and Sun Belt (at 18 and 19) so it would be easy to slide back a couple of spots. Right now, I would say we are the best of the worse conferences since Conference USA's average is 10 spots ahead of ours (seems like a hard amount to make up during conference play).

I am not saying the conference is great, but I would say it is better than a lot of people on here give it credit for. We are 185 out of 362 in the NET, which is slightly below average. There are six teams above that average line of about 181 (Drexel, College of Charleston, UNC-W. Hofstra, Delaware and Monmouth). The only non-power conferences with that many teams above the average 181 line are the AAC, the Atlantic 10, the Mountain West and the Missouri Valley. Obviously, those conference are way better than us, but we do have some decent quality depth.

Where the argument falls apart is we are one of only 12 conferences without a team in the top 100, and we have five teams ranked 292 or lower. 

https://bracketologists.com/conferences/

As much as I hate our style, slowing that game down probably helped us from being blown out (that is not advocating for it, just stating facts). Give Northeastern credit, because that was far and away the most efficient offensive performance against Towson all year. Both teams had only 54 possession, and Northeastern shot 58.1% and averaged 1.241 points per possession, which is the best by a Towson opponent all year. Luke Sakota and Chris Doherty were the best players on the floor by a mile (I thought Sukota completely controlled the game). Tarke was really the only Towson player, who played anything above a C- game today. They were 

We got burned on 3-4 backdoor cuts, which always seems to be Bill Coen's way to use our aggressiveness against us. We got outrebounded 28-21, but that is not unexpected when a team shoots 58% (65% in the second half). What is really concerning is we were pounded inside and outscored 42-20 in points in the paint. We have now been outscored by all four conference opponents in the paint to the tune of 134-86. We will need to change that. 

Our first two halfs in these road CAA games have been absolutely putrid. Against Northeastern, we were 4-17 with 9 turnovers in 25 possession (0.68 points per possession). Against Monmouth we 7-31 with 7 turnovers in 32 possession (0.625 points per possesion). Overall in two first halfs in road conference play, that is 11-48 (22.9%), 16 turnovers, 37 points in 57 possessions (.649 points per possession). 

We won't beat anyone if we can't figure out how to get off to better starts on the road. In the second half against Northeastern, we were actually 13-23 with only 3 turnovers, 42 points and 1.556 points per possession (we outscored Northeastern 42-39 in the second half), but out defense was too uneven and our bad first half was too much to overcome. 

With our last couple of games, we have passed Virginia for the second-slowest tempo in nation and our closed to passing North Texas for third-slowed (360). Northeastern is slow at 265th, but still averages almost five possessions more per game. 

We are tied for fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding. As has been stated here, you can see how our pace pushes up our defensive numbers. We are 33rd in the nation in scoring defense (64.4 ppg), while sitting at 171st in field goal percentage defense. Like UNC-W, Northeastern is a good free-throw shooting team (60th in the nation at 74.8%) and does not foul much (14.9 fouls per game, we are at 16.4 for a comparison). Even thought they have slow pace, they are still 239th in the nation scoring defense (73.8 ppg), and have the 331st-ranked field goal defense (339th in 3pt FG defense). They are in the upper third nationally in field percentage offensively. 

I don't know what to make out of the fact that we have been outscored in all three conference games in points in the paint by a total of 92-66 so far. There is probably some combination of good defense and luck (I would have to see a chart of quality vs. contested shots), but we are holding opponents to 9-41 from 3pt-FGs in our three conference games, which a little under 22%. 

Agree with most everything that was said on here. Terrible turnover by Charles Thompson late in the 2nd half. Not sure if I put that more on him or the general set up of the play. Other than the turnover though, it was another solid game with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Towson was +18 in 38 minutes with him on the floor and a -9 in seven minutes on the floor with Paar. That is not meant to disparage Paar as much as it is meant as praise for Thompson who did an excellent job guarding a 7-footer and a 6-10 player with a great deal of athleticism. He let himself get backed down a couple of times for easy buckets, but for the most part he made things tough for Stony Brook's post players, and did a solid job rebounding. 

It wasn't a great game for Dylan Williamson, but he did do a good job providing the offensive spark in the first half with 12 points and 3 three-pointers. We have had trouble finishing out games, and it came back at us again, but credit to Tarke for stepping up and going 6-6 at the free-throw line, while the rest of the team was 7-15. We did do one of the big things Skerry teams like to do, and that is go to the line more than the other team. We went to the line and nine more times (21-12) and made seven more free throws (13-6), although part of that was bad free-throw shooting by Stony Brook. 

As several people mentioned, Messiah Jones was very efficient going 3-4 with 6 points, 6 rebounds and was a +11 in just 20 minutes. It has also been good seeing Tejada's offensive game come back to life, and to see him hit some big shots and put up 16 points in 25 minutes. I just hope he can clean up his court positioning, because I believe he stepped out three times. We need the offense he brings, and it was good to see him log his highest minute total since the Bryant game. 

Also, I agree that May did a lot of things you don't see in the boxscore today with his hustle and defensive effort. I know the +/- totals can get dumb, but I do believe the fact that Thompson was +18 in 38 minutes and May was +14 in 40 minutes are pretty accurate reflections of the imprint the efforts put on this game. 

That Stony Brook team was a funky team that just made some weird shots. Noll was 7-12 from the field and it felt like 5-6 of those were old school running hook shots, which was frustrating (but fun was long as we won) to watch. 

That is a team that averages 68 possessions on the season, and once again we dragged a team into our pace as they had 64 possessions in 45 minutes of basketball. They also averaged 1.000 points per possession. We had 65 possessions and averaged 1.123 points per possession. I can't find the stats for UMBC or South Dakota State, but when we have 1.1 points per possession or better, we are 6-0. I am guessing we probably were over that against UMBC so that would actually be 7-0 (there is no way we were above that in South Dakota. 

On to Northeastern, which as many have mentioned will be a challenging trip as usual. 

2 hours ago, Blazer49 said:

Tigers -4.5 total 130.5. This team is too unpredictable for me to put any units on this squad.  Go(h) Tigers!  

It feels like Vegas has had a decently high opinion of Towson the last three years. I thought we might even be favored by as much as 6 points so that seems like decent value. However, I agree that until the offense shows more consistency (which likely won't happen) that is a lot of points.

Towson was under in the first eight games of the year, then went over in the next three, before going under in the next two and pushing against UNC-W. I believe that is 10-3-1 (or 3-10-1 depending on your interpretation, Acadia had no line).

Stony Brook is 8-4-2 ATS and has hit the over nine times in 14 games. They were six-point underdogs at home against Charleston and 5.5-point underdogs on the road at Northeastern. At home, we are 3-1 against the spread (L Robert Morris -8.5, W, UMass +2.5, W, Nicholls -8.5, W, UNC-W +1)

Stony Brook averages 68 possession per game to our total of a little over 61 (61.4). They averaged 1.338 points in per possession in 65 possessions against College of Charleston in a 93-87 loss and 0.939 in 66 possessions in a 62-53 win over Northeastern. The Sea Wolves shoot 42.3% from the field, 35.2% from three and 69.6% from the free throw line. 

3 hours ago, Blounge said:

These stats on DraftKings tell you everything you need to know. We gotta figure out how to score on free throws and within 10 feet of the basket. This is dreadful shooting 60% from the charity stripe

At least we are shooting .715 percent in two conference games (not great, but better). Unfortunately, our opponents are shooting .786 and have gotten to the line seven more times. I am guessing both those trends will probably change. 

31 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

Not sure it’s “meaningless”. An extra year is one further away from the end. Because we all know they won’t eat two years let alone one 

That is fair. I think we would eat one if things got bad enough from Eigonbrot's standpoint (whatever that means, and I won't pretend to know). I meant it was meaningless, because I don't think that one year will stop us from doing anything. However, I guess that one year stacked on another year could so I get your point there. For now, I am more interested in what this season brings, but I do get why this is part of the overall conversation. 

3 hours ago, TSU88 said:

The prudent thing for him to have done would have been to have done nothing. It’s doubtful we were in jeopardy of Skerry leaving for another job. He was coming off yet another conference tournament where he failed to win more than one game (coming close vs C of C was still a fail; a close fail, but a fail nonetheless). He should have simply tabled any talk of an extension until after this season. And I don’t buy any argument that an extension was necessary to avoid Skerry being labeled a lame duck coach during recruiting. Maybe that’s an issue with high school recruits, but it doesn’t hold water when it comes to guys in the portal, who are short term rentals 

I would probably agree, but my point is I think the extension is meaningless like a lot of one-year extensions in college sports. The main question for everyone here is what standard will Skerry be held to. I don't think that one extra year is going to stop Eigonbrot from getting rid of Skerry if he isn't meeting the goals they are looking to achieve. Similarly, if he is meeting those goals Eigonbrot will probably keep him. The more relevant question is what is the standard, and what would make Eigonbort act if he feels we need to improve. 

As others have said on here the lack of sharing it publicly also isn't a great look. Multi-year extensions are worth freaking out about, but I think even Towson wouldn't let one extra year get in the way of needed change. That being said, because of the previous multi-year extension it seems like we are couple of years away from sorting out if the one year matters or not. 

I don't really care right now, but it will be worth talking about in March when the season is over. For now, I find what goes on the court more interesting to discuss. 

The difference of opinions is part of the fun of the message board. However, I still think every season is different in some way or another no matter how similar the coaches approach is to it. Especially, when it comes to all of the new players on the roster.

I just prefer to dwell on the games going on in front of us and not the macro picture during the season. Where I completely agree with most on here is hating the slow down style where we give ourselves less margin of error when we aren't shooting well. I think I beat that with a dead horse with the stats I share. It has hurt us at times already this year, but I do think it worked to some extent against UNC-W. I still don't like it or the sub patterns.

I think Skerry has done a good job of recruiting and raising the level of talent since he has been here. I just worry that sometimes the sub patterns and style of play make it hard for these players to thrive or play freely without concerns of being yanked in and out of the lineup. I think with the transfers and young talent we have this is a pretty deep and athletic rosters that can get better, but we also don't really have a true go-to player yet. I do agree with what one poster said on this thread about Skerry not getting the most out of the roster. It still remains to be seen, but I have felt like that at times this year and I think he may even think that in analyzing these games sometimes. I think those are all part of the interesting storylines to this season that are worth dwelling on both positively and negatively as it continues. 

No one can deny Monmouth was a beyond crappy offensive performance, although they may be better than people think (Rice just went for 29 points in 24 minutes against Northeastern, but they also aren't very good). Also, the UNC-W win was a good one, but I think those of us who aren't overly negative expected at a minimum a good effort and a decent shot at a victory. There are no parades or celebrations for one win, but I also enjoy seeing the players have success and I enjoy analyzing what they are doing better when we win. That shouldn't be viewed as accepting mediocrity. I think it is following the season as a fan and rooting for the team, and every conference season has different dynamics to it (except unfortunately that Charleston seems to have picked up where it left off last year). 

I also think the criticisms of Eigonbrot regarding the football hire and women's basketball hire are unfair (although I do have questions about the suspension). I don't think it is fair to judge any football on their first season with mostly what they inherited. For better or worse, we will find our more about Shinnick next year. Laura Harper was good last year (until the conference tournament final, which was awful). The suspension has been a weird situation, which definitely took some shine off last year, but I will wait to hear more before I judge and also am interested to see what the program does this year (the NC A&T loss was a little disappointing, but they are solid and it was on the road).

As for Skerry, every AD worth their salt comes in with their list of basketball coaches they are ready to call if a change is needed. I know there is a lot of history of lack of success in the conference tournament, but think about this from Eigonbrot's standpoint. He was hired with Skerry coming off tying for the regular-season conference title. Last year, they were 21-12, 12-6 in conference play and had a shot to beat Charleston in the semifinals. This year, has been up and down in non-conference play, but there is a long way to go.

From Eigonbrot's standpoint, what about that would make you want to make a change. The one-year extension was not handled well, and as a state school should be more transparent, but are one-year extensions a big deal? I know at other schools that are just part of helping the coach recruit for the future, and either lowering or keeping buyouts where they are. I know many of you know more about the ins and outs specific to Towson than I do so I will let you speculate on any further, but outside of the way it was handled it doesn't seem to mean much from my viewpoint.  

We really dragged UNC-W into our style of play today. They average 68.8 possession per game and had a season-low 56 possessions tonight. Their points per possession rate of 1.149 was their fourth-lowest of the season (only the games against Kentucky, East Carolina and Drexel were worse).

For Towson, we tied for the third-lowest number of possessions this season with 58 (only the 56 against Houston and 57 against North Texas were lower). Our 1.155 points per possession was our third-best of the year (Acadia at 1.448 was obviously the highest and our 1.209 rate against UMass was second-highest). We average 61.8 possessions per game. 

Great stat stuffer game by Charles Thompson who had 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. It was great to have Tarke come to life today with a team-high 15 points, although I don't really trust his three-point shot to be a consistent weapon. He did do a solid job of picking and choosing good times to attach the basket, which really helped the offense.

We had only shot over 40% from three twice before today, and both were on the road. Today, we were 9-18, and if you take a way May's 2-7 everyone else was 7-11 from behind the arc. We were outscored by 10 points in the paint, which is not a good trend early on in conference play. 

May and Sulaiman were both +7, while Williamson was +6, Tejada was +5 and Thompson was +4. Williamson is now +16 in 55 minutes in two conference games. It is clear when he is not on the court we don't really have anyone who can handle the ball coming up the court and run the offense (Tarke did a decent job filling in that role when Williamson was in foul trouble today).  

This game confirmed what we knew, which was we are a pretty good home team. Now we need to figure out how to take efforts like this on the road. That is the challenge that will tell the story of whether we are a middle-of-the road conference team, or a top-4 or 5 team (which will be very difficult). Stony Brook gave Charleston a pretty good game tonight, so I don't think they will be a pushover. We can't really take anything for granted with this offense. The good news is in our first two conference games our opponents points per possession is below 1 at 0.950. 

I know it is easy to get negative from a macro standpoint, but every year is a different group of players and I feel like we owe them the investment of not lumping how many ever years of misery we have all had of not even making a conference tournament final.