Chris Datres

Given the offensive holes with this team, it's tremendous that they're in 3rd. Top 4 is the #1 goal at the moment to get that double bye and if they can maneuver their way into winning the regular season again, great. The NIT bid not being an automatic anymore for that is a real downer but that's out of our control. But if you poll anyone on this board, I think most everyone would agree that we're sick of being happy with having a chance to win in DC. With a conference as volatile as this one is, there's no good reason why we can't be the ones hauling the trophy out of that arena.

To win the CAA, we need to have 3 efforts like the Charleston game. That's our peak performance. Obviously, that's asking a lot for this group. We could probably have an Elon performance in the quarterfinal game after the double-bye and MAYBE get by (our luck, the Chickens would show up against us again) but after that, it has to be A+ because our history tells us that we go belly-up in the biggest spots at the end of the season. But that's still a few weeks away. Let's take care of the winless team this weekend and set our sights on the top of the table.

Wonder how he'd respond to his critics about his substitution patterns. You sprint out of the gates with a 12-0 lead and all the points come from the paint. WM calls timeout to regroup and we come out of the timeout with a new lineup and everything stagnates. Why?? Drill the F out of them with the starters and then work in the bench. Just mind boggling why we'd change what works, especially after having so many sleepy starts. As 88 said, it's remarkable that we're in 3rd place given how ragged this team plays and how disjointed we are at times.

2-14 this season with a point differential close to -400. That's a rough first year.

Once they figured out how to handle a zone after the first 8 minutes, things ran a lot more smoothly. But that hints at a bigger problem in either a lack of prep or we STILL don't have a lineup that we can start and get out of the gates. This is wayyyy too many games in conference with slow starts and now it's almost more expected that it happens rather than a quick start to put confidence into everyone. I think I'd go back and find May's best couple of games from this year as well as the breakout games he had last year and show them to him to help him remember what he's good at and maybe that gets him going. If the first couple of shots don't go down, he goes into a funk. Unfortunately, his game lately has been more of the hang around the perimeter and hope a shot drops rather than any sort of progression toward the basket. And they only run that give and go handoff with CT once per game and sometimes the handoff doesn't come. They really need him to find his game again and quickly.

We're the back end of doubleheader on CBSSN with that monster Patriot League clash between Lehigh and Bucknell as the lead in.

All 4 teams get thrown into a mini conference based on their standings against each other. Towson 2-2, Drexel 1-1, Chickens 1-3, Dutch 2-0 So it would be Hofstra 3, us 4, Drexel 5, Chickens 6

I said to my Kansas friend that it felt like after he hit those 2 3's in rhythm and got that breakaway dunk, he went into tilt mode that we'd see out of him many times. The 3 he tried from the left wing that came up short when there was still plenty on the shot clock looked like he wanted to be the one to hit the kill shot. But then when he should have shot it was when he had the turnover with 21 seconds left. One more dribble and a floater or a long layup rather than trying to force it to Dickinson. But what Self will rightfully kill him on was helping off a corner shooter. That showed a giant lack of basketball IQ that an experienced player like Nick shouldn't ever do. As some KU fan tweeted after the game, 'we see why Bill doesn't want to play him in big spots'.

That's been my main gripe most of the season. It was like we took 20 games to find the right fits and then it seemed we had them in the 3-game winning streak. We throw up an offensive stinker against Hofstra and it's back into scramble mode. Whatever offense we do have has to get more reps and more time on the floor to build cohesion. We shouldn't be sitting here on February 10 still throwing ingredients into the stew to see if it makes it taste better. That stew should have already been cooked and served once Tarke had 5-6 games under his belt.

Unacceptable performance at both ends of the floor tonight. We know what our offensive shortfalls are but defensively is where we should make up for those. Instead, we're late on rotations, not recognizing shooters, and then when we do make the right rotations, our closeouts are freakin terrible. Delaware hit 3 3's in that 2nd half where a defender got out there but one little pump fake and there's the fly-by to set them up for a clean look. 11 of 19 from 3 is usually an anomaly but with the looks that Delaware had tonight, it's surprising they didn't make a couple more. Offensively, they failed to recognize early on how easily UD was leaving open the area of the lane just below the free throw line to set up pull-up J's. Tarke and DW took advantage once each in the first half but then it was decided to take that extra dribble and that's when they'd run into trouble since we're so good at finishing at the rim. Whenever the ball settled, we got nothing out of the offense except chucked 3's or forced turnarounds by someone who has a bigger hitch in his swing than Charles Barkley. We saw in that 2nd half that when Tarke and DW can get out on the break and run with it, good things will happen. Can't imagine why we're still too stubborn to not make a faster tempo a priority. But again, with how we finish at the rim, it would likely be more frustration. Of all the damn teams, it had to be these clowns to spoil another nice thing of ours. I'll be more than happy when they're gone and failing in their quixotic attempt for football glory.

Of all the things the chickens have spoiled over the years, this can’t be one of the last things they get. Do what we usually do at home (minus that first half vs NE) and we’ll be good.

Most of it is game management. I don't remember the last time I saw a crowd get T'd up for littering the floor, though from what the announcers were saying with what was getting thrown, it was certainly warranted. But I also think the officials want to use that as an absolute last resort, especially in a game that was as close as that one was. Basically, refs are pretty spineless when it comes to dishing out techs that aren't by the book (like pushing off in a scrum). They've said that bench decorum was a point of emphasis this year yet every college coach storms all over the place without penalty. Of course, Scott Drew got ejected last night for something incredibly benign so there's always someone out there who has to impress the assignor.

"Shot so badly" is putting it nicely. A ton of open looks that didn't drop. Hell, even DW's look to tie the game was a pretty good one and not really contested. It's frustrating to lose games in this way -- missing open looks, getting zero from your 5th year SR big man at the offensive end (again), and missing numerous shots around the basket. Gotta tip your cap to Thomas for a couple of the 3's that he hit but earlier in the game when you're helping off shooters like him and Dubar, you're gonna get burned every single time.

Great that they made the necessary adjustments at halftime, especially on the defensive end. That stretch with 3 or 4 straight steals turned the game around. Also great the the free throw shooting was a positive story this time.

There’s no far and away best team this year which always makes for a fun conference tournament. Once we get there, I’ll be eager to see what the ‘experts’ post for championship odds.

I think everyone learned a little about themselves between the debacle at NE and the trip to Charleston. Players seem to be settling into their roles much better than the mishmash in the first dozen games. Had a nice fried chicken dinner tonight in tribute to the win.

Yeah, I think they had a leaky roof and their game was suspended. They resumed it Wednesday night and beat UMES.

We've seen in these last couple of games just how much Tarke solidifies our backcourt. He's the veteran presence that was sorely needed and missed at the beginning of the season. The defense in the middle part of the 2nd half was outstanding and allowed for us to get out to the big lead. But as Mat mentioned, the drought hits and the shot selection was a touch questionable and before you know it, the Dragons are right back in it. Fortunate that DW knocked down those 2 free throws to get it to 3 because there's no doubt that if it had been a 1 or 2-point game, Drexel was going to the rack with it and based on what happened the final 2-3 minutes, they were going to get a good look at the rim. So now we've knocked off the other top 3 teams in the conference, one of them at their place. It would be great if we could treat Delaware on Saturday the way we treated JMU when we booted them out of the conference a couple years ago.

If Skerry called Thursday the best effort of the year then this topped that one. Impressive to come out and pound a weaker team and not have that letdown after a big win. It sets up a nice little showdown on Thursday night against another school that has tortured us over the years.

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.

That was a fun notification to get after stepping off the court following 2 of the worst games in organized basketball history. It was also a fun watch back on YouTube thanks to it being a freebie on the Flo. We're gonna win a number of games when we get that kind of shooting but I think it's an even bigger deal that Tarke was such a part of the scoring as well as DW getting into the lane and causing trouble in there. I'd agree with Coach that it was the best effort of the season (at least that I've seen) and to get a road win, ANY road win with how difficult it's been across the country, but especially at a place that has tortured us over the years, is really giant. As Mat said, now we gotta capitalize on it. As for the last minute or so of the game, our IQ wasn't all that great. The free throws were frustrating enough but the needless fouling (2 by Sulaiman) just can't happen. I have a fear that we're gonna have a game in hand in the last minute and we'll yak it away because of the free throw line. We keep harping on it but it's gotta be fixed. Bring on the Camels on Saturday.

What book did you get a 7 spread? Or did you go with an alternate line?

Ugh, I still have PTSD from that parade to the free throw line. Charleston beat the Twerps in 97.

We move up a rung on the longest home win streak list as Boise drops one to UNLV. Virginia now the lead dog at 19.

We have a bit of a case study to go off of with Timberlake playing for Kansas. He was never gonna be a starter there and lately, he's been getting very limited run. As my KU friend said to me at the UCF game on Wednesday night, "I know he's your guy but he's not the answer here". Can't disagree with that one.