MBB blows 12-point second-half lead, falls to Hofstra 75-67

[mat1992 2,231]

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=282550

https://towsontigers.com/news/2019/12/30/mens-basketball-betrands-best-shot-leads-towson-against-hofstra.aspx

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/bs-sp-towson-hofstra-mens-basketball-20191230-szjtrnnu3bhjreldw44ut3lfiq-story.html

Story not out yet. Took off from work and then went to the gym. That was a lot more productive but it still couldn't null the depression and frustration I'm feeling right now for the program. Not the football or lax program. The basketball program. I just don't feel we can ever be more than just an average team that occasionally can compete for a title if we get a JB-type of player.

Talent-wise, I think we're ok. Not great and not good enough to beat Hofstra, Charleston, NE and maybe Delaware. That's not where we should be at this point. We should be good enough to compete for the top 4 or 5 every year and win a tournament every now and then. But we're not close. Sure, if we were eligible in JB's first year, maybe. If JD doesn't get shot? Not likely but we might have gone far. 

Have we recovered from Zane and Justin leaving? Obviously not. If they had stayed, who knows what would have happened but at least we had a potential star. Fobbs is not that guy because he can't create well enough and so left-hand dominant. Zane wasn't that bad of a southpaw. Now, DT all of a sudden isn't defending, going to the boards or giving us any offense.

I'm at a loss for words and felt like just taking a break after this one, though not a permanent one like Ed. I just ask people to be civil and critique away. I wish I had a positive thing to say about next season, but I don't.

So, I'll take a look at this season as trying to develop Gibson, Timberlake and Thompson. Hoping that Betrand finds some consistency. All the lineup changes in the world are not really going to matter. They can start Gray for Tunstall, bench Sanders. He's our only post threat. Go back to Thompson? He looks lost right now, especially against these small lineups the last two games. 

Should we have gone small today? Sure, why not. It worked in the last couple of minutes in the first half, but who do you put at center? Gray, who is not physical. Tunstall? Who is not playing well.

My biggest gripe on defense is that we let a 5-11, 160-pound guard destroy us from the outside. Buie, who scored 38 points, rarely drove. Yet, even though we slowed down Ray and Pemberton (they had bad games), we didn't adjust against Buie. Not until it was too late. How about putting a much bigger defender on him like AB or Nick? Gibson did the best he could but he's not a defender. Dottin might have been a better matchup, well, of course he would have. But that's what you get with Gibson. You need him to guard Ray, even though he could light us up as well. 

I thought Gibson was aggressive today in his first start. I think the only disappointing thing is that he's had no assists in his last two games. His whole motto in his first game was that he likes to feed his teammates. Some of the lack of assists has to do with guys not making shots. But I'd still like to see him drive and dish or kick it out more than just once. He did have a nice feed to Gray, who was fouled. Need more of that.

I'm done. On to the comments.

[mat1992 2,231]

Opening Comments

"Hofstra is good. We knew they were good. Anytime a guy like Buie gets 35 points, you get in trouble. They did it with five guys. They have the fewest bench minutes in the country. Thought our effort was good. We have to figure out that we have some guys that I believe our good players and are not playing very well right now. That's obvious. They want to play better and they well. The challenge for me and our staff is to figure out what changes we have to make in order to tweak what we're doing. Or does that get them going. One guy beat us. Hofstra is good. Looking at some of the numbers from our guys and woof, I think we're better than that. But we dropped two at home and we didn't get great production from a couple of guys that we consider good players."

On 12-point lead blown

"We didn't shoot the ball as well but we didn't turn the ball over and we got shots. Brian had a couple of wide open threes. A couple of layups we missed. I was worried about taking care of the ball against them and we did pretty well. A lot of that had to do with Gibson being out there so much. We didn't turn it over. They're not going to foul a ton because they play zone. I thought we got good looks. Allen got a five-foot shot in the lane and he missed it. We have to finish. I don't think our passing was bad. We threw it around cleanly. We didn't make shots. Defensively, we were fine except against Buie. He took us. We fouled too much. Three different times on jump shots. We left our feet. Twice by Dennis. He was first-team all-defense last year. He's a senior. He's better than that."

On must-win phrase

"You have to play everybody twice. I like our guys. It's certainly early in the season. It's not the end of the season. You also are trying to figure out if that's Johnny Davis? Moto? Step up and make plays when things go down, or we go back to the drawing board and make some lineup changes? Juwan played more today. He helps us defensively. Nick has been playing well. I have to get him more minutes. Maybe that's what we're going to have to do (get more minutes for freshmen)."

On Gibson

I thought he played well. It was against zone and they turn people over a decent amount. We need him on the floor to keep the ball moving. Against NE, he was in foul trouble. I probably should have let him play through fouls. I was worried about him getting in foul trouble early in games. We still need Jakigh. Maybe I'll play him off the ball a little bit. The elephant in the room is that we have to get Brian playing better. He works. I thought he had pretty good looks. Nakye and Dennis have to play better. They've had good moments in the non-conference. If we're going to become a good team, we have to get good play from veterans. That's pretty common at our level."

On next stretch

It's critical. You treat every game like the Super Bowl. Charleston is really good. It's the best environment in the league to go down to. Expectations is that we'll have a good gameplan. Our guys will strap up and will compete at a high level. I don't fault our guys' effort. We have to play better at key junctures. I felt like we'd be a little more battle-tested. I'll go back and watch the tape. If Grant Riller gets 35, we'll be in trouble. I'd like to get a guy dropping 35. It will make things easier. Pemberton is a big-time player and we did a really good job on him. Guys are battling and guarding. Rebounding. We have to put the ball in the basket."

 

[mat1992 2,231]

How did we have an 8-point lead at the half or get the lead to 12? How did we lose it? Those are the questions the staff needs to ask themselves. Seven fastbreak points to 18. We need to get out and run, especially if Timberlake is on the floor. That would help Fobbs and Gray, Betrand and Dottin. Push the ball off of misses. Of course, Hofstra didn't miss much in the second half, so there weren't many transition opportunities. They also had seven turnovers. We just don't force them. Junk up the D some. Kids love to run. Make it fun. If you are going to lose, especially to the top teams, make them beat you. Don't beat yourselves and when you face a guy who is hot, get in his face or put your best defender on him.

[mat1992 2,231]

I know it's early, but it's a three-team race in the CAA. And yes, we might be playing the best team in the league on the road on Thursday. I'm just talking about the conference right now, because that's what interests me.

Charleston 75, Delaware 63, G. Riller 22 pts.

Delaware had a chance to make a statement at home. They didn't but they still look improved.

Drexel 71-UNCW 66 (from the DAC)

Cameron Wynter with 30 pts on 11-of-19 FG. Jaylen Sims goes 1 for 7 from the field with no assists and two TOs. Missing Kai Toews?

W&M 74-Elon 73

W&M decent win on the road. Nate Knight with 25pts. Elon covered the 6 for those that care.

NE 88-JMU 72

Jordan Roland with 33 pts. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same. NE rolls on. Charleston with the strong road win. Hofstra goes 2-0 on the road. Cougars 2-0 on the road. Top three early on all had to start off on the road and went 2-0. Injuries may come and disrupt it later on, but right now, it looks obvious. Wonder if W&M could sneak in the top four, or Delaware can move up. At least they have star players in Knight and Hens have Darling or Allen. NE has Roland. Hofstra has Buie. CofC has Riller.

[Chris Datres 423]

51 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. NE rolls on. Charleston with the strong road win. Hofstra goes 2-0 on the road. Cougars 2-0 on the road. Top three early on all had to start off on the road and went 2-0. Injuries may come and disrupt it later on, but right now, it looks obvious. Wonder if W&M could sneak in the top four, or Delaware can move up. At least they have star players in Knight and Hens have Darling or Allen. NE has Roland. Hofstra has Buie. CofC has Riller.

And who do we have?  Nobody.  Read that again.  N-O-B-O-D-Y.  Every team in this conference with the exception of probably Elon and JMU has someone on the team that when you look at the scouting report, you say, "we need to make sure we stop this guy".  We don't have that.  And we haven't had that really since Benimon left (you could make the case for Moto or Morsell but they were prone to disappear on their own more than what the opponents did to them).  All we have are a bunch of complementary players who, if they were paired with an alpha dog, might light it up on a regular basis as well.  And because it's a bunch of spare parts, we get the inconsistency we see on a game-by-game basis.  The team that I saw take Florida to the wire is light years away from where we're at now.  But given what we've seen in the first 14 games, it makes sense.  Play great at Florida, clank a home game against Kent State, throw away a win against Buffalo, blitz the hell out of St. Joe's, come back from yakking a lead against Tulane, embarrass yourselves against NE and in the 2nd half against Hofstra.  Get used to it the rest of the season because who knows what we're gonna get on a nightly basis.  It comes down to recruiting and while the staff might be 'trusting their eyes', it's become pretty obvious that they need to go see the ophthalmologist.  Unfortunately for them, the culture of the program is such that it won't be attractive to someone who would be the alpha dog that we desperately need.  The refusal to use the athletes to get out and run and to revamp the offense is a giant black eye on the staff.  And for certain players to take steps back  in their development also earns the staff demerits.  After the way we've shown ourselves against two of the best teams in the conference and what we will likely show in game 3 against the other really good team, I would be shocked if we're not playing in the Friday night loser bowl in the conference tournament.  The New Year's Resolution for this staff had better be to take a long soul-searching look inside themselves and make some characteristic changes.  Otherwise, the cycle will never change and opponents will continue to brush us aside like what we've seen these last 2 games.

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

Just seeing the box...  Fobbs only with 6!  That hurts. 

[mat1992 2,231]

8 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

And who do we have?  Nobody.  Read that again.  N-O-B-O-D-Y.  Every team in this conference with the exception of probably Elon and JMU has someone on the team that when you look at the scouting report, you say, "we need to make sure we stop this guy".  We don't have that.  And we haven't had that really since Benimon left (you could make the case for Moto or Morsell but they were prone to disappear on their own more than what the opponents did to them).  All we have are a bunch of complementary players who, if they were paired with an alpha dog, might light it up on a regular basis as well.  And because it's a bunch of spare parts, we get the inconsistency we see on a game-by-game basis.  The team that I saw take Florida to the wire is light years away from where we're at now.  But given what we've seen in the first 14 games, it makes sense.  Play great at Florida, clank a home game against Kent State, throw away a win against Buffalo, blitz the hell out of St. Joe's, come back from yakking a lead against Tulane, embarrass yourselves against NE and in the 2nd half against Hofstra.  Get used to it the rest of the season because who knows what we're gonna get on a nightly basis.  It comes down to recruiting and while the staff might be 'trusting their eyes', it's become pretty obvious that they need to go see the ophthalmologist.  Unfortunately for them, the culture of the program is such that it won't be attractive to someone who would be the alpha dog that we desperately need.  The refusal to use the athletes to get out and run and to revamp the offense is a giant black eye on the staff.  And for certain players to take steps back  in their development also earns the staff demerits.  After the way we've shown ourselves against two of the best teams in the conference and what we will likely show in game 3 against the other really good team, I would be shocked if we're not playing in the Friday night loser bowl in the conference tournament.  The New Year's Resolution for this staff had better be to take a long soul-searching look inside themselves and make some characteristic changes.  Otherwise, the cycle will never change and opponents will continue to brush us aside like what we've seen these last 2 games.

You took the bait Chris, but that guy was supposed to be Fobbs. You can scheme better and you can press, but if you don’t have the guys mentioned above, it’s not happening. Even though we miss Zane, his lack of defense and poor clutch stats cost us in close games. To me, it start with recruiting, but coaching matters as well.

[Bay Area Tiger 347]

I can’t comment on this game because I was at the RedBox Bowl game today.. Cal vs Illinois. 
Mind you..  Levi’s stadium probably one of the ugliest new stadiums in sports..  erector set and the sun glaring truly takes away from your enjoyment of the game which I know sounds crazy.  
 

My 2 cents after reading PS post game comments....  he’s truly spinning.   Yes I know we are stuck but he continues to have lost his team yet again this season. 
i know we have some young pieces that are gonna have some growing pains but how the hell did we fall so far from how we played at Florida!?  At a loss as usual.  
I agree..  run the damn horses aka Timberlake and make it at least entertaining for us the suffering fans.  
 

Averaging 41% from the field, 31% from behind the arc and 68 points a game...  push the ball Pat and get more baskets in transition aka layups and dunks. Easier said then done.  
 

Thanks for the analysis as always Matt & CD.  It is truly appreciated.  
 

[sr16 158]

7 hours ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

I can’t comment on this game because I was at the RedBox Bowl game today.. Cal vs Illinois. 
Mind you..  Levi’s stadium probably one of the ugliest new stadiums in sports..  erector set and the sun glaring truly takes away from your enjoyment of the game which I know sounds crazy.  
 

My 2 cents after reading PS post game comments....  he’s truly spinning.   Yes I know we are stuck but he continues to have lost his team yet again this season. 
i know we have some young pieces that are gonna have some growing pains but how the hell did we fall so far from how we played at Florida!?  At a loss as usual.  
I agree..  run the damn horses aka Timberlake and make it at least entertaining for us the suffering fans.  
 

Averaging 41% from the field, 31% from behind the arc and 68 points a game...  push the ball Pat and get more baskets in transition aka layups and dunks. Easier said then done.  
 

Thanks for the analysis as always Matt & CD.  It is truly appreciated.  
 

Agreed after reading his comments. Its always "Maybe I'll do this" OR we'll try that. At this point, its the same few issues which have plagued your teams historically... Need a response + a solution 

[TuTigers2012 1,061]

12 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

And who do we have?  Nobody.  Read that again.  N-O-B-O-D-Y.  Every team in this conference with the exception of probably Elon and JMU has someone on the team that when you look at the scouting report, you say, "we need to make sure we stop this guy".  We don't have that.  And we haven't had that really since Benimon left (you could make the case for Moto or Morsell but they were prone to disappear on their own more than what the opponents did to them).  All we have are a bunch of complementary players who, if they were paired with an alpha dog, might light it up on a regular basis as well.  And because it's a bunch of spare parts, we get the inconsistency we see on a game-by-game basis.  The team that I saw take Florida to the wire is light years away from where we're at now.  But given what we've seen in the first 14 games, it makes sense.  Play great at Florida, clank a home game against Kent State, throw away a win against Buffalo, blitz the hell out of St. Joe's, come back from yakking a lead against Tulane, embarrass yourselves against NE and in the 2nd half against Hofstra.  Get used to it the rest of the season because who knows what we're gonna get on a nightly basis.  It comes down to recruiting and while the staff might be 'trusting their eyes', it's become pretty obvious that they need to go see the ophthalmologist.  Unfortunately for them, the culture of the program is such that it won't be attractive to someone who would be the alpha dog that we desperately need.  The refusal to use the athletes to get out and run and to revamp the offense is a giant black eye on the staff.  And for certain players to take steps back  in their development also earns the staff demerits.  After the way we've shown ourselves against two of the best teams in the conference and what we will likely show in game 3 against the other really good team, I would be shocked if we're not playing in the Friday night loser bowl in the conference tournament.  The New Year's Resolution for this staff had better be to take a long soul-searching look inside themselves and make some characteristic changes.  Otherwise, the cycle will never change and opponents will continue to brush us aside like what we've seen these last 2 games.

We hardly agree, but this a good post.  We've never had that alpha (except Benimon) and a willing and unselfish passer.

I think you meant UNCW not JMU. Dukes have some good players that are better than we have. They just have an equally incompetent coach, who will probably be canned after this year.