MBB comes back to beat Drexel 66-62

[mat1992 2,259]

I can't believe Northeastern is winless. They have too much talent for that, but losing Tyson Walker is not something to be looked over. He was one of the best point guards we've ever seen in the CAA. He's not replaceable. They've also had other key injuries and a lot of COVID issues. 

As for us being 7-2, sure we are flawed. Very. We've played about 1/2 the season without our starting point guard. The plan was not to play Jason Gibson at point guard for 30+ minutes a game. It was for him to move to shooting guard and for Nolan and Hicks to share the position. The fact that we're 7-2 and 16-6 with our two point guards a combined 12 games and well, Nolan played about 12 minutes in two games due his respiratory issues and the fact that Holden has played all 22 games, but nine with a mask the obstructs his vision, is remarkable. Sans mask, Holden is the best overall player in the conference. Not the best scorer, but he was shooting over 40% from three-point range before the fractured jaw and is now shooting 31%. He's 3 for 20 in conference play and did make one against Delaware on Thursday night, but that doesn't count (yet). I don't if people read the quotes, but hopefully you do or I'm wasting my time. PS mentioned how they are trying to get another mask where it's easier to see so it doesn't appear it's coming off anytime soon. 

We're not in first anymore in the CAA in three-point shooting percentage (35.9%). Drexel and we're now tied for with Delaware for 2nd. Break it down to conference play, where the defenses scout you much better, we're at 5th place at 34.2%. Getting Nolan and his 4.5 assists per game back would certainly help. But if not, better ball movement. More cutting and if CT plays that well with his back to the basket, hopefully he sees doubles which will open up some shooting for Gibby and AR.

[Chris Datres 427]

Must be nice to write off the regular season at the halfway point when you're only  1 1/2 games out of first and you have proven all season that you can win road games.  

Thompson's emergence as a scoring threat is a giant story.  Conference teams are gonna know what we hope to do with the ball movement and putting him or Paar at the high post to act as a screener and distributor to set up the ball movement for our outside game.  More games like today will help draw him more attention and I hope he has that extra sense to anticipate the doubles and to kick it to the open shooter.  If we can add that wrinkle to the ball movement we've already seen on offense this season, it'll help a bunch against teams that have scouted us as well as they've should.

Today's comeback was a giant one.  We've been a different team these last 4 games and 21:18.  A ton of that is because of different assignments due to Nolan's absence as well as Holden's struggles.  After the schedule these guys have played in the last two weeks, they could have easily folded up the tents at halftime and looked forward to Sunday off.  But again, this isn't the same type of team we've seen that last however number of years.  They're different and they don't have the scars of past teams who may have shrunk at the potential of these 'houses of horrors'.  History doesn't mean s--- to them.  They just go out and ball.

[mat1992 2,259]

There's no reason why Charles can't do that (not 23 points) nearly every night. That's dominate the paint on both ends every night. He's 6-7, 245 with length and now is starting to master that jump hook. Teams will adjust and send doubles. They did that to Cam when he was hot and now you see Gibson get a lot of attention.  CT did a great job on Monday offensively gainst Painter, who is not a physical defender (struggled defensively the second time).  He had 18 in the first game against Drexel (with no Williams available) and 23 tonight.  In his last three games, not counting the suspended game, he's averaging 17 points per game and 10 rebounds. If we go to him and Holden inside every game, especially early, that will force teams to double and/or go zone or play bigger guys that don't want to play instead of going small. We're struggling against some of the smaller lineups, so we need to punish them down low and our best lineup is usually CT, Gray and Holden with any combo of Rizzuto, Timberlake or Gibson in the backcourt. I'm not saying get rid of the four guard stuff, but this is how we need to win until Nolan returns and we have a deeper backcourt. A more athletic backcourt. We're not very athletic in the backcourt currently. You can see it all over the league and other teams will try to exploit it. So let's exploit our strength and play inside-out. That doesn't mean forget the three or stop moving the ball. I think you open up against Hofstra trying to pound it inside against their big guy and try to get him in foul trouble. 

                                                                           Pts

Drexel		18	8-12	0-0	2-5	6	1	2	0	2	2
01/09/22	Northeastern	13	27	4-7	0-0	5-6	7	1	0	2	2	2
01/11/22	Hofstra	2	26	1-4	0-0	0-0	4	5	1	1	1	2
01/15/22	Elon	5	26	2-5	0-0	1-4	7	1	0	0	1	3
01/17/22	William & Mary	8	21	4-5	0-0	0-1	7	1	0	2	1	3
01/20/22	Col. of Charleston	9	31	4-11	0-0	1-2	10	1	6	0	0	2
01/22/22	UNCW	12	30	5-8	0-0	2-2	11	0	1	0	2	1
01/24/22	Delaware	15	32	7-10	0-1	1-4	9	0	2	0	1	5
01/29/22	Drexel	23	30	11-14	0-0	1-2	11	1	1	0

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

8 hours ago, Chris Datres said:

Must be nice to write off the regular season at the halfway point when you're only  1 1/2 games out of first and you have proven all season that you can win road games.  

Thompson's emergence as a scoring threat is a giant story.  Conference teams are gonna know what we hope to do with the ball movement and putting him or Paar at the high post to act as a screener and distributor to set up the ball movement for our outside game.  More games like today will help draw him more attention and I hope he has that extra sense to anticipate the doubles and to kick it to the open shooter.  If we can add that wrinkle to the ball movement we've already seen on offense this season, it'll help a bunch against teams that have scouted us as well as they've should.

Today's comeback was a giant one.  We've been a different team these last 4 games and 21:18.  A ton of that is because of different assignments due to Nolan's absence as well as Holden's struggles.  After the schedule these guys have played in the last two weeks, they could have easily folded up the tents at halftime and looked forward to Sunday off.  But again, this isn't the same type of team we've seen that last however number of years.  They're different and they don't have the scars of past teams who may have shrunk at the potential of these 'houses of horrors'.  History doesn't mean s--- to them.  They just go out and ball.

Not writing it off. Weird things can happen. But Uncw has a two game lead with the rematch at trask. Delaware leaves bon carpenter twice the last month (sans the postponement) and that’s to Elon and Wm… just a realist. 
 

Charles offensive improvement has been huge. While we haven’t been able to shoot straight for a few weeks, he has been our most consistent and best offensive player over that time 

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

8 hours ago, mat1992 said:

There's no reason why Charles can't do that (not 23 points) nearly every night. That's dominate the paint on both ends every night. He's 6-7, 245 with length and now is starting to master that jump hook. Teams will adjust and send doubles. They did that to Cam when he was hot and now you see Gibson get a lot of attention.  CT did a great job on Monday offensively gainst Painter, who is not a physical defender (struggled defensively the second time).  He had 18 in the first game against Drexel (with no Williams available) and 23 tonight.  In his last three games, not counting the suspended game, he's averaging 17 points per game and 10 rebounds. If we go to him and Holden inside every game, especially early, that will force teams to double and/or go zone or play bigger guys that don't want to play instead of going small. We're struggling against some of the smaller lineups, so we need to punish them down low and our best lineup is usually CT, Gray and Holden with any combo of Rizzuto, Timberlake or Gibson in the backcourt. I'm not saying get rid of the four guard stuff, but this is how we need to win until Nolan returns and we have a deeper backcourt. A more athletic backcourt. We're not very athletic in the backcourt currently. You can see it all over the league and other teams will try to exploit it. So let's exploit our strength and play inside-out. That doesn't mean forget the three or stop moving the ball. I think you open up against Hofstra trying to pound it inside against their big guy and try to get him in foul trouble. 

                                                                           Pts

Drexel		18	8-12	0-0	2-5	6	1	2	0	2	2
01/09/22	Northeastern	13	27	4-7	0-0	5-6	7	1	0	2	2	2
01/11/22	Hofstra	2	26	1-4	0-0	0-0	4	5	1	1	1	2
01/15/22	Elon	5	26	2-5	0-0	1-4	7	1	0	0	1	3
01/17/22	William & Mary	8	21	4-5	0-0	0-1	7	1	0	2	1	3
01/20/22	Col. of Charleston	9	31	4-11	0-0	1-2	10	1	6	0	0	2
01/22/22	UNCW	12	30	5-8	0-0	2-2	11	0	1	0	2	1
01/24/22	Delaware	15	32	7-10	0-1	1-4	9	0	2	0	1	5
01/29/22	Drexel	23	30	11-14	0-0	1-2	11	1	1	0

We need all the help we can get and more bodies helps. Nolan has been great passing and solid on defense this year while his high volume shots have hurt at times… it is rather odd that we are 7-0 when he doesn’t play (or plays 5 minutes) and 9-6 with him. Just pointing out an oddity 

[mat1992 2,259]

1 hour ago, TuTigers2012 said:

We need all the help we can get and more bodies helps. Nolan has been great passing and solid on defense this year while his high volume shots have hurt at times… it is rather odd that we are 7-0 when he doesn’t play (or plays 5 minutes) and 9-6 with him. Just pointing out an oddity 

Let’s remember that he wasn’t right in the first Drexel game as he was having physical problems and probably wasn’t close to 100% in the UNCW loss.

[TSU88 1,078]

4 minutes ago, mat1992 said:

Let’s remember that he wasn’t right in the first Drexel game as he was having physical problems and probably wasn’t close to 100% in the UNCW loss.

This may not be a popular take at the moment, given how well we’re playing, but perhaps the reason our depth is so precariously thin is that the last 2 freshman classes (Biekeu, Jones, Coleman & Gill) have, by any objective measurement, been underwhelming 

[Bay Area Tiger 350]

As always I love and appreciate all the input etc..  great stuff.  
 

One statistic that blows me away being that he’s played with a mask and asked to handle so much more this season.  
Cam Holden has 59 assists to 57 turnovers while averaging 34 minutes a game.  That is amazing!

How lucky are we to have another season of CT for 22-23’..  I said this before that despite lacking bigs in the past when we did have one contribute they’d end up being a senior and be done. 
Charles now being a huge presence in the CAA needs to get to the line more.  Only 33-58 shooting 56%.  Compare that to Painter who is 93-116 shooting 80%. 
Get inside and if the shot doesn’t fall get fouled.  He can easily work on this part of his game.  PS said it when he was a freshman..  he has a tremendous motor and work ethic.  This is why I won’t be surprised after Towson if he lands in the G League.  
 

We are gonna be a tough out these last 8 1/2 games.  
 

Pat and staff have done a great job coaching it up this season.  
16-6 and 7-2 without your starting PG for a long stretch.   I don’t care what league we play in..  that is great coaching!

Edited January 30, 2022 by Bay Area Tiger

[mat1992 2,259]

25 minutes ago, TSU88 said:

This may not be a popular take at the moment, given how well we’re playing, but perhaps the reason our depth is so precariously thin is that the last 2 freshman classes (Biekeu, Jones, Coleman & Gill) have, by any objective measurement, been underwhelming 

You don't need a 13-player rotation. Having eight players is fine enough, but when you lose guys all over the place for various reasons, sure, those freshman classes have not really been able to step up other than a few minutes for Gill here and there, while Hicks looks like he has at least some defensive ability and could be a solid rotation player with another 10-15 pounds. I don't think expectations were high for Coleman and Bikeu, but Jones' great athleticism hasn't translated to much on the floor.

[mat1992 2,259]

7 minutes ago, Bay Area Tiger said:

As always I love and appreciate all the input etc..  great stuff.  
 

One statistic that blows me away being that he’s played with a mask and asked to handle so much more this season.  
Cam Holden has 59 assists to 57 turnovers while averaging 34 minutes a game.  That is amazing!

How lucky are we to have another season of CT for 22-23’..  I said this before that despite lacking bigs in the past when we did have one contribute they’d end up being a senior and be done. 
Charles now being a huge presence in the CAA needs to get to the line more.  Only 33-58 shooting 56%.  Compare that to Painter who is 93-116 shooting 80%. 
Get inside and if the shot doesn’t fall get fouled.  He can easily work on this part of his game.  PS said it when he was a freshman..  he has a tremendous motor and work ethic.  This is why I won’t be surprised after Towson if he lands in the G League.  
 

We are gonna be a tough out these last 8 1/2 games.  
 

Pat and staff have done a great job coaching it up this season.  
16-6 and 7-2 without your starting PG for a long stretch.   I don’t care what league we play in..  that is great coaching!

CT should have two more seasons considering last year didn't count.