Tigers shock Hofstra 65-60

[Blounge]

Agreed dollar beers and dollar dogs will draw a crowd and I applaud the efforts made with giveaways this season. They have really stepped it up in the fan experience dept

[mat1992]

26 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

New look to the board. Very nice.

Nice comeback last night. We are typically on the other end of a 18 point blown lead, so it was nice to be on the other side for once. Coming out flat every game to start is a recipe for disaster.  That first half may have been the worst defense half I've seen from this program in a decade or so.  Hofstra was carving us up and every screen led to layup, dunk, or a wide open shot.  Adjustments were made at halftime, and it showed. 

Tejada seems to be the only consistent player that we have that is capable of 10+ a night. Williamson, Tarke, May are hit or miss.  Clutch free throws by Embeya. That was a good officiating crew for our style. Can we get them every Thursday game??   Momentum changer with the late steal and score by Jones at the buzzer.  Is Pat allergic to running OOB sets?  Honestly we have run some decent ones in the past and actually scored on them. Seems like we just chuck it deep to the outlet, without even running anything.

Can the let down be avoided tomorrow? Should be a good crowd, but as we have seen before in the past, they overlook some of the teams with a "poor" record..

I've noticed that out-of-bounds plays usually have May or Tejada coming off a screen. It's that there's no other option and other teams guard it well. So that's why they just threw the ball to halfcourt last night because these sets are taking too long to run. Yes, they do need to work on that OOB from beneath the opponent's basket and probably not have Tarke inbound the ball.

[TSU88]

This is truly a team whose sum is greater than its individual parts. I mean, we’ve got 2 guys (Hicks & Samb) who really aren’t D1 players; May, who’s shooting has regressed to the point where we’re fortunate if he scores 6ppg; Lowery, who’s offensive game is extremely limited, but who does contribute in other facets; Embeya who’s a year away; Jones, who you hope can score 5-6 ppg and grab a few boards; Suliaman, see Jones. But we also have the 3-headed monster, also known as the law firm of Tejada, Williamson and Tarke, who each, on any given night, are capable of scoring 20 points. I’m still pleasantly surprised in the transformation of Tarke. Most of us, including me, had him pegged as one of the worst D1 players in the nation, and now he’s an integral part of the team. His drives to the basket are finally paying dividends. Let’s hope he keeps it up. 

Let me see a show of hands of those who thought we’d come back and win last night, when we down 18 in the first half. I was there, and it looked grim. I was just hoping we could cut the lead to around 10 by halftime, which is almost exactly what we did. I think we all know that anytime you fall behind by that wide a margin, that it usually takes all the team’s energy just to draw even, or near even, and oftentimes the rally fizzles out, but not last night. It was maddening for awhile, when we would get achingly close, but couldn’t tie or take the lead, that is, until we did. (Horrible call by the refs late in the game, btw when DWill got called for a charge, which negated a made 3pointer which would have given us the lead). I distinctly remember, with 4:30 left in the game, Lowery yakked a layup and Hofstra came down & buried a 3, to take a 5 point lead. I said to myself, “that was the dagger,” but we persevered. 

Not a great crowd, but boy did it get loud down the stretch. Can’t let Stony Brook be a trap game; get the W and we’re 5-1 after 1/3 of the conference season 
 

[sr16]

we'll take it anyway we can get it! 

[Blounge]

Yeah a sleepy crowd in the first half finally woke up with about 12 minutes to go in the game at the direction of Pat Skerry orchestrating the crowd to get up and make some noise PLEASE and TU Arena started rocking. 

it’s only crazy if it doesn’t work!

we *could* have a serious home court advantage if we had 1,000 committed college kids jumping up and down with the same enthusiasm as the band. Kudos to the band, they were the only ones cheering for more than half the game last night! Doing it short staffed with the winter break squad!

[Tiger93]

I was working another basketball game last night at the same time so I didn't get to watch, but I was tracking as best I could. I saw that Hofstra shot 17-24 in the first half and 6-9 from 3-point range, and it reminded me of the Charleston game last year at home where they annihilated us . Looked like we got some good momentum at the end of the first half to set up the second-half comeback. Amazing that Hofstra could shoot so well in one half, and then go 7-28 and 1-14 from three in the second half. 

Tarke is now 15-24 FG the last two games. He seems like he has been more efficient lately, and I am sure they have worked on that with him. I do think at heart, his style is much like Russell Westbrook in that he can carry a team to victory or defeat depending on what version you get. However, there is no arguing that he plays his ass off and is a pain the ass to face for the opposition. As was mentioned, ti looked like a very efficient game for Messiah Jones with 12 points on 4-6 FG, three offensive rebounds in only 16 minutes. 

It was a little bit of an aberration to get 68 bench points against Drexel because of the hot shooting of Williamson and Tarke, but getting 27 of 65 last night isn't bad. I know it is kind of a magic shell game, and not that useful of a stat. It almost feels like that lineup is a good-luck charm or gimmick more than anything else, but you can argue so far they have mostly held their own at the start of games before the subs have come into the game, and after that it is more about the rotations than the actual starting lineup. Especially when May and Hicks play 19 and five minutes respectively for the game. Last night the bench players actually played 103 of the 200 minutes. 

It is still so early, but the league is taking an interesting shape. We know Charleston will be in the mix for a conference title, but the loss to Monmouth their last time out and the struggles with Campbell in their last two games were interesting.  I heard good things about William & Mary's coaching hire this season and with the blowout win at Hofstra and a win against Elon they are off to a good start. They also avoided a banana peel game last night. Elon also looked good in the non-conference play, and they grabbed the same road win we did last Saturday in a little more decisive fashion.

There is a lot of mediocrity in the conference, and Skerry has done a pretty solid job of understanding and navigating this conference the last three years. Hopefully, we can get to 6-1 with wins over Stony Brook and NC A&T (nothing is a given for anyone) before we travel to this program's house of horrors at Northeastern. 

[TuTigers2012]

1 hour ago, TSU88 said:

This is truly a team whose sum is greater than its individual parts. I mean, we’ve got 2 guys (Hicks & Samb) who really aren’t D1 players; May, who’s shooting has regressed to the point where we’re fortunate if he scores 6ppg; Lowery, who’s offensive game is extremely limited, but who does contribute in other facets; Embeya who’s a year away; Jones, who you hope can score 5-6 ppg and grab a few boards; Suliaman, see Jones. But we also have the 3-headed monster, also known as the law firm of Tejada, Williamson and Tarke, who each, on any given night, are capable of scoring 20 points. I’m still pleasantly surprised in the transformation of Tarke. Most of us, including me, had him pegged as one of the worst D1 players in the nation, and now he’s an integral part of the team. His drives to the basket are finally paying dividends. Let’s hope he keeps it up. 

Let me see a show of hands of those who thought we’d come back and win last night, when we down 18 in the first half. I was there, and it looked grim. I was just hoping we could cut the lead to around 10 by halftime, which is almost exactly what we did. I think we all know that anytime you fall behind by that wide a margin, that it usually takes all the team’s energy just to draw even, or near even, and oftentimes the rally fizzles out, but not last night. It was maddening for awhile, when we would get achingly close, but couldn’t tie or take the lead, that is, until we did. (Horrible call by the refs late in the game, btw when DWill got called for a charge, which negated a made 3pointer which would have given us the lead). I distinctly remember, with 4:30 left in the game, Lowery yakked a layup and Hofstra came down & buried a 3, to take a 5 point lead. I said to myself, “that was the dagger,” but we persevered. 

Not a great crowd, but boy did it get loud down the stretch. Can’t let Stony Brook be a trap game; get the W and we’re 5-1 after 1/3 of the conference season 
 

It was a strange comeback, for about 5-6 minutes ~10 minutes left neither team wanted it or did much of anything.  When we started making it close and got a few stops in a row, we came down and gave it to Samb around the elbow and he ran himself an isolation that led to a wild airball attempt from about 3 feet out.  That I thought was going to be the end of the comeback.

You do expel so much energy trying to get it even, that it usually drains you. Luckily we only took the lead with 1 minute left and not 3 or 4, in that regard.

Disagree, by the rule, it was a charge.  When guys leave their feet like that, it is almost always called.

54 minutes ago, Blounge said:

 

we *could* have a serious home court advantage if we had 1,000 committed college kids jumping up and down with the same enthusiasm as the band. Kudos to the band, they were the only ones cheering for more than half the game last night! Doing it short staffed with the winter break squad!

If's and but's.  Unfortunately that will never happen. 

[TuTigers2012]

42 minutes ago, Tiger93 said:

 

It was a little bit of an aberration to get 68 bench points against Drexel because of the hot shooting of Williamson and Tarke, but getting 27 of 65 last night isn't bad. I know it is kind of a magic shell game, and not that useful of a stat. It almost feels like that lineup is a good-luck charm or gimmick more than anything else, but you can argue so far they have mostly held their own at the start of games before the subs have come into the game, and after that it is more about the rotations than the actual starting lineup. Especially when May and Hicks play 19 and five minutes respectively for the game. Last night the bench players actually played 103 of the 200 minutes. 

I

Have you me the coach?? He is as superstitious as gets. That starting 5 and rotation will be in play until there is a loss.  A few years back he would start Sylla and pull him quicker than a walk-on on senior day 🤣 

[TSU88]

25 minutes ago, TuTigers2012 said:

we came down and gave it to Samb around the elbow and he ran himself an isolation that led to a wild airball attempt from about 3 feet out.  That I thought was going to be the end of the comeback.

Yes, I forgot to mention that in my post. Myself, along with at least one other person sitting near me, were apoplectic when Samb tried to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory 

[TheGoldCrotchPiece]

this team is weird. can't win a close OOC game and can't lose a conference game.  with the current CAA the tournament is all that matters, never going to be a multi-bid league again. Maybe the early season hiccups helped them grow and now they are learning to win 🤷‍♂️- time will tell if it means anything in March.