As has been said in this thread, Hofstra is just a real matchup problem for us.

They have 4-5 guys that can score effectively. That really prevents you from doubling a shooter because you still leave a good shooter free (pick your poison - Green, Tankersley, Bernardi) and it hurts on switches because they look for the mismatch (funniest one last night was when Cohn ended up on Gustys for a brief period).

They also are one of the quickest teams in the CAA and generally wear out our man to man D, but using zones put us at risk from the long ball. Again, pick your poison. They have a good mix of weapons and, if they keep their, apparently amazing, conditioning up, could cause problems for unsuspecting teams in an NCAA tournament situation.


From our standpoint, I was a little surprised at how much the 2-3 zone bothered us. Our shooters couldn't consistently find the open spots in the zone and we got down into the shot clock often. The big boy in the middle, cleaning up things, doesn't hurt any either.

I would imagine others saw the same thing, but at one point in the 2nd half, after watching Gustys and Hunter going at it, I said to myself, in two years, when one is a Senior and the other is a Junior (with more confidence and seasoning) THAT is going to be a Big Time war!
Hunter really did well last night.

When Tarpey, Dixon and Malinowski go 6 for 25 and we still get 80, I'm impressed, but that just reverts back to the big gorilla in the room. You gotta play solid defense.



EDIT: Okay, others DID see what I saw underneath. I posted these thoughts before reading the last page of the thread. Carry on.

(02-12-2016 10:04 AM)billymac Wrote:  As has been said in this thread, Hofstra is just a real matchup problem for us.

They have 4-5 guys that can score effectively. That really prevents you from doubling a shooter because you still leave a good shooter free (pick your poison - Green, Tankersley, Bernardi) and it hurts on switches because they look for the mismatch (funniest one last night was when Cohn ended up on Gustys for a brief period).

They also are one of the quickest teams in the CAA and generally wear out our man to man D, but using zones put us at risk from the long ball. Again, pick your poison. They have a good mix of weapons and, if they keep their, apparently amazing, conditioning up, could cause problems for unsuspecting teams in an NCAA tournament situation.


From our standpoint, I was a little surprised at how much the 2-3 zone bothered us. Our shooters couldn't consistently find the open spots in the zone and we got down into the shot clock often. The big boy in the middle, cleaning up things, doesn't hurt any either.

I would imagine others saw the same thing, but at one point in the 2nd half, after watching Gustys and Hunter going at it, I said to myself, in two years, when one is a Senior and the other is a Junior (with more confidence and seasoning) THAT is going to be a Big Time war!
Hunter really did well last night.

When Tarpey, Dixon and Malinowski go 6 for 25 and we still get 80, I'm impressed, but that just reverts back to the big gorilla in the room. You gotta play solid defense.



EDIT: Okay, others DID see what I saw underneath. I posted these thoughts before reading the last page of the thread. Carry on.

Tony says repeatedly that we have a very unselfish team, and I have heard several players comment that there are no egos on this team. I have seen nothing this year to remotely call either of these two comments into question. Therefore, given Tony's history of making decisions that are best for the team (Tony loves Schlotman but he hardly ever plays anymore because Cohn is too good to take off the floor), I want to see Seacat as the backup center if we have round three with Hofstra in Baltimore. As many have said on this thread already, it is all about matchups, and I think that Seacat's skill set matches up better with Gustys than Jack's does. In fact, he might be the missing ingredient that allows us to prevail in a third match up. I am not the least bit convinced that we could not win if we got a third shot at these guys. I just do not want it to be in the quarters, and that would only happen if we fall flat down the stretch and Charleston catches fire.

In order for a player to grow, they need meaningful minutes of pt. If SeaCat is to emerge as a legitimate post player, he needs more time. Let's hope he will. Because when all us said and done, it's a paint game.

Honestly, if we play them again, we need to penetrate and kick and either drive right at Gustys and get him in foul trouble or penetrate and kick and bomb away from 3. Last night it looked like our guys were sometimes running into each other on cuts and weren't sharp at all. Terry just seemed off and out of it and was out of control at times and turning the ball over wrecklessly. ... I'd only play that 1-3-1 if we put Omar, Greg or Tot underneath. Doesn't work with Cohn underneath b/c Gustys got abt 2-3 Layups in a row that were just totally uncontested.

Did we not sweep Hofstra last season?

(02-12-2016 01:05 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Did we not sweep Hofstra last season?

Obviously Marcus was a big factor in that. A strong finish and we can win more regular season games than last year. Then, if we face Hofstra again we will deal with it. Plenty of other good teams. If JMU beat them twice, we are certainly capable of it too.

I asked because people are acting like they've owned us. They haven't.

Yes, we won all three.

One more comment before we go into overkill: Why was Sheldon on defense hanging around the top of the paint so much when their big guy and others were getting easy layups in their big drive in the middle of the second half? Why wasn't he stationed under the basket?

The Tribe changed defenses on almost every possession in the 2nd half to try to find anything that worked. We rotated man, 3-2 matchup zone, and 1-3-1 zone. When we play the 1-3-1 Sheldon is at the free throw line, so not underneath.

When we are in man, Hofstra ran a pick and roll frequently, and Sheldon has to hedge on that because Green is so dangerous coming off the screen. Gustys is able to get position on whoever is helping while Sheldon hedges, and Green either gets it directly to Gustys or throws a dart to the wing who feeds Gustys in the post.

Green is a wizard coming off ball screens - makes the right play, doesn't force shots, but can still hit them at a high clip. He is the reason that Gustys got so many easy buckets.

That's his job, to hedge off the dribbler when the other team uses a pick on the defender. Sean or Jack/Hunter is supposed to prevent the drive down the lane and allow the defensive player to recover and then he has to find his player before the offense can move the ball for an entry pass to the temporarily unguarded man.

It's tough against a good big man like Gustys and efficient passing. They had seen tape of how we play that, so they took advantage of it. Most times Sean recovers efficiently enough that the pass inside is not available.

Tarpey is 9-24 over his last 3 games. Dixon is 4-18 the last two games. He was 7-13 against Northeastern but 8-30 in the 3 games preceding Northeastern. This is problematic.

Late in the game, down 4 with the ball. Why was Seacat in the game and not another shooter, such as Burchfield?

(02-12-2016 08:21 AM)TribeInTheBurg Wrote:  

(02-12-2016 07:54 AM)Tribe4Life Wrote:  Match ups will be key in Bmore, but we still have a great shot as frustrating as yesterday was. It'd be nice to have both UNCW and Hofstra on the other side of the bracket, but we shall see. It might be us and Hofstra as the 2/3 in some order and we will have to win a tough semi game. The good news there is that Hofstra will have had to play the night before.

Unfortunately, unless Hofstra falters down the stretch, they're likely to be in the 2/3 spot. At this point, UNCW all but has the top seed locked up, and will definitely have it if they beat us next week. That puts those two teams on opposite sides of the bracket and means we'll probably have to beat them both to cut the nets down. On the other hand, both of those teams are hoping we end up on the other side of the bracket for the same reasons. JMU is good, Towson is good, NE is good, but I think there's a top 3 and a next 3.

Remaining schedule for the teams who are 9-4 in the CAA:

Hofstra: at Delaware, Towson, Northeastern, at UNC Wilmington, and College of Charleston. I would think Hofstra would be favored for 4 of those, with the exception being at UNC Wilmington.

William & Mary: at Towson, UNC Wilmington, Drexel, at Elon, and at James Madison. Drexel is the only easy game there. I could see the other four games all have betting lines of 5 points or fewer. I think your remaining schedule is harder than Hofstra's.

James Madison: at UNC Wilmington, Northeastern, Delaware, at Towson, and William & Mary.

William & Mary at James Madison will be big. If William & Mary loses, they will have a head-to-head split with James Madison, but would come out last in a three-way tiebreaker with James Madison and Hofstra. In that case, head-to-head would be 3-1 for James Madison, 2-2 for Hofstra, and 1-3 for William & Mary. If William & Mary finish in a two-way tie with James Madison with a head-to-head split, the tiebreakers would be record vs. first, record vs. second, and so on, and William & Mary would lose a record vs. Hofstra tiebreaker.

I remember last year in the semis I sat right behind the Hofstra bench. Every timeout Gustys came off yelling "FEED ME! FEED ME THE ROCK!" It's not just that he kills us down low but he also is confident no one can stop him. Hopefully someone changes his mind in Baltimore.

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(02-12-2016 03:23 PM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  Late in the game, down 4 with the ball. Why was Seacat in the game and not another shooter, such as Burchfield?

Probably because W&M's offense runs through that big in the post, whether it is pick and rolls or back cut passes. Also, having Burchfield out there means we are going to have either 4 or 5 guys standing on the perimeter, which limits the amount of spacing they have between each other

With how many players W&M plays (especially if Seacat starts getting 5 or so minutes a game), I say we play hack-a-shaq with Gustys any time he gets it within 8 feet of the basket

Gustys free throw shooting is comical, I'd use up every foul we have to give, including Glover & Rowley

(02-13-2016 07:40 AM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  Gustys free throw shooting is comical, I'd use up every foul we have to give, including Glover & Rowley

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Speaking of comical free throw shooting.........................we all remember Marcus Kitts and the many suggestions we offered Marcus on how he could "improve"; the consensus being that he should switch to underhand shooting etc, etc, etc,. At last report, Marcus was thriving in some European Basketball League, and still missing his free throws.

Offensively, Marcus had only one shot, which was his two-hand dunk shot, one step to the basket and then the dunk! The virtue of the two-hand dunk is that it is impossible to block.

I thought about this early in the Hofstra game, when Sheldon got the ball inside and went to make a lay-up [which he is pretty good at] but the shot was blocked by Gustes by pounding the attempted lay-up ball against the backboard. From that point on I felt we were in trouble with Gustes dominating under the basket and easily blocking our shot attempts from the inside.

For a guy like Gustes, a lay-up is easier to block than a dunk. I have never seen Sheldon dunk the ball [two-hand or otherwise] - but if Kitts can do it Sean should be able to do the same - if you can get up there, a two-hand dunk should be pretty easy to practice, and to make in a game.

The way to beat Hofstra is to neutralize Gustys on offense. Hofstra needs TIME on offense to work the ball to him in the post. That's why a press, even if it isn't a trapping press, hurts Hofstra. With the shorter shot clock, a steady press all game eats up time. They also aren't good at beating a press and making you pay for it, more or less just happy to get into their half court set.

You guys have the players and depth to implement this. Leave a big man to stop the beat, and use your athletic big men with Cohn and Dixon to press them up the court. The Tribe scores on a high % of their offensive possessions, which also lends itself to a press.

Not sure if your coach will do this, but dong the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is....well you know.

(02-13-2016 11:31 AM)62Indian Wrote:  

(02-13-2016 07:40 AM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  Gustys free throw shooting is comical, I'd use up every foul we have to give, including Glover & Rowley

For a guy like Gustes, a lay-up is easier to block than a dunk. I have never seen Sheldon dunk the ball [two-hand or otherwise] - but if Kitts can do it Sean should be able to do the same - if you can get up there, a two-hand dunk should be pretty easy to practice, and to make in a game.

Big agreement here. I was at the Gold Rush game early and in warmups Sean is laying the ball up where Hunter and Jack are dunking. Hunter was our best post player against Hofstra and it wasn't close.