Home game against a team we should probably beat. Last year this was the team that we played arguably our best game against. After a gusty effort against a superior Temple team will we respond at home or will we play to the level of our competition?

Quinnipiac lost a 1 point game to Colorado, followed by a big loss to Wake. This team also lost by 21 to Lafayette. So they put up good efforts as well as duds, similar to Drexel this season. I think this will be a higher scoring affair that we will eek out in the end.

Quinnipiac- 82
Drexel- 86

If they don't win tonight, and win convincingly, then the strong effort that they put up against Temple would go for naught.

Drexel 81
Q 69

i will be impressed if zach spiker can...

1. make isabell smarter with the ball. 23 points and 8-10 from the line was great. 6 turnovers was not.

2. improve our interior defense in particular. too many easy baskets. there was a play in the first half where myles watched a guy drive past him and lay the ball in.

3. get austin williams to make free throws. ship might have sailed on this one.

4. get kararinas to contribute something positive. he is the definition of a project. i'm hoping 3 years from now we're watching him drop threes and back people down in the post.

5. turn lee into a reliable spot up shooter. i like that role for him because we need a threat from outside. mojica hasn't been consistent enough but is showing a willingness to drive.

You led for 14:37 of the second half. After taking the lead with 8:58 left, you blew it. Quinnipiac missed with 37 seconds left, got an offensive rebound, got fouled, and made 2 free throws with 34 seconds left to go down 69-68. After Drexel inbounded, the ball was stolen from Isabell, and a quick layup put Quinnipiac up 70-69 with 26 seconds left. With 14 seconds left, Kurk Lee missed, but the good news is Drexel didn't hold for the final shot and miss. Drexel fouled with 13.1 seconds left, and Quinnipiac missed the first free throw and made the second one to go up 71-69. With 2.4 seconds left, Kurk Lee, who made 5 out of 15 field goals, made a three-pointer to go up 72-71. Quinnipiac got the ball down the court for a reasonable game-deciding three-pointer that hit the rim and missed to let Drexel's fans go home happy. http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=190440 has the statistics. You were favored by 9 and won by 1. Northeastern did about the opposite. They were favored by 2 and won by 12.

(12-18-2017 09:11 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  i will be impressed if zach spiker can...

1. make isabell smarter with the ball. 23 points and 8-10 from the line was great. 6 turnovers was not.

2. improve our interior defense in particular. too many easy baskets. there was a play in the first half where myles watched a guy drive past him and lay the ball in.

3. get austin williams to make free throws. ship might have sailed on this one.

4. get kararinas to contribute something positive. he is the definition of a project. i'm hoping 3 years from now we're watching him drop threes and back people down in the post.

5. turn lee into a reliable spot up shooter. i like that role for him because we need a threat from outside. mojica hasn't been consistent enough but is showing a willingness to drive.

Why so negative?

I can't figure out if I'm happy with tonight's win or not as this crazy Jekyll and Hyde season continues. They have 2 wins against top 100 teams and played Temple (RPI of 10) really tough. Then they have 1 point wins at home against teams with RPI's of 336 and 338, and losses to some bad teams as well.

Tonight they out rebound Quinnipiac 46-28 with Stretch on the bench most of the game with foul trouble, and they still need a few miracle plays in the final seconds to win. They only turned the ball over 12 times. But I guess the reason why it was so close was that there were so many missed scoring opportunities inside that caused them to shoot under 40%.

(12-18-2017 09:40 PM)Dragon For Life Wrote:  

(12-18-2017 09:11 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  i will be impressed if zach spiker can...

1. make isabell smarter with the ball. 23 points and 8-10 from the line was great. 6 turnovers was not.

2. improve our interior defense in particular. too many easy baskets. there was a play in the first half where myles watched a guy drive past him and lay the ball in.

3. get austin williams to make free throws. ship might have sailed on this one.

4. get kararinas to contribute something positive. he is the definition of a project. i'm hoping 3 years from now we're watching him drop threes and back people down in the post.

5. turn lee into a reliable spot up shooter. i like that role for him because we need a threat from outside. mojica hasn't been consistent enough but is showing a willingness to drive.

Why so negative?

Just eking wins out at home over Lafayette and Quinnipiac opens rooms for negativity. Wins are good and it was nice to see Kurk hit that clutch shot, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

As for Isabell's turnovers, he needs to do better but at least two of them were passes that could have been caught, another was a questionable charge call. That last one was bad though.

It seems like Williams can shoot free throws some night - it almost seems like a head thing.

I think Kararinas will be fine down the road. The college game is always a tough adjustment for big guys and he never played much in high school. His performance against Villanova though should give some hope for the future.

I agree on Lee, not that he should never drive, but he was 1-8 from 2 tonight. Mojica shouldn't be shooting 17 times unless he is really hot. It seems to me that Doles should have got some time in the second half. Mojica was awful on offense and was getting torched on D - how could have Doles been any worse?

(12-18-2017 10:03 PM)J.B. Wrote:  Tonight they out rebound Quinnipiac 46-28 with Stretch on the bench most of the game with foul trouble, and they still need a few miracle plays in the final seconds to win. They only turned the ball over 12 times. But I guess the reason why it was so close was that there were so many missed scoring opportunities inside that caused them to shoot under 40%.

The numbers don't seem to add up. We outrebound them by 18. We had four more turnovers and 5 more field goal attempts and 2 more free throw attempts. I guess part of it was that we fouled them on made shots way too many times.

Rough night for Bru and the Hoosiers losing to Fort Wayne at home 92-72.

The problem with Kurk is ultimately his size. I think him driving is a good thing, however shots will always be tough because he is so undersized where he will always be altering his shot when driving. That always makes for lower percentages. Him driving and dishing would be more beneficial than driving and shooting. Him becoming a more consistent shooter will open everything up because defenses will have to respect the shot where he can then use his quickness to blow by with fakes. Without being a threat as a shooter allows a defense to play off of him a little more making the drives even more of a challenge.

Your next opponent is Loyola-Maryland, who has no Division I wins but a better RPI than Lafayette and Quinnipiac. Loyola-Maryland beat Goucher 97-45. The closest they came to Division I wins were losing 77-75 at Northwestern, which is okay, and losing 64-63 at Dartmouth, who has the sixth worst RPI.

Indiana has 3 home losses and a negative point differential. Losing by 10 hosting Duke is okay, but in addition to last night they started by losing 90-69 hosting Indiana State. Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne (don't blame me for the name being long) is 152nd in the RPI and Indiana State is 219th.

Postgame is up. We agree with Coach Spiker, last night was another building block. Have to win that game. But also... c'mon Coach Spiker. C'mon Kurk Lee! Cmon Traimaine Isabell! See the mismatch!

http://alwaysadragon.com/quinnipiac-postgame/

There was some interesting local connections to last night's game that crossed my mind. Baker Dunleavy is Quinnipiac's coach. He's the son of former NBA player and coach Mike Dunleavy Sr, and also brother of long time NBA player Mike Dunleavy Jr. But Baker is also married to the sister of Martin Ingelsby (Delaware's head coach). Both Baker and Martin were interested in the Drexel job after Bruiser got fired.

Also, Baker was a former Villanova Assistant under Jay Wright for several years and was a coach on the 2016 national championship team.

Now that we know all that, here's where it gets interesting. Remember the Kris Jenkins shot that won the national championship for Villanova. Now Nova had 4.7 seconds left and some time to dribble the ball up the court to get the ball to Jenkins. Last night's play to end the game seemed reminiscent of that Villanova play.

That game ending play to get the ball across the court and give Rich Kelly and open shot to win the game in 2.1 seconds was remarkable. Had the shot gone in, I think that's Sportscenter material. Still, great coaching by Dunleavy and Quinnipiac for almost pulling it off.

(12-18-2017 09:40 PM)Dragon For Life Wrote:  

(12-18-2017 09:11 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  i will be impressed if zach spiker can...

1. make isabell smarter with the ball. 23 points and 8-10 from the line was great. 6 turnovers was not.

2. improve our interior defense in particular. too many easy baskets. there was a play in the first half where myles watched a guy drive past him and lay the ball in.

3. get austin williams to make free throws. ship might have sailed on this one.

4. get kararinas to contribute something positive. he is the definition of a project. i'm hoping 3 years from now we're watching him drop threes and back people down in the post.

5. turn lee into a reliable spot up shooter. i like that role for him because we need a threat from outside. mojica hasn't been consistent enough but is showing a willingness to drive.

Why so negative?

what am I supposed to say? we're a final four team because we beat Quinnipiac by 1?

if anything I feel better about some of the pieces we have and what they could become. I'm excited to see what coach spiker can do with these guys. if he can address some of the issues above...we can be a pretty good team by the end of the year and in the future.

(12-19-2017 08:07 AM)dan10 Wrote:  The problem with Kurk is ultimately his size. I think him driving is a good thing, however shots will always be tough because he is so undersized where he will always be altering his shot when driving. That always makes for lower percentages. Him driving and dishing would be more beneficial than driving and shooting. Him becoming a more consistent shooter will open everything up because defenses will have to respect the shot where he can then use his quickness to blow by with fakes. Without being a threat as a shooter allows a defense to play off of him a little more making the drives even more of a challenge.

I liked the 0 turnovers from him last night. sometimes he probably tries to do too much because of his lack of size. he'll need more space than some other people...but if he can just knock down most of the open looks he gets and especially the clutch ones...AND not turn the ball over...he can help us.

(12-19-2017 01:09 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  I liked the 0 turnovers from him last night. sometimes he probably tries to do too much because of his lack of size. he'll need more space than some other people...but if he can just knock down most of the open looks he gets and especially the clutch ones...AND not turn the ball over...he can help us.

Absolutely. My statement wasnt that he cant be an important player for us, it was more of play within reason and make good decisions, while also making the defense have to stay alert. Do that and he can be super effective here, if not he could just be another undersized player trying too hard to make plays for his team.

I had one issue with Kurk Lee's 0 turnovers and that was Isabell's 6 turnovers.

While Lee took 15 shots, his touches were down. Isabell was handling the ball A LOT more than he has in past games, and he coughed it up a bit more than I liked. If we are going to play these two together, they need to combine for <5 turnovers. We cant have one ball handler give the rock up 6 times. Also, keep in mind this was a season LOW 30 minutes for Lee.

I also agree with the sentiments on Lee's size as a jump shooter. It is definitely something that puts him at a considerable disadvantage.

Harper dressed last night, so I'm hoping he's back for Elon. I wouldnt be surprised if Spiker kept him sheltered tomorrow night at Loyola with a week off to follow. Now that Isabell has really found his game, I'm looking forward to the dimension that Harper is going to bring to the floor. I also think that keeping those three guards all at about 35 minutes could be good for the Dragons.