So we have the final game of the Garden State Showcase. We are currently sitting at 1-2 in those games. Tonight's matchup with the Bryant Bulldogs should be a closely contested game. With us being home that should be an advantage. In other matchups in this "tournament" Bryant lost to Rutgers by 2, and beat Niagara by 11

Grant is their leading scorer at 19.8 per game. Harding will be Butler's challenge as he is scoring 6.7 points a game and grabbing 12.3 rebounds per game. Bryant gets 9 steals a game so far, so naturally we have to take care of the ball. Bryant isnt particularly good at a whole lot so we just need to play smart. They don't shoot the ball well from 2 (43%) or 3 (34%) nor do they shoot free throws well (68%). This may be a game we a little extra ball pressure and physicality wouldnt be a bad idea. They will let it fly from 3. They have attempted 199 3 pointers in 6 games (33 a game). We have taken 109 in 5 games (22 a game). Minimize turnovers and play good perimeter defense and we should be able to win this one even going away, if we give up easy 3's it will be a long night.

Vegas has us favored by 4 tonight.

Bryant- 72
Drexel- 74

Garden State Showcase standings:
Rutgers: 3-0 (1 game left against SFA)
SFA: 2-0 (1 game left against Rutgers)
Bryant: 1-1 (1 game left with Drexel)
Drexel: 1-2 (1 game left with Bryant)
Niagara: 0-4 (0 games left)

SFA is @ Rutgers tonight as well if you keep an eye out. Rutgers is favored by 13.5 in that one. Seems high to me. I could see SFA beating them, but if SFA turns it over like they did against us, Rutgers will surely make them pay. I think that game will be much closer than Vegas thinks

8:45 left up 24-17. Good shooting so far by Drexel, which is nice to see. In addition every basket so far has been assisted for us

Under 4 timeout, we lead 33-26. Our starters are clearly better than Bryant. Our reserves are struggling.

40-30 Lead at half. Shooting well. Only 2 turnovers. Only 1 3 pointer allowed. We made 6 3's. Definitely one of the best halves under Spiker. A nice bouce back after the debacle in Texas

Rutgers up 8 at their under 4

14:52 left, up 47-43. A little more sloppy this half.

All tied up at 60. Still a bit sloppy. Bryant getting some easy buckets. Butler working hard

86-74 victory. Nice to pull away. Heck of a game from Walton and great passing game from Cam. Lost of assists on our buckets which was nice.

(11-20-2019 08:49 PM)dan10 Wrote:  great passing game from Cam. Lost of assists on our buckets which was nice.

His 14 assists were 1 short of 15 that's needed for the CAA's Top 10. The last CAA player to have 15 was Hofstra's Dwan McMillan on February 25, 2012. Your 28 assists were 1 more than Hofstra's record after last season, which was 27. Hofstra had a team-record 30 assists against non-Division I New York Tech five days ago.

With our victory last night and Rutgers winning by 12 the final standings of this showcase is as follows:

Garden State Showcase standings:
Rutgers: 4-0
SFA: 2-1
Drexel: 2-2
Bryant: 1-2
Niagara: 0-4

I thought overall we had a good showing. I think we all hoped that we were going to be fighting for 1/2 with Rutgers but overall I would call this a success. We played Rutgers real tough and had an absolute clunker against SFA. I think the talent of the teams involved will serve us well for CAA play. We still went 0-2 on the road. This has been a problem under Spiker and something we need to break through with. Our road record is atrocious. I feel with this team they just need that breakthrough game on the road and the woes will dissipate. Road wins will be crucial in conference play if we desire a top 4 finish, as we expect.

This is a talented bunch and we have seen spurts of it in the early going. Consistency will always be a concern, but this is a team capable of winning or challenging this conference for the top. It appears this will finally be our bigger step forward. With that said, we need to find a way to get more butts in the seats. The students are doing ok showing up but nobody else is. This is a team that is worthy of people's time and money, now we need to find a way to get locals and other alumni back into the DAC. Alumni family night drawing an attendance fewer than 900 should not be acceptable.

They played well in the 1st half and the last 8 minutes of the game. The first 12 minutes in the 2nd half were very frustrating. They did pull out a nice win, but I still think that they should be blowing out teams like Bryant or Niagara at the DAC. Great performance by Walton tonight, and Butler was a defensive beast once again.

Interesting that Bryant seemed to take a different approach from their game plan that dan10 mentioned in the preview. I was expecting them to be throwing up a lot of threes, but they only attempted 11 and made just 1. I guess Drexel's perimeter defense gave them fits, and they abandoned the outside shot in lieu of driving to the basket instead. Drexel had an incredible 3 point shooting night, going 12 for 25.

(11-21-2019 07:21 AM)dan10 Wrote:  This is a team that is worthy of people's time and money, now we need to find a way to get locals and other alumni back into the DAC. Alumni family night drawing an attendance fewer than 900 should not be acceptable.

Student attendance was decent last night, but was terrible for the Sunday afternoon ACU game. Last night was faculty/staff appreciation night. Drexel has enough faculty and staff members to fill the Wells Fargo Center, let alone the DAC. If they're going to have a promotion to support the school's hardworking employees, it would have been nice if some of them actually showed up. I agree that it's frustrating.

Our attendance will get a nice boost for the Rosemont game on Monday as they are inviting over a thousand elementary school students to the game. Drexel won't be making any money off of the game since I'm sure that the students are coming for free. But at least there will be a loud and energetic atmosphere at the DAC on Monday morning. I hope that a lot of Drexel students will be able to take a break from classes and head over to the DAC as well.

They definitely played differently than they had all season long. I do think we played strong aggressive perimeter defense. The result of that was blow bys. For a team that shoots a lot of 3's I think you take the blow bys and have the help defense limit easy buckets versus letting them get 3 pointers. I thought it was the correct tactical decision to make for this game.

I had said the student turnout has been ok. ACU was awful, the other home games have been good from them. But yes the point is if you are having an event to promote faculty or alumni etc, you have to get them there. The fact that I can pick out familiar faces in the crowd from the broadcasts is an issue. It means our fans are so sparse the team will get no advantages of playing at home. This is an exciting team and it should be supported. All we can do is keep winning and hopefully it helps attract more.

(11-21-2019 07:21 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Alumni family night drawing an attendance fewer than 900 should not be acceptable.

when was this...or did it not happen yet?

i went looking at the homecoming page and there was nothing on there aside from the basketball games. i'm off work so i was thinking about going down for the weekend. usually there's some type of reception ahead of time.

i don't see mario's birthday so that's one less kid oriented event. i didn't see postgame autographs with the women's team either. whether alumni come back is still down to winning basketball games.

(11-21-2019 12:48 PM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  

(11-21-2019 07:21 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Alumni family night drawing an attendance fewer than 900 should not be acceptable.

when was this...or did it not happen yet?

I misspoke as JB pointed out. It was faculty night with little participation

I did not want to create a new thread but wanted to get others' view on the topic. If worthy of its own discussion lets move this post to its own thread and go from there. An interesting article was written on ESPN about hidden home court advantages. Here is the Link to the article. I knew there was not a standard but never really thought about its impact. Do you think this is something that should be standardized? Which do we use at home? I would be curious if we checked the racks whether we practice with different kinds in preparation for road games or if we ignore it. Obviously the big boys are doing it, but I am wondering about the smaller programs. Obviously CofC is taking it into account.

Separately beyond the ball, the fans. What else is utilized to create an advantage? Or what do you think is done with a purpose for gaining an advantage? Lighting, Sternness of the rims and the floor design/coloring come to mind for me. I am guessing poor amenities in visiting locker rooms is a game played in basketball since it is in football. Obviously there is a collective advantage since close or right around 70% of games are won by the home team. How would you rank the various variables that go into it?

I never thought that a basketball itself could provide an advantage or disadvantage, but I guess it can get in players heads. I was shocked to read that the ball isn't standard, but I never thought about it. I just assumed it was.

(11-21-2019 08:28 PM)J.B. Wrote:  I never thought that a basketball itself could provide an advantage or disadvantage, but I guess it can get in players heads. I was shocked to read that the ball isn't standard, but I never thought about it. I just assumed it was.

Not a standard ball per se, but approved balls all meet various size, covering requirements, etc. A couple years ago there was a switch in the WBB ball and the offical pre-game said she had just gotten the notification that that particular ball had been approved for use.

The balls used at the CAA WBB tourney at DU a couple years ago were provided by the CAA and secured. Enforced rule was that warm-ups could not start earlier than 60 minutes before tip-off. They were guarded behind the scorer's table until then, so I guess the thought is that there could be an advantage gained.

I think most of us have held different basketball and know there is definitely a difference. It was interesting to me the level schools take it to gain that advantage, no matter how small.

(11-21-2019 02:05 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Obviously there is a collective advantage since close or right around 70% of games are won by the home team. How would you rank the various variables that go into it?

Home court is an advantage, but 70% makes it sound better than it is because better teams play more home games. Duke won their 3 home games by 34, 51, and 11. Using the home court advantage in the Sagarin, Duke would have won all 3 of those games if they were away. Many of the mid-major losses at top conference teams would have been won by the top conference team at any location, so sometimes you could change 7 home wins and 1 away win to 4 home games and 4 away games with the location switched for 3 games, and the team would still have won all 8.

The article quoted the CAA Preseason POY:

"Grant Riller, who averaged 21.9 points per game at Charleston last season, said it's a reality that players have to learn to ignore.

"A lot of players have a preference, but at the end of the day, it's a basketball," Riller said. "It's not anything new to us. It's a difference, but at the same time, it's not a difference." "