Homecoming event on Facebook has like 2 people interested and 1 person going. That doesn’t count my 4 which doubles the interest. Should be a real ripper.

I considered setting up a shrine to Tony Shaver on their bench. What a disgrace that was.

Drexel 80 waste management 50

My section and the section next to mine is sold out for tomorrow. But last I checked there were plenty of seats everywhere else. It's supposed to snow all afternoon, and my streak of attending MBB home games might come to an end tomorrow. There was a nice student crowd last night. Hopefully the student section can at least be packed even if the snow keeps everyone else away.

In terms of the game, I think there's a realistic assumption that this game will be a loss for Drexel. And by comparing the two teams, that's a reasonable assumption. However, this could be a statement game for Drexel. They're tied for their best start ever in the CAA, and need to win a home game against a good team if they want to seriously think of themselves as contenders. Tomorrow's game could be the storyteller as to whether this team is ready to at least compete for a title, or if they're still ways away from getting there.

Standings through 1/3 of conference play:
1. 6-0 W&M
2. 5-1 Hofstra
3. 5-2 CofC
4. 4-2 Drexel
5. 4-2 Northeastern
6. 3-3 Towson
7. 2-4 Delaware
8. 1-5 Elon
9. 1-5 JMU
10. 0-7 UNCW

Very little is clear yet at this point. The top 4 teams still appear to be the top 4 teams. We have not played any of those teams yet. Obviously we kick off a tough stretch against those teams Saturday. Are we a contender or are we a pretender? Saturday is our first look into finding out.

My gut and eyes say we are a pretender, but a middle of the pack team. We are too inconsistent to challenge the top teams and our weaknesses, especially on defense, just don't match up well against the top teams in this conference.

W&M has had a lot of success against us under Shaver. Shaver isnt here any more and Dane is proving their AD right so far in wanting a new voice to get them over the hump. There is still a lot of game left before anyone can say whether it was worth it or not. On the surface it never looked good. However this is still a talented team and a tough one to defend. They have arguably the best 2 bigs in the conference and nobody matches up with them. They are playing better defense than Shaver's teams did, per the eye test, I have no idea about the analytics. W&M has been a warrior on the road this season at 8-4. Drexel has been good at home at 8-2. Something has to give.

I personally think the 2 worst matchups for us are W&M and Hofstra. Towson is a close 3rd. Down low we have Butler. Butler will struggle against Knight. Van Vliet is another 7 footer that we will have no defense against. If Green is healthy, I am guessing that is who we throw at him. W&M still has good offense with movement. We are not good at moving our feet on defense, so that poses problems as they will be able to get to the rim without too much issue. Between that and their bigs, I have a hard time seeing us competing against them. Bad match up. If I were Spiker I would not even consider man defense and would play 100% zone. Let Van Vliet and others beat us from 3. Try to take away the easy stuff at the rim. We give up way too many easy lay ups playing man-to-man. I think a zone would give us a chance if we are shooting well. Man-to-man defense, in my opinion, will get us blown out.

Cam has been an offensive monster since conference play began. We need to find other options. Butler is a nice compliment to use down low, this is not a great matchup to rely on him. We need TJ/Okros/Green/Walton to step up. Green or Okros will have their hands full attempting to cover Van Vliet. We need good ball movement and can't be a one man scoring team to pull the upset. Lets hope Cam stays hot, but someone else steps up too. I want to be confident, but I just do not see it in this one.

W&M- 81
DU- 60

(01-17-2020 10:09 AM)dan10 Wrote:  [b]The top 4 teams still appear to be the top 4 teams. We have not played any of those teams yet.

We did play COC, but they clearly showed that they are the more talented team.

My apologies, I did forget we played them at home. I agree. I also think CofC is more of a 4 seed type team of the top teams. I had them 5th preseason. I always thought Brantley meant way more to that team than others did. I actually thought we had a chance at finishing above them, to be honest. Same with Hofstra. Hofstra has really surprised me. W&M has been a huge shock as well for all of their losses. CAA is always crazy and its balance is still clear in a down year.

I think an underestimated part of W&M's early success in conference has been the defensive efforts of Luke Loewe in shutting down the opponents top scorers. Although not totally his effort, these were the guys he started the game guarding in CAA play:
Darling scored 13 averages 19.3
Riller scored 10 averages 21.8
Okauru scored 8 averages 8.5
Roland scored 7 averages 22.3
Buie scored 10 averages 18.7
I'm not sure who his main assignment was against Elon, if it was Sheffield he scored 21 which would be the exception to the trend.
I'm sure Loewe will open the game guarding Cam. We will need him to figure out how to beat Loewe or others will have to step up.

I agree Loewe has really stepped up this year for them on that side.

We went to the wrestling match tonight. Enjoyed it despite getting destroyed since we wrestled nc state who is undefeated and #5 in the country. Our only win was exciting. Felt like everyone else got pinned.

3 point dogs today.

Nice start. Active hands on defense has forced some turnovers and guys are knocking down some good jumpers

Up 34-24 at half. We started hot and then played a good half on offense. Good ball movement. Final 8 or so minutes without Cam due to 2 fouls and still maintained a lead. Best defensive half I have seen from this team. Forced some turnovers and got out on the break for some easy buckets. Very active hands on defense. We look very good today. W&M happy to take some 3's (some poor shots). We should continue to let them. The more they stay away from pounding the basket the better off we are. Butler and Cam with 2 fouls could have a big impact.

That was your third consecutive great defensive half, and you lead 34-24. Walton and Knight are the double-digit scorers with 10. Butler has 8 points and 7 rebounds, and it's great that he has 1 fewer rebound than Knight and Van Vliet combined. Wynter has 6 points and 3 assists. After his second foul with 8:54 left, he sat for the rest of the half, and you did okay with a -1 point differential without him. Juric did something unusual which is for a sub to lead you in minutes. Point guard Bryce Barnes is still out for W&M, so Thornton Scott serves as their point guard. He has 3 assists, but the rest of their team has only 1. Poor shooting and 1 free throw attempt is a bad combination for W&M. You had big advantages in rebounds (22 to 12), assists (9 to 4), and fast break points (9 to 0). The five CAA teams other than you have 12 fast break points for an average of 2.4, and that's with three games at halftime.

You scored 50 in the second half to win 84-57. Walton scored 23 with 8-14 shooting including 5-7 threes. Wynter scored 20 and also shot 8-14 without attempting a three. He had 4 rebounds and 7 assists. James Butler had 17 points with 6-7 field goal and 5-6 free throw shooting. He had 12 rebounds, and held Knight to 9 rebounds. Knight's double-double streak ended at 5, and it was the fifth time in 20 games he did not have a double-double. He scored 28, which was almost half of W&M's points. Van Vliet, who entered averaging 14.5, scored only 5.

You beat W&M by 27, who beat Hofstra by 27, so I'm worried. I may go to the game on Saturday. Desure Buie, who played 8 games in an injury redshirt season, could break Hofstra's career games record.

All around great game. We looked solid on both sides of the ball. Cam was great despite missing over 8 minutes in the first half. Walton was hot and we fed the hot hand. A good Walton really changes the dynamics of our team on offense. Hopefully this strong home stand against Elon and W&M get shim going to what we expected this season. Butler had the only double double of the game. Strong game on the boards against the only team I thought was better at rebounding than us.

84-57. Wow. Did not see this one coming.

(01-17-2020 09:25 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  Drexel 80 waste management 50

Pretty accurate ....

(01-17-2020 10:09 AM)dan10 Wrote:  ...

I personally think the 2 worst matchups for us are W&M and Hofstra.

If W&M is one of your top two worst matchups and you beat the Tribe by 27 then you should be feeling pretty good about your chances.

Congratulations on the dominant win. W&M played totally out of sorts (some of which was surely caused by Drexel's defense) and the Dragons took advantage. Hopefully we will get even on the return match.

Your coach Spiker looks like he knows what he is doing. I was impressed by what he did at Army. Maybe better days are ahead for Drexel (and the Tribe, too, of course).

Who would have thought that hiroshimacarp's blind prediction would turn out to be so accurate? Did ANYBODY in their wildest imagination expect the outcome like what we saw this afternoon? I hope that Carp and his family had a great time at the game and enjoying homecoming weekend in Philadelphia.

Unbelievable crowd today, and the student section was almost packed. Attendance was listed at 1,587 which doesn't sound like much. But I assure everyone that Drexel understates their numbers compared to other schools. There were very few empty seats, and those that were empty were people who either bailed due to the snow or were watching from a suite. I was at a Rider game over their break, and they listed their attendance at 1,512, despite student being on break and their gym only holds 1,650. I can honestly say that there were several hundred more at the DAC today than were at that Rider game. There was also a lot of people who I personally know who bailed due to the snow, and I'm sure many others stayed home due to the weather. I thought about bailing and I decided to take the train in from the western suburbs for the first time ever. I'm so glad that I made it today.

There were some obnoxious W&M fans who for some strange reason decided to buy tickets in my section instead of behind the W&M bench. Early in the game, they were standing up cheering loud after every Tribe basket, which I've always found obnoxious when visiting team fans do it. I could tell that they had expected that this would be a walk in the park party for W&M, and it was really nice to see them shut up for most of the second half. If any of those fans are on these boards and are reading this, please feel free to respond. I'm curious to get your reaction.

(01-18-2020 05:05 PM)J.B. Wrote:  There were some obnoxious W&M fans who for some strange reason decided to buy tickets in my section instead of behind the W&M bench. Early in the game, they were standing up cheering loud after every Tribe basket, which I've always found obnoxious when visiting team fans do it. I could tell that they had expected that this would be a walk in the park party for W&M, and it was really nice to see them shut up for most of the second half. If any of those fans are on these boards and are reading this, please feel free to respond. I'm curious to get your reaction.

Had a few in the seats behind the table. One of whom seriously needs to read up on what constitutes defensive goal tending. Apparently W&M never fouled and DU fouled on every defensive possession. It was entertaining (and quieter in the 2nd Half).

(01-18-2020 04:54 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-17-2020 09:25 AM)hiroshimacarp Wrote:  Drexel 80 waste management 50

Pretty accurate ....

(01-17-2020 10:09 AM)dan10 Wrote:  ...

I personally think the 2 worst matchups for us are W&M and Hofstra.

If W&M is one of your top two worst matchups and you beat the Tribe by 27 then you should be feeling pretty good about your chances.

Congratulations on the dominant win. W&M played totally out of sorts (some of which was surely caused by Drexel's defense) and the Dragons took advantage. Hopefully we will get even on the return match.

Your coach Spiker looks like he knows what he is doing. I was impressed by what he did at Army. Maybe better days are ahead for Drexel (and the Tribe, too, of course).

Thanks. Not to rub it in. But the last time Drexel beat a Division I opponent by 27 points was over 8 years ago, when a championship calibur Drexel team beat a terrible Towson team 60-27 on 1/4/12.

Of the recent hires of CAA coaches in the last 4 years, not including Dane this year, Spiker is ahead of the group. He wasn't my first choice as I wanted Ingelsby, but he finally seems to have this team playing great defense, something that's been a problem over the last several years.

When I first saw the final score on my phone I thought it was a typo. I've generally been more on the patience train when it comes to Spiker but before this year he had two flaws that I feared might wind up being unsolvable: road games and defense. The jury is still out on the former, but the past couple games have shown me a lot about the upside this team could have on the defensive end. Seems possible that now that Spiker has more of "his guys", and they're getting used to the system, it's paying off. If that active defense becomes a consistent feature of Drexel basketball going forward, the future could be brighter than I envisioned.

(01-18-2020 05:05 PM)J.B. Wrote:  Who would have thought that hiroshimacarp's blind prediction would turn out to be so accurate? Did ANYBODY in their wildest imagination expect the outcome like what we saw this afternoon? I hope that Carp and his family had a great time at the game and enjoying homecoming weekend in Philadelphia.

I’m just hoping we’re closer to having a team/program we can be proud of. Maybe even prouder than the days you were around for in the 90s. Spiker says/does all the right things. He was crying post game. Really hard not to love the guy.

I’ve been told we pitched a perfect game today by smarter people than me. We have work to do...like beating freakin Towson.

Somebody should’ve sent the obnoxious W&M fans out with a Tony Shaver chant. It took 27 minutes for them to score on a cut by my count. Usually takes about 30 seconds.