Drexel down 3 with 40 seconds left another missed shot and ANOTHER foul. 13-0 Tribe run since the U4 timeout. It's one of these games where you get a stretch where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

Another missed shot and ANOTHER Drexel foul. Drexel about to collapse in 3 of their 4 conference games and will fall to 1-3 in the CAA in a season that was supposed to have a lot of promise.

Walton fouled on a 3 point shot and makes all 3 FT's. Drexel down 66-64 with 14 left.

W&M keeps making their FT's so it's 68-64.

HORRIBLE LOSS! And with no games next weekend, their next 6 games are against Northeastern, Hofstra, and Delaware. So they could wind up getting buried in the CAA standings.

so have we seen enough of spiker at this point?

i didn't watch. planned to watch tomorrow but i'm glad i checked the score. just waiting for some sign the program is turning the corner. otherwise sprint car races, hockey games not even involving the flyers, and nfl games not involving even the eagles will be higher on the priority list.

Spiker still gets the rest of this season for me, but I am certainly concerned. A 1-3 start against what isn't really the upper echelon of the CAA is not good. If he can't get things to turn around this season, the seat should officially be hot.

It's crazy how the game played out, and how important free throws are. Juric was fouled with 2:13 remaining and Drexel up three. He misses the front end of the one and one. If he makes both free throws there, Drexel leads by 5 with 2:13 left and the entire final two minutes would have played out completely different. Now Spiker gives Juric a lot of minutes due to his defense. However, it was his foul that cost Drexel last Saturday's CoC game. He also committed 3 fouls in a stretch of 51 seconds and those fouls led to 6 W&M FT's. So he literally caused Drexel to have an 8 point swing against them in those 51 seconds which ultimately cost them the game.

EvanJ may have to look into this but that had to be a record. To blow a 9 point lead in the final 4 minutes without giving up a basket. It feels like the largest blown lead without giving up a made basket.

Awful loss and the way it transpired absolutely has to put him on the hot seat. Its year 5 and we have arguably the best roster in the conference and a veteran team. Losing like this is completely unacceptable, especially to the leagues worst team. If a team cant have composure down the stretch and close out bad teams, there is a bigger issue, especially in year 5 of the regime. We are now 1-3 when we should be 4-0. We now face the best team in the conference and are staring down 1-5. Really 1-7 since Hofstra is after NU.

went back and watched the tape. we like to draw our own conclusions instead of letting newsmax or twitter tell us what do do. i'll do it in the reuben frank observations format (may not get to 10)...

1. i always felt like we lacked toughness, want to, intensity...whatever you want to call it...especially under spiker. the last 4 minutes was basically "ok i'll just foul this guy...no big deal" on one end and "ok i'll just take whatever shot at whatever point in the shot clock...no big deal" on the other end. multiply that by 4 or 5 possessions and now you have problems.

2. credit william and mary for hitting free throws. i resigned myself to thinking 70% was good. it's "old school" thinking now to expect teams to make free throws. they proved why the line still matters.

3. there was never even a sense of panic out of us as they started to come back. i almost would have preferred that. we don't seem to have another gear of intensity we can ratchet up to when we need it. worst part is william and mary didn't have to ratchet themselves up to come back either. i don't recall full court pressure and there definitely wasn't anybody who got red hot to lead the charge.

4. spiker still puts the wrong guys on the floor. jb is right that juric was a big part of the problem. you can't just blame him since everybody was just going through the motions. i blame spiker because you wonder how long he would have stuck with him had he not fouled out. you have to be able to recognize when a guy is struggling and throw him a life line.

5. wynter doesn't trust the other guys on the floor either. we had a possession when we were down 3 and okros was WIDE OPEN in the corner. wynter took a contested runner instead of making the pass. i don't blame him either. even in his best game of the season i wouldn't feel great about okros hitting that shot. oden, bickerstaff, or preferably both should have been on the floor at that point.

6. interesting post from somebody on facebook with last name of wynter criticizing the coaching staff. i'm not a fan of the chatter you hear from family and something i don't miss about going to games this season. it does show some insight into what the feelings might be on the team though.

7. spiker hasn't won enough games to show up in a sweat suit. there were 4 or 5 of us watching...believe it or not.

8. i was curious why williams wasn't getting more minutes and now i'm even more curious. he's showing an ability to pass too. he had a good thing going with bickerstaff. even more reason to be giving more minutes to williams, bickerstaff, oden, and bell. spiker seems to have hitched his wagon to jurich, okros, and even butler (who i like overall) which is going to be a big mistake.

Relatively speaking, we have been blessed that many family members of players are knowledgeable on the game of basketball, even back to Bruiser's days. So when family members are seeing the same things we as fans are seeing, it is fair criticism. At some point something needs to change. We all stated this year would be absolutely critical to our future and unfortunately I think we are all seeing what we feared.

Definitely think the Dragons are better than 1-3. But, do we really know who is good this season? Northeastern is 6-0, so they may be good. But, Delaware should be 2-4(they were allowed to beg off a 2nd game in Williamsburg(no COVID issues) when they had enough players to play on Sunday), Hofstra is 3-3 and is probably still the 2nd best team(for now). They easily could have won 1 of the games against Northeastern. Everyone else, including the Tribe could be around .500. If the preseason polls matter at this point, W&M beat Delaware, and played both games against Hofstra competitively. I get downplaying the Tribe after the result Saturday though.

Ultimately it is hard to gauge a lot with the 2 games in 2 days format. Plus, there is little known yet about UNCW, Towson and JMU given how few games they have played. As far as the Tribe's 3 opponents so far, Drexel likely had the most talent. Definitely was very impressed with Walton this weekend. Still lots of time to get things together. As a Tribe fan, I am expecting most of the teams to improve as they get more practice and game time together in the next 6 weeks. Frankly, it will be surprising if nearly all the games get played. UNCW and Towson are playing today.

Wynter was co-Player of the Week with Delaware's Dylan Painter. Wynter became the first CAA player with consecutive games with at least 11 assists since UNCW's Kai Toews on January 26 and 31, 2019. From 2010-2011 to the present, Towson has never had a player get at least 11 assists.

(01-18-2021 12:33 PM)TribePride91 Wrote:  Definitely think the Dragons are better than 1-3. But, do we really know who is good this season? Northeastern is 6-0, so they may be good. But, Delaware should be 2-4(they were allowed to beg off a 2nd game in Williamsburg(no COVID issues) when they had enough players to play on Sunday), Hofstra is 3-3 and is probably still the 2nd best team(for now). They easily could have won 1 of the games against Northeastern. Everyone else, including the Tribe could be around .500. If the preseason polls matter at this point, W&M beat Delaware, and played both games against Hofstra competitively. I get downplaying the Tribe after the result Saturday though.

Ultimately it is hard to gauge a lot with the 2 games in 2 days format. Plus, there is little known yet about UNCW, Towson and JMU given how few games they have played. As far as the Tribe's 3 opponents so far, Drexel likely had the most talent. Definitely was very impressed with Walton this weekend. Still lots of time to get things together. As a Tribe fan, I am expecting most of the teams to improve as they get more practice and game time together in the next 6 weeks. Frankly, it will be surprising if nearly all the games get played. UNCW and Towson are playing today.

i've said a million times it's never been more true this year that it all comes down to the tournament. somebody could come out of nowhere. i'm looking for signs drexel could put it all together in that format. haven't seen it so far.

spiker made a comment during that season ticket holder session about the number of assistants he has that could coach at a high level elsewhere. that's becoming sort of a buzz phrase or excuse...in situations where the job isn't getting done. after firing doug pederson...jeffrey lurie used the number of executives he has who could be gms elsewhere in defense of his current gm who everyone knows is an idiot except jeffrey lurie.

i don't care how much talent you have on the staff if it's not translating into what you put on the floor.

(01-18-2021 07:53 AM)dan10 Wrote:  EvanJ may have to look into this but that had to be a record. To blow a 9 point lead in the final 4 minutes without giving up a basket. It feels like the largest blown lead without giving up a made basket.

Awful loss and the way it transpired absolutely has to put him on the hot seat. Its year 5 and we have arguably the best roster in the conference and a veteran team. Losing like this is completely unacceptable, especially to the leagues worst team. If a team cant have composure down the stretch and close out bad teams, there is a bigger issue, especially in year 5 of the regime. We are now 1-3 when we should be 4-0. We now face the best team in the conference and are staring down 1-5. Really 1-7 since Hofstra is after NU.

I think you'll beat Hofstra at least once. I paired the starters:

Wynter to Caleb Burgess: Wynter averages over double the points per game. Their position matches, but not their contributions.

Butler to Isaac Kante: Butler averages 13.8 points and 10.1 rebounds. Kante averages 12.7 points and 10.6 rebounds. Butler made 1 of 2 threes, and Kante hasn't attempted any.

Walton to Tareq Coburn: Both of them attempt more threes than twos. Coburn scores more, while Walton averages more rebounds and assists.

Bickerstaff to Kvonn Cramer: Both shoot twos well and shoot threes horribly. Bickerstaff made 3 of 17 threes, and Cramer made 1 of 18. Neither was a starter last season. Cramer didn't play for 1,366 days after torn ACLs stopped him from playing as a high school junior and senior, and he took a redshirt season last season. Before the torn ACLs, he was recruited by teams in top conferences. Bickerstaff averages 10.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. Cramer averages 7.2 points and 6.8 rebounds. Cramer shoots twos .719, but he can't shoot free throws. His free throw percentage was 3/15 = .200, and it's up to 9/26 = .346. Bickerstaff shoots free throws .778, which is over double Cramer's percentage.

Okros to Jalen Ray: They're not similar, but they're the guys I haven't paired yet. Okros averages 5.8 points and 1.9 assists. Ray averages 18.3 points and 3.5 assists. Okros has 80.9 percent of his attempts be threes, which is almost double Ray's 41.0 percent of his attempts that were threes. Some people might switch Burgess and Ray so each team's leading scorer is paired, and it would pair Burgess's 8.3 points to Okros's 5.8 points. I matched Okros and Ray because in assists and percent of attempts that are three, Okros is closer to Ray than to Burgess. I know percent of attempts that are threes isn't a statistic, but I calculate it.

We embark on another game against the Tribe. After last Sunday, this is a game this team needs to rebound. Playing a team of lower quality is good too to increase potential wins. But without a chance at an at large not sure it matters, though playing games is more important than having a couple weeks off again. Vegas took notice to our collapse and we are merely a 3 point favorite today. I think we take care of them early again and coast late.

Drexel -81
W&M- 61

This games means a lot for the standings. They are potentially going to lose 4 games between WNCW and Elon and they already lost 3 against W&M and CoC. So now it's about staying out of the 7-10 games in the CAA Tournament, which is not a guarantee.

Much, much better performance this afternoon at Kaplan, 79-64 win to win the 3 game series. First half was looking a lot like last weekends games. But unlike Sunday, Dragons shot really well in the second half and slowly pulled away.

Drexel gets as very rare CAA road win and increases their CAA road record under Spiker to 5-34. It's their 2nd Spiker road win at W&M.