http://alwaysadragon.com/drexel-vs-jacks...e-preview/

Alan Boston, who does the game previews for our friends at AAD, doesn't think very highly of our Dragons. He predicted them getting blown out by Tulane, and while they still lost, it was anything but a blowout.

Yesterday he predicted a 1 point loss, but Drexel pulled away pretty with a solid win. Today he's got a 6 point loss to JSU. He knows more about JSU than I do, which is absolutely nothing. But being that they're from a lower level DI league, this is a game that Drexel should still win.
Drexel 80
Jacksonville State 72

Drexel 32-29 at Half

Dragons failed to score for the last 2+ minutes of the half, but still manage to lead 32-29 at halftime.

Jack on 10-0 run, and Drexel scoreless for about 6 minutes between halves.

Okros just hit a 3 to end the drought, Drexel trails 37-35 with 16 to go.

They are very sloppy on offense. Very sloppy game overall. Drexel trails 53-48 with 8 left.

Drexel 56-58 with 4 minutes

2 straight 3's for Jack so they're now up by 6, 64-58 with 2:37 left.

Drexel down 66-61 with 42 seconds left. Really it came down to big outside shots. JACK made them, Drexel didn't. Not over yet, but it doesn't look good.

Bad loss for Drexel and they finish in 6th place out of 7 teams in the tournament.

Another year where it's hard to get a read on this team due to crazy stuff happening, but concerning how we continue to consistently struggle against competition that, according to analytics, we should be about equal with now into year 6.

Started feeling this way last year and things ended up working out. Let's hope that happens again.

(11-24-2021 05:38 PM)DrachenFire Wrote:  Another year where it's hard to get a read on this team due to crazy stuff happening, but concerning how we continue to consistently struggle against competition that, according to analytics, we should be about equal with now into year 6.

Started feeling this way last year and things ended up working out. Let's hope that happens again.

One thing that worked against Drexel that due to Abilene backing out, Drexel had to play 3 games in basically less than 3 days while, JACK had the day off yesterday. Could have had something to do with why their shots seemed to be falling late in the game and Drexel's weren't. While it was a disappointing loss, it really doesn't mean much in the end. So hopefully it's used as a learning experience to help them improve. What I want out of this year's team is a group that gets better at the end of the season, like last year. Prior teams would peak in mid-February and then collapse down the stretch.

I understand that, that's why I said it's hard to get a read. The fact remains, we struggle against teams ranked by Kenpom between 101-200 at the time the game is played. In 6 years the best OOC road win came in Year 2 at LaSalle. I'd have hoped we'd have progressed a bit more than that by now. The games at Princeton, Abilene Christian (if they're out of Covid protocols) and Temple are huge barometer games. We have to win at least 1 of those games.

i haven't liked our defense...especially when we really need it. it seems like we'll work hard for a basket on offense...then let the other team go down and get a wide open shot. sometimes we let people drive right in for a lay up. we're not putting together good offensive/defensive possessions which is keeping games close.

i'm thinking of the situation when we were down 8 with around 5 minutes left...hit 2 threes to get within 2...then left a guy wide open at the top of the key for a three.

we could be more aggressive on defense in general. i'd like to see us pressure in the backcourt a bit more. we line up like we might trap full court...but then fall back into essentially full court man. we don't give ourselves many chances for easy baskets.

my overall impression though is spiker is feeling things out in the ooc. he has a lot of toys to play with and is probably trying to give everybody a chance to develop. that involves letting okros shoot, williams post up, bell drive, butler post up and shoot, martin post up and shoot, cam shoot, and so on. other guys like oden and brown seem to still be figuring out where they fit and need minutes to figure it out...which spiker is giving them.

i do worry about teams that have too many mediocre or inconsistent pieces. cam has to be the stabilizer and he still has uneven games like his last one.

1- Toledo
2- Coastal
3- Valpo
4- Tulane
5- Jacksonville State
6- Drexel
7- Charlotte

That was the order of finish for those who didnt follow last week during the holidays. Finishing next to last in a tournament I truly felt we could win, is highly disappointing. There were highlights no doubt.

Jacksonville St was a disappointing loss, for sure, I think our legs just got tired. But with how many players we use and the minutes given, I think that is a cop-opt answer. There was no reason our legs should have been tired. Our defense absolutely is still the weakness of this team. Some possessions we seem like we took a leap forward and really get after it, then we follow it up with indifference that leads to easy buckets. Offensively we are just too inconsistent, but not unexpected when you shoot a lot of 3s. I think Bell's ability to drive will help this team immensely. He needs to be smarter and less reckless in doing so, but I think he can be our game changer in opening up all of our shooters, or even dump off for easy dunks lay ups by Butler/Amari