Bummer. Chalreston fell yesterday to Hofstra. Estrada had a massive first half and then scored 2 points in the 2nd half, yet Hofstra took a small deficit and won the game. Doubtful that CofC remains ranked

Hofstra's top four scorers scored 15 to 25 and combined for 75. Third leading scorer Darlinstone Dubar was slumping. In his previous five games, he averaged 4.6 points and shot 8-29. Yesterday he scored 18 and shot 8-11. Hofstra made half of their twos and half of their threes. Charleston shot threes 5-31 (.161) including 0-16 in the last 17:04. Hofstra's two forwards had 1 rebound each, and they still only got outrebounded by 5. Charleston attempted 31 free throws, and Hofstra attempted 8. Hofstra is 7-3 when attempting 10 or fewer free throws. Both teams have arguably their hardest remaining game next with Hofstra hosting Towson (who won 68-47 hosting Hofstra) and Charleston at Drexel.

(01-29-2023 01:52 PM)EvanJ Wrote:  Hofstra's top four scorers scored 15 to 25 and combined for 75. Third leading scorer Darlinstone Dubar was slumping. In his previous five games, he averaged 4.6 points and shot 8-29. Yesterday he scored 18 and shot 8-11. Hofstra made half of their twos and half of their threes. Charleston shot threes 5-31 (.161) including 0-16 in the last 17:04. Hofstra's two forwards had 1 rebound each, and they still only got outrebounded by 5. Charleston attempted 31 free throws, and Hofstra attempted 8. Hofstra is 7-3 when attempting 10 or fewer free throws. Both teams have arguably their hardest remaining game next with Hofstra hosting Towson (who won 68-47 hosting Hofstra) and Charleston at Drexel.

I thought Drexel would be a tough game, but are they? They got decimated in the second half against A&T, then allowed Elon to pick up their first conference win in a 14 point loss. CofC still has UNCW and Towson in their final two games at home, which I would consider to be their toughest remaining games since they had to go to OT to beat Towson and only won by two against UNCW.

UNCW hit a slump after the CofC heartbreaker, but we played our very next game against W&M without our starting senior guard, Shykiem Phillips, due to sickness, and our 6'7" starting freshman guard only played 11 minutes after he sustained what is likely a season ending injury. So two of our starters were pretty much not on the court. We then beat Elon and traveled to Hofstra trying to figure out how to reconfigure our lineup minus a starter. Had we had Phillips and Ross the entire game against the Tribe, I doubt we'd have lost and I also doubt Hofstra is able to explode against us in the second half like they did. Two of our three conference losses are against the top two teams, and two of our three losses were by four points combined.

We lost another senior guard to injury against Monmouth who was a part time starter and full time off the bench, so we will be without two of our primary players for at least the next few weeks. I'm hoping we have a few guys to plug in the holes, but one is another Freshman who is 6'7" but pretty thin. Also hoping 6'7", 235 lb Nick Farrar gets some more PT. But we'll see. We're actually a pretty young team and were starting a freshman and two sophomores before Noah Ross was injured. But I think we may actually imrpove on offense with addition by subtraction.

Yeah, it's impossible to call Drexel a tough game for anyone right now. Delaware is CofC's toughest remaining game.

Drexel still sucks on the road. That said, before this week we did as expected. Beat bad teams, lost to even remotely decent teams. This week we shifted course and lost to 2 bad teams. CofC is a bad matchup for Drexel, period. It is going to be a bloodbath on Thursday. Drexel is still tough at home and if they hit some shots can scare any team in this league. If they are not interested, they showed this week we are more than capable of losing and losing big to bad teams too.

On the topic at hand, small chance CofC stays ranked. New Mexico and Miami helped by losing themselves. The teams just outside last week also took losses. UConn has lost 4 of 5 so can see them dropping out too. Indiana and SDSU will be in. So the question comes down to does Creighton climb back in? Does UConn hang on? If both of those coin flip to no then CofC hangs on. If either land on yes then CofC will just be outside the top 25

UConn stayed. CofC is second in others receiving votes. Creighton is fourth in others receiving votes. UConn lost their last four road games and goes to DePaul and Georgetown, both of whom would be bad losses. Auburn goes to Number 2 Tennessee. Miami goes to first place Clemson, and the loser might fall out of the poll either way.

Surprised Miami held on, not so surprised UConn did. Missouri made a big leap and jumped CofC as well. 27th is a big fall but not awful either. Auburn fell 10 spots and nearly fell out of the top 25. As expected they stayed elevated since many of the teams that were receiving votes also lost this week. I thought Creighton would jump more than they did.

Their hope of getting back in the rankings was killed last night. Likely any at large talks as well. They need to figure themselves back out if they are going to win the tournament, they have the balance and depth to do it. Even if they win out to the final, not so sure they get the nod, even as a 30 win team

Charleston is Joe Lunardi's fourth team out.