Hofstra Thoughts

[CoffeeCan]

1. Two Hofstra players took 37 of 55 shots and scored 46 of 72 pts. I think my math is right.
2. Pemberton, a sophomore, was left wide open on many looks especially from three. How much do you want to bet that he fails to score 27 again this year?
3. Why did we not lock down on him and Wright-Foreman?
4. We were outshot at the FT line. True. And the refs were bad.
5. We also beat Ball State due to our FT shooting disparity.
6. And we are a middle school lob pass inbound play from being 0-2.
7. Kostas flashed some brilliance, still raw, but... wow.
8. Why did AG have Crutcher in down the stretch and not Crosby?
9. I think Crutcher will be good, but his inexperience showed
10. Maybe AG has as much of a hard time reading those red jerseys as we do...

Drinking last night (of course) - Elijah Craig bourbon

[Gazoo]

Originally Posted by CoffeeCan 8. Why did AG have Crutcher in down the stretch and not Crosby?

As I mentioned on the other thread, he subbed out at the 9:37 mark and did not return. That's not just "down the stretch". What in the actual F happened, and why wasn't he in the game?!

[San Diego Flyer]

No one has mentioned that Jalen Crutcher's 3pt at the end that would have sent us into overtime, rattled in and out. Could have gone in. Would Crosby have made it? We'll never know, but Jalen squared up and put up a good shot. Jalen is going to get better quickly.

Coach seems to be leaning toward Crosby and DD as his point guards. I'm guessing Crutcher has been lighting it up in practice. His 3pt make at the 4:35 mark may have bought him some additional court time. There are some trade-offs. Do I put Crosby back in the game when people have told me he struggled mightily last year to finish. With DD and Jalen I've got 2 shooters in the game.

Pemberton had a career game. Hats off.

[TheDuke2003]

Originally Posted by San Diego Flyer No one has mentioned that Jalen Crutcher's 3pt at the end that would have sent us into overtime, rattled in and out. Could have gone in. Would Crosby have made it? We'll never know, but Jalen squared up and put up a good shot. Jalen is going to get better quickly. Coach seems to be leaning toward Crosby and DD as his point guards. I'm guessing Crutcher has been lighting it up in practice. His 3pt make at the 4:35 mark may have bought him some additional court time. There are some trade-offs. Do I put Crosby back in the game when people have told me he struggled mightily last year to finish. With DD and Jalen I've got 2 shooters in the game. Pemberton had a career game. Hats off.

Jalen's last shot was a good shot to take, but man o man was X-Man's 3 before that a terribly run play. I would have to hope they designed something for DD as hot as he was but just couldn't get him the ball.

Crutcher's inexperience shows, but he has flashed some serious upside. Only way to get past inexperience is with experience. Growing pains of a new regime.

[Gazoo]

Originally Posted by San Diego Flyer No one has mentioned that Jalen Crutcher's 3pt at the end that would have sent us into overtime, rattled in and out. Could have gone in. Would Crosby have made it? We'll never know, but Jalen squared up and put up a good shot. Jalen is going to get better quickly. Coach seems to be leaning toward Crosby and DD as his point guards. I'm guessing Crutcher has been lighting it up in practice. His 3pt make at the 4:35 mark may have bought him some additional court time. There are some trade-offs. Do I put Crosby back in the game when people have told me he struggled mightily last year to finish. With DD and Jalen I've got 2 shooters in the game. Pemberton had a career game. Hats off.

I would like to see the replay, my recollection is that it hit the side of the rim.

But either way, maybe he makes it if he had more legs under him from NOT having to play 9:30 of consecutive game time without a sub. Which continues to just make no sense to me (without further information).

JC was 5-5 from the FT line. FT's tend to be important down the stretch as well.

I know JC took a terribly timed 15 foot jump shot on the break with no one under the basket to rebound, and I saw some animated movements on the bench later, so maybe Grant told him it was a bad shot and they argued over it. Maybe JC called Grant the one thing you can't say to an umpire.

[Medford]

"Blind mice"?

Crutcher's shot was "in and out", very close to going down, I didn't realize it at first, but when they showed the replay it showed how close it was.

Overall, I agree with a lot of the sentiment, a lot of good things were shown, but a lot of stupid individual plays across the board and inopportune times (is there ever a good time?)

[SeasonTicketFan]

I think this team has potential. The upper classman need more experience, but they have talent. The freshmen have talent as well.

DD has been a pleasant surprise. He makes some mistakes, but has shown that he can light up an offense at times.

Crosby's offense has been a very pleasant surprise. He still has had moments, but his showing that if he picks his spots and plays under control he can really help. His defense continues to be unimpressive.

What need for this team to blossom is two things based upon the sample size of two games.
1. Defense has to improve dramatically. They have made the guards on two average teams look like NBA players. Crosby and Crutcher are being attacked mercilessly by other team's offenses. Other players are not rotating to help. I wonder if AG is playing zone to hide the weaknesses or that the players have not bought in or understood his system yet. Or both...

2. The team has to finish. They caught up last night, then let the game slip away. They were up 7 in the first game and gave away the lead. That is not a good pattern. The previous senior class had big time end of game killer instincts. They won the last 4 minutes of a lot of games. This team is lacking this so far. That end of game leadership has to start with DD and Crosby. Crosby was on the bench last night.

Those are the two biggest areas for improvement. Tall order right now, but if they can grow, they could be very competitive in A10 play.

The freshmen will have moments of brilliances and moments of ugly. Look at Kostas for two games. They will have the chance to win or lose a game or two as the season progresses.

[Flyer 86]

Exactly right, they don't have the finishing qualities of our recent teams. Mainly nobody on the team was in the mix last two years. So they are out there figuring out who to look to as a leader , as a finisher.

Grant is likely hiding the weaknesses, defensive weakness that were there last year I might add.

Kostas will help big time. Landers to a lesser extent, as a glue guy.

We really need Matej to step it up the next 5 games. that will right a lot of things!

[SeasonTicketFan]

Often finishing games starts with defense. Last year's senior class would use their tough minded defense to help them finish games.

[Chris R]

First four guys off the bench - Crutcher, Kostas, J. Davis, and Svoboda - are all true freshmen. Add in Pierce and its all 5.

We have 0% experience outside the starting lineup. At times we have no choice but to have 2-3 true frosh on the court at same time. No way around the reality of our complete void of experience when subbing.

Some teams can go to the bench and bring on firepower or a 6th and 7th starter. We dont have this luxury.

Expect more bumps. At times it will look like a car wreck. At times I hope the team also shows some growth.

We could easily go 0-3 down here in Charleston and it wouldnt be in spite of an overabundance of talent.

[San Diego Flyer]

If we played these 3 opponents in Charleston 4 days apart and in the middle of the season, I think 2-1 is reasonable. But in 4 days right now with our youth, we are looking at being gassed. It will be interesting to see what happens.

[jack72]

And throw in Landers, who essentially redshirted last year.
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[CvilleFlyer]

Originally Posted by SeasonTicketFan Often finishing games starts with defense. Last year's senior class would use their tough minded defense to help them finish games.

Last year Kyle Davis would have guarded Eli Pemberton and locked him up way short of 28 points! I never will forget Kyle's sophomore year when he completely shut down Kris Dunn from Providence in the NCAAT in Columbus! I really enjoyed seeing Ed Cooley get so frustrated that he threw a chair during a timeout and got a technical!

[C-time]

Originally Posted by CvilleFlyer Last year Kyle Davis would have guarded Eli Pemberton and locked him up way short of 28 points! I never will forget Kyle's sophomore year when he completely shut down Kris Dunn from Providence in the NCAAT in Columbus! I really enjoyed seeing Ed Cooley get so frustrated that he threw a chair during a timeout and got a technical!

While I will agree that KD did a great job guarding Dunn that night a couple years ago I kind of feel like many people have exaggerated his role as UD's defensive stopper last year. KD might have started on certain players but there were many occasions where Archie had to put Cooke on a player after KD couldn't stop somebody. Was KD a great defender? Absolutely but Cooke was the defensive stopper last year.

[longtimefan67]

My thoughts are this: We have a very young team and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this team finished .500 this year. But if they can start playing defense like they are capable- this could be an NIT team with 21 wins. This season will be a bump in the road- and we are spoiled from the last 4 years success. I don’t think the frosh are used to the talent and pace of division 1 BB. Try to be patient - i see this team turning the corner in a huge way by January 2019.
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[TXFlyerFan]

The only thing I know for sure is that by the time A-10 play rolls around, this will be a much different team. Freshman have to grow up in a hurry. Two other observations.

1. For whatever other flaws Crosby has, he seems to be making FTs.
2. For whatever other good things DD has, he can't hit FT's for s**t

[ruechalgrin]

Rewatched the game. Crutches played bad defense. He does not know how to close out a 3. Either fouled shooter or did not close out properly.

Archie had specific drill the Flyers worked on about every practice about the proper technique to close out 3s. Graduate assistants like Kevin Donoher ran these drills and coaches critiqued. The attention to detail with proper technique was impressive. Hoping AG is teaching the Freshman such detail. He might have a different technique in his defensive strategy, but Crutcher needs some intensive 1:1 coaching on how to close out 3s without fouling, without being off balance so shooter can fake and drive, but hands need to be up and shooter needs to be closed out.

	Don Donoher DON DONOHER Legendary Flyer men's basketball coach who guided Dayton to 435 victories in 25 seasons (1964-1989) including the 1967 NCAA Runner-Up. Took over the program after the passing of Tom Blackburn and earned many NCAA and NIT bids over his career, including five Sweet-16s, one Elite Eight appearance, and the 1968 NIT Championship. Groomed All-Americans Don May and Jim Paxson, along with all-time leading scorer Roosevelt Chapman. Coached UD as they joined conference affiliation for the first time (Midwest Collegiate). A graduate of UD, Donoher played for Blackburn and credits much of his coaching success to his mentor's teachings: defense, ball protection, patience, and unselfishness.

[C-time]

Originally Posted by ruechalgrin Rewatched the game. Crutches played bad defense. He does not know how to close out a 3. Either fouled shooter or did not close out properly. Archie had specific drill the Flyers worked on about every practice about the proper technique to close out 3s. Graduate assistants like Kevin Donoher ran these drills and coaches critiqued. The attention to detail with proper technique was impressive. Hoping AG is teaching the Freshman such detail. He might have a different technique in his defensive strategy, but Crutcher needs some intensive 1:1 coaching on how to close out 3s without fouling, without being off balance so shooter can fake and drive, but hands need to be up and shooter needs to be closed out.

While Crutcher's technique isn't good I'm pretty sure he has gotten the nod over Crosby for extended periods the last couple of games simply based on effort.

The trip down the court where Crosby gave no effort to stop the dribbler against OU which led to an easy layup and then a timeout by AG to rip Crosby is example A. In contrast Crutcher turns it over on what was going to be the final possession of the 1st half and he hustles and scraps to prevent an easy layup.

I think AG is trying to get Crosby to give a better defensive effort by using those nice cushioned chairs on the bench.