With the Howard game thread all but concluded, I wanted to make one statement about them and then transition to tonight's game.  I can't recall who said this but someone felt that GW had considerably more talent and while that may have been the case every other time GW has played Howard, I didn't feel that this was at all the case.  Keep in mind that Makur Maker was part of last year's recruiting class and while the team did not have much of an opportunity to play alongside him, it stood to reason that Kenny Blakeney would upgrade the talent to play with him.  Maker is of course gone but two former de Matha players remain including Steve settle and Elijah Hawkins who was last year's conference freshman of the year.  Throw in Jelani Williams, the transfer from Penn who looks like a very solid player and suddenly, that gap in talent as narrowed considerably.  This is not your father's Howard University basketball program.

As for tonight, I'd like to see more "small-ball" so to speak, meaning a lineup with both Hunter and Noel on the bench.  Noel may be valuable to this team pending certain specific matchups but right now, he looks like the square peg trying to fit into the round hole.  The default has been a lineup with Ricky and Qwanzi playing together but if the matchups were right, I would not mind seeing a stretch where James, Brendan, EJ, Max and Ricky play together.  Worth testing a couple of rotations against an OOC opponent to see if the strengths of such a lineup outweigh the vulnerabilities.  

James could be due for a big game.
Don't know if that will be the outcome, but it would help.

does anyone have an "illegal" site they recommend. I cant even get sucky Flohoops to work

 

Class 'o 70 wrote:

does anyone have an "illegal" site they recommend. I cant even get sucky Flohoops to work

 

Seems the pirate sites are having the same issues. Only one (stream2watch) lists it, but it is not working there either. The women´s game is available for free on Howard´s site, so...

Third 4 minute stretch was neutral.  Down 27-20.  Bishop out of the game and we had a bunch of a turnovers, but on we had one great possession where we moved the ball fast and Amir Harris buried an open three in the corner. Otherwise game got a little sloppy (including travels from Dean and Edwards), and stretch ended with monster Lindo block on Estrada. 

Unfortunately we are up to 7 turnovers in 12:30, which is clearly too much.  Need to take better care of the ball and stop penetration so we don’t have to pack the inside and leave open shots.

Wasnt wondering who the player of the half would be.

Damn, poor GW made a good play on D but then Hofstra jumped on them for a jump ball.  Half ends with a Hofstra 3.  

Really hope we can come back and make this a game in the second half.  Estrada is really freaking good.

Halftime.

Estrada 23
Bishop 17. 

Hofstra 48
GW 37.

Unfortunate end to the half.  We tried to go 2 for 1, so Bishop took a quick 25 footer he airballed.  But then we got the stop on d with 11 seconds to go but the ball went out of bounds off us.  Then we disrupted their offense and forced a tie up, but they had the possession arrow.  On their third try, Hofstra predictably hit a three at the buzzer.

We were essentially down 15-3 at the first media time out.  Once we settled down, our offense was pretty good other than the one stretch with turnovers when Bishop was out - but they matched us with the Estrada explosion and shooting 6-10 from deep.   

Have to think the offenses cool off in the second half.  But what we’ve seen the last few years is that if we managed to hang around in a game like this, we’d open the second half giving up like a 13-2 run and being out of it.   Need to stay in contact with them and make their shooting cool off.

Can't ask for a better start to the half

7-0 run to start the half - barrage of jumpers from Bishop, Adams, Maximus.

19 for Bishop on 7-12 shooting.  Question is can we contain Estrada.  Good start to half 2