Green Tinted Glasses » Preseason NIT

Niners down Hofstra 80-72, Spears wanted in eleven states.

NLP — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:25:13 +0000

That’s more like it. Tonight the Niners got their first “true” road win against Hofstra 80-72. I threw true in quotation marks because of the whopping 783 attendance tonight. That’s not a typo either. But consider the Mack Sports Complex was a house of horrors and the Niners lacking any sort of statement victory in this young season where we still have more questions than answers, it was a very welcome relief.

Shamari is a baaaaaaad man. Photo courtesy of William Roberston.

The Niner effort was propelled by another sensational performance by junior pit-bull Shamari Spears, who led all scorers with 26 points on 9-13 shooting and added 4 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Spears really did a little of everything on the offensive end, displaying a nice step-back three pointer from the baseline in the first half, a consistent turn-around jumpshot, and strong interior drives in traffic with the finish at the rim. To say that Spears is the best post player since Demarco Johnson is increasingly becoming a statement of the obvious with each successive game.

Hofstra led the contest in the half 41-39 mostly as a consequence of lax Charlotte defense, hitting 5-10 from behind the arc. In the second half, the Niner defense did improve as more shots were contested and fewer fell for the Pride, who shot 2-15 from the 3 and 12-38 overall in the 2^nd half as Charlotte rallied to the victory. A major key to victory for the Niners was the persistence with the inside game. Hofstra defenders resorted to committing fouls as they have all season long, sending the men in green to the line 25 times in the second half compared to only 7 for Hofstra. Wing forwards Charles Dewhurst and RaShad Coleman did an excellent job cleaning up misses and preventing opportunities for Hofstra late in the game and solid, but not spectacular foul shooting helped preserve the win.

Ready for the blackout against ECU

Overall, Charlotte had another solid night shooting the ball overall, despite only 27.3% from 3 point land. Spears and frosh forward Chris Braswell,who recorded his second

double-double in his young career, scored around the basket and got to the foul line seemingly at will against the Hofstra man-to-man defense. It came as a surprise that Hofstra didn’t attempt to play more zone to limit opportunities for the Niner big men and force our “marksmen” to beat them from the perimeter. Hofstra did occasionally double-team Spears with some success but this was not a large part of the Pride strategy. Joining the Niners forwards in double figure scoring was sophomore guard Derrio Green, who despite scoring 12 points struggled a bit with his shot, particularly in the 2^nd half. For Hofstra, Charles Jenkins and Greg Washington stood out. The former scored 25 points on 8-16 shooting and Washington contributed 18 points and 9 rebounds.

The Niners will be off until a December 2^nd contest against the Pirates of ECU. Plenty of tickets will be available for any ninjas that want to see their arch enemies fall at the hands of the Niners. – NLP

Hofstra Gameday – Predictions

J Felt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:09:22 +0000

LIARS!

Here’s a true story that many Niner fans across the world (yes, across the world, we have a fan in Australia) can commiserate with about the Hofstra game in 07-08. HP and I wanted to watch the game, but like most people, didn’t have MASN at home. Going to a bar was our only option. I being the young guy in town really wanted to impress the alumni in the area and make sure we had a spot to watch the game. So I called Buffalo Wild Wings, I mean, surely, they’ve got the game, right? The nice lady on the phone said, “if it’s on TV, we’ve got it.” Sounds good. At gametime, they have yet to find the channel and eventually we hear some BS excuse about it being “blacked out” because the game wasn’t sold out. Mind you, this game was in frigid New York, not North Carolina. Thanks overweight manager lady, now the alumni are mad at me.

Needless to say, we found a different place across town, because we HAD TO watch this game. Gerrity was making his regular season debut as a Niner, and there’s no way I was missing the enveiling of his frosted tips. But after all that, we played terrible and still lost. To Hofstra. Add that game to the earlier loss to Monmouth, and the Niners have a new term for those type of RPI-anchor/NCAA-bubble popping losses….Monstra losses.

The Niners are 3-0 this season against animal mascots!

So here we are, matching up with those jerks again. Though, this isn’t the same Hofstra we faced two seasons ago, this one is experienced, fast, athletic and plays smart basketball. They took it to UConn in the PNIT, but they did struggle against Yale more than we did. The transitive property of sports is unapplicable here, since both teams are 2-0 against the same competition (Yale and Elon). Though, Hofstra destroyed Elon last night, so we may want to keep our Glasses on while we make predictions.

Spears will eat the Pride for his last Thanksgiving appetizer, but who else will step up and score? And when will we play solid defense? If we can answer those questions, we’ll pick up the W and go to 4-1. Predictions are below, add your own in the comments. Winner gets an official Godzilla vs. Monstra Collector’s DVD. – J Felt

J Felt – Charlotte 84, Hofstra 75. Everything clicks for the Niners and Dewhurst seals the game late with free throws and witty jokes.

JRitchie – Charlotte 83, Hofstra 71. The Pride get shamed by three’s that drop at record rates.

HP – 84-81 Charlotte. $pears can’t be stopped.

letsgoNINERS11 – Charlotte 65, Hofstra 70. Shamari Spears for 24. Remember when I said I wasn’t worried? I’m worried. (You aren’t wearing your green tinted glasses, did you break them after the Duke game? – J Felt)

D-Fo – 82-78 Charlotte. Another solid night for Derrio Green, who goes for 15+ Points. Spears plays with one arm behind his back to make it fair in the paint. Rashad Coleman remembers why he has a scholarship and actually scores a few points. The recent boycotting of defense by the Niners leads to a close one.

NLP – Charlotte pulls a Captain Koons and finds victory in the least likely of places. Charlotte 84 Hofstra 81

Bust – If Rashad Coleman sees very limited minutes, we will win. If he sees significant minutes (like more than 6), we will continually blow leads, fall behind, and kill our momentum. 83-74 Charlotte wins or 78-71 Hofstra wins, depending on how much time Coleman plays. (So you’re saying we either win or we lose?)

Game #5, NIT Tip-off versus Hofstra

NLP — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:56:37 +0000

Infamous alum Bernie Madoff unavailable for tonight's game.

Tonight the Niners get the opportunity to redeem one of their worst losses in recent years when they tip off against the Flying Dutchmen of Hofstra. The Pride (nothing better than changing your nickname because your previous one is a slave ship reference) is coming off a 70-46 victory over Elon Monday night which improved them to 3-2 on the season. For the Niners it’s an opportunity to make a statement about what kind of team it is: will they roll over when facing a true road test or will the team begin finding its composure away from Halton and leave with a much-needed W.

Hofstra, much like the previous editions the Niners faced in a home-and-home series that ended two years ago, is a guard-oriented team. All three leading scorers (Nathaniel Lester, Charles Jenkins, and Cornelius Vines) play starting guard positions, which forwards Miklos Szabo (my candidate for out of nowhere player who scores a career high against us) and Greg Washington rounding out the starting lineup. Despite getting strong scoring contributions from its guards, Hofstra is not a particularly good shooting team. The Pride have connected on just 28.3% of shots from 3 and 41.6% from the field overall. Another glaring weakness so far has been Hofstra’s inability to keep opponents from getting to the free throw line (16.2 FTAs for Hofstra vs. 26.6 for opponents). The Pride for the most part has been able to overcome its shooting woes and propensity to foul with superior rebounding, outrebounding teams by 8 rpg and paced by reserve forward Halil Kanacevic with 8.4 rpg off the bench. I suspect Hofstra will play a good deal of zone and force the Niners to beat them from the perimeter, especially given the outstanding recent play by Shamari Spears. Should the Niners be off, or fail to get Spears established, Hofstra will likely use their rebounding advantage to vacuum up long misses and get out in transition frequently, a big area of concern for the Niners who have struggled to defend the fastbreak.

Hofstra alums are used to pulling things out of their...

The Niners are coming off their best offensive showing of the season in besting Yale 88-74 Monday night. Spears had the most dominating interior performance since the days of Demarco Johnson, scoring 28 points on 13-15 shooting. Derrio Green broke out of his shooting slump adding 18 points on 6-11 shooting from downtown. Joining them in double figure scoring were DiJuan Harris and Phil Jones. Despite the strong shooting by the Niners (53.8% from the field), the game was closer for much longer than fans would have hoped for, as Jordan Gibson nearly doubled his career high for Yale. If the Niners are to win tonight against a hostile crowd, they will absolutely have to defend much better and find a way to overcome the Hofstra rebounding advantage. Chris Braswell and Jones will play important roles tonight trying to keep the Pride big men off the boards. Coach Lutz will also need to find ways to get Shamari Spears going and not rely on just outside shooting should Hofstra try to take away the inside game.

Keys of the game for Hofstra:

Maintain the rebounding edge
Transition scoring off Charlotte misses

Keys of the game for Charlotte:

Force the Pride to commit fouls
Do not rely on the perimeter game should Hofstra play frequent zone defenses

Yale Postgame – Derrio is here!

J Felt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:43:14 +0000

Nevermind the fact that for a possession or two we were losing to Yale by one point, the Niners are 3-1! That’s way better than last season, which I think we all want to forget. A winning record, that by itself we only had for one game last year, right? Harsh.

Last time we faced Yale, we only won by six points, and that was back in 04-05, the last time we went to the NCAA tournament. Does that mean this team (having defeated Yale by 14), is eight points better than Eddie Basden’s last 49er team? Of course. That’s how sports works.

Actually, this game served as the official debut of Mr. Derrio Green, who is destined to be good for us because his last name is “Green”. He remembered how to hit three pointers and went 6-11, scoring 18 points in all. Not a bad night, for sure. And of course, Spears was a beast as usual, feasting upon the Bulldogs for 28 points on 13-15 FG. Shamari Spears is a monster, really.

As for Yale, well who didn’t want to punch that Gibson kid in the face? Watching Listening to that game was frustrating, hearing his name over and over as he won the coveted “GTG. net Unheralded Player Gets Career High Vs. Niners” He torched our non-existent D for 25 points.

The Positives

Shamari Spears can do almost everything
The Dewberry was very impressive (8 pts, 7 rbs, 5 Asts, 1 Blks, 4 Stls, 2 TOs) and may be 100% back
Shamarr Bowden passed the ball and didn’t just shoot it right away
DiJuan Harris was solid
22 Asts on 30 FGs, not bad at all

Take off your Glasses for a look

We got off to a 14 pt lead, and then took our foot off the gas (need that killer instinct)
We were losing to Yale in the 2nd half
Chris Braswell disappeared, but he’ll be back
We may as well put up traffic cones on defense

Either way, bring on Hofstra! Time to get revenge for that horrible day two seasons ago! – J Felt