Rider Wed 7pm

[UDPat]

Hey Pat, the team is small (again) and has trouble shooting. Houser, quoting MI is an “elite shooter”, should be playing more than 10 minutes. Pretty simple Pat. And just curious, are you okay with losing to Rider because a 2-8 team played a “perfect game”?

Still ignoring but I will answer your question, No one is happy about the loss, but I don't feel the offense is the issue when the team scores in the 80's in what most described as a bad shooting night.

Unlike you, I don't believe everything I read or hear. For a big man He's a pretty good shooter. His release point is way too low and his feet aren't always set and that causes issues. I'm more of an eye test guy and that is what the test shows me.

We have different philosophies of the game: I believe in defense and you don't. We have both proven that. I'm NEVER putting in of my poorest defenders in a game down the stretch when it's a tight game. Until He starts playing more Collin Goss on the defensive side of the ball, 10 minutes a game is all the player has earned!!!!

Stop it Pat. Just stop it. It was just “as most described”. The Hens were 6-24 from 3. That is bad. It isn’t the only reason the Hens lost, but it sure was one of them including not being “hungry enough on defense” as described by MI. Unfortunately, we have seen that far too much over the years with the Hens.

And Pat, the head coach called Houser an “elite shooter”. C’mon. I know you like to argue with me. But at least keep it in the ball park when the coach says it and in the context he did. And I guess you don’t like Steph Curry’s release point either?

And just stop saying what I believe or don’t. No one, including me “doesn’t believe in defense”. But MI is a defense first coach. He just is. It is how the Hens have two starting guards in Trent and Lane that have combined for 1 3 pointer. Maybe they will win doing this. But I see teams just collapsing on Trent when he drives and starting to take that away like Rider did in the second half.

Anyway, the Hens had a guy who looked over his shoulder all the time about a bad defensive play who became a first team all CAA and was a POY candidate. Maybe Houser will become one too. And maybe Ebby will down at ETSU. Man is he lighting it up at over 17 ppg and 3.5 3s ppg. He probably was told to just shoot and you don’t need to keep looking over your shoulder.

Finally, I don’t care how the Hens win. Just so they do it.

Keep throwing a 1st Team ALL CAA and potential POY candidate, it's true, You are right!! 100% We scored 80 points and like you I don't care how we got there. But we gave up 88 points, and you think the offense needs fixing???

You tell me I'm wrong how my thoughts on defense when it comes to a former 1st team CAA player and POY candidate are wrong but have NEVER told me why I'm wrong. Please describe in basketball terms why He was a good defender. You know the guy who got hurt and didn't get his starting job back and came off the bench during their run to the title in 2022. Surely every team in America would need that guy back ASAP?

55, 55 and 56, mean anything??

Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!!!!!

[finpxz1]

Could it be that you are both right and both wrong at the same time??? No one would ever argue that defense doesn’t win championships, but relying on defense without good, balanced offense will be tough for an entire season. A three game stretch in March, yes. An entire season, not likely. It’s becoming more and more obvious that we desperately need to find more consistency from the outside. The more teams scout us, the more the word will get out. Guard Reilly from 3-point range, but other than that, make us drive and then overpower us down low on the boards. At this point we have no other options down low other than Houser, which many of us on gohens were concerned about since last spring. Having said that, he has to find a way to earn 15 to 20 mins per game by being physical on the boards, and then also give us another consistent threat from 3. If Bethea can ever get healthy and give us an additional threat from outside, great. But our lack of size and physicality in the post was painfully exposed against Rider. Hope MI can get this figured out, but I fear yet another disappointing CAA conference performance this season could very well be lying ahead.

[Caribbean Hen]

Defense

Just to close out my mid 70 Segway, right about the same time as my Maryland and Magid fever story, I remember my dad commented “Maryland doesn’t play any Defense …they’ll never win anything. The Big 10 and Bobby Knights Indiana team would eat em alive”

I was like yeah right dad

You old basketball fans surely know what happened next
31-0 national championship and they beat Big Ten Michigan in the finals.

My love for Maryland hoops was always tainted after that lesson

The little bit of Delaware basketball that I have watched over the past several years as always left me with the same impression …. they just don’t want to play defense

When it comes to basketball, your father was a wise Man!!! Defense does win championships!!!!

I will remind everyone about 3 days in March 2022, 56, 56, 55. Do those numbers mean anything???

Merry Christmas !!!!!!! To everyone!!!

He had lots of wisdom but honestly looking back on it, he probably had just read about Indiana and Bobby Knight in The Sporting News when he told me that. I don’t remember him watching any Big Ten hoops

In 1977, He also told me the Blazers would take out my Sixers… I was like oh no here we go again

Haven’t watched any Hens hoops yet this year, but just from reading here it sounds like a perfect .500 team

[Brookside kid hen]

I've only got to watch 4 of the hens games this year, but I do think houser is going to be a good shooter. But I've noticed in the games I've watched he has gotten in foul trouble pretty quickly in each game it seems. Anybody else have a comment about that?

[finpxz1]

I've only got to watch 4 of the hens games this year, but I do think houser is going to be a good shooter. But I've noticed in the games I've watched he has gotten in foul trouble pretty quickly in each game it seems. Anybody else have a comment about that?

The kid can definitely shoot from distance. The issue has been his lack of quickness and athleticism has resulted in him being slow to defend and often times out of position, resulting in many of his fouls. I’m almost certain that’s why his playing time has been so limited, thus far. Disappointed that wasn’t identified by the staff while we were recruiting him from VMI, as we brought in no other bigs via the transfer portal. Now we are in a true pickle as we need his 3-point shot ability to compliment Reilly, but he has been a liability on the defensive end. Doesn’t add up to a lot of playing time. But we need him to figure it out or this team will continue to struggle with interior defense and rebounding.

[UDPat]

Still ignoring but I will answer your question, No one is happy about the loss, but I don't feel the offense is the issue when the team scores in the 80's in what most described as a bad shooting night.

Unlike you, I don't believe everything I read or hear. For a big man He's a pretty good shooter. His release point is way too low and his feet aren't always set and that causes issues. I'm more of an eye test guy and that is what the test shows me.

We have different philosophies of the game: I believe in defense and you don't. We have both proven that. I'm NEVER putting in of my poorest defenders in a game down the stretch when it's a tight game. Until He starts playing more Collin Goss on the defensive side of the ball, 10 minutes a game is all the player has earned!!!!

Stop it Pat. Just stop it. It was just “as most described”. The Hens were 6-24 from 3. That is bad. It isn’t the only reason the Hens lost, but it sure was one of them including not being “hungry enough on defense” as described by MI. Unfortunately, we have seen that far too much over the years with the Hens.

And Pat, the head coach called Houser an “elite shooter”. C’mon. I know you like to argue with me. But at least keep it in the ball park when the coach says it and in the context he did. And I guess you don’t like Steph Curry’s release point either?

And just stop saying what I believe or don’t. No one, including me “doesn’t believe in defense”. But MI is a defense first coach. He just is. It is how the Hens have two starting guards in Trent and Lane that have combined for 1 3 pointer. Maybe they will win doing this. But I see teams just collapsing on Trent when he drives and starting to take that away like Rider did in the second half.

Anyway, the Hens had a guy who looked over his shoulder all the time about a bad defensive play who became a first team all CAA and was a POY candidate. Maybe Houser will become one too. And maybe Ebby will down at ETSU. Man is he lighting it up at over 17 ppg and 3.5 3s ppg. He probably was told to just shoot and you don’t need to keep looking over your shoulder.

Finally, I don’t care how the Hens win. Just so they do it.

Keep throwing a 1st Team ALL CAA and potential POY candidate, it's true, You are right!! 100% We scored 80 points and like you I don't care how we got there. But we gave up 88 points, and you think the offense needs fixing???

You tell me I'm wrong how my thoughts on defense when it comes to a former 1st team CAA player and POY candidate are wrong but have NEVER told me why I'm wrong. Please describe in basketball terms why He was a good defender. You know the guy who got hurt and didn't get his starting job back and came off the bench during their run to the title in 2022. Surely every team in America would need that guy back ASAP?

55, 55 and 56, mean anything??

Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!!!!!

You are 100% correct about Lane, another example of I didn't get nearly as excited as most just because He came from FLA, 1/3 of his points in 2 years came in one game. He can't shoot a lick. I think Trent brings enough other aspects that keep him on the floor despite his lack of consistency with his outside shot.

As Dave has suggested a number of times, Bethea may be the answer??? If He ever gets on the floor???

We do agree, the team has flaws.