The Dumpster Fire That Is Drexel

The last couple of weeks for me have been very busy.  Between work, starting a travel baseball team and a couple of road trips to Charleston and Elon for Hofstra basketball games late last week, sleep and a College Hardwood Post had been a rare commodity, just like a well played game by Fordham.

Thus I took a nap this evening after I got home and had dinner.  After my nearly two hour nap, I checked what was going on Twitter, caught up on a few things, then I noticed the Drexel - James Madison 54-35 score.  Ugh. Then I read this tweet of my good friend Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch.  I immediately went over to DragonsSpeak, the twitter feed of our friend Dan Crain, loyal Drexel alum and fan, who writes the Dragons Speak blog.

At about 8:30 PM, Dan tweeted "Let's Break Twitter".  Dan had had enough of what would turnout to be a Dragons 54-35 loss to a team that had just dismissed one of its better players earlier in the day, Andre Nation, who albeit was a true handful in his three years with the Dukes.  You would think that the Dragons would give a better effort against a team missing a player who averaged twenty seven minutes per game.  Basically Dan ripped into his alma mater, and rightfully so, for the play that he was forced to watch tonight.

But this was not a Monday morning quarterback rant.  Dan had predicted this in his preview of the Dragons earlier today.  Bruiser Flint, the longtime head coach of Drexel has a propensity to not bend in his ways and Dan knew what Bruiser would do this evening in his Thursday preview of the game.  He even nearly predicted how many points JMU would score this evening (he had the game as 56-48 JMU) and he wrote this gem.

Zone defenses are primarily beaten with quick ball movement, perimeter shooting and offensive rebounding.  Bru then has two options:  Flood the floor with guards who can't shoot, knowing that Allen, London, Wilson and Mojica will all get wide open looks from mid range and beyond.  The downside is that none of those guys have hit those looks before, and with only one forward on the floor against JMU's height, DU won't get any offensive rebounds.  The alternative is to leave two of those four guards on the floor alongside Damion and two big men, leaving just as many shooters on the floor (1) and the possibility to get stick backs and clog the lane on defense.

Just in case we haven't beaten this into the ground enough, look Tuesday for a stats post breaking down the 4 guard vs the 3.  It's ugly.

For my prediction, I'm assuming that Bru will show his stubbornness, because that's the track record.

So what did Drexel do?  The Dragons played a four guard set and proceeded to shoot four of nineteen from beyond the arc and twelve of fifty for the game. Twelve of fifty.  Yes, folks, that's twenty four percent.    And if you are basically shooting and missing the three on a zone, it stands to reason that you only get twelve free throw attempts, which they only hit on seven.  Thus, thirty five points.  Even Josh Verlin of the terrific City of Basketball Love tweeted that it was "an embarrassment".

But if that wasn't bad enough, Through one of Dan's followers, I saw them retweet this picture from DrexelOnline.

I have NEVER seen the DAC, aka the Daskalakis Athletic Center, this empty.  Ever.  And for those of you who are the College Hardwood Marines, aka the few, the proud, the readers of my site know, I have been to more than my share of games at the DAC.  It's usually one of the more fun places to watch a game, because it can be loud, hot and a drain on a road opponent.

Now it's looking like this.  The attendance figure says there were 1,186 at the game.  It sure doesn't look like 1,186.



The Dragons are 3-13 now, 1-4 in the CAA.  Only three seasons ago, the Dragons went 29-7, 16-2 in the CAA and made the NIT Quarterfinals, before losing at home to UMass.  Heck, I was there for the loss to the Minutemen at the DAC.  The attendance for the game; 2,293.  There was definitely 2,293 in attendance that rocking night!   The amazing thing was that the only starter that graduated from that team that season was Samme Givens.   The future should have been so bright for Drexel.

UMass-Drexel NIT Quarterfinal March 2012

So what happened to a team that in the span of three seasons may likely have twenty less wins than that 2011-12 Dragons team?

Well, first, that 2012-13 team seriously underachieved.   First, they suffered tough overtime losses to Kent State and Illinois State,  Then they lost Chris Fouch in the third game of the season.  Still, they had Frantz Massenat, Derrick Thomas, Dartaye Ruffin and Darryl McCoy, all key members of that 2011-12 team.  Plus Drexel added two talented freshmen in Damion Lee, who ended up being the leading scorer on that team and Tavon Allen.

Yet Drexel never recovered from the two overtime losses and the injury to Fouch and stumbled to a 13-18 record, finishing .500 in the CAA at 9-9 and quickly exited from the CAA Tournament at the hands of George Mason.   Brian Mull noted earlier that season that the loss of the post presence in Givens was a bigger loss than anyone could have realized for Drexel.

Drexel-Davidson December 2013

The 2013-14 team looked to be a better team with the return of Fouch, along with Lee, Massenat and Allen.   Unfortunately, Lee got injured five games into the season.   Still the Dragons started out strong, going 7-2 with wins over Alabama, Cleveland State, Illinois State and Rutgers.  Their only two losses were by five points and four points respectively to nationally ranked UCLA and Arizona.   The Dragons seemed to be back, especially when I saw them defeat Davidson at Belk Arena in December of 2013.

Then it all fell apart.  Drexel would go 9-12 the rest of the season and only 8-8 in the CAA.  The Dragons would then quickly be eliminated by Northeastern in the CAA Quarterfinals 90-81, in a game where Drexel was down several times by seventeen points.  

What had started out so promising ended in flames.  Now this season.   It's a five alarm dumpster fire.

So what are the reasons for this?   First, injuries have been a huge factor.  Their only real point guard, Major Canady and one of their main forwards, Kazembe Abif were out for the season before even the season started.  Promising sophomore forward Rodney Williams suffered a stress fracture in his foot in late December and he's now out for the season.   Even seldom used Sooren Derboghosian is out indefinitely with a knee injury.  The Dragons are playing with basically a seven man rotation.

Drexel-Davidson December 2013

But as you can clearly tell from Dan's posts that it is also coaching style.  Bruiser Flint has at times done a very good job at Drexel.  His 2006-07 and 2011-12 teams should have made the NCAA Tournament.  But in the last nine seasons at Drexel, there also have been four teams at or below .500, another team that finished one game above .500 and another team that finished two games above .500.  Only three times in the past nine seasons has Bruiser won twenty games.

Based on Dan's blog, Bruiser is very set in his ways during a game and does not make adjustments.  He starts a four guard offense despite only one of them, Lee, being a really good shooter.  Allen has seriously regressed as a shooter since his freshman year.  His three point field goal percentage has gone from 36 percent to 28 percent to 26 percent over the past three seasons.  Yet Allen is attempting double the number of three point attempts, 5.4 as opposed to last season 2.7.

2012 NIT Quarterfinal - UMass vs. Drexel

Yet Bruiser keeps using a four guard set and as Dan notes "Drexel is 1-6 in games where they have broken out the 4 guard set, beginning with the UD home game last year".   Drexel is also last in the CAA in three point field goal percentage at 29.4 percent.

The kicker is that Drexel is second in the CAA in free throw percentage at 70 percent, yet they have the fewest free throw attempts in the Colonial with 259 attempts going into tonight's action (that's sixteen per game).

When you also go with a four guard set, you leave yourself susceptible to inside scoring.  In the loss against UNC Wilmington, Dan notes that UNCW shot 60 percent on two point field goal attempts.  It also means that you are likely to get outrebounded.  The Dragons are 270th in the country in rebounds, dead last in the CAA in rebounds and eighth in the CAA in rebounding margin at -2.4.  For those of us longtime CAAHoops fans, this is sad to see, since we know that Drexel prided itself on toughness and rebounding.  The term "rockfight" started with Drexel.

When you are only making five three point field goals per game, when you are dead last in three point field goal percentage and are getting killed on the boards, the last thing you should do is play a four guard starting lineup.

It's sad to see Drexel at 3-13.  It's sad to see the DAC so empty.  And it's sad to see a friend like Dan so frustrated, along with many other Drexel fans, who are often the most creative fans in college basketball.

As Dan noted in a tweet tonight, Bruiser Flint is the third highest paid employee at Drexel.   After the past few seasons and what's happening this season, one highly wonders if that salary statistic will remain the same after this season.

Drexel Dominates ODU (Recap of ODU - Drexel CAA Semifinal)

When Drexel stepped on the Richmond Coliseum court to face Old Dominion right before tipoff of the first CAA Semifinal, the Drexel Band played the theme from "Rocky".  Though they were the #1 seed in the CAA Tournament, Drexel was truly David.  Outside of their DACPack faithful, several fans behind their bench and a few fans left from the other former America East schools that were gone by Saturday night, the Dragons were clearly in the minority.  Richmond Coliseum was mostly a sea of fans from the three Virginia schools that made up the other three semifinalists.

Standing in the Dragons' way were the Monarchs, a team that had won the CAA championship the last two seasons.  Blaine Taylor and several of his veteran players; Kent Bazemore and Chris Cooper were eager to end the Dragons' eighteen game winning streak.  ODU had scored eighty eight points in their quarterfinal win over Delaware and barely lost at home by a point to Drexel at the end of the regular season.

One of the most wonderful things about the CAA Tournament is all the great pep bands.  Not only did Drexel shine with "Rocky" but ODU's band had a great version of Aha's "Take on Me".  However, the musical highlight of the day was hearing Chris "VCUPav" Crowley clear as day, belting out the national anthem in a beautiful, operatic voice.  Now I know where he got the horns he wears; it must have been a production at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

When you have two of the better defensive teams in the CAA playing each other, chances are you're going to get a low scoring, physical slugfest.  Sure enough, neither team could score a basket in the first two and half minutes of the game.  It had all the makings of a "First to fifty wins" game, just like Drexel's win over UNCW the day before.

The Dragons broke through the scoreless drought with a 9-0 run. The Monarchs missed on their first six shot attempts as the shots that fell against the Blue Hens the day before were now hitting off the rims with clanks and thuds.  Two Chris Fouch three pointers extended Drexel's lead to 15-3.

ODU responded with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 15-10 with a little less than seven minutes left in the half.  But the Monarchs missed their last four shots in the half, all three point attempts.  The Dragons would go into halftime up ten, 27-17.

Drexel only shot thirty three percent in the first half.  But they held ODU to twenty seven percent from the field, including two of nine from beyond the arc.  Bazemore, who lit up Delaware the day before for fifteen first half points, was held to four points, shooting one of six from the field.

Any hope that the Monarchs' fans had for a comeback quickly evaporated in the first four minutes of the second half.  The Dragons outscored the Monarchs 14-8 to build their lead to sixteen, 41-25.  During this span, Frantz Massenat, Drexel's star sophomore point guard, buried a three pointer and then later would hit three free throws after being fouled by Bazemore.  In that span of four minutes, Bazemore committed two turnovers and picked up three quick fouls, as he seemed completely thrown off by Massenat on both sides of the court.

ODU never really threatened again, though they cut the lead in half, 46-38, with Cooper scoring on a three point play.  But in the span of ninety seconds, Drexel had the lead back up to fifteen, 55-40, after Damion Lee hit his own three point play. From there, the Monarchs never got closer than ten points.  The Dragons, the best three point defensive team in the CAA held the Monarchs to one of nine shooting from beyond the arc in the second half.

Drexel extended the lead to as much as nineteen before settling for a very convincing 68-51 win over ODU in a front of a very hostile crowd. How convincing was it?  The team that had played #1 Kentucky tough before losing by ten and the team that battled #5 Missouri at home before losing by seven had been drubbed by seventeen points.  It was the largest margin of loss for the Monarchs this season.

The Dragons had four scorers in double figures as Massenat had twenty points, Lee added seventeen, Fouch had sixteen points and Givens had twelve points to go with twelve rebounds. Drexel shot forty eight percent from the field in the second half and thirteen of sixteen from the line.  Massenat made nine of ten free throws from the line.

Bazemore and Cooper were the only ODU players in double figures, as each scored twelve points. Bazemore was six of twenty from the field, including missing all five of his three point attempts.  Drexel Head Coach Bruiser Flint noted in his post game news conference that his players "stepped out a lot harder" on Bazemore in this game than they did in the regular season finale.  In that regular season finale, Bazemore had scored thirty seven points.

In his post game news conference, Taylor was thoroughly convinced that Drexel was a NCAA Tournament team.  He mentioned how his team played tough against Kentucky and Missouri. Then Taylor stated that "I really think for instance a Drexel-Missouri matchup would be a very entertaining game and I give Drexel every opportunity to have success in that game."

I had seen both the ODU-Kentucky and ODU-Missouri games on television.  Drexel's performance against Old Dominion was as good or even better than Kentucky's and Missouri's performances.   I hadn't seen a Blaine Taylor team dominated like that in a very long time. The Dragons gave the Monarchs their worst loss in the CAA tournament since 2004 (VCU also defeated them in the CAA Semifinals by seventeen points). Taylor was right. Drexel deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament.

Unfortunately for Taylor and Drexel, a week later the NCAA Committee wrongly thought otherwise.

Drexel - Rock Fight U (Recap of UNCW - Drexel - CAA Tournament Quarterfinal Game)

If you follow the CAA, what's the one thing that comes to mind when you think of Drexel? Well you might consider "Physical", considering the type of style the Dragons play.  You might also consider "Intense", becuase that's how Head Coach Bruiser Flint coaches.

Well, when I think of Drexel, I think of the CAA's likely copyrighted phrase "Rock fight".  It's a word that has often described CAA play. But when it comes to rock fights, no team does it better than the Dragons.  Low scoring, physical, close games with both teams scoring in the fifties. More often than not in its history under Bruiser, Drexel usually has come out on top thanks to its very good defense and its just good enough offense.

Then came this season.  The Dragons were 16-2 in conference, finishing first in the regular season.  Yes, they were first in the CAA in scoring defense, second in field goal percentage defense, first in three point field goal percentage defense and first in rebounding.  This season's team was Drexel defense at its finest.

But thanks in large part to the development of sophomore guard Frantz Massenat, freshman Damion Lee and returing stalwarts Chris Fouch and Samme Givens, the Dragons have had their best offense in a long time.  Drexel was first in the CAA in three point field goal percentage and third in field goal percentage.

And not only was this the first Dragons team in their CAA history to shoot above seventy percent from the foul line, they actually led the Colonial in free throw percentage at nearly seventy five percent. The Dragons actually led the CAA in scoring margin at + 9.4 points per game.  Drexel - Offensive Juggernaut.

The Dragons immediately showed off their offensive prowess against the Seahawks of UNCW, hitting their first four shots from the field to jump out to a 9-4 lead.  But UNCW responded with a 12-4 spurt to jump ahead 16-13, which allowed the Old Dominion fans in attendance for the next game to roar in approval, since ODU was Drexel's likely next opponent.  It wasn't like the Dragons were playing bad defense.  The Seahawks were just hitting tough shots like Cedrick Williams turnaround jumper that put UNCW up 12-10.

Add caption

Still the Seahawks were beating the Dragons at their own game. In the first half, UNCW outrebounded Drexel 19-11 and they got Givens, Drexel's leading rebounder in foul trouble with two fouls. The Seahawks were still up 18-17 with six minutes left in the half.

However, the Dragons rallied as they outscored the Seahawks 10-4 the rest of the first half.  Massenat came alive with several pretty passes for three assists in the final six minutes.  One of the passes was thrown through traffic with such precision that Peyton Manning would have been proud. Then came a loose ball right by the Drexel bench where it almost looked like Bruiser Flint wanted to jump into the pile.  The Dragons entered halftime up 27-22 on a driving layup, by who else, Massenat.

Interestingly, Flint left Givens on the bench to start the second half.  It didn't seem to matter as Drexel came out and outscored UNCW 24-11 in the first ten minutes.  Everyone in Drexel's rotation contributed, even Givens who finally came off the bench five minutes in the second half.  The Dragons were up 51-33 and the game was basically over.

In the nine years that I have watched the CAA Tournament, Drexel had never had as large a student section as they did for this tournament.  The DACPack was large and in charge with a resounding "D-U" chant with the Dragons' contingent of fans behind their bench.  Considering how Virginia based the Colonial Athletic Association conference is, it was a welcome thing to see.

As for the Seahawks, they didn't give up.  They cut the lead down to ten with about two minutes left in the game but they never got any closer.   The Dragons would win the game 59-47.

Drexel did an excellent job on UNCW's star player, Keith Rendleman. Rendleman only scored ten points on three of nine shooting from the field.  Often it seemed that he was literally bouncing off Drexel's mammoth Darryl McCoy (who's listed at 270 pounds, but as Shaka Smart noted the next day "That's a joke".). McCoy would foul out later after hammering Rendleman on a shot attempt, but not before the "270 pound" big man had ten rebounds on the day.

Rendleman, the fourth leading rebounder in the CAA at ten rebounds per game,  also didn't have one single rebound in the entire game.  When asked in the post game press conference if he ever had a game in his life, including the grade school level, where he didn't have at least one rebound, Rendleman replied "Never".  Drexel also limited UNCW as a whole to twenty six percent shooting in the second half. That's how good Drexel's defense was on the day.

As for the Dragons' offense, they shot forty eight percent in the second half. Four players averaged in double figures; Fouch had fourteen points, Massenat and Givens each had eleven and Lee had ten points.  Drexel outrebounded UNCW 24-13 in the second half.

As the Dragons' student section cheered in approval at the end of the game, the final score indicated one thing. Another rock fight won by Drexel.

Cheesesteaks, Bungee Jumpers and Basketball (Recap of Hofstra vs. Drexel)

Life is like a group of weather forecasters.  You never know what you're going to get and apparently neither do they.  Based on the forecasts that I heard on Friday, travel to Philadelphia for yesterday's Hofstra- Drexel game was going to be hazardous with snow and rain. I even warned my son Matthew that he was likely to stay home with his mom and little brother due to the weather reports.

But I should have known better.  When I woke up yesterday morning and looked outside, there was barely any snow on the ground and the snow/rain was basically going to end in a couple of hours.  My friend Joe Suhoski, otherwise known as @VaBeachRep on Twitter, was going to be at the game, since he was covering it for CAAZone.  He noted that the precipitation had basically ended by him as he was making the trip up from Baltimore.  

So, Matthew and I picked up our third member of the trip trifecta, Tieff, and headed down to Philly.  The roads were a little wet, but nowhere near the conditions the "weather forecasters" had predicted.  Our plan was to get to Philly by 1:00 PM, meet up with Joe for lunch to talk basketball, then head to the game at Drexel.

I had a revelation while we were crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge. "Why haven't I gone to more mid major basketball games in Philly?"   It's only two hours away from where I live on Long Island.  All the games I could have seen at the Palestra or on the campuses of St Joe's, Temple and Penn.  Hell, all the games I could have seen at the DAC, otherwise known as the Daskalaskis Athletic Center (more than just Hofstra games).  Note taken, note received.

We got to Philly by 1:00 PM and parked right outside, Slainte, a restaurant that Tieff, our friend Mal and I went to last year when we were at the last Hofstra vs. Drexel basketball game in Philly.  Joe was waiting for us at the bar and we ended up getting a table/booth by the window.  Once side had a nice cushy couch/booth, the other side had tables.  Matthew and Tieff wanted the comfy chair, while Joe and I were fine sitting at regular chairs.


I already knew the Sliante menu, which is online, so I already knew my choice; philly cheesesteak with cheese whiz and a side caesar salad.  Tieff had his cheesesteak with provolone instead.  Joe had a chicken salad and my son had his standard plate of french fries.  We basically talked CAA hoops the rest of the time.  Joe, Tieff and I went over a lot of recent Colonial Athletic Association basketball history in that ninety minutes.  Matthew soaked it all in.

After a delicious lunch, Joe walked over to the DAC since his car was already parked there.  We drove and found a spot on the street across from the DAC and paid for three hours of time at the kiosk.  Then we took a short walk on a brisk day to the gym entrance.   We sat behind the Hofstra bench, which turned out to be close  to the Drexel Pep Band.  The pep band started out with "We Want the Funk" and it was a very good rendition. They were sharp all day.

Last season, I sat mid court at the DAC as the Pride knocked off the Dragons in the second conference game of the season for both teams.  At that time, you didn't know how good either team was at the time.  Both teams would finish in the top half of the CAA; Hofstra finished third, while Drexel finished fifth.

This season is a lot different.   Drexel came into the game tied for first with George Mason and VCU.  The Dragons have the tiebreaker on both teams, having defeated the Patriots and the Rams at the DAC (and they don't play either team again in the regular season).  Meanwhile, Hofstra has struggled with only two conference wins and came into the game tied for tenth in the CAA with William and Mary.

The game started out as a microcosm of the season.  Hofstra struggled to score from the field as Drexel's defense forced the Pride to use most of the shot clock on their possessions then have to settle for contested shots.  The Dragons jumped out to a 16-6 lead.  

But despite their record, Hofstra has played hard all season and have not quit in any of their games.  The Pride responded with a 15-7 run and cut the deficit to the two, 23-21.   But Drexel would score nine of the last twelve points in the half and entered halftime with a 32-24 lead.

Then came the surprise of the day. It wasn't the surprise appearance by DefiantlyDutch and his better half, who originally weren't coming to Philly but yet, there they were sitting right next to us.   The surprise was a group of young kids, known as the Bucks County Bungee Jumpers, a jump rope team that came out as the halftime show.  Many of us didn't know what to expect.  But what we got was stunning.  These kids were incredibly talented as they showed off their various jump rope skills.

The crowd, especially the Drexel student section, got louder and louder with their applause after each trick the team performed.  The Drexel Dragon mascot was in disbelief of how good these kids were.  The best trick was the group jumping rope while on pogo sticks.  Yes, jumping rope while on pogo sticks.

It was simply the best halftime show I had ever seen at a college basketball game.  They have a video on Youtube, which doesn't even do them justice. You can find them at this site.  Note to all the colleges in the Philadelphia metro area - You want these kids performing at halftime of your athletic events. They are awesome.


After they finished their show, the Bungee Jumpers were given a well deserved standing ovation from the crowd at the DAC.  I didn't think anything could top that halftime show.  But two players, Chris Fouch of Drexel and Nathaniel Lester of Hofstra, did their best to put on their own memorable second half performances.

The Pride came out with a quick 8-2 spurt, to cut the lead to two, 34-32.  Lester was responsible for most of those points as he would for the rest of the second half.  He would score ten of Hofstra's first sixteen points in the second half.   But unfortunately for Lester and the Pride, a familiar thorn in their side, Fouch, would be equal to the task.

Earlier at lunch, the topic of Drexel came up and I talked with Joe about how Fouch had not been a real factor for the Dragons this season.  Until yesterday, that had been the case.  Fouch, who was the leading scorer for the Dragons last season, is fourth on the team in scoring this season coming into yesterday's game averaging 8.9 points per game, which is down six points from last season.  With the emergence of freshman Damion Lee, he is averaging seven less minutes per game than last season.

But Fouch has had a history of torching the Pride. Coming into the game yesterday, Fouch had averaged nearly sixteen points per game vs. Hofstra with eleven career three pointers. When he was a freshman, he burned the Pride for twenty nine points on six shots from beyond the arc, in a 75-62 win over Hofstra on January 23, 2010.

Fouch decided to channel that performance from two years ago in the second half and make me eat my lunchtime words.  He would score twenty of his twenty five points in the last twenty minutes of the game.  Fouch was six of seven from beyond the arc on the game.  He was a big part of Drexel's 10-0 run that made a two point game into a 44-32 lead.  Fouch also scored his 1000th career point in the second half and as fellow Hofstra fan Lee Warner put it, seemingly 936 of those points came against the Pride.

Drexel extended the lead even further to nineteen, 61-42.  But again, Hofstra refused to quit. Behind Lester and Mike Moore, who had eighteen points, the Pride went on a 10-0 run.  Lester probably had the best second half of his career.  He scored twenty two second half points. twenty seven overall and he had seven offensive rebounds on the game.  The Pride had cut the lead down to eight, 67-59.

But Hofstra could get not get any closer.   Drexel would win 78-67.   The Dragons were truly fire breathing from the field as they shot nearly sixty percent in the game, including a blistering ten of seventeen from beyond the arc.  Frantz Massenat had twenty points, while Lee had fifteen.  That was the difference in the game; Drexel had three double digit scorers that combined for sixty points.  Hofstra had Moore and Lester who combined for forty five points, but were the only two double digit scorers on their team.

Since we had a two hour ride back to Long Island, we said our goodbyes to DefiantlyDutch and Joe and made our way back to the car. Sure enough, as we walked on Market Street, it was lightly raining. The rain turned to wet snow as we traveled across the Ben Franklin Bridge.  While we drove the entire way up the New Jersey Turnpike, it was coming down at a pretty good clip and made the drive a little more adventurous.  But the weather meteorlogists on WCBS AM and WINS AM seemingly had no clues of this.  They only talked about possible flurries in the area.

Just another surprise in a day full of surprises.

Drexel + Hofstra = Rockfight (Recap of Drexel vs. Hofstra)

There are few certainties in life; death, taxes and a Drexel-Hofstra rockfight.  I really don't know how to describe this rivalry otherwise.  The games are tough, physical and almost always a closely fought game. The rivalry has its roots in the America East where the teams battled out from 1994 until 2001.  In the 2001-02 season they both joined the CAA.  The Dragons owned the Pride for the first several seasons in the Colonial, winning eight games in a row.

The Drexel winning streak ended in the quarterfinals of the 2005 CAA Tournament.when Hofstra won 89-77.  Including that win, the Pride had gone 8-5 vs the Dragons since entering last night's contest. Many of the games in the series have been close.  Since the 2003-04 season, ten games have been decided by eight points or less and three of those were overtime games.  The teams have split those ten games.

Just before my six year old son Matthew and I left the house last night to go to the game, Matthew lost a tooth.  He told me he knew the tooth fairy would come over night and leave him a present. I joked with him that maybe the tooth fairy will bring Hofstra a win.

Hofstra was desperate for their first win in conference playing at home in the Mack Center while Drexel wanted to maintain its position in the top four of the CAA.  Just like their game against Northeastern last week, there were no cheerleaders, dance team, pep band or Lions Den student section due to no classes in session.  But the Freeport Marching Band and cheerleaders were in attendance and they did their best to fill the void and the Lions Den Section seating area.

But even if the crowd was small, there will always be electricity in the air when Drexel Head Coach Bruiser Flint is stalking the sidelines.  Bruiser is known for his animated coaching, whether he is arguing with officials, admonishing his own players or doing the classic Bruiser stomp.  Watching him in action is worth the price of admission alone. It only took nineteen seconds of game action before Bruiser was yelling at a referee.

The Pride came out quickly and jumped to a 6-0 lead in not even a minute and a half gone by in the game. And as animated as Bruiser was, Hofstra coach Mo Cassara was equally as animated.  You could tell that he really wanted this win badly.

But as quickly as they started out, Hofstra's shooting turned cold even quicker.  For the next eight plus minutes, the Pride didn't score a point until Stevie Mejia hit one of two free throws. It would be about another two and half minutes before Hofstra scored its next field goal, a layup by Mike Moore with a little more than eight minutes left.

Fortunately for the Pride, the Dragons weren't much better in the scoring department.  Despite outscoring Hofstra 14-1 over the span of ten and a half minutes, Drexel was only ahead by five points after the Moore layup.  The Dragons missed nine of their first ten shots and hit six of seventeen overall in those first twelve minutes.

However, Drexel stretched their lead out to ten, 26-16 on a Damion Lee three pointer with about two and a half minutes left in the half.  The Pride had a chance to cut into the lead but missed six free throws in the first twenty minutes of action.  The Dragons entered halftime leading 29-21.

Looking back on the first half, Hofstra was fortunate that the Drexel lead was not larger.  The Dragons struggled from the outside, shooting two of ten from beyond the arc.  That counterbalanced the Pride's own struggles from the three point line as they missed all five attempts.

As we normally do at halftime, my friend Tieff, Matthew and I visited Defiantly Dutch, aka my good friend Jerry Beach and his better half, Michelle.  After talking a few minutes with Jerry, Tieff came up with the idea that we should try to change our luck and change our seats.  Since no one was sitting behind Jerry and Michelle (the crowd was listed at over 1500), we decided we would sit behind them.  We were joined later by my friend Jeff, a colleague of mine at work. Together we all watched the second half unfold.

The second half saw Hofstra come out on a 7-1 spurt to cut the lead to 30-28 with sixteen and a half minutes left.  The score remained within two to five points in favor of Drexel for the next several minutes until Hofstra scored four straight points, the last two by Shemiye McLendon and Hofstra had their first lead since early in the first half, 40-39.  The crowd was finally into the game including the large Drexel contingent behind their bench.

The lead was short lived as McLendon missed a chance to extend the lead with a three pointer, but Chris Fouch didn't miss his three pointer and the Dragons were back out in front 42-40.  Dwan McMillan tied the game back up with a layup.  But then Drexel worked it inside and scored the next six points to go ahead 48-42 with two and half minutes left.

But Hofstra didn't quit and chipped away at the lead again, helped by a three point play by David Imes and a three pointer by Mike Moore with thirty five seconds left which cut the Dragons lead to 51-50.  It was the Pride's first and only successful three pointer on the night.  Hofstra tried to force a turnover in the backcourt, but had to foul with twenty five seconds left.   Frantz Massenat hit the first free throw, but missed the second.

Hofstra had the ball and a chance to tie the game.  Mike Moore drove down what appeared to be an open lane.   As he went for the game tying layup, he collided with a Drexel player.  The referee blew his whistle.

Moore was called for an offensive foul on a very questionable call.  Drexel ball.

After the Dragons inbounded the ball, Shemiye McLendon fouled Damion Lee.  Lee hit both free throws. Then off a Pride miss and a long outlet pass, Lee scored the final two points on an emphatic dunk.  Drexel escaped the rockfight with a 56-50 win.

When it came down to it, two statistics jumped out and they were not in Hofstra's favor. First, the Pride shot nine of nineteen from the charity stripe.  Second, the Pride hit only one three pointer out of thirteen attempts. In a low scoring game, those stats come back to haunt you.

Both teams played very hard in another typical Drexel-Hofstra rockfight.  There were forty seven fouls called in the game, which is typical in this series.  It was also the eleventh time that a Drexel-Hofstra game was decided by eight points or less since the 2003-04 season.  The Dragons emerged victorious and now have won five straight in conference.  The preseason CAA favorite is now tied for third place in conference in what they hope is the Year of the Dragon.

Meanwhile, the Pride left with another loss, their seventh straight in conference.  Five of their losses in conference are by six points or less and it was their fifth conference loss when they had either had a lead or were tied in the second half.  It doesn't get more frustrating than that.

Well, except for knowing that the tooth fairy doesn't bring wins.  I guess that's another certainty in life now.

For Drexel, Getting To The Free Throw Line Helps

Mike Litos, the Dean of CAA Basketball wrote a good article, as usual, last Friday about Drexel, entitled "There is Nothing Wrong About Drexel".  If you couldn't guess from the title, Litos breaks down some Ken Pomeroy statistics and correctly surmises the following;

"Take a look at how good Drexel’s defense has been, and how bad it’s offense has been. In the past seven seasons, only once has the offense finished better than 208th nationally, and only once has the defense finished worse than 92nd. All you need to see is the Christmastime look of the chart."

And he's exactly right, when you look at the aforementioned statistics, this is how Drexel plays.  Really tough defense and ugly offense.  Bruiser Flint's teams specialize in physical play both on the offensive and defensive ends.

But when I looked at the "Christmastime" statistics for Drexel, I noticed one area of concern.  If you look at that linked chart graphic and take a look at Pomeroy's FTR ratio for the Dragons, which stands for Free throw Attempts to Field Goal Attempts Ratio.  Drexel's is 26.0, which is 319th in the country.  When Drexel had been successful, like last season when they won 21 games or in the 2006-07 season, when they won 23 games (and had a legitimate beef for being snubbed from the NCAA Tournament) or 2004-05, when they were 17-12, their FTR ratios were much better.

In fact, here are Drexel's FTRs for the past several seasons, where they ranked in the country in that category and their overall record.

2010-11 - 40.3 - 105  21-10
2009-10 - 36.1 - 215 16-16
2008-09 - 39.9 - 99   15-14
2007-08 - 37.5 - 140 12-20
2006-07 - 44.9 - 21    23-9
2005-06 - 33.8 - 228 15-16
2004-05 - 41.9 - 47    17-12

Notice that when their FTR was above 40, those were also Drexel's three best seasons under Bruiser since the 2004-05 season.  Yes, everyone knows that Bruiser's teams are excellent defensively and are also offensively challenged.  But the FTRs clearly show that Bruiser's teams are most successful when they get to the line.  Also since 2005-06, with the exception of the 2008-09 season, the Dragons have always finished in the top half in the CAA in free throw attempts (in 2006-07, Drexel was second to VCU in free throw attempts with 724).

Now I noted this to Litos in the comments field of his Friday article, also noting that Drexel was dead last in the CAA going into Saturday's action in free throw attempts per game, with fourteen per game.  He responded that he agreed with me about the FT rate. However, he noted  that " But Drexel has also been a terrible FT percentage team (which I certainly agree with).   It isn’t like they get a disparate number of points via the free throw."

But I responded by saying that when you get to the line a significant amount of times, even if you are not the best free throw shooting team, you will still get your share of free throws.  For example, let's say you shoot 61.6% from the line, which Drexel did last season.  If you get to the line ten more times than your opponent in a game, you will get six more points as a result.  When you play close games like the Dragons seemingly do, every little bit counts.

So that gave me an idea.  I reviewed Drexel's wins from last season where the margin of victory was seven points or less.  Thirteen of the Dragons' twenty one wins fit that category.   In eight of those thirteen wins, Drexel had more free throw attempts and free throws made than their opponents.  And in each case, it was significantly more free throw attempts than the opposing team.

Opponent	Date	# of FTA More than Opponent	# of FTM More than Opponent	Margin of Victory
Loyola Md	11/12/10	15	6	3
Rider	12/11/10	9	10	4
St Francis PA	12/18/10	22	12	4
Old Dominion	1/13/11	13	7	5
Hofstra	1/29/11	8	5	5
William and Mary	2/12/11	8	2	2
VCU	2/23/11	13	9	4
Towson	3/4/11	15	6	6

In all eight of those games, Drexel had at least more than eight free throw attempts than their opponent. And in each of those games, the margin of victory was due to the free throws made margin Drexel had over their opponent.  Simply put, Drexel won all eight of those games due to the charity stripe.

This past Saturday, Drexel won at home, 54-50 over Princeton.  In Saturday's game,  the Tigers had more field goals than the Dragons, 22-20.  The Tigers and Dragons each had the same number of three pointers, four.  What was the difference?  The foul line.  Princeton was 12 of 15 from the line, while Drexel was 20 of 24 from the line.  The Dragons had eight more free throws than the Tigers and they won only by four points.  Again, the charity stripe won the game for the Drexel.  Mike Litos even acknowledged this in his article from today (and yes Mike, Massenat, Fouch and Lee were huge).

Now I agree with Mike that Drexel needs to shoot better from the perimeter and Chris Fouch and Damion Lee combined to shoot 11 of 23 from the field against Princeton, so that's a good start.  But for a team that for the most part doesn't shoot well from the field, getting to the line much more often than their opponent can be a definite factor.  It certainly was last season for Drexel in about forty percent of their wins on the season.  Unless they start shooting the ball better from the field, it may need to be as well this season for the Dragons.