Scenario one showed exactly why this shorthanded DU team can win, scenario two is the opposite.
The truly scary scenario for the Dragons is if Damion Lee has a repeat of last year. No, not the injury, but rather the way he played when healthy. He was bad. Not like "talented player having an off night" bad. He was BAD. While his defensive deficiencies have been noted extensively, here are his offensive numbers for those four and a half games:
PPG 13
FG% 37%
3Pt FG% 27%
Off Reb/G 0.0
APG 2.2
TO/Game 1.4
Kenpom O Rating: 102.2 (The team rating was 103.8, good for 186th in the country, a team rating out to 102.2 would have been the 212th ranked offense in the country per Pomeroy).
You know what they call someone who can't shoot, rebound or play defense? A starter at UNCW.
Damion Lee is, without question, the most talented player on this team. If he puts a season up like he started to last year, the Dragons will have to rely on the frontcourt for scoring. That means relying on a player who only scored 5.4ppg and was often in foul trouble a year ago in Rodney Williams, or a player who they have already said they don't think of as a scorer in Mohamed Bah.
The Dragons are OK though because they play defense well enough that they can always turn a game into a rock fight, right? No says Coach Flint, who just told the Philadelphia Daily News that "The last few years we haven't defended anybody", and he's right, after being in the top 100 in defensive efficiency (Pomeroy) for 7 years running, the Dragons have been on the outside looking in the last 2 seasons.
Go and ask a 7 year old youth basketball player what happens when his team can't shoot or play defense. Then realize that even Bru's biggest supporters don't pretend that he is a brilliant on court tactician. Think the 2007-2008 team that went 12-20 (5-13) without Frank Elegar or a Scott Rodgers led defense. What outcome do you see for this years team?
Well, don't think about that quite yet. Even in a bad five game stretch, and with a poor season, Tavon Allen and Damion Lee shot 37% and 40% respectively. The 07-08 guards? As a group they shot 35% from the field (led, I said led, by Rob Hampton's 41%). So when you're drawing up worst case scenario's realize that the 07-08 team went 5-13 in a much better CAA while being an all time poor shooting team. The Dragons are in a different era of talent now, and even on a worst case basis, this team will be better than that team was. On top of that, we will talk about the defense on the next post, but it's not as bad as it looks.
The floor for this team is not as low as many think it is.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Scenario One: Let the Winning Commence
Enoch Hood, Alioune Diouf, Charles Cook, Taylor Bessick, Marvin King-Davis, Devonne Pinkard
Those are the relevant bench players from the last two CAA champions. Cook is a quality basketball player, and King-Davis maybe kinda has some potential, but a murderers row it is not. This is a list of guys that have two things in common: 1) Their teams can't keep their starters from getting suspended, and 2) They have more titles individually than all Drexel players post-millennium combined.
Putting aside that suspensions aren't injuries, and that Monte sold his soul for a title, lets note the obvious: These JMU and Delaware teams were as deep as Kim Kardashian. UD had that bench and lost a ton of games from Saddler, Threatt and King-Davis during the season. Monte Ross (who, did I mention, soul was only slightly cleaner than Andy Dufresne's body after crawling out of Shawshank) seemingly blindly stumbled around and led that team to a 14-2 conference season.
In case this isn't clear: The CAA ain't what it once was, and depth is an overrated feature.
I believe the Dragons have two stars in Damion Lee and Rodney Williams. Williams' snub from the pre-season All CAA teams will come back to bite many a sportswriter. Rodney may be undersized for his position, but he sure didn't appear to be undersized when he swatted more shots per game as a freshman than any of Frank Elegar, Dartaye Ruffin, or even Robert Battle did when they were froshes. Everyone knows the talent that Damion Lee brings to the table which is why those same sportswriters, coaches and SID's did vote him as a Preseason All Conference First Teamer.
So who then could be the third of the big three?
Last year the coaching staff had a number of calls that they would want back, but the one that has been newsworthy in the offseason has been Tavon Allen choosing to - or being told to - shoot his 2 and 3 point attempts with the same hand. While there is no evidence that he was any better with his right hand than with his left, there is overwhelming evidence that he shot the ball poorly with both last season. It's to the coaches credit that they recognized the problem, and are trying to change things up and look for more consistency. It is absolutely, positively, not to the coaches credit that they watched him take a whopping 29% of the shots while he was on the floor last year before then saying "there's a problem with that guys shot." The coaches allowed him to take more shots per minute than Frantz Massenat, and only afterwards decided to assist in fixing his shot. All while the DU bigs were seemingly never fed in the post. In case the repetition didn't tip you off, my brain exploded writing that.
So until he proves otherwise, lets assume that Allen isn't the third of the big three, and that the coaching staff has now figured that out. Mohammed Bah showed flashes last year, but struggled to adapt to the DU system at times, and with the hesitation shown in feeding the post, lets cross him off the list for now.
There are two other options to play the guard position and be that third threat. With Major Canady out, it appears that Rashann London will be running point for the Dragons. If you look historically at guys like Mason, Harris, and Massenat you will see nary a point guard that was asked to score significantly as a freshman. Expect him to be a pass first guy until he gets his college legs under him.
There is a lone senior waiting in the wings, often forgot about this offseason, and rarely played down the stretch last year. Freddie Wilson has been at two schools, and two different staffs have seemed to cringe at his on court decision making. There is an easy solution to this, which is to take him off the ball. Don't ask him to do something that he can't do, keep it simple, help him find his spots on the floor and use that quick release.
The long and short is that there is options. And while the staff may have blown it with a very talented team last year, they also sent a new and clear message. Remember the 2-3 zone against Arizona? The four guard set against Delaware? They weren't all successes, but they were the first time in a long time that this staff has shown a willingness for mid-season change, to try new things and to see what works. If they continue with that spirit through the out of conference season, similar to how Denise Dillon sends out multiple looks and rotations in out of conference play to find her teams core, then they will find their big three. Once again, they have a team with enough talent, it's just a matter of finding the correct mixture. They don't need depth, and in this CAA they can win.
Those are the relevant bench players from the last two CAA champions. Cook is a quality basketball player, and King-Davis maybe kinda has some potential, but a murderers row it is not. This is a list of guys that have two things in common: 1) Their teams can't keep their starters from getting suspended, and 2) They have more titles individually than all Drexel players post-millennium combined.
Putting aside that suspensions aren't injuries, and that Monte sold his soul for a title, lets note the obvious: These JMU and Delaware teams were as deep as Kim Kardashian. UD had that bench and lost a ton of games from Saddler, Threatt and King-Davis during the season. Monte Ross (who, did I mention, soul was only slightly cleaner than Andy Dufresne's body after crawling out of Shawshank) seemingly blindly stumbled around and led that team to a 14-2 conference season.
In case this isn't clear: The CAA ain't what it once was, and depth is an overrated feature.
I believe the Dragons have two stars in Damion Lee and Rodney Williams. Williams' snub from the pre-season All CAA teams will come back to bite many a sportswriter. Rodney may be undersized for his position, but he sure didn't appear to be undersized when he swatted more shots per game as a freshman than any of Frank Elegar, Dartaye Ruffin, or even Robert Battle did when they were froshes. Everyone knows the talent that Damion Lee brings to the table which is why those same sportswriters, coaches and SID's did vote him as a Preseason All Conference First Teamer.
So who then could be the third of the big three?
Last year the coaching staff had a number of calls that they would want back, but the one that has been newsworthy in the offseason has been Tavon Allen choosing to - or being told to - shoot his 2 and 3 point attempts with the same hand. While there is no evidence that he was any better with his right hand than with his left, there is overwhelming evidence that he shot the ball poorly with both last season. It's to the coaches credit that they recognized the problem, and are trying to change things up and look for more consistency. It is absolutely, positively, not to the coaches credit that they watched him take a whopping 29% of the shots while he was on the floor last year before then saying "there's a problem with that guys shot." The coaches allowed him to take more shots per minute than Frantz Massenat, and only afterwards decided to assist in fixing his shot. All while the DU bigs were seemingly never fed in the post. In case the repetition didn't tip you off, my brain exploded writing that.
So until he proves otherwise, lets assume that Allen isn't the third of the big three, and that the coaching staff has now figured that out. Mohammed Bah showed flashes last year, but struggled to adapt to the DU system at times, and with the hesitation shown in feeding the post, lets cross him off the list for now.
There are two other options to play the guard position and be that third threat. With Major Canady out, it appears that Rashann London will be running point for the Dragons. If you look historically at guys like Mason, Harris, and Massenat you will see nary a point guard that was asked to score significantly as a freshman. Expect him to be a pass first guy until he gets his college legs under him.
There is a lone senior waiting in the wings, often forgot about this offseason, and rarely played down the stretch last year. Freddie Wilson has been at two schools, and two different staffs have seemed to cringe at his on court decision making. There is an easy solution to this, which is to take him off the ball. Don't ask him to do something that he can't do, keep it simple, help him find his spots on the floor and use that quick release.
The long and short is that there is options. And while the staff may have blown it with a very talented team last year, they also sent a new and clear message. Remember the 2-3 zone against Arizona? The four guard set against Delaware? They weren't all successes, but they were the first time in a long time that this staff has shown a willingness for mid-season change, to try new things and to see what works. If they continue with that spirit through the out of conference season, similar to how Denise Dillon sends out multiple looks and rotations in out of conference play to find her teams core, then they will find their big three. Once again, they have a team with enough talent, it's just a matter of finding the correct mixture. They don't need depth, and in this CAA they can win.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Guest Post: CAA Thoughts With Alan "Boston" Dvorkis
While the blog's CAA preview does not come out until the end of the out of conference season, I am beyond delighted to be able to share Alan Dvorkis' thoughts on each CAA team below. For those not familiar with the name Alan Boston, he has made a career watching college hoops, and has been acknowledged as "almost frighteningly smart" by former Vegas bookmaker Scott Schettler. He has followed this blog for the last year and is seemingly continuously working to make me less of an idiot as well, all of which I am tremendously grateful for, and the only reason I'd let a Penn guy write on these electronic pages. Without further ado, Alan:
I mentioned that I would give a CAA preview a shot, from a gamblers perspective. I am Alan "Boston" Dvorkis. I have earned a living exclusively by betting on college sports, mainly basketball for the last 26 years. But why this blog? After all, the only attachment I have to Drexel is my dearly departed close friend Sally Soloman, who taught chemistry at Drexel for many years. Still, I learned to love college basketball, while attending the University of Pennsylvania from 1976-1980. I was fortunate enough to see the Big 5 bloodbaths that ALL were played on a neutral court*, The Palestra. It was amazing. There were even double headers. One admission paid for both. Yes, perhaps I am a bit of an old school romantic. I enjoyed 45 second shot clocks. I do not like the 3 point shots. I loved when college hoops was played out in old gyms, like the snake pit, where the students were on top of the floor. Now, big money has ruined the once wonderful game. With big money, comes all this ridiculous conference realignment so I must check and see who is even in the CAA before I write my thoughts. Here is my attempt at succinct brilliance.
College of Charleston - Tricky call as their new coach was not hired until August. Still, Earl Grant has terrific pedigree as he was a long time assistant to one of the top 3 coaches in the country, Gregg Marshall, he was then an assistant to another great coach Brad Brownell, so I am sure he will do fine. This team disappointed the last 2 yrs, so I think the coach will eventually be a big upgrade. With 2 returning seniors in the backcourt, Stitt at the point and Baru. I do not think this team will drop off from last year, even though the coach has minimal time to put his stuff in. This is a very good program, that with this coach, I think will be at or near the top of the CAA within 2 years, that is, if the league still exists. This year, Charleston will finish in the upper half, with the top spot, not entirely out of the question.
Delaware - I was happy to see Monte Ross finally have some success. He seems like a quality human. However, his success came more from having athletes, than from x's and o's. The problem with relying on athletes, especially when you're a mid major, is that you eventually play someone more athletic and you are left with no way to win. With only 1 starter returning and the likely upgrade in recruiting that comes with NCAA bid not yet relevant, unless Coach Ross remembers his Phil Martelli roots and uses some of the beautiful offense that Martelli's teams run and that Ross' teams used to run, this team with one scholarship senior and a freshman point running the show will struggle for sure. Bottom half of the league likely.
Drexel - Well, I am a big Bruiser fan, so I shall not shit on him like many are ready to. He is just a jam up human and a good, not great coach, but if I had a son who played hoops I would be honored to have Bruiser coach him. I know, it is all about the winning now. You have to make the tournament to get the big bucks. At least if Bruiser makes the tournament - and this team can - it wont be with shady recruiting, with false promises or paid off AAU coaches. Last year Drexel was a lock to make the tournament until a myriad of players missed 50 games to injury. With ever changing lineups, chemistry was lacking. Bruiser also butchered a couple of end games, but it was the injuries that destroyed what could have been an amazing year. Remember this team dominated Arizona, (the team I have rated number one this year) for a good part of the game. Then after losing to Arizona the next night, under impossible conditions beat Alabama in a trillion overtimes. I am told that Abif is done and someone else too [Major Canady], but his name is not Lee or Allen or Williams, so hopefully that will be it. There is still plenty of talent here. Yes, it is tough to win with a freshman point guard, but if this team defends like a typical Bruiser team and does not have any more injuries, I think they will win the CAA.
Elon - From the Southern Conference, which sadly has basically disbanded comes the Phoenix. Matt Metheny a long time assistant to the terrific Bob McKillop has done a very good job here. Last year was his best year, and with it, his first recruiting class graduated. So with many seniors gone, he is left with one returning starter. If senior point guard, Austin Hamilton is healthy, it will ease the losses. Hamilton started at the point as a freshman but injuries have stunted his playing time. It reads like he is healthy, if he is, it should keep them out of the basement but still in the bottom half of the league.
Hofstra - This seems to be peoples dark horse, but in spite of both the fantastic Juan'ya Green and Ameen Tanksleyin who came with Mihalich from Niagara now being eligible and in spite of the excellent track record of Joe Mihalich, I still think they are a year away from winning the conference. The only 3 players that return from last year were all starters and Mihalich is an excellent recruiter, so the talent level is way up, and it all adds up to a contender, but I feel just not quite enough to win the league. Mihalich has surprised me before.
James Madison - 2 years ago, JMU won the conference tournament to make the NCAA tournament and save Matt Brady's job. Last yr, 6 seniors graduated from that team, to be replaced by 6 freshman, then Andre Nation, their best player was suspended a total of 17 games and of course they struggled. Well Nation is back [suspended for the first 5 games] and he is a beast. Junior Ron Curry moved to the point last year and did well. The 6 frosh were thrown to the wolves and will be the better for it. Like Hofstra this team has a good upside but I think they are a notch below the top tier teams.
Northeastern - Bill Coen is terrific. This year he returns all 5 starters and gets his best player Quincy Ford back from injury. Ford played in only one game last year. Their point guard TJ Williams started every game as a freshman. He was excellent and should be that much better this year. Coen always gets the most out of what he has and this year he has an experienced team that has talent. He will get absolutely the most out this team but they too must avoid injuries. If they stay injury free, they will battle for the top spot.
Towson - What a job by Pat Skerry. From 1 win to 18 wins followed by last years home run 25 wins. They lose their top 4 scorers including a freak named Benimon. He is irreplaceable. They also need a new pg who will be a juco or a frosh. The school is investing in hoops. They built a new facility, told Skerry he had all the time he needed and they were rewarded with an unbelievable year in 2014. They will drop off this year, but he is recruiting at a high level, so the program is strong. They will be low to middle of the pack this year, but after this year, they will be a threat every year until they go to a bigger league.
UNCW - Wow. I was wrong. Buzz Peterson was a disaster. Even hiring the brilliant Eddie Beidenbach as his lead assistant last year did not help. Now UNCW has hired a Rick Pitino assistant, Kevin Keatts. I doubt he will be very good, no matter, it is sad to see this once strong program fade. The talent there is down. I doubt Keatts will be an x's and o's genius and he will need talent to press all over the place to overcome his lack of schemes. Last place is likely this year. He is a good recruiter, so they will not be down long.
William & Mary - I often wonder what would Tony Shaver do, if he had Duke like talent? Scratch that, it would be unfair. What if he had Harvard like talent, I mean The New Amaker Harvard like talent (yes, an intentional dig)? He would be top ten for sure. Well he has to deal with William & Mary talent, a strong academic school that will not relent as Harvard did. Only 2 starters return, but one of them is Marcus Thornton, possibly the greatest to ever play at W&M. So Shaver has some talent. He also has several who played many minutes last year. He has a couple who are returning from injury. He has a potential future star at point in redshirt freshman Michael Schlotman. He lost 3 starters but he still has talent and Shaver does not need much to win. A definite threat for the title.
So Drexel, Northeastern, William & Mary will be top 3. College of Charleston 4. UNCW last. The others in between. Hope at least a few sentences have relevance. I am not much of a previewer as I know the relative strength of a program but not the nitty gritty. Nevertheless, I said I would write something, so here it is. Enjoy this blog. It is excellent. Enjoy the hoops, even if the powers that be attempt to ruin.
*Note from Dragons Speak: Only a Penn guy can call that court entirely neutral!
Monday, November 10, 2014
Looking Back to Look Forward
It's the Super Bowl, World Series and World Peace all rolled into one! It's... Dragons season tip off!
You may have noticed a distinct lack of previews on this site. You may have seen injury news from the Dragons and wonder why it hasn't been up here. You may ask yourself, how do I work this? And you may ask yourself "Where is that large automobile?" You may look at the DAC and tell yourself "This is not my beautiful house!" As you watch the calendar turn and let the days go by before the season starts.
The challenge has not been lack of information (although with 5 newcomers, there's an argument), or even lack of time. The challenge has been the filtering of that information. There's so much out there that with a record of 0-0 you can make almost any argument for the Dragons outlook this season. They may have 2 of the top 10 players in the CAA starting for them, leading them to greatness. You can argue that they had 2 of the top 10 last year, and ended up in mediocrity. Or you can assume that Rodney Williams is too undersized to dominate, they have already lost at least 40% of their starters for the year in Major and Abif, and even in a weak conference they are ripe to get rolled.
Usually this blog has an opinion on everything, but this time it's gonna weasel and in the next three days we'll present all three arguments for you to enjoy. We also hope to have 1-2 CAA-wide pieces, possibly with a college hoops guru guest writer. A lot of content to hit the wall here in the next four days, and I'll be tweeting court-side in Boulder come Friday. Until all of that is ready to go, I leave you with links into the past, from what I thought were three of the most important items we saw last year that will be meaningful this year:
It's a Trust Thing - The Need For Balance
Praising Bru - In Which We Saw Bru Trying to Evolve
Not Just in PJ's - In Which We (Rightly) Crush Bru and Staff for Loving the Jump Shot
You may have noticed a distinct lack of previews on this site. You may have seen injury news from the Dragons and wonder why it hasn't been up here. You may ask yourself, how do I work this? And you may ask yourself "Where is that large automobile?" You may look at the DAC and tell yourself "This is not my beautiful house!" As you watch the calendar turn and let the days go by before the season starts.
The challenge has not been lack of information (although with 5 newcomers, there's an argument), or even lack of time. The challenge has been the filtering of that information. There's so much out there that with a record of 0-0 you can make almost any argument for the Dragons outlook this season. They may have 2 of the top 10 players in the CAA starting for them, leading them to greatness. You can argue that they had 2 of the top 10 last year, and ended up in mediocrity. Or you can assume that Rodney Williams is too undersized to dominate, they have already lost at least 40% of their starters for the year in Major and Abif, and even in a weak conference they are ripe to get rolled.
Usually this blog has an opinion on everything, but this time it's gonna weasel and in the next three days we'll present all three arguments for you to enjoy. We also hope to have 1-2 CAA-wide pieces, possibly with a college hoops guru guest writer. A lot of content to hit the wall here in the next four days, and I'll be tweeting court-side in Boulder come Friday. Until all of that is ready to go, I leave you with links into the past, from what I thought were three of the most important items we saw last year that will be meaningful this year:
It's a Trust Thing - The Need For Balance
Praising Bru - In Which We Saw Bru Trying to Evolve
Not Just in PJ's - In Which We (Rightly) Crush Bru and Staff for Loving the Jump Shot
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Royal Rooting
The Kansas City Royals have made the Major League Baseball playoffs
this year for the first time since 1985. In a sport where the lowest payroll is well
over forty million dollars, it’s hard to find a band of loveable
overachievers. When Derek Jeter, the #46
best baseball player of all time per WAR (and possibly the worst defensive player ever) gets commercialized to the point where he is celebrated by
literally every team in the league on the event of his departure, there is a “National
Game of the Week” every day of the week depending on which channel you watch,
and a third of each league makes the postseason, it’s hard to see these guys as
old school, hard working types banding together to win.
In the 2013 season, we may have seen as close to the
Impossible Dream season as we will ever see again. A Red Sox team coming off of a last place
finish watched their adopted city take a body blow in April, and they responded
by winning the World Series, seemingly out of nowhere, being led by guys who, years before were about as likely to lead a team to a Series victory as
Larry, Moe and Curly were. David Ortiz was cut by the Minnesota Twins
before he told everyone just whose [bleeping] city he played for. Dustin
Pedroia may have been balding on his thirteenth birthday, is listed 5’8” and has already won more MVP’s
than the aforementioned Jeter, Jon Lester is a starting pitcher that had to
beat cancer before he became the guy with a 2.11 postseason ERA.
Jon Lester pitches in the playoffs tonight.
The #NVRQT message that he stands for is one that everyone can get
behind, and many a Red Sox fan will still be rooting for him and his story, even as he pitches for the Oakland Athletics. Some Red Sox
fans are also Dragons fans though, and those fans will be looking in the other
dugout for their storyline.
This isn’t about the Royals decision to renovate Kauffman
Stadium rather than build new (nor the lack of attendance increase they received from it, because that was in line with new stadiums as well), although
it kind of is. It’s not about their lengthy
playoff drought although it kind of is.
It’s not even about them standing by Dayton Moore (GMU ’89) since 2006
despite a record of 594-702 (.458) since his first full season as GM in 2007,
complete with five 90+ loss seasons and zero 90+ win seasons. It’s about the combination of all of these
things.
The Royals have watched six teams get new stadiums in the
last decade, while they put lipstick on their 48 year old “The K”. It’s been ten years since Michael Lewis’ book
“Moneyball” came out, extolling the value of the walk in baseball. The Royals have been in the bottom ten in
baseball in walks every year since it was published, including dead last three
times. They gave a contract extension to
a below .500 General Manager who went to GMU! Based on this it's pretty clear that they may think that George Brett
is still on the team, that you should wipe a little dirt on that concussion and
it’ll be fine, and that the internet is a fad that will be over any time now, certainly well before Y2K wipes us all out.
And that’s just it.
The Royals may be outdated, out of touch, and small market,
but they’re winners now!
Every season brings with it a 0-0 record. Every season brings with it hope. And even if your Athletics Department's
flagship program is twenty years behind the time, at a “technology-infused”*
school, and would rather self teach themselves cutting edge techniques than
bring in someone from outside “the family” to assist, there is hope.
I bought my season tickets this year because I
support the Dragons. I support the
student athletes and I support the laundry. I bought my season tickets because the Royals, who were dead last in
walks again this year, won anyway.
Because it’s sports and weird stuff happens and there’s always a
chance. And when that happens, I want to
have been there the whole time, have gotten the whole experience, the wins and
the losses. That's the best part of being a fan.
Buy your tickets, get your popcorn ready. Listen to the top 40 hit from DJ Bru Featuring Calvin Hicks "Four Letter Words (Defense)". Tip off is in 45 days away. For tonight though, it’s the Royals who give my Dragons hope.
Sorry Jon, Go Blue.
Friday, September 12, 2014
The Schedule (Well most of it...) Is Here!
This is two games short, the Saint Francis game and one other TBD. File this under "where there's smoke there is fire" but according to some Rhode Island followers, they are no longer playing Brown on New Years Eve. At the same time, there are three potential spots for Drexel's two remaining games: New Years Eve, December 23, or the first week of December, which is the week prior to finals week. Smoke, fire, we'll see. With four (4!!!) OOC home games against some really solid opponents at the DAC, Drexel can afford to start a home and home on the road or (my preference) take a small guarantee with that last spot. A hat tip to Coach Connors & Company for creating the best home OOC slate since Bru arrived from UMass. Fans should be excited about this schedule, and about the new DAC seats to see them from.
With the CAA schedule now laid out, there are three obvious knocks right off the top:
1) A back loaded schedule, with five of the last eight going into the tournament on the road. Tough to have momentum going into tournament time with a schedule like that, if you believe in momentum.
2) The Elon then C of C road swing in early February kicking off the end of season road wars features a Thursday/Saturday set. Those two schools are a 4+ hour bus ride apart in good weather and CAA teams are notoriously bad on the road on one days rest. Especially when both games are on the road.
3) Noting the last comment above, the Dragons also have a Towson/UNCW set both on the road, just two days apart. UNCW and C of C on the back end of both of those sets may seem like a break, but in reality those are the road games that a good team absolutely must win, and they are now both games that are very much at risk.
On the flip side of the coin, if you're a believer in Northeastern, William and Mary and Hofstra as the teams to beat in the CAA next year then DU caught a few breaks. They play W&M on one day rest at home, but the Tribe will only have one day rest on the road for that game. Hofstra will play at DU on one days rest while Drexel has the full two days off between games.
The NU/DU budding rivalry will continue with full sets of rest for both teams in all meetings.
Oh, and in case you missed it: Mario the Magnificent and his boys will be hosting the Delaware Blue Hens on senior night.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Welcome Home Dragons
The Weeks of the Dragon have ended in China. And while we delight in our conquering heroes (3-1 on the road trip) trip, we can also get a chuckle. I leave you without further comment, but with two tweets posted within an hours of each other:
Back in the States. China was amazing. Beijing Shanghai unbelievable. What a great time. Plus we played well. Lol. Happy being home.
— Bruiser Flint (@ducoachflint) September 2, 2014Excited to be back in America is an understatement
— Major Canady (@major25canady) September 2, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)