College of Charleston - Away - Postgame

Final Score:  College of Charleston 60 Drexel 38
Drexel Player of the Game: Tyshawn Myles
Key to the Game: It's like the NY Lotto - You Gotta Play to Win
Next Game:  Thursday Feb 11 @ Delaware

If you ever want to beautifully setup a game for last place, it's tough to do much better than Drexel and Delaware did this past Saturday.  While Delaware knocked out their second straight 20+ point loss, the Drexel Dragons stumbled and bumbled their way through a no show appearance in Charleston.

Giving Tyshawn Myles the Player of the Game for this one is still somewhat stunning to me.  Tyshawn had three turnovers and four fouls in just 18 minutes and only played at a .72 points per possession efficiency.  But he also filled up the box score with 7 rebounds and 5 points in those 18 minutes, and was the only player on his team to record more than 1 field goal, so congratulations Tyshawn Myles!  At the very least, Tyshawn entered the game and tried to make an impact, which, with apologies to the walk on's,  is much more than any of his teammates could argue for themselves.

The problems in South Carolina started slow and low.  Coach Earl Grant apparently has gotten word from around the league, and Rodney Williams was double teamed early in the game, effectively making him disappear from the start.  Kazembe Abif was 1-6 from the floor and just 3-7 from the line, while being kept off the boards and sitting in some foul trouble.  Tyshawn Myles came in and quickly saw the fouls pile up as well.  And so this game was left for the guards to try to keep it competitive against a Charleston team that isn't a bad matchup for this Drexel team.  The four player guard rotation combined for these gaudy numbers:

2 pt: 3-9 (33%)
3 pt: 2-11 (18%)
Assist(s):  1
Turnovers; 13

The only player in the game for the Dragons to average over a point per possession was Terrell Allen, who came off the bench for the second straight game and was held to just 24 minutes, his third shortest appearance of the season.  Bruiser Flint appears to be cutting off his job nose to spite his face with the current benching as Rashann London and his 1-8 shooting and zero assists is not looking to be ready for a starting pg role on this squad.  When all of this added up, it really didn't matter what Charleston did, so long as they were physically present.  This game was an open net goal for them and they easily slipped it between the posts.

For the longer term, after the amusing and bemusing 10 point first half featuring a lone field goal (thanks Rashann London) the messages were coming in hot and heavy to Dragons Speak HQ.  And yes, there certainly are significant problems in Dragon Land right now, and if you're a donor, you may be seeing the lowest return on investment of any basketball program in the country.  It's a terrible message to send, and while we're not sure how much longer it will be tolerated certainly the end appears near.  More on that later this week, but for now we turn our eyes to the last place battle in Newark on Thursday.

College of Charleston - Away - Pregame

When last the Sons of Flint won a game, it was opposite the College of Charleston a mere 28 days ago, which wouldn't be very long at all if we were talking about a football team, who maybe had a bye week in there somewhere.  This is college basketball though, and the seven game losing streak that followed the Charleston game may have long lasting implications both to the Drexel fanbase and the larger community.  All that is for another discussion, the question in front of us today is can the Cougars be the magical and very temporary elixir that the Dragons need to win another game and break their losing streak.  The numbers look promising.

The truest indicator of how a game will be played in college basketball is looking at the last time the teams played each other in the same season.  It's known that certain numbers are known to extreme fluctuation, say three point shooting percentage.  Other numbers are likely to stay more consistent, like rebounding advantages or turnovers.  When looking at the first game between these teams, we see a game that Drexel won despite being just 1-6 from three, a number that is likely to have positive regression to the mean in this contest.  On the other hand, the usually poor shooting Cougars went 7-15 from downtown, a number likely to regress downward.  That combines to look very promising for a Dragons team that won the first game despite, and not becuase, of those shooting numbers.

The other thing to pickup from the box score is the rebounding edge.  Drexel grabbed 36% of their offensive misses, slightly better than Charleston's 33%, but the indicator moves beyond that.  Remember the Dragons three point shooting numbers?  They only took 6 attempts, their least number of attempts in a game this season. Meanwhile the Dragon forwards scored 29 of the teams 61 points, one of their higher percentages of team scoring all year.  Drexel was able to get the ball inside, was able to rebound at a much higher clip than their 29.2% season offensive rebounding total...  All this adds to the Dragon upperclassman forwards having a dominant performance against the youth of Charleston's Jerrell Brantley and Payton Hulsey.

Maybe College of Charleston coach Earl Grant will pull a page from Matt Brady's playbook and doubleteam the Dragon forwards this game. If he doesn't, Charleston's slow, methodical pace (340th in the country in Tempo) plays right into the Dragons hands.  If the Dragons can maintain their discipline and keep feeding their bigs, similar to what they did against Hofstra, this game should be theirs to lose.  However, the Dragons haven't won a game outside of city limits yet this year and are playing a roadie with a single days rest.  Knowing that, it's tough to expect a win.

Prediction:  Charleston 59, Drexel 57
Vegas Line:  Charleston -7.5


Alan Boston's Take:

Ugh. Drexel tricked us, well not everyone. They jumped out to a 13-4 lead vs James Madison. However this time, they did not wait until late in the game to piss away the lead. By half time, it was all but over. Now they must go on short rest to beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. I hope they enjoy the city. I doubt the hosts will be very hospitable. Since Drexel somehow won the first match up, it is likely that C of C will not take them lightly, which is likely Drexel's only chance. When Canyon Barry was lost for the year, it looked as if C of Cs season went with him. However, on Thursday, they found their scorer. Future star, possibly even present star Marquis Pointer had a huge game Thursday night vs Towson. His shots finally fell. He is the real deal. C of C likes to get out and run. They also run good half court offense, but they like the open floor better now, so Drexel had better remember their roots and try to get the game in the half court. James Madison basically denied everything inside. They let Drexel have open looks from the outside. Drexel did not make them. So the blueprint is in place. I think Drexel's back has been broken. They have played shorthanded the entire year. They lost too many late leads. Last night's early lead disappeared very quickly. Against a focused C of C squad, who has found a new star, I doubt they will lead once. Disaster likely.


C of C 90 Drexel 58

James Madison - Home - Postgame

In Drexel's game against James Madison on Thursday night a good team beat a bad one.  News at 11.

There were actually a couple of notable takeaways which we'll quickly hit:

Matt Brady wrote a blueprint for coaches the rest of the season when playing DU.  He correctly identified Drexel's only consistent scoring threats as Kazembe Abif and Rodney Williams, so he had his guys double them at all times.  Credit to the DU coaches and bigs, they were ready for it, and threw cross court passes to wide open guards at the three point line each and every time.  And with that, inconsistent shooters had plenty of shots.  There should have been an adjustment here leading to a big to big pass, but it never came and doesn't appear to be in any part of Drexel's playbook.  If other teams follow that blueprint, well, there's a reason why Brady was willing to leave guys shooting in the 25% vicinity open.  In Bruiser's words "Honestly, you don't really need to guard us."

On the DU side of the ball, the news of note is that Terrell Allen did not start either half. Terrell had been slumping but remains the dominant and deserving starting point guard job so this was a surprise move.  Generally it's not worth reading too much into players body language with Bru during games as tensions are high and any number of players who consider Bru family have clearly tuned him out in games.  However, adding some bad body language from Terrell to him being removed from the starting spot and one has to wonder if there's trouble in paradise.

Lastly, this team quit in the second half.  They were getting their brains bashed in on the boards all game, and when you couple that with how poorly they shot they were never really in the contest, but unquestionably, down the stretch, this team quit.  They quit on their coach and they quit on each other.

Five years ago, the Dragons ran the whole regular season without a home loss.  With this game the Dragons were swept on a four game homestand, for the first time ever in the Flint era.



ADDENDUM

The University of Louisville announced today that they are "sanctioning themselves" and removing themselves from postseason consideration.  When a school does this, it's important to look for what they're not saying.  No one thinks Louisville prosecuted themselves to the fullest extent of the law, and the dirt they must be very aware of certainly is damning.

As is widely known, Drexel alum Damion Lee is probably from time to time, attending classes at Louisville.  Damion is a Dragon, he has a degree from Drexel and will always be a Dragon.  Bruiser Flint was very upset with Damion's departure and was less than professional about it.  While Bru may or may not be feeling some schadenfreude today, no joy should be had, there were no angels in this situation.

It's clear that Damion had given the coaching staff his word that he was to return to DU for his Graduate season of eligibility.  He turned his back on that, accepting an opportunity to further his career, and increase his NBA and NCAA Tournament chances.  Many are feeling for Damion today, looking at what has been a simply legendary college career without ever having the chance to dance.  On the flip side of the coin, Damion likely gave his word and then went against it, and then went to a program that was known throughout the industry to be dirty.  It may be true that some of Louisville's dirt may be the way of D-I athletics in this day and age, but that doesn't make it right.  I wish the best for Damion and look forward to see what a scorer like him can do in the NBA - he's a Dragon, he's one of us - but in regards to his Louisville career not a tear will be shed.

James Madison - Home - Pregame

The Dragons final chance (spoiler alert: it's not a good one) to pickup a win on their four game homecoming homestand comes Thursday night against James Madison University.  The Dukes are 16-7 overall and 4-1 on the road in conference this season.  As mentioned prior to the first meeting between these teams, JMU is a seasoned, deep, talented team and while sitting in 5th place in the conference standings today, is still considered a favorite by many.

While the Dragons resume may seem the inverse image of the Dukes, this game will still be played, 5 on 5, at Drexel's Daskalakis Athletic Center.  And there are two significant reasons to believe this will be a game.  One relates to what Scott Kier wrote about over the past two days, Drexel's record may be brutal on the eyes at 3-18, but they've been in more close games than any team in this conference.  While their late game execution leaves much to be desired close games can be decided by a bad bounce, a friendly rim, a crazy rebound or a referees whistle.  At some point one of those things will break the Dragons way.

The second and perhaps more pertinent point is how the Dukes are getting things done.  They use an above average offense behind Ron Curry and Shakir Brown coupled with what appears to be a very good, 67th in the country defense.  That defense has caught some breaks though, including a weak opposition strength of schedule.  The biggest statistical stronghold for the JMU defense is their three point defense, which is 2nd in the country, allowing only 28% shooting from deep.  While an individual teams three point shooting percentage is usually a somewhat accurate descriptor of how they shoot (although still not necessarily predictive, per this must read blog post from Ken Pomeroy) three point defense is much more of a crapshoot, and in fact, unless you're Bruiser Flint, the best predictor of future 3pt shooting defense is current 2pt shooting defense.  While the Dukes are 2nd in the country from long range, they are 151st at 2 point defense.  In short:  They've been lucky.

So on Thursday night we have one team that's caught some breaks and one team that hasn't caught any.  And so maybe, just maybe there will be a game at the DAC worth seeing afterall.  But given the way JMU dominated the glass against Drexel in their first meeting, and Drexel's inability to play their way out of a wet paper bag this year, it seems much more likely that this homestand will end an 0-fer.


Prediction:  JMU 65, Drexel 48
Vegas Line:  JMU -7



Alan Boston's Take:

If nothing else, Drexel is consistent.  Lead for much of the last 3 home games. Lost them all late. I do not expect that to continue. James Madison returned all 5 starters from last season. They have an excellent senior point guard in Ron Curry. If the league were not so strong this year, they would be one of the favorites. Strangely they began conference play by losing at home to College of Charleston, winning at a beat up Delaware then losing again at home to Elon. That loss must of lit a fuse as they then clobbered Towson at home and went on the road and won both at Northeastern and then most impressively on short rest at Hofstra. Coach Brady said the reason for the improved play was their defense rose to another level. Two weeks ago they clobbered Drexel 68-45. Now they come to Philly, losers of 2 in a row, including blowing an 18 pt lead to William and Mary in their last outing. As a result they should be super focused. That is not good news for Drexel, who have been unable to hang on vs teams that have not been at their best. This one could get ugly early.


JMU 78 Drexel 45

Close and Late - Part 2 - The head-shaking continues

Scott Kier continues his analysis of the Dragons in close and late situations below

When looking for the root cause of a problem it is often helpful to try and establish a pattern.  Patterns often point towards what the underlying cause might actually be.  Following the Part 1 post about how the 2015-2016 Dragons have performed in close and late situations, I decided that it might be telling to see what the team has done in past seasons in similar situations with different personnel. I wanted to go back farther than the 2013-2014 season, but the presence of play-by-play breakdowns became a bit sporadic.

In the look back, all inclusion criteria was kept the same with one exception.  In this exercise games that went longer than one overtime were excluded.  While these games are exciting, the volume of numbers that an additional 10-15 minutes of game time pours into an analysis like this could also skew some measurements.  Since no game has gone longer than one overtime this season, we erred for consistency and not look at games from prior seasons that went past this.

First, I will share the accumulated and analyzed data in a more abbreviated version than I did with this year’s statistics and then I am going to share my thoughts about what it tells us.  Players will be ordered by guards first, and then forwards due to a significantly higher percentage of shots taken by guards in both seasons.

2013-2014 TEAM STATISTICS:

Close and Late Record: 5-8.

Average Point Differential: + < 1 point.  

Total Points Drexel: 152 Opponents: 148

TEAM SHOOTING STATISTICS:

FG%: 51.3% 

2 pointers: 59.3% (32 for 54) 

3 pointers: 31.8% (7 for 22) 

FT’s: 71.6% (58 for 81)

I was admittedly surprised to find Tavon Allen at the top of the list both for shots taken and field goal percentage.  It says a lot about his role as the focal point of an offense as he is this year as opposed to being a supportive player like he was for Fouch, Massenat, and Lee in years past.  Also, it is important to point out how often this team got to the line.  Both the 2013-14 and 2015-16 teams have had 13 close and late games with the 2013-14 teams shooting twice as many free throws than this year’s team (81 to 39).

2014-2015 TEAM STATISTICS:

Close and Late Record: 6-5

Average Point Differential: +1 point

Total Points Drexel: 108 Opponents: 103

TEAM SHOOTING STATISTICS:

FG%:  37.3% 

2 pointers: 48.6% (18 for 37) 

3 pointers: 18.2% (4 for 22) 

FT’s 81.3% (61 for 75)

THOUGHTS

Again, this stat line was surprising.  While the team was injured, it was interesting to find that only four players made shots over the course of 11 close and late games.  Their contributions were good enough for a winning record in these situations.  After pouring over the stat lines, the big difference between this season and the other two are the turnover number which, at 7, was half of 2013-14’s 16, and less than a third of this season’s 24.  Also, thanks to Damion Lee’s 34 for 35 performance, the 2014-15 team was a fantastic free-throw shooting team, but still not as good as this season’s team FT% of 84.6%.

Now that we have looked the big picture from the last three seasons, what can we conclude from it all?

Turnovers!  With only about eight to ten possessions in late game situations, a team must maintain possession of the ball.  They also need to take advantage of the free points that another team has given them.  This year’s team has done an admirable job of that but they have failed to maintain possession to a level anywhere close to the previous two seasons.

What about a late game plan?  The eyeball test will tell us that this team’s offense has not changed much over the past three seasons.  I’d argue that it has not changed much in the last fifteen seasons.  After seeing a majority of the games in the last three seasons either live or on TV, I can say that the offensive sets are similar if not identical.  This becomes important when you look at this team’s overall record when leading and trailing.

Over the last three seasons, when hitting the 4 minute mark in the second half with a lead, Drexel’s record is 11-2.  Coincidentally, both losses were in the team’s CAA tournament games.  So, in the regular season, Drexel is a perfect 11-0 in close and late situations when leading.  Their defense allows them to lock down the opposing team, and their free throw shooting has added the necessary points to keep them ahead.  All good news.

When looking at the other side of the coin at how this team performs when trailing, the numbers are unsurprisingly not as pretty.  When trailing or tied with 4 minutes to go, Drexel is 2-21.  Playing from behind late comes down to game plan and clutch play.  Leading, you can hold a team with strong defense, clock management, and free throw shooting.  When trailing a team needs to be able to convert on the offensive side of the court.  In order to do that, late game situations must be rehearsed and plays need to be drawn up.  While those plays need to be executed by the guys on the court, the game plan needs to be there in order to be executed.

It is much easier to play with a lead, and this team has done well at that.  The panic on the offensive side of the floor, however, needs to stop.  Sideline time needs to be productive.  The right players need to be on the floor, and finally, those players need to stay calm, and execute.


Going Around The Association

We have already taken a look at how Drexel has performed over the past three seasons.  As of January 31st of this year, Drexel has put up a 2-11 record in close and late games.  Their 13 close games are the highest in the conference.  Hofstra and Northeastern are the next highest with 11.

When looking at records when teams are leading, Drexel is one of four undefeated teams in the conference.  Elon and William and Mary are both 3-0, and UNCW is 4-0. The lowest winning percentage when leading belongs to Northeastern who are 2-3 when leading by 7 or less at the 4 minute mark.  They were also the only team with a losing record when leading which is especially stunning coming from a team that leads the conference in free throw shooting.

Drexel’s perfect winning percentage when leading at the U4 is encouraging, especially when looking at their complete body of work over the past three seasons which has accumulated a perfect 11-0 record in close games in regular season play.  As a team that puts defense first, their ability to hold a lead is admirable.

When looking at overall records in close and late situations, Hofstra leads the way at 8-3 followed by Elon at 7-3, James Madison at 6-3, and UNCW and Towson at 5-3.  As expected, Drexel’s winning percentage of .154 brings up the rear.  The CAA close and late records for the most part mirror the current conference standings.  Elon is the sole outlier falling second in close and late situations, while being tied for 7th overall in the conference.

So what do all of these records tell us?  It appears that while Drexel might be proficient in holding a lead when compared to the majority of the conference they have not capitalized on keeping games close.  They appear to lack the ability to turn that final corner which, judging by the team’s 2-19 record in the last three seasons when trailing close and late, is not a new problem.

Drexel is doing a great job of keeping games close, or at least battling back to the point where they can make it a contest down the stretch.  This is where their preparation needs to be focused, and it needs to start with scrapping the current game plan and developing a new one.  One player has taken more than a third of the team’s shots while hitting at a 25% clip, and that same player has committed a third of their late game turnovers.  He is not the guy to have the ball in his hands in these clutch situations, regardless of how he performed for the other 36 minutes of the game.  Overall performances and clutch performances are not always the same thing, and this is what we are seeing here.

With the pending return of Ahmad Fields, one has to hope that he can be the late game shooter that this team needs.  Success in the conference this season is probably out of reach this season but if there's one thing all DU fans know it's that the season is nothing other than three days in March.  These guys may seem to be playing for pride down the stretch, but they are still preparing and holding out hope for some Baltimore magic.  Let’s see what they can do.

Close and Late - Part I

The below is written by Scott Kier (@MedicSBK) who took the time to more closely examine the flaws that are proving fatal for this years Dragons


After Drexel’s 70-64 loss to Hofstra that saw them blow a 13 point lead, I decided to take a closer look at a spot that I have seen as a glaring weak spot in Drexel’s game this season.  By ability or pure luck the Dragons have taken many games down to the wire, but finishing on the better side of the ledger has been rare.  I wanted to dig into why this was happening.

One of the marks of a truly successful team is how they perform in close situations late in the game.  It says a lot about the game plans that a coach draws up in the huddle and speaks to the ability of a team’s players to perform in the clutch.  To define “close and late” situations, I decided to specifically look at games that saw a seven point difference at the 4 minute mark.  Why did I decide on those numbers?  The seven point difference was largely arbitrary but it creates a difference just outside of two possessions.  If each team runs the full 30 second shot clock in the last four minutes of the game they will each have four possessions.

As for the four minute cutoff, that marks the time at which point teams get a free timeout at the next stoppage to allow television stations to sell you beer and other cheap goods, it is the final media timeout of the game.  This allows teams to go to the sideline and it gives coaches a chance to regroup their players and send them on the floor with a game plan for the endgame.

From the 50,000 foot view, Drexel is 2-11 when the game comes down to the wire.  On average Drexel has trailed their opponents by 2.6 points at the four minute mark.  Drexel has scored 104 points in close and late game situations as compared to 128 by their opponents.

Breaking it down further, Drexel is shooting 30.2% (29 for 96) in late game situations.  Their 2-point field goal average is 26.8% (15 for 56) and they are shooting 35% (14 for 40) from beyond the arc.  If one was to point out a bright spot in all of these numbers it would be their performance at the free throw line.  Drexel players are shooting 84.6% (33 for 39) from the charity stripe.  Tavon Allen is 10 for 11, and the team’s two main big players Rodney Williams and Kaz Abif are a combined 9 for 11.
Taking a look at shooting by players tells us a lot about the team.  Here is the breakdown from highest effective field goal percentage to lowest after the under four mark, statistics included:

1. Rashann London – 53.8%.  The sophomore combo guard tossed up the second most three pointers on the team at a 44.4% clip (4 for 9) and was just 1 for 4 from inside the arc.  His numbers are impressive considering that he took just 1.7 three pointers per game last season making just 27% of those.  This year he's only shot 28% from three but has come up big at crunch time.
   
2. Terrell Allen – 50%.  Terrell shot just 27.3% from two (3 for 11) but had his average brought up with his 3 point shooting totaling 75% (3 for 4).  It is also worth mentioning that he had no turnovers and 5 steals.  That is pretty impressive for a freshman.
   
3. Kazembe Abif – 40%.   Kaz’s contributions go far beyond his shooting.  He hustles and is the heart and soul of this team.  While his average was 40%, that includes two missed three pointers (0 for 2) leaving him to go 4 for 8 from inside the arc for a 50% clip.  He was also 7 for 9 from the free throw line, and committed 5 turnovers tying him for second on the team with Rodney Williams.
   
4. Tavon Allen – 31.9%.  Allen has taken 37.5% of the team’s shots in the under four time frame.  Overall, he is 9 for 36.  From inside the arc he is 4 for 16, and outside he is 5 for 20.  It should also be noted that he is 10 for 11 from the free throw line.  He has committed a team high 8 turnovers, which accounted for a third of the team total.  In the two “close and late” games that Drexel won, Tavon Allen did not take a field goal.
   
5. Sammy Mojica – 30.7%.  This one was surprising.  One would think that Sammy’s percentages would be a little better but he is just 1 for 8 (12.5%) from two and shot 40% (2 for 5) from three.  He was, however, a perfect 5 for 5 from the free throw line.  Sammy is just a sophomore and his court time last year was spotty.  With time these numbers should increase.
   
6. Rodney Williams – 22.2%.  Maybe it is the foul trouble or this team seeming to slip back into their “guards first” scheme late in games, but Rodney Williams attempted the least number of field goals in this bunch with just 9.  Kaz had the second lowest with 10.  Unfortunately, Rodney made just 2 of his nine attempts.  In total, out of the thirteen games, Rodney fouled out of 4 of them, and missed a fifth (Penn State) with his ankle injury which also resulted in him being largely a non-factor in their next contest against Penn. 

Ultimately what does all of this information tell us?  First, it shows us that the Dragons do not have that clutch shooter to turn to that they have had in years past with players like Chris Fouch, Frantz Massenat, and Damion Lee.  Combine these numbers with the dreaded “eyeball test” and this team needs to change things in the huddle.  They need to stop abandoning what is working in these games in the other 36 minutes of the contest, and stick to the initial game plan or draw up a play that creates the right open looks for the right players.  Rushed, off balanced shots just are not cutting it, especially in late game situations.

The Dragons also need to do a better job of maintaining possession.  In the 788 non close and late minutes that the team has played they have had 224 turnovers.  They have 24 turnovers in 57 minutes of close and late play, which is a 74% increase.  And since the Dragons have been trailing for the vast majority of that time, they weren't even facing a press!

From looking over these numbers one can realize just how close this team has come to a much better season.  One can call it a failure to execute, but I still have to ask, what exactly are they trying to execute?  What plan has been laid out for them?  What goes on in the huddle?  In tomorrow's post we'll look back at a larger sample size to try and see what trends exist that may be holding our Dragons back.

Hofstra Home - Postgame

Final Score:  Hofstra 70 Drexel 64
Drexel Player of the Game: Tavon Allen
Key to the Game: Offensive Execution
Next Game:  Thursday Feb 4 v JMU

It's easy to say that Saturday's game against Hofstra exemplified the entirety of the Drexel men's basketball season.  It's easy to say it was more of the same, close, but simply not good enough to win.  This game was different though, it wasn't about coaches having guys out of position, or the players "desire to win" whatever that means.  The team played hard, the fundamentals, for a change, were there, but once again the win column stayed unchanged for the Dragons, holding at 3 for the 2015-16 season.

While Tavon Allen was putting on a show (12-24 fg, 33 points) from deep, it was easy to not notice what else was going on in the Drexel offense.  Time and again, throughout the game, the Dragons got the ball down low feeding the forwards who have spent the better part of the season begging for the ball.  The sixteenth game of the year for DU was the first time this season that both starting forwards had double digit shot attempts.  Kazembe Abif and Rodney Williams combined for 25 of the teams season high 74 shots.  That's a great sign for this offense and a signal that it should be abusing the opposing teams defense.

Along with feeding the forwards unsurprisingly came one of the teams best rebounding efforts of the season.  On the offensive glass, Sammy Mojica led the team with 6 offensive boards.  The team limited themselves to just 5 turnovers, the lowest number this season and the first time all year that they turned over the ball on less than 10% of possessions.  The Dragons showed the discipline they had been missing, they got the ball inside, they slammed the boards.  This was the Drexel team that we had been waiting to see all year, and that excitement was felt among one of the larger DAC crowds the season, announced at 1,510 fans.  There was electricity in the building both from the Drexel fans excited to see their team gunning for an upset and a significant Hofstra fanbase looking on in horror for most of the contest.  Yet when the dust had settled. that excitement on both sides was for naught, as Hofstra retained their share of first place, walking away with a 70-64 win that left Drexel fans once again looking for answers.

The good news is, as problems get fixed, the answers are getting simpler.  Saturday's game can be baked down to three things:

--Fouls continue to be a problem for a team that still hasn't adjusted to the new rules.  Credit Joe Mihalich for working to get some calls from a very inept officiating crew (Dennis Alloco, Matt Potter and Matt Oblas) but this wasn't just his or the crews doing.  In 5 of the last 6 games Drexel's opponents have gotten to the line significantly more often than the Dragons, and part of that is due to the love for the pullup jumpshot, and part of that is still due to a defensive gameplan that still hasn't yielded to this years rule changes.

--They got the ball to the forwards, and by the numbers Rodney Williams (1st) and Kaz Abif (4th) are some of the leaders in offensive efficiency on this squad.  But on Saturday, neither came through.  Rodney's highlight reel dunk aside, they both settled for what their coaches have taught them, hook shots and jumpers, while the Hofstra players were going hard to the rim and getting fouled.  Obviously, one of those techniques will score more consistently than the other, and the inconsistency of the Drexel forwards shooting may well have cost them the game.

Rodney Williams started off today's game with another huge dunk that sent the @DacPack into a frenzy!https://t.co/RYP2P9zvH7

— Drexel Dragons MBB (@Drexel_MBB) January 30, 2016

--Given the lack of turnovers Hofstra's fast break was neutralized, another key win for the Dragons.  but despite the lack of fastbreak, Hofstra still went 16/26 from inside the arc and took 31 free throw attempts.  Tanksley and Green did what they do, and every Hofstra player who saw at least 10 inutes on the floor finished with over a point per possession to their name.  By comparison, Drexel only has one player who has averaged over a point per possession this season, Rodney Williams, who fouled out of this game right before Hofstra broke it open down the stretch.  Even without their usual easy fastbreak buckets, Hofstra scored like there wasn't an opposing defense on the floor.  Had the Dutchmen not gone a stunning 0-11 from behind the arc in the first half, this game would have been a blowout in their favor.

And that's a hell of a thing.  Because on a day when Drexel did everything right on offense besides putting the ball in the bucket, they should have been blown out.  The Dragons are ranked eighth in a ten team conference in defensive efficiency, and right now that's looking generous.  With the offense seemingly running decently, it's time for Bruiser to return to his roots and get the effort turned up on the defensive end.