By Kyle Kandetzki – Assistant Sports Editor This is “The Scouting Report”, an online feature from The Hofstra Chronicle where we go in-depth on the Pride’s upcoming opponent. Stats and insight will be provided to help Hofstra fans know what to expect with each coming matchup.
The Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team kicked off their CAA schedule with a tough victory over UNC-W, in a game that saw Hofstra barely shoot over 30%, and take 43 free throws. The Pride will return to Hempstead for just their third home game since the beginning of December when they take on the University of Delaware Blue Hens. The story of Hofstra and Delaware is of two programs heading in two different directions.
THE BASIC INFORMATION: UDel was founded way back in 1743, and is located in Newark, Delaware. The 22,000 student school houses 20 sports teams, including a football team that won the DI-AA championship in 2003.
HISTORY: Delaware made four appearances in the NCAA Tournament in the 90s via America East Conference championships (’92, ’93, ’98, ’99), but wouldn’t leave the first round in any of their matchups. Delaware subsequently joined the CAA in 2001.
LAST YEAR: Delaware used an impressive run against CAA teams in 2013-14 to take their first ever Colonial title. The Blue Hens went 14-2 in conference, with their only losses coming to Towson and Drexel. Delaware then beat Hofstra, Northeastern, and William & Mary (75-74) in the CAA Tourney to gain their automatic bid. They would receive a 13 seed, and lose to the Michigan State Spartans 93-78 in the Big Dance’s first round.
THIS YEAR: This season is looking like anything but a CAA title season for the Blue Hens, who are 1-11 so far, and dropped their first conference game as well. Their only win was a bit of an upset; against 8-4 Atlantic-10 team St. Bonaventure. Their worst losses came against Liberty, Cal State Bakersfield, Delaware State, and Robert Morris, as none of these teams have more than five wins.
Why the rapid change? Basically every scorer from last year’s title team is gone. CAA Tournament MVP guard Jarvis Threatt (18 PPG, 5.4 APG, 2.5 SPG) was dismissed from the team for ‘violation of team rules’. Threatt, combined with three seniors that graduated, equaled losing all of their top four scorers from ’13-14. Top scoring guards, and first team-CAA members Devon Saddler and Davon Usher both averaged 19+ points, while combining for 10+ boards per game. 4th best scorer and 6’9” forward Carl Baptiste also graduated; he added 11.1 PPG and nearly 8 rebounds per game.
Do the math: These four equaled 68 points per game by themselves! This loss was ridiculous and something this team would obviously not be able to recover from.
THE COACH: Monté Ross is in year number nine with UDel. Prior to this role, Ross was an assistant with Lehigh, Drexel, and Saint Joseph’s.
CURRENT ROSTER: So who is left for this Delaware team? The remaining ten players on the roster only combined for 21.7 points last year. Half of those points belonged to one player: now senior guard Kyle Anderson. Anderson averaged 11 PPG in 2013-14, and has returned to lead the team in scoring with 14.8 PPG. Anderson has done this in just five appearances, as he missed several games due to a hamstring injury. But as will be seen later, (and with several other players), his efficiency isn’t the best.
Joining Anderson in the backcourt is sophomore Cazmon Hayes and freshman Kory Holden. Hayes adds 13 PPG, while Holden puts ups 11.4 PPG so far in his inaugural season, while being the only player with over 1.5 assists, with 3.9 per game.
At the forward position, 6’7” junior Marvin King-Davis leads the way, with 7.3 PPG, and has one of the team’s best shooting percentages, at 50%. King-Davis has also been limited to only six games so far due to injury. Maurice Jeffers adds the most height at 6’9, and leads the team in boards, but does that with just 4.8 per game (5.9 PPG, 1.1 BPG).
The team has a handful of reserves playing meaningful minutes, as Delaware clearly is scrambling to look for new options on a 1-11 squad. 6’6” guard Chivarsky Corbett is the sixth man, playing 26 minutes on average, and adds about 9.4 PPG, while using his height for 4 RPG, and leads the team in 3FG% (but this isn’t quite an impressive feat, as will be explained later). The second and final reserve playing 20+ minutes is 6’6” forward Devonne Pinkard, but he only adds 4.8 PPG, and does it on 23% shooting.
WEAKNESSES: Not to attack a team while it is down, but the weaknesses are everywhere for UDel. No matter how much recruiting you do, you cannot replace how much talent was on this team last season. Because of these changes, many players who barely made contributions last year have quickly had to step into vastly different roles, and clearly many aren’t flourishing.
The poor stats stack up: Delaware shoots 36% on average, which is among the bottom five teams in the nation, and with that means they score little (61.3 PPG – 308th in DI). Even leading scorer Anderson only puts up 39% on average. Three-point shooting is even worse: the top deep shooter is Corbett, and he does that at just 36%. Though they sit at 195th in team 3FG%, which isn’t bad, they have no consistent, go-to guy from behind the arc.
Delaware also doesn’t have terrible combined rebounding stats, but they have no one that can take over the game below the net – their top rebounder has just 4.8 on average.
Their defensive set is poor as well, as they sit in the bottom twenty in points allowed, with 75 going on their opponent’s side on average. Delaware has only kept opponents under 70 points twice.
THE MATCHUP: One doesn’t have to go into much detail to say that Hofstra should handle this one with ease. This game comes at a good time for Hofstra, who struggled to hit much of anything vs. UNC-W, and will have a poor defense to regain some confidence before heading back on the road. Ameen Tanksley and Juan’ya Green combining to shoot 5-for-25 was scary, but it hopefully isn’t indicative of a shift in play. I wouldn’t expect it, and even more positively, they still won that game.
The Pride have players in many different categories that perform their strengths exceedingly well – Green in assists (among other things), Tanksley in mid-range shooting, Brian Bernardi from outside, Rokas Gustys on the boards, etc. Delaware lacks stand out players in most areas. The excellence these Pride players have should make this game a breeze for Hofstra.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The rust should be shaken off, and the frontcourt combo of Moussa Kone and Rokas Gustys could be in full swing. Over this upcoming run of games, it will be exciting to see exactly how high the ceiling of these guys can be.
Hofstra is starting to make a name for themselves – they have made their way up RPI rankings, put themselves on Joe Lunardi’s projected bracket, and even (somehow) received one vote in this weeks top 25 poll. Taking care of bottom dwelling teams by large margins will be key for continuing to gain respect.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS Pride Green (17.5 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 6.4 APG, 2-for-10 v. UNC-W) Bernardi (12.9 PPG, Last 2 games: 7-for-11 from three) Nichols (6.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG,) Tanksley (19.1 PPG, 6 RPG, 3-for-13 v. UNC-W) Kone (Last 4 games: 8.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG)
Blue Hens Anderson (14.8 PPG, 4-for-14 in last game) Holden (11.4 PPG, 32% FG, 0-for-7 in last game) Hayes (13 PPG, 33% FG) Jeffers (5.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG) King-Davis (7.3 PPG, 50% FG)
NEXT UP: 1/8 @ College of Charleston