Gonna Be Tight On Thursday

[World B. Free]

Very nervous about Thursday night. This game is gonna be another battle and the boys had better bring it for 40 if they are gonna pull out the win. I've been watching quite a bit of Hofstra this season, coach Cassara is a family friend, and these guys play really hard. You can tell the kids are a close bunch and like playing for their coach. These are just a couple of the little things that can make the difference in close games and are big reasons why the preseason #5/6, not sure, team is tied for 1st place right now. Of course having Charles Jenkins doesn't hurt either! He is a freaking BEAST!!!!! Just a couple of things:

Jenkins is a really great player. He is an NBA player next year. When you have the best player in the league and he is a pg who can get his shot at anytime; the pressure that is put on your opponent is incredible. See Eric Maynor. Jenkins is really great at attacking the rim as well. See Eric Maynor again.

Mike Moore is legit and really plays well off of Jenkins. He can play D, rebound, and shoots the ball with confidence but is streaky.

Washington and Imes are big, athletic, defensive minded kids but they can both finish around the hoop. Washington has to be in the top 5 in shot blocking in the CAA this season.

These guys are a great road team.

All that being said, they have lost 6 games this year. They are capable of disappearing on offense for stretches of time even with Jenkins. Much like Eric did for us, Jenkins will defer early to get teammates involved. Have to use that to our advantage and make the other 4 guys on the court take difficult shots.

Need for the crowd to get there early, be HYYYPED UP, and help our guys take over sole posseion of 1st place in the conference!!!! Gonna be a heck of a game!

 

[row6ram]

All that said World, there is no way Hofstra wins in the Stu. Book it.

 

[DCDuck]

All that said World, there is no way Hofstra wins in the Stu. Book it.

Wasn't that what ODU fans were saying about us winning in the Ted?

 

[YouveBeenRammed]

All that said World, there is no way Hofstra wins in the Stu. Book it.

Wasn't that what ODU fans were saying about us winning in the Ted?

Duck, my sentiments exactly. Cautiously optimistic is a good way to play this. I like to think we're invincible at home, but we almost lost to Drexel and William and Mary there this year. Let's take care of business and hopefully everything will fall into place. Let's save the guarantees, b/c as we know (and ODU knows) in the CAA there are no guarantees.

 

[VCU4LIFE]

Wow, Wyne doesn't expect us to win by 70?!?

 

[YouveBeenRammed]

Wow, Wyne doesn't expect us to win by 70?!?

Would be nice... but I'm expecting a hard fought W. Let's say in the 5-9 point range. My expectations have been leveled and I've come to realize that we can be a good team and not destroy teams at home like we've done in the past. Hofstra is good. But I will surely take a blowout win too!

 

[World B. Free]

All that said World, there is no way Hofstra wins in the Stu. Book it.

Wasn't that what ODU fans were saying about us winning in the Ted?

Duck, my sentiments exactly. Cautiously optimistic is a good way to play this. I like to think we're invincible at home, but we almost lost to Drexel and William and Mary there this year. Let's take care of business and hopefully everything will fall into place. Let's save the guarantees, b/c as we know (and ODU knows) in the CAA there are no guarantees.

I'm going with cautiously optimistic as well. Don't get me wrong, I really like our chances in this game and in just about any game we play, but Hofstra is a darn good team.

 

[buckwheat]

so the question to those of you who have seen hofstra this year is, how does vcu attempt to limit jenkins and keep him from taking over the game?

man him up?
zone?

i know the guy is lightning quick and can shoot as well, so giving him constant one on one opportunities might be the kiss of death.

i seem to remember that northeastern gave us fits when maynor was here. they would immediately double team him across half court in an attempt to limit his touches in the half court set (sometimes successful, sometimes not). it threw eric off his game just enough to have to make in-game adjustments. is this what we do to jenkins?

 

[L72boy]

so the question to those of you who have seen hofstra this year is, how does vcu attempt to limit jenkins and keep him from taking over the game?

man him up?
zone?

i know the guy is lightning quick and can shoot as well, so giving him constant one on one opportunities might be the kiss of death.

i seem to remember that northeastern gave us fits when maynor was here. they would immediately double team him across half court in an attempt to limit his touches in the half court set (sometimes successful, sometimes not). it threw eric off his game just enough to have to make in-game adjustments. is this what we do to jenkins?

I like some of those ideas. Double with Theuss, Brandenberg, or Nixon. Force the TO. Bigs have to box out and play tough D.

 

[ViCtorioUs]

Ed is a good enough defender that he could make things difficult for Jenkins. We can't shut him down but we could make him work for everything and shut the rest of the team down. Imho a "junk" defense is not going to work on Hofstra.

 

[Pavarotti]

Slow him down the same way we've slowed down the other elite guards we've played. A steady rotation of Ed and Rob.

What we do on offense to help them out is important. Whoever ends up being guarded by Charles Jenkins down the floor, run a play that has them coming off multiple screens (moving if necessary).

 

[RamboRowdy]

Well we know Hofstra won't sweep the big VA teams(GMU,ODU,VCU) this year like NU did years back. Seeing as ODU already beat them. GMU did lose to Hofstra in the Pat Center so we know they can win in tough places. That said you can't compare playing in the Pat Center vs playing in the STU. Especially with 1st place on the line. Not to mention both teams being 8-1 and one team going in on a 7 game winning streak. To top it off its on ESPNU. Don't let HU be our NU from years back.

 

[YouveBeenRammed]

Well we know Hofstra won't sweep the big VA teams(GMU,ODU,VCU) this year like NU did years back. Seeing as ODU already beat them. GMU did lose to Hofstra in the Pat Center so we know they can win in tough places. That said you can't compare playing in the Pat Center vs playing in the STU. Especially with 1st place on the line. Not to mention both teams being 8-1 and one team going in on a 7 game winning streak. To top it off its on ESPNU. Don't let HU be our NU from years back.

Rambo, they beat Mason in Hempstead, not at the Pat Center.

 

[RamboRowdy]

Well we know Hofstra won't sweep the big VA teams(GMU,ODU,VCU) this year like NU did years back. Seeing as ODU already beat them. GMU did lose to Hofstra in the Pat Center so we know they can win in tough places. That said you can't compare playing in the Pat Center vs playing in the STU. Especially with 1st place on the line. Not to mention both teams being 8-1 and one team going in on a 7 game winning streak. To top it off its on ESPNU. Don't let HU be our NU from years back.

Rambo, they beat Mason in Hempstead, not at the Pat Center.

I stand corrected. In that case they don't know what their walking into.

(Hofstra is 0-7 at the STU. It is the only CAA arena HU as never won in. HU has only beaten VCU once in Richmond and that was in the 2006 CAA tourney quarterfinals.)

Ok maybe they do.

 

[Mistachill]

I say play man to man the whole game, throw Ed on Jenkins most of the night with Theus and Brandenberg filling in as necessary. May be even try Burgess if he's over powering Theus and Brandenberg. I don't care if he gets 30 points if he has to take a lot of shots to get there and if we can shut down the rest of the team.

Also remember when Antoine Agudio was one of the nation's leading scorers his senior season and Shuler pretty much shut him down in both games. Instead of playing zones or gimmick defenses we just need Nixon to give us a Shuler-like performance.