Game 2, 2023-24: Quinnipiac (11/13)

[MikeUMA]

We're off for a few days. QU on Monday at Mullins. 7 PM on NESN and ESPN+

QU started their season on Monday, beating up on Coast Guard (D3), 116-48.
https://gobobcats.com/news/2023/11/6/me ... coach.aspx
CG's schedule calls it an exhibition, but QU is counting it as a 1-0 season start.

We played a D3 exhibition as well, winning by 44, but we played a West Conn team that was very good among their peers last year. Coast Guard, by contrast, was 4-21 last season. Not much QU is going to learn from that one.

Something to take more seriously will be QU's game on Friday, at home versus Central CT. 4 PM start. I think ESPN+ has it. CCSU opened their season at Rhody on Monday, CCSU falling 81-70. Will be good scouting for us, as we'll play CCSU on 11/22.

QU went thru a coaching change this past offseason. Baker Dunleavy went 86-93 (.480) there over 6 seasons, but got his personal best mark of 20-12 this past season. Looks like he left voluntarily, and went to a new GM role with Villanova MBB, his alma mater.
https://www.coachesdatabase.com/baker-d ... uinnipiac/

Tom Pecora takes over at QU, where he had been on Dunleavy's staff the whole time. This past season, he was the top assistant, and got the big job after Dunleavy left.

Pecora was Chaz Williams' coach at Hofstra. At Hofstra, Pecora was decent over 9 seasons, then he got the Fordham job where they were abysmal for 5 seasons. Fordham didn't even qualify for the A10 Tournament in his first three. They only made it when the league changed the format and added the opening round pillow fight day. Pecora got canned in 2015, was out of the game for two, then joined QU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pecora

UM vs Pecora as HC
1-0 at Hofstra
5-1 at Fordham

The Bobcats were picked 5th out of the 11 in the MAAC in their pre-season poll. Grad student Matt Balanc was named First Team, senior Paul Otieno to the Second Team.
https://gobobcats.com/news/2023/10/17/m ... onors.aspx

UM is 4-1 all time vs QU
https://umasshoops.com/wiki/doku.php?id ... quinnipiac

[m626t]

The Q has played us tough over the years

[69MG]

^ Good info, Mike. As Mike said, we can pretty much ignore the box score from the CG game. CG is awful. Other than Balanc and Otieno, QPac doesn't have much coming back. Similar to Albany, they are a relatively small team.

Otieno, at 6'8, is their best big. Last year he averaged around 7/7. Balanc is a 6'4 guard who can shoot pretty well. He averaged around 12/5 and 37% from 3.

Springs (6'9, 235) is their tallest player. He played at UConn for 3 years but barely got off the bench. 32 games in 3 years at under 3 minutes a game. After that it's a bunch of 6'7 guys.

We'll know more after Friday.

[natwam2547]

This GM of basketball thing is an eye roll for me. What exactly does this job entail?

[Upstate10]

This GM of basketball thing is an eye roll for me. What exactly does this job entail?

Managing NIL with the third parties who do it

[MikeUMA]

This GM of basketball thing is an eye roll for me. What exactly does this job entail?

Something of his job description in his Nova bio:
https://villanova.com/staff-directory/b ... leavy/1694

[stevemaz]

I am in a pool with 16 other college hoop guys where we each draft 10 teams so i did a lot of research on middle of the road teams. Quinipiac, whom went undrafted in the pool, stuck out to me as a possible team to add to my roster (we get 4 add/drops). They perhaps play the easiest schedule in America with 12-13 games vs the bottom 50. I think they give Rider a run for their money to win the Metro Athletic. Tom Pecora is their coach (he of seeing the greatness in Chaz Williams fame). I think this is going to be close game at half and we pull away, but they wont be a pushover.

[Quann]

Seems like the Q always plays us tough no matter the records.

[69MG]

We haven't played them in 5 years so I don't pay much attention to past history. If we play well we should beat them. I expect more than 11 points between Matt and Robert. Of course, can we expect 27 again from Keon and Rahsool? They averaged 10.5 combined last year.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this but I was encouraged by a lot of what I saw in the Albany game. We have enough guys who can score; just play hard, play defense and rebound. I think Frank starts Jayden again and puts him on Balanc. He's the guy I'm most afraid of.

[MikeUMA]

I think Frank starts Jayden again and puts him on Balanc. He's the guy I'm most afraid of.

I'd be concerned about the experience imbalance there. Balanc is a grad and Jayden will be playing game #2. Balanc might be able to take advantage of that.

On another note, today's QU/CCSU game is on ESPN+. 4 PM start.
https://www.espn.com/espnplus/player/_/ ... bf71dd68a3

[eldonabe]

Again - do not overanalyze - just go win this game and take care of business.

[69MG]

Again - do not overanalyze - just go win this game and take care of business.

It's what we do (or maybe I should say it's what I do).

[MikeUMA]

Final in Hamden
QU 74
CCSU 70
https://gobobcats.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

[DoctorJ]

Yeah, I watched a little. CCSU seems better than recent years.

Q has some familiar names and some guys with a little experience but nearly let this one slip.

[umassbaseball]

Draftkings has UMass as an 8 point favorite tomorrow. Total 154. Expecting some points