Seawolves Fans

Good to see the continuation of strong perseverance in the 2nd half from these guys. It’s a few games in a row now they got hit in the face early in the 2nd half and right the ship afterwards.

Also Valentiny > Gorman. I think that needs to be settled as we move forward.

On to Campbell.

Northeastern — 6-12 (2-5 in CAA play)

Notable Non Conference wins — Colgate, Duquesne, Central Connecticut

CAA wins — @ NC A&T, vs Elon
CAA losses — @ Elon, @ Campbell, vs UNCW, vs Towson

Stony Brook heads north to face a Northeastern team that has suffered numerous injuries to members of their starting lineup this season. Their best guard LA Pratt and prized transfer portal big man out of Miami, Xander Alarie, have already been lost to season ending injuries. They took another blow recently when younger brother of former Hofstra big man Yacco Fritz, Youri, left the January 10th game vs Towson with an injury and has missed the last two games as a result. Fritz was averaging 11 pts and 4 rb before going down. It’s not certain he will remain out for Thursday’s contest vs Stony Brook— but it is something to monitor as it could make the team quite vulnerable at the rim if they are to be without both of their starting bigs.

Despite the injuries, HC Bill Coen still has these guards moving the ball well— as they rank 3rd in the CAA in assists. So they are not anemic in their scoring as a team with this many injuries might be.

William Kermoury out of Sweden, a member of the team’s bench the past two season, was elevated to the starting lineup this year and stepped up on the wing as the team’s leading scorer in Pratt’s absence and stands as the biggest threat to Stony Brook getting this win. He is a the most dangerous shooter from outside in the CAA thus far this season, shooting a conference best 47% from deep and is tied with Hofstra’s Cruz Davis for the 2nd most 3PT FGM. Kermoury has notably put up 20+ points in 4 of Northeastern’s last 7 games— and has knocked down 5 or more threes with frequency in that span. He had a season high 31-point performance in Saturday’s win over Elon and had 28 points vs Towson in the game before that.

Freshman guard Xavier Abreu has also broken out onto the scene this year as a high scoring 6th Man for Northeastern and can really attack the rim well. He most notably scored a season high 32 points vs Duquesne earlier this year and had 22 points in the team’s recent win over Elon.

They added one of Davidson’s starting guards from last year, Michael Loughnane, to the fold in this year’s transfer portal. He only averages 8 pts, 3 rb and 4 ast on a mere 30% from deep. But Loughnane took over as the team’s starting PG and has seen his usage rate increase since LA Pratt was injured. He is coming off a 15 pt, 7 rb and 2 ast performance vs Monmouth on Monday and also scored a season high 23 pts vs Campbell on January 3rd. Loughnane has also been relied upon to guard the opposing team’s best guards after spending two years in the Atlantic 10, so I suspect he will be the one guarding Erik Pratt the most.

Their front court is in a state of “break glass in case of emergency” right now without Alarie or Fritz. If Fritz is indeed unable to suit up for this game— they will be forced to once again rely on freshman Petar Pinter from Montenegro and freshman Luke Koelsch. Both of whom have very little experience getting big minutes at this level. Pinter didn’t play at all in some contests when their bigs were healthier— and he notably didn’t have more than one rebound in a single game through his first 10 games despite being 6’11”. His first game topping 12 minutes was a 26 minute performance vs Towson earlier this month in which he finished with just 6 points, 1 assist and a notable zero rebounds. He did however step up vs Elon when he had 8 pts and 9 rb. Koelsch put together a respectable 8 pts and 6 rb vs Monmouth on Monday and should see some time at the 5 as well after not getting much playing time for most of the season thus far. Fritz returning to action Thursday hasn’t been ruled out, so his availability will be something to monitor. Either way— this team doesn’t have the rim protection to hinder Erik Pratt and the rest of Stony Brook from attacking the paint.

Even with Fritz playing most games this season until recently— Northeastern currently ranks last in the CAA in opponents PPG at 80 and also last in opponents Team FG% at a whopping 49%.

One last thing to note with them. As vulnerable as they are— they do force a good amount of Turnovers (4th in the CAA) and are 2nd and steals. So it’s important for Stony Brook to take care of the ball here and not give them an opening.


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Stony Brook — 11-9 (3-4 in CAA Play)

The Seawolves have completely flipped the script with two gritty wins over top CAA teams in Hofstra and Charleston this week after very embarrassing losses to Drexel and UNCW the previous week. Having gone to the game, as I do most home games, I truly do not think that building has been that loud since April 2016– and this was when students were on winter break. The community is seriously getting behind this team as they get hot and should continue to climb up the CAA attendance ladder.

As hard as the UNCW loss was— this team nearly escaped with a win there. So Geno needs to have these guys walking into this road trip with the belief that they can defeat anyone in this conference on any given night. Going up against a poor defense and rebounding team like Northeastern should allow Stony Brook to get off on the right foot to begin this road trip.

Pratt is really inserted himself into the CAA Player of the Year and 1st Team conversation after a huge week— particularly his unbelievable 39 pt, 7 rb and 13 ast performance in the double overtime thriller vs Charleston on Saturday. It was the 2nd highest scoring game for a CAA player this season besides Michael Eley’s 43 pt performance for Hampton — and the third highest scoring game by a Stony Brook player after Jameel Warney (43 in 2016) and Anthony Roberts (40 in 2022). As Accelerator mentioned— the last D1 players to have 39 pt, 13 ast performances were Jalen Pickett and Trae Young — both of whom are of course in the NBA right now. I expect he’ll see a lot of Kermoury in this game.

Andrej Shoshkikj continues to put in more strong performances than bad performances of late after a slow December. He has shot above 40% in four of the five games thus far in January and is doing a good job of mixing up his outside looks with layups that is making him harder to guard. His consistency has been on the rise as he gets more comfortable and we may just be scratching the surface with him. Another fun statistic with Andrej right now: he has connected on all 24 of his free throws this season.

Richard Goods is certainly playing with serious confidence these days, isn’t he? 20 points vs Hofstra and then 18 pts vs Charleston (including his clutch game tying three in OT that kept the team alive ). Sure he struggled to contain Charleston’s bigs at times, but his hands have been seriously active lately in protecting the rim. For a guy that many, including myself, were calling a PF— having 2 or more blocks in each of the last three games vs what are likely the top three CAA teams is quite impressive. Goods averaged 3 pts on Hampton’s bench last year and we are watching him develop into a real stud here at Stony Brook. Goods will have his off nights scoring— but hopefully he follows Andrej in stringing together more positive games with consistency. If he and Pratt can each go for close to 20 pts in a game— this will be a tough team to compete with in this conference. Goods should assert his size vs these brittle Northeastern bigs on Thursday as he looks to keep it rolling.

Rob Brown continues to stay hot from three and has been a bit more selective in his looks than we saw earlier this season. He has connected on 11 of his last 19 threes (58%) over the last three games. The hotter Goods and Andrej get next to Pratt— the more open Brown will be on the wing and he has been playing that role well.

This bench gave Stony Brook such a boost vs Charleston and I’m beyond excited to see how they’ll look the rest of the season. Ethan Simmon and Jonah Butler are a big part of the future of this team and could very well find themselves in the starting lineup next year — but they are also very much here and ready to contribute in big moments now. I really can’t remember a time when Stony Brook was this deep on the wing.

I’m particularly amped to see how Butler performs against Northeastern after capturing the hearts of fans with his tough nosed play vs Charleston. Depending on the flow of the game— he has to be a serious option for Geno down the stretch at the end of games. I think it’s only a matter of time before he catches fire from deep as his reps increase. His defense is also something that is really growing on me. Geno deserves all the credit for recruiting him out of Kentucky. This is one tough freshman.

Conclusion

While Kermoury is going to be a tough player to contain— he is one man and this is a severely wounded roster. Pratt and him should be close to canceling each other out (and I think that might be a best case scenario for Northeastern). But they will need more than just he and Abreu to score to beat this red hot Seawolves offense that seems to be swimming in lava of late.

Let’s hope this strong ball movement continues. Northeastern’s lack of defense and rebounding is something that can be exploited by Geno Ford and his blossoming cast of offensive threats.

Playing at home or not— this is Stony Brook’s game to lose. The Seawolves are now 9-2 at home. A strong win over Northeastern to start this roadtrip will go a long way for a team that’s looking to prove their recent strong play will translate outside of Island Federal Credit Union Arena.

Go Seawolves.

What an instant classic gentlemen! Geno haters are real quiet right now.

Pratt with an all time performance — 3rd highest single game points in SBU D-I history behind only Warney and Roberts!

But guys. — JONAH. BUTLER……
Tough defense down the stretch. That incredible steal at the end of the 2nd half. Then of course some big shots/layups. He is the future. But he’s also here now.

Goods was hesitant to shoot threes most of the game with the bigs on him. But what a shot at there towards the end to keep us alive!

No one in the CAA is safe when they walk into IFCU. The arena was bumping!

It’s games like this that we show up for bad seasons for, for historic losses to Drexel, and low attendance at times. — to get a taste of greatness! Last time I felt that energy in IFCU was April 2016.

do you all remember when we put maidoh/fitz out there against bigger teams?

and earlier, gueye and otch.  i think it worked.

we should do that more with goods and koj.  if the situation calls for it of course.

Id love to see more of that in a game like this or against bigger teams.

Man, I loved watching Fitz and Maidoh out there during the CAA run in 24...

I didn’t have 0 points and 0-4 from the field for Cruz Davis in the 1st half. Great job from Pratt on defense tonight!

What a rollercoaster of emotions out there last night. Unbelievable 1st half. Oleg and Goods came out with their heads on fire on defense. — 2nd half that defense completely collapsed while Pratt and Brown had little help in the final 10 minutes.

Another soul crushing defeat. — but in this game we had a 23 point lead…

I am not aiming to do post game discussion for every game in these pre game write ups— but the loss on Thursday simply can’t be ignored. The Seawolves scored 37 points. 37. 20% from the floor and 19% from three.

It was the worst loss I’ve personally ever seen from this program. The worst. I’ve only been following the team since 2014– so I was not here for what happened before then. But I had to go back into the past to see the last time Stony Brook scored 37 or less points.

It was against Jay Wright’s Villanova team back in 2005 when then they still had Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye and Dante Cunningham — who held us to 35 points.

Albany and Vermont used to hold us in the low 40s at times. But at least they were studs back then. But this was Drexel, and a much worse Drexel roster than we had been accustomed to seeing.

Drexel’s starting lineup had one returning player — with the rest being players on last year bench. No portal additions. They were 0-3 in conference play too.

To put it into perspective how bad Drexel is — Stony Brook cut the deficit to within 7 points with under 9:00 to play in the 2nd half. As horrible as the Seawolves played, there was a chance at an extended run to potentially win the game before they let Drexel run away with it.

This loss and the Wagner loss in 2021 had to have been the worst I have witnessed— but I think this was worse.

To our friendly neighborhood Old Heads on the forum— has there been a more embarrassing loss since we joined D-I or was this the big kahuna?

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How I see Saturday’s Game vs UNCW (15-2, 4-0 in CAA) — 6:00 PM on FloHoops:

Stony Brook now enters this weekend’s match up vs the reigning CAA Conference Champion and current top-seeded UNCW with a 1-3 conference record and their tails down following the historically embarrassing loss to what appeared to be a bottom feeding Drexel team.

UNCW enters the game with only two losses in non conference play: to Kent State and Howard. But they have shown early on that they are still the top dog with strong wins over teams like Marshall and Valparaiso. Their 4 CAA wins have come over NC A&T, Drexel, Hampton and Northeastern.

UNCW notably sports the CAA’s top defense thus far this year — holding opponents to just 65 PPG and 39% FG shooting. They are also 2nd in the CAA (behind only W&M) in OPP 3PT % — at 29%.

They have returned three seniors: SG Nolan Hodge, F Noah Ross and PG Joshua Williams. Hodge has ascended to become the team’s leading scorer this year — averaging 16 pts, 4 rb and 1 ast on 42/101 (42%) from three.

UNCW has also had the most notable portal acquisitions of any team in the CAA. They added a new starting center in 7-footer Patrick Wessler, who was on Virginia Tech’s bench the past two years and is averaging 12 pts, 9 rb and 1 blk. Former Towson standout wing Christian May is averaging 10 pts and 6 rb on 35% from deep. Former Monmouth guard Madison Durr is averaging 11 pts, 3 rb and 3 ast on 29% from deep has slotted in as the team’s 6th Man.

They also notably added the best Binghamton big in recent memory, Gavin Walsh, as their backup big. I watched a ton of him last year as Binghamton has become my “America East team” to root for after we left since my brother went there. Walsh averaged 11 pts and a AE best 11 rb as their 5 last season. He currently averages 9 pts and 6 rb on 33% from deep for UNCW.

Our SG from last season, CJ Luster, was also supposed to be on this roster this year (imagine?), but the team has recently announced he is redshirting due to an injury he’s been nursing all year. I also heard he has the flu and won’t be coming to IFCU for the game.

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As for Stony Brook:


This has to be rock bottom for the season, right? Yes— UNCW is the best team in the CAA right now. But there is no way Stony Brook can perform worse than they did on Thursday vs Drexel.

It’s the same story as usual no matter the opponent: who will step up to help Pratt out offensively? Sometimes it’s Goods, sometimes it’s Brown, sometimes it’s Andrej— but it would be nice to see 3-4 guys in double figures one of these games. But that might be asking for too much.

Pratt has to be frustrated with the lack of consistent help around him this year. But he has stayed poised in his body language— and he remains our guy. Our knight in shining armor. But he is shooting just 23% from deep in the last three games on 22 attempts which could be a sign of frustration with the lack of help he’s getting from teammates. Here is to hoping he has a huge game soon to help bring some life back into this team’s spirit.

Andrej Shoshkikj’s inconsistency has been a thorn in the teams side all season long. We had hope his amazing 27 pt, 6 ast on 5/5 from three performance vs NC A&T may have been a sign of better things to come— but that was obviously premature after his 4 pt 1/7 from the field dud vs Drexel. There seems to be far more bad games than good with him. But until/if O’Connor returns, he is this team’s only hope at the 1. But his lack of an ability to attack the basket has led teams to play him tight and frustrate him. It would be nice to see Andrej drive anyway and look for outlet passes more while mixing in his 3PT attempts.

Brown can surely take some bad shots with defenders in his face. But while he didn’t play well vs Drexel— he was hot before that game. I say keep firing away, just hopefully less so if there’s a defender in his grill. But seeing he’s only hit one FG inside the arc in the last four games is a troublesome reality. But this is our roster— we live and die by his looks unfortunately.

Goods opened the Drexel game in promising fashion with a post move followed by an immediate block on the other end — but disappeared for most of the rest of the game. Let’s hope we see more assertion on both ends from him going forward. As much as he struggles to defend the rim, he’s still a far better rebounder than Oleg.

Quinn Gorman is inconsistent as most of the rest of the team besides Pratt, yes. But he has heart and has put his body on the line lately. Plus— he is 4/7 from deep in his last three games so let’s see if he gets more open looks.

I’ve been a big advocate of Tomas Valentiny’s hustle on the boards this season.  But he’s gotta start mixing in some offense again. Outside of the NC A&T game. He had 1 or less FGs in each of the other four games since having 10 pts vs Albany on December 17.

Wessler and Walsh (if he plays— he has missed the last two games nursing a banged up knee) are likely to really dominate the glass vs Stony Brook with the help of strong rebounding wings in May and Ross. It’s games like this vs a team with this much size that makes you wonder if using our bigger NIL money to double down on guards instead of balancing it out with a true big was the right move.

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Conclusion:

This is an obvious David vs Goliath moment vs the reigning champs here. But I have a hunch Stony Brook will play at least one of UNCW, Hofstra or Charleston tighter than we think since we will be at home. A nice upset in one of these games could do wonders for all of our sanities. Let’s see who steps up to give Pratt some help.

It would be a delight to see Ethan Simmons or Jonah Butler show themselves again amid this spiraling the team has been doing.

Time to show some fight with our backs much closer to the wall than we had thought it would be here in early January.

Go Seawolves.

Drexel (6-10, 0-3 in CAA)

Long gone are the days of Amari Williams haunting the paint for Drexel, and with that— they haven’t been a formidable CAA opponent since. They were only 18-15 (9-9 in CAA) last season and this year they only return one player from their starting lineup. That player is SG Shane Blakeney— the lowest scoring starter from last year who is now the team’s leading scorer. He is also shooting just 37% from the floor as the centerpiece of the offense.

They don’t have great rim protection. But I do think Blakeney is a big part of their respectable perimeter defense.

Most of the rest of their starting lineup is comprised of last year’s bench, including: PG Kevon Vanderhorst (only 25% from three), wing Josh Reed and PF Victor Panov who can be a threat from deep (39%). While each of their minutes have expanded greatly this season, none of them have really broken out and spread their wings in their respective roles.

Their transfer portal additions this off season appear to be quite limited and not noteworthy. Starting PG and 5’11” Eli Beard comes from JUCO and has some range— but isn’t a great distributor. They also brought in a 7’1” big from France named Martin De LaPorterie who hasn’t made much strides and is averaging only 4 PPG thus far.

These Dragon’s, by my estimation, might be one of the worst— if not the worst— teams in the CAA this season. They currently stack up as the 2nd lowest scoring offense in the conference— but notably remain middle of the pack in defense in regard to opponents points per game. They also are last in the CAA in Team FT% at 64%

Despite all of there struggles this season, they still have home court advantage vs Stony Brook tomorrow where they hold a 5-3 record. Struggling teams have a knack for playing above their weight in times of desperation. They only lost to Hofstra by three earlier this month. But it seems as though Blakeney, Beard and maybe Panov are the only true threats to score.

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Stony Brook offense looked very strong in this past weekend’s win over NC A&T, but it was still overshadowed by a weak defensive and rebounding effort which lead to only a 1-point win. SBU was out-rebounded 48-25 and were only saved by Andrej Shoshkikj’s season high 27 pts (5/5 from three) and his big block at the end.

His effort should be celebrated to the high heavens of all Stony Brook circles, forums and group chats. Shosh has been inconsistent, sure. But a game like that is a huge confidence booster for a team that has been effectively PG-less for the past few games. Erik Pratt needs a wingman out there to offset the team’s severe lack of rebounding— and I think it needs to be him. Hopefully performances like this, or even 10-15 pt/ 5 or so ast games, from him start to happen more regularly. Time will tell.

Stony Brook also tallied a season high 20 assists! Geno and this team should be commended for the impressive ball movement vs NC A&T, particularly their passes along the perimeter to get the best looks from three. That’s something we haven’t seen a lot of this year and the team really thrived offensively as a result.

Another bright spot has been a very confident shooting Rob Brown of late— who has knocked down 8/16 from deep in the past two contests as he trends toward being more consistent.

I am a big believer that Valentiny needs more minutes at the 4. His 9 rebounds (4 offensive) were just as valuable to the team’s win the other day as Andrej’s scoring. Valentiny is playing above his size on the glass and Stony Brook needs his heart. Plus he mixes in the occasional three.

Richard Goods, like Shoshkikj, has struggled with consistency. Stony Brook has won 3 of the 4 games he has scored in double digits. Fingers crossed this new ball movement will result in him getting more open looks. But I want to see him play with more assertiveness on offense — and even more so on the glass. This team needs his rebounding badly.

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Conclusion —

Let’s hope this newfound ball movement continues, Andrej and Brown stays hot, Goods plays with confidence and Valentiny continues to get minutes in crunch time. It’s critical this team enters their next game 2-2 rather than 1-3.

Home or not, this should be a pretty easy game to win— and one that Stony Brook needs to take advantage of before they enter the CAA gauntlet with looming matchups against the the conference’s top teams:  UNCW, Hofstra and Charleston.

Go Seawolves.