I'll Be Quirky: Rutgers

No pics of Quincy Douby because we're still mad at him.

Sooo…remember how much fun March 10 was? In case you forgot (and A LOT has gone on since), the Flying Dutchmen finally won the CAA championship and with it the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2001 by beating Northeastern, 70-61. Alas, many terrible things were already happening and began happening at a really rapid clip the next day, and by nightfall on March 12, the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic hasn’t been wished away, but college basketball is back and the Flying Dutchmen will (probably, possibly, maybe) take the court for the first time in 263 days this afternoon, when they visit no. 24 Rutgers, which was also readying for a long-awaited trip to the NCAA Tournament when the season got canceled.

And so, if the college basketball season is back, so is I’ll Be Quirky, your very favorite collection of fun and interesting stats, trends and historical analysis about the Flying Dutchmen. It may also be your only collection of fun and interesting stats, trends and historical analysis of the Flying Dutchmen, but it counts anyway as your favorite!

This is the fifth year of I’ll Be Quirky and I’ve actually been consistent about posting it before most games, though I’ve yet to do an end-of-season roundup because the first three seasons all ended in disappointing fashion and the fourth one…well, yeah. Let’s hope this is the year that ends with both a CAA title and one (or six) games in the NCAA Tournament.

As I’ve noted the previous four years, this feature as inspired by Islanders statistician Eric Hornick’s blog, “The Skinny.” Thanks to him for paving the path and to you for reading. And here’s hoping this post finds you safe and healthy and that you all remain so throughout whatever this season entails — and that we are all on to the other side of this disaster and gathering amongst friends and strangers at Hofstra and elsewhere sooner than later.

WE DON’T KNOW WHERE WE’RE GOING BUT WE SURE KNOW WHERE WE’VE BEEN

This season marks the 85th season in which the Flying Dutchmen have played basketball. The program is 1,281-965 all-time. No one has played in each of the previous 84 seasons, though each Hofstra team has faced Andrei Semenov.

The Flying Dutchmen went 26-8 last season and 14-4 in regular season CAA play to win the outright CAA regular season title before, of course, winning the CAA Tournament for the first time by beating Drexel (61-43), Delaware (75-61) and Northeastern. We call that knocking off the NAC (it’d look better if it was spelled out phonetically).

The 26 wins were one shy of the school record, set by the 2018-19 squad. The Dutchmen became the sixth program to win back-to-back outright CAA regular season crowns, joining a group that includes Navy (1985-86, 1986-87), Richmond (1987-88, 1988-89), James Madison (1989-90, 1990-91), UNC Wilmington (2001-02, 2002-03) and VCU, which is the only program to win three straight outright regular season titles (2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09). It was also the first time the Dutchmen have won back-to-back regular season crowns since winning the America East in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

Desure Buie capped one of the most remarkable careers in school history, as well as the longest, by earning all-CAA first team honors and leading the Dutchmen in scoring (18.2 ppg), assists (5.9 apg) and steals (2.02 spg). He was the first player to win the Triple Crown for the Dutchmen since Juan’ya Green did so in 2015-16. Buie was also named to the all-Defensive Team and won Most Outstanding Player honors in the CAA Tournament.

Eli Pemberton made the all-CAA second team for the second straight season and ranked second on the Dutchmen in scoring (17.6 ppg), rebounding (5.6 rpg), assists (1.9 apg) and steals (1.3 spg). Redshirt sophomore Isaac Kante was named to the all-CAA third team and averaged 11.4 ppg and 7.7 rpg. 

FINAL 3 STARS OF THE GAME STANDINGS

Desure Buie 63

Eli Pemberton 51

Isaac Kante 35

Tareq Coburn 31

Jalen Ray 19

Stafford Trueheart 3

Omar Silverio 2

A FOND FAREWELL

The Dutchmen bid goodbye to five members of last year’s team. Senior starters Buie and Pemberton graduated, as did popular reserve Connor Klementowicz, while Hal Hughes and Jermaine Miranda transferred.

Buie played in a program-record 141 games — 13 more than the previous record-holders, Charles Jenkins and Nathaniel Lester — and finished with 1,310 points, the 19th-most in school history. Pemberton played in 129 games the second-most in program history, and scored 1,982 points, the ninth-most in school history. He also drained 38 consecutive free throws from Feb. 2 through Feb. 27. The streak was the longest in the Joe Mihalich Era.

Klementowicz, who was a walk-on until the final semester of his senior year, played in 27 games over four seasons. Miranda scored 21 points in eight games while Hughes had four points and seven blocks in 11 games.

WELCOME BACK

The Flying Dutchmen return three starters in seniors Tareq Coburn and Jalen Ray and redshirt junior Isaac Kante. In addition, reserves Caleb Burgess, Carl Gibson Jr., Kevin Schutte, Omar Silverio and Stafford Trueheart are all back. The returnees combined to score 1,352 points, which represented 52.1 percent of the Dutchmen’s total last year, and played 4,168 minutes, which represented 61.3 percent of the Dutchmen’s total playing time.

LOOKING TO JOIN CLUB 1K

Jalen Ray and Tareq Coburn both enter their (possibly first) senior seasons with a good chance to join the Hofstra 1,000-point club. Ray needs just 111 points to reach the magic number while Coburn is 346 points shy. Coburn scored 361 points last season. Seven of the 38 players to score 1,000 points at Hofstra have done so under Mihalich, who arrived in 2013.

ISAAC KAN DO

Isaac Kante started quietly last year following a redshirt season in 2018-19 before surging during conference play. Kante averaged 11.4 points and 7.7 rebounds while playing 29.5 minutes per game, numbers which compared favorably to those produced by graduate senior Jacquil Taylor in 2018-19 (8.5 ppg, 8.8 rpg in 26.6 minutes per game). Kante also had eight double-doubles, two more than Taylor had in his lone season and the most by a Hofstra player since Rokas Gustys had 14 double-doubles as a senior in 2017-18.

MY NAME IS…

The Dutchmen welcome six new players: Graduate senior Cole Eiber, junior Shawndarius Cowart, redshirt freshman Kvonn Cramer and freshmen Zion Bethea, David Green and Vukasin Masic. Eiber played three seasons at Division III Western New England University while Cowart played two seasons at Pensacola State College.

CAN YOU DIVIDE A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP 12 WAYS?

The Flying Dutchmen were one of 12 teams to clinch an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament before the season ended on Mar. 12. Officially, they were the third-to-last team to clinch, doing so a couple hours before Gonzaga won the West Coast Conference tournament (that shouldn’t count, Gonzaga was going anyway) and a night before Boston University — coached by former Hofstra assistant Joe Jones — won the Patriot League title.

This marked the second time Hofstra has won a conference tournament and not played in the NCAA Tournament. The Flying Dutchmen, of course, won the final East Coast Conference tournament with a 9-20 record in 1994, when the ECC did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

A PRETTY GOOD TWO-YEAR RUN

The Dutchmen were one of just eight schools to win at least 26 games in each of the last two seasons. Some pretty impressive company in this group (2018-19 win total listed first):

Gonzaga 33-31

Liberty 29-30

Kansas 26-28

Florida State 29-26

Utah State 28-26

HOFSTRA 27-26

Vermont 27-26

Belmont 27-26

HOW MANY UNICORN SCORES WERE THERE LAST SEASON?

The Dutchmen recorded 13 unicorn score victories last season, three more than in 2018-19, which was when we first started tracking unicorn scores. The term unicorn score was coined by Mets superfan, historian and blogger Greg Prince to describe a score by which the Mets had never previously won. 

11/9/19: 94-74 over Monmouth

11/15/19: 111-69 over New York Tech

11/21/19: 88-78 over UCLA

12/1/19: 91-69 over Holy Cross

12/2/19: 64-57 over Canisius

12/10/19: 71-63 over SUNY-Stony Brook

1/4/20: 102-75 over Elon

1/30/20: 86-63 over Elon

2/1/20: 83-60 over William & Mary

2/15/20: 78-64 over UNC Wilmington

2/22/20: 78-62 over Delaware

2/29/20: 97-81 over James Madison

3/8/20: 61-43 over Drexel

LET’S DO IT AGAIN?

The Dutchmen were once again picked to finish first in the CAA’s preseason poll of league coaches, sports information directors and media members. Worked out pretty well last time!

1.) HOFSTRA (16 1sts)

2.) Delaware (11)

3.) Drexel (7)

4.) Towson (4)

5.) Elon

6.) Charleston

7.) Northeastern

8.) UNC Wilmington

9.) James Madison

10.) William & Mary

This is the fourth time the Dutchmen have been picked to finish first in the CAA. The 2006-07 team finished third and the 2015-16 team finished tied for first but earned the top seed over UNC Wilmington via tiebreakers.

Last season, the Dutchmen became the ninth team since 2001-01 to win the conference tournament after being picked first in the preseason poll and the first since Charleston in 2018.

IT’S BEEN SUCH A LONG TIME

If the Dutchmen take the court today, they will do so 263 days after the CAA title game over Northeastern. That’d be the longest off-season since following the 2001-02 season, when the Dutchmen also went 263 days between their semifinal loss to VCU in the CAA Tournament and the season opener against Gonzaga. The last time the Dutchmen had an off-season longer than 263 days was following the 1996-97 season, when they went 264 days between an America East quarterfinal loss to Delaware and the season opener against Bucknell.

In addition, if the Dutchmen play today, it will mark the latest they have begun play since the 1992-93 season, when the season opener against Manhattan was played on Dec. 1. 

FARRELLY FILLS IN FOR MIHALICH

With Joe Mihalich on a medical leave of absence since August, associate head coach Mike Farrelly will make his head coaching debut today. This marks the first time a Flying Dutchmen head coach has been sidelined since February 1994, when Butch van Breda Kolff was hospitalized and Joe Dunleavy went 1-3 in his place.

Mihalich is 141-92 in seven seasons at Hofstra and 406-295 overall in 22 seasons as a head coach. He is fifth on Hofstra’s all-time win list after vaulting past Jay Wright last season.

SEASON OPENERS

Hofstra had a five-game season opener winning streaks snapped last year, when the Flying Dutchmen fell to San Jose State, 79-71. This marks the first time the Flying Dutchmen are opening on the road since the 2012-13 season.

Joe Mihalich is 13-9 in season openers (5-2 Hofstra, 8-7 Niagara).

Most lopsided season-opening win: 95-53 over Puerto Rico, 1949-50

Most lopsided season-opening win over DI foe: 94-61 over Jacksonville, 2014-15

Most lopsided season-opening loss: 96-57 to St. Joseph’s 1965-66, 60-21 to NYU, 1936-37

HOFSTRA VS. TOP 25 TEAMS

This will be the 19th time Hofstra faces a top 25 team in the DD Era (1993-present). The Dutchmen are 1-17 in the previous 18 games, with a win over no. 25 George Mason on Feb. 23, 2006.

12/22/17: no. 1 Villanova 95-71 L

12/11/16: no. 6 Kentucky 96-73 L

11/12/13: no. 3 Louisville 97-69 L 

11/18/10: no. 8 North Carolina 107-63 L

11/13/09 no. 1 Kansas 101-65 L

11/17/09 no. 12 UConn 76-67 L

12/22/06 no. 23 Syracuse 85-60 L

2/23/06 no. 25 George Mason 77-68 W

12/30/04 no. 7 Syracuse 80-75 L

11/22/02 no. 21 Gonzaga 69-61 L

12/4/01 no. 9 Syracuse 91-65 L

3/15/01 no. 15 UCLA 61-48 L***

3/17/00 no. 14 Oklahoma State 86-66 L***

11/20/98 no. 6 Maryland 89-59 L

12/2/98 no. 25 St. John’s 70-49 L

11/27/97 no. 19 Louisville 75-66 L

12/14/96 no. 19 Xavier 79-43 L

12/28/95 no. 8 Villanova 91-57 L 

RUTGERS AND THE BIG 10

I know they’re much better now, but Rutgers in the Big 10 is still weird. Hofstra leads the all-time series, 3-2. This is the first game between the schools since Dec. 26, 2000, when the Flying Dutchmen edged the Big East’s Scarlet Knights, 58-52, in the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. Remember when the Holiday Festival was a thing? 

Rutgers, which was ranked no. 24 in the AP’s preseason poll, is 2-0 this season with wins over a pair of Northeast Conference foes, Sacred Heart and Fairleigh Dickinson. The Dutchmen are scheduled — possibly, maybe, hopefully — to play Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday night. 

Rutgers, which was on the verge of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991 last spring, was picked to finish fifth in the Big 10, which of course has 14 teams because math is hard, in a poll conducted by The Athletic and The Columbus Dispatch, because the Big 14 does not conduct a preseason poll.

Senior Geo Baker received votes in the unofficial preseason all-Big 10 balloting but suffered an ankle injury against Sacred Heart that is expected to keep him out for several games. Junior Ron Harper Jr., whose Dad was a badass back in the day, is averaging 24.0 points and 7.0 rebounds in the first two games. Senior guard Jacob Young is averaging 14.5 points and 7.5 assists.

At KenPom.com this morning, Hofstra is ranked 154th while Rutgers is ranked 29th. KenPom.com predicts an 80-65 win for the Scarlet Knights. Yeah, well he liked the Dutchmen by 16 points over San Jose State in last year’s opener and how did that work out?! Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 15-point underdogs. The Dutchmen went 23-9-1 against the spread last season, but you shouldn’t bet. Seriously.

The Dutchmen are 4-10 all-time against current Big 10 foes, though none of those wins was recorded against a team actually in the Big 10 at the time. All three of the Dutchmen’s wins against Rutgers came before Rutgers, which will always be an A-10 school to me, joined the Big Ten in 2014. The Dutchmen beat Nebraska, which will always be a Big 8/Big 12 school to me, in the opening round of the NIT in 2006. Rutgers will be the first Big 10 school the Dutchmen face since they fell to Maryland, which is actually an ACC school, 80-69 on Nov. 16, 2018. 

THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY

Quincy Douby bias! (He committed to Hofstra before deciding to go to Rutgers, fortunately, we don’t have memories like elephants here OH WAIT WE TOTALLY DO)

Looking Glass bias! (The band behind “Brandy” — ask your elders — formed at Rutgers)

Todd Frazier bias! (Did you know Todd grew up in Toms River and played Little League? True story)

Greg Schiano bias! (The only guy to ever make Rutgers football relevant)