There's no doubt we'll pull off the big upset!
Well, that was almost fun at a historic level. The Flying Dutchmen came all the way back from a 23-point first half deficit against St. Bonaventure take a five-point lead with 6:08 left in the second half Saturday afternoon before they ran out of steam and fell to the Bonnies, 77-69. The Dutchmen will look to get back over .500 when they complete non-conference play (probably) this afternoon, when they are scheduled to face another Atlantic 10 power, Richmond. Here’s a look back at the loss to the Bonnies and a look ahead to the Spiders (ahhh, gross, creepy crawlies).
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
The Dutchmen fell behind 30-7 just 10:21 into the game before Jalen Ray scored all 28 of his points over the next 24:01 as the Dutchmen mounted a 59-32 run to take a 66-62 lead before going 1-for-7 from the field over the final 5:22. That’s a lot to happen in just 53 words. Ray had 17 of his points during a 20-9 spurt that ended the run. He finished the game 9-of-19 from the field, including 6-of-10 from 3-point land. Isaac Kante, who is averaging a double-double this season, had his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Tareq Coburn struggled in his second homecoming and finished with nine points on 2-of-10 shooting, including 2-of-9 from beyond the arc. Caleb Burgess had five points, six assists, three rebounds, two turnovers and one steal in 31 minutes.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. St. Bonaventure 12/19)
3: Jalen Ray
2: Isaac Kante
1: Caleb Burgess
SEASON STANDINGS
Jalen Ray 11
Tareq Coburn 11
Isaac Kante 7
Caleb Burgess 3
KVonn Cramer 3
Kevin Schutte 1
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER SIX GAMES
As you have probably gathered by now, the Dutchmen are 3-3, which is tied for the 37th-best start in program history. Twenty-seven other teams began 3-3, most recently the 2018-19 squad. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through six games.
NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 3-3
1976-77: 5-1
1999-2000: 3-3
2000-01: 5-1
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 4-2
NIT TEAMS
1998-99: 2-4
2004-05: 6-0 (most recent 6-0 start)
2005-06: 4-2
2006-07: 3-3
2015-16: 4-2
2018-19: 3-3
Some other notable six-game starts:
2013-14: 2-4 (most recent 2-4 start)
2012-13: 3-3 (last time at .500 that season because…well, you know)
2008-09: 5-1 (most recent 5-1 start)
1994-95: 1-5 (Jay Wright’s first team)
1993-94: 1-5 (VBK’s last team)
1978-79: 3-3 (last time at .500)
1973-74: 0-6 (most recent 0-6 start, Hofstra won game no. 7 and has never started 0-7)
1943-44: 3-3 (last time at .500)
Full records not available for the following seasons: 1936-37, 1941-42, 1942-43, 1948-49, 1951-52, 1954-55, 1957-58.
This feature is inspired by Greg Prince, who measures how the current Mets compare, record-wise, to previous teams through the same point in the season.
CLOSE COMEBACK
The Dutchmen flirted with their biggest comeback win in memory Saturday. If my research is correct, the biggest comeback in the Defiantly Dutch era (1993-pres) happened Feb. 25, 2016, when the Dutchmen overcame an 18-point deficit to beat UNC Wilmington, 70-69. As it was, taking the lead after falling behind by 23 points marks the Dutchmen’s biggest comeback in a loss of the Joe Mihalich era. The Dutchmen overcame 17-point deficits to take the lead before losing to James Madison, 59-53, on Feb. 10, 2014 and to Indiana State, 67-66, on Nov. 23, 2015.
RAY DAY! RAY DAY!
Jalen Ray finished with a game-high 28 points Saturday, one point shy of matching his career-high (as well as another milestone, which we’ll get to shortly). He set that career-high a mere four days earlier against Monmouth. The back-to-back 20-point games give Ray three 20-point efforts this season, one more than he had in his first three seasons combined. In addition, Ray drained a career-high six 3-pointers Saturday, bettering his previous best of five 3-pointers, set five times previously. All that means…
RAY’S RECOGNITION
…Ray earned CAA player of the week honors for the back-to-back big games against Monmouth and St. Bonaventure. It’s the first player of the week award for Ray, who is the first Dutchman to earn player of the week honors since Desure Buie did so for the week ending Feb. 23. Ray is the second Hofstra player to earn a weekly honor from the CAA. KVonn Cramer was named rookie of the week for the week ending Dec. 6.
RAY DAY? RAY DAY?
Jalen Ray enters today’s game with 999 career points, which, if my math is correct, leaves him one point shy of becoming the 39th Hofstra player to score 1,000 points, including the 21st to do so in the Defiantly Dutch era.
That got me thinking: How close have his 20 predecessors been to 1,000 points prior to the game in which they reached the milestone and has anyone actually entered a game with 999 points? The answer is doubly remarkable. Not only has a player twice entered a game with 999 points, but the last player to do so was current assistant coach Craig “Speedy” Claxton, who had 999 points entering the Dutchmen’s game against Rutgers on…I am not kidding here, Dec 22, 1998. That’s 22 years ago today! Stats! The other player with 999 points prior to the game in which he hit 1,000 is James Shaffer, the first member of the DD-era 1,000-point club.
Here is the entire list of how many points the 20 most recent members of the 1,000-point club had prior to the game in which they hit the milestone. Check out Desure Buie!
Speedy Claxton 999 pts prior to 12/22/98
James Shaffer 999 pts prior to 3/2/95
Loren Stokes 998 pts prior to 12/30/05
Kenny Adeleke 996 pts prior to 12/31/03
Eli Pemberton 995 pts prior to 12/1/18
Roberto Gittens 995 pts prior to 12/27/99
Antoine Agudio 994 pts prior to 3/20/06
Mike Moore 993 pts prior to 2/11/12
Darius Burton 992 pts prior to 1/24/97
Justin Wright-Foreman 991 pts prior to 1/7/18
Rick Apodaca 991 pts prior to 2/9/02
Rokas Gustys 990 pts prior to 1/5/18
Ameen Tanksley 990 pts prior to 2/25/16
Juan’ya Green 990 pts prior to 2/7/16
Nathaniel Lester 990 pts prior to 2/1/12
Carlos Rivera 990 pts prior to 1/27/07
Norman Richardson 988 pts prior to 2/6/00
Brian Bernardi 983 pts prior to 1/2/17
Charles Jenkins 976 pts prior to 2/28/09
Desure Buie 968 pts prior to 1/4/20
OVER THE AIR
Today’s game is scheduled to be broadcast on SNY (Teevee! The teevee!), which is channel 60 for those of us subjected to our Altice overlords, as well as on ESPN3. Hofstra will provide a radio feed, as well as live stats, at the Pride Productions hub.
RICHMOND AND THE ATLANTIC 10
Richmond, under 16th-year head coach Chris Mooney, is 6-1 this season after edging Loyola-Chicago, 75-73, on Friday night. The Spiders upset Kentucky 76-64 on Nov. 29 and suffered their only loss on Dec. 13, when they fell to top-10 West Virginia 87-71.
The Spiders were picked to finish first in the A-10’s preseason poll after going 24-7 and finishing second in the A-10 with a 14-4 mark last season, when they were positioned to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 season. Three Richmond players were selected to the preseason all-A10 teams. Senior guard Jacob Gilyard was selected to the all-A10 first team as well as the all-defensive team while senior guard Blake Francis and senior forward Grant Golden were named to the all-A10 second team.
Francis (16.4 ppg) leads five Richmond players averaging in double figures. Golden ranks second in both scoring (14.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.0 rpg). Tyler Burton leads the Spiders in rebounding (8.4 rpg) and is also averaging 11.6 ppg. Gilyard is averaging 11.9 ppg and leads the team with 6.0 assists per game.
The Dutchmen are 0-3 all-time against Richmond. The two teams last met on Nov. 19, 2014, when the late great Zeke Upshaw had his coming out party as he scored a career-high 37 points for the Dutchmen, who never trailed in regulation before falling to the Spiders, 74-63, in overtime.
This marks the eighth straight season in which Hofstra has faced at least one A-10 school, Hofstra is 36-106 all-time against current Atlantic 10 schools, a membership that includes former Dutchmen conference foes George Mason (CAA), La Salle (ECC) and VCU (CAA).
This is, of course, the second straight game the Dutchmen have played an A-10 foe following Saturday’s loss to St. Bonaventure. It’s the first time Hofstra has played schools from the same league in back-to-back games since a three-game stretch against the MAAC’s Monmouth, Rider and Manhattan from Dec 5-10, 2018.
At KenPom.com this morning, Hofstra is ranked 158th while Richmond is ranked 74th. KenPom.com predicts a 77-69 loss for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 13-point underdogs. The Dutchmen are 4-2 against the spread this season following Saturday’s rollercoaster cover.
ALMOST RANKED RICHMOND
The Dutchmen, who opened the season by visiting then-no. 24 Rutgers, almost got a rare second game against a ranked opponent. Richmond just missed out on the AP top 25 this week, when it received the 27th-most votes, 25 fewer than no. 25 Oregon. But Jeff Goodman has the Spiders in his top 25, so if the Dutchmen win, we’ll count this as a top-25 win!
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Arachnophobia bias! (This would mean we’re biased against people who have a fear of spiders, but I just like the sound of arachnophobia bias)
You’re the other Richmond school bias! (Hi Pav!)
Jerry Wainwright bias! (Richmond, which was in the CAA but before Hofstra joined, was coached by Wainwright after he left the CAA, where he opposed Hofstra with UNCW. Got it?)
You still get publicity from I-AA football bias! (duh)
You give Glenallen Hill nightmares bias! (The longtime power-hitting outfielder once needed a DL stint after getting injured sleepwalking during a nightmare about spiders)
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