There's no shortage of ways to measure how long Jalen Ray has played at Hofstra.
The most obvious indicator is the number of games played — a record 152, 11 more than former teammate Desure Buie. And while Ray’s freshman year began in the fall of 2017, he committed to Hofstra as a high school junior two years earlier, which gives him a tangible connection to the program-changing trio of Juan’ya Green, Ameen Tanksley and Brian Bernardi, all of whom graduated before Ray arrived on campus.
But maybe the best measure is the task of trying to rank the biggest shots made by Ray — who ranks 11th all-time in scoring at Hofstra (1,715) and has drained 305 3-pointers, second behind Antoine Agudio — while also authoring at least two instant viral moments.
Asked separately to identify Ray’s most memorable shots earlier this week, Ray and Speedy Claxton both recalled his buzzer-beater to beat Towson on Jan. 11, 2018 (that was viral moment no. 2) as well as the 3-pointer he hit to give the Dutchmen the lead for good against Northeastern with 6:54 left in the 2020 CAA championship game.
Ray also mentioned this couldn’t-do-it-again-if-he-tried-but-it-worked-once-and-that’s-all-that matters game-winner off Justin Wright-Foreman’s intentional free throw miss against Monmouth on Dec. 6, 2017 (viral moment no. 1, airing along with the Towson buzzer-beater here), which Claxton recalled after some prompting.
But Claxton recalled Ray’s clutch last-second 3-pointer against Princeton that provided the final points and staved off a comeback by the Tigers in an 81-77 win Dec. 1 while Ray noted the 3-pointer he hit against Northeastern in the final minute Feb. 19, when the Dutchmen scored the final 11 points to stun the Huskies 76-73.
Neither Ray nor Claxton initially mentioned perhaps his biggest non-CAA championship game shot — the 3-pointer that gave the Dutchmen the lead for good in a 72-59 win over Drexel on Jan. 25, 2020. Hofstra entered the game with two straight losses and was in danger of falling out of contention for the no. 1 seed after falling behind by eight points with under 15 minutes left.
All of which is to say Ray — from being recruited as Green and Tanksley led the Dutchmen to the edge of the NCAA Tournament to winning a CAA title while playing alongside four other 1,000-point scorers and two players who won CAA Player of the Year honors — has put together an impressive body of work as one of the most decorated players in program history.
“I feel like I’m the link between the past and the future,” Ray said.
Ray lengthened that link after last season, when he decided to play the extra year granted to student-athletes who played during the pandemic last winter while pursuing his master’s in higher education leadership and policy after graduating with a liberal arts degree. He has a 4.0 GPA in his grad school courses this year.
As the top returning scorer in the CAA — his 19.3 points per game last season were just a shade behind James Madison’s Matt Lewis (19.7 points per game) — Ray appeared primed to contend for Player of the Year honors while emerging as the Dutchmen’s unquestioned number one option following the exit of Tareq Coburn, who played his extra season at St. John’s after transferring to the Big East school to study in its medical assistant program.
But a preseason ankle injury sidelined Ray for the first two games, during which graduate senior Zach Cooks scored 55 points while earning CAA Player of the Week honors. Ray scored at least 18 points in seven of the next 12 games before scoring 22 points while going 8-of-21 from the field in the first two games of January. He spent the next six games coming off the bench, a span in which Aaron Estrada averaged 23.5 points per game and established himself as the frontrunner for CAA Player of the Year.
Ray said there wasn't much adjustment necessary to playing alongside another pair of volume scorers — “I was used to playing with other scorers, (so) being sidelined, I was able to read how they played” — but Claxton, who knows a bit about being the newcomer who immediately becomes his team’s number one option, sensed there were some challenges for the Hofstra stalwart.
“This is probably the most talented team that he’s been on here since he's been here,” Claxton said. “Coming off of last year, I guess you could kind of say he got all the shots, averaged (almost) 20 points. So I think that was a big adjustment for him, not being able to score as much as he did in previous years.”
The past, present and future converged for Ray over the season’s final three weeks, during which he returned to the starting lineup and hit multiple 3-pointers in six straight games from Feb. 10 through Feb. 26. Ray’s key shot against Northeastern helped complete the comeback on Joe Mihalich Day, which was attended by several members of the 2020 team.
“Last few weeks have been a little emotional,” Ray said. "This is my final time here. Been here for a while, been a part of a championship team. I’d say I left my mark a little bit. It was just great seeing old faces, good to be around a lot of people.”
After Ray had 19 points and three steals on Senior Day against William & Mary on Feb. 26, Claxton patted him on the shoulder in the media room and said Ray is “…a legend here.” And with the Dutchmen slated to begin CAA Tournament play tonight against sixth-seeded Charleston, what if the opportunity presents itself for Ray to hit at least one more reputation-enhancing shot for the highlight reel?
“Hopefully it wouldn’t come to making big shots, hopefully the team can get off to a good start,” Ray said with a grin. “But if it comes to that, I love big moments and I love the pressure a lot — like that the game has to come down to me, because I have confidence in myself.”
No comments:
Post a Comment