The Flying Dutchmen, upon finding out they're not going to the National Grammar Rodeo at a Sheraton in Canada.
Honestly, there’s too much pressure in remaining unbeaten anyway. The Flying Dutchmen’s hopes of becoming the first perfect team in Division I hoops since Indiana in 1976 ended last Saturday night, when Saint Mary’s rolled to a 76-48 win. The Dutchmen will stay on the road and look to get back on track tonight, when they begin the National Grammar Rodeo, err, the Northern Classic in Canada against Middle Tennessee State. Here’s a look back at the loss to the Gaels and a look ahead to the Blue Raiders. Thats a cool nickname.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
The Dutchmen held a couple of small leads in the first half before Saint Mary’s clamped down on defense and began pulling away. The Gaels ended the first half on a 24-10 run in which the Dutchmen were 4-of-17 from the field with a whopping eight turnovers. The Dutchmen got no closer than 16 points in the second half, trailed by as many as 31 and didn’t hit a 3-pointer until Griffin Barrouk’s trey with 1:38 left. Aaron Estrada scored 16 points, including the Dutchmen’s first 10 of the second half, while Nelson Boachie-Yiadom had another solid game with 10 points and eight rebounds. Jaquan Carlos and Tyler Thomas had six points apiece. Darlinstone Dubar went scoreless in 29 minutes.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Saint Mary’s, 11/19)
3: Aaron Estrada
2: Nelson Boachie-Yiadom
1: Jaquan Carlos
SEASON STANDINGS
Aaron Estrada 12
Tyler Thomas 6
Darlinstone Dubar 4
Nelson Boachie-Yiadom 4
Jaquan Carlos 4
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
Sorry, force of habit.
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER FIVE GAMES
With Saturday’s loss, the Dutchmen dropped to 4-1. This ties the 2022-23 team for the 11th-best record in school history through five games. That’s a precipitous drop, seems bad! Eleven other teams began 4-1, most recently the 2008-09 squad. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through five games:
NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 2-3
1976-77: 4-1
1999-2000: 3-2
2000-01: 4-1
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 3-2
NIT TEAMS
1998-99: 2-3
2004-05: 5-0 (most recent 5-0 start)
2005-06: 4-1
2006-07: 2-3
2015-16: 3-2
2018-19: 3-2
NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1958-59: 3-2
1961-62: 4-1
1962-63: 3-2 (over .500 for good)
1963-64: 4-1
Other notable five-game starts:
2021-22: 1-4 (most recent 1-4 start)
2020-21: 3-2 (most recent 3-2 start)
2016-17: 2-3 (most recent 2-3 start)
2013-14: 2-3 (Joe Mihalich’s first team)
2012-13: 3-2 (last time over .500 that season because…well, you know)
2010-11: 2-3 (Mo Cassara’s first team, last time under .500)
2002-03: 1-4 (loss in fifth game was second loss in eight-game losing streak, tied for the longest of the Tom Pecora era)
2001-02: 4-1 (Tom Pecora’s first team)
1994-95: 1-4 (Jay Wright’s first team)
1993-94: 1-4 (VBK’s last team)
1982-83: 5-0
1978-79: 3-2 (last time over .500)
1974-75: 2-3 (last time under .500)
1973-74: 0-5 (most recent 0-5 start)
1972-73: 2-3 (under .500 for good)
1969-70: 0-5 (first 0-5 start)
1960-61: 5-0
1969-60: 5-0
1955-56: 5-0 (Butch van Breda Kolff improves to .500)
1954-55: 5-0
1952-53: 5-0
1951-52: 5-0
1948-49: 5-0
1947-48: 5-0 (Frank Reilly improves to .500)
1950-51: 3-2 (over .500 for good)
1944-45: 2-3 (under .500 for good)
1937-38: 3-2 (over .500 for good)
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 Mets superfan and blogger Greg Prince, who measures how the current Mets compare, record-wise, to previous teams through the same point in the season.
NUMBER TEN THROUGH THIRTY-SEVEN
With Saturday night’s loss, Speedy Claxton fell to 25-12 (.676) as head coach. That’s the third-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 37 games at the helm.
Paul Lynner 29-8 (.784, 37th game was the seventh game of his second season in 1963-64)
Butch van Breda Kolff I 28-9 (.757, 37th game was the 11th game of his second season in 1956-57)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 25-12 (.676, 37th game was the fifth game of his second season in 2022-23)
Mo Cassara 23-14 (.622, 37th game was the fourth game of his second season in 2011-12)
Dick Berg 17-20 (.459, 37th game was the 10th game of his second season in 1981-82)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 17-20 (.459, 37th game was the eighth game of his second season in 1989-90)
Tom Pecora 13-24 (.351, 37th game was the fifth game of his second season in 2002-03)
Jay Wright 13-24 (.351, 36th game was the ninth game of his second season in 1995-96)
Joe Mihalich 13-24 (.351, 37th game was the fourth game of his second season in 2013-14)
Roger Gaeckler 9-28 (.243, 37th game was the 13th game of his second season in 1973-74)
The records are incomplete for Jack McDonald’s first stint from 1936 through 1943 as well as the tenures of Jack Smith (1943-46) and Frank Reilly (1947-55).
Three coaches had one-season tenures lasting fewer than 33 games at Hofstra. McDonald went 18-6 in the lone season of his second stint in 1946-47 while Joe Harrington went 14-14 in 1979-80 and Mike Farrelly went 13-10 in 2020-21.
NOTHING PERFECT LASTS FOREVER
With Saturday’s defeat, the Dutchmen became the 303rd team to lose a game this season per Ken Pomeroy. Another way to look at it: There were only 60 unbeaten teams left when the Dutchmen lost! Let’s roll with that. It sounds better. I did a quick Twitter search to see where the Dutchmen ranked among teams taking their first loss in previous seasons, but the only season in which Ken gave a “Sorry, Hofstra” upon the Dutchmen’s first loss was 2015-16, when the Dutchmen’s loss to South Carolina in their fourth game of the season left 75 unbeatens. I hope that means this year is going to end with a regulation win in the CAA championship game instead of, well, you know.
LOPSIDED LOSS
The 28-point margin of defeat for the Dutchmen was their largest since a 73-45 loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 7, 2019. Speaking of which…
PLEADING FOR FIFTY
…the 48 points were the fewest the Dutchmen have scored since that loss to St. Bonaventure. It also marked the 20th straight loss for the Dutchmen in a game in which they scored fewer than 50 points. The Dutchmen haven’t won a game while scoring fewer than 50 points since an uuuugly 44-39 win over Manhattan on Dec. 9, 2009. I suspect that will remain the case for a long time!
AT LEAST THEY GOT TO FORTY
Good news: The Dutchmen still haven’t scored fewer than 40 points in a game this century! The Dutchmen were last held to fewer than 40 points on Feb. 28, 1999, when they fell to Drexel 55-37 in the America East tournament semifinals. Speedy Claxton was limited to just a handful of minutes due to injury in that game.
BAD START
The Dutchmen scored just 18 points in the first half Saturday, their fewest points in a half since they scored 18 points in the first half of a 73-49 loss to SMU on Jan. 19, 2014. That was Joe Mihalich’s 14th game as head coach — and 274 games ago.
ONE ISN’T JUST A SONG BY METALLICA OR U2
It’s also the number of 3-pointers the Dutchmen hit Saturday night. Only Griffin Barrouk’s 3-pointer with 1:38 left kept the Dutchmen from going scoreless from beyond the arc for the first time since they missed all nine 3-point attempts in a 58-43 loss to Wagner on Dec. 6, 2011. That was 348 games ago! The Dutchmen made as few as two 3-pointers just six times in the interim, including five times during the ever-so-bleak 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. (The Dutchmen had two 3-pointers in a 61-56 win over William & Mary on Jan. 2, 2021)
TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE
The Dutchmen didn’t register an assist Saturday until Aaron Estrada fed Nelson Boachie-Yiadom for a layup with 9:33 left. Jaquan Carlos added an assist on Griffin Barrouk’s 3-pointer, but the two assists were still the fewest by the Dutchmen in a game this century and the fewest since that 55-37 loss to Drexel — a whopping 734 games ago. In addition, prior to Saturday, the Dutchmen recorded as few as three assists in a game just three times since 2000 (against George Mason on Jan. 19, 2013, against Northeastern on Feb. 2, 2019 and against St. Bonaventure on Dec. 7, 2019).
D-STONE SHUTOUT
Darlinstone Dubar was scoreless Saturday night, when he went 0-for-6 from the field in 29 minutes. It was the longest scoreless outing for a Hofstra player since Jalen Ray went 0-for-5 from the field and didn’t score in 32 minutes against Towson on Feb. 27, 2020.
BUDDING BOACHIE-YIADOM
OK, let’s focus on some positives from Saturday and beforehand, shall we? Nelson Boachie-Yiadom continued impressing in the middle Saturday night, when he scored 10 points and pulled down eight rebounds. The 10 points were one shy of Boachie-Yiadom’s career-high, set when he was playing for Davidson against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 14, 2020. The eight rebounds were tied for the second-most in Boachie-Yiadom’s career, behind the 11 rebounds he pulled down against St. Bonaventure on Valentine’s Day 2020. It was the second straight eight-rebound game for Boachie-Yiadom, who also had eight points against San Jose State on Nov. 16. The 18 points in his last two games are the most he’s collected in a two-game span in his five-year career.
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE, PART ONE
Aaron Estrada shared CAA Player of the Week honors last week with Charleston’s Ryan Larson. It’s the first time Estrada has at least shared the Player of the Week honors since way back during the week ending Feb. 14, when the eventual CAA Player of the Year earned weekly honors for the fifth time.
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE, PART TWO
Redshirt freshman Amar’e Marshall was named the CAA Rookie of the Week for the second time in as many weeks. He’s the first Hofstra freshman to win Rookie of the Week honors at least twice in a season since Kvonn Cramer earned the honor three times during the 2020-21 season. He’s the first Hofstra freshman to earn back-to-back honors since Antoine Agudio won it on consecutive weeks three different times during the 2004-05 season, Thanks to Hofstra SID Stephen Gorchov with the assist on that one.
WELCOME BACK
The lopsided defeat resulted in Griffin Barrouk, Christian Tomasco and Bryce Washington playing for the first time since the season-opening win over Princeton on Nov. 7. Barrouk scored his first career points with his late 3-pointer while Washington had two points and Tomasco added three rebounds.
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’s game is slated to be carried live on the Northern Classic website. It’s $25 (covers the entire tournament) and there’s no audio. I don’t hear anyone complaining about FloHoops now, do I? The good news is Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
WHAT IS THE NORTHERN CLASSIC?
Beats me, I’m just going to call it the National Grammar Rodeo in Canada. This is one of those multi-team events that’s not a tournament, per se. The Dutchmen are one of six mid-majors gathering in Quebec and will play UNC Greensboro Saturday and Quinnipiac (TOM PECORA BIAS!!!!) Sunday. The other schools at the tournament are Stephen F Austin and Montana State. It’s a shame the Dutchmen aren’t playing Montana State because I could have shouted CRAIG KILBORN BIAS! all night long.
Per an article discovered by loyal IBQ reader and Hofstra good luck charm Larry Fleisher, the Northern Classic was supposed to be an eight-team event possibly featuring power conference schools but was cut down to six mid-majors…of which Hofstra wasn’t initially included! As of July, New Hampshire (SCOTT DRAPEAU BIAS!) and UC Irvine (BLAINE TAYLOR USED TO BE AN ASSISTANT THERE BIAS!) were slated to be in the tournament. So six mid-major teams playing in Canada the weekend of Thanksgiving. This is going to make all those MTEs at Barclays Center look well-attended.
Oh well, let’s just go win this thing, whatever it is. This marks the Dutchmen’s first MTE/preseason tournament since they won the Boca Raton Beach Classic at Florida Atlantic in December 2019. A slice of normalcy, perhaps? Prior to the pandemic pause, the Dutchmen participated in an MTE/preseason tournament nine times in 10 years, with only the 2014-15 team not playing in one of these thingies.
MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE AND CONFERENCE USA
Middle Tennessee State, under fifth-year head coach Nicholas McDevitt, is 2-2 this season and 1-0 in Conference USA after a 75-71 non-conference loss to Missouri State last Saturday.
The Blue Raiders (excellent nickname), who fell to UNC Wilmington in the CBI finals last season (shudder), were picked to finish fourth in the 11-team Conference USA this season. Junior guard Eli Lawrence leads Middle Tennessee State with 10.5 points per game while junior guards Camryn Weston and Elias King are each averaging 10.3 points per game. Senior forward DeAndre Disman is averaging 9.8 points per game and leads the team with 5.5 rebounds per game. the Sophomore guard Teafale Lenard, a preseason All-Conference USA selection, is averaging 4.5 points per game.
At KenPom.com, Middle Tennessee State is ranked 184th nationally in offensive efficiency (100.7 points per 100 possessions) and 90th in defensive efficiency (97.3 points per 100 possessions) while ranking 200th in tempo (68.4 possessions per 40 minutes).
The Dutchmen and Blue Raiders have no common opponents.
This is the first meeting between Hofstra and Middle Tennessee State in men’s basketball and just the third meeting in any sport. The Flying Dutchwomen volleyball team earned a 3-1 win over Middle Tennessee State in the UConn Classic on Sept, 15, 2007 while the Flying Dutchwomen softball team edged the Blue Raiders, 3-2, in the Florida Atlantic Invitational on Mar, 11, 2011. So basically we only play each other in tournaments?
At KenPom.com this afternoon, Hofstra is ranked 132nd while Middle Tennessee State is ranked 134th. That’s close but they were separated by one spot earlier in the afternoon! Remarkably, it’s the second time this season Hofstra and an opponent have been separated by two or fewer spots at KenPom.com. The Dutchmen were 144th and Princeton was 143rd entering the season opener on Nov, 7. KenPom.com predicts a 74-73 loss for the Dutchmen but gives them a 50% chance to win. Please don’t start predicting elections, Ken. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 1-point underdogs. The Dutchmen are 3-2 against the spread this season.
The Dutchmen are 14-8 all-time against current Conference USA members. They haven’t faced a current Conference USA member since beating Florida Atlantic, 88-80, on Dec. 3, 2016.
But to get an idea of how fluid the C-USA membership is, the Dutchmen last played a Conference USA team on Nov. 11, 2018, when they fell to Marshall, 76-72. That dropped Hofstra to 25-26 all-time against then-current C-USA members, but Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Mississippi all left following last season for the Sun Belt. We assume they are all laughing at whatever James Madison is saying about how bad the CAA is. Six more C-USA schools — Alabama-Birmingham, Florida Atlantic, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and Texas-San Antonio — are slated to join the American after this school year. They’ll be replaced by the hodge podge of Jacksonville State (in Alabama!), New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, Kennesaw State and, unfortunately, Liberty. Have fun with all of that.
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
1982 World’s Fair bias! (Knoxville is about three hours from Murfreesboro, close enough for me to make a Simpsons reference)
Richie James caught a touchdown pass that helped the Giants cover yesterday bias! (Lewis played at Middle Tennessee State from 2015-17)
You busted my bracket in 2016 bias! (True story, the 15th-seeded Blue Raiders knocked off second-seeded Michigan State in the first round)
Your nickname sounds like an ‘80s movie bias! (Anyone remember Blue Thunder? Anyone?)
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