I'll Be Quirky: Princeton

 

I thought about posting a picture of Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon here, but as you all know, I'm very highbrow.

The World Series ended Saturday night, and sure, no one outside of Houston likes the Astros, but at least a team that was really good over the long haul won it all instead of the Philadelphia Phillies, who spent one day in first place all season, finished with the sixth-best record in the NL and wouldn’t have made the playoffs as recently as last season, when only five teams made the playoffs in each league.

So here’s to you, Astros, for making the regular season matter. Who wants to get invested in a sport in which a team can thrive over the course of the marathon but have its achievements rendered irrelevant because it lost a sprint to a team that erased months of mediocrity with one well-timed hot stretch? That would be insane.

And beginning tonight, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Welcome to the 2022-23 college basketball season, where we’re all going to tell ourselves nothing matters until March and then spend four months basing our moods entirely on how our favorite team — in this case, the Flying Dutchmen of Hofstra! — fares on a nightly basis. Every pulsating win will carry with it the promise of seeing Hofstra being one of the 68 schools seeing their name on Selection Sunday. Every agonizing loss will have us pulling our best Homer Simpson, throwing off our Flying Dutchmen hat because they lost, those losers!

And if the Dutchmen are one of the best teams in the CAA through March, we’ll be hoping the regular season ensures euphoric success during that one long weekend in Washington, D.C. And if not? Hey, like October, March is all about Cinderella. 

Through it all (and hopefully into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001, though you’ll never convince me Hofstra didn’t win it all in 2020), I’ll aim, for the seventh straight season, to link the present with the past into a fun and engaging package I like to call “I’ll Be Quirky.” As always, I want to acknowledge Islanders statistician Eric Hornick, whose blog “The Skinny” was the inspiration to start this in 2016, as well as Mets blogger and unofficial team historian Greg Prince, whose unique ways of tracking each Mets season via the Faith & Fear In Flushing blog I’ve emulated the last few seasons as well.

Thanks again to Eric and Greg as well as to you for reading. What are we waiting for? Play ball! (That’s what we say in November, right?)

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

This season marks the 87th season in which the Flying Dutchmen have played basketball. The program is 1,315-986 all-time. No one has played in each of the previous 86 seasons, not even Jalen Ray.

Under first-year head coach Speedy Claxton — whom you may recall from such outstanding careers as the one he had at Hofstra from 1996-2000 — the Flying Dutchmen went 21-11 last season and 13-5 in the CAA to earn the third seed in the conference tournament. Alas, the pursuit of a second CAA title ended quickly with a wire-to-wire 92-76 loss to sixth-seeded Charleston in the tournament quarterfinals. It was the earliest exit for the Dutchmen since a quarterfinal loss to UNC Wilmington in March 2018.

Junior Aaron Estrada, a transfer from Oregon and Saint Peter’s, continued the In Guards We Trust pipeline by winning CAA Player of the Year honors following a spectacular season in which he led the league in scoring at 18.5 points per game while adding 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. Graduate senior Jalen Ray earned third-team all-CAA honors — the second time he placed on the first, second or third team in his five-year career — after averaging 13.4 points per game while shooting 39.7 percent from 3-point land. Zach Cooks earned CAA Sixth Man of the Year honors after averaging 12.2 points per game. Darlinstone Dubar averaged 11.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while Omar Silverio averaged 10.9 points per game and shot 35.8 percent from 3-point range. Silverio shattered the school record for most 3-pointers in a game by draining 11 treys in a 40-point performance against Elon on Feb. 15.

FINAL 3 STARS OF THE GAME STANDINGS

Aaron Estrada 65

Jalen Ray 35

Darlinstone Dubar 30

Zach Cooks 21

Omar Silverio 17

Abayomi Iyiola 14

Caleb Burgess 4

Kvonn Cramer 4

Jarrod Simmons 2

A FOND FAREWELL

The Dutchmen bid goodbye to eight members of last year’s team. Ray, Cooks and fellow graduate senior Jarrod Simmons all got their masters degrees and are now playing professionally. Silverio graduated and initially planned to play his free COVID season as a graduate transfer at Manhattan, but he is in the transfer portal after the Jaspers turned the program upside down by firing Steve Masiello on Oct. 25. Senior Abayomi Iyiola (Kansas State), junior Caleb Burgess (UNC Asheville) and sophomore Kvonn Cramer (Bryant) each transferred. In addition, Zion Bethea, who didn’t play last season due to injury, transferred to St. Francis (NY).

Ray set a likely unbreakable school record by playing in 153 games, 12 more than the previous mark held by former teammate Desure Buie, over his five seasons. He scored 1,736 points, 11th-most in school history, and drained 310 3-pointers, second-most in school history. He was also named to the All-Tournament team following the Dutchmen’s championship run in March 2020. And then what happened?

Silverio played in 72 games over three seasons following his transfer from Rhode Island and finished with 496 points and 100 3-pointers. Burgess, who led the CAA in assists in 2020-21, appeared in 77 games (40 starts) and averaged 3.4 points per game while posting an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.24/1. Cramer, a member of the CAA’s all-rookie team in 2020-21, averaged 7.1 points and 4.9 rebounds in 45 games. Ray, Silverio, Burgess and Cramer were the last remaining players from the 2020 title team. Long time ago, and not long at all.

Cooks, a graduate transfer from NJIT, hit at least three 3-pointers in four of his first five games but had just one game with a 3-pointer thereafter as he battled injuries and lost his starting job. Simmons, a graduate transfer from Pennsylvania, missed 15 games with a knee injury and averaged 4.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game while splitting time at center with Iyiola, an Arkansas transfer who averaged 7.1 points and 7.1 rebounds while posting four double-doubles, including one against his former teammates in an upset of the nationally-ranked Razorbacks. Bethea played nine minutes over three games in 2020-21. 

WELCOME BACK

The flying Dutchmen return just three players — academic senior Aaron Estrada and academic junior Darlinstone Dubar, each of whom started last season, and true sophomore Jaquan Carlos, who was a reserve as a freshman. The returnees combined to score 983 points, which represented represented 39.4 percent of the Dutchmen’s total last year, and played 2,240 minutes, which represented 34.7 percent of the Dutchmen’s total playing time.

The three returning players are the fewest for the Dutchmen since only three players on the 2013-14 team — Joe Mihalich’s first team — returned for the 2014-15 season. And the percentage of returning minutes is the lowest for the Dutchmen since four players representing 33.6 percent of the minutes played in 2000-01 — Jay Wright’s final season — returned for Tom Pecora’s first season in 2001-02, which was Hofstra’s first season in the CAA. Of course, if you’re only going to have three players back, it sure helps when one is…

ESTRADA IS MR. EVERYTHING

Aaron Estrada (18.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game) was the first Hofstra player to average at least 18 points, five rebounds and five assists in a season since…his head coach did so in 1999-2000, when Speedy Claxton averaged 22.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.0 assists. (Stat courtesy of Hofstra SID Stephen Gorchov) Estrada also had four games in which he finished with at least 25 points, fire rebounds and five assists, the most 25/5/5 games by a Hofstra player in a single season since Justin Wright-Foreman had five such games during the 2017-18 campaign. And when he led the Dutchmen with 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists against UNC Wilmington on Jan. 29, he became the first player to lead the team in all three categories in the same game since Charles Jenkins had 28 points, 10 rebounds and four assists against Iona on Feb. 23, 2008.

AARON BUCKETS

In addition, per a stat tabulated by Hofstra in-game host and occasional play-by-play man Dan Savarino, Aaron Estrada had more points in CAA play alone — 419 points in 18 regular season games plus the tournament loss to Charleston — than he did in his entire CAREER entering this season (255 points at Saint Peter’s and Oregon). In addition, he scored at least 20 points in 13 CAA games and in 16 games overall after posting just one 20-point game at Saint Peter’s and Oregon. 

GOOD COMPANY

Aaron Estrada became the fifth Hofstra player to earn CAA Player of the Year honors since 2007, when Loren Stokes took home the honors. Charles Jenkins won back-to-back Player of the Year awards in 2010 and 2011 while Juan’ya Green won it in 2016 and Justin Wright-Foreman won in 2018 and 2019. Hofstra’s five Players of the Year and seven Player of the Year winners since 2007 are each by far the most among CAA schools in that span. The only other school to have two players win the CAA Player of the Year since 2007 is William & Mary with Marcus Thornton in 2015 and Nathan Knight in 2020. VCU (Eric Maynor in 2008-09) and Towson (Jerrelle Benimon in 2013-14) each had a back-to-back winner.

MY NAME IS…

The Dutchmen welcome a whopping 12 new players — six transfers in the second as well as three players who redshirted for Hofstra last season and three true freshmen. 

Nelson Boachie-Yiadom (Davidson), Petey Galgano (Manhattanville), Bryce Washington (Pennsylvania) and Warren Williams (Manhattan) will each play their graduate seasons at Hofstra. Redshirt senior Tyler Thomas (Sacred Heart) and junior German Plotnikov (North Platte Community College) each have multiple years of eligibility remaining. 

Boachie-Yiadom played 95 games over four seasons at Davidson and averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. Washington averaged 5.7 points in 51 games over three seasons at Penn. Williams averaged 9.0 points and 4.3 rebounds over 111 games, including 60 starts, in four seasons at Manhattan, where he made the MAAC’s all-rookie team in 2018-19 and earned first-team All-MAAC honors after averaging 11.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 2020-21. Thomas scored 1,001 points in three seasons at Sacred Heart, for whom he averaged 16.4 points while being named to the All-Northeast Conference second team in 2020-21 and the all-NEC team in 2021-22. Galgano averaged 6.0 points per game in 76 games at Manhattanville while Plotnikov averaged 20.7 points per game in his second season at North Platte CC.

In addition, Griffin Barrouk, Amar’e Marshall and Christian Tomasco are all expected to play after redshirting as true freshmen last year. Three true freshmen — Aiden Best, Khalil Farmer and Lual Manyang — also join the program. 

A SPEEDY INTERLUDE!

Here seems like a good spot to insert some comments from Speedy Claxton, whom I caught up with following practice on Saturday. 

On so few minutes returning: That’s just the landscape of basketball now. You’re going to have high turnover every year with the way the transfer portal is, the way the kids are thinking. You can’t expect to have a full roster coming back. It is what it is. That’s the landscape of college basketball right now.

On having so many newcomers among the underclassmen and whether or not they can provide a core: All year-to-year. man. You go year-to-year. You don’t know who’s coming back. You don’t know who’s coming, you don’t know who’s going. You’ve got to plan for that year right there and that’s it. Once that year’s over, then you’ve got to let the chips fall where they may. You’ve got to do your homework in the transfer portal. 

On the philosophy in the transfer portal after last season: It just depends on what we need from that position. We’re losing Jalen Ray, we needed a shooter, so we went out and got Tyler Thomas. Warren Williams came up late. ‘Bay’ left in early June, so we needed a starting big. (They were) kind of in a bad position with him leaving so late, but then Warren Williams came up and we were able to get him. We like for our — not going to say backup center, but we like our other center to kind of be different from the starting center. And Nelson provided that. Warren’s a scorer and Nelson’s more of a passer/facilitator. And then Bryce, he’s an athlete. We wanted to be more athletic, we wanted to be more big on the wing, so we went and got Bruce from Penn. He’s 6-5, he can shoot the ball, he can defend. 

On lineups and rotations: We don’t know (grins). We’re kind of going as we feel. Whoever’s playing better is going to get the minutes. I mean, like you said, we’ve only got two guys who played significant minutes from last year. So we don’t know who’s going to be playing. 

On newcomers who jumped out at him: It’s too early to tell. Unfortunately, we’ve been caught with a little injury bug here — couple guys that we feel will play some big minutes, they’ve been hurt. So we really don’t know who’s going to play minutes right now.

More on the injuries: Hopefully those guys won’t be out as long and we’ll get them back sooner rather than later. 

SPEEDY’S SECOND SOPHOMORE SEASON

Speedy Claxton returned to the place he never really left last season, when he became the 15th head coach in program history and the first Hofstra alum to patrol the sidelines at his alma mater. The Dutchmen’s 21-11 record in Claxton’s first season gave him the fifth-highest winning percentage of a first-year head coach at Hofstra and made him the eighth first-year head coach to direct the Dutchmen to a .500 record or better.

Butch van Breda Kolff 22-4 (.846, 1955-56)***

Paul Lynner 23-7 (.767, 1962-63)

Jack McDonald 18-6 (.750, 1946-47)**

Frank Reilly 13-6 (.684, 1947-48)

Speedy Claxton 21-11 (.656, 2021-22)

Mo Cassara 21-12 (.636, 2010-11)

Mike Farrelly 13-10 (.565, 2020-21)

Joe Harrington 14-14 (.500, 1979-80)

***1946-47 marked the first (and only) season of McDonald’s second stint as head coach

***1955-56 marked the first season of van Breda Kolff’s first stint as head coach; he returned in 1988-89

Claxton’s second season as head coach begins 25 years after he played his sophomore season at Hofstra for a fourth-year coach named Jay Wright. After four sensational seasons at Hofstra in which Claxton racked up 2,015 points and a school-record 660 assists while leading the Flying Dutchmen (who really WERE the Flying Dutchmen back then!) to the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 23 years in 2000, Claxton was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2000 and embarked upon a 10-year NBA career. 

Claxton is in some select company as a head coach. He is one of just eight Division I head coaches who played in the NBA before serving as a head coach at his alma mater:

SPEEDY CLAXTON, Hofstra

Hubert Davis, North Carolina

Patrick Ewing, Georgetown

Penny Hardaway, Memphis

Juwan Howard, Michigan

Aaron McKie, Temple

Kenny Payne, Louisville

Mike Woodson, Indiana

Claxton is also one of 24 Division I coaches to play in the NBA:

SPEEDY CLAXTON, Hofstra

Steve Alford, Nevada

Hubert Davis, North Carolina

Johnny Dawkins, Central Florida 

Juan Dixon, Coppin State

Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon

Kim English, George Mason

Patrick Ewing, Georgetown

Penny Hardaway, Memphis

Aaron McKie, Temple

Steve Henson, Texas-San Antonio

Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska

Juwan Howard, Michigan

Bobby Hurley, Arizona State

Mark Madsen, Utah Valley State

Kenny Payne, Louisville

Lorenzo Romar, Pepperdine

Jerry Stackhouse, Vanderbilt

Damon Stoudamire, Pacific

Rod Strickland, Long Island U.

Reggie Theus, Bethune-Cookman

Darrell Walker, Little Rock

Mo Williams, Jackson State

Mike Woodson, Indiana

Overall, there are 52 Division I head coaches directing their alma maters:

SPEEDY CLAXTON, Hofstra

Mark Adams, Texas Tech

Casey Alexander, Belmont

Chris Beard, Texas

Jeff Boals, Ohio

Jim Boeheim, Syracuse

Alvin Brooks, Lamar

Ed Conroy, The Citadel

Matt Crenshaw, IUPUI

Chris Crutchfield, Omaha

Dan D’Antoni II, Marshall

Hubert Davis, North Carolina

Travis DeCurie, Montana

Jamie Dixon, Texas Christian

Fran Dunphy, La Salle

Patrick Ewing, Georgetown

Quinton Ferrell, Presbyterian

Joe Gallo, Merrimack

Stan Gouard, Southern Indiana

Anthony Grant, Dayton

Penny Hardaway, Memphis

Stan Heath, Eastern Michigan

Mitch Henderson, Princeton

Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall

Juwan Howard, Michigan

Michael Huger, Bowling Green

Bob Huggins, West Virginia

George Ivory, Mississippi Valley State

Ben Johnson, Minnesota

Andy Kennedy, Alabama-Birmingham

Chris Kraus, Stonehill

Rob Krimmel, Saint Francis (PA)

Kevin Kruger, UNLV

Jay Ladner, Southern Mississippi

Carmen Maciariello, Siena

Chris Markwood, Maine

Mike Martin, Brown

Thad Matta, Butler

Aaron McKie, Temple

Matt McKillop, Davidson

LeVelle Moton, North Carolina Central

Bryan Mullins, Southern Illinois

Matt Painter, Purdue

Kenny Payne, Louisville

Keith Richard, Louisiana-Monroe

David Richman, North Dakota State

Jon Scheyer, Duke

Patrick Sellers, Central Connecticut

Danny Sprinkle, Montana State

RaShawn Stores, Manhattan

John Tauer, St. Thomas (MN)

Mike Woodson, Indiana

In addition, Hofstra is one of three Division I schools with a former NBA player as its head men’s basketball coach and a former MLB player as its head baseball coach. Look at that second school! Just can’t escape our good buddies!

SPEEDY CLAXTON, Hofstra (Frank Catalanotto)

Kim English, George Mason (Shawn Camp)

Bobby Hurley, Arizona State (Willie Bloomquist)

HOW MANY UNICORN SCORES WERE THERE LAST SEASON?

The Dutchmen had 11 unicorn scores — scores by which they’d never previously won — last season:

11/24/21: 87-49 over Molloy

11/27/21: 98-84 over Detroit Mercy

12/1/21: 81-77 over Princeton

12/4/21: 88-69 over Bucknell

12/12/21: 102-52 over John Jay

12/18/21: 89-81 over Arkansas

12/22/21: 77-71 over Monmouth

1/9/22: 87-80 over James Madison

2/5/22: 85-78 over James Madison

2/15/22: 97-64 over Elon

2/28/22: 89-84 over Charleston

The Dutchmen have recorded 34 unicorn scores since we first started tracking them in 2018-19 — 10 in ’18-19, followed by 13 in 2019-20 but none in the weirdness that was 2020-21, when the Dutchmen played just 23 games and none were decided by more than 18 points. 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. You may also know it as a “Scorigami,” a term popularized in the NFL.

SECOND-TO-NONE?

The Dutchmen were picked second in the CAA’s preseason poll of league coaches and sports information directors.

1.) Towson (12 1st place votes)

2.) HOFSTRA

3.) Delaware

4.) Charleston (1 1st place vote)

5.) UNC Wilmington

6.) Northeastern

7.) Drexel

8.) William & Mary

9.) Stony Brook

10.) Monmouth

11.) North Carolina A&T

12.) Elon

13.) Hampton

This marks the first time the Dutchmen have been picked second in the CAA’s preseason poll. A school picked second in the preseason has reached the NCAA Tournament just twice since the CAA expanded prior to the 2001-02 season. VCU won the league tournament and automatic bid following he 2003-04 season and George Mason received an at-large bid following the 2010-11 season. That one was well-deserved, unlike the first one! #MyBrand 

SPEAKING OF EXPANSION…

The CAA will have a league-record 13 schools this season following the exit of James Madison and the additions of former America East school Stony Brook, former MAAC school Monmouth and former Big South schools Hampton and North Carolina A&T. Another Big South school, Campbell, is slated to join the CAA next year, though this is realignment so you never really can tell who is and isn’t in a league until the season begins.

This marks the first expansion for the CAA since Elon was added prior to the 2014-15 season and the largest expansion since the America East four — Hofstra along with Delaware, Drexel and Towson — arrived and saved the league prior to the 2001-02 season. Once again, you’re welcome! The CAA had a 12-team alignment from 2005-06 through 2011-12. 

At 22 seasons apiece, the America East four are now tied for the third-longest tenure in the CAA behind William & Mary, a founding member of the league in 1982-83, and UNC Wilmington, which joined in 1984-85. 

SEASON OPENERS

Hofstra is 49-37 all-time in season openers. The Flying Dutchmen dropped their season opener for the third straight year last Nov. 9, when they fell to 15th-ranked Houston, 83-75, in overtime. So close. The Dutchmen haven’t lost four straight openers since a four-game skid from 2006 through 2009. 

This marks the second-earliest season opener in program history. The Dutchmen fell to San Jose State, 79-71, on Nov. 6, 2019. Twenty years ago, the first game of the season wasn’t until Nov. 22! What did we do for those two extra weeks?

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

THE FIRST TIME

With the loss to Houston in Speedy Claxton’s debut. Hofstra head coaches fell to 7-7 in their first game with the program. (The Flying Dutchmen have had 15 head coaches, but Jack McDonald and Butch van Breda Kolff each had two tenures at the helm)

PRINCETON AND THE IVY LEAGUE

Princeton, under 12th-year head coach Mitch Henderson, was picked to finish second in the Ivy League just behind Pennsylvania. Both schools received six first-place votes but Penn finished with 111 points, one more than the Tigers.

Princeton senior forward Tosan Evbouwman was the Ivy League’s unanimous Player of the Year last season, when he averaged 16.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and a league-leading 5.1 assists per game. Senior guard Ryan Langborg, who averaged 10.7 points per game last season, is the Tigers’ other returning starter. The Tigers lost senior Jaelin Llewellyn, who transferred to Michigan after earning all-Ivy first-team honors and ranking just behind Evbouwman with 15.7 points per game last season.

The Dutchmen and Tigers have four common opponents this season. Princeton will face CAA schools Drexel (Dec. 3), Monmouth (Dec. 10) and Delaware (Dec. 16) as well as Iona (Dec. 13), whom Hofstra is slated to play Friday.

The schools share a pretty neat link in legendary coach Butch van Breda Kolff, who went a robust 136-43 for Hofstra from 1955 through 1962 before going to Princeton, whom he directed to a 103-31 record, four NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four berth in five seasons. van Breda Kolff headed to the NBA following the 1966-67 season and was replaced by Pete Carril, who spent the next 29 seasons at the school and earned his final win with one of the most iconic upsets in NCAA Tournament history, the Tigers’ 43-41 victory over defending national champion UCLA on Mar. 14, 1996. Carril died Aug. 15 at age 92.

Hofstra is 4-3 all-time against Princeton. The Dutchmen earned a second straight win against the Tigers last Dec. 1, when they recorded an 81-77 win at the Arena.

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

You’re not as old as William & Mary bias! (It’s true, Princeton is just the fourth-oldest school in the nation)

Brooke Shields bias! (Everyone’s favorite early ‘80s crush went to Princeton)

Robert Caro bias! (The incredibly detailed and prolific author and two-time Pulitzer Price winner graduated from Princeton)

You have one-third of the Supreme Court bias! (It’s true)