If a certain drone-loving idiot wasn't a drone-loving idiot, you'd probably remember Cody Allen as the guy who closed out Cleveland's first World Series since 1948.
The Flying Dutchmen overcame a spate of double-digit deficits and perhaps some shaky officiating to author their first rollercoaster win of the season Tuesday night, when they surged past Wright State late in the second half of an 85-76 victory. The Dutchmen will look to win the Gulf Coast Showcase tonight when they face High Point in the championship game. Here’s a look back at the win over the Raiders and a look ahead to the…Panthers? Panthers.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Tyler Thomas punched his membership into the 30-point club Tuesday, when he scored the final nine of his aforementioned 30 points over the final 4:16 to spark a game-ending 18-5 run and lift the Dutchmen past High Point. The Dutchmen missed their first five shots of the game and trailed 17-4 fewer than eight minutes in before mounting a 19-3 run to take their first lead with 9:07 left. Shortly thereafter, the teams combined to make eight straight shots over a span of 2:26. Jaquan Carlos picked up his second ticky-tack foul with 3:09 left, after which Wright State mounted an 11-0 run to take a 48-38 halftime lead. The Dutchmen opened the second half with a 26-12 run and went ahead 64-60 on Thomas’ jumper with 8:55 remaining. Wright State responded with an 11-3 surge before Carlos began the decisive run by converting a nostalgic 3-point play with 4:41 left. Thomas put the Dutchmen ahead for good with a pair of free throws 25 seconds later and the Dutchmen limited the Raiders to 2-of-7 shooting with one turnover the rest of the way. Thomas added four rebounds, four assists and two steals while playing all 40 minutes along with Darlinstone Dubar, who had 16 points and four rebounds. Jacco Fritz flirted with a double-double (14 points, nine rebounds) and scored five points during the game-ending run. Carlos had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists and teamed up with Bryce Washington (seven points, five rebounds) to deliver key defensive stops down the stretch.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Wright State, 11/21)
3: Tyler Thomas
2: Jacco Fritz
1: Jaquan Carlos
SEASON STANDINGS
Tyler Thomas 11
Darlinstone Dubar 9
Jaquan Carlos 5
Jacco Fritz 3
KiJan Robinson 1
Bryce Washington 1
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
No! But in the type of quirkiness we like here, this was just the second 85-76 victory in program history — and it happened four days after the first anniversary of the first 85-76 win, a triumph over San Jose State in which the Dutchmen also overcame a double-digit halftime deficit. Nifty!
The Dutchmen have recorded two unicorn score victories this season after recording 12 unicorn score victories last season, 11 unicorn score victories in 2021-22, no unicorn scores in 2020-21, 13 unicorn scores in 2019-20 and 10 unicorn scores in 2018-19. 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.
WHO HAD THE KEITH HERNANDEZ?
Tyler Thomas, the reigning Keith Hernandez champion, extended his all-time lead in Keith Hernandezes by sinking the tie-breaking free throw with 4:16 left. If these trends continue, I suppose we’ll just do away with this stat for no apparent reason. It’s the second time Thomas has put the Dutchmen ahead for good immediately after draining the game-tying free throw. He also followed that sequence in the 68-65 win over Stony Brook on Feb. 18.
Darlinstone Dubar go-ahead layup vs. St. Joseph’s (NY), 11/6/23 (14:30 left 1H)
Jaquan Carlos tie-breaking 3-pointer vs. Buffalo, 11/20/23 (19:33 left 1H)
Tyler Thomas tie-breaking free throw vs. Wright State, 11/21/23 (4:16 left 2H)
SEASON STANDINGS
Tyler Thomas 1
Jaquan Carlos 1
Darlinstone Dubar 1
ALL-TIME STANDINGS (or at least since last season)
Tyler Thomas 11
Darlinstone Dubar 6
Aaron Estrada 4
Warren Williams 3
Jaquan Carlos 2
German Plotnikov 2
The Keith Hernandez is bestowed upon the player who scores the points that put the Dutchmen ahead for good in a victory. The stat pays homage to Hernandez, the World Series-winning Cardinals and Mets first baseman who had a record 129 game-winning RBIs when the stat was inexplicably discontinued after the 1988 season.
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER FIVE GAMES
With Tuesday’s win, the Dutchmen improved to 3-2. This ties the 2023-24 team for the 23rd-best record in school history through three games. Thirty-two other teams began 3-2, most recently the 2020-21 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
2022-23: 4-1
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)
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.
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 SEVENTY-TWO
With Tuesday’s win, Speedy Claxton improved to 49-23 (.681) as head coach. That’s the second-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 71 games at the helm. The last 18 games mark the highest Claxton has been in the all-time game-to-game standings since he became head coach in 2021-22.
Paul Lynner 54-18 (.750, 72nd game was the 13th game of his third season in 1964-65)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 49-23 (.681, 72nd game was the fifth game of his third season in 2023-24)
Butch van Breda Kolff I 47-25 (.653, 71st game was the 19th game of his third season in 1957-58)
Dick Berg 37-35 (.514, 72nd game was the 17th game of his third season in 1982-83)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 35-37 (.486, 72nd game was the 15th game of his third season in 1990-91)
Mo Cassara 34-38 (.472, 72nd game was the seventh game of his third season in 2012-13)
Joe Mihalich 33-39 (.458, 72nd game was the fifth game of his third season in 2015-16)
Roger Gaeckler 27-45 (.375, 72nd game was the 24th & final game of his third season in 1974-75)
Jay Wright 26-46 (.361, 72nd game was the 17th game of his third season in 1996-97)
Tom Pecora 24-48 (.333, 72nd game was the 11th game of his third season in 2003-04)
Things are about to get a lot better for Roger Gaeckler. And hopefully for Jay Wright and Tom Pecora too!
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 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.
DOUBLE DIGIT COMEBACK
The Dutchmen, who trailed by 13 points three times in the first half, overcame a double-digit deficit in a win for the first time this season and for the first time since Mar. 14, when they trailed Rutgers by 10 points in the first half of the seismic 88-86 overtime win in the first round of the NIT. The Dutchmen had three comebacks from double-digit deficits last season and have posted six comebacks from double-digit deficits under Speedy Claxton.
The comeback from the 13-point deficit was the biggest for the Dutchmen since they overcame a 14-point first-half deficit in an 85-76 win over San Jose State on Nov. 17, 2022. I told you that’d be quirky! The win Tuesday was also the first time the Dutchmen have overcome a double-digit halftime deficit since they beat the Spartans after trailing 41-31 at the half.
THIRTY POINTS, TWICE AS NICE
Tyler Thomas made it two newcomers to the Hofstra 30-point club in as many nights Tuesday, when he scored 30 points. Darlinstone Dubar, of course, scored 30 points in Monday’s 102-68 win over Buffalo.
The 30-point effort is the third as a collegian for Thomas, who scored a career-high 36 points for Sacred Heart against Merrimack on Jan, 7, 2021 before scoring 30 points against Rhode Island on Dec. 7, 2021.
THE 30-POINT CLUB UPDATE, V2.0
With his 30-point outing Tuesday night, Tyler Thomas became the 22nd Hofstra player to score at least 30 points in a game since the 1989-90 season, which is as far back as my records go at home. Overall, a player has scored at least 30 points in a game 97 times since the start of the 1989-90 season, including 37 times in the Joe Mihalich/Mike Farrelly/Speedy Claxton era (2013-pres). Who joins the club tonight? Looking in your general direction, Jaquan Carlos.
TOTAL (career 30-point games)
Justin Wright-Foreman 23
Demetrius Dudley 12
Charles Jenkins 12
Antoine Agudio 10
Speedy Claxton 8
Loren Stokes 7
Mike Moore 3
Zeke Upshaw 3
Rick Apodaca 2
Desure Buie 2
John Mavroukas 2
Jalen Ray 2
Ameen Tanksley 2
Tyler Thomas 1
Darlinstone Dubar 1
Omar Silverio 1
Eli Pemberton 1
Juan’ya Green 1
Nathaniel Lester 1
Carlos Rivera 1
Norm Richardson 1
Lawrence Thomas 1
This would still make for an awesome Immaculate Grid game, just saying.
THE 30-30 CLUB
Sorry David Wright, but that’s not a reference to homers and steals. Darlinstone Dubar and Tyler Thomas are the first Hofstra players to each separately score 30 points in consecutive games since way back on Feb, 22-24, 2007, when Antoine Agudio scored 30 points in a 68-65 win over UNC Wilmington before Carlos Rivera scored a career-high 37 points in a 98-78 win over James Madison, That’s the only instance of two different players scoring 30 points in consecutive games since at least 1989-90. Quirky!
NO DOUBTING THOMAS
Tyler Thomas had little difficulty extending his streak of double-digit scoring performances Tuesday night, when, as you may have read by now, he scored a game-high 30 points. It was the 20th straight double-digit effort for Thomas, who has scored at least 10 points in 29 of his last 30 games and 34 times in 40 games overall since joining the Dutchmen last season. He has scored at least 20 points four times in five games this season and 16 times overall.
D-STONE DEALING
You know you’re having a good season when a 16-point performance ranks as the least productive outing thus far. Darlinstone Dubar’s big season continued Tuesday, when he scored, you guessed it, 16 points in the win over Wright State. Dubar has scored at least 16 points in all five games this season, the longest such streak of his career. He scored at least 16 points in nine non-consecutive games last season and six non-consecutive games in 2021-22.
PUTTING ON THE FRITZ
Jacco Fritz’s impressive tournament continued Tuesday, when he scored 14 points and pulled down nine rebounds in 35 minutes. All three totals represented season-highs for Fritz. The 14 points were his most since he had 19 points for Canisius against Rider on Feb. 17 while the nine rebounds were his most since a nine-rebound performance against Saint Peter’s on Feb. 24. Fritz last played at least 35 minutes in his Canisius finale on Mar. 7, when he played 40 minutes in an overtime loss to Mount St. Mary’s in the MAAC tournament.
THE 15/5/5 CLUB
Jaquan Carlos overcame some sketchy first-half foul trouble to finish with 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. He’s the first Hofstra player to collect at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists in the same game since Aaron Estrada had 18 points, six rebounds and eight assists in the 79-65 loss to Cincinnati in the second round of the NIT on Mar. 18. Carlos is the 14th Hofstra player to have at least one game with at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists since 2010-11, the first season of the Play Index era at College Basketball Reference, but the first to finish with EXACTLY 15 points, five rebounds and five assists. Quirky!
BRYCE THE GLUE GUY
Bryce Washington had a solid all-around game Tuesday, when he finished with seven points and five rebounds while teaming up with Jaquan Carlos to provide lockdown defense during the second half. Washington has two games this season in which he’s finished with at least five points and five rebounds — he had eight points and seven rebounds in the 74-67 loss to Princeton on Nov. 10 — after recording at least five points and five rebounds just twice in 29 games last season.
MARATHON MEN (part one)
Starters combined to score 82 of the Dutchmen’s 85 points last night. The only reserve to score was KiJan Robinson, whose 3-pointer with 11:23 left gave the Dutchmen a 60-58 lead. The three points by Hofstra reserves were the fewest by bench players since Nov. 13, 2021, when Omar Silverio’s two points were the lone points by a non-starter in a 73-63 win over Duquesne.
MARATHON MEN (part two)
Tyler Thomas and Darlinstone Dubar each played all 40 minutes for the Dutchmen on Tuesday night. Thomas and Dubar are the first Hofstra players to play every minute in a game since Thomas and Aaron Estrada played all 45 minutes in the 79-73 overtime loss to UNC Wilmington in the CAA semifinals on Mar. 6. The last time two Hofstra players played every minute in a regulation game was Feb. 4, when Thomas and Jaquan Carlos played all 40 minutes in a 79-58 win over Stony Brook. Estrada sat that game out with an illness.
PLAY TAKING CARE OF (THE FAMILY) BUSINESS AGAIN
This one was for you, Charles Jenkins and David Imes and Matt Grogan and Stephen Nwaukoni, Well, only Imes, Grogan and Nwaukoni played in both of the Dutchmen’s losses to Wright State in the early 2010s, but anytime we can reference The Wolf, we’ll do so.
The win Tuesday night was the first for the Dutchmen against Wright State, which handed Hofstra an 82-56 loss in a Bracketbuster game in Ohio on Feb. 19, 2011 before earning a 63-57 win in the return game at the Arena on Dec. 15, 2012. A lot happened in between those games, including Molly being born! Anyway, this wasn’t family business on the scale of the Buffalo beatdown, but still, it was good to get that “1” in the win column. Not sure what we’ll come up with for High Point, but we’ve got seven hours to figure it out!
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’s Gulf Coast Showcase title game is slated to be carried live on Flo Hoops. For subscription options, click here. Hofstra will also provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
GULF COAST SHOWCASE UPDATE
Before the Dutchmen and High Point oppose each other in hopes of hoisting some hardware, Wright State will face Illinois State (only one of you is a state) in the third-place game at 5 PM. In the bracket composed of teams who fell Monday, Long Beach State and Louisiana will play in the fifth-place game at 1:30 PM, after Iona and Buffalo oppose each other in the battle of New York in the seventh-place game, which started at 11 AM.
THE DUTCHMEN IN PRESEASON TOURNAMENTS
The Dutchmen are seeking their first championship in a preseason tournament since 2019, when they beat Holy Cross and Canisius in the Naismith Bracket of the Boca Raton Classic. Jacco Fritz scored five points for Canisius in the championship game. Small world!
The Dutchmen have won six preseason tournaments in the Defiantly Dutch Era (1993-pres), including the 1998 and 1999 Holiday Festivals, when Speedy Claxton was the point guard for the Flying Dutchmen (who really WERE the Flying Dutchmen back then!). This could be a quirky stat, let’s go Dutchmen.
HIGH POINT AND THE BIG SOUTH
High Point, under first-year head coach Alan Huss, is 3-2 this season after beating Illinois State, 74-72, on Tuesday afternoon. Duke miles hit the tie-breaking and game-winning basket with 35 seconds left for the Panthers, who led by as many as 16 earlier in the second half. High Point opened Gulf Coast Showcase play with a wire-to-wire 82-68 win over Iona on Monday.
High Point was picked to finish seventh in the nine-team Big South, though the Panthers received one first-place vote. Junior Abdoulaye Thiam, who began his career at Minnesota, leads High Point with 16.2 points per game and ranks third in rebounding at 4.6 rebounds per game. Miles, who played his first three seasons at Troy (not a State), is averaging 15.6 points per game while sophomore forward Kimani Hamilton, who played last season at Mississippi State, is averaging 13.8 ppg and a team-high 7.6 rpg. Junior Kezza Giffa, who opened his career at UTEP in 2021-22 and played last season at Daytona State College, is averaging 12.6 ppg.
The Dutchmen and Panthers have two common opponents this season. Hofstra is slated to visit Iona on Dec. 6, two days before High Point is scheduled to host the CAA’s North Carolina A&T.
This is the first meeting between Hofstra and High Point in men’s basketball and just the fourth meeting in any sport. The Flying Dutchwomen volleyball team earned a 3-2 win over High Point at the Thunder Invitational in West Virginia on Sept. 4, 2010. The Flying Dutchwomen lacrosse team split a pair of games with High Point, falling 13-9 on Apr. 26, 2018 and recording a 13-10 win on Mar. 16, 2019.
The Dutchmen are 1-0 all-time against current Big South schools but have never played a school while it was actually IN the Big South. The Dutchmen beat then-independent Longwood, 75-60, on Jan. 28, 2008. It’s hard to tell these days with constant conference realignment, but if my research is correct, the Big South is the only league whose schools the Dutchmen have never opposed, not even once. Until tonight! Now THAT’S quirky!
At KenPom.com this afternoon, Hofstra is ranked 115th while High Point is ranked 221st. KenPom.com predicts an 81-74 win for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 6 1/2-point favorites. The Dutchmen are 2-2 against the spread this season.
THE DUTCHMEN ON THIS DATE
New feature! At least if I can catch up on the rest of the calendar over the next few weeks. Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to see how the Dutchmen have historically fared on each of the days in which they are scheduled to play this season.
Thus, I am here to report the Dutchmen are 1-8 all-time on Nov. 22 with eight straight losses on this date. The Dutchmen earned their lone win on this date in 1996, when they beat non-Division I Stony Brook, 55-42. However, four of the Dutchmen’s losses on this date have come at the hands of power conference foes and/or Gonzaga, plus another one to Richmond two years ago today.
11/22/22: 81-68 L Richmond
11/22/16: 87-73 L Vermont
11/22/15: 94-84 L South Carolina
11/22/11: 62-60 L Florida Atlantic
11/22/05: 69-50 L Notre Dame
11/22/03: 69-56 L Providence
11/22/02: 69-61 L Gonzaga
11/22/97: 77-64 L Fairfield
11/22/96: 55-42 W Stony Brook
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Tubby Smith bias! (The national championship-winning coach graduated from High Point and coached the Panthers from 2018 until he stepped down following a second bout with COVID in February 2022)
Cody Allen bias! (The former Cleveland closer went to High Point)
Happy almost century bias! (High Point was founded as High Point College in 1924)
You are right before us alphabetically among Division I school bias! (It's true!)
You might be in the CAA soon with us bias! (High Point has been bandied about as a CAA expansion candidate, but to be fair, so has just about every other school in the country)
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