The three stars of the game are done. Wait a minute. What about Sunday? Yeah. What about Sunday?
The Flying Dutchmen’s pursuit of a perfect season continued Friday night, when they fended off Iona 90-76 in a chaotic and wildly entertaining clash of local mid-majors.
The Seton Hall game isn’t until Wednesday, but writing nearly 5,000 words for Friday’s IBQ reminded me how much easier it was last season when I broke out the postgame boilerplate material — recap, 3 Stars, the Dutchmen’s record through however many games and Speedy Claxton’s standing with previous Hofstra coaches through however many games, plus, hopefully, the unicorn score and Keith Hernandez bits) in one file after the game and saved the individual news and notes from the previous game and the preview of the next one for, well, the next one.
For more on how I came to that decision, click on the very first Keep It Perky from last February’s dramatic win over Stony Brook (ha ha suckers, there’s no way they’ll get revenge on us for that!). Also, Keep It Perky? That name is explained there too, but shoutout as always to Jess K. for the rebranding. And now…the Iona Keep It Perky!
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Jaquan Sanders (24 points) led five players in double figures and Jean Aranguren (18 points, nine rebounds, nine assists) flirted with a triple-double for the Dutchmen, who led nearly wire-to-wire but didn’t get to exhale until the final minute of a high-powered battle against Iona. The most valuable double-digit scorer might have been Why Can’t Iona Get Guys Like Silas Sunday, who was scoreless in four-plus garbage time minutes Monday against Division III Old Westbury but entered just 1:48 after the opening tip Friday when Michael Graham picked up two quick fouls and immediately went on a 6-0 run to give the Dutchmen the lead for good (Keith Hernandez spoiler alert!). Iona pulled within three points six times before Cruz Davis and Aranguren combined for eight straight points to begin a 24-7 run that bridged the halves and extended the Dutchmen’s lead to 59-39 with 16:25 left. The Gaels ramped up the full court press and responded with a 31-17 run in which they forced five Dutchmen turnovers and closed to within six points twice, the last at 76-70 with 6:15 remaining. But following a Hofstra timeout, Davis and Aranguren teamed up for a 9-0 run and the Dutchmen led by at least 12 the rest of the way. Sanders was 5-of-9 from 3-point land and added three assists, three rebounds and three steals while playing all 40 minutes. Davis had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists while Aranguren didn’t turn the ball over in 35 minutes. Graham added 14 points, seven rebounds and four bocks while Sunday scored all but one of his career-high 14 points in the first half. TJ Gadsden finished with five points and five rebounds but turned the ball over seven times.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Iona, 11/8)
3: Jean Aranguren
2: Jaquan Sanders
1: Cruz Davis
SEASON STANDINGS
Jean Aranguren 6
Jaquan Sanders 3
Cruz Davis 3
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
Yes!! Two in a row! What a way to start the season! The Dutchmen previously came within one or two points of a 90-76 final seven times, including in a pair of 91-76 wins over Southampton on Feb. 4, 1974 and over Brown on Dec. 7, 1981. But they’d never won 90-76 before Friday!
As you may have surmised by now, this is the Dutchmen’s second unicorn score victory of the season.
11/4/24: 89-62 over Old Westbury
11/8/24: 90-76 over Iona
This is also the Dutchmen’s 55th unicorn score victory since the start of the 2018-19 season, when we first started tracking unicorn scores.
2024-25: Two unicorn scores
2023-24: Seven unicorn scores
2022-23: 12 unicorn scores
2021-22: 11 unicorn scores
2020-21: Zero unicorn scores (really)
2019-20: 13 unicorn scores
2018-19: 10 unicorn scores
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?
Silas Sunday made history Friday, when he recorded the Keith Hernandez by hitting the go-ahead layup to give the Dutchmen the lead for good at 7-6 with 17:49 left in the first half That’s the earliest, by far, that a reserve has ever posted a Keith Hernandez! Or at least the earliest a reserve has posted a Keith Hernandez since we started tracking Keith Hernandezes in 2022-23. Overall, reserves have accounted for eight Keith Hernandezes.
SEASON STANDINGS
Silas Sunday 1
Jean Aranguren 1
ALL-TIME STANDINGS (or at least since the 2022-23 season)
Tyler Thomas 16
Darlinstone Dubar 14
Aaron Estrada 4
Warren Williams 3
Silas Sunday 2
Jacco Fritz 2
Jaquan Carlos 2
German Plotnikov 2
Jean Aranguren 1
Bryce Washington 1
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 TWO GAMES
As you may have gathered by now, the Dutchmen are 2-0. This ties the 2024-25 team for the best record in school history through two games! Twenty-eight other teams began 2-0, most recently the 2022-23 squad. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through two games:
NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 1-1
1976-77: 2-0
1999-2000: 1-1
2000-01: 2-0
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 1-1
NIT TEAMS
2005-06: 1-1
2006-07: 0-2
2015-16: 2-0
2018-19: 1-1
2022-23: 2-0
NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1958-59: 1-1
1961-62: 1-1
1962-63: 1-1
1963-64: 2-0
Some other notable two-game starts:
2021-22: 1-1 (Win in second game was Speedy Claxton’s first as head coach)
2020-21: 1-1 (Win in second game was Mike Farrelly’s first as head coach)
2010-11: 1-1 (Loss in second game was Mo Cassara’s first as head coach)
2001-02: 2-0 (Tom Pecora improves to 2-0)
1994-95: 1-1 (Win in second game was Jay Wright’s first as head coach, guess we’ll keep him)
1988-89: 1-1 (Loss in second game was Butch van Breda Kolff’s first in his second stint as head coach)
1980-81: 2-0 (Dick Berg improves to 2-0)
1979-80: 1-1 (Win in second game was Joe Harrington’s first as head coach)
1962-63: 1-1 (Loss in second game was Paul Lynner’s first as head coach)
1955-56: 2-0 (Butch van Breda Kolff improves to 2-0)
1947-48: 2-0 (Frank Reilly improves to 2-0)
1946-47: 1-1 (Loss in second game was Jack McDonald’s first in his second stint as head coach)
1943-44: 1-1 (Win in second game was Jack Smith’s first as head coach)
1936-37: 0-2 (Will we ever win a game?)
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 ONE HUNDRED AND TWO
With Friday’s win, Speedy Claxton improved to 68-34 (.667) as head coach. That’s tied for the second-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 102 games at the helm.
Paul Lynner 69-33 (.676, 102nd game was the 18th game of his fourth season in 1965-66)
Butch van Breda Kolff I 68-34 (.667, 102nd game was the 27th and final game of his fourth season in 1958-59)
Frank Reilly 68-34 (.667, 102nd game was the second game of his fifth season in 1951-52)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 68-34 (.667, 102nd game was the second game of his fourth season in 2024-25)
Joe Mihalich 55-47 (.539, 102nd game was the first game of his fourth season in 2016-17)
Dick Berg 51-51 (.500, 102nd game was the 20th game of his fourth season in 1983-84)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 51-51 (.500, 102nd game was the 17th game of his fourth season in 1991-92)
Roger Gaeckler 45-57 (.441, 102nd game was the 30th and final game of his fourth season in 1975-76)
Tom Pecora 44-58 (.431, 102nd game was the 12th game of his fourth season in 2004-05)
Jay Wright 43-59 (.422, 102nd game was the 20th game of his fourth season in 1997-98)
Claxton ties Butch van Breda Kolff I and Frank Reilly and moves within a game of Paul Lynner for the top spot. Dick Berg and VBK II remained tied after their Van Hagar experience following game no. 101 while Roger Gaeckler’s breakout season ends with an 80-78 loss to Connecticut in the 1976 NCAA Tournament. Listen, I’m from Connecticut and I can tell you that’s as good as it’s ever gonna get for men’s basketball in that state. And as always, Tom Pecora and Jay Wright bring up the rear. Slackers!
The records are incomplete for Jack McDonald’s first stint from 1936 through 1943 as well as the tenure of Jack Smith (1943-46).
Smith finished 27-32 in his three seasons while Mo Cassara finished 38-59 in his three seasons. 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.
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