Can you imagine a world in which Hofstra didn't trail 20-2 Friday night?
On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t be doing Keep It Perkys (Perkies?) after each non-conference game. The Dutchmen’s pursuit of reverse perfection continued Friday, when they couldn’t recover from a brutal start in an 81-73 loss to Iona. That was a lot better than the alternative five minutes into the game!
But we’ll give this another shot. A loss tomorrow and we’ll be reevaluating A LOT of things. In the meantime, here’s the second Keep It Perky, featuring the postgame boilerplate material. The individual news and notes from Friday’s loss and the Molloy preview will be posted overnight. Enjoy!
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
The Dutchmen ended the game on a 61-46 run over the final 25 minutes, which means they were the better team for more than half the game, which means they should be the winners. Alas we’re not powerful enough to bend the rules to our desires. Maybe next year! Anyway, the game-ending run doesn’t do justice to just how deep a hole dug by the Dutchmen, who never had a real chance after falling behind 20-2 (!!!) fewer than five minutes into the game. Iona was 8-of-11 during the game-opening run and extended the lead to 35-12 before the Dutchmen made the final margin respectable and got within six points in the final minute. Freshman phenom Preston Edmead scored 16 of his 18 points over the final 25 minutes while Biggie Patterson collected all 16 of his points in the second half. Victory Onuetu flirted with a double-double by finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds, including 11 points and four rebounds in the final seven minutes. Cruz Davis scored 13 points but shot just 5-of-15, including 2-of-10 inside the 3-point line. Silas Sunday added 10 points and four rebounds.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Iona, 11/7)
3: Preston Edmead
2: Biggie Patterson
1: Victory Onuetu
SEASON STANDINGS
Preston Edmead 5
Cruz Davis 3
Biggie Patterson 2
Victory Onuetu 1
Silas Sunday 1
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER TWO GAMES
As you may have gathered by now, the Dutchmen fell to 0-2 with Friday’s loss. This ties the 2025-26 team for the worst record in school history through two games! Or the 74th-best record in school history through two games, depending on how you want to look at it. Sixteen other teams began 0-2, most recently the 2012-13 squad. That’s not good! 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 THIRTY-FIVE
With Friday’s loss, Speedy Claxton fell to 81-54 (.600) as head coach. That’s the fourth-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 135 games at the helm.
Butch van Breda Kolff I 100-35 (.741, 135th game was the eighth game of his sixth season in 1960-61) 91-35
Frank Reilly 97-38 (.719, 135th game was the sixth game of his sixth season in 1952-53) 92-37
Paul Lynner 85-50 (.630, 135th game was the 25th and final game of his fifth season in 1966-67) 73-37
SPEEDY CLAXTON 81-54 (.600, 135th game was the second game of his fifth season in 2025-26) 81-52
Joe Mihalich 71-64 (.526, 135th game was the second game of his fifth season in 2017-18) 69-64
Roger Gaeckler 69-66 (.511, 135th game was the third game of his sixth season in 1977-78) 68-64
Dick Berg 69-66 (.511, 135th game was the 25th game of his fifth season in 1984-85) 56-54
Butch van Breda Kolff II 67-68 (.496, 135th game was the 21st game of his fifth season in 1992-93) 61-53
Tom Pecora 67-68 (.496, 135th game was the 15th game of his sixth season in 2005-06) 55-65
Jay Wright 65-70 (.481, 135th game was the 22nd game of his fifth season in 1998-99) 50-63
Butch van Breda Kolff becomes the first Hofstra coach to reach the 100-win milestone as the Flying Dutchmen (who really WERE the Flying Dutchmen back then!) earn the penultimate victory of their school-record 23-game winning streak spanning two seasons. Paul Lynner closes out his fifth season while Dick Berg and Roger Gaeckler each improve to 69-66 to remain tied for sixth place. VBK II and Tom Pecora each inch within a game of ,500 and stay tied for eighth place, two games ahead of that perpetual slacker Jay Wright, who remains mired in last place despite a win in game no. 135. Perpetual slacker!
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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