Glad you're so happy Temple won, Charlie. Harumph.
Remember: Winners win, but champions cover
Cruz Davis did his best to carry the Flying Dutchmen to an old-school ECC upset last Wednesday night, but his big second half wasn’t enough as the Dutchmen’s rally fell short in an 83-78 loss to Temple (it was 83.5-83 good guys per the spread so there).
As will hopefully become the norm throughout the non-conference season, here’s Keep It Perky, featuring the postgame boilerplate material. The individual news and notes from the loss to Temple and the La Salle preview as the Dutchmen begin their Philly residence in earnest will be posted Friday morning. Enjoy!
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Cruz Davis scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half last Wednesday for the Dutchmen, who whittled an eight-point deficit to two points in the final minute but couldn’t complete the comeback. The Dutchmen held a pair of five-point leads and never trailed by more than three in the first half before Temple’s Jordan Mason (not the running back from the Vikings) drained a jumper just before the buzzer to give the Owls a 33-31 lead at intermission. The teams traded the lead eight times in the first 11 minutes of the second half, including on four consecutive possessions spanning the midway point. Davis drained a pair of 3-pointers during a 12-4 run that gave the Dutchmen a 55-53 lead, but Bill Haverchuck lookalike Gavin Griffiths (#IYKYK) answered with a 3-pointe to put Temple up for good and begin a 13-3 run that put the Owls up 66-58 with 5:01 left. Davis scored 11 points down the stretch for the Dutchmen, who got within two points five times but allowed Temple to score on the subsequent possession every time. Preston Edmead missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 27 seconds left and Temple hit its final six free throws to ice the win. Biggie Patterson scored 15 points, including the Dutchmen’s first eight of the game, while Joshua DeCady scored eight of his 13 points in the second half finished 5-of-6 shooting in just 19 minutes off the bench. Victory Onuetu (seven points, nine rebounds) flirted with another double-double while German Plotnikov finished with eight points. Edmead had his first hiccup of his freshman season as he finished with six points on 3-of-13 shooting — including 0-for-8 from 3-point land — and a game-high six assists.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Temple, 11/19)
3: Cruz Davis
2: Biggie Patterson
1: Joshua DeCady
SEASON STANDINGS
Cruz Davis 11
Preston Edmead 8
Biggie Patterson 4
Victory Onuetu 4
Joshua DeCady 1
German Plotnikov 1
Silas Sunday 1
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER FIVE GAMES
The Dutchmen fell to 2-3 with last Wednesday’s loss. This ties the 2025-26 team for the 57th-best record in school history through five games. Twenty-two other teams began 2-3, most recently the 2016-17 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:
2024-25: 4-1 (most recent 4-1 start)
2023-24: 3-2 (most recent 3-2 start)
2021-22: 1-4 (most recent 1-4 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 ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT
With last Wednesday’s loss, Speedy Claxton fell to 83-55 (.601) as head coach. That’s the fourth-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 138 games at the helm.
Butch van Breda Kolff I 102-36 (.739, 138th game was the 12th game of his sixth season in 1960-61)
Frank Reilly 99-39 (.717, 138th game was the ninth game of his sixth season in 1952-53)
Paul Lynner 87-51 (.630, 138th game was the third game of his sixth season in 1967-68)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 83-55 (.601, 138th game was the fifth game of his fifth season in 2025-26)
Joe Mihalich 72-66 (.522, 138th game was the fifth game of his fifth season in 2017-18)
Dick Berg 70-68 (.507, 138th game was the 28th game of his fifth season in 1984-85)
Roger Gaeckler 69-69 (.500, 138th game was the sixth game of his sixth season in 1977-78)
Tom Pecora 69-69 (.500, 138th game was the 18th game of his sixth season in 2005-06)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 68-70 (.493, 138th game was the 24th game of his fifth season in 1992-93)
Jay Wright 68-70 (.493, 138th game was the 25th game of his fifth season in 1998-99)
Frank Reilly moves within one victory of joining the 100-win club while there’s a ton of activity in the middle and lower regions of the standings. Dick Berg’s squad earns its final win of the 1984-85 season as he leapfrogs Roger Gaeckler and Tom Pecora, the latter of whom is at .500 for the first time since the Dutchmen were 5-5 on Dec. 23, 2001. That’s 128 straight games below .500 for our guy TP, who fell as far as 25 games under .500 before climbing back to the break-even mark. I wonder if he’ll keep going! And Jay Wright, perhaps no longer a perpetual slacker, climbs out of sole possession of last place as his 1998-99 team continues a late-season surge. Five coaches between 68 and 70 wins but nobody at 67 wins. If you have a teenager in your house, you know why I wrote this.
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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