Let's hope the Scrubs reboot (and the rest of the Flying Dutchmen's season) goes better than the previous last season of Scrubs.
From wondering how deep into the season the Flying Dutchmen would remain unbeaten in CAA play to wondering if they’ll be under .500 in the CAA next week, all in nine days LONG ISLAND REFERENCE! Ahh college hoops. Anyway, the Dutchmen will attempt to avoid their fourth straight loss this afternoon, when they conclude their southern swing by visiting William & Mary.
As will hopefully become the routine once again the rest of the season, I ran down the boilerplate material from Thursday night’s loss to North Carolina A&T in last night’s Keep It Perky. Today will be about the individual news and notes from that loss as well as a preview of the Tribe/Pantsless Griffins. Enjoy!
WE’RE STREAKING (in the other way)
You can spin back-to-back losses as not constituting a losing streak, but there’s no spinning three straight losses as anything other than a losing streak. The three-game skid is a season-high for the Dutchmen and their longest losing streak since the season-tanking six-game losing streak from last Feb. 1-20.
DOUBLE DIGITS NOT ENOUGH
The Dutchmen, who held a pair of 16-point leads in the first half and led by 15 points early in the second half, squandered a double-digit lead in a loss for the first time this season and the 14th time since Speedy Claxton became head coach for the 2021-22 season. Prior to Thursday, the Dutchmen hadn’t blown a double-digit lead in a loss since last Feb. 20, when they led Monmouth by 16 points in the first half of a 68-62 loss.
WIN PROBABILITY, SCHWIN PROBABILITY
North Carolina A&T’s win probability, per KenPom.com, bottomed out at 2.4 percent when the Dutchmen led 55-40 with 18:52 left. That’s the lowest an opponent’s win percentage has dropped in a win over the Dutchmen since…Dec, 31, 2022, when North Carolina A&T’s win probability bottomed out at 1.7 percent with 9:57 left in the second half of the Aggies’ 81-79 win. Ha ha ha we all love quirkiness here.
THE IMPERFECT THREE HUNDREDS
A bowling reference, sorta! The loss to North Carolina A&T — which entered Thursday ranked no. 311 at KenPom.com — marked the Dutchmen’s sixth loss to a team that entered the game ranked 300th or lower since Speedy Claxton became head coach for the 2021-22 season. The Dutchmen had three such losses last season (Tarleton State and Stony Brook twice, because of course) and one apiece in 2023-24 (Campbell) and 2021-22 (William & Mary).
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE…
…no-win teams, that is. North Carolina A&T, which opened league play with six straight losses, became the final team to earn a CAA victory Thursday night. This marks the first time in a little more than 23 years that the Dutchmen were victimized for the first league victory by the CAA’s final winless team. Towson got off the mat after four straight losses by beating the Dutchmen, 61-54, on Jan, 15, 2003. So a kid born that day is probably a college graduate now. Depressing. A year earlier, James Madison and Towson were the final winless CAA teams at 0-3 but won on the same day on Jan. 12, 2002, when the Dukes beat the Dutchmen and the Tigers defeated Drexel.
THREE TWENTY-SOMETHINGS AREN’T ENOUGH
This is still mind-boggling. The Dutchmen had THREE players score at least 20 points Thursday night, when Cruz Davis finished with 30 points and Preston Edmead and Jaeden Roberts added 20 points apiece, yet still lost. It’s the first time the Dutchmen have lost a game in which three players scored at least 20 points since way back on Feb. 13, 2007, when Carlos Rivera scored 26 points, Loren Stokes hd 21 points and Antoine Agudio finished with 20 points in a 96-82 loss to Old Dominion. Remarkably, the Dutchmen had just one game with three 20-point scorers in between these defeats — and they needed triple overtime to pull off the feat on Jan, 21, 2016, when Juan’ya Green and Rokas Gustys had 23 points each and Denton Koon added 22 points in 96-92 win over Northeastern. Ten years and one day before Thursday!
THREE-ON-FIVE
Speaking of the Cruz Davis-Preston Edmead-Jaeden Roberts trio…their 70 points accounted for 89.7 percent of the Dutchmen’s 78 points Thursday night, I was told there’d be no math. That’s the highest percentage of points scored by a trio of Dutchmen since Jan. 4, 2024, when Tyler Thomas (21 points), Darlinstone Dubar (20 points) and Jaquan Carlos (14 points) accounted for 55 of the Dutchmen’s 61 points — or 90.1 percent — in a 73-61 loss to Charleston.
FIERY FRESHMAN
Preston Edmead and Jaeden Roberts made a bit of Hofstra history Thursday, when they each scored 20 points. They are the first pair of freshmen to score at least 20 points in the same game for the Dutchmen since at least the 1988-89 season which is as far back as my game-by-game logs go at home. Again, this came in a defeat, which boggles the mind. In addition, per Stathead, Edmead and Roberts were the sixth freshman duo to score at least 20 points for their team in Division I this season.
DRY JANUARY
With Thursday night’s loss, the Dutchmen fell to 3-3 this month and dropped to 11-12 in January over the last three years. They’ve lost consecutive games in January once in each of the last three years. They were 19-6 in January from 2021 through 2023, a span in which they had just one losing streak (a three-game skid from Jan. 7-15, 2021, in the midst of the condensed pandemic season).
CRUZ-IN
Wow that was a lot of non-individual notes for a loss. Anyway, Cruz Davis continued his impressive season Thursday night, when he scored 30 points. The 30-point game was the second straight and the fourth overall this season for Davis, the most by a Hofstra player since Tyler Thomas had five 30-point efforts during the 2023-24 season. Davis is also the first Hofstra player to score at least 30 points in back-to-back games since Thomas did so from Nov. 21-22, 2023, when he had 30 points against Wright State and a career-high 40 points against High Point in the final two games of the Gulf Coast Showcase. And speaking of Thomas…Davis has scored in double figures in all 20 games this season — a career-long streak and the longest streak by a Hofstra player since Thomas ended his collegiate career by scoring in double figures in 25 straight games from Dec. 9, 2023 through Mar. 11, 2024. Davis has scored in double figures in 41 of the 52 games in which he’s played for Hofstra after reaching double figures just five times over 28 games in his first two seasons at Iona and St. John’s. The Dutchmen are 25-16 when Davis scores in double figures.
PRESTO!
Preston Edmead continued the most impressive freshman season by a Hofstra player this decade Thursday night, when he scored 20 points, pulled down five rebounds and added four assists. It was the fifth 20-point game of the season for Edmead, the most by a Hofstra freshman since Eli Pemberton had six 20-point games in 2017-18. He has scored in double figures in 16 games this season, the most double-figure scoring efforts by a Hofstra freshman since…you guessed it, Pemberton scored in double figures 21 times in 31 games in 2016-17. Edmead’s 306 points (15.3 ppg) through 20 games are five more than Antoine Agudio had through 20 games during his freshman season in 2004-05 and eight more than Speedy Claxton had through 20 games during his freshman season in 1996-97. Pretty good company.
PRESTON VS. SPEEDY
Speaking of which…Preston Edmead’s first 20 games as a true freshman point guard have been just as impressive as Speedy Claxton’s first 20 games as a true freshman point guard way back in 1996-97.
Speedy Claxton: 14.9 points per game/2.9 assists per game/4.7 rebounds per game
Preston Edmead: 15.3 ppg/4.2 apg/2.9 rpg
Pretty quirky and neat!
JAEDEN JUMPS INTO ACTION
Freshman Jaeden Roberts had his best game of the season Thursday, when he set career highs with 20 points over 30 minutes, Roberts, who tied his season high for 3-pointers by going 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, easily surpassed his previous highs of 17 points over 25 minutes while matching the five 3-pointers he hit Dec. 10 in a 92-23 win over Division III Old Westbury. Roberts has 80 points while averaging 13.9 minutes per game over the last 10 games in which he’s played after scoring just five points in three appearances spanning 11 minutes over the first nine games of the season. The Dutchmen won each of Roberts’ first 11 appearances before dropping their last two games.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
Silas Sunday continued to fare well filling whatever role asked of him Thursday, when he moved back into the starting lineup ahead of the struggling Victory Onuetu and finished with two points and a team-high eight rebounds over 29 minutes. Sunday, who played a career-high 31 minutes in last Saturday’s 89-85 loss to ELO, has logged (carries the one, drops the remainder) 60 minutes over the last two games, by far the most minutes he’s played in consecutive games. He played 49 minutes in the wins over Monmouth and Towson from Jan. 8-10. Sunday has at least eight rebounds in five games this season., He has also scored in all 20 games this season after scoring in 26 of 33 games last season.
BIGGIE’S BACK
Biggie Patterson returned after missing four games with an injury but struggled Thursday night, when he scored three points while going 1-of-10 from the field, including 0-of-7 from 3-point land, while adding two rebounds and two steals. The absence of German Plotnikov trust Patterson into the starting lineup for the first time since Dec. 3. The Dutchmen are 5-5 when Patterson starts but 6-0 when he comes off the bench.
DECADY DANCE
Joshua DeCady followed up his best game of his career by struggling offensively Thursday night, when he had three points while going 1-of-6 from the field, including 0-of-2 from 3-point land. He added two rebounds, two assists and two steals. DeCady set career-high with 21 points, four 3-pointers and seven free throws in last Saturday’s 89-85 loss to ELO. He scored five points or fewer 13 times this season but scored eight points or more five times.
VICTORY VANQUISHED
Victory Onuetu continued struggling Thursday night, when he was scoreless with six rebounds and one block before fouling out in 11 minutes. Onuetu, who came off the bench after starting the previous 16 games, has fouled out in each of the last two games despite playing just 15-plus minutes in that span. He fouled out just four times in the first 18 games of the season. Onuetu has gone scoreless in two straight games after posting just one scoreless effort over the first 18 games.
CLUB TRILLION FOR WILLS
A.J. Wills, who has established himself as a late-game Microwave GOOGLE IT CRAIN option this month for the Dutchmen, didn’t record a stat in six minutes of action Thursday night. That’s the lengthiest Club Trillion for a Hofstra player since Khalil Farmer didn’t record a stat over nine minutes in a 67-49 loss to Hampton last Feb. 15.
NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON’T
You had to watch the last seconds of Thursday’s loss to see Alex Tsynkevich, who didn’t officially appear in the scorebook even though he entered the game prior to the first of Trent Middleton Jr.’s two free throws with four seconds left. After Middleton missed the free throw, Tsynkevich exited for A.J. Wills. Hey we count everything here, especially if it’s quirky!
OVER THE AIR
This afternoon’s game is slated to be carried live on FloHoops.com (subscription required, click here for options). Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
SCOUTING WILLIAM & MARY
The Tribe, under second-year head coach Brian Earl, is 13-6 overall and 4-3 in CAA play after beating previously unbeaten UNC Wilmington, 77-70, on Thursday night. The team that beat the last unbeaten team against the team that lost to the last winless team, now THAT’S quirky! William & Mary has won two straight following a three-game losing streak, which followed a three-game winning streak. So maybe it’s not just us!
The Dutchmen and Tribe had no common opponents during non-league play. In CAA play, both teams have beaten Towson. The Dutchmen lost to Stony Brook and North Carolina A&T, both of whom William & Mary beat, and defeated Monmouth, who beat the Tribe.
The Dutchmen, who were picked to finish tied for eighth in the CAA preseason poll, are still somehow ranked a CAA-best 113th at KenPom.com even after the three straight losses. That’s 49 spots higher than they were to open the season but 16 spots lower than their season-high entering the Jan. 10 game against Monmouth. The Tribe, which was picked to finish fourth, are ranked 133rd, which is 98 spots higher than their preseason ranking and 19 spots lower than their season-high entering consecutive games against Stony Brook and Monmouth on Dec. 31 and Jan. 5. Wow! Spanning two years!
According to KenPom.com, the Dutchmen rank first in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (117.5 points per 100 possessions) and eighth in defensive efficiency (112.8 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 63.9 possessions per 40 minutes, the 12th-most in league play. The Tribe rank ninth in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (107.3 points per 100 possessions) and sixth in defensive efficiency (102.9 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 72.1 possessions per 40 minutes, the most in league play.
The Tribe returns five players from last year’s team. Junior Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, who opened his career with two seasons at La Salle, leads William & Mary with 11.7 points per game. Returning senior Kyle Pulliam, a preseason all-CAA honorable mention who began his career with two seasons at Division II St. Thomas Aquinas, is averaging 11.0 points per game. Junior Killian Brockhoff, who has a really cool name and began his carer with one season each at UC-Santa Barbara and Saint Louis, is averaging 10.7 points per game and ranks second on the Tribe with 4.3 rebounds per game. Junior Reese Miller, who spent two seasons at Blinn Community College after redshirting as a freshman at Abilene Christian, is also averaging 10.7 points per game and ranks second with 2.6 assists per game. Senior Chase Lowe, a four-year member of the Tribe (!!!!), is averaging 9,4 points per game while leading the team with 5.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.
KenPom.com predicts an 80-78 loss for the Dutchmen. Sounds painful! Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 2 1/2-point underdogs. The Dutchmen are 11-7 against the spread this season after failing to cover in their last four games and five times in the last six contests.
ALL-TIME VS. WILLIAM & MARY
Hofstra is 29-17 against William & Mary in a series that began when the Dutchmen joined the CAA prior to the 2001-02 season. The Tribe swept the series last season, when it raced out to a 30-point first-half lead in a 74-56 win at the Arena on Jan. 2, 2025 before Chase Lowe’s layup with four seconds left gave William & Mary a 61-60 victory in Virginia on Feb. 13. That was just the third game decided by six points or fewer in the last 11 meetings between the schools dating back to 2019-20. From 2013-14 through 2018-19, a whopping 10 of the 14 games between the teams were decided by six points or fewer.
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER (OR BLUESKY) IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Scrubs is almost back bias! (I’m not really sure why, but in this hellscape, I’m also not complaining when something good happens)
Sean McDermott got screwed bias! (The usual ineptitude of the NFL and its officials cost McDermott his job Monday)
Daniel Dixon is an NBA champion bias! (And Dixon, an assistant with the Oklahoma City Thunder last year and now the Thunder’s G-League head coach, didn’t even have to hit a miracle shot to do it!)
Samantha Huge cost you the 2020 CAA title! (But then again, can you imagine if the Tribe won the CAA title and didn’t get to play in the NCAA Tournament? Oh the humanity)
