At this rate, Hofstra's CAA championship hopes will be Hiding Out soon as well! (Boy this is a deep, nerdy cut even for me)
I don’t know how many mid-majors this season have beaten two ACC teams on the road and then lost to the only previously winless school in its league. So I’m just gonna go out on a limb and assume the Flying Dutchmen are one of one after squandering a 16-point lead and suffering a demoralizing 79-78 loss to North Carolina A&T on Thursday night. Good times, everyone. Good times.
As will hopefully remain the case for the rest of the season however long it lasts (gotta try and change up the fortune somehow), here’s the Keep It Perky featuring the usual postgame boilerplate material. The individual news and notes from the loss to the Aggies and a preview of William & Mary will be posted tomorrow. Enjoy! (Or try to do so, anyway)
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Somehow, someway, the Dutchmen had three players score at least 20 points — Cruz Davis finished with 30 points while freshmen Preston Edmead and Jaeden Roberts had 20 points apiece — against the last-place team in the conference and LOST. Roberts’ 3-pointer with 12:23 left in the first half gave the Dutchmen a 16-15 lead and started what somehow wasn’t a decisive 32-14 surge that ended with Roberts sinking another 3-pointer to cap a stretch of six straight field goals and extend the lead to 45-29 with 5:08 remaining. The Dutchmen led by at least 12 for the rest of the first half, carried a 53-40 lead into intermission and scored on two of their first three possessions in the second half to go up 57-42 before the collapse began. North Carolina A&T scored the next 13 points, a span in which the Dutchmen endured nine straight empty trips. Edmead sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around six empty trips for the teams, after which the Aggies went on a 14-2 run to take a 70-65 lead with 5:34 remaining. The Dutchmen, who were 0-for-4 with two turnovers during the second North Carolina A&T run, never led again but tied the score twice in the final 1:44, the last time at 78-78 following a pair of Davis free throws with 23 seconds left. Trent Middleton Jr. drew a foul on Silas Sunday with four seconds left and split the free throws before Biggie Patterson (1-for-10 shooting, including 0-for-7 from 3-point land) capped a rough return from a four-game absence by missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Had he drained it, the Dutchmen would have won by the exact score North Carolina A&T won by in its previous win over Hofstra on Dec. 31, 2022. That would have been nice and quirky. Alas. Davis had 20 of his 30 points in the first half and missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:25 left. Edmead scored 14 points before intermission and added five rebounds and four assists, the latter of which tied Davis for the team lead. Roberts scored 17 points in the first half and missed a potential tie-breaking free throw with 1:44 remaining. Sunday, who started and played 29 minutes with Victory Onuetu once again battling foul trouble, had eight rebounds. Sunday, Patterson and Joshua DeCady combined for the only eight points not scored by Davis, Edmead and Roberts. German Plotnikov sat out with an injury.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. North Carolina A&T, 1/22)
3: Cruz Davis
2: Preston Edmead
1: Jaeden Roberts
SEASON STANDINGS
Cruz Davis 49
Preston Edmead 32
Biggie Patterson 9
German Plotnikov 7
Victory Onuetu 6
Joshua DeCady 6
Silas Sunday 6
Jaeden Roberts 3
A.J. Wills 2
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER TWENTY GAMES
The Dutchmen fell to 13-7 with Thursday night’s loss. This ties the 2025-26 team for the 23rd-best record in school history through 20 games. This is the first time the Dutchmen have opened 13-7 since 2021-22 and the sixth time overall in program history. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through 20 games:
NCAA DIVISION I TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 10-10 (loss in 20th game was final regular season loss)
1976-77: 14-6
1999-2000: 15-5
2000-01: 16-4 (marked eighth win in program-record 18-game winning streak)
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 14-6 (most recent 14-6 start)
NIT TEAMS
1998-99: 13-7
2004-05: 14-6
2005-06: 16-4 (most recent 16-4 start)
2006-07: 15-5 (most recent 15-5 start)
2015-16: 14-6
2018-19: 17-3 (most recent 17-3 start, win in 20th game marked 13th win in the 16-game winning streak)
2022-23: 12-8 (most recent 12-8 start, loss in 20th game was final loss of the regular season before a 12-game winning streak)
NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1958-59: 15-5
1961-62: 18-2 (most recent 18-2 start)
1962-63: 14-6
1963-64: 17-3 (first 17-3 start)
Some other notable 20-game records:
2024-25: 11-9 (most recent 11-9 start)
2016-17: 9-11 (most recent 9-11 start; loss in 20th game marked final loss of Mihalich-era record six-game losing streak)
2013-14: 7-13 (most recent 7-13 start, Joe Mihalich’s first team)
2012-13: 5-15 (most recent 5-15 start)
2007-08: 6-14 (most recent 6-14 start)
2003-04: 8-12 (most recent 8-12 start)
2001-02: 9-11 (Tom Pecora’s first team)
1996-97: 10-10 (most recent 10-10 start, last time at .500)
1995-96: 7-13 (loss in 20th game marked sixth loss of Jay Wright-era record nine-game losing streak)
1994-95: 6-14 (first 6-14 start, win in 20th game marked final win of three-game winning streak, the first winning streak of Wright’s first year)
1993-94: 3-17 (only 3-17 start, VBK’s final team)
1991-92: 12-8 (win in 20th game was first in nine-game winning streak that ended in ECC title game)
1987-88: 4-16 (only 4-16 start, loss in 20th game was 10th loss of program-record 12-game losing streak)
1960-61: 18-2 (first 18-2 start)
1959-60: 19-1 (most recent 19-1 start & Hofstra’s winningest team, percentage-wise; win in 20th game was ninth win of season-ending 13-game winning streak)
1955-56: 19-1 (first 19-1 start, VBK’s first year)
1944-45: 8-12 (win in penultimate game was final win of season)
1940-41: 13-7 (won regular season finale)
Hofstra has never been 20-0, 2-18, 1-19 or 0-20 through 20 games.
Six seasons were completed in fewer than 20 games:
1936-37: 10-7
1937-38: 10-4
1938-39: 10-8
1943-44: 7-12
1945-46: 12-7
1947-48: 13-6
Full records not available for the following seasons: 1936-37, 1941-42, 1942-43.
This feature is inspired by 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 FIFTY-THREE
With Saturday’s loss, Speedy Claxton fell to 94-59 (.614) as head coach. That’s the fourth-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 153 games at the helm.
Butch van Breda Kolff I 113-40 (.739, 153rd game was the second game of his seventh season in 1961-62)
Frank Reilly 111-42 (.725, 153rd game was the 24th game of his sixth season in 1952-53)
Paul Lynner 95-58 (.621, 153rd game was the 18th game of his sixth season in 1967-68)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 94-59 (.614, 153rd game was the 20th game of his fifth season in 2025-26)
Tom Pecora 81-72 (.529, 153rd game was the 33rd and final game of his sixth season in 2005-06)
Joe Mihalich 81-72 (.529, 153rd game was the 20th game of his fifth season in 2017-18)
Dick Berg 77-76 (.503, 153rd game was the 14th game of his sixth season in 1985-86)
Jay Wright 76-77 (.497, 153rd game was the eighth game of his fifth season in 1998-99)
Roger Gaeckler 74-79 (.484, 153rd game was the 21st game of his sixth season in 1977-78)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 71-82 (.464, 153rd game was the 12th game of his sixth season in 1993-94)
No movement in the standings following game no. 153. Tom Pecora and Joe Mihalich remain tied for fifth as they both lose their 153rd game at the helm. For Pecora, the generational 2005-06 season ends with a 61-51 loss to CAA rival Old Dominion in the NIT quarterfinals. When you think about it, that’s really one of the most Hofstra things to ever happen. But Pecora goes from 10 games under .500 following his fifth season to nine games over .500 through six seasons, which is pretty incredible. Dick Berg climbs back over .500 with a win in his 153rd game. Meanwhile, Butch van Breda Kolff’s final team — and the first team of my Hofstra tenure — falls to 1-11. Things will get better, right?
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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