The 16th Senior Day (or Night) for Speedy Claxton as a Hofstra player and coach will be an event with which he’s familiar — one headlined by German Plotnikov and Silas Sunday, who have combined to spend seven seasons at Hofstra.
It was also one he wasn’t sure he’d ever see again.
“In this day and age, it’s like you might have a senior and you might honor him on Senior Night or Senior Day (but) you only had him for a year,” Claxton said Monday afternoon. “But with those two guys, you know they’ve been with us for a number of years, so it’s a true Senior Night for us.”
Plotnikov and Sunday will be honored tonight along with a trio of first-year Dutchmen — true senior Biggie Patterson and graduate students Joshua Aaron Reaves and Alex Tsynkevich — before the regular season finale against Drexel.
Patterson has provided energy, rebounding and offense off the bench while Reaves and Tsynkevich have contributed pockets of much-needed production as a reserve guard and center, respectively.
Plotnikov and Sunday have both thrived as starters for the Dutchmen, who have won 20 games and clinched a top-four seed in the CAA Tournament for the fourth time in Claxton’s five seasons as head coach. But tonight will be more about honoring a duo who represent a throwback to the era in which long-tenured players — especially glue guys — were the centerpieces of Senior Day (or Night).
In another sign of the times, tonight will mark Plotnikov’s second Senior Night. Plotnikov, who opened his college career with two seasons at North Platte Community College, was honored last year, before he knew if he’d take the waiver granted to all former junior college players who completed their eligibility in 2024-25.
“We’re in negotiations for a 10th year of eligibility,” Plotnikov said with a laugh. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to do that.”
But just playing four and three seasons at Hofstra make Plotnikov and Sunday unique players in the portal/NIL era.
“I’m so grateful that I could be here for the whole three years,” Sunday said before grinning. “And it should have been all four.”
Plotnikov and Sunday — who was recruited by Hofstra before beginning his career at Iona during Rick Pitino’s final year at the school in 2022-23 — are the first Dutchmen seniors to complete their careers by playing at least three seasons with the program since Jalen Ray and Omar Silverio in 2021-22.
And the classification of Ray and Silverio comes with an asterisk: Ray played a program-record 153 games over five years after remaining at the school for his extra COVID season while Silverio planned to transfer for his COVID season. But he never played again after transferring to Manhattan and then unsuccessfully trying to transfer to West Virginia when Jaspers head coach Steve Masiello was fired in October.
The Dutchmen had 38 graduating seniors who spent at least three years with the program between 1999 — which marked the graduation of Jay Wright’s first freshman class, which arrived on campus a year before Claxton — and 2020.
Just 14 of those seniors were 1,000-point scorers. It’s another reminder that players who can be developed into vital secondary contributors and team leaders such as Plotnikov and Sunday are as endangered at the mid-major level in the NIL era — when coaches are more focused on building the best roster possible on a yearly basis — as the stars who appeal to power five schools.
“When you retain guys that have played minutes for you, that is very important,” Claxton said. “We’re not where we are this year without German and Silas. They know what we want to do out there on the court and they relay that to the new guys. Just keeping them was vital.”
They have also become successful player development stories for a program now known for sending players such as Aaron Estrada, Jaquan Carlos and Darlinstone Dubar to power conference schools.
Plotnikov’s production has almost doubled in four years — from 5.1 points and 1.9 rebounds over 17 minutes per game in 2022-23 to 9.1 points and 3.4 rebounds over 32.6 minutes per game this season, when he’s started all 28 games in which he’s played.
“I always say that Speedy poured a lot of confidence into me,” Plotnikov said. “One of the biggest things that stuck to me is he was always saying when ‘German plays confidently and just flows and (is) carefree, he’s the best version of himself.’ I think that I always preach that to myself, to not overthink things.”
His 131 3-point attempts this season are just 13 fewer than he had the previous two years combined. Plotnikov has also scored at least 10 points in a game 13 times after doing so 17 times in his first three seasons.
“I think German, he’s just improved his shot, just his overall IQ,” Claxton said.
The improvement for Sunday — who at 7 feet tall is the tallest Hofstra player since John Burke in 1992-93 — has been even more pronounced. Sunday, leaner and more durable than when he arrived on campus in 2023, has gone from averaging 2.0 points and 2.7 rebounds over 10.8 minutes per game as a sophomore to averaging 5.1 points and 6.4 rebounds over 18.8 minutes per game this season.
“For me, it was my touch and my agility — being able to move laterally, being able to guard the ball screen and guard the post,” Sunday said.
Sunday, who replaced international newcomer Victory Onuetu in the starting lineup Jan. 29, is shooting 66.3 percent from the field, the fourth-best mark by a player with at least 100 attempts since 2013-14, the start of the Joe Mihalich/Mike Farrelly/Claxton era.
“Silas has done a great job with his body, just knowing what we want out of our bigs and just doing it on a consistent basis,” Claxton said.
Few have gotten more out of the Hofstra experience than Plotnikov and Sunday, who are roommates and good friends with a unique understanding of what the other is going through as an international student spending most of the year within the university community.
Both players are members of the CAA Commissioner’s Honor Roll. Plotnikov has served as a television analyst on Flying Dutchwomen games while longtime athletic department staffers swear they can’t remember a nicer student-athlete than Sunday.
Nobody will understand what this Senior Night means to Sunday as much as Plotnikov, and vice versa. Sunday, a native of Ireland, will play in front of his Mom, who surprised her son at a team meeting Monday, for the first time as a collegian tonight.
“It was crazy,” Sunday said with a smile. “I felt like I was just melting — just full of joy.”
Plotnikov, a native of Belarus who had his Mom in attendance for Senior Day last year, was among the teammates recording the meeting between the Sundays.
“I was super excited for him,” Plotnikov said. “I kind of had a tear doing down (his cheek) during it.”
Claxton will be amongst those moved tonight, when he begins bidding goodbye to a pair of players whose Hofstra stories, once almost easy to take for granted as normal, are now outliers warranting extra appreciation.
“You see him brought in as a boy and now he’s a man and you just don’t get that anymore,” Claxton said. “I remember having Desure Buie here and seeing him grow as a freshman to his senior year. Same thing with Justin Wright-Foreman. It sucks because you just don’t get that anymore.”
Tonight, Claxton and Hofstra get that at least one more time.
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