Hofstra 87, Farmingdale 48 (Or: That giant sigh of relief you heard was Dutch Nation exhaling)

Even President Barack Obama--who has been rooting for the Flying Dutchmen ever since his appearance at the Hofstra debate lifted him to victory last November, snort--is relieved to hear Charles Jenkins is fine.

Tom Pecora was the calmest person in Hofstra Arena when Charles Jenkins limped off the floor with 4:20 left in the first half of the Flying Dutchmen’s game against Farmingdale State Friday night.

Most of the 2,655 in attendance (this is me rolling my eyes at Long Islanders failing to show up despite the perfect price tag) saw the Dutchmen’s NCAA Tournament hopes flash before their eyes when Jenkins got swept under Farmingdale’s Terrence Howard as he drove to the basket and crashed to the floor, where he laid face first for a few minutes.

“Get up, Charles,” one fan pleaded in the suddenly quiet Arena.

There seemed to be plenty of reason for concern when Jenkins pulled his jersey over his head in frustration as he headed off the court. But Jenkins—who was perfect from the field and the free throw line in scoring nine points prior to his injury—emerged from the locker room seconds before the start of the second half and watched the Dutchmen complete their 87-48 win over Farmingdale from the bench. Jenkins, diagnosed with a shin injury, appeared enthusiastic in talking to teammates and is expected to be play in tonight’s NIT consolation round game against Elon.

“He looks like an NFL running back,” Pecora said after the game. “Takes more than that to hurt him, so I wasn’t really concerned about it, to be honest. When I went in at halftime, I thought he would be fine, and then I just told him ‘We don’t need you to play in the second half.’

“I’ve seen him take worse.”

The good news on Jenkins allowed Pecora to focus late Friday on how pleased he was with the continued maturation of the Dutchmen. Pecora was curious to see how the Dutchmen would approach Division III Farmingdale, particularly after opening the season with high-profile games at Kansas and in the preseason NIT in Connecticut against UConn.

But the Dutchmen never trailed, though they allowed Farmingdale to close within a basket several times in the first 10 minutes before ending the first half on a 30-7 run.

“One of the reasons we put this game in was that this tells you how mature your team is, if they can go into this game and prepare the same way they did for a UConn or a Kansas or a Yale,” Pecora said. “They go out and perform at a pretty high level, then you know, they’re all buying in. and I think we did that tonight, so I’m very pleased with that.”

The Dutchmen scored eight of the first nine points in the second half to take a 30-point lead for the first time, after which the only remaining bits of suspense revolved around whether or not walk-on Matt Grogan would score (he did; his 3-pointer with 7:45 left were the first points scored by a Hofstra walk-on since Ryan Johnson on Dec. 17, 2005) and if the Arena scoreboard had enough room on it for triple digits.

But the Dutchmen, who haven’t scored 100 points in a game since Feb. 29, 1992, finished well shy Friday as Pecora, who began his coaching career at Farmingdale in 1989 and said playing the Rams was a way to thank the school for giving him his first opportunity, ordered his squad not to pile on in the waning minutes.

“At about the 10-minute mark, I told them ‘We’re not shooting any more 3-pointers, we’re not throwing any alley-oops or doing anything to embarrass our opponent,” Pecora said. “That’s not what we’re about.”

For Pecora, the waning minutes were about playing Nathaniel Lester—who had his third straight impressive game with a team-high 21 points and five steals—at power forward in anticipation of fielding a smaller lineup tonight against Elon as well as getting another extended look at freshmen Grogan, Yves Jules, Halil Kanacevic and Chaz Williams.

Jules scored his first collegiate basket and ended with 12 points. Kanacevic earned some good-natured ribbing from Pecora for collecting a season-low seven rebounds while Williams had another Loren Stokes-like effort (11 points, nine assists, six rebounds, four steals) that left even the demanding Pecora satisfied.

“I just gave Halil a hard time—I said you had 12 rebounds against Kansas, 10 against UConn, you only had seven against Farmingdale State,” Pecora said. “He still made some great plays. And Chaz did too…he had nine assists and two turnovers and I’m complaining. Imagine that.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Farmingdale 11/20)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Chaz Williams

1: Miklos Szabo

SEASON STANDINGS

Nathaniel Lester 7

Charles Jenkins 6

Chaz Williams 4

Halil Kanacevic 4

Cornelius Vines 2

Miklos Szabo 1

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

Hofstra 69, Delaware 59 (Or: We’re streaking!)

In lieu of a terrible Presidents Day pun about Greg Washington, I continue with the Old School motif and offer you a picture of Sully Ray, who is trying to explain to his wife how he had to unwind from a day of Home Depot and Bed, Bath and Beyond and celebrate the Flying Dutchmen's third straight win by going streaking behind Hofstra.

First things first: Do not attempt this at home. The wife and I had long planned to spend the weekend in Delaware (a sign you’ve married way up: your wife thinks two days in New-ARK centered around a two-hour basketball game is a great way to spend Valentine’s Day weekend), but Stuff kept Happening and it appeared as if we’d be home watching the game on TV.

Until 12:45 p.m., when I said screw it (or a similar two-word phrase) to Stuff Happening and decided we were going to the game. The wife, as she is wont to do, employed logic and said that’s impossible, it takes more than three hours to get down there and we’ll never make it. I said, much like a certain United States President, yes we can…with the caveat that if the Belt Parkway is a parking lot, we can always turn around.

Much heming and hawing followed until my wife walked into the living room sporting her 2001 America East tournament fleece. That’s her Golden Boy. She was done screwing around. It was time to go.

We left at 1:15. Two hours and 40 minutes of channeling Sammy Hagar circa 1984 later, we pulled into the Bob parking lot and had a panicked, horrified thought: What if they’re sold out?

They weren’t, but there was a guy in front of us channeling his Stewie Griffin and milking his purchase for all it was worth (for the love of God, guy, there were nearly 2,000 empty seats, you could have bought a ticket and sat just about anywhere you wanted) and ruining my plan to make it for opening tip. We asked for tickets behind the Hofstra bench, got Row D, figured that was pretty good and promptly learned it was a lot better than that.

Row D was actually three rows behind the Hofstra bench. Close enough to not only see Life With Corny spit into the wastebasket behind his chair, but for the wife to actually say “Eww. Gross.” Close enough to hear Charles Jenkins clap his hands at half-court after he hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer early in the second half. Close enough so that when Dane Johnson stood up, we couldn’t see a thing. (I’d hate to be that guy in a movie theatre. I think his new nickname is Down In Front) Close enough to not only read Tom Pecora’s lips, but actually hear every single word too. This just in: I think Quentin Tarantino would have enjoyed himself. (There’s absolutely no suitable-for-work scene of his to link, sorry) Or, as the wife said: “He’s more entertaining than I thought.”

All that and the Flying Dutchmen won their third in a row, 69-59. That’s right. Decided to go on the spur of the moment, made it there roughly on time, got great seats, Dutchmen win, post-game dinner at Cracker Barrel just inside the Jersey border, home by 11:30 to watch another crappy Saturday Night Live. Sometimes, life is like an episode of a 1980s TV show in which everything unfolds perfectly (except neither one of us was called out of the stands to play, maybe next time).

It wasn’t a thing of beauty—when is it?—but the victory Saturday was in some ways as encouraging as the win over Old Dominion last Tuesday. The Dutchmen didn’t lead wire to wire in this one—they trailed by seven early in the second half and led by only one before a 15-6 run over the final 3:14 made the final score look a lot less competitive than it was—and shot a miserable 2-for-17 over the final 10 minutes of the first half.

Yet even when the Dutchmen were misfiring—and they missed their first three shots from the field as well as their first two free throw attempts in the second half—there was an unusual calmness missing from other games in which the Dutchmen endured extended funks. It never felt, at least from three rows behind the visiting bench, that Hofstra was in danger of losing the game.

The easy explanation is it’s easy to be optimistic with the Dutchmen playing a sub-.500 team, but the Blue Hens have beaten three of the CAA’s top four teams at home. The truth is the Dutchmen are following the Pecora blueprint and playing better and with more confidence and cohesion in February (Hofstra is 35-10 in regular season games after Feb. 1 since the 2003-04 season) and utilizing the formula they’ll need to employ in order to make the CAA Tournament interesting.

Even when the Dutchmen struggle offensively, the defense is stingy enough to keep the game manageable. Delaware ended the first half on a 16-7 run but took just 10 shots in that span.

And lately, the Dutchmen have minimized their mistakes (they tied a season-low with 10 turnovers Saturday) and have been on the right side of the fine line between having a lot of scoring options and just enough guys to regularly rely upon. Jenkins and Nathaniel Lester have scored in double figures in each of the last three wins and have been joined by a different player in double digits each time—Arminas Urbutis against Towson, Darren Townes against Old Dominion and Greg Washington against Delaware.

Most importantly, a mix of sophomores and seniors have gelled and taken the pressure off the suddenly calm and steady Charles Jenkins. Sophomores Jenkins, Lester and Washington combined for 48 points Saturday and scored 35 of the Dutchmen’s 47 points in the second half, including the last 19.

Lester finished with 12 points and led the Dutchmen with nine boards, the team-best fifth time since Jan. 1 he’s led or shared the team lead in rebounding. The real revelation Saturday was Washington, who left me searching for appropriate President’s Day puns (all of which sucked and none of which will be foisted upon you) after he single-handedly sparked the late run that put the game away.

Washington, who had four fouls, re-entered the game with 3:34 left and the Dutchmen up one and scored the Dutchmen’s next three field goals—including two on short jumpers in the paint against Marc Egerson, who was also playing with four fouls and could do little to defend a player on whom he was giving up four inches—while also adding a steal that led to a Lester free throw.

Washington finished 5-of-6 from the field and drained three of the mid-range jumpers that used to make Pecora and the rest of us cringe. Not bad for 13 minutes.

Seniors Down In Front, Greg Johnson, Arminas Urbutis, Zygis Sestakos and Darren Townes combined for the other 21 points and generally played like Pecora has wanted them to play for weeks.

Down In Front, who seemed to be on the verge of irrelevancy, displayed some long-lost aggressiveness and fluidity down low in draining a pair of key hoops. Greg Johnson hit two early baskets and committed only one turnover in 25 minutes while Sestakos continued his resurgence by draining three 3-pointers, all of which put the Dutchmen ahead. Townes didn’t score and had as many fouls (three) as rebounds, but Urbutis contributed eight rebounds to offset a 1-of-7 night from the field.

Jenkins, meanwhile, capped off his best three-game stretch of the conference season by leading all players with 26 points and eight assists. He shot 9-of-18 overall and 5-of-7 in the second half, when he drained three buckets that either tied the game or put the Dutchmen ahead.

Jenkins has scored 65 points on 21-of-46 shooting in his last three games, during which he’s committed a Carlos Rivera-esque five turnovers in 92 minutes. If he keeps that up, and if he keeps getting a lot of help from a lot of different players, the Dutchmen will be one of the toughest outs in less than three weeks—even if the sheer number of tough outs ensures that multiple very good teams are going to go home after one or two games. More on that, sort of, in a bit.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com. And join the Defiantly Dutch group at Facebook today!

We’ll have a different kind of debate…when I moderate

Ha ha! Your medium's dying! And no one's asking your questions tonight, either!

As you may have heard by now, tonight’s the night Hofstra makes history (oh man, a Styx reference in the first sentence…I can’t lie, I’m proud of myself) when it hosts the third and final presidential debate of the 2008 election. CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer will serve as the moderator (unless someone ponies up $15 million for Katie Couric) as John McCain and Barack Obama discuss the economy and domestic policy.

Which, you know, means neither candidate will speak about the issues that matter to you—the Defiantly Dutch-era alum of Hofstra University. This is your University. You were at the Hofstra Arena long before it was magically transformed from a place that had far too many seats to a place that had far too few. Shouldn’t someone vocalize your thoughts and concerns? Shouldn’t that someone be me?

It’s probably a good thing for American democracy that it’s not. But here’s what McCain, Obama and I would talk about if I was sitting in the moderator’s seat tonight.

1.) Both of you have promised to provide tax breaks and other assistance to small businesses. Along those lines, there are 3,000 journalists watching this debate right now from a few feet down the road in a building that has been empty of a professional sports team for well over a decade. So what, particularly, will you do to help the United States Basketball League resume operations this year with a Long Island franchise that employs Hofstra alums, plays its home games at the Physical Fitness Center and infuses the Hofstra economy with dozens of dollars every summer?

(I actually found an old Long Island Surf program from the 1994 season in the basement earlier tonight. Tickets were $5. Good times!)

2.) Small businesses are the lifeblood of businesses in the area surrounding campus. So many of these mom-and-pop operations are bars—and so many of them have been forced to close over the years. Fezziwig’s. Bogart’s. McHebe’s. Screwy Louie’s. Even Wayne Chrebet, who gave Hofstra more publicity than this here debate, had to rename and rebrand his bar that he opened on the site of the old Bogart’s. What will you do to encourage states to lower the drinking age to 18 so that students under the age of 21 can contribute to the economy by consuming cheap, watered-down beer without having to find a Hofstra ID with the blue bar?

(Or was it the yellow bar? I can’t remember.)

3.) Both of you supported the bailout plan that will result in government buying a stake in the American banking system. Can you next take over the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, too? God knows you guys can’t be any worse at it than the bozos who have been mucking it up for years.

(This will sound like a good idea until Navy or Columbia gets an at-large bid despite a 12-16 record. Fun fact: The Flying Dutchmen basketball team is a combined 12-7 all-time against the alma maters of McCain and Obama!)

4.) Both of you have said it’s imperative to make a college education affordable to all Americans. Have you had a chance to mention this goal to anyone here, where the cost of tuition per semester this year is $13,800—a mere two-and-a-half times what it cost 14 years ago, when tuition was $5,530 per semester?

(This is when I wish I could figure out a scanner so I could actually display my tuition bill from the spring of 1995)

5.) Lastly, our current financial crisis was created in large part by too many people being approved for mortgages they could not afford. But who could blame people of my generation—who were approved for credit cards from the moment they walked on to a college campus despite their tiny incomes, minimal financial expertise and youthful impetuousness—for believing they were entitled to buy beyond their means? As president, what will you do to rid Hofstra—and campuses nationwide—of the weasels from the credit card companies who leech on to unsuspecting freshmen and transfer students during move-in weekend and send them down a path of debt that will take them a decade or more to erase?

(I’d actually like to see that one happen)

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.