Happy first anniversary, Defiantly Dutch!

All of Springfield--err, Hempstead--comes out to celebrate the first anniversary of Defiantly Dutch! (It was either this or embed a Wilson Phillips video, and even I'm not that lame...yet)

A year ago today, I was just an unemployed sportswriter with a pirated wireless signal and a dream: To provide the world the combination of Hofstra sports coverage, nostalgia and copious pop culture references I knew it so sorely needed.

Now, I am still an unemployed sportswriter. But I have my own wireless (thanks neighbor, for the unsolicited usage of your signal for so long!) and the dream is, as Wilson Phillips so memorably sang in the summer of 1991, still alive.

How does a blogger celebrate his first anniversary? Well, the traditional gift for a first wedding anniversary is paper and the happy couple typically eats a piece of frozen wedding cake. So I think I’ll go buy myself a new notebook and eat the really old Chinese food in the back of the fridge tonight.

A lot has happened in the first year of Defiantly Dutch, a whole bunch of it not good. But I prefer to think of the positives and particularly how the blog has exceeded my wildest expectations thus far.

I knew this would be fun, but I’ve enjoyed it much more than even I thought possible. Years of covering professional sports conditioned me to believe I’d meet huge resistance at Hofstra when I wanted to occasionally complement my recliner rantings with an actual interview or two, but the administration and the athletes and the coaches have been incredibly welcoming.

Covering and writing about Hofstra sports and getting to know the student media has made me feel young again, even if I realize that WRHU’s Mike “Clay Buchholz” Leslie and Christian Heimall were four when I enrolled at Hofstra. Boy that’s depressing.

I never would have started this blog if Michael Litos hadn’t inspired me to do so with his awesome blogging of CAA hoops, so to get a “go get ‘em” note from him after the first month or so was quite invigorating. I had no idea it’d just be the beginning of our correspondence and our friendship. It’s not very often in life, and particularly this business, that you get to meet (if only virtually thus far) the folks who move you into action, and even less frequently that you are befriended by them and find out they’re supportive and welcoming and all-around good guys. Now I’m part of his grand experiment at CAAHoops.com, which is a tremendous honor and something you should really check out as soon as possible.

I entered this with minimal expectations about the demand for a blog about Hofstra sports. I mean, if there was an insatiable thirst for this stuff, someone would have beaten me to the punch sometime in the last 10 years, right?

I have learned the last 365 days that the audience for Hofstra sports may not be a vast one, but it is a loyal, hardy and hungry bunch that roots for the Flying Dutchmen, and it wants the type of analysis and coverage the local media either cannot or will not provide.

So I thank you, Loyal Reader, for your passion and for stopping by here over the last year…and I promise you the goal for Year Two is to reward that devotion and make this an even better destination for Hofstra fans by augmenting the staples of the site (badmouthing George Mason, waxing about the old days, obsessing about men’s hoops and the race for the CAA crown, badmouthing George Mason, regularly tying everything to The Simpsons or Scrubs, badmouthing George Mason, occasionally reviewing concerts, referencing Hofstra culture or whatever it is that passes for Hofstra culture, badmouthing George Mason) with coverage of the other sports, too.

I said it a year ago: There are a lot of interesting stories to be told out there and no one telling them. Well, this year, that changes. Climb aboard The Blue Beetle and enjoy the ride with us, won’t you?

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

All these changes taking place…

Do...do...do you remember when the Flying Dutchmen beat Towson? That was awesome. Do...do...do you think it can happen again today?

The Flying Dutchmen have changed by not changing at all (oh yeah, I always wanted to find a way to work into a story my favorite line from my favorite Pearl Jam song). Nine weeks ago today, the streaking Dutchmen met Towson in a game that had the potential to foretell their fortunes for the rest of the season and their ability to exceed modest pre-season expectations.

Today, the streaking Dutchmen meet Towson in a game that has the potential to foretell their fortunes for the rest of their season and gauge their ability to meet or exceed modest mid-to-late season expectations.

These Dutchmen, of course, are streaking in a different direction with two straight losses than those Dutchmen, who had won four in a row. And these Dutchmen need to make a statement like the one those Dutchmen made in Towson, where they knocked off the Tigers 90-81 in perhaps the program’s most impressive win since the graduation of Loren Stokes and Carlos Rivera.

It wasn’t a perfect game, but it’s the one that got me to declare the Blue Beetle Bandwagon was up and running and it’s the one that Tom Pecora throws into the VCR (or the DVD player, or the Blu-Ray player, or the Laser Disc player, or the Beta Max, or film strip machine, or whatever device coaches use these days to break down game film) whenever he wants to remind the Dutchmen that they haven’t always been inconsistent, haven’t always battled self-confidence issues and haven’t always been unable to fall out of a boat and hit water.

Five players scored at least nine points, Cornelius Vines hit six 3-pointers and the Dutchmen made 25 of 31 free throws in scoring 90 points in regulation for only the fourth time in the Pecora Era (ironically, in that it’s not ironic at all, Towson is the only venue in which the Dutchmen have twice exceeded 90 points in regulation). The Dutchmen out-rebounded the Tigers 39-30, set a season high with 19 assists and committed just 11 turnovers, one shy of their season-best mark.

The loss to George Mason Tuesday is one suitable for viewing, as well, albeit only for interrogation purposes, and even then only if everything else has failed and you’re running out of time. At 6-6 and in seventh place in the CAA, the Dutchmen are right where everyone figured they’d be back in October, but that hot start raised expectations and the subsequent slumps have lent a particularly frustrating air to the season.

Fortunately for the Dutchmen, perpetually disappointing Towson—which is one loss away from locking up its eighth sub-.500 conference record in as many seasons in the CAA—is in even worse shape. Hofstra has to win this game if it hopes to regain some momentum over the final lap of the conference season, and the Tigers could be the perfect tonic for whatever ails the Dutchmen—and in particular Charles Jenkins, who is 18-of-38 shooting in his last three games against Towson.

Four Towson starters stand 6-foot-6 or taller, so finding the right mix of Darren Townes, Arminas Urbutis and Greg Washington (who had a double-double against Towson in December) is key. The guess here is Townes, fresh off a season-high nine rebounds against Mason, will approach 30 minutes for the first time in more than two months.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Vines and Tony Dennison, each of whom set a season-high in minutes off the bench Tuesday, see the same amount of time following their brutal shooting efforts against Mason. My guess is we’ll see more of Zygis Sestakos, who missed all five 3-pointers against Towson in December and has taken just 14 3-pointers since.

Anyway, see you there. I’ll be the one dribbling a basketball, sporting socks that are too high, shorts that are too short and the faded and shrunken Miller T-shirt I won at Bogart’s for being able to identify where Eddie Vedder was living when he joined Pearl Jam (Answer: San Diego. Honest to goodness. How’s that for tying it all together nicely?) Hey, I’ve got to be prepared just in case there’s an Alumni Day scrimmage and alums are pulled out of the stands to play.

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