Bits and Bytes: The Conference Shuffle

Drexel in the Big 5! I'm such an idiot!

The headline to the article by Dick “best toupee in sports journalism” Weiss in the Sunday Daily News doesn’t leave much room for interpretation: “New conference home is what Hofstra needs to take hoops program to the next level.” Like the rest of us, Weiss doesn’t know exactly how this will happen, only that it should.

My favorite part of the article was the ancient photo of Pecora the News used. No, not one of him from Adelphi, but one in which Aurimas Kieza is in the background. I really would have been impressed if they managed to find one of Pecora with, say, Chris McRae in the background. Oh yeah. Bet you didn’t think you’d read that name today did you?

The most interesting part, meanwhile, was Pecora saying he worries the CBI and CIT will give the NCAA—which now owns the NIT—the excuse to turn the NIT into the JV tournament for the Big Six and relegate the mid-majors to the pay-to-plays.

That makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate Pecora still toeing the company line about why Hofstra didn’t accept a bid to either tourney. But still: Pecora still thought the CBI and CIT were good ideas for a team such as his in February. And if these fledgling tournaments that may admittedly be to college basketball what the Garden State Bowl was to college football were good enough for Old Dominion, then they should have been good enough for Hofstra.

Enough about that. A couple other bits and bytes about the conference shuffle we pondered last week:

—Thanks to Gonzo Hofstra Fan, a Loyal Reader who correctly points out that Drexel is not a member of the Big 5. Penn is, along with Villanova, Temple, St. Joseph’s and LaSalle. However, in my defense, Wikipedia—which is never wrong—states that Drexel has become something of an unofficial honorary (is that redundant?) member of the Big 5 and that it is part of the City 6, a term I’d never before heard. I hope Drexel does join the Big 5 and that the schools are still referred to as the Big 5. That would be very A-10ish.

—Isolated rumble or the beginning of the nationwide seismic conference changes? Campbell is leaving the Atlantic Sun for the Big South. Hmmm.

—The Patriot League going the full scholarship route in football in order to get back a school that never should have left sounds good in theory, but a closer read of Lehigh Football Nation’s excellent and in-depth post about the financial difficulties several Patriot League schools are experiencing makes me less certain that Fordham will be able to return. Schools that are pleading poverty can’t very easily add scholarships to football programs that are probably losing money already. An obvious compromise would be to accept Fordham back into the Patriot in everything but football, but does that solve anything for a school that looks as if it’s ready to make football its marquee sport? Might it be better in the long run for Fordham to find an all-sports home rather than going independent in football or trying to find a conference where it is not a geographic fit, a la Stony Brook in the Big South?

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

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!