George Mason 87, Hofstra 68 (Or: Where have all the good times gone?)

I'm fairly confident no one in the readership (except possibly NUHF) will call me out for not posting the Kinks original.

Mo Cassara had a readymade response a couple weeks ago when he was sniffling, sneezing and coughing as if he was auditioning for a NyQuil commercial: “I’m tougher than I look.”

More prescient, too, as it turns out.

Cassara warned us this was coming. Not so much last night’s thorough 87-68 loss to George Mason, but the first crisis for the Flying Dutchmen of the CAA season—a three-game losing streak that has dropped them from a share of first place into fourth place, just a game ahead of James Madison and Drexel, and has made the fast start that seemed so inconceivable in the final days of December seem so far away in the opening days of February.

He didn’t SAY he worried the Dutchmen were headed for the skids, of course. Not explicitly, at least. But this is what Cassara was getting at every time he uttered the familiar words “a work in progress” and when he joined us in imploring you to live by the clichés and take the Dutchmen’s January surge one day at a time.

The Dutchmen have the best player in the conference in Charles Jenkins, but with three first-year starters on the floor and an eight-man rotation whose three bench players include two freshmen and a sophomore who saw little time last season, their margin for error is a thin one. Such a lean team was not going to go through the CAA season without hitting some choppy waters (get it?), especially with the infamous four-in-eight finally just concluding.

None of the three losses, individually, are cause for alarm. There’s no shame in losing at VCU and George Mason, the two teams that are now tied for first in the CAA. VCU has won 22 straight home games and nobody is hotter than Mason, which has won eight in a row and was itching for some payback after getting routed in Hempstead last month. And Drexel, which would have been all but eliminated from the race for a bye with a loss to the Dutchmen, was the more desperate team last Saturday.

And none of the three matchups were good ones for the Dutchmen. VCU and Mason play an up-tempo game and have the type of depth the Dutchmen can only dream about while Drexel thrives on crashing the boards.

But the fashion in which the Dutchmen have lost is worrisome. They haven’t led in the second half in any of their last FOUR games—Hofstra didn’t go ahead of James Madison until overtime last Monday night (and boy, is it ever a good thing the Dutchmen won that one). The Dutchmen didn’t lead for the final 27-plus minutes of regulation against Madison and trailed the final 34-plus minutes against VCU, the final 32-plus minutes against Drexel and the final 33-plus minutes against Mason. In addition, the Dutchmen trailed the entire second half in their first conference loss to Old Dominion.

The Dutchmen never even got within as many as 10 during the second half at VCU or Mason, another indication the Dutchmen don’t have the bodies to play from behind. The Dutchmen outscored the Patriots 27-23 in the first 13 minutes of the second half but strung together consecutive baskets just three times during that stretch.

Cassara prides (boooo!) himself on teams that play strong defense, but the Dutchmen gave up 48 first half points to VCU and 49 first half points to Mason. If that wasn’t enough to cause a sleepless night upon the return from Fairfax, then he surely tossed and turned over what to do with a team whose players seem to have hit the wall at the exact same time.

Jenkins finished with 22 points and seven assists, but he was just 8-of-20 from the field (his most misses of the season and only the fourth time he’s shot 40 percent or below) and tied a season-high with four turnovers as Isaiah Tate and Cam Long draped him all night long. He also looked exhausted in hoisting a bunch of short shots in the first half. Mike Moore tied his season high by draining four 3-pointers on his way to 18 points but had just two rebounds, the third straight game he’s had four boards or less.

Greg Washington had five blocks, tied for his most against a Division I opponent this year, but was scoreless for the second straight game, which is hard to comprehend given he was 19-for-30 in his preceding three games. The Dutchmen aren’t going anywhere if he’s a non-factor on offense.

David Imes had eight points and seven rebounds, a shade above his season averages, but he missed several shots underneath the basket in the first half as the Dutchmen tried to establish him down low and take some pressure off Jenkins and Moore. And while Shemiye McLendon had nine points and seven rebounds, he looked like a freshman for the first time in a long time with some questionable shot selection in the second half that briefly earned him a spot on the bench.

The schedule doesn’t provide much of an opportunity for the Dutchmen to catch their breath. Barring a run in the CIT or CBI, next season will be the next time they play consecutive home games. There are two two-game road trips left and mid-week flights to Georgia State and UNC Wilmington (as well as a flight to BracketBuster opponent Wright State) on the horizon.

In addition, a schedule that seemed to ease up after the four-in-eight—each of the Dutchmen’s last six conference games are against teams in the bottom half of the CAA—is suddenly fraught with potential danger. Northeastern comes to the Arena Saturday having won four in a row after an 0-8 start (we told you they wouldn’t be down for long) after a rout of VCU last night in Boston. William & Mary, whom the Dutchmen host Feb. 15, is 3-9 but easily dispatched James Madison last night (and we thank you for that, Fighting Bill Lawrences). And then there are two games in a 14-day span against thoroughly unpredictable Delaware.

The good news is the Dutchmen are in far better position than any of us could have envisioned last summer, when we would have gladly sold our souls to the Larranaga to be alone in fourth place two-thirds of the way through the conference season. And we all know Cassara relishes a challenge. He’s tougher than he looks, and so is his team, which is good, because the task ahead of them—regaining the confidence and mojo the Dutchmen had 10 days ago and figuring out where all the good times went—is at least as tough as it looks.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. George Mason, 2/2)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Mike Moore

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 59

Mike Moore 28

Greg Washington 21

David Imes 15

Shemiye McLendon 5

Dwan McMillan 5

Brad Kelleher 3

Yves Jules 1

Stephen Nwaukoni 1

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

Northeastern 73, Hofstra 50 (Or: Can Stuart Smalley fit in one more appointment before he starts his new job?)

The Dutchmen need to repeat after Stuart: They're good enough, they're smart enough and gosh darnit people still like them to win the CAA.

So let’s get the positives of Monday night out of the way, shall we? I once again vanquished the city of Boston and its draconian meter maids by snagging a perfect parking spot right by my destination, which in this case was Matthews Arena.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy victory, because nothing worth having—particularly parking spots in Boston, which sheds metered spots at a quicker rate than American media companies shed journalists—is easy.

And it was not without temptation, as in, I’m tempted to just pay out my you-know-what just to be done with this ordeal. But as I always do, I realized it’s not about the money, it’s about the principle of the thing and not falling victim to the devious plan concocted by the city and the proprietors of parking garages and lots. After all: The fewer spots there are, the more likely you are to pay out your you-know-what just to be done with the ordeal.

It was $19 to park in the Matthews Arena parking lot Monday (it was almost completely empty, take that!) or $8 for three hours in the garage across the street. Of course, that’s an introductory-level course in getting screwed compared to what happens a mile or two away at Fenway Park, where, as of 2007, the neighborhood parking lots charged anywhere from $35 to your firstborn for a spot. And that’s why I’d drive around and around the neighborhood, only occasionally punching the steering wheel and spewing four-letter words, in constant search of a metered spot.

And that’s why I was perfectly willing Monday night to drive on to St. Botolph Street, see no spots, circle around, still see no spots, drive further down St. Botolph Street, still see no spots, hang a right on to the dead end that housed the parking garage, see some big stupid jerk getting out of his car in a spot that was occupied two minutes earlier, curse the parking gods, drive down Massachusetts Avenue, curse the lack of non-resident parking, turn around, go back from whence I came, turn left on to St. Botolph Street and…see TWO SPOTS OPEN across from Matthews Arena!! BLESS YOU PARKING GODS!

I wedged myself in between a car and a snow bank, patted myself on the back, reached my seat in three minutes (well, I mean, it did take me two-and-a-half hours of driving just to get within three minutes of my seat) and hoped it was a sign of things to come.

It wasn’t. I should have taken a picture of the nifty parallel parking job (then again, that might just be weird), because it was all downhill from that point on for anyone connected to or rooting for Hofstra.

The only good thing to say about Northeastern 73, Hofstra 50 (that's from The Boston Globe, the Boston Herald recap is here) is that it has to be rock bottom…right? The Flying Dutchmen committed four turnovers before even taking a shot. They turned the ball over on seven of their first nine possessions and finished with 25 turnovers. Tom Pecora benched four-fifths of the starting lineup—everyone except Greg Johnson, how’s that for something that was inconceivable even a week ago—a mere 2:35 into the game.

Northeastern had its way down low—they out-rebounded the Dutchmen 39-32 and received 38 points and 11 rebounds from their starting front court—despite Hofstra’s size advantage. The most telling image of the Huskies’ dominance: Manny Adako drove the lane past three Dutchmen for a dunk in the first half.

No Dutchmen scored in double figures, the first time that’s happened in eight seasons under Pecora. For the second straight game, the Dutchmen were limited to 18 points in the first half. They closed within single digits just twice after falling behind 11-0 and trailed wire-to-wire for the second straight game. (At some point today, now that my eyes aren’t glazed over after spending eight hours in a car, I’ll try to figure out the last time that happened)

More inconceivability (wow, that’s a word, awesome): Johnson—whose nickname during the OOC should have been Milk Carton—led the Dutchmen in minutes for the second straight game. Speaking of milk cartons, the Dutchmen lineup after the final media timeout consisted entirely of guys who have been buried in the rotation at some point this season: Johnson, Nathaniel Lester, Zygis Sestakos, Darren Townes and Greg Washington.

The game ended in appropriate fashion as the Dutchmen tried to create one more shot yet dribbled out the clock instead. Tony Dennison found an open David Vallins, who passed up an open 3-point look (and the pleas of “SHOOT IT!” from the Hofstra faithful that wanted to see the walk-on net his first career points) with two seconds left and dished the ball to Sestakos, who didn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.

This is a confused team lacking any sort of cohesion or confidence right now. Even with more turnovers (five) than assists (four) Monday, Johnson is providing some semblance of stability at the point. But there’s still no flow on that side of the ball.

The Dutchmen struggle to produce anything when Charles Jenkins and Cornelius Vines—who set and tied a season-low in shots attempted Monday with nine and eight, respectively—are shut down. Possessions lately seem to end one pass too early or one pass too late. Dane Johnson had the best line of the night for the Dutchmen (eight rebounds and six points on 3-of-3 shooting), but even he seemed tentative down low.

Jenkins is a mess and it’s painful to watch a player who was bursting with such positive momentum just a few weeks ago. Jenkins made just one of those nine field goal attempts and scored a career-low three points as his streak of double-digit efforts ended at 28. He sat out the final 5:10 in what amounted to a mental health day move by Pecora.

In Jenkins’ defense, it’s as if the refs are misreading “22” as “KICK ME.” For the second straight game, he had two baskets waved off due to charging calls. I swear, I haven’t seen charging called as much as it’s been called the last two games. Probably blog bias, I admit.

During timeouts Monday, Pecora would gather with his assistants for a few seconds before heading to the huddle. And by the end of the game, he would open his address to the players by…just staring at them for a few seconds, as if to say “What is there to say?”

This is the biggest challenge Pecora’s ever encountered as Hofstra head coach. He’s overseen rebuilding eras (his first three seasons) as well as what appeared to be a transition season last year. But he’s never had to rebuild a team’s shattered psyche in midseason. I know it’s official now that Al Franken has a new day job, but maybe he can send Stuart Smalley out to Hempstead to give the Dutchmen a giant dose of self-affirmation.

Sounds crazy, sure. But Monday night proved that it’s easier to find a parking spot in Boston than a cure to what’s ailing the Dutchmen.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.