In which I see red over the idea I made up the ECC, offer yet another history lesson to prove I didn’t, and find a way to mention the Delaware game

What's better: "I saw red, when Litos accused me of making up the ECC, I saw red..." or "If Delaware and Drexel left they'd be impossible to replace..." or "I don't think we're gonna get an automatic bid anymore?"

It’s not easy bleeding blue, white and yellow. In addition to the fact that nobody should ever bleed blue, white and yellow, we root for a school that hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament in nine seasons and has reached it just four times as a Division I member. The best team we ever had missed the big dance in, umm, colorful fashion. Our totally awesome nickname was replaced by something straight out of a focus group meeting gone terribly wrong.

The toughest thing, though, is rooting for a school that seemingly has no past. Oh, we know better. We know Hofstra basketball didn’t begin with the move to the CAA in 2001, or when the America East renamed itself after the 1995-96 season, But there aren’t many of us, and there are more of THEM—the uppity and the spoiled who root for schools with easily traceable lineages and condescendingly look down at those of us whose histories contains expired acronyms such as ECC and NAC.

For example, and I’m picking this school completely at random—and by completely at random, I mean TOTALLY ON PURPOSE—a VCU grad can tell someone that his school hasn’t always been in the CAA, it was in the Sun Belt back in the ‘80s. And if that someone is a real college basketball fan, and not a Duke fan, he’ll know what the Sun Belt is and what it was and will nod approvingly, knowing VCU has existed in some form for more than a generation.

The VCU fan will be content, because he won’t have to sit there and convince someone that there was actually a conference called the Metro and that VCU was a part of it after it left the Sun Belt and before it joined the CAA. Because that would suck, trying to convince people you’re not just making crap up off the top of your head.

I would know. The other day, The Braintrust was convening and riffing on the supremely awesome return of “Wayne’s World” to Saturday Night Live last week by figuring out where the current CAA members were 20 years ago this winter, back when I was rockin’ the mullet, cruising the streets of northwest Connecticut with Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” in the tape deck and flirting with freshmen girls who had no idea what a dork I was the previous three years (if you think any word of that is false, you don’t know me at all).

Someone in The Braintrust—I won’t name him, except to say that his Pig Latin name is Like Mitos, and that I’m pretty sure in 1991 he was fretting over the imminent name change of SunBeltHoops.com to MetroHoops.com, planning to invest in the new TANDY he just saw at Radio Shack (Google it Crain!) and wondering what the hell a .com was—responded to the message by writing he wasn’t sure where Hofstra was in the early ‘90s because he “…never know[s] when Jerry is making up a fictional conference or not.”

Well Mr. Mitos, here’s your answer and what do you have to say now?! (Just ignore the weird URL and web design straight out of 1995, it’s not easy preserving the history of a conference that croaked during the early days of the Clinton presidency)

The ECC was alive and, umm, well, it was alive 20 years ago this winter. The 1990-91 season was the last one in the ECC for Delaware and Drexel, each of which bolted at the end of the school year for the North Atlantic Conference—that’s not a made-up conference either, Mitos, that’s the precursor to the America East!—as well as the last year in which the ECC had an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The defections of Delaware and Drexel left the ECC—coming on the heels of Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh all exiting for the Patriot League following the 1989-90 season—short of the membership requirements for the automatic bid. The conference wheezed along through the 1993-94 school year, though it played only two tournaments in that span—Towson beat Hofstra to win the first final ECC championship game in 1991-92 before Hofstra won the last final ECC championship game two years later; Mitos probably thinks I’m making all this up—before finally splintering apart for good. Hofstra joined the NAC for the 1994-95 school year and has never again had to worry about being in a league without an automatic bid.

The ECC may be long gone, but it lives on in our hearts (oh hello Twitcon!) and some of us still get unnaturally excited about crowning a mythical champion every year. OK, fine, I’m the only one, but the ECC is relevant this weekend, with Hofstra heading to—oh my it all ties together perfectly!—Delaware to finally take on the Blue Hens for the first time this season.

This is a pivotal game for the Dutchmen, who can take another big step towards locking up a first round bye in the CAA Tournament by dispatching of the skidding Blue Hens as well as stay in the running for at least a share of their second straight mythical ECC championship! I present to you the faux race, because I know your day isn’t complete without knowing these “standings,” as well as the remaining ECC games for each school.

ECC "Standings"

Drexel 5-1 (Towson)

Hofstra 4-1 (Delaware 2x)

Delaware 2-2 (Hofstra 2x. Rider in BracketBuster, Towson)

Towson 1-5 (Delaware, Drexel)

(I should alert the Towson publicity staff of this, let them know the Tigers aren’t winless in conference in my universe)

The Dutchmen basically have to sweep Delaware since Drexel only has a game left with one-win (see what I did there?) Towson. Also, there is an uneven number of games because, remarkably, all of the ECC schools in the CAA played at least one former ECC school during the non-conference schedule. And everyone except Towson played Rider.

This could have gotten really out of hand if I counted Drexel’s game against St. Joseph’s, Delaware’s game against American and Towson’s game against LaSalle, but I don’t associate those schools—all of which left the ECC in the early 1980s—with DD-era ECC, or near DD-era ECC. Or something like that.

That Drexel beat Saint Joseph’s, and would therefore win the mythical ECC championship by half a game over Hofstra if both teams win out, had nothing to do with my decision. Or did it? When you bleed blue, white and yellow, and Charles Jenkins is still three weeks away from three glorious days in which he will lead Hofstra to the NCAA Tournament, you’ll take what you can get. Even if you have to make it up.

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

VCU 68, Hofstra 60 (Or: In which beggars suddenly become choosy)

Chester Lampwick isn't greedy. As long as he's got his health, his millions of dollars, his gold house, his rocket car and victories by the Flying Dutchmen basketball team, he doesn't need anything else.

What would you have thought, last Tuesday morning in the aftermath of one of the most discouraging losses of the Tom Pecora Era, if you were told the Flying Dutchmen would lose by eight points at VCU on Saturday? My guess is you would have been satisfied with a competitive defeat that provided the Dutchmen something to build upon, as opposed to the I-don’t-even-know-where-to-begin-fixing-this vibe of the Northeastern loss.

Well, that’s what I would have thought, anyway. The wife reports that she would not, in fact, have been willing to accept an eight-point loss to VCU. Which is probably why she’s a better poker player than her risk-averse husband, but that’s neither here nor there.

So why, then, did it feel as if a precious opportunity had slipped through the Flying Dutchmen’s hands during a 68-60 loss? Given the way the week started for the Dutchmen, there is no shame in losing by eight to the pre-season favorites in an arena in which Hofstra has never won. In fact, it was the second-closest game a Pecora-coached team has played at VCU: The 2001-02 team fell to the Rams by two, but the next five regular season defeats at VCU were by a combined 66 points.

The Dutchmen didn’t lead once in the second half and didn’t get closer than four points in the final 13 minutes, so there was no reason to wonder what could have happened if not for a bad bounce here or a bad call there.

Yet after the win over Delaware Wednesday that fixed everything—or at least coaxed a lot of us off the ledge—and an encouraging first half Saturday, it didn’t seem unreasonable to believe the Dutchmen could pull off the upset.

The Dutchmen avoided the first half fade that ruined their chances against Drexel (which jumped out to a 14-4 lead and never trailed) and Northeastern (which jumped out to an 11-0 lead and, you guessed it, never trailed) and would have carried a lead into the locker room if not for Eric Maynor driving the length of the court and hitting a buzzer-beating jumper with Charles Jenkins and Greg Johnson in his face. Hofstra looked much more cohesive and patient on offense and Jenkins hit as many field goals (four) in the first half as he did against Delaware—and he only needed eight shots to do it, not 24.

And hey, this is the CAA, where it would make sense for the Dutchmen to open the week with a 23-point loss at Northeastern and end it with an upset win at VCU.

Instead, the unpredictability of the CAA was summarized hours later and 250 or so miles to the south, where UNC-Wilmington—whose porous defense seemed to give the Seahawks a real shot at going 0-fer-the-conference—surprised the Blue Hens, 75-72. That’s right. In the span of seven days, the Blue Hens beat the preseason favorites, lost to a team that literally could not shoot straight and lost to a team that hadn’t won since the day after Thanksgiving and whose 10 straight defeats had come by an average of 21 points. Trying to project this stuff is for the sadistic, I tell you.

The second half proved the Dutchmen are still the work in progress that Pecora described during a conference call last week. The pieces are there and the box score looked pretty good, but it’s just not a complete puzzle yet.

Jenkins continues to emerge from rock bottom, led the Dutchmen with 15 points and five assists and added eight rebounds, but his slump is still a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, as he proved by shooting 1-for-8 in the second half and finishing with a team-high five turnovers. Maybe, Pecora figures, the answer is shooting less instead of more.

The Dutchmen are deep, but not yet deep or strong enough to withstand a sputtering Jenkins and a non-existent Cornelius Vines, the latter of whom fouled out after setting season lows in minutes (17) and points (six). In addition, all four shots Vines took Saturday were from beyond the arc.

Nathaniel Lester’s role keeps growing—he tied a season high with 28 minutes played and had seven boards, the third time in four games he’s had at least that many rebounds—yet his eight points came on 3-of-10 shooting.

Speaking of work in progress, to watch Larry Sanders (16 points, 13 rebounds) dominate down low was a reminder that Greg Washington is still the biggest work in progress—literally—on the Dutchmen roster. It’s one thing to be 6-foot-10, it’s quite another to be a freaking behemoth like Sanders. Washington’s suddenly stellar play in December wasn’t a fluke, but it wasn’t necessarily a sign of things come this season for the still-spindly Gee Dubs. Washington made his fifth straight start Saturday, but his minutes in that span are as follows: 29, 23, 23, 18 and 14.

He played only seven minutes in the second half Sunday, during which VCU outscored the Dutchmen 24-8 in the paint. At some point, Darren Townes will have to escape from Witness Protection to provide more depth in the front court. In the meantime, I once again humbly offer Washington my extra 25 pounds. I’m even willing to negotiate it up to 35 pounds.

Anyway, what we went through Saturday is a pretty good idea of what’s to come over the next seven weeks: Jumping back and forth between trying to minimize expectations and hoping the Dutchmen can shoot the moon—and the ball, too. Litos was impressed with what he saw in the defeat and wrote Sunday that he projects a 9-9 conference finish for the Dutchmen—and as many surprising victories as unexplainable defeats. It’s sadistic, I tell you.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

Let me tell you about the I-A fans. They are different from you and me.

I don't know. Hofstra USA?

Spent the weekend in Connecticut catching up with my best friend from childhood Scott, who was visiting the Nutmeg State for the first time since the Flying Dutchmen were in their second year of I-AA (hint: it was also the year of the Spin Doctors, Temple of the Dog and Firehouse’s last, brilliant gasp in the face of the alternative rock revolution). A great time was had by all, especially when the CAA scores began to appear on the scroll during the Texas-Oklahoma State game.

“Shhh!” I said. Why did I do that? Seriously. It’s not like I couldn’t READ the screen even if everyone else in the room was screaming.

“The CAA scores are coming on,” I said. “I want to see how my alma mater did.”

James Madison 23, Villanova 19…nice win for the no. 1 team in the land…New Hampshire 42, Towson 14…further proving Hofstra had no shot at making the CAA North interesting…Maine 20, Northeastern 0…Maine is damn good all of a sudden…William & Mary 34, Rhode Island 24…geez the suspense is killing me…Richmond 48, Georgetown 0…isn’t it awfully late in the season for non-conference games…UMass 42, Bryant 7…guess I must have missed the Hofstra score…

Delaware 17, Hofstra 0.

I groaned and sunk into the couch as my friend and his brother started roaring. “Shut out!” Scott said. “That’s brutal.”

“You have no idea,” I said, wishing I had my media guide with me so I could figure out just how long it’s been since Hofstra was shutout twice in the same season (1977. Fordham and C.W. Post. It was the year of Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever and “You Light Up My Life.” As awesome as the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is, do not tell me, ever, that the ‘70s were better than the ‘80s.)

Scott had another laugh and then we moved on to talking about the battle for Big 10 (where they have trouble counting, but are still better off than the Atlantic 10) supremacy between Ohio State and Penn State. Texas vs. Oklahoma State pitted two top six teams against one another, but Scott was about as interested in the Big XII clash (hey, give them credit, at least they’ve moved beyond the Big 8 moniker) as he would be in some no-name opening act at a concert.

Scott’s a big Ohio State fan. Huge. Enormous. I’m talking so rabid he makes me look like I don’t know the first thing about Hofstra. It was pretty cool watching Penn State-Ohio State to get an idea of what it’s like to live in an area where college football is king, even with a college basketball team that’s reached an NCAA final and won the NIT in the last two years.

Ohio State fans are used to watching their team play in a sold-out 100,000-seat stadium in prime time. I’ve rarely heard venom for a rival like I heard from Scott whenever the word “Michigan” was mentioned.

And every game has national championship implications, thanks to the nonsensical BCS. One loss is damaging, two losses is usually impossible to overcome—especially for Ohio State, which fell 13-6 Saturday to unbeaten Penn State and can forget about a third straight appearance in the title game. On Sunday, Scott said he had a hard time sleeping Saturday because he was so disappointed by the loss. (Oh well, at least Ohio State hasn’t been shut out twice in a season since 1964)

It’s a little different for us. We pine for the days when SportsChannel carried Hofstra on Friday nights or Saturday afternoons. I’m kind of nostalgic for Towson and Delaware, even though they handed the Flying Dutchmen their most heartbreaking losses—and ties—during the halcyon ’94 and ’95 seasons. And our passion is basketball, which has inspired its share of sleepless nights and loathsome thoughts.

Of course, rooting for a I-AA team has its benefits. We can stroll into Shuart Stadium 15 minutes before kickoff and land a seat on the 50-yard-line. And playing I-AA means Hofstra can afford at least three losses and still entertain national championship hopes. (Not five losses, though)

Alas, Scott and I are in the same situation after Saturday: Looking to next season. Fortunately, for Hofstra fans, it starts Wednesday, sort of, with the Blue-White Scrimmage. Bring on hoops. Pronto.

***

That said, I can’t NOT mention the biggest kick in the, well, you know, about the loss Saturday: Delaware scored more touchdowns against Hofstra (two) than it had scored in its previous 11 quarters (one). And the Blue Hens did it with a tight end and a wide receiver playing quarterback.

According to this game story from the Delaware sports information department, the Blue Hens went with the unusual two-headed QB because they’re down to a third-stringer who is not yet familiar with the offense. I imagine it’s ironic, in the sense that it’s not ironic at all, that Delaware beat Hofstra on the day the Flying Dutchmen’s third-string quarterback, freshman Steve Probst, made his first start.

Probst played impressively in relief of Cory Christopher against Maine Oct. 18, but the wind and the rain and Delaware’s blitzing defense made for a miserable day for Probst, who was 11-of-28 for 71 yards and two interceptions. His longest completion was 14 yards and he was sacked five times.

Hofstra had just 179 yards of total offense, yet the Flying Dutchmen had plenty of chances to score: They moved the ball inside the Delaware 35-yard-line in five of their final six possession.

Oh and how’s this for tying everything together nicely? Delaware’s win ended a three-game losing streak and ensured the Blue Hens would remain one of only two Division I or I-AA teams without a four-game losing streak in the last 40 years. The other? That’s right. Ohio State. Sigh. Only 17 days until the basketball season opener!

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.