As always, you can’t spell hubris without HU

In this file photo that may or may not have just been taken on Hempstead Turnpike, a pair of Flying Dutchmen fans make their way to Hofstra Arena for a men's basketball game that Hofstra just refuses to postpone.

Blizzard conditions continue to slam Long Island, but as I type this shortly after 5:30 p.m., there seems to be no convincing Hofstra to do the right thing and postpone the men’s basketball game against Drexel. I’m not surprised, at all, but I held out some hope they’d take something other than the bottom line into account for once.

Speaking of that bottom line, Hofstra is only too eager to bolster it by exploiting the blizzard and pitching its PrideZone coverage as an alternative to trying to kill yourself on the way to the Arena. (Newsday.com reports more than 200 accidents were reported on Long Island between midnight and 1 p.m. today) Hey, you’re already eating $10 or $15 per ticket tonight! What’s another $5?

The least the school could have done if it insists on playing this game is offer the PrideZone for free. It might have even worked out in the long run for Hofstra—maybe people would have enjoyed the trial and signed up for a subscription.

Now? Forget about it. I’ll find it free somewhere or listen to the free WRHU feed, and if you’re reading this, I encourage you to do the same. It’ll make live Tweeting a little more difficult, but enough is enough when it comes to Hofstra trampling all over what remains of its fan base.

As for the game that will be played in front of absolutely nobody, I regret to predict that it’ll be a really good one. Tom Pecora said after the loss to Northeastern Saturday that Charles Jenkins needed to get 20 shots a game, so I’d expect him to be in take-charge mode tonight. Figure, too, that the Flying Dutchmen will be eager to put up a better performance than they did in the loss to Drexel in Philadelphia Jan. 23 and that Cornelius Vines, who missed that game with a knee injury, will blanket the Dragons’ sensational freshman Chris Fouch, who scored 29 points and drained six 3-pointers.

The Dutchmen are 0-8 against teams in the top half of the CAA standings, so tonight is the latest Last Chance to record the much-needed Signature Win (and yes, if the Dutchmen lose tonight, I’ll call the game at Northeastern Feb. 23 the REAL Last Chance at a much-needed Signature Win).

While my guess is Drexel wins a tight one, a victory over the Dragons would be a good sign for the Dutchmen’s fortunes the rest of the season. How the Dutchmen fare against Drexel is usually a good barometer for the program in general: Hofstra lost its first seven games to Drexel during its first three years as a member of the NAC/America East, during which the Flying Dutchmen went 31-51. But the Dutchmen were 8-2 against Drexel in Jay Wright’s final four years at the helm, during which the program went 91-34 and reached two NCAA Tournaments and one NIT.

The Dutchmen lost their first eight games against Drexel under Pecora but finally snapped that streak in the 2005 CAA Tournament, a win that likely qualified them for the NIT. They have won six of their last 10 games against the Dragons, including a season sweep during the infamous 2005-06 season, but have dropped three straight. A win tonight shouldn’t send you running to make reservations for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but it’ll be a sign that maybe the faithful (what’s left of it after tonight, anyway) can invest some hope in a Cinderella run in the CAA Tournament.

Wherever you are tonight—and I hope you’re in your living room—enjoy the game despite Hofstra’s best attempt to dampen the enthusiasm. I’ll do my best to live Tweet the festivities. Tune in and I’ll see if I can’t drop a reference to the Shaq of the NAC or Joe Lindermann.

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

A CAA tourney bye is out of reach, but that ECC crown is there for the taking!

No banner, no matter! The mythical ECC championship still counts to us! (Note to my newest fans: I am just kidding. It won't count to us.)

This has not been a good week to be a Flying Dutchmen fan. A once-promising season for the men’s basketball team has splintered apart, with each successive loss in a four-game losing streak more discouraging than the last. Mason Nation came into Hofstra Arena Tuesday, humiliated the Dutchmen and serenaded what consists of Dutch Nation (snort) out of its own building.

A loss today at Drexel—which didn’t trail the Dutchmen for a single second in sweeping the season series last year—and the Dutchmen will slip to depths not experienced since 2003, the last time the program endured a losing streak of at least five games. A loss today also means the rest of the season will be spent hoping to avoid the worst-case scenario: Being the “12” in the 5 vs. 12 game on the first day of the CAA Tournament.

Pushing the panic button too soon, or at least too vociferously? Not if the Dutchmen are on a five-game losing streak heading into games next week against UNC Wilmington and Delaware, each of whom begin play today in a tie for eighth place with the Dutchmen at 2-6.

But I don’t want to hit the panic button. I want to look on the bright side, a bright side that will exist even if the Dutchmen lose today. No matter what, the Dutchmen will still be in good shape to win the mythical East Coast Conference championship!!!

(For those readers who joined us this week and began paying attention to college basketball in March 2006, the East Coast Conference was formed in 1974 from the remains of the Middle Atlantic Conference and featured as members schools such as Saint Joseph’s, Temple, Rider and Bucknell before sizable defections finally forced the ECC to close its doors for good following the 1994 season. Four former ECC schools are part of the CAA: Hofstra, Delaware, Drexel and Towson)

The Dutchmen currently lead the mythical ECC standings by virtue of their sweep of Towson (again: Can we take them with us to wherever we end up next?) and could take a huge step towards the championship that isn’t really a championship by upsetting Drexel today. Here are the standings that aren’t really standings:

Hofstra 2-0

Delaware 1-1

Drexel 1-1

Towson 1-3

Wins today and next Saturday against Delaware would just about lock up the ECC for the Dutchmen. Of course, spending a couple graphs waxing about the possibility of winning a conference that doesn’t exist pretty much sums up the 2009-10 season thus far.

This really has been an imperfect storm for the Dutchmen, who have, in terms of caliber of competition and pacing, played a rigorous schedule this month. The four schools the Dutchmen have played that are not located in Towson enter today 26-6 in conference play, and both VCU and Mason played perhaps their best games of the conference season in routing the Dutchmen in Hempstead.

In addition, the Dutchmen’s first seven games this month went like this: Home-Virginia-home-Virginia-home-Virginia-home. Only one other team, James Madison, has alternated home and road games thus far, and even the Dukes finally get to play a second straight road contest today. And their road trip to Drexel and UNC Wilmington marks the first time they’ve left Virginia since Jan. 2.

At least today’s road trip is the shortest of the conference schedule for the Dutchmen, though the task of beginning to turn the season around doesn’t get any easier just down the Jersey Turnpike. Drexel is a tough place to win in the best of circumstances—the Dutchmen are 3-5 there under Tom Pecora—never mind during the Dragons’ Homecoming Weekend. What is up with that? Can you imagine going to a school that didn’t have a football team and had to have Homecoming in the winter? Geez, that sure would suck.

Still, while I fear this will be another close loss, I don’t have the hideously bad feeling I had all day Tuesday (seriously, I knew for hours it would be a crap burger of a day), mostly because I imagine a couple days of Pecora’s midseason boot camp will have the Dutchmen playing far more inspired this afternoon than they did four nights ago.

I’m also very curious to see today’s starting lineup. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that Yves Jules is on the court at noon in place of Nathaniel Lester, if for no other reason than to give Lester a wake-up call.

Lester and Charles Jenkins are the only members of the opening night starting lineup who have yet to be benched for performance reasons, yet nobody has been a bigger disappointment this month than Lester, especially considering how well he played in the two games following Christmas. Jules did all the things Lester should do Tuesday—driving the lane and forcing the action despite being three inches shorter than Lester—and has earned a starting assignment as much as Lester has lost it.

I’m also wondering how much we’ll see of Cornelius Vines, whose reality show existence grew even more fascinating when he was benched for the second half Tuesday after he told Pecora he had no confidence. Vines lacking confidence is like me lacking bluster—inconceivable—but there you go, a shocking twist a couple weeks before sweeps season.

Vines’ state of mind and Pecora’s role in mending it, by the way, has been quite the subject of debate in our household the last few nights. I, being the world’s biggest fan of Pecora (I think I nudged ahead of Litos Wednesday), argued that Pecora would not have benched him if he didn’t think he was shot, at least for one night, and that this season has turned into an audition for next year so Pecora may as well see what he has in the freshmen, even if it is at the expense of a senior like Vines.

My wife believes the only way to boost Vines’ confidence would be to keep sending him out there with orders to shoot and that Pecora might have lost him forever Tuesday. We kept arguing back and forth until she finally declared “Nobody knows Corny like I do.” Honestly, there was no serviceable comeback to that, just more proof that I married way the hell up.

Anyway, while it’s the shortest road trip of the conference season, and while it’s always awesome beyond words to see Pecora and Bruiser Flint stalk the sidelines, this is one trip we won’t be making. Three weeks after the glorious car accident following the Mason game, I still choose to make the shorter and slightly less dangerous journey from my bedroom to the living room recliner. We’ll be tuning in at noon on MSG, and Hofstra is hosting a viewing party at Dave and Buster’s in Westbury if you’re interested.

Me, it’s easier to live Twitter these things when I’m not feeding my face full of wings and fries. Join us, won’t you? Don’t expect me to annoy Drexel Nation, though.

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

Oh, relax kids, I’ve got a gut feeling this year’s Uter is around here somewhere

Adrian Uter transferred to Hofstra, Uter is a foreign exchange student from Germany at Springfield Elementary. Good enough for me!

First things first: Be patient and forgive me over the next few days if posts are brief and/or sporadic. The wife and I are traveling out-of-state on short notice today and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to listen to/watch the game tonight or how much time we’ll have to post over the next couple days. Hopefully everything returns to some semblance of normalcy soon and we can get back to giving the word count a good workout.

As for tonight against Drexel, Tom Pecora’s comments Monday about transfers Cornelius Vines, Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo—“Your transition period is over”—reminded me of Bill Parcells’ famous saying about rookies and the increased expectations and responsibilities that will greet them in the NFL: “You’re not on scholarship anymore.”

Except, well, Vines, Dennison and Szabo are on scholarship. But Pecora’s sentiment is the same as the one espoused by Parcells: No more talk about inexperience, no more chalking up early season struggles to the adaptation process. The training wheels are off. You can’t run with the big dogs if you stay on the porch. Place your own cliché here, baby. (That is the most extreme of inside jokes, by the way)

As of the first tip in Philly, the regular season is more than halfway over (of course, with the Flying Dutchmen destined to win all three CAA tournament games and six NCAA Tournament games, the actual midway point of the season won’t arrive until a week from Saturday at James Madison). I imagine Pecora isn’t too displeased with Vines, who is one of only two players to start every game and whose non-stop motor and unflappability as a shooter are valuable traits.

But it’s time for Dennison and Szabo to begin chipping in like Pecora envisioned when he brought them to Hempstead—Szabo more so than Dennison, the latter of whom isn’t a pure point guard and isn’t shooting well enough to get more than a handful of minutes in relief. The Dutchmen, though, can really use Szabo to add to their front court depth, especially with Greg Washington slumping and Dane Johnson having played 30 minutes in a game just once.

When discussing the transfers last week, Pecora mentioned Adrian Uter—who, like Szabo and Dennison, transferred to Hofstra from Broward CC in Florida—as someone who experienced his share of initial struggles in moving from a JUCO to Division I. And Uter’s final stats in 2004-05 (6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds. 19.1 minutes per game) are quite comparable to Szabo’s stats through his first 14 games (3.9 points. 5.8 rebounds. 18.9 minutes per game). Szabo missed the Dutchmen’s first two games while serving an NCAA suspension for playing with professionals in his native Hungary.

There are also some notable similarities in how Uter and Szabo performed through 14 games. Each had had one double-double, two games in which they recorded 10 or more rebounds and four games in which they played 30 or more minutes.

But overall, Uter made a bigger and more immediate impact than Szabo. With Wendell Gibson missing the first half of the season recovering from knee surgery, Uter started 13 of the Dutchmen’s first 14 games, during which he averaged 7.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 25.2 minutes per game. Uter scored in double digits six times and pulled down seven or more rebounds six times.

Szabo has scored 10 or more points twice and had seven or more rebounds four times. In addition, his 30-minute performances, though, all occurred within his first five games.

Uter started the Dutchmen’s 15th, 16th and 17th games before giving way to Gibson, who started the final 13. Uter’s numbers over the final 16 games of the season dropped precipitously: He averaged 5.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 13.9 minutes per contest over that span.

For the Dutchmen to end this season the same place they ended the 2004-05—or better—they’ll need Szabo to finish this season the way Uter began it four years ago. And there’s no better time than tonight for that emergence to begin (how’s that for a segue?).

Szabo is the pick to click and the guess here is Greg Johnson, who scored a career-high 15 points at Drexel 362 days ago, plays another 38 to 40 minutes and enjoys another impressive game at the point. Perhaps a few days away from the gym and a return to Philly and the scene of his most impressive game last season (21 points, seven rebounds and six steals) allows Charles Jenkins to further shake his slump.

Another interesting thing to watch: How many passes the Dutchmen make per possession now that Johnson is re-entrenched as the point guard. Jon Wagner, who is chronicling the Dutchmen and Jenkins in particular this season for the Queens Ledger, has been steadfast in his belief that the more the Dutchmen move the ball, the better the offense performs, as he notes in this very interesting post.

In addition, you’ve also got to figure a defense that has suffocated opposing guards during conference play won’t allow Scott Rodgers to go off like he did 11 days ago.

With sizzling Northeastern coming to Hempstead Saturday, this would be a fine time to steal a roadie. And a win in the not-so-cozy confines of the DAC would also line up with the trends in a series that summarizes the unpredictability of the CAA. The Dutchmen are just 2-6 at home against Drexel in the Pecora Era—pretty remarkable for a team that is 65-27 overall at the Arena in that span—but they’ve won three straight in Philly to lift their record at the DAC to 3-4.

The unexpected, after all, is expected. How’s that for a new twist on an old cliché?

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

Bowling for baskets

If you were 10 years old in 1984, you, too, probably had to wait several days to read about Miami upsetting Nebraska. Kids these days, with their later bedtimes, BCS Championship Games and Internet...they have no idea how good they have it.

It’s a moot point this year, since Jan. 2 falls on a Friday and everyone in a public school is off until Monday, but today reminds me that the best part about going to college—other than “18 and over” Happy Hours, of course—was not having to go back to class on Jan. 2. The looming return to school put a damper on New Years Eve and ruined New Years Day, which was one long torturous reminder that I could no longer stay up as late as I wanted.

I was never a big college football fan, probably because I never got to see the national championship decided because I had to be in bed by 9 during elementary school. Who knows how different I’d be today if I was able to stay up 25 years ago and watch the classic 1984 Orange Bowl in which Miami shocked previously unbeaten Nebraska to move from fourth to first in the final polls?

Now, of course, there are more bowl games played after New Years Day than on it, including classics that feature powerhouses such as Buffalo, UConn, Ball State and Tulsa, and the national championship takes place a full week after New Years Day, by which point every CAA team but two will have played four conference games. (How’s that for a smooth segue?)

As a college basketball fan, New Years Day is now welcome, because it signals the real start of conference play. We’ve spent weeks alternately wondering and fretting over how good the Flying Dutchmen are. By the end of this stretch of three games in five days, we’ll have a good idea which instinct was correct.

So will the fans of every other CAA school. Michael Litos pointed out eariler this week that what is fun for us is hell for coaches, but Hofstra seems to have little to complain about, at least from a travel perspective: The Dutchmen play Drexel Saturday, travel to Northeastern Monday and host Delaware Wednesday. No plane rides, only one night in a hotel and no traffic if they travel to and fro Boston at the right times.

Of course, schedule-wise, it’s a beast. Recent games against Drexel and Delaware—Hofstra’s biggest traditional rivals—have been appropriately suspenseful. The Flying Dutchmen won their two games over Drexel by a combined 17 points last year, but five of the seven games between the teams the previous three seasons either went into overtime or were determined by a basket. The last three games against Delaware have been settled by five points or less while the Dutchmen are 1-2 in Northeastern’s band box since the Huskies joined the CAA in 2005.

Drexel is the perfect team against which to begin this measuring stick stretch. The Dragons were a consensus pick to finish at or near the bottom of the CAA, but Bruiser Flint is too good a coach and his teams too tough to bring up the rear two years in a row. Drexel beat Rider and St. Joseph’s over the last six days to improve to 4-6 (I may or may not have a post later about how it seems like everyone is getting hot entering CAA play), but the only teams it lost to by more than six points were Georgetown and Memphis. And those guys are pretty good.

The Dragons aren’t a mirror image of the Dutchmen, but similarities shared by the teams—as page two of Jeremy Kniffin's notes package indicates, both teams have been cold from the field and the free throw line but make up for some of those offensive struggles by outrebounding the opposition—should ensure another physical, intense game that will be a lot more compelling and fun to watch than the box score will indicate.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Greg Johnson—who set career highs with 15 points in 40 minutes against Drexel in Philadelphia last January—plays a pivotal role. And if the Dutchmen are going to win, they’ll need two guys to help Greg Washington out down low. So the picks to click Saturday are Miklos Szabo and Darren Townes. Hey, I’m nothing if not loyal.

Oh, and the over/under on technical fouls earned by passionate and vocal head coaches who laugh at the confines of the coach’s box is 1.5.

I may or may not be there, as I might be out of state and taking this one in on TV. If I’m not there, say hello to my wife. She’ll be the one snagging T-shirts from the grip of Sully Ray.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.