Hofstra 93, UNC Wilmington 64 (Or: A little touchup and a little paint…)

Only 11 more chances to figure out the theme of the post-game recaps, Loyal Reader Missy, err, everyone!

Referee Sean Casady sidled up to Mo Cassara as the Flying Dutchmen produced their most dominant CAA victory in more than two years and asked the question on the minds of most of the 3,017 fans at Hofstra Arena.

“He said ‘Where has this been all year?’” Cassara said after the Dutchmen routed UNC Wilmington, 93-64, in the regular season finale Saturday.

Cassara and his players have believed they were capable of a performance like this throughout an exasperating, luckless season in which the effort never waned even as the Dutchmen suffered narrow loss after narrow loss. It all finally came together in a rollicking Senior Day victory fueled by the three departing Dutchmen.

CAA scoring champion Mike Moore had 30 points and Nathaniel Lester remained among the top 10 scorers in the league with 20 points to lead five Dutchmen in double figures. But the most impressive performance was authored by the third senior, Dwan McMillan, who racked up an incredible 15 assists—the most in the CAA this season and one shy of the Hofstra single-game record, set way back by Robbie Weingard in the 1983-84 season—to surge past VCU’s Darius Theus and win the CAA’s assist title.

“We had as many close games as anybody in the league, if not in the country this year, [and] didn’t come out on the right end of a lot of them,” Cassara said. “But tonight I thought our energy was great, our effort was great and our attitude was great. And that’s a credit to these three guys. Their stats throughout the course of the game were really incredible.”

As a team, the Dutchmen put up some pretty incredible—and borderline historical—stats. The Dutchmen tied a team record, set way back in the 1988-89 season, with 25 assists. The Dutchmen shot 56.6 percent, their best effort since the season opener against Long Island, and drained a season-high 12 3-pointers. Defensively, the Dutchmen enjoyed a 39-possession stretch in which they didn’t allow UNC Wilmington to score on consecutive trips up the floor.

The Dutchmen led by as many as 37 with a little more than two minutes to play prior to a game-ending 13-4 run by the Seahawks and were on pace for their first 100-point effort against a Division I opponent in almost exactly 20 years until Cassara took the air out of the ball down the stretch(cough, would never happen if Jaime Larranaga coached here, cough cough).

The 29-point victory was still the program’s biggest margin of victory over a Division I opponent since a 93-54 win over UNC Wilmington Jan. 27, 2010, the game that infamously got Benny Moss Benny Mossed. And the lopsided win cut the Dutchmen’s overall point differential this season by more than half (from 54 points to 25 points) and made them just one of two CAA teams to win at least two games by 25 points this season.

“We were clicking on the offensive end and defensive end,” Lester said. “Not a bad time to start.”

We won’t know until late Friday night whether the win was the start of something big—or at least a run to Sunday or Monday in the CAA Tournament—or merely a fluke outburst against the worst defensive team in the CAA. But the Dutchmen certainly displayed some elements of a winning team against the Seahawks.

The Dutchmen got off to their usual fast start (taking a 9-0 lead, during which UNC Wilmington coach Buzz Peterson subbed out his entire starting lineup) before, as usual, quickly allowing the opponent back into the contest. But after falling behind 14-11, the Dutchmen outscored the Seahawks 34-11 to end the first half and remained ruthless and unrelenting in the second half.

The Dutchmen improved to 8-9 when three or more players score in double digits (Stevie Mejia, Stephen Nwaukoni and Shemiye McLendon all scored 10 points each). The dual point guard combination of McMillan and Mejia continued to create opportunities on both ends of the floor: In addition to combining for 19 assists, they sparked a defense that recorded eight steals (the 10th time in 11 games they’ve had at least seven thefts) and forced more turnovers than the Dutchmen committed for the 10th straight game.

“I think this small lineup has helped us a lot,” Cassara said. “I think the pressure we’ve been able to put [on teams], like last Saturday on Siena and for the most part William & Mary until the very end of the game and then today, we’ve been able to wear some teams down. So we have to try to continue to do that.”

Nwaukoni had a double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) and mostly neutralized UNC Wilmington big man Keith Rendleman. Moussa Kone fouled out in just 17 minutes of play, but hit both of his field goal attempts, including a sweet 10-foot bank shot in the first half, as well as both of his free throws. He’s 5-for-5 from the field in the last two games and 4-of-5 from the free throw line in the last four games after beginning the season by hitting just 10 of his first 28 attempts.

“I thought [Nwaukoni] did a great job defensively,” Cassara said. “I think you saw his strength. Rendleman is a terrific player and our whole team did a great job on him, doubling him in the post and frustrating him.”

The odds are this frustrating season for the Dutchmen won’t have a Hollywood ending (as we’ll get into all week long with the annual Just The Facts, coming soon to a screen near you!) and that extending the program’s Senior Day winning streak to 16 games will stand as the highlight of the most challenging campaign in 17 years. But the rout at least created some momentum for the Dutchmen heading into Friday night’s opening round game against Georgia State and provided a glimpse at what this team can do when things are clicking.

“Better late than never—it’s a start,” Moore said. “This gives us a lot of momentum going in and a lot of confidence for the guys whose shots haven’t been falling.”

“We’ve really been having great practices the last two weeks,” McMillan said. “Some of the games we haven’t closed out, but I think we can make some noise.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. UNC Wilmington, 2/25)

3: Dwan McMillan

2: Mike Moore

1: Nathaniel Lester

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 64

Nathaniel Lester 45

Dwan McMillan 20

Stevie Mejia 15

David Imes 14

Stephen Nwaukoni 10

Shemiye McLendon 9

Moussa Kone 6

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

Postgame Buffet: Hofstra 83, Iona 75 (Or: If the cards are cold, don’t go folding)

The rap here is as awful as the win over Iona was awesome.

Iona players had waited 31 days for Thursday night and the opportunity to play in front of their friends and family. But the Flying Dutchmen had waited a lot longer—a full 365 days—just to play the Gaels and get a measure of revenge for the worst loss of the Mo Cassara Era.

And the differences in focus were obvious throughout. From the spirited demeanor of the Hofstra bench to David Imes (16 points, 15 rebounds) and Nathaniel Lester (21 points, 10 rebounds) putting together double-doubles in perhaps the best efforts of their careers to Cassara pumping his fist after a Moussa Kone dunk sealed the game with less than a minute to play and the sight of usually placid Lester firing the ball skyward as time expired, the Dutchmen were the better and more attentive team in putting together a stunningly thorough 83-75 win in front of a spirited crowd of 4,258 at Hofstra Arena.

“Sheesh, I can’t even tell you,” Imes said when asked how satisfied he was by the victory a year to the day after the Dutchmen were destroyed by Iona, 87-62, in New Rochelle. “I just know that everyday, when we found out they were on our schedule, we just waited until this day to take advantage of it and just make up for [last year],” Imes said.

“A year ago tonight was a tough night,” Cassara said. “But it was a big turning point for us. I think from that point on we played very, very well throughout the rest of the season. So obviously a big turning point for us this year, as well.”

Don’t be surprised if it turns out to be one for Iona, too. Judging by Tim Cluess’ demeanor late Thursday, I wouldn’t want to be Siena on Tuesday night. Anyway, here’s the postgame buffet from the Dutchmen’s third straight win.

1.) Afterward, everyone on both sides recognized that while the Flying Dutchmen viewed this as their Super Bowl—Dwan McMillan’s words—Iona viewed it like Homecoming, and figured they’d treat the Dutchmen like the Dutchmen football team treated Charleston Southern back in 1995 (you probably had to be there).

“I’ll keep it simple: Just give Hofstra all the credit,” Cluess said. “I thought they came and played a heckuva game from the get-go. They came with more energy, they played harder than us and took it to us right from the start. It looked like it meant more to them than it did to our guys today.”

Cluess said he was growing concerned that his team, which went 6-2 on the eight-game road trip it completed Thursday, was beginning to buy into its hype as the best team in the metro area when he noticed players were talking more about ticket requests. “I think our guys were drinking the Kool Aid a little too much,” Cluess said. “I knew we were in a little bit of trouble when it became more of an issue for some of the guys about tickets for the game than about the game itself.”

Cluess also admitted he didn’t expect Imes and Lester to shoot as well as they did, which is understandable given their struggles much of this season (more on that shortly). But Iona star forward Mike Glover unintentionally provided a glimpse into how the Gaels approached the game when he needed help remembering Imes’ name and assumed he’d never before enjoyed such a robust rebounding game.

“I think it was—who was it? Dave? Dave Imes had, what, 15 rebounds in the game?” Glover said. “Shocked me. I didn’t think he ever had 15 rebounds in a game against anybody.”

Imes had 17 rebounds twice last season (against Wagner and UNC Wilmington) and Thursday marked his seventh career double-double. Those numbers aren’t Glover-esque—he has six double-doubles this year alone—but still, they’re pretty good.

“Pretty much proved today that he can rebound just as good as any other big man in the country,” Glover said.

2.) This was the type of win Cassara would like to bottle and uncork another 27 times this year (do the math!). Not only did the Dutchmen bring the type of effort and emotion he’d like to see every game, but this was a win in which the veterans all played their optimal game.

Imes entered Thursday with just 12 points and 20 rebounds in his previous four games, during which he was just 5-of-24 from the field. But he was 7-of-13 shooting against Iona and had as many offensive boards (six) as the previous four games combined.

“It’s a big confidence booster,” Imes said. “I needed that.”

Lester’s impressive shooting night was less surprising—he is 15-of-35 in his last five games following a five-game stretch in which he was just 13-of-58—but the Gaels weren’t the only ones stunned by Lester’s huge and consecutive 3-pointers midway through the second half. The first came with 10:07 left to play immediately after a Hofstra timeout and just after Iona had closed within single digits for the first time in the second half. The second 96 seconds later again extended the lead to 12.

Not only were those Lester’s first 3-pointers in 26 days, they were his first after a streak of nine straight misses dating back to the James Madison game and half as many 3-pointers as he had in his first 25 attempts of the season. They were also, quite likely, his biggest baskets since his freshman year way back in 1907-08—err, 2007-08—when he hit a series of clutch last-minute shots.

Mike Moore, meanwhile, opened the game by hitting just one of his first six shots but hit drained seven of his final nine attempts on his way to a game-high 24 points. Most notably, he had five assists, tying a Hofstra career high, and continued to display renewed determination on defense, where he had three steals and got a piece of Kyle Smyth’s 3-pointer late in the second half.

“It was easy for me tonight because my other guys were picking me up,” Moore said. “We had the lead from the beginning so I wasn’t really stressing about missing shots. They were good shots. I know I can make those shots and my teammates believe in me, so I just kept shooting and making the right pass.”

After the Dutchmen took their biggest lead at 57-38 with 14:33 left to play, Moore, Lester and Imes combined to score 20 of the Dutchmen’s final 26 points as they fended off Iona’s comeback and finished off the win.

“A lot of credit to Mike he was a little tired at the end and he dropped the ball off to Dave, he dropped the ball off to Nat and those guys stepped up and made big shots,” Cassara said. “And that’s what we need them to do. If you look at their stat lines, it’s terrific, but I’m really just proud of our effort overall. And that’s the way we’re going to have to win. To win games we’re going to have to do it as a group.”

3.) While Moore, Lester and Imes combined for 61 points on 52 percent shooting, the most pivotal player for the Dutchmen—and the one who inspired me to go with the FOUR stars of the game for the first time ever, SPOILER ALERT—was just 3-of-11 shooting and didn’t pull down a rebound. But without Dwan McMillan’s efforts on and off the court, the Dutchmen do not win this game.

McMillan continued his masterful play at point guard with 10 points, nine assists and just four turnovers over 40 minutes (he missed a handful of seconds before a media timeout in the second half). His 19 assists the last two games are the most by a Hofstra player in a two-game span since Charles Jenkins had 22 on Feb. 18 and 21, 2009.

McMillan continually—and seemingly effortlessly—broke the Iona press while igniting the Dutchmen’s own press defense. McMillan harassed ex-high school teammate Scott Machado into six of Iona’s 23 turnovers, the most by a Hofstra opponent since UNC Wilmington needed three overtimes to commit 24 turnovers on Jan. 14, 2006. And the Dutchmen recorded 14 steals, the second straight game in which they had their most steals in six seasons.

He also set the tone for the Dutchmen last week by declaring he was ready for Iona. “I thought Dwan was great,” Cassara said. “I gave him a lot of credit in the locker room. His attitude and effort in practice, in shoot-around today—he just kept saying ‘We’re not gonna lose, we’re not gonna lose tonight’—has been tremendous.”

“I told the guys during practice ‘this is a must-win, we’ve got to be up for this team,’” McMillan said. “Some of the losses that we had, we got up—it wasn’t 15, but we got up six or seven and we didn’t finish the game—so we finished this game.”

4.) Perhaps the most impressive part of the win is the Dutchmen played Iona’s game and paid zero attention to my pre-game prattlings about how the only way to beat Iona was by slowing things down. The Gaels had 84 possessions, their fourth-most this season, but averaged a season-low 0.89 points per possession. The Dutchmen set a season high with 83 possessions.

“We talk about playing to tempo,” Cassara said. “We were able to get some really easy baskets in transition and the staff kept saying if we get something in transition, let’s attack and let’s get an easy basket or let’s get fouled. If we don’t, then pull out and run some offense. I think down the stretch we did a really good job of that.”

5.) Following the game, I screamed on Twitter that I was writing in Cassara for President. Maybe it’s a smidge early for that, but not too early to declare he can, as Bum Phillips said about Bear Bryant, “…take his’n and beat your’n and take your’n and beat his’n.”

This is the second year in a row in which Cassara has navigated the Dutchmen through an early season crisis and put them back on course, but this time he didn’t have Jenkins to rely upon. It is absolutely remarkable that the Dutchmen, in a span of a little more than three weeks, went from trailing for 76-plus straight minutes against Wagner and Manhattan to never trailing Iona by more than two points and leading the Gaels for the final 28 minutes.

Part of the resurgence was the good fortune of playing winless Binghamton and game but overmatched Colgate in consecutive home games, but Cassara deserves a ton of credit for putting the Bryant Crowder distraction behind the Dutchmen and getting the group he’ll take forward refocused and re-energized after a demoralizing four-game losing streak. The Dutchmen also have an identity and a vocal team leader, two things they lacked during the skid, and Cassara and his staff deserve plenty of plaudits for coaxing those traits out of a reeling team.

“I think anytime when you’re going through a stretch, a period, where you’re not playing real well, you’re trying to push and pull and find anything that can work,” Cassara said. “We’ve been trying to push some different buttons and do some different things [and] really get a better sense of ourselves. Our energy and our effort and our excitement in practice has been tremendous and I think that showed tonight on the court. I’m really proud of our guys.”

And now the Dutchmen head into the new year feeling pretty good about themselves and knowing they not only beat the two best teams they faced during the non-conference season—and may have recorded the CAA’s two biggest non-conference wins—but that they did it with two drastically different squads. Feeling good on New Year’s Eve doesn’t guarantee anything, and the best team in the CAA awaits Monday, but the Dutchmen are in a far better spot than anyone could have envisioned two weeks ago.

“On paper, probably the two best teams that we’ve played all year are Cleveland State and Iona—RPI-wise, personnel-wise—and we’ve beaten both of those teams,” Cassara said. “So we certainly have the capability and the ability to be very competitive not only in the non-conference but in our league.”

4 (that's right 4) STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Iona, 12/29)

3: Nathaniel Lester

1: David Imes

1: Dwan McMillan

1: Mike Moore

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 28

Nathaniel Lester 15

Dwan McMillan 13

David Imes 7

Shemiye McLendon 7

Stevie Mejia 3

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

Postgame Buffet: Hofstra 82, Colgate 59 (Or: All I want for Christmas is a two-game winning streak)

Did you know there was a movie called All I Want For Christmas? Me neither.

Mo Cassara was probably speaking figuratively, not literally, when he described what the Flying Dutchmen’s two-game winning streak heading into Christmas meant to him and the rest of the team. He probably meant a loss to Colgate would leave him obsessing over the state of the Dutchmen during Christmas at his parents’ house in upstate New York instead of enjoying food and football.

Probably.

Fortunately for the Dutchmen, they removed any doubt from the equation with a dominant second half in a wire-to-wire 82-59 win over Colgate Thursday. “Lets us go home,” Cassara said with a laugh late Thursday night. “Lets us go home. Lets everybody go home.”

While only time will tell if the second half against Colgate propels the Dutchmen to bigger and better things, heading into Christmas off a victory sure beats losing in the last game before Christmas, as the Dutchmen did from 2006 through 2009. Here’s the postgame buffet (eat up, that diet isn’t starting until Jan. 3 anyway):

1.) This was a full circle type of victory for the Dutchmen, who haven’t played this well nor had this many reasons to feel good about themselves since the previous long holiday weekend. Of course, the Dutchmen team that took the court Thursday was far different from the one that knocked off Cleveland State Nov. 26, and Colgate is ranked 203rd in the RPI this morning, a mere 202 spots lower than Cleveland State was when the Dutchmen pulled off the upset win.

But still: It was vital for the Dutchmen to go into Christmas—and their preparations for the potentially defining games against Iona and VCU immediately after the holiday break—with a sense of confidence about the team they will have for the short- and long-term.

The Dutchmen had five players score in double figures the same day the Bryant Crowder saga finally came to a predictable end (Hofstra announced his departure from the basketball team for the ever-vague and ever-handy “personal reasons” via a 14-word press release; that’s 11 more words than games played at Hofstra, for those of you keeping score at home) and Stevie Mejia returned to the bench with an aggravation of the hamstring injury that cost him the better part of four games and three weeks.

Mike Moore had another big game with 24 points, five rebounds and two steals, but in another parallel to Cleveland State, the Dutchmen thrived in the second half even though Colgate focused on shutting down Moore, who drained four 3-pointers and had 19 points in the first half. Yet even with Moore limited to five second half points, the Dutchmen racked up 47 points thanks largely to the quartet of Shemiye McLendon, Dwan McMillan, Nathaniel Lester and David Imes, which combined for 36 points.

McLendon scored 15 of his career-high 17 points in the second half while McMillan finished with 13 points and Lester and Imes had 10 apiece. Getting Lester and Imes into double digits was particularly pivotal: Lester has scored at least 10 points in four straight games immediately after a five-game slump in which he shot just 22 percent. And Imes entered Thursday in the midst of a two-and-a-half game scoreless streak.

“A lot of credit to the whole team, we started to share the ball [when] they played box and one on Mike and once they did that, other guys made some shots,” Cassara said. “Mike obviously got off to a great start today, but when we’ve got other guys in double figures and guys like Shemiye and Dave and Dwan are making shots, we become a much better team.”

2.) The Dutchmen also looked like a much better team once they went to the three-quarters press early in the second half. The constant harassment wore down Colgate, which, a la Long Island in the season opener, had a chance to take the lead on its first possession of the second half before it got blown out of the building.

The Dutchmen forced eight turnovers, outscored Colgate 38-18 in the final 16 minutes and allowed the Raiders to score on just 12 of 34 second half possessions (discounting when they got the ball with 0.7 seconds left). Overall, the Dutchmen recorded 13 steals, their most in almost six years (17 against Georgia State Jan. 5, 2006).

“We turned them over 18 times [overall] and really there were a couple times there we almost had a couple more,” Cassara said. “I thought we really did a good job tonight and our effort and energy was terrific, especially in the second half.

“When we get a few easy baskets, all of a sudden, the game opened up a lot and they can’t just key on Mike and we become a much tougher team to beat.”

3.) In routing the Raiders, the Dutchmen finished off an opponent for the first time since Cleveland State (sorry, Binghamton, we feel bad for you but beating you by 20 doesn’t count). The Dutchmen, of course, squandered large second half leads and lost in crushing fashion in the waning moments to Florida Atlantic and James Madison.

“Actually on the board and [during] a couple timeouts I wrote in big letters [on his clipboard] ‘FINISH,’” Cassara said, evoking memories of how he implored the Dutchmen to complete their win over Cleveland State. “That’s something we have to learn to do. We’ve let a couple games slip away here [that] we had an opportunity to win and we just didn’t execute well enough down the stretch. And this was a step forward for us tonight.”

4.) Mejia will certainly play for Hofstra again, but if he’s out for an extended period of time, Cassara can rest easier (which is to say, rest at all) knowing McMillan is evolving into the Dutchmen’s leader, on and off the court. McMillan put together his first double-double of the year with 10 assists to go along with his 13 points. He also recorded three steals and committed just two turnovers. And McMillan was the architect of perhaps the prettiest play of the season late in the second half, when he faked a Colgate defender, whirled around 180 degrees and threw a behind-the-back pass to Imes, who hit the layup.

In his last five starts in place of Mejia, McMillan has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 26:13. Granted, that number is skewed by Thursday’s stellar outing, but only once in that stretch did McMillan have more turnovers than assists (Wagner).

“I always had the confidence,” McMillan said. “I was just waiting for opportunity. And unfortunately Stevie went down, but I told [the Dutchmen] ‘I got ‘em. I got us.’”

McMillan has also become the vocal leader the Dutchmen have sought since Charles Jenkins graduated. Prior to each of the last two games, it has been McMillan shouting instructions and encouragement during the pre-game huddle.

“In the locker room, on the court, he’s been doing just a tremendous job,” Cassara said. “His message has been great everyday. His energy’s been terrific and he’s instilled a lot of confidence in not only myself but the rest of the team.”

McMillan was clearly still amped up while sitting with Cassara, Moore and McLendon in the interview room. He sat fidgeting at the podium while staring ahead with what even Bobby Knight might dub a “game face” and answered the first question to him—which was about how upbeat the Dutchmen looked all evening—with this classic response:

“We’re ready to go. That’s all I’m gonna say. We’re ready to go. We’re ready for Iona and we’re ready for conference play. That’s it.”

5.) Perfect segue! Iona is the last and biggest game of the non-conference season for a Dutchmen squad eager to take on the best team in the metro area and prove it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked in getting waxed by the Gaels by 25 points last Dec. 29.

Cassara couldn’t ask for much more than to enter the Iona game fresh off a pair of convincing wins in which the Dutchmen led for the final 76-plus minutes. That, of course, came immediately after a stretch in which the Dutchmen trailed for 70-plus straight minutes against Wagner and Manhattan. So the only thing predictable about this Dutchmen team is its unpredictability. Still, better to spend a week eagerly anticipating Iona instead of dreading the loaded Gaels.

“For the last week or two, me and D-Mac are really trying to stress to the team ‘This is the game that everybody needs to come out and play [at a] high intensity for so we get that momentum going into conference play,’” Moore said. “Definitely a big game on our schedule.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Colgate, 12/22)

3: Mike Moore

2: Dwan McMillan

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 27

Dwan McMillan 12

Nathaniel Lester 12

Shemiye McLendon 7

David Imes 6

Stevie Mejia 3

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

Hofstra 82, Binghamton 62 (Or: Sure feels good to me)

Pretty sure I'm the only basketball blogger with two Warrant references in the calendar year 2011. What can I say, I have my niche and I try to fill it well.

When it comes to cathartic, losing streak-snapping victories, the Flying Dutchmen’s 82-62 rout of Binghamton Saturday doesn’t quite rank up there with the annihilation of UNC Wilmington Jan. 27, 2010. A CAA win is a CAA win, even when it comes at the expense of a team as overmatched as UNC Wilmington was two Januaries ago, and that victory—which snapped a five-game conference losing streak and a stretch of nine losses in 11 games—was the basketball equivalent of a five-course, soup-to-nuts meal.

The Dutchmen weren’t nearly as ruthlessly effective in ending a four-game losing streak Saturday, but they didn’t have to be against a winless Binghamton team that is paying for the sins of its forefathers and is on the very short list for the worst in Division I this season. In food terms, this was a binge at the drive-thru in which we wolfed the food down in the car and may or may not have belched loudly afterward.

Still, a win’s a win, and this one felt good, and even if it wasn’t exactly fine dining, it was one on which the Flying Dutchmen could build. People walked out of Hofstra Arena with smiles on their faces for the first time in four weeks. The wife and I argued all the way home over whether or not Matt Grogan merited 3 Stars Of The Game consideration (no spoilers!). Mo Cassara slept for the first time since the Saturday after Thanksgiving. OK, well, maybe not.

“Obviously pleased with the outcome tonight,” Cassara said. “I think sometimes, when you’re not winning and the ball’s not going in the basket, it’s easy to get down, it’s easy to question a lot of things. And I think a lot of credit has to go to our staff. Sometimes you work a lot harder when you’re losing than you do when you’re winning. And we’ve worked real hard the last couple of weeks, even though we haven’t had some of the wins we wanted to have.”

Here’s a postgame buffet I’m not even calling a postgame buffet because it’s so damn late. Can’t wait for the holiday break.

1.) Whenever the Flying Dutchmen struggled under Tom Pecora, he’d always say the seniors needed to take ownership of the situation. So it was a good sign that the lone seniors on this year’s team—Mike Moore, Dwan McMillan and Nathaniel Lester—combined to score 57 points and were the three Dutchmen to score in double figures.

Moore was brilliant in scoring a career-high 32 points, tying a school record with seven 3-pointers and chipping in a team-high seven rebounds. That effort earned him co-player of the week honors in the CAA. McMillan had perhaps his best game in a Hofstra uniform with 15 points—his most ever against a Division I opponent—on 5-of-6 shooting. And Lester had 10 points and five rebounds and has 21 points (on 7-of-15 shooting) and 13 rebounds in his last two games.

“[Moore is] doing a lot of things for us,” Cassara said. “If he can continue to play complete games on both ends scoring, passing, rebounding along with Nat, along with Dwan—and they each have their own roles—if we can do that and start to play 40 minutes of that, we’re going to get some Ws.”

2.) For Moore and McMillan, in particular, their performance on the court was not nearly as important as what they did off it. Moore said afterward he called a players-only meeting after the Manhattan loss in which he implored everyone to play hard for 40 minutes.

“We just challenged each other—what can we do better?” Moore said.

McMillan, meanwhile, jumped into the center of the huddle after introductions and took over the Charles Jenkins role as the player shouting last-second encouragement. As transfers in only their second year in the program, neither Moore nor McMillan can be expected to lead quite like Jenkins, who was a three-year captain as well as the best player in school history. But the Dutchmen need leaders, and there’s no better candidates to assume the responsibility than their best player and their most emotional one.

“It’s great—it’s all part of their development,” Cassara said.

3.) Playing Binghamton has a way of curing a lot of ailments, but there’s no denying the week off between games did wonders for the Dutchmen’s psyche, as did the calendar allowing the opportunity for a fresh start. In between taking exams, the Dutchmen held a series of extended practices in which Cassara emphasized gradual improvement with the beginning of the real season finally on the horizon.

“It’s a challenging week, but I think having that week off was very valuable,” Cassara said. “We walked into practice Monday and said ‘We are going to commit to getting a little better every day. We are going to be enthusiastic and energetic about getting a little bit better everyday. If we do that, winning will take care of itself. And we all committed to that and I think we made a step in the right direction today.”

4.) While the senior starters had impressive games, the Dutchmen also got nice contributions from subs Grogan (six points on two 3-pointers), Shemiye McLendon (eight points, five assists—tying his career high—and two steals), Stephen Nwaukoni (seven points and two rebounds) and Moussa Kone, who hit both of his field goal attempts and pulled down four rebounds in his first appearance off the bench this year.

The bench is not yet the strength it appeared to be during Bryant Crowder’s cameo in Rhode Island, but now that Stevie Mejia is back, at least the Dutchmen have some depth again. And while Mejia, who took Kone’s spot in his return from a hamstring injury that cost him three-plus games, was scoreless and missed all four shots, his presence in the lineup along with McMillan provided a glimpse of what the Dutchmen might be able to do with a smaller lineup against lightning-fast teams such as Iona and VCU…whom the Dutchmen just happen to play in the two games following tonight’s tilt with Colgate.

“A lot of sleepless nights this week,” Cassara said in reference to the lineup change. “I didn’t want to tinker too much with what we’re doing, but at the same time, I just wanted to give us a little bit of a quicker, maybe smaller lineup with a little bit more defensive intensity. It certainly wasn’t anything against Moussa, he’s done a great job for us through the early part of the year as a true freshman. Just a little coach’s thoughts, nothing too much other than that.”

5.) There was still plenty to improve upon from Saturday. Most notably, David Imes continued his baffling slump by going scoreless for the second straight game. He has two points in his last three games, and none in the Dutchmen’s last five halves of action. Getting Imes untracked in the next two games is surely at the top of Cassara’s to-do list.

The Dutchmen committed 19 turnovers and got a bit sloppy against an opponent whom they could afford to get sloppy against. And the Dutchmen let Binghamton hand around, sort of: The Dutchmen led by a game-high 24 midway through the second half but surrendered a 15-5 run that allowed the Bearcats to close within 14 with just under four minutes to play.

“I think today was a step in the right direction,” Cassara said. “We still have some things to work on. We have to learn to execute a little better, take care of the ball a little bit better down the stretch. I think it was real important to at least get a little confidence towards that mission for us really moving forward.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Binghamton, 12/17)

3: Mike Moore

2: Dwan McMillan

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 24

Nathaniel Lester 12

Dwan McMillan 10

Shemiye McLendon 6

David Imes 6

Stevie Mejia 3

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

Postgame Buffet: Hofstra 63, Cleveland State 53 (Or: We’re never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy)

Clues! Clues! So many clues! (C'mon people join Loyal Readers Missy and Matt in playing the "What do the subtitles mean?" game!)

Mo Cassara emerged from another sleepless night well before dawn Saturday morning, still unsure how he was going to figure out a way for the Flying Dutchmen to knock off a Cleveland State team that was not only unbeaten but atop the early season RPI and on the verge of cracking the two top 25 polls.

And had someone sat next to Cassara and told him, as Cleveland State game film flickered in an otherwise dark hotel room (OK, this is a little bit of writer’s liberty, I don’t know if Cassara watched the film with the lights off, work with me people), that the Dutchmen would not only beat the Vikings but would do so on a day in which their three most experienced players—Nathaniel Lester, Mike Moore and David Imes—combined for just 21 points on 5-of-20 shooting, what would have the coach said to THAT?

“I’d say ‘You are the craziest man in the world,’” Cassara said.

And yet, crazy won Saturday, when the Dutchmen arguably recorded the biggest victory of the Cassara era by upsetting Cleveland State, 63-53, in a Ticket City Legends Classic subregional game at Rhode Island. The Dutchmen did it thanks to a suffocating defensive performance that included dominance on the boards (a 39-19 edge that was the Dutchmen’s biggest since Feb. 6, 2010 against Northeastern) and a balanced scoring attack that featured four players in double figures, including a trio of players who entered the game with five double-digit scoring efforts in a Hofstra uniform. Combined.

Just as Cassara drew it up.

“I tell you what I was up drinking coffee about 5 this morning watching Cleveland State-BU on my iPad [and he thought] ‘I don’t think we can beat these guys—they’re too talented, they’re too veteran, too well-coached,’” Cassara said by phone last night. “I just didn’t think it was a game where we could win at this point in the season. We found a way and obviously I’m very pleased.”

Here’s the postgame buffet on a deeply satisfying win:

1.) Stephen Nwaukoni reminded us all he really likes Thanksgiving weekend, and not a moment too soon. Less than 24 hours after he played just two minutes against Rhode Island and seemingly got passed on the depth chart by Bryant Crowder, Nwaukoni had his best game in a Hofstra uniform by scoring a career-high 12 points (tied for the team high with Dwan McMillan) on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting and pulling down a game-high nine rebounds in a mere 21 minutes. The effort came a year to the day of Nwaukoni’s previous appearance in the 3 Stars Of The Game (SPOILER ALERT), when he had his lone career double-double against Wagner.

Nwaukoni entered the game with seven points and nine rebounds in 35 minutes ALL YEAR, and in the waning moments of the game Cassara realized how important a Nwaukoni-sparked win would be for not only the sophomore but the entire team.

“I leaned over to Wayne Morgan with about five minutes to go and I said ‘I really hope we win this game,’” Cassara said. “He looked at me like I was crazy and said ‘So do I.’ I said ‘I just want to win this game, because if we do win, the way Stephen played, it will be a great definition of teamwork for this group.’ Because there’s a kid who hasn’t played, but he didn’t complain, he didn’t get down. He kept coming to work, kept practicing, kept trying. His minutes kept going down and down and when he got a shot, he seized it.

“We talked about that with our team: Everybody’s got to be ready because it could be your day today. And when you say all those things to guys and then they work out that way, it really helps your camaraderie and teamwork. That locker room—everybody was so pumped up for him today. Those kind of things help a team develop and we got a little piece of that tonight.”

2.) Nwaukoni wasn’t the only reserve to enjoy an impressive afternoon. McMillan had five assists to go along with his 12 points, which were his most ever against a Division I opponent. And Bryant Crowder looked good again with eight points on 4-of-6 shooting as well as seven rebounds. The trio scored 20 of the Dutchmen’s final 26 points, including all seven in a 7-0 run just before the under-12 media timeout that allowed Hofstra to overcome its final deficit of the game.

Nwaukoni, McMillan and Crowder combined to shoot 11-of-14 from the field and scored 32 points, the most by Hofstra reserves against a Division I opponent since March 6, 2009 (when reserves scored 37 points against UNC Wilmington) and the first time the reserves accounted for more than half the Flying Dutchmen’s points since subs scored 30 points in a 78-54 rout at the hands of George Mason (grrr) Feb. 3, 2009.

Nwaukoni and Crowder also combined for just shy of half of the Dutchmen’s 33 individual rebounds and six of their 11 individual offensive rebounds. The Dutchmen limited Cleveland State to just seven offensive rebounds and had as many offensive rebounds (12) as the Vikings had defensive boards. Cleveland State had just seven second chance points and four fast break points.

All this in an afternoon in which fellow reserve Shemiye McLendon—who was one of the Dutchmen’s best players during the first four games—went scoreless on an 0-for-1 performance for the second straight game.

“I think we’ve got a really, really potentially very deep, strong bench,” Cassara said. “You’ve got a little bit of everything with Dwan and Stephen and Shemiye and Bryant. Have some speed, some scoring, some size, some athleticism and obviously each one of these pieces has helped us throughout the last couple weeks.”

3.) As for the starters: While Lester and Stevie Mejia each scored 10 points and combined for the Dutchmen’s first eight points of the second half (including six by Mejia) to help withstand an early 13-8 “run” by Cleveland State that allowed the Vikings to take their biggest lead of the game at 42-37, Cassara was most pleased with what Moore did—and didn’t do—in scoring five points (his second-lowest figure with Hofstra and the first time in 18 games he didn’t reach double figures) while getting the Charles Jenkins treatment from the Vikings.

Cassara has been trying to encourage Moore—who is known for hoisting wild shots when he gets frustrated and/or is trying too hard to make something happen—into filling more of a leadership role, and he played in control throughout a 2-of-7 effort from the field. Moore made those two shots count with a jumper to give the Dutchmen the lead for good at 46-44 and a basket that started a 6-0 run that extended the lead to 57-46. And both of his second half rebounds led to points for the Dutchmen.

“Cleveland State was face guarding Mike tonight and just said ‘Let somebody else beat you,’” Cassara said. “And Mike was frustrated with it for a while. But he just said ‘The only way we win this game is to let some other guys do it’ and he took that upon himself and took one for the team. For him to get five points and that be enough for us to win is a credit to Mike as much as everybody else.

“Mike really developed as a leader throughout the second half. He just made sure everybody else got shots and rebounded and did everything he could to help us win.”

4.) In both producing and closing out the win, Cassara and the Dutchmen learned from two of the most painful losses of last season. Having faced Cleveland State’s Horizon League rival Wright State in the gruesome 82-56 loss in the Bracket Buster, Cassara knew the Vikings would not only try to suffocate Moore but also force the Dutchmen into plenty of bad shots. The Dutchmen maximized their shots on Saturday, when they had their fewest field goal attempts (41) since taking 40 shots in a win over Maine way back on Jan. 21, 2001, and were content to head to the line against a physical Cleveland State squad that “out-fouled” Hofstra 29-14. (Yet I managed to mutter about biases after every one of those 14!)

“I saw this last year when we went out to Wright State—they hold and grab and are a very, very physical team, so a lot of fouls,” Cassara said. “And we just weren’t able to run a lot of our offense. Part of that’s the way they like to play the game. They’re very successful at what they do. They make it hard.”

And yes, Cassara was thinking what you were thinking when Cleveland State held the Dutchmen scoreless for three minutes just before the final media timeout—and limited them to a single shot—while closing the gap to seven points: Oh no, not Western Kentucky again.

But this time, instead of blowing the late lead and squandering an opportunity to wash away a double-digit loss with an impressive win in the middle game of a three-game tournament, the Dutchmen held on by playing keepaway from Cleveland State. Thanks to three offensive rebounds, the Dutchmen had the ball for a remarkable 100 straight seconds after the Vikings missed a 3-pointer coming out of the timeout. Cleveland State ended up scoring just one basket in the final 3:18—a 3-pointer with five seconds left.

“At the four-minute time out, the game was starting to get a little tight,” Cassara said. “I slammed my clipboard on the ground a couple times and said ‘Everybody look at me.’ I screamed a couple times ‘We are gonna win this game. We are gonna win this game. And here’s how we’re gonna do it.’”

5.) Beating Cleveland State resulted in a reset of the weekend’s expectations. Cassara would have taken a 1-2 trip, all the while presuming the “1” would come today against Boston University. But 1-2 would be a lot less satisfying now that the Dutchmen have a chance to end the weekend and the month with a winning record.

And as well as the Dutchmen played Saturday, Cassara knows it was far from a perfect effort and that the Dutchmen still need to take better care of the basketball (they had 17 turnovers for the second straight game and are averaging 14.5 turnovers per game) and get David Imes (who has eight points and eight rebounds this weekend after averaging 8.8 points and 6.5 rebounds in the first four games) untracked. Boston will be entering with plenty of momentum, too, after recording its first win of the season by ending Rhode Island’s 31-game non-conference home winning streak in Saturday’s nightcap.

“We have to put this behind us much like we did the loss to Rhode Island,” Cassara said just before going to watch Boston on film. “It’s a real challenge for us. We still have some inexperience on our team and some new guys and we have to turn around very quickly. It’ll be a tough game and it’s an early morning—we’re leaving here at 9:45—so it’s quick turnaround.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Rhode Island, 11/25)

3: Stephen Nwaukoni

2: Dwan McMillan

1: Bryant Crowder

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 11

Nathaniel Lester 8

Dwan McMillan 4

Shemiye McLendon 4

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

David Imes 3

Bryant Crowder 2

Stevie Mejia 1

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

Postgame Buffet: Hofstra 63, St. Francis 59 (Or: Cool as ice)

Except much better! (Also, I've seen this movie. Not in the theatre, amazingly enough)

As a Division I basketball coach, it’s Mo Cassara’s job to be the hard-ass who finds flaws with every performance, no matter how perfect it may appear in the boxscore or on the scoreboard. But while he had plenty of fodder Saturday afternoon, he could barely feign even a minimal amount of annoyance following the Flying Dutchmen’s 63-59 win over St. Francis.

The Dutchmen missed too many seemingly easy shots, missed too many free throws, had more turnovers than assists—even though they had only eight turnovers—and needed more than 32 minutes to pull down their first offensive rebound in a herky-jerky offensive effort. But less than 72 hours after flying 3,000 miles from Oregon, they got contributions from everyone on the floor in the final five minutes in clamping down on and finally putting away a good St. Francis squad.

It was the type of effort that won’t be enough to beat the top echelon CAA teams, or maybe even enough Florida Atlantic at the Arena tomorrow night. But it was a win that builds and reveals the type of character necessary to compete come March.

“We didn’t have our ‘A’ game tonight, I don’t think anybody would question that statement,” Cassara said. “But we found a way to win and that’s part of learning as a team, growing as a team and we made some plays down the stretch [when] we had to. So I’m proud of that.

“It’s been a long week for us, all the way out to the west coast, hard-fought, tough game, all the way back and playing an early game on Saturday. I don’t like to make excuses and I’m not making excuses, but it’s been a long week and we found a way to go 1-1 and that was the worst-case scenario for us. I’m pleased about that.”

What else was there to be pleased about Saturday? Find out here in the postgame buffet!

1,) Sure, it’s only November and St. Francis was picked to finish 11th in the 12-team Northeast Conference, but there are no points for style and good teams find ways to win fugly games like this—just as the Dutchmen did last season in going 8-3 in games decided by six points or less and winning seven games in which they trailed by double digits. I’ll go into this in greater detail in The Day After (which, of course, won't be out until Tuesday, and that's if I'm lucky—yeah I suck), but a win like this is another indication the Dutchmen have the type of collective calmness and maturity that could come in really handy in a CAA that is in a complete and chaotic transition.

The Dutchmen won despite going just 19-of-49 from the field, making just 23 of their 36 free throw attempts, receiving no points from the center position for the second game in a row, recording assists on just six field goals and averaging just 0.91 points per possession (63 points in 69 possessions).

“It was evident tonight we just didn’t really have our legs,” Cassara said. “We weren’t really clicking. I’ve been doing this 14 years, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many missed easy shots around the basket. What we continued to do is put pressure on our defense—instead of going up five, seven, nine [with] a layup here, a layup there, two free throws here, we just kept putting pressure on our defense. It was one of those nights the ball wasn’t going in the basket for us.”

Over the last 5:32, the Dutchmen were just 2-of-10 from the field and missed three of six free throw attempts, including two by Mike Moore that would put the game away with 14 seconds left. But that overworked Dutchmen defense limited St. Francis to two points in its last nine possessions.

“I thought our defense got really improved,” Cassara said. “We went to some zone and it actually worked pretty well for us. We found a way to win. I’m a coach, most of you know me, I’m not super pleased, but certainly happy that we found a way to win.”

2.) Almost as importantly, the Dutchmen showed Saturday they are no longer a one-man team. That is in no way a knock on Charles Jenkins, who was so damn good that absolutely nobody—on the court or in the stands—could be blamed for waiting for Number 22 to take over and lead the Dutchmen to victory. But without Jenkins, there’s no obvious go-to guy, which allows EVERYONE to be the go-to guy.

Moore looked like The Man in the boxscore—23 points, 10 rebounds and just one turnover in what might have been his best all-around performance at Hofstra; Moore’s high in points in his three double-doubles last year was 20—and had a trio of sequences in the second half in which he went all Jobu on the Dutchmen. With the Dutchmen down 52-49 midway through the half, Moore had rebounds on four straight St. Francis possessions and went coast-to-coast for a layup on the third one to pull Hofstra within one.

Less than two minutes later, Moore finally pulled down the Dutchmen’s first offensive rebound and put his own miss back to put the Dutchmen up 54-52. And with 2:38 to play, Moore rebounded a Dwan McMillan miss, set as if he was going to pass the ball back out, realized the shot clock was below five and drained a flat-footed 15-foot jumper from the left corner to extend the Dutchmen’s lead to 61-57.

“Coach looks to me as one of the leaders on the court, so when it’s crunch time, I feel I need to make a couple plays and my teammates put me in good position to do so,” Moore said.

3.) Cassara didn’t make a substitution after the 6:02 mark, yet as pivotal as Moore was during that stretch, the most valuable player on the court for the Dutchmen was someone who—SPOILER ALERT!—didn’t even end up among the 3 Stars Of The Game.

Shemiye McLendon—or, as he shall be known from now on, Ice Ice Shemiye—continued his uncanny knack for clutch play by hitting his first basket of the game to put the Dutchmen ahead for good at 59-57 with 4:21 left, pulling down THREE offensive rebounds in the final 1:59 and stealing the ball underneath the St. Francis basket as the Terriers tried to set up for the game-tying or game-winning shot with four seconds left. McLendon then drained two free throws to provide the final margin of victory, the third time he’s hit two free throws in the final five seconds to either force overtime or seal a win for the Dutchmen.

Ice Ice Shemiye took just two shots—none in the first half—before the game-ending stretch, but the Dutchmen don’t win without his last-minute contributions. “Big offensive rebounds, a tough shot and then obviously two free throws—he’s done that since he got here,” Cassara said.

4.) While we’re handing out nicknames, the most notable thing about the late game lineup may have been the presence of Dwan McMillan—i.e. the “Whirling Dervish”— at point guard instead of Stevie Mejia. While Mejia had nine points, he committed three turnovers and had no assists as his assist-to-turnover ratio dropped to 4:12. The hunch is that Mejia’s job is in no real jeopardy, but McMillan (eight points, two assists and two turnovers in 27 minutes) has certainly staked a claim to 25-plus minutes a night by continuing his early season audition to replace Joey Rodriguez as That Guy Who Drives Everyone Crazy Except The Fans Of His School, All Of Whom Think He’s The Bees Knees.

McMillan, three nights removed from getting booed every time he touched the ball in the second half at Oregon State, drew a flagrant foul when he absorbed an elbow from Dre Calloway late in the first half. McMillan reacted by bouncing off the floor and clapping his hands like he was a certain demographic at an afternoon screening of Twilight Breaking Dawn (that’s just to make sure my wife and Loyal Reader Missy are paying attention!). Said the aforementioned wife: “That’s not going to help him get that call the next time.”

Over the final four minutes, the Whirling Dervish forced a held ball at midcourt with 2:44 left and the Dutchmen clinging to a two-point lead. That preceded Moore’s putback of McMillan’s missed layup, which was one of two wild-looking layup attempts that missed the mark in the waning moments for McMillan.

“He was doing a good job of pushing the ball and I thought he could get by his guy and hopefully drop it off,” Cassara said. “He got by his guy a few times. He couldn’t get that extra pass tonight. Every loose ball was kind of tipped. I thought we had a layup and we didn’t.

“I like our bench, I think we’ve got some good pieces coming off the bench,” Cassara said. “We’ve got some scoring in Shemiye, some size in Stephen [Nwaukoni] and some energy in Dwan. I think any coach would be happy with those three characteristics coming off the bench….it was top to bottom today.”

5.) Nathaniel Lester and David Imes were generally quiet in the final few minutes, but each had key stretches earlier in the half and made pivotal contributions that might not show up in the boxscore as time wound down. Lester, who had 13 points and nine rebounds (including six in the first half), hit his first two shots of the second half to stem the momentum St. Francis had gained at the end of the first half, when the Terriers held the Dutchmen scoreless from the field in the final 3:20. Lester missed his final seven shots of the game, but gave the Dutchmen a boost by playing through an ankle injury in the final two minutes.

Imes had only six points and three rebounds, but his block with 5:25 left and the score tied led to McLendon’s go-ahead basket and his steal with 1:38 to play preserved the Dutchmen’s two-point lead. He also had a three-point play—his only points of the half—during an 8-0 run surrounding the first media timeout.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. St. Francis, 11/19)

3: Mike Moore

2: Nathaniel Lester

1: Dwan McMillan

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 6

Nathaniel Lester 5

David Imes 3

Dwan McMillan 2

Shemiye McLendon 2

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

Hofstra 102, Farmingdale 62 (Or: Mo Cassara is the winningest coach in Hofstra history! Party time! Excellent!)

But what I'd really love is to do Defiantly Dutch for a living. It might happen. Shaw. And monkeys might fly out of my butt. (If you are of a certain age, you mimicked this scene for the rest of 1992. For the rest of you, including DC, watch and see what you missed!)

The Flying Dutchmen went almost 19 years—a span of 546 games, four head coaches, three conferences and two on-campus arenas—between 100-point games. In what will likely come as a shock to the fans of the rest of the CAA, neither Charles Jenkins nor Greg Washington were on both teams.

Like many other CAA observers, though, Jenkins and Washington—two of the Dutchmen’s three senior co-captains—are beginning to feel as if they’ve been here forever. “We’re kind of like the old heads on the team,” Jenkins said Saturday. “We need 10 more minutes to stretch.”

Neither fifth-year senior felt very old Saturday, when Jenkins and Washington each—to borrow a phrase from Tom Pecora, who coached 281 of those games—filled the boxscore as the Dutchmen won Mo Cassara’s debut by cruising past Division III Farmingdale, 102-62, in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 3,727 at the Arena.

It marked the first time the Dutchmen scored 100 points in a game since Feb. 29, 1992, when Hofstra beat Maryland-Baltimore County 103-87 in the East Coast Conference (hey, I told you it was a long time ago) regular season finale. Back then, Jenkins was a day removed from his third birthday, Washington was three months shy of his fifth birthday (and, we can presume, the tallest kid in preschool) and Brad Kelleher’s parents unknowingly committed an NCAA violation by signing a permission slip that allowed their nearly six-year-old son to go on a field trip.

It was so long ago that Wayne’s World was the number one movie in America, which unfortunately convinced Lorne Michaels that every moderately amusing Saturday Night Live skit--and some that were not even that, hello MacGruber--deserved to be a 90-minute movie. Mr. Big’s “To Be With You” topped the charts, and the future creator of a Hofstra blog may or may not put the song on repeat on his CD player (look it up kids!) as he nursed a broken heart and wondered if a guy could really win a girl back by going to her house, holding aloft a boom box and playing a really romantic song, or if that crap only worked in the movies. Why are you looking at me?

Where was I? Oh yes.

While hitting the century mark sent me to Wikipedia (I need help: I knew “Wayne’s World” was no. 1 off the top of my head, just be glad it wasn’t really “Basic Instinct”), it also provided a nice blend of what the present and the future might look like under Cassara.

All caveats apply about how there’s not much to glean from a game against a Division III foe—the Dutchmen never trailed and were much more impressive than in their scrimmage against Division II Molloy six days earlier. But the Dutchmen were crisp and efficient on offense, racking up an Arena-record and school-record tying 25 assists on 36 field goals. Five players scored in double figures even though Jenkins was the only one to play more than 27 minutes.

“I thought we came out and made some good passes, we got some real good looks at the basket,” said Cassara, who is now in first place all-time among Hofstra coaches in winning percentage. “I tell our guys all the time: When we make the ball move and we are really aggressive to make the extra pass, we tend to make a lot more shots. Charles did a great job sharing the ball and Greg did a tremendous job early on really hitting the glass and being a presence down low…I thought it opened up the game on the perimeter a lot.”

Jenkins may or may not have set a school record by leading or sharing the team lead in four categories (26 points on 10-of-13 shooting with, eight rebounds, eight assists and four steals as well as two blocks). Washington blocked three shots in the first minute and scoring seven points before the first media timeout. He finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and six blocks and, most importantly, was 3-of-5 from the line—the first time he took more than four free throws in a game since Jan. 5, 2009, a span of 49 games.

He also made his friend look clairvoyant. “Tell them what I told you yesterday,” Jenkins said.

“Last night Charles said he was going to get me going early,” Washington said. “And today he was like ‘Let’s start it off with a block.’ And that’s how it happened.”

“Kind of psychic a little bit,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins—as well as Cassara—could be forgiven for not foreseeing the impressive play of newcomers Dwan McMillan and Shemiye McLendon. Junior college transfer McMillan played well against Molloy so his Chaz Williams-esque line Saturday (15 points, including 9-of-10 from the free throw line, six assists and no turnovers) was no surprise, but the freshman McLendon was the first player off the bench and racked up 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting—including 4-of-7 from 3-point land—after not playing at all against Molloy.

“He didn’t play a minute against Molloy, so my tactics must have worked a little bit,” Cassara said. “He’s one of those guys that’s just got the ability to make shots in bunches and he really did a good job tonight. Actually, one shot I didn’t think was great, and it went in before I could even yell at him.”

With the outcome not in doubt at all after the first few minutes, the afternoon was all about experimentation for Cassara and the Dutchmen. Eight players saw at least 10 minutes of playing time and all 11 players in uniform played at least six minutes. There were flashes of a four-guard lineup, with McLendon and Mike Moore providing some bulk.

Newcomers accounted for 52 points and 24 rebounds, and let the record show that freshman Roland Brown, who was 13 months old in February 1992, put the Dutchmen into triple digits by hitting a jumper with 2:13 left.

The large lead also allowed Cassara the luxury to both call timeouts in each half to correct same flaws he saw as well as let someone work through his mistakes: Stephen Nwaukoni had eight rebounds but displayed his rawness on offense by missing five put backs.

“[Nwaukoni] struggled finishing around the basket, but his 0-for-5, I guarantee you if he keeps working as hard as he is, in a couple years, that’s going to be 5-for-5 or that’s going to be 5-for-8,” Cassara said.

It wasn’t perfect by any stretch Cassara admits there’s plenty of work ahead for both he and the Dutchmen. Cassara called a timeout a split second before David Imes dunked, which led Imes to tell Cassara he owed him laps.

“Just like our players who are inexperienced—so am I, and I’m anxious to get out there all the time and work with them and continue to get better,” Cassara said. “That’s something I tell them all the time. I have that type of relationship with these guys. I tell them they need to get better and I need to get better. So we’re a continuing work in progress.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Farmingdale, 11/13)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Greg Washington

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS (hey, there are standings after the first game everywhere else!)

Charles Jenkins 3

Greg Washington 2

Shemiye McLendon 1

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