George Mason 55, Hofstra 50 (Or: They’re going out of their heads going crazy)

An appropriate song in more ways than one for the 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen.

If I were to rank losses to George Mason on a scale of 1 to 10—one being barely bummed and 10 being Quoting-Ugly-Kid-Joe-pissed—then last night’s 55-50 loss to the first-place Patriots would rank no higher than a five or so.

(I realize it’s not normal to rank losses to a particular opponent on a scale of 1 to 10. But you knew what you were getting into here)

There was no Greg Johnson, driving the lane in the waning seconds with Hofstra down three in the CAA Tournament and Antoine Agudio begging for the ball all alone behind the 3-point line. There was no Agudio missing the free throw that would have given the Dutchmen a four-point lead in the final seconds of overtime.

This was not a lopsided loss by 20-plus points in Fairfax. There was no drunken Mason grad nearly sending me to the other side on the way home from a close loss at Mason. And, of course, there was no Ryan Pearson piling on with Montgomery Burns rubbing his bony fingers together in approval as his nation of Waylon Smithers lackeys declared him the world’s finest sportsman.

No, this one ended with an exhausted Pearson—who scored seven points and pulled down eight rebounds in the second half despite having his face bloodied twice in the first half—exchanging a relieved high five at midcourt with a similarly spent Mike Morrison as Sherrod Wright hit the game-icing free throws to cap a nearly perfect night at the line for Mason (20-of-23—these aren’t Monty’s Patriots) with 19 seconds left.

A few seconds later, after Morrison blocked Shemiye McLendon’s running layup and Corey Edwards grabbed the rebound, new Mason coach Paul Hewitt waved for Edwards to get the ball over halfcourt—not so he could call timeout and draw up a 3-point shot like his predecessor would have, but to run the clock out!

It’s a new era in Hofstra-Mason games (last night featured, by far, the most entertaining in-game Twitter exchanges in DD history) but the loss was the same old story in a whole lot of ways as the Flying Dutchmen fell to 1-9 in the CAA with their SIXTH CAA loss by six points or less.

As has often been the case this year, the Dutchmen were at least partially done in by a lack of bodies. Mike Moore (18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3-point land, and a career-high six assists) and Nathaniel Lester (12 points, his CAA-best 14th straight game with at least 10 points) were a fine 1-2 combo again for Hofstra. But while Stevie Mejia, McLendon and Moussa Kone combined for just six points on 2-of-9 shooting in 52 minutes, Mason received 36 points on 9-of-22 shooting over 86 minutes from its reserves. No Mason player played more than 29 minutes while four Dutchmen played at least 28 minutes.

For the fifth time in the last six games, the Dutchmen raced out to an early lead of at least six points—and opened a lead of at least nine for the fourth time in that span—but could not build on it in the first half and squandered late opportunities to escape with the win.

For the third straight Wednesday, the Dutchmen came back from a second half deficit of at least eight points to tie the score or take the lead. And for the third straight Wednesday, the Dutchmen had a chance to tie the score or take the lead in the final minute but couldn’t get over the hump (get it?).

Moore, Lester and Mo Cassara looked steamrolled at the podium, and it had nothing to do with losing to big bad Mason. Every loss hurts at this point, and this funk doubly stings because it consists mostly of close losses to the best of the CAA.

Five of the Dutchmen’s last six games have come against teams currently in the top half of the CAA. The Dutchmen have lost those five games by a combined 33 points, and only once by more than six points.

“I think our energy and our effort’s been great,” Cassara said. “We’re winning at halftime against George Mason. We’re winning at halftime at Old Dominion. We’re down three at VCU. We just run out of gas a little bit, I guess. We’re going to have to keep trying to find ways to finish games, because we’re coming out with energy, we’re having great practices, our attitudes have been terrific. We just can’t seem to kind of get over the hump.”

The Dutchmen had more opportunities than usual to do so Wednesday. The Dutchmen scored the first nine points, didn’t allow Mason—which shot an unimaginable 4-of-23 in the first half—to break into double digits until there were less than three minutes to play and led 20-19 at the half. It was the first time the Dutchmen allowed fewer than 20 points in a half since Jan. 21, 2009, when they TRAILED William & Mary 17-15 at the Arena.

Andre Cornelius took charge for Mason to open the second half with consecutive 3-pointers to jumpstart a 19-10 run for the Patriots that gave them a 38-30 lead at the midway mark. But the Dutchmen inched back, tied the game twice on 3-pointers by David Imes and Moore and took the lead at 41-40 with 6:21 left on another 3-pointer by Moore.

That was the first of four times the Dutchmen took the lead over a span of a little more than four minutes. Imes, who scored all nine of his points in the second half, put the Dutchmen ahead twice with long jumpers from the corner, the last with 2:16 left.

But Sherrod Wright’s 3-point play with 1:47 left put the Patriots ahead for good at 51-50 and the Dutchmen missed an agonizing three shots—a jumper and a 3-pointer by Lester and a 3-pointer by Moore, all of which looked good out of their hands—before Edwards’ two free throws. Then, after Cassara used the Dutchmen’s last timeout with 27 seconds left, Mejia got a good open look at a tying 3-pointer, but it clanged off the rim.

That left Cassara saying the same things he’s been saying for weeks—bemoaning the Dutchmen’s rotten luck and hoping they salvage something from the season in February. “We’re better than our record shows,” Cassara said. “Again, we’ve been in an incredible amount of close games. We just haven’t been able to get something to bounce our way.

“Unfortunately, we just haven’t been able to finish and it’s a combination of a lot of things,” Cassara said. “But we have to keep working. February can be our month. I have to keep telling our guys that. Obviously, we’re frustrated because we’re in every game, especially against the top part of the league. But basketball’s a long season and we’ve still got a good month of February [ahead].”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Mason, 1/25)

3: Mike Moore

2: Nathaniel Lester

1: David Imes

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 46

Nathaniel Lester 32

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 11

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

Stevie Mejia 5

Moussa Kone 2

Bryant Crowder 2

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

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

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

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

More prescient, too, as it turns out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Mike Moore

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 59

Mike Moore 28

Greg Washington 21

David Imes 15

Shemiye McLendon 5

Dwan McMillan 5

Brad Kelleher 3

Yves Jules 1

Stephen Nwaukoni 1

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

Hofstra 87, George Mason 74 (Or: Ain’t it wonderful to be alive when the rock and roll plays)

As if last night could have gotten any better: DD anthem "Keeping The Faith" was on as we pulled into the driveway. Swear to Jenkins. No writer's liberty there.

Anyone who knows anything at all about the history of Hofstra-George Mason knows it’s dangerous for the Flying Dutchmen to leave superstars on the court in the waning seconds of a lopsided win. You never know what might happen.

But the last time the Dutchmen beat Mason at Hofstra—11 days before Tony Skinn became a synonym for thuggish poor sportsmanship and 19 days before the Great Screw Job—Charles Jenkins was a high school senior. The last time the Dutchmen beat the Patriots anywhere, back in February 2007 in Fairfax, he was a redshirt freshman. And the last time Mason visited Hofstra, Jenkins spent the final minutes of a blowout loss fighting back tears on the bench.

Jenkins has been waiting his entire career for last night. So the risks of playing Mason in the last seconds be damned, he was going to savor every last second of last night’s gloriously awesome 87-74 victory over the Patriots.

Greg Washington rebounded an Isaiah Tate miss with 27 seconds left and fired the ball down court to Jenkins, who finished off a nearly perfect second half by dribbling out the clock—imagine that, the shot clock off in a double-digit win and he didn’t shoot, no wonder Mason didn’t recruit him—with a grin slowly spreading across his face. He bounced the ball higher and higher as the final seconds ticked off, and once the buzzer sounded and Hofstra was officially alone atop the CAA as the league’s last unbeaten team at 3-0 (goddamn, that really is true, isn’t it?), screamed and waved his arms in the direction of the Lions Den.

“Thirty seconds left in the game, coach turned to me [and] said ‘Want to take [you] out?’” said Jenkins, who produced a brilliant line of 32 points (on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 12-of-14 from the free throw line), eight assists, five rebounds and three steals. “And I said ‘No. I want every minute of this.’ It meant a lot.”

It meant a lot to everyone. Anyone who bleeds blue and gold—whether they were at Hofstra in 2006 or not, whether they rant and scream and rave on a blog or not—was starving for a night like Wednesday, for a chance to begin evening the score. As Tom Pecora said: Mason, their reputation precedes them.

The emails and Tweets came tumbling in yesterday afternoon, all with an underlying sense of confidence we haven’t felt in recent years that this time would be different. Indeed, it was so different—so very, very different and so very long in coming.

And not just the part in which Hofstra beat Mason for the first time in 1,425 days (but who’s counting?), or the part in which the insufferably smug Jim Larranaga was reduced to stomping his feet on the sideline and moaning about Mo Cassara being out of the coach’s box in the final minutes before he finally pulled a Bill Belichick with silent dead-fish handshakes in the post-game greeting line (but hey, again, at least nobody got punched, so that’s progress).

It was also the dominant and thorough fashion in which Hofstra won—completely unimaginable against a team of Mason’s caliber, but particularly incomprehensible given the Dutchmen were just a week removed from trailing wire-to-wire in a 25-point loss to Iona. But the Dutchmen were by far the better team last night—and, more importantly, the tougher, more resilient and fundamentally better one, as well.

Mason opened the game on a 20-10 run that was, for all intents and purposes, a 20-6 spurt it mounted after Washington opened the game with consecutive baskets. Cassara called timeout with 11:54 left, even though the next dead ball would have been a media timeout, and changed defenses from the zone to a man-to-man.

The Dutchmen needed just seven minutes to produce their own 20-10 run, during which they got baskets from six players, none of whom were named Charles Jenkins. The Dutchmen took two one-point leads on a free throw by Stephen Nwaukoni and a layup by Shemiye McLendon, the latter of which came with 33 seconds left and gave Mason the chance for the last shot of the half.

But with four seconds left, Brad Kelleher stole the ball from Andre Cornelius near the Hofstra bench, dribbled the length of the court and drained a 30-footer at the buzzer—his third 3-pointer in as many attempts in the final 12 minutes—to give the Dutchmen a 39-35 lead and send the Arena into something approximating a frenzy.

“After our poor start, we started to pick it up on the defensive end and then we started to get momentum rolling,” Kelleher said. “I think that was just a perfect way to end a great second half of the first half.”

“We came out and played some zone and we didn’t do a great job, and a lot of credit goes to George Mason, they moved the ball and they’ve got some terrific shooters and we were just a little slow to the ball and they got some great open looks,” Cassara said. “But we hung in there. We didn’t play our best out of the gates and we kind of hung in there. I just kept telling our guys at halftime it’s all about who’s going to be tougher down the stretch. And we were ultimately the tougher team tonight.”

Just as they did Monday against Drexel the Dutchmen got into trouble in a hurry in the second half. Mason went on an 8-0 run in the first three minutes, during which the Dutchmen picked up five fouls (TOM O’CONNOR BIAS!!!!). But a Jenkins 3-point play and a pair of free throws by David Imes gave the Dutchmen a 44-43 lead and they, amazingly, would never trail again.

Those five points began a 14-0 run that turned the game into something that bordered on an out-of-body experience. The next two times Mason scored, the Dutchmen responded with a 6-0 run, the second of which was capped when Jenkins hit a layup, stole the inbounds pass and hit another layup, at which point I may or may not have actually passed out with joy.

“George Mason’s a good team and one thing coach told us is the they’re going to make a run,” Jenkins said. “One thing we had to do was stay composed and that’s what we did.”

The one time Mason actually got something going—a 9-2 run that pulled the Patriots within 67-57—the Dutchmen went on another 6-0 run. In the final five minutes, the Dutchmen took just three shots from the field—all during the same sequence, which ended with a resounding dunk by Washington—but made 15 of 18 free throws.

The Dutchmen finished 27-of-33 from the line. Mason was 11-of-20, but hey, who needs fundamentals when you are 2-of-3 on alley-oops?

Some more incredible second half stats: Mason was 13-of-33 from the field after shooting 15-of-28 in the first half. Jenkins was 7-of-8 for the Dutchmen, who finished 13-of-22 in the second half and 26-of-50 overall.

“I guess I got into a zone,” Jenkins said with an almost sheepish grin.

The Dutchmen outrebounded the Patriots 21-14 and had as many offensive rebounds (six) as Mason had defensive. In the first half, Mason enjoyed a 22-11 rebounding advantage and had 15 defensive rebounds to Hofstra’s two offensive rebounds.

“That really was the difference in the game,” Cassara said. “In the first half they were just killing us on the glass. I thought we really hung in there and battled. Some guys got some terrific rebounds, guys were fighting and boxing out. I thought our defensive intensity in the second half was much better.”

Washington’s final basket and Mike Moore’s eight free throws gave the Dutchmen five players in double figures—a remarkable number for a team that goes just nine deep and received 61 percent of its scoring from two players (Jenkins and Moore) last week against Iona.

Kelleher (13 points) and McLendon (11 points), who were 0-for-15 against Iona, were 8-of-17 last night, including 5-of-10 from 3-point land. With Dwan McMillan still out with an eye injury, Kelleher played 26 minutes despite a swollen left ankle. Washington was 5-of-6 shooting and is now 12-of-17 in his last three games.

Even those who didn’t get into double digits in the scoring column contributed. Imes, who scored a career-high 20 points on Monday, had just four last night, but pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Yves Jules played his usual suffocating defense over 14 minutes. Nwaukoni had six rebounds in 19 minutes. And even walk-on Matt Grogan got on to the court just before the under four timeout in the second half and pulled down a rebound in the eight seconds he was out there before Cassara realized he had to get a point guard on the floor.

“Obviously thrilled with the victory, thrilled with the 3-0 start in the CAA, but I think more than anything, I’m just proud of this team,” Cassara said. “We’re down to limited bodies. We’ve got guys sick, we’ve got guys hurt, and we just found a way to win tonight. I’m really proud of our resilient effort. This group is coming together.”

Afterward, nobody wanted to go their separate ways. People were flat-out happy—lingering at the Arena and enjoying the moment. We don’t get many nights like these, us Hofstra fans.

We’re a bitter, jaded group, conditioned by experience to expect the worst. Our football team was yanked out from underneath us in cloak-and-dagger fashion that would have impressed Bob Irsay and our basketball team suffers the types of near-misses that, to be fair, are endured by every mid-major. Except, of course, for that whole 2006 thing, which was perpetuated by the school on the other end of the court last night.

We hope there will be many more moments like this in a season that is suddenly very, very interesting. We also know this almost surely won’t last forever, and that just about everybody in a wild and unpredictable CAA is going to hit a rough patch—especially a team as lean and inexperienced as Hofstra. We only have to look to last week—or to Mason last year, which opened 10-1 in conference but lost eight of its final 10 games—to know how quickly things can turn.

That 13-point win last night could be a 15-point loss—or worse—during the return visit to Fairfax Feb. 2. Or the Patriots could get the ultimate revenge and send Jenkins to the NBA with a win over Hofstra in the CAA Tournament. And if that happens, well, we will take the medicine served to us by a Mason Nation that was oddly quiet last night and once again wait ‘til next year.

Of course, Hofstra has the maturity Mason has lacked the last two seasons, and Mason didn’t have a Jenkins type last year, so who knows? All we know is last night was delicious. Every last second of it.

“Let’s go enjoy this one,” Cassara said as he got up from the podium.

Don’t worry. We did.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. George Mason, 1/5)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Brad Kelleher

1: Greg Washington

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 37

Mike Moore 17

David Imes 10

Greg Washington 8

Dwan McMillan 5

Brad Kelleher 3

Shemiye McClendon 2

Yves Jules 1

Stephen Nwaukoni 1

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

George Mason 90, Hofstra 72 (Or: The pleasure of insomnia are ones Tom Pecora can’t avoid)

Tom Pecora won't be needing this for a few nights at least, so Ryan Pearson can have it.

Charles Jenkins buried his head in his jersey after he fouled out with 2:36 left, unable to watch the waning moments of the Flying Dutchmen’s 90-72 loss to Classless U. Tom Pecora, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes off what Jenkins refused to watch, nor forget what transpired in the prior 37 minutes and change.

“I will not sleep with a team giving up 90 points,” Pecora said.

If only that was the only thing turning Pecora into an insomniac. The latest most demoralizing loss of the season for the Dutchmen only deepened a funk that is threatening to reach historic proportions and turn into the worst of the Pecora Era.

The Dutchmen are 2-8 in their last 10 games and have lost four in a row for the first time since dropping five in a row in February 2003. They are 2-6 in CAA play, their worst mark through eight conference games since joining the league and their worst mark through eight conference games, regardless of league, since Jay Wright’s first year in 1994-95.

And they seem to be regressing by the day. The Dutchmen suffered their most lopsided conference loss of the season at the hands of the same team they almost beat in Fairfax 15 days earlier.

“We played this team two weeks ago,” Pecora said. “It was a tie game with a minute to go in their gym, which is the toughest atmosphere in the league to play in, as tough as anywhere to go and win. And they come in here…”

For the second straight Tuesday, the undermanned Dutchmen got into the type of fast-paced game they could not win and began running out of gas late in the first half. The Dutchmen took their lone lead at 15-13 a little more than six minutes in and tied the game for the last time at 22-22 with 7:39 left. They were outscored 16-8 to end the first half and got no closer than the halftime margin the rest of the way.

Last Tuesday against VCU, the Dutchmen took their last lead at 13-10 a little more than seven minutes into the first half and were outscored 18-6 to end the half as the Rams took a 40-25 lead. The Dutchmen didn’t get closer than seven in the second half.

Last night marked the first time ever the Dutchmen have given up 90 points in regulation to a CAA foe at home and only the second time it has happened since the Arena opened in 2000. It also marked the first time under Pecora the Dutchmen have allowed at least 80 points in regulation at home in consecutive games. The Dutchmen have given up 80 points four times in 10 home games this year. They gave up 80 points in regulation at home seven times in Pecora’s first eight seasons.

Pecora, who met the media without a player in tow, opened his press conference by declaring himself at fault for the slump, but spared no words in his critique of his team, particularly its veterans.

Miklos Szabo produced his third career double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, but Cornelius Vines sat the entire second half after he told Pecora he wasn’t feeling confident. Nathaniel Lester had just two points (on 1-of-4 shooting) and two rebounds and Greg Washington was scoreless with five rebounds and three blocks in just 15 minutes—less than half the 34 minutes he played against William & Mary Saturday. Even Jenkins, who had 26 points, six assists and five steals, went without a rebound for the first time in his career.

“We played like a team [whose] personality is dominated by the freshmen, not a team that has five veterans,” Pecora said.

And so Pecora figured if the team is going to play like a bunch of freshmen, he may as well play a bunch of freshmen. Chaz Williams, who came off the bench for the second straight game as he continues to recover from a high ankle sprain, played all 20 minutes in the second half, during which he scored 14 of his career high-tying 20 points. Yves Jules played 17 minutes in the second half—two fewer than the last two games combined and more than he’s played in all but three of the Dutchmen’s first 20 games—and certainly proved worthy of such time with aggressive play on both sides of the ball. Even walk-on Matt Grogan saw two minutes of action.

“We had two and three freshmen on the floor a lot tonight, and that could be the way it is for a while—develop them,” Pecora said.

Pecora dismissed the notion that so many near-misses—the Dutchmen had multiple-possession leads in the second half of four of their last seven defeats—has dragged his team down. The Dutchmen lost six games last season by at least 15 points but won the subsequent game five times.

“I’m not into feeling sorry for myself, I’m not into feeling sorry for them,” Pecora said. “They’ve got scholarships here. It’s $50,000 a year [snarky editor's note: But remember, the president says "it's a relatively inexpensive school"] to come be a college basketball player. It’s a wonderful life. And you’re asked to play hard when you get on the floor, work hard in the classroom and behave like a gentleman when you’re off the court. It’s not that much to do. There’s guys who would give their left arm to do that.

“So if they think this is tough—what are they going to do when they get into the real world and you lose a job like so many people have done already, or things happen to you in your life that send you for a tailspin? These guys can’t handle losing some close basketball games? When adversity strikes, the true man comes out.”

The task now for Pecora is to get the Dutchmen to return to what he considers true Hofstra basketball—40 passionate minutes in which the Dutchmen play the type of defense that has become the program’s trademark and treat every possession as if it’s the last one of the season. He’ll do that by dramatically increasing the intensity of practice, depleted roster and all. If he can’t sleep, the least he can do is make he’ll make sure his players are exhausted.

“That falls on me—that’s my job, that’s my job to get these guys [going],” Pecora said. “And if we’ve got to run and trip and dive and do all of that to play hard every night, I’ll lose that way. But I’m not going to lose where guys are not executing.

“We’ll have some spirited practices. Sometimes, when you’re down to seven guys….you change the way you practice. I’ve done that, and I shouldn’t have. I should have continued to just ride them in practice, ride them physically. I’m always on them to perform, but make our practices more physically grueling. And that’s what I’m going to need to do to get this team to play hard for a full 40 minutes, because they’ve lost their way.

“And that’s my fault. That’s me. I will do everything I need to do to get them there.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Stolen Pillows U., 1/19)

3: Miklos Szabo

2: Charles Jenkins

1: Chaz Williams

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 35

Chaz Williams 21

Halil Kanacevic 18

Nathaniel Lester 18

Miklos Szabo 12

Cornelius Vines 8

Greg Washington 8

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

George Mason 67, Hofstra 63 (Or: Just another Manic Monday)

My Monday only got worse from here.

Very sorry for the lack of a post about the loss to Mason. I got into a car accident on the way back from Virginia Monday night. I was sideswiped at 65 mph into another car and then spun across four lanes of 495 south of Baltimore before coming to a rest facing traffic in the breakdown lane. Somewhat miraculously, everything and everyone appears to be fine. And if I can ever process the Quentin Tarantino-esque weirdness that surrounded the 24 hours that began with my decision to go to Mason, I’ll blog about it.

The game against Towson (ahh! A Maryland school! Ahh!!!) is only a couple hours away, so I’m going to just completely rip off every writer ever by posting six quick thoughts about the Mason game. I’ll also predict that Litos is right in predicting a Dutchmen win, but wrong in expecting it to be fairly easy. This will be an ugly win, a la the Delaware win last Jan. 7 that ended a two-game losing streak and a stretch of four losses in five games.

1.) The transition is complete. Not only did Halil Kanacevic join fellow freshman Chaz Williams in the starting lineup, but the duo each established a new career high in points and were remarkably reliable at crunch time: The two combined to score 21 of the Dutchmen’s final 25 points. Williams scored 20 points on 8-of-9 shooting and his first three baskets of the second half all tied the game or gave the Dutchmen the lead. Kanacevic had his second double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) and also went to the free throw line five times. Neither Miklos Szabo nor Greg Washington have gone to the line five times in game this season.

While Cornelius Vines should continue to play a steady role with the Dutchmen thanks to his defense and 3-point shooting ability (though he is just 5-of-26 from beyond the arc in his last five games), it might be time to declare it was nice knowing Szabo, who played just three minutes—his briefest cameo since he played two minutes against UNC Wilmington in the season finale last year, back when he was still recovering from a broken forearm—and had no points or rebounds. Szabo is limited offensively, where he has been unable to create anything from beyond two feet all year, and prone to overzealous fouls on defense. Maybe a visit from Towson, against whom Szabo had 22 points and eight rebounds Dec. 5, will provide a much-needed tonic.

And on both teams, the kids are all right: The Dutchmen and Patriots each had three freshmen on the floor much of the night. The two schools would have one helluva battle for the CAA crown in 2012 and 2013, if only Hofstra were still in the conference.

2.) Immaturity cost the Dutchmen another win. Not the feet-stomping, go-to-your-room variety of immaturity, but the collective inexperience of the roster reared its ugly head again in the second half as the Dutchmen could not extend their lead and bury Mason. A 7-0 run turned a 44-43 deficit into a 50-44 lead with 7:45 left, but the Dutchmen squandered two chances to turn the four-point lead into six or seven before Mason took the lead with 3:25 left. The Patriots would never trail again.

3.) Charles Jenkins is officially slumping again. Jenkins had an OK line—11 points, six rebounds, six assists—but shot just 33 percent (5-for-15) from the floor, the fourth time in his last seven games he has shot less than 40 percent. It’s not so much the stats suggesting another midseason slump for Jenkins as it is the sight of Jenkins driving the lane against two or three defenders, over and over and over again, and trying to do everything for the Dutchmen by creating something out of nothing. He did end the night by dishing to Kanacevic in the lane for a pair of baskets and then hitting a layup of his own, so maybe he’s snapping out of it. The skid is not as deep as it was a year ago, when, in the seven-game span that ended with the loss to Northeastern on the first Monday of January, Jenkins shot 33 percent (30-of-92). Jenkins is shooting 40 percent (41-of-103) over his last seven games. Of course, a year ago, the worst was yet to come: Jenkins shot 4-of-24 in the win over Delaware 52 weeks ago tonight.

4.) Nathaniel Lester is still inconsistent and Greg Washington is invisible. Lester had one of the quietest near double-doubles (nine points, nine rebounds) you’ll ever see. He missed a dunk and a layup and air-balled a 3-pointer during a 2-of-9 shooting performance. He did take six of the Dutchmen’s 14 free throw attempts, though, continuing another familiar trend. The Dutchmen, even with Kanacevic and Williams playing so well, can only go so far without Lester emerging as the second consistent veteran.

Washington, meanwhile, played just 15 minutes, his fewest since the opener against Kansas, but fouled out anyway and scored just two points and collected two rebounds before departing. He’s had two or fewer rebounds four times in 14 games, which is almost inconceivable given his 6-foot-10 frame. He doesn’t have the body to bang down low with the bigger men of the CAA and is far too often content with hoisting 15-foot jumpers instead of trying to convert under the basket. Kanacevic’s emergence might benefit Washington most, because it may allow him to hang on the perimeter on offense and swat away shots on defense. Still, he should be doing so much more for the Dutchmen.

5.) The Dutchmen are in much better shape than a year ago. Yeah, 1-2 in the CAA is 1-2 in the CAA, but last year, the Dutchmen were 1-2 after losing consecutive games to Drexel and Northeastern in which they never led. In addition, the roster was bogged down with six limited seniors and three junior college transfers who had yet to play to expectations. This 1-2—with two losses by a combined five points to upper echelon CAA teams and with a starting lineup comprised entirely of underclassmen, including two incredibly promising freshmen—is far less worrisome. The Dutchmen will still win 12 conference games.

6.) While George Mason is a two-word, 11-letter synonym for evil, the Patriot Center and Fairfax are great college basketball environments. Met my buddy with the tickets at Brion’s, a bar across the street from Patriot Center. The walls of Brion’s were covered with Mason memorabilia, advertisements promoted the ability to watch all televised Mason games at the bar and the bartenders and waitresses all sported Mason T-shirts. For all I know, all the memorabilia—which included Mason jerseys from decades back—was added after April 2006, but it was still pretty cool. And Patriot Center is a big-time environment, with some damn fine food (foot-long hot dogs, hello Sully Ray!!) and neat giveaways. I could have done without the “Ball Buster” afterward, though, and Mason fans remind me of Paul O’Neill and Kevin Youkilis: Every call against them is horsecrap and a sign that everyone is out to get them.

Still, if Hofstra is in the CAA next year and visits Mason, I recommend you go to the game. Just fly or take a train there.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. George Mason, 1/4)

3: Chaz Williams

2: Halil Kanacevic

1: Charles Jenkins

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 22

Nathaniel Lester 18

Chaz Williams 17

Halil Kanacevic 13

Greg Washington 8

Cornelius Vines 7

Miklos Szabo 5

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