Georgia State 85, Hofstra 50 (Or: It ends in dust and disarray)

The last loss of the season was so disheartening, I'm not even posting the usual Cinderella song.

This wasn’t the synergistic ending to a hard-luck season the Flying Dutchmen seemed destined to suffer, never mind the start of the shocking Cinderella run that everyone hoped to experience even while realizing it was the longest of long shots. The close-but-not-quite Dutchmen would play well for large periods of time against Georgia State in the first round of the CAA Tournament Friday night, get done in by an untimely mistake or two and head home for the summer pondering what might have been, both in the CAA Tournament and in a season in which the raw data didn’t match up to the final record.

Except a season that began with the Dutchmen losing their first six CAA games by a combined 35 points and was defined by resiliency even in defeat ended with an 85-50 loss to Georgia State that was not nearly as close as the score indicated. It was still the most lopsided CAA Tournament loss in history as well as Hofstra’s worst conference loss since moving to Division I.

“The one thing I said is we never gave up all year,” Mo Cassara said. “Certainly we had enough challenges where we could have given up and could have not won and really played poorly at times. But we never did that. I really believe this is the first night all year where the game really got away from us.”

The Dutchmen at their best last night wouldn’t have beaten a Georgia State team determined to take out its aggressions over being slighted in the conference awards balloting. Led by CAA Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Eric Buckner (21 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 7-of-8 from the line, 11 rebounds and two blocks), the Panthers shot 59.6 percent, drained 20 of 24 free throws, outrebounded the Dutchmen 35-23, forced 15 turnovers and got 14 players into the boxscore. The Georgia State bench outscored Dutchmen reserves 28-1 (a first half Moussa Kone free throw).

“The coach and the team, we all have a little chip on our shoulder right now,” said Panthers coach Ron Hunter, who inexplicably finished second to Bruiser Flint in the Coach of the Year voting. “We’ve had it all year. And it’s magnified by 100 right now for a lot of different reasons.”

But Georgia State’s dominance shouldn’t obscure just how badly the Dutchmen played, especially after a reasonably promising start. There were six ties and three lead changes in the first eight minutes, but in their final 21 possessions of the first half—beginning right after they tied the game for the final time—the Dutchmen scored 11 points, committed nine turnovers (including four in a row at the start of the stretch) and were just 3-of-10 from the field.

Georgia State expanded the lead to 10 by the six minute mark, to 20 with 3:57 left and led 45-24 at the half—the worst halftime deficit for Hofstra since Nov. 18, 2010 against top-ranked North Carolina. From thereon, the only good thing about the game was how fast it moved towards completion. The final buzzer sounded about an hour and 50 minutes after tipoff, which must also be a CAA Tournament record.

The Dutchmen got three players into double figures—they were 9-8 in such games during the regular season—but Mike Moore (16 points), Stevie Mejia (14 points and two steals) and Nathaniel Lester (11 points) were just 13-of-34 from the field. Moore (2-of-7 from 3-point land) and Lester (3-of-10 from the field and 5-of-9 from the line) had particularly rough outings in their final collegiate games. Fellow outgoing senior Dwan McMillan had more turnovers (four) than assists (two) for just the fifth time this year and the first time since Jan. 18.

“I just think overall we didn’t have the performance we needed by anybody or collectively to compete tonight,” Cassara said.

The resounding nature of the defeat to the CAA’s sixth-place team served as a harrowing reminder of how far the Dutchmen have to go to get back to where they once were, and a wistful reminder of how thin a line it is between contention and irrelevance.

“I told the guys a year ago we were sitting in here, we had won 21 games and we were tied for second in the league,” Cassara said. “A year later we’re getting blown out and we’re second-to-last. So there’s a lesson to learn in that—a lot of lessons for our staff to learn, a lot of lessons for you young guys and certainly lessons for the seniors who now [have] got to move on and do something else with their lives.”

The Dutchmen could survive the spring 2010 ravaging of the program, and the subsequent hastened recruiting period, thanks to the transcendence of Charles Jenkins. But the bill came due in a hurry this season, when the Dutchmen didn’t have the replenishments for Jenkins and Greg Washington.

The next generation will begin arriving in the fall, when transfers Jamaal Coombs-McDaniel and Taran Buie lead an influx of new talent, but Friday night’s loss magnified the scope of this rebuilding job and the reality the Dutchmen are more than just a couple players away from regaining their usual spot in the top half of the CAA.

Programs win in the CAA, and nobody knows the enormity of the task ahead better than Cassara, who realizes Hofstra, in its current state, has no foundation. In his post-game comments, Cassara made three references to the amount of work the coaching staff has ahead of it.

Dutchmen fans can take some solace in knowing that brighter days began appearing almost immediately after the last time the program suffered through a season like this. Jay Wright’s second year at the helm in 1995-96—in which he went 9-20 largely with holdovers from the Butch van Breda Kolff era and some placeholders—ended with a Friday night loss in a conference tournament. Speedy Claxton arrived that fall.

Perhaps a decade or more down the road we will look back on Friday as a bottoming out and the start of a new era, and realize that Coombs-McDaniel, Buie or one of the freshman became for Cassara what Claxton was for Wright. But before Cassara could look ahead to better days, there was a loss over which to stew, one which will surely stoke the fire inside him in the coming days, weeks, months and years as he does whatever he can to make sure nights like Friday and seasons like 2011-12 never happen again.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, this is a little bit of unchartered territory for me,” Cassara said. “As a young coach, as a head coach, I’ve never been in a situation like this. I’ve never been on the other side of a loss like that ever. I mean, in all my years. It’s something I’ve got to learn to deal with. It’s something that we’ve got to learn, as a staff, to figure out how to get back to the top part of this league. And it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take a lot of hard work.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Georgia State, 3/2)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Mike Moore

1: Nathaniel Lester

FINAL SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 66

Nathaniel Lester 46

Dwan McMillan 20

Stevie Mejia 18

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.

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.

Hofstra 81, Siena 69 (Or: Mejia gives Dutchmen reason to believe in a place called Hope)

Check out the cast of characters on stage at the end of this performance. Fever dream-esque.

Stevie Mejia wasn’t just reading from The Athlete’s Book Of Clichés when he declared he was just happy to be part of a win Saturday. He’d waited a long time for an afternoon like the one he and the Flying Dutchmen enjoyed when they pulled away late (no, really, I swear!) in a 81-69 win over Siena in the I-now-think-these-are-superduper-because-we-won-a-freaking-game Bracket Busters.

It was the first victory for the Dutchmen with Mejia in the starting lineup since Dec. 17 against Binghamton, when Mejia, still hampered by the hamstring injury that ended up costing him six games, was scoreless in a 82-62 win. For all intents and purposes, Saturday was the first win in which Mejia really contributed as a starter since Nov. 26—a mere 12 weeks earlier—against Cleveland State, when he had 10 points in what still stands as the Dutchmen’s most impressive win of the season.

“I feel great just having the win with my teammates, just feeling happy out there,” Mejia said. “It doesn’t matter what my stats are. I just want to win.”

A nice sentiment, but Mejia is wrong. His stats REALLY matter. Mejia didn’t produce the biggest numbers Saturday (Mike Moore had 30 points, including six 3-pointers), but he was the most valuable player on the floor for the Dutchmen.

Mejia set career highs—dating back to his days at Rhode Island—with 16 points, six field goals (on 11 attempts) and four 3-pointers (on seven attempts). All four treys gave the Dutchmen the lead, including the two he drained on consecutive trips just after the under-8 timeout in the second half, when he gave the Dutchmen the lead right after Siena took its last lead and broke a tie to give the Dutchmen the lead for good, respectively.

Mejia also had six assists and just one turnover—which he “committed” while dribbling out the clock with less than five seconds to go, no wonder Jim Larranaga never recruited him—while recording four steals, the second time in three games he’s had at least four steals.

In addition, Mejia made all three of his rebounds count: He grabbed his own miss and hit a jumper to spark a 12-2 run at the start of the second half and helped ice the game by pulling down Moore’s miss as the shot clock expired with 1:12 to play and outhustling Siena for a defensive rebound 18 seconds later.

It was no coincidence the Dutchmen had their best offensive day of 2012 with Mejia thriving. The 81 points were the Dutchmen’s most since they scored 83 against Iona Dec. 29. They shot 45.2 percent overall, ending a streak of eight straight games in which the Dutchmen shot 41 percent or less, and an impressive 47.8 percent from 3-point land, their finest performance since the Binghamton game.

“It’s amazing—[the ball] goes in the basket and all of a sudden we’re better on defense, we have a little more energy,” Mo Cassara said. “I think we got some different types of baskets—we got some transition baskets, we got some drives, we got some free throws, we got some extra passes and kickouts and some different guys made shots I think when different guys make some shots other than Mike or Nat, all of a sudden it gives everybody else a lot of confidence and they just can’t key on Mike or just can’t key on Nat.”

That third option suddenly looks like Mejia, who has more than half as many field goals in his last four games (15-of-40) as he did in his first 19 (29-of-82). That’s pretty impressive considering he was 0-for-8 against Drexel nine days ago. And Mejia has scored in double figures in three of his last four games, which is as many double-digit efforts as he had in his first 89 collegiate games.

“I’m just more confident now, back from injury,” Mejia said. “I feel like I’m 100 percent [since] two weeks ago [against] George Mason. After that game I’ve just been real confident.”

Mejia’s emergence is a huge factor for a team that hasn’t had a reliable outside shooter other than Moore. It took until Saturday—and a total of 52 games—for Mejia and Shemiye McLendon to finally exceed Brad Kelleher’s 34 3-pointers in just 25 games last season.

“That’s really what we’ve been looking for,” Cassara said, referring to a third scoring option. “If you go back through our season, it’s one or two shots in every game. A couple of those shots go in along the course of the year, probably a few different numbers up there. Tonight, that’s what gave us some confidence.”

Who knows it’s sustainable in CAA play, but fueled largely by Mejia, the Dutchmen produced a pretty good template for winning Saturday while also mounting their biggest comeback win of the season (Siena led 32-25 with three minutes left in the first half) and finally finishing a team off in the final few minutes.

Tri-captains Moore, Mejia and Nathaniel Lester (15 points) were the Dutchmen’s three double-digit scorers. The trio scored all 12 the Dutchmen’s points in a 12-2 run that opened the second half, and Moore buried the Saints in a four-possession stretch spanning the final media timeout with a jumper, a 3-pointer and two free throws off his own steal to spark a game-ending 12-2 run in which the Dutchmen scored the final 10 points.

“It usually comes down to the six, seven minute mark where we either lose the game or win the game,” Moore said. “Today a couple shots fell and guys stuck to it. We just fought along to win the game.”

Starters scored the Dutchmen’s first 66 points and 74 points overall, but one-time sixth man Shemiye McLendon provided seven big points in the final 5:44 as well as five assists. On an afternoon in which behemoth Siena forward O.D. Anosike—whom Cassara called the best big man Hofstra has faced all season—had more rebounds by himself (12) than any two Dutchmen, Stephen Nwaukoni pulled down six rebounds and had a go-ahead 3-point play right after Siena took its first lead of the second half.

Mejia and Dwan McMillan combined for 13 assists and just three turnovers and sparked a swarming defense that forced 21 turnovers, including nine in Siena’s first 11 possessions as the Dutchmen raced out to a 10-0 lead. The 21/10 assist-to-turnover ratio was the best of the season for the Dutchmen.

“We’re down to seven scholarship players and we have to keep finding different guys to step up and make plays,” Cassara said. “Stevie and Dwan can really hawk the ball and we’ve had [a few] games we’ve turned a team over 21 times, so at least we’re creating some extra possessions for ourselves. Obviously we’ve had to change a little bit of the way we play and I think that’s been a really positive thing for us.”

And after an overwhelmingly negative CAA season, the Dutchmen have found something on which they can build. No, it’s not very likely the Dutchmen found the winning formula in game no. 29. But hey. The last time a Dutchmen team was 9-20 after 29 games was 1993-94. We all know what happened then.

“We’ve got a chance here the next two games—I told the team William & Mary is the most important game of our season on Wednesday,” Cassara said. “It’s a game where we have a chance to tie them, at least, in the league, a chance to win a tiebreaker, a chance to position ourselves a little better in the CAA Tournament. And then we come back here for Senior Day and then obviously we’re going to give it all we’ve got in the first round of the CAA Tournament.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Siena, 2/18)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Mike Moore

1: Nathaniel Lester

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 59

Nathaniel Lester 42

Dwan McMillan 17

Stevie Mejia 15

David Imes 14

Stephen Nwaukoni 10

Shemiye McLendon 9

Moussa Kone 5

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

Delaware 71, Hofstra 57 (Or: The truth is not kind)

Has anyone figured out the theme of the postgame recaps? Anyone? Loyal Reader Missy? In the meantime enjoy some appropriate folk rock goodness.

The great thing about “what if” scenarios are the escape from reality, the alternate universe and the hope they provide. We all like to think that everything would be much different and much better, if only one little (or big) thing had gone our way.

If I’d thought before speaking that winter night in 1992, maybe a bitter breakup is avoided. If the wonderful people who used to employ me were a little more wonderful four years ago this month, maybe I would have gotten that dream job in Boston and told them to pound sand instead of vice versa.

(These are, of course, just random examples completely unrelated to any of my life experiences)

If George Mason didn’t have its athletic director on the Selection Committee and “not in the room” six years ago next month, maybe Hofstra gets into the NCAA Tournament and history is altered forever.

(These are, of course, specifically selected examples of my crappy life experiences)

The 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen season has been one big “what if?” What if Thanksgiving weekend in Rhode Island was just the beginning for the optimal Dutchmen instead of the end? What if Stevie Mejia’s hamstring didn’t go boom and Bryant Crowder didn’t go…well, whatever he went?

More recently, we’ve been wondering “what if?” about the team that’s actually on the court. What if the Dutchmen got just one stop against Northeastern Jan. 11? What if it an actual professional referee was on the court for the home game against Drexel Jan. 18? What if one of the several good looks the Dutchmen got while trying to tie the score or take the lead against George Mason Jan. 25 actually fell? What if the Dutchmen closed the gap to five points against Georgia State late in the second half Feb. 4?

If only one or two of those things had gone the Dutchmen’s way, maybe a few of those losses turn into wins and they’re floating around the middle of the CAA and flirting with .500 instead of mired in an engrossing battle for the 10th seed and needing to advance to a regional final just to get back to the break-even mark.

Of course, the dangers of “what if?” lie in what might actually happen if those asking the question get a chance to rewrite history. Because the truth is life rarely turns on a single dime. If the relationship or the job didn’t work out, well, it was probably headed for a nasty breakup even if harsh words weren’t swapped or a beancounter on the other side of the continent didn’t get a bug up his butt.

And if a basketball team has, as its conference record, a record more often associated with NFL teams that earn the no. 1 draft pick, well, it’s probably a lot more than one or two twists of fate away from contending. This is what we learned Tuesday night, when the Flying Dutchmen fell to Delaware, 71-57, and in the process reminded us they’d probably have a Valentine’s Day-esque CAA record on Valentine’s Day no matter what.

As has so often been the case this season, the Dutchmen played from behind much of the game. But unlike their first game this season against Delaware—which was the genesis of this whole “what if?” exercise—the Dutchmen climbed all the way back from a 13-point first half deficit and took a 50-49 lead on Mike Moore’s 3-pointer with 8:02 left.

It was the Dutchmen’s first lead of the season against Delaware, and Moore—who missed two free throws with a chance to put the Dutchmen ahead with 22 seconds left in a 67-66 loss to the Blue Hens Jan. 4—draining the go-ahead shot seemed to portend a change in fortune for Hofstra.

Alas, the Dutchmen were outscored 22-7 the rest of the way, which meant the Dutchmen ended the game in even more discouraging fashion than they started it, when they fell behind 17-4 seven minutes in. So other than being outscored 39-11 to begin and end the game, Mo Cassara, how was the play?

“Our margin for error is just very small,” Cassara said. “We continue to do some really good things, but we haven’t been able, at crunch time, to be mentally tough enough to make those one or two stops or one or two plays or one extra basket or one extra pass to take that lead from one to three, maybe make them get a timeout and then get one extra basket and all of a sudden we’re back where we need to be.”

Instead on Tuesday, Moore’s 3-pointer was the penultimate (love that word) basket for the Dutchmen, who didn’t score from the field again until Nathaniel Lester put back his own miss with 20 seconds to play. Before the game got out of hand following the final media timeout, the Dutchmen missed five chances to go ahead, tie the score or pull within a basket. In addition, Moore missed two of three free throws, including one of two following a technical on Delaware’s Khalid Lewis with 5:29 left and the Blue Hens clinging to a 53-50 lead.

The Dutchmen didn’t shoot much better earlier in the game. They were just 16-of-57 from the field, the second time in the last four games they’ve shot less than 30 percent from the field and the fourth straight time they’ve shot less than 40 percent. The Dutchmen had three players score in double figures, but Moore, Lester and Mejia were just 11-of-39 combined.

“I really thought we were right there,” Cassara said. “I thought the pressure would shift back to them. I thought we had finally gotten some energy. I thought the group out there had done a great job. We fought all the way back and we’re right there at the eight-minute mark and we finally got our leagues a little bit and we had a bunch of great opportunities. I even thought after the technical foul [that] momentum had really swung our way.

“They made a couple tough shots, then we came down and missed. Nat had a three go in and out, Mike had a driving layup go in and out, missed a couple free throws and all of a sudden the lead was insurmountable.”

And now so might be the hole in which the Dutchmen are mired. Oh, the season has been basically wrecked for weeks, but the Dutchmen might be completely gassed after the most disappointing of the 20 losses.

In addition to losing by 14 after answering a “what if?” Cassara announced afterward David Imes (hip pointer) would miss at least the rest of the regular season. While Imes has not matched the numbers he put up last year, he’s still a valuable, experienced front court presence. Now the Dutchmen’s rotation is down to seven scholarship players and Grogan.

At some point, a team runs out of resiliency. The Dutchmen will continue to work hard, but reality almost surely crept in Tuesday. And while they still hope to win a couple games in Richmond to lessen the sting of this forgettable season, it will instead almost surely be defined by bits of encouragement that were, for whatever reason, unsustainable.

Maybe some of those stretches can serve as building blocks for next season: Mejia seems to be regaining his shot and his confidence after an injury-ruined season and scored eight straight points for the Dutchmen during a 14-5 run in the first half. Stephen Nwaukoni earned an early benching from Cassara but had four points in that run. And while Moore’s 3-pointer capped the 10-0 run that gave the Dutchmen their lone lead, Grogan opened it with a 3-pointer and Moussa Kone scored the next four points. Kone finished with eight rebounds and two blocks in just 21 minutes.

Some other stretches will have us wondering what if. Moore produced all the Dutchmen’s points in an 8-2 run that tied the game at 28 with a little more than three minutes to play in the first half. But while he had a very good game in the boxscore (16 points, seven rebounds, five assists), he also had a team-high three turnovers, was just 5-of-16 from the field and spent five minutes on the bench in the second half for the second straight game.

“Sometimes you start off slow, but you just try to shrug it off and bounce back, which we did,” Moore said. “We were right there in the second half. Took the lead.”

Then Moore took a deep breath.

“We just have to find some answers,” he said.

Unfortunately, they did.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Delaware, 2/14)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Moussa Kone

1: Mike Moore

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 57

Nathaniel Lester 41

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Stevie Mejia 12

Stephen Nwaukoni 10

Shemiye McLendon 9

Moussa Kone 5

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

Drexel 78, Hofstra 67 (Or: Who would have thought they’d end up this way, getting so close, so far away)

Philadelphia's finest musical export summed up the 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen way back during my senior year of high school, when me and Nathaniel Lester formed a dynamic duo in pickup basketball!

Mike Moore did a fine job of spelling out the absurdity of a double-digit loss to Georgia State nine days ago, when the Panthers routed the Flying Dutchmen even tough the Dutchmen had as many assists and steals, two fewer rebounds and seven fewer turnovers than the victors.

Even in this ridiculous Dutchmen season, that seemed to be bottom, at least in terms of head-scratching losses that simply don’t add up on paper. But as usual, we were wrong. Very, very wrong.

The Dutchmen managed to never lead in a 78-67 loss to Drexel at the cozy DAC in Philadelphia Saturday even though they forced 11 more turnovers (18) than they committed (seven). It was just the sixth time since joining the CAA that Hofstra has had a turnover ratio of plus-10 and the first time the Dutchmen have lost such a game. Their average margin of victory in the first five such instances: 15 points.

“If I could cover the numbers up and say, hey, we got 19 offensive rebounds and only turned it over seven times and they turned it over 18 times, I’d probably sit here and tell you we probably would have won the game,” Cassara said.

So how did THIS—so close, so far away—happen again? Well, for one thing, the Dutchmen had so many offensive rebounds because they missed 43 of their 64 shots. And while Moore, Nathaniel Lester, Stephen Nwaukoni and Shemiye McLendon combined to shoot a respectable 20-of-46 from the field, the rest of the team was a gasp-worthy 1-of-18.

“Our issue just continues to be we weren’t able to make enough baskets to win,” Cassara said. “We had a lot of great opportunities around the basket tonight and we weren’t able to execute.”

Drexel, on the other hand, executed. Over and over and over again. The Dragons shot a blistering 59.6 percent, the highest a CAA opponent has ever shot against the Dutchmen, per EvanJ at the CAA Zone. Drexel’s three double-digit scorers—Chris Fouch, Frantz Massenat and Damian Lee—were a silly 22-of-29 from the field. Fouch lived up to his “F-Bomb” nickname by hitting three free throws less than three minutes into the second half to start the Dragons’ decisive 25-8 run and by draining his first six 3-point attempts of the second half.

Only these Dutchmen—who have as many non-conference wins over opponents in the top 100 as they do CAA wins—could produce such diametrically opposite historic efforts in the same game.

“I told the team: It’s a mental mistake every game,” Cassara said. “It’s a little mental breakdown. And I think that just comes from fatigue and just comes from we don’t have enough mental toughness to say ‘Hey, I’m not going to foul a jump shooter’ [or] ‘Hey, I’m not going to go underneath the screen’ or ‘Hey, I’m going to cut a little harder on offense.’ And part of that, to me, is from fatigue.”

Yet despite the almost uninterrupted spate of losing and an undermanned roster (which got even lighter when David Imes sat out the second half with a groin injury that has him very questionable at best for this week), the Dutchmen continued to exhibit an admirable amount of hustle and effort. They forced a seemingly unprecedented seven held balls in the first half, during which they fell behind by 10 less than six minutes in yet closed the gap to two at the under-4 timeout.

The Dutchmen opened the second half by outscoring the Dragons 10-4 to pull within two points—and missed two chances to tie the game a bit more than two minutes into the half—and went on a 20-9 run to pull within eight points at the final media timeout.

“I thought our effort and our intensity was really, really solid,” Cassara said. “Proud of our guys. We continue to play hard. We just haven’t been able to make enough winning plays to beat a team like Drexel, especially down here at Drexel.”

Nobody played harder than Lester, who continued to produce a sensational finish to what was already a very solid senior season by scoring a game-high 27 points—including 22 in the second half—to go along with a team-high eight rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. Effort has never been an issue for Lester, but he is embodying the senior playing with more passion than ever in February, putting teammates on his back and doing all he can to will a flawed team to extend his career just a little bit longer.

“Nat plays hard—he plays hard,” Cassara said. “He plays hard and he’s given us all he’s got. He continues to play really hard and give us a lot of energy.”

There were some other notable individual efforts by Dutchmen, many of which were alternately—and appropriately—impressive and cringe-worthy. The best overall performance, other than Lester, came from Nwaukoni, who was 4-of-6 from the field in scoring eight points for the second straight game. The Dutchmen will need him to continue finding his early January form with Imes banged up.

Dwan McMillan fashioned a magnificent assist-to-turnover ratio of 6:1, but was 0-for-4 from the field. Moore had 18 points and became only the second player in school history to score 1,000 points in two seasons after transferring to Hofstra, but lapsed into inconsistency and sat for almost five minutes during Drexel’s big second half run.

And Stevie Mejia had five steals, and nearly had a couple more that he couldn’t quite corral, but was 0-for-8 from the field three days after he was 5-of-11 against George Mason.

“Wayne Morgan said to me walking down the tunnel at halftime ‘That’s the guy that you told me could really guard the ball that we’ve been waiting to see,’” Cassara said. “He’s starting to come along. That’s a positive note. Got to keep trying to build on the positives. We’ve got three of our next four games at home.”

There aren’t too many of those on the scoreboard or in the standings—the last time the Dutchmen were 2-13 in conference play, the 13th loss was a season-ender in the 1988 East Coast Conference tournament—and even the schedule that once seemed to lighten up in mid-February has turned difficult.

Delaware, which started this Dutchmen funk with a one-point win in New-ARK Jan. 4, visits Wednesday in the midst of a four-game winning streak that has made the Blue Hens the hottest team outside of the top four. Then there’s the too-meaningless-for-words “Bracket Buster” against Siena Saturday, followed by a trip to William & Mary—which scorched Northeastern Saturday to break a 10th-place tie with the Dutchmen—and the Senior Day finale against UNC Wilmington.

But Cassara will work as hard leading into games as the Dutchmen work during them, hoping to fix whatever ails the Dutchmen and get to the point where luck finally turns their way, the shots start falling, the math finally works in their favor and so close is no longer so far away.

“I’ve been on some teams that [didn’t] have winning records and some of those teams didn’t play hard this time of year,” Cassara said. “That team out there played hard today. We played hard. We just aren’t able to make enough winning plays to win a game like that on the road yet. So we have to keep trying to look at some of the things that [are] prohibiting us from doing that and stay positive. We head home for three of our next four and we’re going to go back to practice [Sunday] and try to get better Sunday and Monday and play Delaware on Tuesday.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Drexel, 2/11)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Stephen Nwaukoni

1: Mike Moore

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 56

Nathaniel Lester 41

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Stephen Nwaukoni 10

Stevie Mejia 9

Shemiye McLendon 9

Moussa Kone 3

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

Georgia State 59, Hofstra 43 (Or: All they want is some remedy)

The second-best Georgia band to have a top-two album in 1992 ponders the fate of the 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen!

After 17 defeats, the Flying Dutchmen are running out of different verbiage to explain the same thing. So on Saturday, Mike Moore just stated the obvious.

“I look at these stats and nothing really stands out,” Moore said after the Dutchmen fell to Georgia State, 59-43, in a game that was both closer than it looked and exactly as lopsided as it looked, all at the same time. “We played them pretty even: Assists, steals, turnovers. They had 17 [turnovers], we only had 10. The only thing is the point category. We’re not scoring. And that’s the problem.

“I feel like we’re matched up just as well as they were, with everything top to bottom except the point category. And that’s what wins games at the end of the day.”

And at the end of Saturday the Dutchmen were 2-11 and still tied for 10th place in the CAA despite, as Moore noted, playing Georgia State to a tie in assists (14) and steals (seven). But while Moore and Nathaniel Lester combined for 27 points, only two fewer than Georgia State’s top-scoring combination of Devonta White and Ali Jihad, the Panthers had two more players in double figures while the only additional Dutchmen player to even get halfway to 10 points was Moussa Kone.

The Dutchmen had four fewer field goals (17) than Georgia State on 17 more shots (58). Furthermore, while Moore and Lester were 11-of-31 from the field, the rest of their teammates were 6-for-27 against Georgia State’s frantic and varied mix of defensive alignments. The Dutchmen were just 3-of-22 from 3-point land and 6-of-12 from the free throw line.

“Tough to win any game at home this time of year against a team in the top part of the league when we shoot 3-of-22 and 6-of-12,” Mo Cassara said. “It’s one of those days the ball didn’t go in the basket.”

Of course, the Dutchmen have had a lot of those days since CAA play began. While the Dutchmen are a middle-of-the-pack team scoring overall among CAA teams (seventh at 64.4 points per game), they have been ice cold for most of the conference season. The Dutchmen are ninth in scoring in CAA play (60.0 ppg), 11th in field goal percentage (39 percent) and last in 3-point field goal percentage (26 percent).

With Moore and Lester, the Dutchmen have as good a 1-2 combination as anyone in the league. Only two other teams (James Madison and UNC Wilmington) have two players in the top 10 in scoring overall and only James Madison has two players in the top 10 in scoring in CAA games.

But the Dutchmen have had just two players in double figures in seven of the last eight games and Moore and Lester have been those two six times. The only time in this stretch in which the Dutchmen had three players score at least 10 points was the win against James Madison.

The Dutchmen’s other three starters—David Imes, Stephen Nwaukoni and Dwan McMillan—were all 3-of-12 from the field, with one field goal apiece, for the second straight game. And in their last two games, the Dutchmen’s third-leading scorer is walk-on Matt Grogan (nine points).

Yet as frigid as the Dutchmen were Saturday, they were, as they have been in just about every CAA games this season, one basket away from making things very interesting. Georgia State raced out to a 19-point lead late in the first half—the second time in as many games a Ron Hunter-coached team has scorched the Dutchmen and led by 19 points in the first half, hello 2010 CBI—but the Dutchmen crawled back within seven midway through the second half.

Over the next three scoreless minutes, the Dutchmen missed three shots to pull within four or five. On the last miss, Stevie Mejia missed a fast break layup and Rashaad Richardson drained a 3-pointer at the other end to begin a game-ending 13-4 “run” by the Panthers, whose lead never again slipped into single digits.

“I thought we had a pretty positive comeback,” Cassara said. “I think we had a chance to cut the game to five with several minutes to go. We cut the game to five, set our defense, I think the whole thing changes. The pressure goes back to their bench.

“But, again, it’s kind of been the story of our season that way. It becomes a very fine line and one or two possessions really dictates what happens to us.”

Cassara could take solace in the resiliency the Dutchmen displayed during the comeback as well as the gritty efforts of both Lester and Moore, each of whom played with a passion befitting two seniors in the final month of their collegiate careers.

Despite taking a blow to the face in the first half, Lester willed his way to another double-double with 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Moore overcame a slow start—he didn’t score his first basket until the final minute of the first half—to finish with 13 points, including 11 of the Dutchmen’s first 15 in the second half, and had three assists, including a nifty dish to Kone for a layup that pulled the Dutchmen within 10 points for the first time in the second half.

“Personally, I want to go out winning,” Moore said. “I was hoping that we could come out and win this game. But the ball didn’t bounce our way going in the hoop.”

And while Kone (2-of-2 from the field, two blocks, two steals in 21 minutes) managed to crack a Georgia State interior that blocked eight shots, including six by Eric Buckner, and was otherwise unyielding against the Dutchmen.

“I thought Moussa did a terrific job for us,” Cassara said. “He was very active. Even Mike, coming out of one of the timeouts, said ‘Let’s get Moussa in there’ because he was really active on defense. And I thought he was active on offense as well.”

In the end, though, the result was familiar as the Dutchmen’s imperfections proved too much to overcome. “Georgia State [is] a very good team,” Cassara said. “To beat a good team. We have to be great right now. And that’s what we’re going to keep striving for.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Georgia State, 2/4)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Mike Moore

1: Moussa Kone

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 53

Nathaniel Lester 37

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

Stevie Mejia 6

Moussa Kone 3

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

In which I once again implore you to support a Dutchmen team that deserves it, and ask you to bring 10 friends to the game tomorrow

C'mon Simone get everyone to Hofstra again! You'll be home in plenty of time to watch Ferris' commercial during the Super Bowl!

Just before the first game of the 2010-11 season, I implored Flying Dutchmen fans to follow Mo Cassara’s advice and invite 10 friends to a Hofstra game because Cassara’s first Dutchmen squad was a captivating team, filled with potential, intriguing storylines and a future NBA player, that needed and deserved support from the locals.

For the first time in my life, I was right AND people listened to me (I’m usually just right). Charles Jenkins defied description, the Dutchmen were quite good (they finished tied for second in the CAA) and people showed up in droves, or at least droves by Hofstra standards. Proving once again that Long Island does a fine job of front-running, the Dutchmen performed in front of two sellout crowds and saw their average attendance rise by almost 400 fans per game.

As tends to be the case, though, once the gate attraction graduated and the program endured a year after slump, the fans decided to stay at home and watch, umm, whatever is on TV Saturdays at 4 pm and midweek nights at 7 pm. Jenkins is playing for the Golden State Warriors, the Dutchmen are 8-16 and 2-10 in the CAA and the average attendance in 13 games at Hofstra Arena is 2,320—a decline of more than 700 fans from a year ago.

Beginning tomorrow, the Dutchmen will be home three of the next four Saturdays, which should provide a bit of a boost to the year-end numbers, but let’s face it, I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it ends: With acres of empty seats watching a sub-.500 team.

Which is a shame, because while the Dutchmen are stumbling this year, they are, in a way, even more compelling and deserving of support than a year ago. As you no doubt know—and once again, I have slipped into preaching-to-the-choir mode, because if you are reading this, you not only know how the Dutchmen are doing this year but the gut-wrenching fashion in which they got to this point, just bear with me, I am rambling here—the Dutchmen have patented the near-miss with seven losses by six points or less, including four in which the winning points were scored in the final 20 seconds, and 12 losses by 10 points or less. Despite losing twice as much as they’ve won, the Dutchmen’s net point differential is a mere negative-11.

The Dutchmen were 0-7 against the top five teams in the CAA last month but led Old Dominion by 13 points in the first half in Norfolk, played VCU to a dead heat in Richmond for a little more than a half, raced out to 9-0 leads at home against both Northeastern and George Mason, jumped out to a 6-0 lead against Drexel at home and had a chance to tie the score or take the lead in the final 20 seconds at home against Northeastern, Drexel and George Mason.

Of course, as the record indicates, this is an imperfect bunch—not imperfect in the way the rest of us are imperfect basketball players, but imperfect in that, for whatever reason, they have tiny flaws that have been magnified in a league in which the difference between winning and losing is microscopic.

Mike Moore is prone to getting frustrated and forcing ill-advised shots when he’s either draped or not getting shots. Nathaniel Lester can be either a bit too aggressive (as when he tried forcing a foul along the baseline and instead turned the ball over in the waning seconds of the first game against Northeastern and kicked a ball away on a fast break in Boston last weekend) or not aggressive enough, as when he waits a split-second too long to go back up with the bal under the basket.

Dwan McMillan, who is shooting 35 percent from the field and 63 percent from the foul line while fashioning a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio in CAA play, is probably a bit stretched as the starting point guard. Stevie Mejia was supposed to be the starter, but a lingering hamstring injury has hampered him physically and mentally.

David Imes has shot 50 percent or better in 12 games—and 33 percent or less in 10 games. Sixth man Shemiye McLendon is now the eighth man, thanks largely to a suddenly flat shot and a protracted slump in which he’s made just four of 24 3-pointers in his last nine games. Big men Stephen Nwaukoni and Moussa Kone are very raw. Bryant Crowder is Jackson State’s problem now.

Many teams in the Dutchmen’s seemingly hopeless position—we’ll get into the gargantuan task of saving the season at the CAA Tournament in a bit—would have packed it in for the season or lacked the resiliency to keep bouncing back. One and/or the other pretty much happened in Jay Wright’s second season, when the Dutchmen opened the season by splitting their first 14 games before falling to Northeastern on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. That began a nine-game losing streak for the Dutchmen, who ended up losing 11 of their final 13 games by an average of almost 17 points per game, Each of their final 10 losses was a double-digit affair.

But this is not an 8-16 team, in terms of either makeup or talent, and while frustration has seeped into their play at times, the Dutchmen have never quit. Now, of course, it’s easy to say an honest effort should be expected regardless of circumstance. But it says a lot about the players—as well as Cassara—that the effort has remained pure.

“I called Jack [Hayes] last night on my way home,” Cassara said after the Dutchmen beat Towson, 74-49, Wednesday night. “I said ‘You know, we just had another really good practice. That’s the sign of a team that hasn’t given up. That’s a sign of a team that’s continuing to work hard.”

It also says a lot about Cassara that he takes Dutchmen losses so badly that you are tempted to beat him to his Point Lookout home and empty the silverware drawer of forks and knives. Cassara didn’t get much sleep when the Dutchmen were the feel-good story of the regular season last year (thank you very much VCU for stealing our thunder once the NCAA Tournament got underway), so you can imagine his state of mind in the late nights and early mornings this year.

This team and these players will not define the Cassara Era at Hofstra. The guys who will do that are either still in high school or sitting at the end of the bench in warmups for every home game this season: Transfers Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Taran Buie, redshirt freshman Jordan Allen and, perhaps, Fresno State transfer Daquan Brown, who is enrolled at Hofstra this semester and hopes to get a hardship waiver and be ruled eligible by the NCAA for next season. (Daquan, if you’re reading this, Google “Brad Kelleher” and get comfortable in those sweats)

Some coaches in Cassara’s position would view a team like this as a write-off, speak early and often of how good next year will be and fret only about how this year will impact his win-loss record when he pursues his next gig. But Cassara coaches every game, and takes every loss, as if his career is riding on it. The enduring image of this season is Cassara running alongside a basketball skittering near the Hofstra bench during the James Madison game, as if he was going to dive after it himself.

As I asked a little less than 15 months ago: How can you not support a team like this? Coming out to the Arena for the first of the final four home games tomorrow is a chance for you to get in on the ground floor and say you were there at the beginning of the revival, even if it will almost certainly take until at least next year for us to all rise in unison after Cassara leads Hofstra to the promised land (since 2001-02, only one team that has started CAA play as poorly as the Dutchmen has won even one CAA Tournament game).

More importantly, it is a chance to support the seniors whose focus and commitment hasn’t wavered even as their last lap around the track has been anything but storybook. McMillan, who will end up spending less than a season-and-a-half in a Hofstra uniform thanks to the eye injury he suffered after 11 games last season—just beyond the point at which he would have still been eligible for a redshirt—has turned into the Dutchmen’s vocal leader and one hell of an entertaining player to watch. Don’t believe me? Watch what he does with the basketball and the referee the next time he’s at the free throw line.

Going all the way back to his high school days in Connecticut, Moore has never been thrust into the position of trying to create for others. He’ll lapse into old habits, but he’s trying: Moore has matched or exceeded his previous single-game high for assists (five) three times this season, all in the last 12 games. Lester had 22 double-digit scoring efforts in his first three seasons but 20 already this year and scored the 1,000th point of his career Wednesday—not bad for someone who wasn’t even on pace for 900 points at the start of the season.

Nobody’s dug deeper—in both the symbolic and literal senses—than Moore and Lester, each of whom are fifth-year seniors who embody the student-athlete ideal. Moore graduated in four years despite transferring to Hofstra after his sophomore year—it took me five-and-a-half years to do that, and I certainly wasn’t spending several hours a day in the gym and a chunk of the year on the road—and is getting his master’s in education. Lester, who came back for a redshirt senior year after missing last season with a quad injury, graduated in three-and-a-half years and is pursuing a master’s in linguistics.

Half a decade removed from high school, college life has to be growing a bit tedious for Moore, who turns 23 in May, and Lester, who turns 77—err, 24—in April. After putting in so much time with the program, they deserve a better reward than this, yet they show up for work everyday and hold out hope their final few weeks of college basketball will be memorable ones.

“It’s a credit to these two guys,” Cassara said as he was flanked by Lester and Moore following the loss to George Mason. “They continue to have positive attitudes. I’m really proud of them. I know that they’re incredibly frustrated. This is their senior year and they want nothing more than to win.”

The resolve is trickling down to the underclassmen as well: Less than half an hour after the Dutchmen won Wednesday night, Imes—who was just 1-of-8 from the field in the victory—was on the Arena floor taking dozens of jump shots.

The Dutchmen haven’t quit. Neither should you. Be there tomorrow with 10 friends.

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

Hofstra 74, Towson 49 (Or: Why do they feel this way? The promise of a new day)

You see, kids, long before Paula Abdul was that loon on American Idol, she had six no. 1 hits, the last of which was "The Promise Of A New Day." I would post the video, but she was wearing almost nothing at all and so it would be inappropriate. Well, that and it would result in the incineration of the Man Card I don't even own anyway.

With the arrival of a new month and a fresh start came an unfamiliar role for the Flying Dutchmen basketball team: Favorite.

Yet while the oddsmakers declared the Dutchmen were 15.5 points better than Towson Wednesday, Mo Cassara felt anything but secure. Towson, after all, was the one with the momentum Wednesday after it broke the longest losing streak in Division I history by beating UNC Wilmington last Saturday—a win that, technically, put Towson ahead of fellow one-win squad Hofstra in the CAA standings.

“Today was, in all honesty, the tightest I’ve been going into a game in a while because it was probably the first time in a month we were actually favored,” Cassara said. “So it was a little bit of pressure today saying this is a game we’ve got to win or we should win. We haven’t had that in a while. So I was curious to see how our guys reacted.”

Turns out the Dutchmen enjoyed being the favorites. Not only did the Dutchmen lead from wire-to-wire in a 74-49 win, but Mike Moore (28 points) and Nathaniel Lester (19 points, including the 1,000th of his career on a free throw with 15:19 to play) outscored Towson outscored the Tigers by themselves until reserve Christian Collins hit a 3-pointer just before the final buzzer.

“We made it a challenge to ourselves in the locker room to just outplay them, outwork them, because we were on, basically, the same boat,” Moore said.

It wasn’t a perfect game by the Dutchmen, who shot 40 percent and received as many field goals from walk-on Matt Grogan in four attempts over six minutes as starters David Imes, Stephen Nwaukoni and Dwan McMillan had in 16 attempts over 74 minutes. (The good news: That was enough to—SPOILER ALERT—earn Grogan his first appearance in the Stars of the Game)

The Dutchmen were whistled for a Mason-esque three technical fouls by another fine #CAAHoops officiating crew (only Lester’s, for hanging on the rim after a dunk, appeared to be deserved) that lost control of a game that grew sloppy and chippy.

But the effort was more than enough against a Towson team that reverted back to the bad habits that put it in the record book for all the wrong reasons. The Tigers committed 27 turnovers, had one more defensive rebound (21) than the Dutchmen had offensive rebounds and shot 14-of-33 from the free throw line.

The Dutchmen recorded 12 steals, including five by Moore, enjoyed a double-digit lead throughout the final 26 minutes. They went on a 13-0 run after Towson closed within 10 points with 16:33 to play and extended the lead to as many as 28 on Grogan’s putback in the final minute.

“I thought our effort was great tonight,” Cassara said. “Our execution can improve but our effort was great. I’m proud of that.”

Afterward, Cassara, Moore and Lester were sporting some rare smiles about not only the win—the Dutchmen’s first home victory in CAA play in a mere 340 days dating back to Charles Jenkins’ finale last Feb. 26—and Lester’s achievement but also their ability to leave January behind and focus on February. During a team meeting Monday, at the end of the Dutchmen’s worst month in a decade, coaches and players alike implored each other to approach the remaining games as an entirely new season.

“We can’t continue to talk about games that we might have lost at the last second or shots we didn’t make or plays we didn’t execute,” Cassara said. “We have a new clean slate. We have, essentially, a nine-game season and we just keep marking off every day. We’re going to try to win every day, whether it’s a practice or a game and try to continue to get better everyday. And I think we made a little bit of progress towards that today.”

The Dutchmen also made a bit of progress in the CAA standings—into a tie for 10th with William & Mary, whom the Dutchmen play for the only time on Feb. 22—with the win, which also went a long way towards assuring they will not finish in last place. By beating Towson in the lone meeting of the season between the teams (hooray unbalanced schedule that destroys tradition!), the Dutchmen are assured of having the tiebreaker over the Tigers, who would have to win two more games than the Dutchmen the rest of the way in order to finish ahead of Hofstra.

“I’m happy for everybody—nobody likes to lose—and I also know as a coach how close we’ve been,” Cassara said. “I think our guys continue to remain competitive and I’m excited to go back to practice [Thursday]. I really am. I’m excited to get to practice [Thursday] and I’m excited for our game on Saturday.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Towson, 2/1)

3: Mike Moore

2: Nathaniel Lester

1: Matt Grogan

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 51

Nathaniel Lester 34

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

Stevie Mejia 6

Moussa Kone 2

Bryant Crowder 2

Matt Grogan 1

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

Northeastern 58, Hofstra 51 (Or: Happiness one step behind)

Another tune that sums up this year's Flying Dutchmen. (And yes: To the well again with Extreme!)

Someday, college basketball historians will scan the smoldering embers of the 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen season and wonder how a team that should have been no better or worse than a middle-of-the-pack, .500-level team ended up mired at or near the bottom of the CAA and enduring one of the program’s worst seasons in a generation.

Those historians will find the answers to their questions if they can stumble across a DVD copy of the Dutchmen’s 58-51 loss to Northeastern Saturday at Matthews Arena. Therein is the explanation for how the Dutchmen could outperform the Huskies in many statistical categories yet lose the Barone Bowl Trophy (if only it existed) and fall by seven points in a game that was not as close as the final score indicated.

And the game film also provides the reasons why the Dutchmen are 1-10 in CAA play—and tied for next-to-last place now that Towson has ended its record losing streak, which @NUHF, @atowne07 and my wife “watched” via Twitter at Conor Larkin’s around the corner from Northeastern, have I mentioned lately on any social media forum how much of my soul I’d be willing to sell to move to Boston?— and why January 2012 was the program’s losingest month since January 1995, even if the Dutchmen have outscored by a mere 62 points since New Year’s Day.

Of course, you’d have to pay particularly close attention in watching the DVD, because the difference between victory and defeat for the Dutchmen this season is as fine as the blink of an eye.

“This is a tough league,” Mo Cassara said. “When you’re not playing well, and your margin for error is very small, one turnover for us almost seems like it’s four or five right now. We’re trying to create some easy baskets and we just haven’t been able to do that. We haven’t been able to string enough winning plays together to win.”

While the Dutchmen were once again frigid offensively—they endured eight scoreless stretches of at least two minutes and shot just 30 percent from the field in scoring 51 or fewer points for the third straight game—and had just 15 defensive rebounds to 11 offensive boards for Northeastern, they seemingly concocted a good recipe for winning by forcing six more turnovers than they committed (16-10) and by scoring more points than the Huskies off turnovers (18-11), second chance baskets (15-12), the fast break (10-7) and from the bench (12-2).

Yet the Dutchmen were done in by missed opportunities in every single one of those categories. The Dutchmen had the ball down one in the waning seconds of the first half, but at the end of an otherwise sharp possession, Matt Grogan’s pass down low was stolen by Jonathan Lee, who converted it into a layup that gave the Huskies a 30-27 halftime lead.

Three times in the second half, the Dutchmen forced a turnover and created a fast break but threw or kicked away a chance to close within six points. A David Imes pass eluded Nathaniel Lester just before the under-16 timeout while Mike Moore and Lester accidentally booted the ball off steals by Imes and Moore, respectively, in the final five minutes.

These games don’t exist in a vacuum, of course, but who knows how the tempo and tone would have been changed if the Dutchmen converted all three of those turnovers into fast break points?

Imes’ steal and turnover happened at the beginning of a two-minute stretch in which neither team scored but the Dutchmen missed four shots—two 3-pointers by Moore and two layups by Imes. Moore (17 points, steals) and Imes (10 points and eight rebounds) were the most impressive players on the court for the Dutchmen, but they needed 28 shots for those 27 points.

“Mike Moore had 17 points, but he’s 1-for-9 from 3,” Cassara said. “If he’s 4-for-9, it’s probably a one-possession game. We just need that extra shot to go in. We stole the ball a couple times going down the court to cut it to six and we didn’t even get a shot.”

As for Northeastern, it managed to get the extra shot to go in when it mattered most. The Huskies had eight third-chance points, including a 3-pointer by Lee to start the second half and spark a 10-2 run that basically buried the Dutchmen. Northeastern’s first 3-pointer of the game, by Quincy Ford, was also off a pair of offensive rebounds. And later in the first half, Ford drained a jumper after he rebounded the second of a pair of missed free throws by Kauri Black.

“I told our team I thought we had probably about 10 points in defensive breakdowns where we were late guarding or we weren’t in position,” Cassara said.

There’s no statistical measure for when a team is worn out by losing, the bad breaks it has absorbed and the bad breaks it can’t seem to help but create for itself. The Dutchmen seemed to reach that point Saturday for the first time this month—a month in which they were the only CAA team not to play consecutive home games as well as one of two teams with two two-game road trips (Towson). They were also one of just three teams (along with Old Dominion and Towson) to have two stretches in which they played three of four games away from home.

For the first time since the six-point loss to UNC Wilmington three weeks earlier, the Dutchmen never seriously threatened in the second half. They got within six points once in the final 16:54, on a meaningless 3-pointer by Shemiye McLendon with 42 seconds left.

Cassara did some mixing and matching in hopes of generating something—both Dwan McMillan and Stevie Mejia were on the bench for most of the final eight minutes—but the 10 points the Dutchmen got from their reserves came on a 3-of-13 shooting performance. Northeastern’s two bench points, meanwhile, came on a 1-of-3 effort.

The Dutchmen finally get a homestand this week—it’s Alanis-level ironic that the Dutchmen are playing a school-record 17 home games this season yet spent all of January living out of a suitcase—when Towson and Georgia State visit and Cassara hopes his squad can embark on a February that will at least leave everyone feeling a little better about this season while providing the returnees something to build on for next year.

“We’ve got a week at home, no travel, back to school, hopefully get a little bit of rhythm and get some confidence back and we get a couple shots to fall at home,” Cassara said.

Cassara and the Dutchmen could find reason for optimism Saturday on the other end of the court. Northeastern lost its first eight CAA games last year by a total of 86 points, a margin inflated by a 28-point loss to George Mason. But the Huskies won four in a row immediately after that, finished 6-12 in CAA play—by far the best record of any team to ever open 0-8—and are entrenched in fifth place this season at 7-4.

“We were in that situation last year, where we played good basketball but just not winning basketball,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. “I think you learn more from losing than you do winning.”

For the Dutchmen’s sake let’s hope the learning stops now that school has started.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Northeastern, 1/28)

3: David Imes

2: Mike Moore

1: Stevie Mejia

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 48

Nathaniel Lester 32

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

Stevie Mejia 6

Moussa Kone 2

Bryant Crowder 2

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

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.