CAA Tournament Q&A: Tom Pecora

He'll be smiling Monday night, I am sure of it!

You are probably sick of reading my rambling words, so no intro here, just some good stuff from Tom Pecora during our pre-CAA Tournament chat Wednesday afternoon. Enjoy!

What is this week like, preparation-wise?

No different. We’ve prepared for all of our games the same way. The good thing is it’s the third time we’re playing most of the teams, second maybe for some down the road if that’s actually the case. It wouldn’t be that way until the finale, everyone we played we played twice. So you want to keep fresh legs. You keep in mind the fact that you’re going to have to play four games in four days, so I’m not beating them up. We’re going intense, but we’re going for about an hour 15 minutes a day. And you’re putting in things subtly that they’re going to have to face Friday, Saturday, Sunday throughout the tournament without them realizing it in the course of drills.

We don’t kill them in February, I’m pretty good at backing off them a little bit in February and letting them keep their legs but at the same time running enough to keep their wind up. I think that what you really need to happen is in one of those games, you need to be a game where you don’t have to play guys crazy, crazy minutes. Doesn’t have to be a blowout, but if it’s a game where you can get Charles 30 minutes. Because Monday, you’re going to play on adrenaline, but it’d be nice to not have to have Charles playing 35 minutes every game.

Georgia State has never been seeded higher than eighth, but the Panthers are 3-1 in Friday games and should have beaten William & Mary as the 12 seed two years ago, What makes them so tough?

I think they’re very talented. They always play and they come and play with house money. Rod Barnes, the guy was the national coach of the year. So he knows how to prepare a team. They’re a good basketball team and they’re very talented.

This is actually your third team to finish 9-1 in its last 10 games…

I didn’t know that. The thing is maybe because of what we came off prior to it, it made it that much special.

I know it’s different eras and different players, but are there any similarities between this team and the ones in 2005 and 2006 that went 9-1 down the stretch?

We were favored to win the league, I think, in ’06. We were much more experienced, we had three seniors and two juniors, I think, on those teams. So it was different in that sense. Here, the two freshmen are logging so many minutes.

When it comes to Chaz and Halil, do you think ignorance can be bliss, that they’re too young to know how tough it’s supposed to be to win in Richmond?

You hope so. But at the same time, you hope they don’t get in that venue and have trouble with the environment because of the intensity of it and the surroundings and all those type of things. But that’s one of the reasons why we recruit programs as much as players. They’re at big-time programs that have played in big venues in high school and have been exposed to this stuff.

Why does the Richmond Coliseum have a reputation as a tough place to shoot?

I don’t know if it’s the arena. I don’t buy into that stuff. I think that the intensity level is higher. It’s more physical, so in turn offense suffers a little bit.

What about this run you’re on makes it sustainable?

I think the way we’ve done it. There haven’t been a lot of fluke wins in there. We didn’t win games at the buzzer, we didn’t win a lot of games coming from behind, making crazy shots They’ve been pretty substantial wins—hard-fought wins. There’s been some close games, but we’ve been pretty solid over the last 10 games.

Are the lopsided wins a sign of maturity? In December and January, this team had a tough time extending leads.

You hope so. You hope that’s the case. And I think a lot has to do with Chaz. What I’ve talked to him about all year is no empty trips. And for a freshman point guard, it’s hard to grasp the concept. In high school, it seems like there’s an endless number of trips down the floor and that’s not the way [it is in college]. Every trip is so important. We’ve got to get something out of it and we’ve got to be productive every time we come down the floor.

You talked about the freshmen hitting “the wall” on Saturday. Do you think it’s accurate to say Halil has moved past it while Chaz is still struggling through it?

I think the numbers don’t lie, to a certain degree, with that. But I think Chaz, when he has a bad shooting day—we show him tape of every attempt—it’s generally driven by poor decisions on what a good shot is, shot selection. When he takes good shots, he makes them. He shot 50 percent from three in conference play. He’s got a better chance of making a three than he does making a layup, very often, in traffic. And that’s what he’s got to understand and be disciplined enough to do.

When you made the run to the title game in 2006, Carlos Rivera played 120 minutes of turnover-free ball. It’s impossible to expect that from Chaz, but how pivotal is it that he produces something close to that?

Well, he’s going to need to. He’s not going to be as good as Carlos, Carlos is the best we ever had when it came to that, he and Speedy. But that’s very, very important. From your mouth to God’s ears.

Do you think this team is better-positioned for a run than it was last year, even though you had a higher seed and a better record last year?

Who knows? Apples and oranges, I think. Last year, we were a mature group. This year, we’re still a young group in a lot of ways, But once again, were on this roll and it’ll be interesting to see. We’re going to play an experienced team on Friday night and if we play like an immature group they’ll beat us.

What is the key to the weekend?

Well, I think it’s always the same with us. It’s our ability to defend and rebound the ball. If we defend and rebound, we can get out and get some easy baskets. Half court scores are tough to come by this time of the year, so you really want to get out and get yourself opportunities to score on the break. And then half court—if half of your offensive possessions, you go to the foul line in half court, you’re doing a great job this time of year.

Lastly, even though you’re in one game at a time mode, do you ever let yourself think about what it’d be like to reach Monday night again and to be on the sidelines with the championship at stake?

I just worry about Friday night, man. I just think about Friday night. I’ve been doing it long enough not to worry about that stuff. You can’t get ahead of yourself. And that’s the message you’ve got to send to your kids, too.

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

Hofstra 73, Northeastern 62 (Or: In which for the first time ever a Tom Pecora Q&A serves as a game recap)

And I had a whole riff based on More Than A Feeling ready to go and everything. Damn you paying work!

No wordy intro from me today, just an apology that this took so long to post. Thanks to Tom for taking the time to chat Thursday afternoon. More coming later tonight!

After coming so close to knocking off an upper-tier team this season, what does it mean to finally close out a big win on the road over a top team like this?

A few years ago, I probably would have been riding Charles for turning the ball over all the time. I just let him play through it and he had the confidence and he was able to make the plays at the end of the game to help us win. The way we won recently on the road—at Delaware, at Madison, at Towson early in the year—we won by double figures on the road and we found a way to go win another road game by double digits. We were able to build off those past experiences.

Is this the biggest regular season win for the program since the days of Loren Stokes, Carlos Rivera and Antoine Agudio?

I’m so bad with that stuff. [SID] Jeremy [Kniffin] would be a better answer. But yeah, the one that sticks in my mind is going to Old Dominion and they had a long winning streak when we had Stokes, Rivera and Agudio and we won at ODU. That was a great one. This was an important one for us because we wanted to have an opportunity to have a winning record in conference and this gives us that, if we win Saturday. And also, if we win Saturday, it probably makes us the hottest team going into the tournament.

The term we used before the game was ’40 minutes,  our will to win.’ We can’t play 20 minutes against them. At our place we didn’t play the second half the way we’re capable of playing. Everybody stayed on task [Tuesday] and especially [with] the defensive effort in the second half. And [as for Jenkins] hey, look, that’s what the great ones do, take over a game when we need them to win.

The win might not have been possible without Halil Kanacevic’s performance, particularly in the first half. How impressed were you with him playing so well in such a big road game as a freshman?

We kid around: How scary is he going to be when he’s a senior if he can do that kind of stuff as a front court player as a freshman? I think him and Chaz might negate [each other] for Rookie of the Year and [Drexel’s Chris] Fouch might win it. I couldn’t only put one of them on the ballot. I’d rather have both of them be all-rookie team than have one of them win it and the other not be on the rookie team. He’s just—they’ve both been great.

How pleased were you with Cornelius Vines on defense and what in particular did the team do so well overall on defense in the second half?

I was very pleased with [Vines] defending Janning and doing a great job. Janning shot 3-of-13. And [Vines is] a different player and we’re a different team when he’s making shots early in the game because it creates such space offensively when they have to worry about him well beyond the arc. And that really gave an opportunity to Chaz to get into the lane and wreck havoc.

We really took it to another level defensively [in the second half]. We stayed disciplined, we didn’t bail them out of any possessions with silly fouls or jump shot fouls late in the clock. We made them beat us over the top and we really kept the ball in front of us.

Did you sense the momentum change when Chaisson Allen missed that free throw that would have given them a 62-61 lead?

I really thought when Charles missed the two [technical free throws] on the other end—I was like oh man, instead of us going up [six], we’re only going to be up [four]. But the worm turned after that.

Your goals are obviously not all met yet, but how proud are you of the team and your coaching staff in terms of how everyone has been able to turn this season around?

I’m very, very proud of them. The thing I said to them—and this goes from Van [Macon] to our GAs [graduate assistants] every time in staff meetings was ‘Guys, we’ve just got to grind it out. They can’t see that we’re rattled. We’re just going to grind it out and push them and good things will happen.’ And I truly believe that. Sometimes, as a coach, you kind of convince yourself of it. But I think this is as good a job as my staff has ever done. They’ve really done a wonderful job to get us where we’re at now. And hopefully that can continue.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Northeastern, 2/23)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Halil Kanacevic

1: Cornelius Vines

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 60

Chaz Williams 27

Halil Kanacevic 22

Miklos Szabo 21

Nathaniel Lester 19

Cornelius Vines 15

Greg Washington 15

Yves Jules 1

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

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Tom Pecora

The Flying Dutchmen are in the midst of their longest losing streak in seven seasons and their worst conference start ever under Tom Pecora, but a casual “how are you?” directed at the coach yields an upbeat and positive answer.

Pecora said Tuesday the Dutchmen are still hopefully they’ll get the services of junior guard Brad Kelleher, who remains held hostage by the NCAA, and that the rest of the roster—particularly freshmen Chaz Williams and David Imes, who have been battling high ankle sprains—is getting healthier. He’s also pleased with the general effort and confident displayed by the Dutchmen and confident the second half of the conference season will be far better than the first.

“All you’ve got to do is find one win and then the whole world changes,” Pecora said. “It’s time for us to get on a little bit of a run here. Ten games left, six of the 10 at home. With the exception of Northeastern, we’re playing teams that we can move against, they’re all in our area [of the standings], so to speak. And I think those top schools are going to start beating each other up a little bit. And one or two of them will come down and meet the pack as the year goes on. So that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Here’s the rest of our Q&A in which Pecora discusses the Dutchmen’s slump and the issues facing the squad. Thanks as always to Pecora for his time and accessibility.

You sound optimistic.

Nobody died, you know? [laughs] Last year, some guys didn’t have good first halves and they had great second halves and that’s why we played well late going into the tournament, because Nathaniel Lester and Washington started playing well. They do that again—[and] Corny Vines has been playing better—we start getting some quality games out of those three guys, I think we’re going to be fine. And the expression ‘You’re never as bad as you think you are”—we’re really four wins away from being right where we thought we were. If we’re 13-8, we’d probably be saying ‘Hey, we’re right where we thought we’d be with this group and now it’s time to make our move.’ We’d be saying the same thing. We obviously had a plan and we had to change the plan with the issue with Brad and with a couple of the injuries and things like that. So we shall survive.

Do you think this has been an imperfect storm of sorts, between the Kelleher issue and the injuries and the schedule that had you alternating home and away games for the first nine games of this month?

Welcome to the CAA. To be quite honest, if Kelleher plays from the ninth game on, I don’t think a lot of this is the issue, because you’ve got a guy who’s going to play 30 minutes for you in the backcourt. You’ve got a veteran with the basketball late in games. But once again, it is what it is. You can only play the hand that’s dealt you.

Do you think those of us on the outside underestimated the value of last year’s senior class because it didn’t have overwhelming statistics?

Oh, very much so. I think it was leadership and toughness. I think it was Mike Davis Sabb’s locker room, which was a good thing. And I think that him and ‘Pittsy’ [Arminas Urbutis] and Dane [Johnson]—there were days they would just foul each other for two hours straight in practice. But you know what? That’s a good thing. It lends to that no lay up rule. It lends to that toughness. And I think we kind of hoped that that had translated to Mikey [Szabo] and to Greg Washington and to Nat. But we’re still working on it. I think Dave Imes is cut out of that cloth, and not having him on the court has hurt us because he’s probably our physically toughest baseline guy.

I met with all the veterans yesterday, I talked to them and said ‘It’s time for you guys to take ownership of this.’ As a coach, I can only get you so far. And I’ve said that in our best years. When we won 26 games, that locker room was owned by Carlos Rivera and Loren Stokes and that’s what got you over the top. And we missed them greatly the following year, not only the basketball ability but their leadership. And then last year it was Mike Davis Sabb and Darren Townes. They played really hard, those guys, and Pittsy and Dane, and it was their locker room and they led it. So I talk to the seniors all the time about your legacy is what your senior year is.

Do you think one win at some point these last few weeks would have changed everything?

Yeah, no doubt. I think the two losses that probably took their confidence—especially the young guys—was St. John’s, because it was a game we were winning and then at the end we gave it away, and then William & Mary the same thing. They had grown very accustomed to winning close games around here—we all have—and that was because of our great backcourt play and because of our toughness. We were just out-toughing people down the stretch.

Do you look to previous seasons in which you struggled as you try to come up with answers this year?

Well, sometimes. But I think the dynamics of teams are different. As coaches you always look within yourself first. Am I practicing them too hard? Are they tired? Are they prepared? They’re not making shots, let me chart every shot that’s taken. We do all of that. We’ve been getting some pretty good shots—I think we’re probably averaging four or five missed layups a game. So let’s make that one missed layup a game and then our record is drastically different, you know what I mean? So we look at all of those things, I think, but different teams have different chemistry and they have to be treated differently.

I think that’s one of the fun things and the challenge about coaching. It’s not fun when you’re going through a stretch like this, but the point is it makes you a better coach, and when adversity strikes, the true man comes out. So you get to see what people are made of. And they’re still sticking together, they’re still practicing hard, they’re still looking out for each other. So that means good things can still happen. If you’re in a situation like this and guys are finger pointing and making excuses and the team is breaking into factions, then you realize that you’ve got major problems. We’re not at that point, by a long stretch.

I was going to ask you how much self-examination a coach and his staff goes through at a time like this.

With tweezers. With a fine-tooth comb. I look at everything that we’re doing. I talk to our guys about our recruiting. I talk to them about the players we brought in. I talked to them about the players we’re looking to bring in. Are they going to solve the problem here and strengthen our weaknesses? So no one has gotten less sleep than me. Trust me on that one. And then probably second to me is my staff.

How much do you think the routine of getting back to school helps you guys do so well in February?

I think a lot has to do with getting students here [for] our home games. We get much more of a home court advantage when we’re in February. Generally, we’ve always drawn better in February with the students and people—football’s over, all that kind of stuff. Jets season is over. And then I kid around and say it’s probably because by February they’ve stopped listening to me.

How disappointing has this season been to you? I can’t imagine anyone expected to be 2-7 at this point.

Without a doubt, it’s disappointing. But [shoot], that’s life, man, Life’s not fair. So you just grind it out and you hope that good things happen. You keep working hard. We had different plans, you know? Guys were forced to play a ton of minutes that I really thought weren’t going to have to play many at all. I really thought that Chaz and Halil would be 20 minutes a game guys, 15 minutes a game guys, because Kelleher would take so many minutes in the backcourt and I thought it was going to be hard to take Washington and Lester off the court. And it’s been easy.

Do you envision playing the freshmen more down the stretch?

No, I want these guys to develop and I want—I expect—Vines and Washington and Lester to have big second halves now, finish strong the last 10 games of the year. And if they do that, we’ll be a different team. I haven’t thrown in the towel, not at all. That’s kind of what it would be, if you gave up on your veterans like that, you know what I mean? The veterans haven’t given up on us so I’m not going to give up on them.

Lastly, teams that start 2-7 or worse in conference play generally don’t fare much better in the second half. How do you keep from getting bogged down by the task ahead of you?

So we’ve got a chance to make history. I don’t think [those other teams had] our circumstances. They didn’t have Charles Jenkins and they didn’t lose—maybe they did lose their starting point guard, I don’t know the history of it. But I still think that there’s a lot of basketball left and we can still have an opportunity to make history and end up with a good record. I don’t know if we’ll end up with a winning record in the league—we have to, what, lose one game the rest of the way? But that doesn’t mean that we can’t go into the tournament [on a high note]. I think it’s going to be a mish-mosh, I still think we can end up [seeded] five, six, seven in the tournament and make a run at this thing if we’re healthy and we have people back.

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

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Tom Pecora

It’s official: I’ve now pestered Tom Pecora in three different decades! In what now qualifies as an annual event—albeit one that takes place a few days earlier than it did last year—Pecora was kind enough to sit down for a few minutes after practice yesterday to discuss the Dutchmen as they prepare for the reboot of CAA play. Hope you enjoy the interview, and as always, thanks to Tom for his time.

What was the most encouraging thing to take place during the non-conference schedule? And the most disappointing thing?

I think the most encouraging thing as of late was our game down in Florida Atlantic. I think we showed some toughness and gumption to win that game. We’re still not shooting the ball well. The most disappointing thing, to this point, is I think the play of our seniors. It’s been inconsistent. We need them to step up and become more consistent. Corny Vines just had a great practice and we’re a different team when he makes shots and makes plays. We’re a whole different team.

Charles Jenkins is someone who tries to do everything when the team is struggling. Was it as good for him as for the rest of the roster to see you guys win with him on the bench for most of the second half Tuesday night?

Yeah. And I think Nat Lester really stepped up. I think it was frustrating for [Jenkins]. He was getting annoyed—anytime he got some momentum going, a whistle was blown and that was frustrating. But I think we showed great composure on the road and that’s important.

Lester has consistently played well in the second half for you, but he’s often been quiet in the first half. What can you do to get him to play a complete game?

You can run some cuts to get him involved a little bit earlier. Obviously, we talked to him about the importance of playing a full 40 minutes and what we need him to do.

Your freshman class has certainly proved it is not lacking for toughness. Is that something you knew coming in, or did you have to see it manifest itself on the court?

You have to see it. And I think one of the reasons for that is they’ve gotten a lot of minutes. So by them getting a lot of minutes, it’s sped up their learning curve, so to speak But they’re generally tough kids. But, once again, if you’re depending on freshmen to win you basketball games at this level, you’re not going to win a lot of games [laughs]. So they’ve got to mature quickly, and then our veterans have got to play better and get better in crunch time. That’s what we need to depend on.

Is the mini-slump this team had right around Christmas similar at all to last year’s?

I think so much with that is the way your schedule is set up. Last year we played a UMass team that had just beaten Kansas, so they were feeling incredibly [confident]. That was the high point of their season. They had two outstanding games in a row and then, after that, I think they struggled and won 12 games. The Iona game was a disheartening loss because we had the game won and we didn’t switch a screen at the end and a 7-footer made the 3-pointer.

But with that said, I don’t think there are any similarities. This year is probably the most difficult conference schedule we’ve played. We’re playing five games in 10 days and we’re playing the teams that are at the top of the conference. So it’s going to be a great challenge for us, and the first 10 days of true conference play could really define our season.

What are your thoughts on the CAA after the non-conference schedule?

I think it’s been great. I don’t remember a team having RPIs as high as William & Mary and VCU have right now, and Old Dominion. So we’ll see. The good thing about that is you get an opportunity in conference to help position yourself for an at-large bid. So if we can beat William & Mary [today], it’s a great opportunity for us.

How about your big men, Greg Washington and Miklos Szabo, so far?

I feel pretty good about what Washington gives us. He’s a constant, I think. He’s a little inconsistent at times, but Mikey’s been incredibly inconsistent. And what’s eventually going to happen is we’re going to have to depend on Halil and Dave Imes to play more at that position. I’m trying to give these seniors as much rope as I can. And hopefully I’m not giving them enough to hang themselves.

This team has responded well whenever you’ve been unhappy with it—after the Charlotte game, after the Manhattan game. Why do you think it’s so difficult to get teams to continue to build on positive games, such as the Towson win?

That’s immaturity I think what happens is we don’t have great leadership from our veterans, and in turn we take on the personality of an immature team. So with that aid, we’ve got to find a way to get them to stay consistent, stay mature and do what they need to do.

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

Quotebook: Tom Pecora

We caught up with Tom Pecora last night after the Flying Dutchmen fell to UConn, 76-67, in the second round of the Preseason NIT in Storrs. Thanks as always to Pecora for taking the time to chat as well as to Jeremy Kniffin for setting up the interview.

On what it was like to coach in such a game:

Yeah, it was wonderful, except for the outcome. I think we lost our way a little bit. Got up nine and [Stanley] Robinson made a three and then we had a couple of empty trips offensively. They picked up their intensity a little bit defensively. That’s where we could have really extended our lead. We weren’t able to do that. We battled ‘til the end, obviously, it was a one-point game with 1:20 to go. But no one’s going to give you those types of wins. We had an opportunity [to win] and we didn’t.

On his thoughts when the Dutchmen took a 54-45 lead more than halfway through the second half:

I knew there was a ton of time. You really want to extend the game and extend your lead [and] get yourself to a point where maybe you can start burning a little bit of clock. We were still a long way off from doing that.

On the Dutchmen driving the lane regularly against the bigger Huskies:

I thought it was great. Early on, I think the first few possessions, we got offensive rebounds on our first three possessions and that set the tone for the night. In the first half we shot the ball so poorly—we shot 22 percent—that there were a lot of offensive rebounds to go around. We had 11 at the half. We outrebounded UConn, we only had 12 turnovers. That was the key for us. We said if they don’t beat us up on the [boards] and we don’t turn the ball over, we’ve got a chance to win. Watching tape, we probably missed six or eight layups, stick back plays. Those were the ones that break your back.

If we shoot the ball as well as we usually do and we rebound and then don’t turn it over like we did tonight, we win the game. We weren’t able to win.

On the environment in Storrs:

For our first three games, we played no. 1 and no. 13. I think the experience at Kansas really prepared us for tonight and allowed us to take care of it.

On Charles Jenkins’ performance (25 points, including 21 in the second half:

Once again, every time we play games like this, it’s a marquee game for the program—but also our chance to show Charles his wares.

On what he takes from the near-upset:

This program is beyond moral victories. I wanted to go play in the Garden next week. And I think we better learn from our mistakes here, because it’ll cost us a game later this year. We’ve got a lot to do and we didn’t finish it.

On the early-season scheduling and how it raises the Dutchmen’s profile:

I think there’s a method to our madness in scheduling these games. I think it’s going to help our RPI tremendously. We have wins over teams that are perennial below 200 teams, our RPI is 100 points lower than it will be Monday with one win and two losses. That could help us during the [season], make us a better team and prepare us.

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

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Tom Pecora

If you’re among the handful of Loyal Readers at Defiantly Dutch (the check is in the mail!), you know by now that Tom Pecora is in a class by himself when it comes to filling up a notebook and a digital recorder—even on nights like Tuesday, when he was the headline attraction at a Hofstra basketball meet-and-greet at a Westbury steakhouse.

Pecora, as always, was kind enough to break away from the crowd for a few minutes and discuss the upcoming season, which, as you may have heard by now, begins tomorrow night when the Flying Dutchmen visit some Podunk school in Kansas. Hope you enjoy the Q&A and thanks as always to Pecora for his time. And make sure to stop back tomorrow for more stories previewing the upset victory over Kansas as well as the 2009-10 campaign.

What are your thoughts on the team after almost a month of practice?

I think with the new guys, they’re really working hard, which I’m impressed with. They’re still making mistakes, because they’re freshmen, but they’re not making the same mistakes over and over again. And that’s important to me. The other thing I’ve been impressed with is their ability to make a mistake and just shake it off and keep playing. I think a couple of them have no idea how good they can really be, and that’s typical of young players. Their talent level is very high, and each day in practice, different ones have really been able to step up. So I’m encouraged by that. Our veterans have been great. They’ve been great leaders. We basically have them mentoring the younger guys.

But we have to have the personality of our veterans, not of our young guys, every game. Because if we have that personality of the young kids, it’s going to get us in trouble.

Having a core of three underclassmen is obviously reminiscent of the Loren Stokes-Carlos Rivera-Antoine Agudio days, but Nathaniel Lester and Greg Washington are a lot less experienced at this point than Rivera and Agudio were. Do you think it’s advantageous that they were able to serve an apprenticeship of sorts the last two years?

I think that’s a question you can’t answer until the season is over and you see what kind of year they have. The pressure is on them to step up. And that’s the same with our seniors. I say you can only be as good as your seniors, and it’s been nice, the last few practices—Mikey Szabo and Corny Vines have been really good. And when they play at a high level, we’re a really good basketball team. So I don’t want them to be saying ‘Oh, don’t worry, the juniors are going to handle it.’ They’re seniors. It’s their team. We need them to do what they do best and play within themselves and make us a good team.

Adrian Uter had a pretty quiet season as a junior transfer before emerging as a star in the front court his senior year. Do you think Miklos Szabo can experience a similar transformation?

He’s been great and was very good in a scrimmage versus Columbia. We did a rebounding drill the other day and he got 15 of 45 rebounds [in] a 10-minute drill. And that’s what we need him to do. If he can rebound the  ball like that, he’ll be a double-double guy because his ability to score on offensive rebounds and score in transition—and all the other things—will play off of him rebounding the ball.

How deep a rotation do you think you’ll have this year?

I think we’re probably going to be deeper. I think last year, we were more experienced. This year, we’re more skilled, but we’re younger. We have very skilled freshmen. In the past, we had solid veterans who were limited but they knew what they could do and couldn’t do, which was good coming off the bench. You look at the five veterans and then eventually Brad Kelleher—he might get hacked with a couple games—but once we get him back and then you look at our freshman class: Chaz Williams, Halil Kanacevic. Yves Jules was great in practice last week and the scrimmages. And David Imes played very well Saturday. I’m going to expect those guys to step up some. That will give us a solid 10 and you just never know when people are going to go down. God forbid one—even worse, God forbid, you get two down.

You guys had a pretty up and down season last year. With such a young team, do you think you’ll be prone to such peaks and valleys again?

Generally, with young guys, when that happens, it’s late because they hit the wall. I think last year it was directly correlated to Charles. When Charles was struggling to score the ball, we struggled as a team. But he was able to right himself and get back and still have a great year. Hopefully, as a junior, he’s not as inconsistent. And by him being more consistent, I think everyone else will follow suit.

What do you think Charles learned from struggling last year?

He was working too hard. At night, he was coming in shooting. I want them to come in at night and shoot free throws. He’s coming in at night and shooting two, three hundred jumpers. So he was just exhausting himself. I actually had to kind of throw him out of the gym for a while and say ‘You’re not allowed in here at night, rest your body.’ He’s just so big and strong, you don’t think a body like that needs it, but it does. We all do.

Would you like to have him play the point less often than he did last year?

The way we play, once we’re into the offense, everyone’s a point, because everyone comes off ball screens. But there’s times he’ll be bringing the ball up the court. There’s times Chaz and Brad [wlll]. There will be times Corn [does]. A lot of that will be dictated by the matchups of our opponent and who we think has the best matchup that’s going to allow them to get the ball up the floor and get us into offense.

I think getting [Jenkins] off the ball a little bit freed him up more to score late in the year, when we played Greg Johnson more at the point. And that was a good thing for Charles. But what makes him a great player is he can score with the ball and he can score without the ball. He can hurt you on the glass. He does what the great ones do—he throws up a box score.

Charles has more starts (61) than the rest of your roster combined (58), yet almost all the preseason projections have you finishing in the top half of the league. What does that say for the program?

I think our program is respected within the league, and that’s nice. I think that when you have a player of Charles’ caliber, people are aware that he can one-handedly win some games for you, too. And I think, like myself, there’s a lot of people who believes that it’s time for Szabo and Vines, coming from junior college to have that year, that big senior year after a transition year. And also for Washington and Lester—they’re big boys now. They’re juniors. It’s time to step up and take care of business.

Going back to the influx of newcomers: Most of your teams peak in February and March. With such an inexperienced team, do you expect to be better after the New Year than before it?

Well, I hope so. The problem is you’ve got to have a good non-conference record if you have any chance of getting an [at-large] bid. So we’ve got to get them old quick. We’ve got to find ways to eke some games out. But I always say we play well in February and March because by then they don’t have to listen to me anymore. They’re tired of hearing my voice and they just nod their head ‘yeah’ and do what they have to do to win games.

Outside of Charles, who is the most pivotal returnee? And who is the most pivotal newcomer?

I think Mike Szabo is probably the most pivotal. If we can get Mikey to play at the level I think he’s capable of and you have him on the inside and Charles on the outside, everything else will fall into place. And of the newcomers, it’s going to be interesting. A lot of people would say Chaz Williams, but I think Halil Kanacevic could be it, because we need that baseline support. When we go to the bench on the baseline, I think he’s going to be a big factor for us.

Last year marked the second straight season Hofstra averaged less than 70 points a game. Is it fair to say this team has more firepower than the last couple squads?

The problem is we turned the ball over last year 15 times a game and our goal is 12 times a game. So that’s one of the issues. The other thing is we shot the ball poorly. You look at our field goal shooting percentage (39.4 percent, ahead of only Drexel in the CAA), we weren’t a great shooting team. But I think that our goal is to push the ball a little bit more. I think style of play could dictate how many points you [score]. Again, [what] you really look at is what your field goal percentage is and how many turnovers you have. But our goal is to get back into the high 70s.

Lastly, what are your thoughts on the CAA and your expectations for the season?

I think it’s so hard to predict in any good conference, because there are so many things that could happen between now and then. I think late in the year, as it’s always been, it’s very difficult to knock off those southern teams out of their tournament in Richmond. And eventually, it’s going to happen, and this year, I want it to be Hofstra that does it. But we need to go down and play our best basketball late in the year in Richmond.

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

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Tom Pecora

We caught up last Monday with Tom Pecora, who gamely served as the chairman for the Coaches vs. Cancer Golf Tournament in Garden City despite walking around on crutches due to recent surgery on his left hip. We asked Pecora about the surgery as well as a handful of men’s basketball topics, including the vaunted non-conference schedule, the incoming recruiting class, the new core of Charles Jenkins, Nathaniel Lester and Greg Washington and how last year’s near-miss against Old Dominion in the CAA quarterfinals can motivate them. Hope you enjoy.

Can you tell us what happened with your hip surgery?

Thought I tore my groin. Found out it was more [a matter] of no cartilage in my left hip. So I had a hip resurfacing, a procedure they’ve been doing for like seven years. I had it done at [The Hospital For] Special Surgery on Tuesday and I’m up and moving the next day on crutches. Modern medicine. So I’m going to be the bionic coach this fall. Couple weeks on crutches, a week with a cane. It was a good time to get it done.

This is the only thing that really got in the way.  The good—even great—thing is all the honorees keep coming back. So you get Lou Carnesecca and Bill Raftery and Rollie Massimino and Jack Curran and Ray Nash and Nick Macarchuk. We had Bobby Cremins [this year]. So it’s a great turnout. A lot of the local coaches will be here, so it’s a really nice event.

What are your thoughts on what looks to be a pretty impressive non-conference schedule?

Good schedule. Challenging. We’re starting, we’re opening up at the number one team in the country, Kansas, and then were in the preseason NIT in a pod with UConn, so that could be interesting. We think we’re going to be pretty good and we want to challenge ourselves.

What’s it say for the university that you’re able to play in an exclusive event like the preseason NIT?

We’ve had a good history with the NIT. We went to the quarterfinals a few years ago and did well in the preseason NIT in the past [in 2003]. We’ve got a good relationship with Jack Powers and all the people there. It’s relationships, you know? And Hofstra has become a player because of the commitment from the top on down at the university.

Is it easier to put together a schedule like this when you’ve got a team like the one you have coming back, as opposed to last year, when you had just lost Antoine Agudio and were fairly uncertain what kind of squad you’d have?

I think it’s something we want to try to do every year. If we can continue to grow as a program, this is the type of schedule we should try to shoot for every year. Fill out the rest of the [schedules] with our locals. It’s important to have local rivalries, but [also to] go out and play some of these marquee names nationally and get our names out there.

I think our three best players last year were sophomores. They’re the core of the program with Jenkins, Lester and Washington. I think our recruiting class is a good one [and] we’ve got some experience back. So I think we are at a point where we were ready to take this kind of jump.

What kind of feedback have you gotten on the guys this summer?

They’re in summer school, they have open gym and that’s all we can do. In September we’ll get back to doing some workouts with them. It’s important for them to get some time away from us, too, you know?

What impresses you most about your recruiting class?

I think it’s great because it’s very diverse. We covered every aspect of recruiting. We have a JUCO transfer. We have an international student. We have two prep school students and three high school students and one of them is going to redshirt. So we really covered every level of recruiting with that recruiting class, so I’m happy about that.

Are you in communication with your three juniors? And when in particular did you think Greg Washington and Nathaniel Lester began to emerge last year?

Talk to them all the time, about the responsibility that comes with being a leader. We talk about leadership qualities all the time. I thought mid-January, they really started to show the initiative to really make plays late in the game and feel comfortable being leaders. And that was important for us. We had six seniors last year, but they were really six role players. So it was important for them to step up.

Last year was an interesting year for you guys. You outscored the opposition by two points, but won 21 games, and had some really tough stretches yet ended the season with a real feeling of “what if” after the one-point loss to Old Dominion in the quarters. What do you take from the season?

I think we had better balance. We had much better balance—less predictable—and that went a long way for us.

It was a tough game [against ODU]. The thing is, when you get to that point in the season, it’s one possession. You’ve got to play every possession like it’s a championship possession. Because we get an offensive rebound, we win that game. And we didn’t and we went home and they didn’t.

Do you think that loss drives the returnees?

If it doesn’t drive them, shame on them. That should be something that sticks in their craw and gets them pissed.

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