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.

Not only are we going to Kansas, we’re going to Connecticut and Virginia and then we’re going to Indianapolis to win the national championship! Yeah!!

Another reason to be giddy with anticipation over this season: No bandwagon-derailing trips to Iowa!

As I noted in late June, when the OOC was released, it’s funny how quick Hofstra is to unveil the men’s basketball schedule when it’s one deserving of accolades. Last year’s schedule was released in blink-and-you-miss-it fashion in mid-September. But this year's schedule was released yesterday, which means students will know the dates of the games they won’t attend before they even arrive on campus!

Anyone who is not excited about this year’s schedule isn’t reading this, so I can safely call those folks booger-headed drones. Playing Kansas and UConn in the season’s first four days marks the greatest opening 1-2 punch since “Go” and “Animal” led off Pearl Jam’s Vs.

(Yes I know Hofstra plays Colgate in the first round of the Preseason NIT, which I guess means UConn is technically “Dissident” in this analogy, but it’s my blog and my bias so I’m going with “Go” and “Animal” and assuming Hofstra and UConn win their first-round games to set up My Worlds Colliding Moment. Boy, that second-round game is going to be the mother of all letdowns if Colgate plays UConn or Hofstra plays Yale)

Where was I? Oh yes. The rest of the schedule is Vs.-worthy as well, with the Dutchmen in line to earn at least one home game in the consolation bracket of the NIT before they end the home portion of the non-conference schedule with tilts against Fairfield, Manhattan and New Hampshire before facing St. John’s and, perhaps, Davidson in the Holiday Festival.

(Apparently, the unofficial metro-area Big Five is down to two with Stony Brook, St. Francis and Fordham off the schedule. Does this mean Hofstra gets to call itself the Big Five champ and raise a banner by beating Manhattan, a la 1992-93 when the Dutchmen went 2-0 against Central Connecticut to “win” the “ECC” championship?)

The pacing of CAA schedule, at first glance, seems a little friendlier to the Dutchmen this year than last. Hofstra once again visits Towson in the look-but-don’t-touch conference opener the first Saturday of December. There’s no avoiding the barrage of conference games immediately after New Year’s, and the task ahead of the Dutch seems pretty imposing with a trip to Georgia State sandwiched around home dates against William & Mary and Towson, all in a five-day span.

Of course, last year, Drexel-at Northeastern-Delaware in a five-day span seemed pretty inviting, and it took everything the Dutchmen had not to go 0-3. And give me a trip to Georgia State at the beginning of the season, when it tends to still be working out the kinks, than when the Panthers are clicking at the end.

Along those lines, it’s ironic—in that it’s not ironic at all—that the Dutchmen’s Senior Day opponent is Georgia State, which thrashed Hofstra in its Senior Night last year. I’d just like to say, once again, that I can’t wait to see what Life With Corny has in store for Senior Day.

The Dutchmen have four midweek trips to CAA opponents, one fewer than last year. And two of those trips are short jaunts to Boston and Delaware. The Dutchmen take three trips to Virginia and get three days of rest following weekend games at Old Dominion and William & Mary.

More about the road: The Dutchmen embark on only two multi-game road trips, one of which is the Kansas-NIT combo. The only multi- game road trip after New Year’s occurs when the Dutchmen travel to Wilmington and Delaware Feb. 13-16. Last year Hofstra had three two-game road trips following Jan. 1 (including the Bracket Buster at Fairfield followed by Georgia State in February) and five overall, counting the season-opening Charleston Classic.

All in all, it sounds like a pretty good schedule, challenging yet not overwhelming. I’m going to hold off on predicting a record for the Dutchmen until I can further examine the schedule and break it down and evaluate the entire league and oh the hell with it, I see 37-2, at least, and I’ll spend the weekend figuring out if that’s too pessimistic. In the meantime, sit tight and come back Monday morning for a Q&A with Tom Pecora.

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

We knew UConn way back when

So let’s say you’re talking to a Hofstra fan (it’s true, Loyal Non-Alumni Readers, there’s more than one) and you’re unsure of his (or her) authenticity. He/she might just be jumping on the bandwagon (you have to work with me here, assuming Hofstra has front-running fans) and you want to test his/her acumen.

Bring up the football team’s 2008 season opener against UConn. “Yup,” you say. “That’s the same school Hofstra beat 56-17 nine years ago.”

If the fan stares at you like you just said you had your wedding catered by Lackmann Food Services…he/she might be a front-runner. Or, more likely, a freshman who was nine years old in 1999.

It’s true: Hofstra went 2-2 against UConn from 1996-1999. And while I’d like to tell you UConn moved to I-A to avoid any more thrashings by the Flying Dutchmen, the truth is UConn was well into a decade-long plan to move to I-A by the time the series concluded.

UConn began making the transition in 2000 and has already won two bowl games and shared one Big East title. This isn’t the first time the Huskies have left their one-time peer in the dust: In the ‘70s, Hofstra and UConn were generally on the same level in hoops—Hofstra in the East Coast Conference, UConn in the Yankee Conference, where the Huskies’ rivals included future North Atlantic Conference/America East members such as Vermont and New Hampshire.

The paths of the Huskies and Flying Dutchmen intersected for the first—and so far only—time at the 1976 NCAA Tournament, where UConn edged Hofstra, 80-78, in overtime at the Providence Civic Center.

But UConn became a charter member of the Big East in 1979. The Huskies won the NIT in 1988, reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1990 and finally won the whole damn thing in 1999. Hofstra, meanwhile, remained in the ECC even as long-time rivals defected and was the last one to shut out the lights in 1994. And some of us still get a charge out of an invite to the NIT.

The amazing thing is nobody ever watched UConn hoops and football and figured they were destined for bigger and better things, a la Marshall in football. Like Hofstra, UConn played at endearingly outdated facilities. Memorial Stadium looked like a glorified high school filed while the Field House was so rickety it made the PFC look like MSG.

And for most of the ‘80s, UConn was synonymous with the near-miss—or worse. I swear the Huskies had a chance to make the I-AA playoffs with a win in their final game of the season every year…and fell short every time. They shared the Yankee Conference title four times between 1982 and 1989 yet didn’t reach the tournament until they made their lone appearance in 1998.

In basketball, the Huskies disappointed the masses with three straight NIT bids from 1979-1981—I remember listening to the 1981 OT loss to Dayton with my dad—and had five straight losing seasons, the last of which occurred during Jim Calhoun’s first season.

This shouldn’t be construed as dissatisfaction with where Hofstra is and will almost surely remain. It’s impossible to expect Hofstra to occupy the same level as UConn. Hofstra competes for attention with nine professional sports teams and is forever trying to win over a transient and often apathetic student body. This makes it challenging—but ultimately more rewarding—to be a fan. You know you’re surrounded by people who have made the same investment as you.

Connecticut has no major professional sports team (thanks to this piece of garbage), so UConn’s on center stage year-round. And the front-runner I described in jest up above exists on every street corner in Connecticut. (Except this guy…he’s as hardcore a fan as there is)

Plus, it’s not easy to commute to Storrs, out in the middle of nowhere, and once you’re there, you may as well get wrapped up in the athletic program because there’s nothing else to do except drink beer and tip cows. (I can say that, because I’m from Connecticut. But if the Icepick tried it, there’d be hell to pay)

I occasionally wonder what might have been if Hofstra outlasted UConn in that 1976 and made the second round (which, back then, was the Sweet Sixteen). And what happens if the Flying Dutchmen win the next game—or, gulp, the one after that to advance to the Final Four? Would Hofstra have become a Big East power, too, in multiple sports?

Probably not. We’d get to say our alma mater made the Sweet Sixteen (or Elite Eight or Final Four) once. But nothing else would be different—as we learned Thursday night. And that’s fine by me.

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Thanks to everyone who has stopped by during this first week of Defiantly Dutch. It’s still a work in progress here as I try to figure out this blogging thing, but I hope you’re having as much fun as I am thus far. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend and come by again starting Tuesday for more chattering about Hofstra sports and whatever else pops to my mind.