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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3: Mike Moore

2: Dwan McMillan

1: Shemiye McLendon

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 24

Nathaniel Lester 12

Dwan McMillan 10

Shemiye McLendon 6

David Imes 6

Stevie Mejia 3

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

In which I see red over the idea I made up the ECC, offer yet another history lesson to prove I didn’t, and find a way to mention the Delaware game

What's better: "I saw red, when Litos accused me of making up the ECC, I saw red..." or "If Delaware and Drexel left they'd be impossible to replace..." or "I don't think we're gonna get an automatic bid anymore?"

It’s not easy bleeding blue, white and yellow. In addition to the fact that nobody should ever bleed blue, white and yellow, we root for a school that hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament in nine seasons and has reached it just four times as a Division I member. The best team we ever had missed the big dance in, umm, colorful fashion. Our totally awesome nickname was replaced by something straight out of a focus group meeting gone terribly wrong.

The toughest thing, though, is rooting for a school that seemingly has no past. Oh, we know better. We know Hofstra basketball didn’t begin with the move to the CAA in 2001, or when the America East renamed itself after the 1995-96 season, But there aren’t many of us, and there are more of THEM—the uppity and the spoiled who root for schools with easily traceable lineages and condescendingly look down at those of us whose histories contains expired acronyms such as ECC and NAC.

For example, and I’m picking this school completely at random—and by completely at random, I mean TOTALLY ON PURPOSE—a VCU grad can tell someone that his school hasn’t always been in the CAA, it was in the Sun Belt back in the ‘80s. And if that someone is a real college basketball fan, and not a Duke fan, he’ll know what the Sun Belt is and what it was and will nod approvingly, knowing VCU has existed in some form for more than a generation.

The VCU fan will be content, because he won’t have to sit there and convince someone that there was actually a conference called the Metro and that VCU was a part of it after it left the Sun Belt and before it joined the CAA. Because that would suck, trying to convince people you’re not just making crap up off the top of your head.

I would know. The other day, The Braintrust was convening and riffing on the supremely awesome return of “Wayne’s World” to Saturday Night Live last week by figuring out where the current CAA members were 20 years ago this winter, back when I was rockin’ the mullet, cruising the streets of northwest Connecticut with Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” in the tape deck and flirting with freshmen girls who had no idea what a dork I was the previous three years (if you think any word of that is false, you don’t know me at all).

Someone in The Braintrust—I won’t name him, except to say that his Pig Latin name is Like Mitos, and that I’m pretty sure in 1991 he was fretting over the imminent name change of SunBeltHoops.com to MetroHoops.com, planning to invest in the new TANDY he just saw at Radio Shack (Google it Crain!) and wondering what the hell a .com was—responded to the message by writing he wasn’t sure where Hofstra was in the early ‘90s because he “…never know[s] when Jerry is making up a fictional conference or not.”

Well Mr. Mitos, here’s your answer and what do you have to say now?! (Just ignore the weird URL and web design straight out of 1995, it’s not easy preserving the history of a conference that croaked during the early days of the Clinton presidency)

The ECC was alive and, umm, well, it was alive 20 years ago this winter. The 1990-91 season was the last one in the ECC for Delaware and Drexel, each of which bolted at the end of the school year for the North Atlantic Conference—that’s not a made-up conference either, Mitos, that’s the precursor to the America East!—as well as the last year in which the ECC had an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The defections of Delaware and Drexel left the ECC—coming on the heels of Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh all exiting for the Patriot League following the 1989-90 season—short of the membership requirements for the automatic bid. The conference wheezed along through the 1993-94 school year, though it played only two tournaments in that span—Towson beat Hofstra to win the first final ECC championship game in 1991-92 before Hofstra won the last final ECC championship game two years later; Mitos probably thinks I’m making all this up—before finally splintering apart for good. Hofstra joined the NAC for the 1994-95 school year and has never again had to worry about being in a league without an automatic bid.

The ECC may be long gone, but it lives on in our hearts (oh hello Twitcon!) and some of us still get unnaturally excited about crowning a mythical champion every year. OK, fine, I’m the only one, but the ECC is relevant this weekend, with Hofstra heading to—oh my it all ties together perfectly!—Delaware to finally take on the Blue Hens for the first time this season.

This is a pivotal game for the Dutchmen, who can take another big step towards locking up a first round bye in the CAA Tournament by dispatching of the skidding Blue Hens as well as stay in the running for at least a share of their second straight mythical ECC championship! I present to you the faux race, because I know your day isn’t complete without knowing these “standings,” as well as the remaining ECC games for each school.

ECC "Standings"

Drexel 5-1 (Towson)

Hofstra 4-1 (Delaware 2x)

Delaware 2-2 (Hofstra 2x. Rider in BracketBuster, Towson)

Towson 1-5 (Delaware, Drexel)

(I should alert the Towson publicity staff of this, let them know the Tigers aren’t winless in conference in my universe)

The Dutchmen basically have to sweep Delaware since Drexel only has a game left with one-win (see what I did there?) Towson. Also, there is an uneven number of games because, remarkably, all of the ECC schools in the CAA played at least one former ECC school during the non-conference schedule. And everyone except Towson played Rider.

This could have gotten really out of hand if I counted Drexel’s game against St. Joseph’s, Delaware’s game against American and Towson’s game against LaSalle, but I don’t associate those schools—all of which left the ECC in the early 1980s—with DD-era ECC, or near DD-era ECC. Or something like that.

That Drexel beat Saint Joseph’s, and would therefore win the mythical ECC championship by half a game over Hofstra if both teams win out, had nothing to do with my decision. Or did it? When you bleed blue, white and yellow, and Charles Jenkins is still three weeks away from three glorious days in which he will lead Hofstra to the NCAA Tournament, you’ll take what you can get. Even if you have to make it up.

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

Seven reasons Dutchmen are headed for seventh heaven

Seventh heaven isn't too far away...only need to win four games in four days...no matter what the haters say Hofstra will find a way yeaahhhhhh! Lay off me, a lack of sleep has made me delirious.

Here we are: The risk/reward weekend of the season. The odds are the Flying Dutchmen will head home disappointed, but how can we not spend the days leading up to the CAA Tournament pondering the awesomeness of the Dutchmen playing—and winning—on Monday? How can we not imagine what it’d be like if our beloved Dutchmen continue their sizzling second half by mounting the greatest Cinderella run in CAA history? How can we not daydream about how to storm the court and Tweet, all at the same time (OK, I won’t be storming the court)?

Pure euphoria or the poignant emptiness of knowing it’ll take an entire season just to get back to this point—there is no in between. Most awesome weekend of the year. Bring it on.

The games have already started and Towson is in the midst of its annual “Where the hell has this been all season” annihilation of its first round foe, so here are seven reasons why you should believe the Dutchmen will be dancing on Monday night, followed by tournament predictions. Stop back in a bit for a Q&A with Tom Pecora as well as a feature on the 1993 East Carolina team that won it all as a seven seed.

And if you like me, even just a little bit, root for the Dutchmen tonight, as my wife and I are VERY tentatively planning to head down tomorrow morning as long as the Dutchmen are playing. Either way, stop by here and visit our Twitter account all weekend long as we rant and rave about the Dutchmen and the CAA Tournament. And whatever you do, make sure to bookmark Litos as he provides his usual awesome coverage of the tourney.

1.) Charles Jenkins: No seven seed has ever had the player of the year. Jenkins is playing like a man possessed and became a true superstar with his effort against Northeastern in which he overcame a poor performance (by his standards) and willed the Dutchmen to a huge road victory. He’s been driven all year by the memory of missing the last shot against Old Dominion in the quarterfinals and knows his legacy is missing only one thing at this point.

2.) The supporting cast isn’t half-bad either: Jenkins scored more than half the Dutchmen’s points (27 of 51) in that loss to the Monarchs. Tom Pecora used 11 players, six of whom were on the court for 15 minutes or less—including senior starters Arminas Urbutis, Darren Townes and Greg Johnson. But these Dutchmen have had at least three players in double figures in seven of the last 10 games and have begun to roll with the tight seven-man rotation that has been the trademark of Pecora’s best teams.

3.) This sizzling run is sustainable: The Richmond Coliseum is the cooler—literally, according to Gary Moore—for hot-shooting teams, but the Dutchmen are well-positioned for a run even if they don’t continue to average 83 points a game. They rank first in both field goal percentage defense, 3-point field goal percentage defense, blocks and steals and second in rebounding margin. It’s worth noting the Dutchmen are only 10th in the league in defensive rebounding, but that is largely a product of their miserable January. In their last 10 games, the Dutchmen have had 148 more defensive rebounds than their opponents have had offensive rebounds. Also notable: The Dutchmen are first in the league in free throw percentage, a huge factor in any close tournament game.

4.) Pecora: Yeah, the critics are mad because he hasn’t led the Dutchmen to the NCAA Tournament, or because he doesn’t use a clipboard, or because he was in a bad mood one day and didn’t wave to the crowd, or because he coaches basketball and not football. But he is a flat-out great coach who is a master at getting his teams prepared and focused and playing their best ball at this time of the year. This is the third time in the last six seasons the Dutchmen have ended the regular season on a 9-1 run. The Dutchmen are 3-1 in Friday first round games under Pecora and 5-3 overall in their first game of the tournament. He is ready for anything that happens during a game this weekend and for any opponent the Dutchmen might face.

5.) Confidence: I’m a bit biased (no! really?) but it’s been at least four seasons since I’ve seen a Dutchmen team bursting with this type of good karma and mojo. Winning five straight league games by at least 10 points (only the 12^th time a CAA team has finished the regular season by winning at least five straight conference games) tends to do that to a team. Confidence is a weird, delicate thing, seemingly impossible to regain once lost yet seemingly impossible to lose once things get rolling.

6.) Blissful ignorance of youth: Halil Kanacevic and Chaz Williams will not be intimidated by the big stage nor by the long odds facing the Dutchmen. Kanacevic is fresh off an outstanding performance against Northeastern big men Manny Adako and Nkem Ojougboh and, if the Dutchmen get to Monday, won’t be fazed by facing a Gerald Lee or Larry Sanders. Williams may be the most important player for the Dutchmen this weekend. If he can revert back to his December/early January form and channel his inner Jason Hernandez by hitting threes while efficiently running the offense, the Dutchmen will be doubly dangerous.

7.) It’s destiny baby!: This Dutchmen team also reminds me of the 1993-94 team that couldn’t buy a basket for the first half of the season before it started lighting up the scoreboard (that team averaged 79 points per game in its final 11 games after reaching 79 points just twice in the first 18 games) on its way to an unlikely conference championship. Obviously the old ECC is a whole lot different than the CAA, but there’s just something about this team that has me thinking a deep run is possible and that the Dutchmen can finally become the Cinderella their conference has lacked since 1995 (a team seeded first or second has won the title every year except 2008, when our pals at Mason won as the three seed). Last year was about convincing ourselves that three or four wins were possible if A, B and C happened. Not this year.

The Northeastern draw is tough, but you can’t ask for more than a true neutral site game in the quarterfinals (see? Told you I’d come up with reasons why it was better to face Northeastern than ODU!). If the Dutchmen get to Sunday, they’ll face either William & Mary (against whom they had sizable second half leads in both January games), Drexel (whom they beat by 11 in Hempstead three weeks ago) or James Madison (whom they beat by 20 in Virginia at the beginning of February). And if they get to Monday, they’ll be running on more adrenaline and momentum than any finalist in memory. And if they don’t, I’ll be kicking myself all summer for hexing it!

***

Some blog bias-fueled tournament predictions that are sure to be wrong!

FIRST ROUND

8 Towson over 9 UNCW: You can check my Twitter, I predicted this before the Tigers sent the Seahawks back to Wilmington.

5 VCU over 12 Delaware: The Mike Pegues Bowl (look it up, kiddies!). This one may be even uglier than Towson-UNCW. Do you remember when Delaware was an elite program that hosted the conference tournament and seemingly had a bye into the semifinals every year? Yeah me neither.

7 Hofstra over 10 Georgia State: Duh. Boy will I look like a bigger jackass than usual if the Dutchmen get knocked out in the first round after I spent all week coming up with reasons why they’ll win it all. Will probably be closer than we prefer, since Georgia State is a nightmare on Friday (3-1 in first round games and should have beaten William & Mary as the 12 seed two years ago), but the Dutchmen hang on.

11 James Madison over 6 Drexel: This will anger my new friend and fello CAA Hoops contributor MetSox, but the Dukes are the scariest of tournament teams—a squad with high Division I talent but effort issues. Just the type of team to turn it on this weekend (hi Towson!). And Drexel, which lost to—IRONY THAT IS NOT REALLY IRONY ALERT!!!—Towson last year in the 6 vs. 11 game, is in the midst of another late-season fade.

QUARTERFINALS

1 ODU over 8 Towson: Another game that will probably be closer than we imagine, but with every win the Monarchs’ at-large chances increase. They’re not losing to the Tigers and Pat Kennedy’s awesome toupee.

5 VCU over 4 George Mason: Rams win by 75, paste eaters crash the CAA Zone complaining about how things would be different if the tournament wasn’t in Richmond. Honestly, is there anything funnier than Mason fans complaining about unfair advantages? (Can’t say this enough: They’re not all bad, swapping emails with the more intelligent ones is fun) Seriously, this will be the best and most entertaining game of the tournament, and given the history of Jim Larranaga-coached teams in the tourney, I won’t be shocked at all if the Patriots get their crap together and run off two or three wins. But it’s hard to make up for a season of foolishness in one weekend. Especially when the refs make it an 8-on-5 game, muahahahaha.

7 Hofstra over 2 Northeastern: Duh x 2. This matchup does scare me, because there is less than no chance the senior-laden Huskies overlook the Dutchmen. And I can easily foresee a scenario in which the Dutchmen are bussing back to Hempstead in silence around 10 p.m. tomorrow night. But here’s my favorite stat of the year: In the two games between the two teams this season, the Dutchmen pulled down 58 defensive rebounds while Northeastern had just 10 offensive boards. It’s another close one but Kanacevic has a monster game and Williams hits a couple huge threes in the second half.

11 James Madison over 3 William & Mary: Two straight years the 11 seed makes the semifinal!

SEMIFINALS

ODU over VCU: Another classic, but just like last Saturday, the Rams blow a late lead with sloppy play and the Monarchs eke out a win.

Hofstra over James Madison: Duh x 3. Honestly, if the bracket breaks this way, I may not be able to contain myself. Scorching Dutchmen blow out the tired Dukes.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Hofstra over ODU: Duh x 4. All of Virginia turns out to cheer on the Monarchs and razz the damn Noo Yawkers, but there is no stopping a team of destiny as the Dutchmen become the first squad ever to win four games in four days and the first northern school to win the CAA. Our Man Corny hits a bunch of threes in the second half as the Dutchmen create some distance in a close game. Charles Jenkins flings the ball skyward as time expires and all seven Hofstra fans storm the court. Watch for me. I’ll be the guy jumping on Pecora’s back and Tweeting with my free hand as he tries to make his way to Blaine Taylor for the post-game handshake.

As usual, I retain the right to say I was right if Hofstra loses in the quarterfinals and its opponent wins it all!

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