1.) Manhattan is 0-2, with losses to a pair of pretty good
teams in Louisville and Harvard. The Jaspers, who return all five starters from
last year’s team that went 21-13 under then-rookie head coach Steve Masiello,
were picked to finish second in the MAAC in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Manhattan should get a big boost tonight with the return of reigning MAAC
scoring champion George Beamon, who missed the first two games of the season with
an ankle injury.
2.) Manhattan is Hofstra’s most frequent non-conference foe,
by far. This is the 61st all-time meeting between the teams dating
all the way back to the second game of Hofstra’s second season in 1937-38, the
third-most games Hofstra has played against any opponent behind just Delaware
and Drexel. Manhattan leads the series 38-22 and beat the Dutchmen 68-59 at
Hofstra last year. This is the seventh straight year the two teams have met,
which makes it Hofstra’s longest active non-conference series.
3.) Manhattan is the only MAAC school Hofstra is scheduled
to face this year, the first time since 2005-06 the Dutchmen have faced only
one MAAC foe. That year, the Dutchmen actually weren’t scheduled to face anyone
from the MAAC but drew Siena in the Bracketbuster. Thank goodness we don’t have
to worry about THAT anymore!
4.) This is a dangerous game for the Dutchmen, who are
justifiably feeling pretty good about themselves after stunningly winning three
games in as many days at home last weekend. Manhattan is in the spot the
Dutchmen were in just five days ago—0-2 and mad—and Mo Cassara recognized on
Sunday the task ahead of the Dutchmen tonight.
“They’re 0-2 sitting on us, just like we were 0-2 sitting on
South Dakota State,” Cassara said. “So they’re going to be hungry.”
5.) The Dutchmen unveiled a pretty sturdy eight-man rotation
against Marshall on Sunday, when Jimmy Hall, David Imes. Moussa Kone, Stevie
Mejia, Shaq Stokes and reserves Taran Buie and Stephen Nwaukoni combined to
play 186 of 200 minutes in regulation before Kentrell Washington provided some
much-needed depth (and free throws) in the second overtime. Washington looks to
have settled into a reliable role as a backup guard-of-all-trades, so it’ll be
interesting to see if Jordan Allen, who played just nine minutes on Sunday,
gets more time and if Dallas Anglin, who recorded the first DNP-CD of his career,
gets another shot to find his, uhh, shot.
Mo Cassara plopped himself down at the podium late Sunday
afternoon and promptly realized he was just as stuck for adjectives as those
seated before him.
“Get it started with a statement,” Hofstra sports info guru
Brian Bohl said.
Cassara rubbed his right eye with his right hand before
pulling his right hand down and rubbing both eyes and the bridge of his nose.
“If you can,” Bohl said.
Finally Cassara came up with some words to begin describing
what he’d just seen: The Flying Dutchmen’s 103-100 double overtime victory over
Marshall that will be remembered as one of the greatest regular season
basketball games ever played at Calkins Hall, the PFC, the Arena or whatever
building my beautiful daughter Molly (the sleeping good luck charm who is now
3-0 in home games) sees the Dutchmen in come the fall of 2030.
“What a difference a week makes, you know?” Cassara said
with a tired laugh. “A week ago right now we’re 0-2, we’re in West Lafayette,
Indiana, we couldn’t make a basket. We lost two games by 29 points. We were
just almost in disarray, if that’s a word I could use to describe us. Credit to
these guys, I’ve never seen a team in a week come back and play the way that we
did.
“So proud of our guys. What an incredible win. To complete a
3-0 weekend is almost a marvel.”
It was one of those games which demands context and appreciation,
even if the facts and the stats say more than any pontifications from a wordy
windbag ever could. So why don’t we start there?
1.) Less than 24 hours after the Dutchmen put six players
into double figures for the first time since I started paying attention—that’s
a long time—they had four players with at least 14 points and two more with
nine apiece. The Dutchmen never trailed in regulation but squandered a 12-point
lead in the final 6:57 and surrendered a pair of game-tying 3-pointers in the
final 91 seconds, including Elijah Pittman’s open 3-pointer that forced
overtime with seven seconds left. The Dutchmen finally fell behind by three
more than midway through the first overtime, crawled back to tie the game with
three free throws 56 seconds apart and held Marshall scoreless the rest of the
period (and survived three missed shots, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer).
Shaq Stokes (more on him shortly) scored the first six points of overtime as
the Dutchmen never trailed, but Marshall got within a basket an incredible four
times in the final minute. Freshman Kentrell Washington, who played just nine
minutes in regulation, drained three of four free throws in the last 38 seconds
before Stokes put the Dutchmen over 100 against a Division I opponent for the
first time in 21 seasons with four free throws in the final seven seconds.
There were 69 total fouls, 99 free throws attempted, 143
field goals attempted and 203 total points (duh) as both teams reached the
century mark for the first time in Hofstra history. Four players fouled out,
and at one point, Marshall had five players on the court with five fouls. The
Thundering Herd’s DeAndre Kane had a triple-double in defeat (33 points, 11
rebounds, 10 assists).
It was awesome to watch, if a bit nerve-wracking to
participate in as a player or a coach.
“I’m shot,” Moussa Kone said.
“I’m 23,” Stevie Mejia said. “I’m finished.”
“I tell you what, I’m exhausted,” Cassara said earlier. “I
mean, I’m exhausted. There were more end of game situations in that game than
I’ve ever been a part of. We had an opportunity to foul in regulation, we didn’t,
we gave up a three. We lost our man on a switch and in overtime they hit
another three. So I’m over there killing myself.”
2.) Jimmy Hall had his second double-double in five
collegiate games, and it was even better than the boxscore would indicate. He
had 10 rebounds alone in the first half, as the Dutchmen asserted themselves
against the far bigger Thundering Herd, and finished with 14 boards and 16
points in an amazing 44 minutes. This is a FRESHMAN playing 44 minutes 15 days
after he was benched for the first half OF AN EXHIBITION. for goodness sakes.
We haven’t seen a freshmen big man like this since Kenny Adeleke, and if you
root for Hofstra, join us in praying we aren’t discussing Adeleke similarities
when Hall is a senior somewhere else.
And we haven’t seen a pair of underclassmen big men at
Hofstra like Hall and Moussa Kone since, well, ever. Kone also had a
double-double (14 points and 10 rebounds) before fouling out. He has matched or
exceeded his freshman year high in points (six) four times and matched or
exceeded last year’s high in rebounds (nine) twice. All caveats about small
sample sizes apply, but through five games, Hall and Kone are averaging a
combined 21.6 points and 16.4 rebounds per game. Hello.
3.) The misery of last year only makes it seem like forever
since the Dutchmen had a player as clutch as Stokes. The statistical revolution
in sports has led to much debate about clutch play and how it is impossible to
measure. Maybe so, but the eyes don’t lie, and Stokes has the Jenkins and
Speedy clutch gene. Who else would find his legs in the second overtime, after
shooting 4-of-17 in the first 45 minutes, and score 10 points in the SECOND
overtime and drain seven of eight free throws, thereby making up for missing
the free throw in the final minute of regulation that likely would have sealed
the victory? All less than 48 hours after draining a game-winning 3-pointer
with three seconds to play? Everything is going so well, I fully expect the
NCAA to declare he has to go back to Hawaii at any moment.
4.) The Dutchmen have now won two games they would have lost
last year, when they were (as you no doubt know and/or remember by now) 1-4 in
games decided by three points or less and 2-8 in games decided by six points or
less. Better depth is surely a factor (eight players have played at least 13
minutes in all five games, something that happened just six times all of last
season) but the Dutchmen have the intestinal fortitude and intangibles they
lacked a year ago. Last season’s team loses this game because it couldn’t get
the momentum back late in the second half (the first game against James
Madison), or because it missed key free throws late (the first game against
Delaware) or because it suffered breakdowns on every defensive possession down
the stretch (pick a loss, any loss). This year’s team has a bunch of
players—Hall, Stokes and Taran Buie, the latter of whom hit his first shot of
the game for the third straight game) clearly have that edge that infuses the
Dutchmen with a layer of late-game toughness, as does Mejia, who is finally
healthy and able to impart his will upon the team. Mejia scored a career-high
22 points and earned sub-regional MVP honors
“When you have three games in three days, guys are tired,
and you could just see the physical and the mental exhaustion,” Cassara said.
“To be honest with you, we were in a little better shape and we were able to
kind of hang in there and get some fouls down the stretch and get to the line.
How about Kentrell Washington stepping up and hitting three out of four free
throws as a true freshman who didn’t play very many minutes?”
5.) Some more stats and minutiae: The Dutchmen are 3-2 for
the 23rd time in program history…Stokes’ 46 minutes were the most by
a Dutchmen since Jenkins (49 minutes) and Cornelius Vines (48 minutes) were
ironmen in the Dutchmen’s last double overtime game, a loss to Northeastern in
the 2010 CAA Tournament. And Hall’s 44 minutes were the most by a freshman
since Jenkins played 44 minutes against Manhattan in the second game of his
career in 2007…The Dutchmen improved to 17-6 in overtime games and 5-2 in
multi-overtime since the 2000-01 season…This was the second time in four years
the Dutchmen have won an overtime game in which they didn’t trail UNTIL
overtime. The Dutchmen edged UNC Wilmington in similar fashion in the 2008-09 regular season finale…Washington’s performance at the free throw line in the
second overtime conjured up memories of Mike Davis-Sabb against James Madison
in the Dutchmen’s most recent double-overtime win in February 2009. Because of
disqualifications, Davis-Sabb was pressed into duty in the final minute of the
second overtime after sitting since the first half and promptly drained two
free throws to seal the game.
The Flying Dutchmen made some history and led wire-to-wire
Saturday, but didn’t get to .500 in the most artful of fashions in their 74-59
win over Division II foe University of District of Columbia. But just getting
to .500 was good enough for a team that six days earlier looked as if it might
send certain stat dorks diving into media guides in search of the worst
season-opening losing streak in program history.
“We’ve got Marshall at home [today], a NCAA Tournament-type
team, a chance to win three games in a row,” Mo Cassara said. “If you would
have told me that last Monday, I would have said you’re absolutely crazy.”
1.) This may have been the most balanced game ever played by
a Hofstra basketball team. Six Dutchmen reached double figures—almost certainly
the first time that’s happened in the Defiantly Dutch Era, I will research and
report back to you ASAP—and all six scored between 11 and 13 points. Five
players had between seven and nine rebounds. And six players played between 21
and 29 minutes. It all happened against a Division II foe, of course, but
that’s still pretty impressive.
2.) The Dutchmen were never seriously threatened after
opening the game on an 11-0 run—District of Columbia twice had a chance to
close within four or five points in the second half—but they never really
buried the Firebirds either after opening a 20-point lead 15 minutes into the
contest. Cassara, recognizing the Dutchmen were battling fatigue after an
emotional win over South Dakota State less than 24 hours earlier, fiddled with
the lineup in the second half in hopes of finding a cohesive mix.
“We just didn’t have that zip today, we didn’t have the
energy,” Cassara said. “We had a chance to really put them away midway through
the first half and kind of end the game and we didn’t. And that’s something
that we have to learn from, we have to continue to get better, continue to find
ways that we don’t let that happen.”
3.) The Dutchmen got what they needed out of their handful
of veterans. Stevie Mejia had another solid game (11 points and seven rebounds,
his second straight game with seven boards, in 29 minutes) while David Imes had
11 points—including the historic jumper that provided the Dutchmen’s final
points with 43 seconds left—seven rebounds and two blocks in 29 minutes. And
Stephen Nwaukoni turned 21 years old in impressive fashion as he scored nine of
his career-high 13 points and grabbed five of his nine rebounds in just nine
second half minutes. Upperclassmen accounted for 75 of the 200 minutes played
by the Dutchmen, the most this season.
4.) Nwaukoni wasn’t the only projected starter to provide a
boost off the bench. For the second straight game, Taran Buie jumpstarted the
Dutchmen by draining a 3-pointer on his first shot of the game. Buie’s
3-pointer began a 26-12 run by the Dutchmen in which he scored all 12 of his
points as the Dutchmen took their biggest lead at 39-19.
Buie’s production and pedigree suggests he’ll start sooner
than later as long as he can stay out of trouble, but for the moment Cassara is
happy with him serving as the Dutchmen’s Vinnie Johnson (GOOGLE IT EVERYONE
EXCEPT GARY MOORE)—even if Buie, in a moment of refreshing honesty by both
player and coach, admitted he’d rather start.
Asked if he liked coming off the bench, Buie paused and
looked at Cassara, who grinned. “You can answer it honestly, it’s OK,” Cassara
said.
“No, I’m not really too thrilled about coming off the
bench,” Buie said as those in the room laughed. “But like I said, I’m just
going to do anything to help this team get towards the win.”
5.) FUN STATS! The Dutchmen are 2-2 for the 27th
time in program history and for the second year in a row. They are 2-2 after an
0-2 start for the fifth time in program history and the first since 1990-91. I
was a high school senior back then! #OLD…The Dutchmen have had at least five
players score in double figures 11 times in their last 82 games dating back to
a 93-54 win over UNC Wilmington on Jan. 27, 2010. That game snapped a 122-game
streak in which the Dutchmen never had five players score in double figures,
dating back to the epic win over George Mason on Feb. 23, 2006. Hey, did that
win catapult the Dutchmen into the NCAA Tournament?...This is the second
straight year in which Nwaukoni has set his career high for points in the
middle game of a Gazelle Group tournament. He scored 12 points against Cleveland State last Nov. 26. Hey, at least someone likes the Gazelle Group!
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. University of District of Columbia,
11/16)
1.) Marshall is 2-2 and coming off a last-second, 78-77 loss
to South Dakota State (HOFSTRA CONNECTION!) in the opener to yesterday’s
doubleheader. The Thundering Herd have beaten District of Columbia (HOFSTRA
CONNECTION!) and Longwood and fallen to Villanova (HOFSTRA CONNECTION!). Look
at all these Hofstra connections. It’s like they’re all playing in the same
tournament or something!
2.) Marshall is coached by Tom Herrion, the brother of New
Hampshire coach Bill Herrion, who was Drexel’s coach when the Dragons dominated
the Dutchmen and the rest of the NAC with the SHAQ OF THE NAC, Malik Rose. Bill
Herrion is 9-5 all-time against Hofstra—9-3 with Drexel and 0-2 with New
Hampshire.
3.) Hofstra is 0-1 all-time against Marshall. The Thundering
Herd beat the Dutchmen, 73-70, during the Great Alaska Shootout in November
2006. Marshall is a member of Conference USA, the future home of Old Dominion
(snort) and about 72 other schools located around the world. Marshall is also
the first of three C-USA teams Hofstra will face this year. The Dutchmen host
SMU on Dec. 1 and play Tulane at the Barclays Center on Dec. 22. Tulane is the
only current C-USA school that Hofstra has beaten. The Dutchmen are 1-5
all-time against current C-USA schools, though the conference may have added
102 teams in the time it took me to write this.
4.) If you are of a certain age—i.e. mine—you correlate
Marshall with Hofstra football and not Hofstra basketball. Marshall was the
first game I ever boarded a plane to cover back in November 1995, when the 10-0
Dutchmen went to West Virginia and blew a late lead in a 30-28 loss to Chad
Pennington and the Thundering Herd. Alas, the very cool credential that I saved
is buried in a box somewhere at my Dad’s, I’m sure. The Dutchmen went 0-3
all-time against Marshall in football before any existence of football at
Hofstra was wiped from the permanent record. (Hey I told you this stuff was
only semi-useful)
5.) Mo Cassara said last night that Marshall may be the
biggest team the Dutchmen face this year. The Thundering Herd has a remarkable
seven players who stand at least 6-foot-8, which means the Dutchmen will need,
pardon the pun, big games from their burgeoning front court duo of Jimmy Hall
and Moussa Kone. Veterans David Imes and Stephen Nwaukoni will also need to
build on the momentum they created yesterday. It will also be interesting to
see if Cassara sticks with the eight-man rotation he played yesterday—when Hall,
Kone, Imes, Nwaukoni, Stevie Mejia, Shaq Stokes, Taran Buie and Kentrell
Washington all played between 14 and 29 minutes—or if Jordan Allen and/or
Dallas Anglin can wrangle their way into some extended playing time.
1.) The day after facing a school from the last state in the
union to take the plunge into Division I athletics, the Flying Dutchmen will
face a Division II school located in an area of the country THAT’S NOT EVEN A
STATE! THREE ELECTORAL VOTE BIAS! Defiantly Dutch: Giving you American
geography lessons since yesterday.
2.) The University of District of Columbia is 1-2 with a win
over the University of Sciences and losses to Villanova—HOFSTRA CONNECTION!—and
Marshall—HOFSTRA CONNECTION THEY’RE PLAYING HERE THIS WEEKEND TOO! UDC plays in
the East Coast Conference—SEE LITOS I TOLD YOU I WASN’T MAKING IT UP oh wait
it’s not that ECC—and is coming off its first Division II NCAA Tournament in 25
years. The Firebirds (cool nickname, but not as cool as Jackrabbits) are
coached by former Iona coach Jeff Ruland, who has turned around a program that
was 1-20 in 2008-09, the year before he arrived. The Firebirds have six players
back from last year’s squad—including ECC Defensive Player of the Year Dyrek
Jones, who had 93 blocks in 2011-12—but lost their top three scorers. Three of
their players are Division I transfers.
3.) Ruland succeeded Tim Welsh—HOFSTRA CONNECTION!—as Iona’s
head coach in 1998 and led the Gaels to three NCAA Tournament appearances in
the next eight seasons before he was fired following a 2-28 campaign in
2006-07. Ruland was 1-3 against Hofstra as a head coach. Ruland, of course,
also played at Iona under Jim Valvano from 1977 through 1980, during which the
Gaels went 69-21 and reached the NCAA Tournament twice. Hofstra did not face
Iona during Ruland’s playing career.
4.) The Dutchmen have won their last 12 games against
non-Division I teams dating back to a loss to Division II Florida Southern in
1988-89. This marks the fourth straight year Hofstra faces a non-Division I
opponent and the first time the Dutchmen have battled a non-DI opponent in a
tournament since 2006-07, when they beat host Alaska-Anchorage in the Great
Alaska Shootout. Ironically, in that it’s coincidence, that Dutchmen team lost
to Marshall right before beating Alaska-Anchorage. Hofstra, of course, faces
Marshall tomorrow.
5.) The Dutchmen are 1-2 for the 29th time in
program history and the first time since 2010, when they fell to 1-3 with a
loss to Nebraska in Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Dutchmen are 16-12 in the fourth
game of the season when opening the year 1-2.
6.) Mo Cassara noted last night that the Dutchmen earned a
huge win in last year’s Gazelle Group tournament (grrr), when it beat Cleveland
State 51 weeks ago today, only to negate that progress by losing to Boston
University the next day. Expect Cassara to have the Dutchmen motivated to win
the lone obviously winnable game on the early part of their non-conference
schedule, both to maintain the momentum generated by last night’s upset of
South Dakota State as well as to give Cassara a chance to get some minutes for
players who have struggled to establish themselves this season. David Imes’
minutes have dropped from 24 to 22 to 15, but this is a good opportunity for
him to get on track against a team that has just three players taller than 6-foot-5.
A relatively easy win would also give freshman Dallas Anglin—whose minutes have
gone from 29 to 22 to four—a chance to shake his awful shooting slump (2-for-22)
and give extended playing time to Jordan Allen, whose minutes have bounced from
13 to 19 to six.
There were a lot of possible endings to the Choose Your Own
Adventure book that was the Flying Dutchmen’s home opener Friday night. Yes.
That’s right. I just referenced the Choose Your Own Adventure books. A new
all-time high for me!
But after consecutive 29-point losses to open the season,
even the most optimistic and rule-bending of fans (you’re not supposed to flip
through the book to find a happy resolution) could have imagined landing at the
most dramatic and unbelievable of endings: Shaquille Stokes draining a
Jenkins-esque 3-pointer with three seconds to play, South Dakota State missing
a 3-pointer at the buzzer and Stokes getting swallowed up by teammates at the
press table as a crowd of 3,142 (including a two-month-old who didn’t seem to
get the fuss) roared with a fury and enthusiasm straight out of February 2011
as it celebrated the Dutchmen’s stunning 66-63 win over the Jackrabbits.
For the second straight year, it is Hofstra—HOFSTRA—that has
authored the CAA’s first signature non-conference win. (Sorry, George Mason and
Delaware, but blame Virginia)
“I don’t know if everybody in here realizes how good that
team is,” Mo Cassara said. “That team we beat today is an NCAA Tournament team.
They’re going to win 25, 26, 28 games and they had Alabama beat [in the last
minute] down at Alabama. So great win for us.”
1.) It was a win that was cleansing and cathartic for those
who remembered last year. With nine newcomers on a 14-player roster, it’s not
fair to expect the Dutchmen to shoulder the burdens of last year’s failings. But
last night was desperately essential for everyone else who recalls how the
Dutchmen went 1-4 in games decided by three points or less and 2-8 in games
decided by six points or less last year.
“Feels great,” said one of those holdovers, Stevie Mejia,
who had perhaps his best game in a Hofstra uniform with 14 points, a
career-high seven rebounds, three assists and just one turnover in a
career-high 37 minutes. “Last year we had a lot of close games. I remember a
lot of close games. But it feels good just to mentally be strong enough just to
get this win.”
2.) In winning, the Dutchmen displayed the traits they
didn’t have last year. They won after trailing by seven points in the first
half and after heading into the locker room down by a point. The Dutchmen
didn’t win a single game they trailed at the half last year and the biggest
deficit they overcame in a win was a mere five points.
In the second half, the Dutchmen played strong defense and
never trailed after the 14:46 mark, largely because South Dakota State didn’t
mount a 4-0 “run” at any point after the 16-minute mark. Contrast that to last
year and the home game against Northeastern in particular, when the Huskies scored on 17 of their final 20 possessions in a two-point win.
“I thought we contested every shot,” Cassara said.
3.) Most of all, a year after they couldn’t find someone to
replace Charles Jenkins’ ruthlessness in the final minute, the Dutchmen have
multiple players who want the ball with the game on the line. Just ask Stokes.
“Taran and Stevie kept calling for the ball,” Stokes said of
the Dutchmen’s final possession. “I waved ‘em off, like ‘nah, I’m gonna be the
one to shoot this one.’ So I just shot it and it went in.”
Stokes’ final shot wasn’t the only thing that was
Jenkins-esque. After going 0-for-4 from the field in the first half, Stokes
scored all nine of his points on 4-of-5 shooting in the second half and scored
the Dutchmen’s last five points. He gave the Dutchmen a 63-60 lead with a
pretty floater in the lane with 54 seconds to play.
And like Jenkins, Stokes oozes personality and leadership.
Despite being the youngest player at the podium, he won the press conference
when he answered a question about how the Dutchmen took better care of the ball
Friday, when they committed just 10 turnovers after turning it over 40 times in
their first two games.
“We got tired of running those sprints,” Stokes said as
those in attendance laughed.
“Can I leave that one alone?” Cassara said. “Let that answer
it?”
4.) It’s only one game, but Buie looks like he is going to
answer, with affirmative authority, the answer to the question “Will ANY
Hofstra transfer EVER work out?” Playing in his first game in almost two years,
and fresh off a two-game suspension for a violation of team rules, Buie hit his
first shot, a 3-pointer with 13:29 to go in the first half, to give the
Dutchmen an 11-8 lead. He scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half,
including seven unanswered points that single-handedly pulled the Dutchmen even
at 25-25.
“When that first shot [was made by] Taran, it was almost
like the pressure just came off everybody,” Cassara said. “Because all of a
sudden we’ve got another threat to score. He’s got his feet underneath him and
then all of a sudden we’re putting the ball in the basket.”
It doesn’t seem a coincidence the Dutchmen’s guards started
putting the ball in the basket as soon as Buie arrived. Buie, Mejia, Stokes,
Kentrell Washington and Dallas Anglin were a combined 15-of-32 shooting last
night. That’s more field goals, in less than half the attempts, than the
Dutchmen guards had in the first two games combined, when they shot a brutal
12-of-66.
“It’s amazing: When you put the ball in the basket, you play
a little harder on defense,” Cassara said. “So credit to these guys.”
Buie also displayed an ability to create for others with a
pair of nifty assists. And he brings a Cornelius Vines-esque edge to the
Dutchmen, that type of grit that should turn him into the player Everyone Else
In The CAA Hates in the blink of an eye come January. Buie drew a pair of
charges and was a hand-clapping, opponent-annoying machine from the moment he
drained his first basket.
“It’s been a long journey, a long two years since I’ve been
on the court,” Buie said. “[There was] a lot of off-the-court stuff that I had
to get through to get to this place. I’m very proud of myself for making it
back on the court and then playing as well as I did today.”
5.) While the three guards dominated the stars of the game
(SPOILER ALERT!), the Dutchmen received the type of team-wide contributions
they rarely got from last year’s ravaged roster. Jimmy Hall (eight points, nine
rebounds and four blocks) once again flirted with a double-double while Moussa
Kone (six points, five rebounds) and Stephen Nwaukoni (eight points, five
rebounds) provided solid minutes down low. David Imes scored just three points
and Jordan Allen’s lone two points came from the free throw line, but Imes’
3-pointer gave the Dutchmen their first multi-possession lead of the game early
in the second half and Allen’s two free throws tied it in the final minute of
the first half.
“I give credit to these guys [and] especially guys [who are]
not here right now, like Moussa, Stephen, Jordan,” Mejia said. “They came in
and gave great minutes.”
6.) And now the useless but fun stats from last night: The
Dutchmen beat a current Summit League team for the first time. Three of the
four games they have played against Summit League teams have been decided by
three points or less…The Dutchmen avoided falling to 0-3 for the 22nd team in program history. They are now 8-7 in the third game of seasons in which
they have opened 0-2…The Dutchmen have won nine straight home openers and are
14-6 in home openers in the Defiantly Dutch Era and 30-12 in home openers since
moving to Division I.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. South Dakota State 11/15)
1.) South Dakota State (1-1 with a home win over Tennessee
State and a buzzer-beating loss to Alabama) not only has the coolest nickname
of any non-conference foe, but the Jackrabbits might be the best team the
Flying Dutchmen face in November or December. South Dakota State returns all
five starters from the team that won the Summit League and reached the NCAA
Tournament for the first time last year, where it fell to Baylor 68-60 in the
first round (yeah, it’s the first round to me, cram it, NCAA). The Jackrabbits
have their own Charles Jenkins in Nate Wolters, a 6-foot-3 senior guard who was
tabbed as one of the 50 finalists for the Wooden Award. Wolters is on pace to
become South Dakota State’s all-time leading scorer, was the only player in the
country last year to average 20 points, five assists and five rebounds per game
and will have plenty of NBA scouts watching him tonight along press row. Hmm.
Sounds familiar.
2.) South Dakota State plays in the Summit League, which
used to be known as the Mid-Continent Conference, which absorbed the
non-Hofstra members of the East Coast Conference following the 1993-94 season.
CONNECTIONS! Hofstra is 0-3 all-time against current Summit League schools,
with a loss apiece against Western Illinois, Missouri-Kansas City and IUPUI,
the latter of whom, of course, waxed Hofstra in the god-forsaken CBI in 2010
and started us down this path of Gazelle Group hell. Fortunately this weekend
pays off our debt to the CBI and we’ll never have to speak of it again. Except
when I want to bitch and moan about it.
3.) South Dakota was the last state to join the ranks of
Division I athletics. You scoff now, but someday, this bit of information will
win you bar trivia.
4.) Hofstra has won its last eight home openers since a
70-69 loss to Stony Brook in 2003. The Flying Dutchmen are 13-6 in home openers
in the Defiantly Dutch Era (1993-94, #Ego) and are 29-12 in home openers dating
back to the move to Division I in 1972-73.
5.) The Flying Dutchmen are trying to avoid their first 0-3
start since 2006-07, when they lost three road/neutral site games by a combined
nine points. This is just the Dutchmen’s second 0-2 start in the DD Era
(1993-94, 2002-03) and their 15th 0-2 start in school history. The
first 14 times it happened, the Dutchmen went 7-7 in game no. 3.
6.) Taran Buie will finally make his Hofstra debut tonight,
when he is expected to come off the bench and provide minutes at guard. Buie is
playing his first collegiate game since Dec. 21, 2010, when he scored one point
and collected two rebounds and two assists in Penn State’s 74-64 loss to Maine.
Buie was suspended the first two games of this season due to a violation of
team rules. FYI: Buie’s career highs at Penn State were 14 points, three
assists and two steals. Hey we’re optimistic here that Buie will have a
Nathaniel Lester-esque return to Division I basketball and that we’ll need this
information tonight!
7.) As of this morning, Mo Cassara planned to start the same
lineup he fielded (courted?) Sunday against Purdue: Stevie Mejia-Shaq
Stokes-David Imes-Jimmy Hall-Moussa Kone. Expect also to see plenty of Kentrell
Washington, who was impressive in practice this week, and don’t be surprised if
Cassara puts Buie out there for plenty of playing time right away. Any chance
the Dutchmen have at pulling off the upset relies on finding a spark from
Washington and/or Buie, who can provide the shooting touch the Dutchmen guards
have sorely lacked this season.
