Hofstra 52, Georgia State 50 (Or: Venting weeks of frustration)

Like most of the 1,169 fans in attendance, Stevie Mejia and Mo Cassara feared the final page of the script Monday night would be a terribly familiar one.

The Flying Dutchmen had led for the last 25-plus minutes and outplayed Georgia State most of the evening, but the Panthers had the ball with six seconds to play and a last shot to hit the game-winning buzzer-beater that would hand the Flying Dutchmen a loss gut-wrenching even by 2012-13 standards.

Except somehow, the twist ending benefited the Dutchmen. Devonta White got a good look at a 3-pointer with a second left, but the ball bounced off the rim and into Jordan Allen’s hands as Hofstra MOVED INTO FIRST PLACE IN THE CAA with a 52-50 win.

“When he was coming up I was like ‘I hope he doesn’t hit this,’” Mejia said. “I knew he was going to shoot it. It looked good, though.”

“Yeah it did,” Cassara said.

“You’ve gotta have luck sometimes to be good,” Mejia said.

For once, the Dutchmen’s luck was something other than rotten as they ended an eight-game losing streak that stretched back 50 days and started before the program was decimated by—well, you know. For once, it was someone else wondering what might have been if an awful shooting night was just a smidge less awful, someone else wondering what might have been if they just could have gotten the lead one time in the second half.

For once, it was the Dutchmen who made the big plays—none bigger than Mejia’s teardrop jumper with six seconds left that broke a tie and provided the final score—and left the arena with smiles on their faces.

“Losing, it’s definitely not fun, it makes us go a lot harder in practice, it puts a lot of tension around [them] to win games,” Taran Buie said. “So after a big win like this, it just kind of takes that burden off your shoulders, gives you relief, lets us know it’s possible. It’s like missing a bunch of shot sand just seeing one go in.”

1.) There were 35 teams in Division I that entered the heart of their conference schedules with at least 10 non-league losses, and every single one of them probably felt they needed to start January with a win more than anyone else in the nation. But the Dutchmen certainly looked like the most relieved of the country’s 347 D-I programs in the moments after White’s shot missed the mark.

Coaches and players walked off the court with giant smiles on their faces. Cassara draped his right arm around Buie, but as they headed towards the locker room, it seemed as if a completely drained Cassara was leaning in to, and being held up by, Buie.

“I almost don’t remember what it felt like [to win],” Cassara said. “It’s been a while. I just knew we were right there. I think of Florida Atlantic and Wright State and Wagner and LIU—games that we were right there and just didn’t execute down the stretch.

“Tonight we made a couple big shots, thought we got some great [efforts] from different guys, we handled their pressure and Stevie made a really big shot at the end of the game.”

2.) Mejia’s game-winner wasn’t the only big shot he hit. Mejia, who led all players with 17 points and four assists and tied for the game lead with two steals, drained a 3-pointers to give the Dutchmen their first lead in the first half and then sank a jumper to put the Dutchmen up 20-19 with 5:48 left. The Dutchmen never trailed again after that. He also hit his career-high third 3-pointer to give the Dutchmen their biggest lead of the game at 37-25 with 15:41 left and broke the second half’s first tie with a jumper with 3:11 to go.

Mejia finished 7-of-12 from the field as the Dutchmen improved to 6-3 over the last two seasons in games in which he shoots at least 50 percent (minimum five shots). The Dutchmen are 6-25 in the other 31 games in which Mejia has played.

“He’s our captain and he’s the fuel that makes the engine go,” Cassara said of Mejia. “I talk to him about it all the time: When he’s good and he’s energetic and he’s playing well, we’re going to play well.”

3.) The same goes for Buie, who didn’t exactly break out of his shooting slump in a 4-of-12 performance. But all four of his baskets were big ones. He ended an 8-0 run by Georgia State, and began a half-ending 19-4 run for the Dutchmen, with a jumper with 10:50 left. His 3-pointer with 2:39 gave the Dutchmen expanded the lead to eight.

In the second half, two Buie free throws ended another 8-0 run by Georgia State that cut the Dutchmen lead to four points. With 9:04 left, Buie drained a jumper to push the lead back to three, and a little less than two minutes later, he hit a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to four. The 3-pointer came from the right corner one trip after he fired up an air ball form the left corner.

“Taran shoots an air ball in one corner but then has the guts to come back and shoot it again in the other corner,” Cassara said. “That’s probably, between that shot and Stevie’s shot, why we win the game. Taran doesn’t make that shot in the corner, Stevie doesn’t make that shot in the end, I’ve got a long face right now.”

4.) The Dutchmen came up with their best defensive performance of the season, by far, and needed every bit of it.

“Our defense was great, we threw a lot of different looks at them,” Cassara said.

After falling behind 17-10, the Dutchmen held Georgia State scoreless from the field for 10 possessions and a span of more than nine minutes. Overall, Georgia State shot just 36 percent from the field, the second-lowest figure by a Dutchmen opponent this year, and 10 percent (2-of-20) from 3-point land, which was the worst performance by an opponent since George Mason was 1-of-11 on Feb. 26, 2005. (Aww, too bad). The perimeter defense was especially impressive considering the last four teams the Dutchmen faced shot a blistering 37.6 percent (32-of-85) from beyond the arc.

“You’ve got to win league games at home,” Cassara said. “They had to fly up here, they probably had a little [bit of] heavy legs. We had to win this game, and we did.”

5.) And in doing so, the Dutchmen showed the type of resiliency and balance that should benefit them going forward. The Dutchmen opened the game by failing to score on their first five possessions as they fell behind 6-0. In the second half, they surrendered Georgia State’s 8-0 run right after David Imes banged knees with Buie and crumpled to the ground in agony.

But Imes (three points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals) was back within minutes and played a huge role in breaking the Panthers’ press by fielding passes around the Dutchmen foul line and distributing the ball up court. Jordan Allen (eight points, three rebounds and three assists) and Stephen Nwaukoni (seven points, eight rebounds) chipped in just enough to lessen the load on Mejia and Buie.

“Obviously it’s been a long few weeks since we sat in here after a win,” Cassara said. “And we’ve had a lot of opportunities to win games and they’ve slipped away. But this group of guys has been resilient, we’ve had great practices, we’ve had great energy, we’ve had great efforts and tonight we hung in there and got a couple bounces that went our way.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Georgia State, 1/7)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Taran Buie

1: Jordan Allen

SEASON STANDINGS***

20: Taran Buie

19: Stevie Mejia

8: Stephen Nwaukoni

7: Jordan Allen

4: Moussa Kone

2: Matt Grogan

2: David Imes

***21 points vacated

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

In which I remember a long-ago Ron Hunter quote and give him a #CAAHoops farewell gift

Now I know how to spell meritorious!

I remember the strangest things. For instance, I can tell you right now where I’ve watched the Super Bowl every year since 1981 (at home from 1981-1990, then in 1991 I piled with a bunch of folks into my friend Randy’s bedroom as we watched Scott Norwood’s kick sail wide right, etc etc). But I will very likely forget to put the dishes away tonight, which will annoy my wife.

And so it is that I have remembered, for months, a quote that Ron Hunter, the ever-quotable Georgia State head coach, gave to Mike Litos for Mike’s annual summertime tour through #CAAHoops (this was before Mike moved on up to his unfairly awesome radio/writing gig with VCU, which plays in the Atlantic 10, which I think is a conference that exists only in Mike’s head).

“This is my farewell tour in the CAA,” Hunter said. “How many guys in any league coach one year and get a farewell tour? I want gifts every place I go. I’ll tell them—get me a gift or I’ll take it out on them on the floor.”

Me being me, I immediately decided I was going to get Hunter some sort of gag gift commemorating his success against Hofstra with Georgia State and IUPUI, which beat HU in the 2010 CBI and made me RGDPO’d.

Alas, me being me, I put it off, and put it off, and put it off, but in my defense, we had a baby in September so I’ve been even more scatterbrained than ever.

But I never forgot about the gag gift, even if I thought it might not be doable because the Flying Dutchmen were having such a rough season and I didn’t want the gift to be misconstrued as me piling on Mo Cassara & Co.

So at the end of my interview with Cassara Sunday night, I told him about the idea and explained it was all in good fun and not at all intended to denigrate Hofstra. He laughed and got a kick out of it, so I went ahead and picked up the plaque in which Defiantly Dutch honors Hunter for his “long and meritorious service vs. Hofstra” from 2010-2013.

And then I got in touch with Georgia State SID Mike Holmes to see if I could present it to Hunter before or after the game. Since this is #CAAHoops and we all have it better, they were both game for the gag and even agreed to do it afterward, even if that opened up the awkward possibility of giving Hunter an award after his team just lost to Hofstra. But c’mon. What were the odds of that?

Despite Georgia State’s narrow, last-second loss—DID I MENTION THAT HOFSTRA WON AND IS TIED FOR FIRST PLACE IN THE CAA—Hunter was a great sport during the “awards ceremony,” which was captured by Holmes. Hunter seemed quite amused that someone remembered his throwaway quote. Or maybe amused is a synonym for frightened, I don’t know.

Thanks to Hunter and Cassara for being great sports, to Holmes for helping to facilitate our meeting and to Litos for getting that money quote of all money quotes.

Of course, my knack for remembering weird stuff is about to get very expensive. Because now that Hofstra finally has a win—AND IS TIED FOR FIRST PLACE IN THE CAA, IN CASE YOU MISSED ME MENTIONING THAT ON TWITTER A THOUSAND TIMES TONIGHT—I have to go and get plaques for every CAA coach, whether his school is staying in the league or not. Hey Monte Ross, your gift is in the mail, and I hope you like pirated copies of Scrubs DVDs, Tony Shaver.

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

This is as good as it gets (Probably)

The Flying Dutchmen are the last team to begin play in #CAAHoops this season, but the seemingly inevitable descent to the bottom of the standings began in the days before tonight’s opener against Georgia State at the Arena.

As of last Tuesday, the Dutchmen were in a nine-way tie for second at 0-0. Then James Madison, Towson and Drexel all won their CAA openers on Wednesday, which “vaulted” them into a four-way tie for first place and dropped UNC Wilmington and Georgia State into a tie for last place with Old Dominion, which fell to James Madison.

This left Hofstra in a four-way tie for fourth place, through no fault of its own. At least until Thursday, when Northeastern beat George Mason, at which point the Dutchmen fell into a fifth-place tie with Delaware. Which had the audacity to go and beat Old Dominion on Saturday, the same day Towson and Northeastern created a three-way tie for first by beating Drexel and UNC Wilmington while Georgia State, George Mason, James Madison and William & Mary all settled into a tie for fourth place at 1-1.

So without even playing a game. Hofstra has fallen six spots in the standings. This seems to be a somewhat appropriate summation of the season: The Dutchmen, losers of eight straight, can lose without even playing!

Of course, the flip side is the Dutchmen can be tied for first place with a win tonight. And usually, I’d be bursting with optimism over such possibilities. Hell, I actually convinced myself 52 weeks ago tonight that the Dutchmen were going to beat VCU in the January opener. I think I envisioned Shemiye McLendon draining a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Well, McLendon is now a walk-on redshirting at South Florida and VCU is in the Atlantic 10 (and ranked no. 25 in the coaches’ poll today), so you can see where that optimism got me.

I’d like to say my pessimism is a diabolical plot to change the Dutchmen’s rotten luck via the time-tested and infallible reverse hex method. But no, as much as I hate to admit it, the pessimism is legitimate. The slate is clean tonight, and the philosophy should be a Homer Simpson-ian “It’s just a little losing streak, it’s still good it’s still good,” but after four arrests decimated a program that has now suffered eight straight losses stretching over three federal holidays and 34 bowl games (but not the Bluebonnet, may it rest in peace), I can’t come up with any reason to convince myself that tonight isn’t anything other than the beginning of the season’s second long, meandering stroll to nowhere.

Sure, the depleted Dutchmen can only benefit from being the last team to open conference play. But they’re tipping off the CAA season against Georgia State, which handed Hofstra its worst conference loss ever in the Dutchmen’s most recent CAA game a mere 10 months and five days ago.

And while the Panthers are a far different team than the one that laid waste to the Dutchmen in Richmond—they have four new starters—they still play a swarming zone defense that torments undermanned teams and they are still coached by Ron Hunter, who absolutely owns Hofstra regardless of whose opposing sideline he strolls.

Hunter-coached teams have played 80 minutes at Hofstra, dating back to IUPUI’s CBI appearance at the Arena in 2010, and have trailed for exactly zero seconds. His teams have opened up first half leads of at least 19 points all three times they have faced the Dutchmen and they’ve outscored Hofstra 218-153 in the three games. So, you know…yeah.

After tonight, the Dutchmen head to Delaware for a game Wednesday night. Given the short travel distance, Delaware is a perfect destination for a first conference roadie, especially on short rest. But Newark was the site where it all began to go wrong on the last season’s first roadie, when the Dutchmen trailed wire-to-wire and squandered two chances to take the lead or tie the game in the final seconds of a 67-66 loss. And the Blue Hens have double-double machine Jamelle Hagins and are one of the handful of league favorites this year. So, you know…yeah.

The Dutchmen complete the week by hosting William & Mary, which almost annually occupies a spot in the bottom half of the CAA standings. But the Fighting Bill Lawrences are also among the handful of league favorites this year and almost annually torment the Dutchmen, who needed Charles Jenkins’ magic acts to sweep the regular season series in 2010-11 before losing at Williamsburg last year, 75-71. So, you know…yeah.

Then after that the Dutchmen head on a two-game road trip to Northeastern and George Mason, two places at which it’s very tough to win for entirely different reasons. You can see where I’m going here: It’s not tough to envision a scenario in which I am once again crunching the numbers about teams that opened CAA play 0-5.

None of the other statistical measurements, historical trends or “eye tests” bode well for the Dutchmen, either. Hofstra’s RPI is well into the 300s, an area the program hasn’t seen since I first discovered Hempstead. The Dutchmen rank last in the CAA in field goal percentage and free throw percentage. They are also tied for last in defensive points per possession while ranking ninth in assist-to-turnover ratio and tied for eighth in defensive field goal percentage.

Since the CAA expanded in 2001-02, only two other teams have ever entered January with at least 10 non-conference losses, and last year’s William & Mary and Towson squads didn’t exactly catch fire once the calendar flipped to the new year.

The Dutchmen are bereft of confidence, having lost eight straight games in just about every fashion imaginable. One win can change everything, of course. But each subsequent loss just makes it that much tougher to get that elusive victory.

I hate being a negative Nelly, I really do. My imaginary paycheck here pretend pays me to come up with reasons to believe. Plus, I feel terrible being pessimistic about a group of players and coaches who are working so hard to try and turn this around.

I want to conjure scenarios in which the Dutchmen take advantage of a historically weakened CAA, pull off a few upsets and end up in the middle of the pack with a flickering chance at channeling the 1994 squad by winning the conference tournament with three victories in as many days in March.

I want to imagine David Imes and Matt Grogan emerging as the outside shooters the Dutchmen have lacked. I want to imagine Daquan Brown playing like a high Division I talent and teaming up with Stephen Nwaukoni and Moussa Kone to form a very solid inside trio. I want to imagine Taran Buie becoming the next Dutchmen superstar and Stevie Mejia continuing to handle the point as adroitly as he has the last handful of games

I want to—hey you know what, this has me feeling better. So with the opening tap less than three hours away, let’s just say that being in eighth place before the season starts is as good as it gets this season. You know, unless it isn’t.

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

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Mo Cassara

Hey, the last time we interviewed Mo Cassara after a losing streak, the Dutchmen had their best weekend of the season. So let’s try it again! Thanks to Cassara for taking the time to chat last night as he prepared for tonight’s CAA opener against Georgia State.

What have you seen over the last month that gives you hope for the rest of the season?

I see a group of guys that have come to practice and worked hard everyday. And I think I see some guys kind of shifting their roles and shifting positions. I’ve seen a group of guys and a staff that continues to work hard everyday, and it shows. We’ve come out in the Tulane game and we were tied at halftime. We were up at halftime at LIU, we’re up at halftime at Florida Atlantic. We’re down to the last possession against Wagner, down to the last possession against Wright State. We just haven’t been able to finish games, and it’s a combination of just not making some plays down the stretch and guys wearing out. We’ve got to kind of keep readjusting and trying to find the best combinations and get some guys some rest and just get a little [lucky], get the ball in the basket. We do some things like that we’ll wind up with some wins in the new year.

How much does it help you guys being the last team to start CAA play?

I think it’s helped us tremendously. Just given us a little extra time to get our feet on the ground. I think it’s given us a little time to practice a little bit more and sit back and look at the league a little bit before we start play. Gives us a chance to kind of have a fresh start. That’s been good for us.

How do you need to win games now, as opposed to when you had a full roster?

I think our margin for error is very small now and our depth is an issue. I think as the season started, we really felt like by this time of year, we were going to have a lot of depth and a lot of options and be able to play a little fast and do some different things. Obviously, that’s not the case now. We really have to try to script almost everything we do offensively and defensively because our margin for error is so small.

Perimeter defense has been a problem the last few weeks. Is that a matter of breakdowns on your end, or teams just hitting their shots?

I think Coach Morgan and I were talking about this quite a bit the last few days. We’ve got to get that percentage down. Our offense is getting a little better and we’re going to have some games where the ball’s going to go in the hoop a little more. The one thing that I think we can control better is our effort and our focus on defense. We’ve just got to do a better job of taking away those one or tow easy baskets, whether that’s a transition three or a quick turnover that leads to a basket. If we can eliminate a few of those, I think we probably have already won a few more games.

How about your shooting woes? How can those be addressed?

I think right now we’re really only playing with two guards and we’re playing a couple guys [at guard] that really are more around the basket type guys. We’ve had some games where the ball hasn’t gone in the basket. Could be a combination of a little bit of fatigue, some guys playing different positions, but at the end of the day, those are the type of things that can improve as the season goes on. We’re going to have a stretch where the ball goes in the hoop and things click. I’m very encouraged by the way we’ve been practicing. We have good energy, we have great enthusiasm and our guys continue to keep working hard. Offensive execution—really, as the year goes on, most teams get a little [better at it].

Taran’s had three inconsistent games since the breakout performance against Long Island University. Is it fair to say he’s slumping?

I don’t know if it’s slumping. It’s one of those situations where if Taran can up his percentages a little bit, we become a much better team. So that’s something that we’ve been talking about, whether it’s shot selection or a little bit of fatigue. Again, even though he is a transfer and a little bit older, so to speak, he’s really only 10 games into his career, so he’s still fighting through a little bit of that—learning, adapting and also knowing that teams are going to key on him. That’s something a little different from where he last played to now: Everybody’s going to key on him and force him to do different things. That’s a big change for him and that’s what I talked to him about: We need him to make plays down the stretch, we need him to shoot a higher percentage. If he can do those things, I think we’ve got a few more wins in our back pocket already. He has the ability and he has the desire to make a lot of these plays. Now we’ve just got to go execute.

What are your thoughts on three guys whose roles have changed drastically since the suspensions: David Imes, Matt Grogan and Jordan Allen?

We’ve really had to play Dave Imes away from the basket a lot more than we’d like. That’s part of the reason his rebounding numbers are down and his shooting percentages are down a little bit. One thing Dave’s been really good at throughout his career is he’s a terrific facilitator. He knows what we’re trying to do, he wants to try and execute it. We’ve just got to try and put him in a position where he can help us score a little more now.

Matty’s been great. I think there’s going to be some games that he’s going to play a lot more than others, but I think he gives us another dynamic where he can make some shots offensively. We need him to continue to do that and continue to be aggressive.

Jordan Allen’s one of those kind of real character, team-oriented type of guys who continues to work real hard and adjust and adapt and try and help the team do whatever he can do to win. He passes the ball well, he’s improved dramatically on the offensive and he’s just a really good team guy. I think as he continues to get more minutes—[more] than he probably anticipated and we probably anticipated—I think you’ll see him continue to improve.

What can you do, as coaches and players, to avoid the type of second half starts you had against Tulane and Florida Atlantic?

That’s a tough one. It’s something we talk about. We even try to simulate it in practice a little bit. Why it is, I’m not sure, but it’s something that obviously we are very aware of as a staff. We see teams come out and score a couple quick hoops on us in the second half and then all of a sudden our lead or our grip on the game slips very quickly. That’s something we’re really going to try and focus on really try to almost simulate in practice, towards the end of practice or halfway through practice, where we’ve got to execute on offense and focus on defense. Our margin of error is just so small and little mistakes are magnified right now because of our limited bodies and ultimately our lack of success last month. So we’ve got to just keep plugging forward and trying to find some ways to win Ad I think right now we’re finding ways to be competitive. Our approach is good, our energy is good, Now we’ve just got to go and get a couple wins.

Obvious question: How badly do you need a win this week?

I don’t think there’s anything we need more. I like the effort, I like the energy, I like the attitude. We just need a couple bounces to go our way. Just keep playing hard. If we do that, we’re going to find a way to scratch out some wins.

Have you ever been through a stretch like this, where you lose eight straight games and lose five players over a span of almost two months?

Never. I’ve never been through a stretch like this, a combination of more frustrations and tough luck and hard games and travel and tough losses and a limited group, numbers-wise. So yeah, it’s been a real challenge. Certainly nothing in the manual for this one [laughs]. You’ve got to continue to fight through and I’ve got to tell you, I think our staff and group has coached as well as we ever have. Working as hard as we ever have. Now we just need to get a couple breaks. What we need to do is get a little bit better every day. I even said on [WRHU] tonight: Focus one game at a time. We cant worry about Delaware, we can’t worry about William & Mary, we can’t worry we’ve got to get a win this week. We’ve just got to focus on Georgia State. One game at a time, one half at a time, one preparation at a time. If we do that, we’re going to find a way to win some games.

How much confidence do you get from playing in a wide-open CAA?

I told the guys that Towson was picked last by everyone and Drexel was the unanimous favorite to win and Towson went to Drexel [Saturday] and won. There’s a lot of games out there, a lot of teams to be beat and there’s a lot of opportunity for us. It’s just a matter of getting a little confidence. What we need now is confidence. We need some guys to get some confidence individually and as a team we need some confidence. If we get a little bit of that, the wins will come.

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

After Knucklehead Gate: Measuring the impact on those left behind

Wait, you mean Kirk Cameron's post-apocalyptic movies aren't about the Flying Dutchmen?

Thirty-nine days have passed since a promising Flying Dutchmen season was derailed by the arrests of four knuckleheads. We all know how the Dutchmen have fared since then (hint: it rhymes with so and bix), but I thought it’d be interesting to look at the before and after performances of the players left behind. Like so many things I write, this one ended up going a lot longer than I anticipated, so without further ado, here you go. (Note: Since he didn’t debut until Dec. 22, Daquan Brown is not a part of this exercise)

JORDAN ALLEN

Before knucklehead gate: 2.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 11.1 minutes per game, 1 start

After knucklehead gate: 6.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 25 mpg, 6 starts

ANALYSIS: Allen has been the biggest post-arrests bright spot for the Dutchmen. He got better as December (and January) went on and scored 30 points on 11-20 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 shooting from the free throw line over the last three games. He was just 10-of-20 from the field and 6-of-15 from the free throw line in the Dutchmen’s first 10 games. Allen’s also added six steals while committing just four turnovers in the last six games. He probably won’t ever be a superstar, but he’s looking like a very solid glue guy for the next three-and-a-half years as he displays the benefits of the redshirt year that the Dutchmen were never able to give raw big men Stephen Nwaukoni, Moussa Kone and Darren Payen.

TARAN BUIE

Before knucklehead gate: 14.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 25.4 mpg, 1 start

After knucklehead gate: 15.7 ppg. 4.0 rpg, 34 mpg, 6 starts

ANALYSIS: The pre-arrests depth at guard allowed Mo Cassara to ease Buie into the mix after he went almost 23 months between games. Do you remember when Buie was asked if he liked coming off the bench? That was awesome. Losing three guards forced Buie into the starting lineup much earlier than anticipated, and while he’s easily the Dutchmen’s best player, he appears to have grown frustrated over the last three games, ever since his 29-point masterpiece against Long Island went for naught. Buie has 39 points on 13-of-39 shooting in that span, down considerably from the 40 percent clip (38-of-94) he shot in his first eight games. He’s also recorded more assists than turnovers just once in his seven starts. With nobody behind Buie, though, there’s not much Cassara can do except hope Buie shakes off the rust, gets hot and regains some confidence.

STEVIE MEJIA

Before knucklehead gate: 10.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.1 assists per game, 30 mpg, 7 starts

After knucklehead gate: 9.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.2 apg, 34.8 mpg, 6 starts

ANALYSIS: Mejia has probably been the Dutchmen’s steadiest player over the last month. Still, he, more than the rest of us, should look back at the weekend sweep in the Not CBI tournament and wonder what could have been. A scattershot shooter at best who is prone to extended slumps, especially when he’s trying to force the action, Mejia benefited from the increased attention on players we shall not mention during the weekend before Thanksgiving and won the MVP of the subregional by scoring 47 points while shooting 17-of-30 from the field (including 2-of-6 from 3-point land) and 11-of-11 from the line. In the other 10 games this season, Mejia is shooting 28 percent (24-of-86) from the field, including 2-of-18 from 3-point land, and 61 percent (34-of-56) from the line. On the bright side, Mejia has not let his poor shooting affect his role as facilitator: His assists are way up over the last six games, as noted above, and he has a 17/8 assist-to-turnover ratio over the last three games. He’s also coming off a two-game stretch games against Tulane and Florida Atlantic in which he shot 10-of-25 from the field while pulling down 15 rebounds, so perhaps he’s warming up a bit. But the Dutchmen will be more successful if Mejia is shooting less.

DAVID IMES

Before knucklehead gate: 6.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.5 blocks per game, 23.8 mpg, 6 starts

After knucklehead gate: 5.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.67 bpg, 27.2 mpg, 6 starts

ANALYSIS: Imes’ numbers are falling for the second straight season: After averaging 7.6 ppg and 6.8 rpg as a sophomore, he averaged 7.0 ppg and 5.4 rpg last year and is averaging 5.8 ppg and 4.6 rpg this year. It’s easy to say the Dutchmen had to rely on Imes for more outside shooting after losing three long-range threats, but the truth is Imes was settling on the perimeter even when the roster was full: Of his 77 field goal attempts this year, 39 have come from beyond the arc. He can really help the Dutchmen there by hitting two or three 3-pointers a game, but he’s drained a pair of treys just twice this year. He’s probably a guy who would have benefited from plenty of open shots had the knuckleheads remained on the team. Sigh.

STEPHEN NWAUKONI

Before knucklehead gate: 5.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 16.3 mpg., 1 start (2 DNP)

After knucklehead gate: 7.0 ppg. 7.8 rpg, 22.8 mpg, 1 start

ANALYSIS: Nwaukoni has definitely benefited, in terms of playing time, since the arrests, and he’s the type of consistent rebounder the Dutchmen have lacked since Kenny Adeleke (speaking of guys we should only refer to by code names). Nwaukoni has at least seven rebounds in seven of the last eight games in which he’s played and has a real shot at becoming the first Dutchmen since Adeleke to average eight rebounds a game over a full season. But given his inconsistencies on offense, the Dutchmen would have better off with him as a role player—a designated rebounder, if you will. As it is, Cassara will have to hope there’s a lot more two-game stretches like the one Nwaukoni enjoyed against Long Island and Brooklyn (12 points apiece on a combined 10-of-16 shooting) than the one he just had against Tulane and Florida Atlantic (eight points combined on 3-of-12 shooting).

MOUSSA KONE

Before knucklehead gate: 6.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 0.7 bpg, 26.3 mpg, 6 starts

After knucklehead gate: 4.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 17.8 mpg, 6 starts

ANALYSIS: Mejia might be the guy wondering what might have been if the knuckleheads didn’t decide to steal stuff, but Kone is the player who has been most affected by their absences, especially that of the guy who used to wear no. 1. Kone opened the season as the no. 2 in a very impressive—and very young—1-2 punch, but with Daquan Brown rounding into form, Kone is in danger of falling to the back of the Dutchmen’s big man rotation. Kone played as few as 20 minutes just once in the first seven games—and did that in an easy win over Division II District of Columbia—but has played as many as 20 minutes just once since then, and he barely reached that figure against Wright State. Kone scored in double digits in three of the first five games, but hasn’t scored more than seven points in a game since. He had at least five rebounds in six of the first eight games but hasn’t had more than four rebounds in any of the last five games. He has hit 10 of his last 15 field goal attempts over the last four games and scored seven points against Florida Atlantic, which provides hope he can be a finisher down low and a solid piece to the puzzle.

MATT GROGAN

Before knucklehead gate: 3 minutes played all season, no stats

After knucklehead gate: 4.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 18 mpg, 0 starts

ANALYSIS: After playing more extensively last season than any walk-on in the DD Era, it looked as if we wouldn’t see much of Grogan until Senior Day. Then the knuckleheads got busted and suddenly “Matty Ice” became a valuable member of the rotation. He scored a career-high seven points against SMU, then matched that figure three nights later against Wagner and again against Tulane. Grogan has as many 3-pointers this year (six) as he did last year in seven fewer attempts, which is an encouraging sign going forward. He’s the best pure long-range shooter on the team and there are going to be nights this year where he drains three or four 3-pointers and we lose our freaking minds. But he’ll need to have a lot of those nights to give the Dutchmen a shot in the CAA.

DARREN PAYEN

Before knucklehead gate: DNP

After knucklehead gate: 2.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 12 mpg, 0 starts

ANALYSIS: The first long-term tremors from the arrests were felt against SMU Dec. 1, when Payen began the process of burning his redshirt because the Dutchmen needed warm bodies. Cassara believed Payen would be one of the CAA’s best freshmen next year, but we’ll just have to hope we aren’t wondering what he could have been with a redshirt. Payen has looked predictably raw and rusty thus far, especially over the last three games, a stretch in which he’s scored two points, attempted two field goals and pulled down three rebounds in 22 minutes—as many minutes as he played against SMU. Payen has shown his potential by collecting two blocks in three different games, and he should be someone who benefits from playing two or three games a week. The Dutchmen will need him to develop in hopes of establishing a strong inside game.

ADAM SAVION

Before knucklehead gate: DNP

After knucklehead gate: 3.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 5.3 mpg, 0 starts

ANALYSIS: Savion appeared to be the David Vallins of a new generation but has played double-digit minutes in two of his four appearances. He has plenty of fearlessness—gotta love a walk-on who just drives the lane as instinctively as Savion does—and can play point in a pinch, but let’s face it, no team in America is built to survive getting minutes at the point in December from a guy who wasn’t on the team in November.

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

Florida Atlantic 61, Hofstra 57 (Or: Signpost up ahead, your next stop, the twilight zone)

I listened to the Hofstra-Florida Atlantic game before tuning into The Twilight Zone marathon on New Year's Day. Some would say they were one and the same.

It’s gotten to the point for the Flying Dutchmen where the only thing left to do is to note the extra degrees of agony associated with defeat.

Was the Dutchmen’s eighth straight loss—a 61-57 defeat at the hands of Florida Atlantic on Tuesday—more painful than losing wire-to-wire, as the Dutchmen did to Manhattan, George Washington and SMU at the start of this skid or to Wright State in the final home game of 2012?

Does it ache more than blowing a 16-point lead in the final 12 minutes, as the Dutchmen did against Long Island University, or being tied at the half against Tulane before opening the second half on the wrong side of a 20-0 run? Is it worse than squandering a five-point halftime lead against Wagner and losing by eight points on a night in which the Dutchmen had their worst free throw shooting performance in three years?

At this point, does it matter?

Anyway, while losing is familiar these days, this one was doubly frustrating because this is the third consecutive year Florida Atlantic edged Hofstra by four points or less (and the fourth straight year the two teams played a game decided by four points or less).

This one also stung because the Dutchmen, for the first time during this seemingly never-ending skid that has encompassed three federal holidays, appeared to enjoy the clear statistical advantage over an opponent. The Dutchmen shot 44 percent (25-of-57), their second-best performance against a Division I foe this year, and limited Florida Atlantic to 36.4 shooting (20-of-55).

The Dutchmen led by 10 points in the first half, took a seven-point lead into the half and led and by nine halfway through the second half. Florida Atlantic’s biggest lead was its last one.

The Dutchmen also got some semblance of balance for the second straight game as seven players drained at least two field goals. Stevie Mejia and Taran Buie combined for 26 points (13 apiece) on 12-of-26 shooting, which is the kind of the dual efforts they’ll need in conference play. Mejia also provided steadiness at point guard in shooting more than 50 percent from the field (6-for-11) for the first time since the Dutchmen’s last win against Marshall on Nov. 18 and leading the Dutchmen with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Jordan Allen had another solid game (nine points, five rebounds) while Moussa Kone, who came off the bench after suffering a concussion in practice, had seven points, his most since the win over Marshall way back on Nov. 18.

Of course, as has so often been the case the last two seasons, the little things doomed the Dutchmen. The Dutchmen continued to get destroyed from beyond the arc, where Florida Atlantic was 8-of-24. The Owls are the fourth straight opponent to drain at least seven 3-pointers against the Dutchmen.

For the second straight game, the Dutchmen were victimized for a big run to start the second half. Florida Atlantic’s 8-0 run wasn’t as authoritative as Tulane’s 20-0 run, of course, but it put Hofstra on its heels after it dominated much of the first half.

And the Owls ended the game on a 15-4 run over the final 7:59 in which the Dutchmen were just 2-of-8 from the field. Buie, who looked for several games like the late-game option the Dutchmen have lacked since Charles Jenkins’ graduation, was just 1-for-5 shooting during Florida Atlantic’s final run.

Then there was the rotten luck that seems to befall teams that have zero margin for error. The Dutchmen were 5-of-7 from the free throw line, their fewest attempts since Dec. 21, 2009 against Davidson, and didn’t go to the line at all in the second half while Florida Atlantic was 13-of-16 in the final 20 minutes. Gee think that might have made a difference? ALFRED MORRIS BIAS!!!!

In addition, a shaky flagrant foul against Stephen Nwaukoni with 5:11 left resulted in a costly five-point swing. Instead of having the ball with a three-point lead, the Dutchmen fell behind by two points—and never led again—after the Owls hit both free throws and Greg Gantt drained a 3-pointer on the subsequent possession. That’s an agonizing way to lose, but that’s life these days for the Dutchmen—whether the calendar reads 2013 or 2012.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Florida Atlantic, 1/1)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Taran Buie

1: Jordan Allen

SEASON STANDINGS***

18: Taran Buie

16: Stevie Mejia

8: Stephen Nwaukoni

6: Jordan Allen

4: Moussa Kone

2: Matt Grogan

2: David Imes

***21 points vacated

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

Tulane 83, Hofstra 62 (Or: The seventh straight loss just before Christmas was such a pain to me)

The biggest lesson in the Flying Dutchmen’s 83-62 loss to Tulane at the Barclays Center was a daunting one: For these dilapidated Dutchmen, the margin of error is so thin and the confidence so delicate that an opposing player can single-handedly turn a 30-30 game at halftime into a blowout in 103 seconds.

That’s how long it took for Ricky Tarrant to drain a trio of 3-pointers to open the second half for Tulane, which came out of the locker room on a 20-0 run, needed just 6:27 to score more points (31) than it did in the entire first half and extended its lead to 30 points a mere 8:04 into the second. I have been covering sports a long time and never seen a tie game unravel like that.

While the fashion in which the Dutchmen lost was unique, the defeat itself—the seventh in a row for the Dutchmen, who fell to 0-5 since the four knuckleheads were arrested—was numbingly familiar to anyone who has seen this team over the last two seasons.

“We had a defensive breakdown to start the second half and [Tarrant] got comfortable and then made two tough shots,” Mo Cassara said. “And then again, we didn’t have the fortitude to kind of fight through that and get the game back close.”

1.) Yeah but that first half was pretty good. The Dutchmen led for almost 13 straight minutes and were up by seven with 6:30 to play before Tulane took the lead with an 8-0 run. The Dutchmen then showed some impressive resiliency in crawling back to tie the game by halftime. Matt Grogan corralled a loose ball and drained a long two-pointer as the shot clock expired before Daquan Brown (YES HE PLAYED HE ACTUALLY PLAYED) blocked a Tarrant jumper with two seconds left to preserve the 30-30 tie.

“I thought we really could have been up maybe eight or 10 points,” Cassara said. “I thought we shared the ball, I thought we moved the ball, I thought we battled on defense and I thought we changed defenses. Did a lot of great things.”

Said Tulane coach Ed Conroy: “[Hofstra] had us on our heels. They were playing harder than us, they were better than us and they had great intensity and focus and they were scoring at the end of the shot clock. They just had great resolve in all their possessions.”

2.) So what in the name of Duke Snider happened in the second half? The Dutchmen missed their first eight shots and committed five turnovers before Grogan drained a 3-pointer with 14:30 to play that “narrowed” the gap to 58-37. The second half numbers (12-of-33 shooting) looked respectable thanks to a game-ending 13-6 “run” by the Dutchmen in which they hit five of their final six shots, but that just spared the Dutchmen the ignobility of losing by 30 a game in which they were tied at the half.

“We’re all frustrated and we want to win,” Cassara said. “Wright State, Wagner, Manhattan, today—we’re right in every game, but it’s a couple critical plays at critical times where we aren’t able to fight through. So we’ve got to go back as a staff and look at that. Gotta find a way to gut out some wins.”

3.) For a depleted team, the Dutchmen did get some impressive balance. All 10 players who appeared in the game scored. Walk-on guards Grogan and Adam Savion combined to score 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting, which is the type of production the Dutchmen are going to need the rest of the way. Stevie Mejia remained cold from the field (4-of-14 against Tulane and 15-of-58 shooting during the seven-game losing streak) but had a team- and career-high eight rebounds as well as a game-high six assists. Brown (three blocks), Moussa Kone (two blocks) and Darren Payen (two blocks) combined for seven blocks, tying a Dutchmen season-high set against Purdue. And Jordan Allen continued his gradual improvement with eight points and two steals in 24 minutes.

4.) As evidenced by the blocked shots, Brown showed flashes of the talent that earned him a scholarship to Fresno State last year. But he also looked very much like someone who hadn’t played a competitive minute of basketball since the end of his sophomore season at Barstow College in the spring of 2011. In one sequence late in the second half, Brown mistimed his leap on an attempted block and then, on the other end of the floor, mistimed his jump as he went up for a layup. He’s definitely got some skills that can help the Dutchmen, but it’s going to be a while before he shakes off the rust.

“He’s got to kind of get caught up to speed, he hasn’t played in a while, so we’ll keep working with him,” Cassara said. “I think this next two or three weeks will be a big two or three weeks for his development, Hopefully he can help us moving forward.”

5.) Taran Buie led the Dutchmen with 15 points, but he had perhaps his worst game in a Hofstra uniform. He was just 4-of-12 from the field, including 3-of-9 from 3-point land, and committed a season-high seven turnovers, including three in as many possessions at the start of Tulane’s second half run. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but he seems to be in a funk since his attempts to single-handedly lift the Dutchmen past Long Island University on Dec. 8 resulted in an 88-84 loss in which Hofstra blew a 16-point second half lead. He scored 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting in that game but has just 26 points on 7-of-24 shooting against Wright State and Tulane. Buie is by far the best player the Dutchmen have and the lynchpin to any hopes of turning around this nightmarish season. For everyone’s sake, Buie can’t afford to have a Charles Jenkins- circa-January 2009 kind of tailspin.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Tulane, 12/22)

3: Stevie Mejia

2: Jordan Allen

1: Taran Buie

SEASON STANDINGS***

17: Taran Buie

13: Stevie Mejia

8: Stephen Nwaukoni

5: Jordan Allen

4: Moussa Kone

2: Matt Grogan

2: David Imes

***21 points vacated

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