Dollar Hot Dogs at winter homecoming today! Just don't think about what's in them.
The roller coaster ride might be taking another upward swing! The Dutchmen will look to win their third in a row (following a five-game losing streak, which followed an eight-game winning streak) this afternoon, when they host Towson in the winter homecoming game.
As will hopefully become the routine once again the rest of the season, I ran down the boilerplate material from Thursday night’s win over Northeastern in last night’s Keep It Perky. Today will be about the individual news and notes from that loss as well as a preview of the Tigers. Enjoy!
ANOTHER WIRE-TO-WIRE WIN
The Dutchmen never trailed Thursday night. It was their second straight wire-to-wire win, following last Saturday’s 73-57 victory over Monmouth, and the fourth of the season. The Dutchmen also never trailed in a 92-23 win over Division III Old Westbury 92-23 on Dec. 10 and in a 70-67 victory over Drexel on Jan. 3. This is the first time the Dutchmen have never trailed in consecutive wins since Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 2023, when they beat South Florida 82-63 before defeating Iona 62-57. The Dutchmen previously earned at least two straight wire-to-wire wins in the CAA from Feb. 11-16, 2023, when they did it three straight times against Monmouth (86-57), Drexel (66-52) and Hampton (73-43).
PRESTO!
Preston Edmead continued the most impressive freshman season by a Hofstra player this decade Saturday afternoon, when he flirted with a triple-double by scoring 23 points while adding nine rebounds and eight assists. The nine rebounds were a season- and career-high (obvs) for Edmead, breaking his previous mark of eight rebounds in a 76-71 loss to Stony Brook on Jan. 15. The eight assists tied a season- and career-high set twice previously, most recently last Saturday in a 73-57 win over Monmouth. He has 23 assists over the last three games after collecting just 22 assists in the first eight CAA games dating back to Dec. 29. And the 23 points were one shy of his season- and career-high set Jan. 10 in a 67-64 overtime win over Monmouth. Edmead has scored in double figures in 20 games this season, the most double-figure scoring efforts by a Hofstra freshman since Eli Pemberton scored in double figures 21 times in 31 games in 2016-17. Edmead’s 378 points (15.8 ppg) through 24 games are 20 more than Antoine Agudio had through 24 games during his freshman season in 2004-05 and 22 more than Speedy Claxton had through 24 games during his freshman season in 1996-97. Pretty good company.
PRESTON VS. SPEEDY
Speaking of which…Preston Edmead’s first 24 games as a true freshman point guard have been just as impressive as Speedy Claxton’s first 24 games as a true freshman point guard way back in 1996-97.
Speedy Claxton: 14.8 points per game/3.3 assists per game/4.6 rebounds per game
Preston Edmead: 15.8 ppg/4.5 apg/3.3 rpg
Pretty quirky and neat!
PRESTON’S TRIPLE-DOUBLE WATCH
Preston Edmead did a little more than flirt with a triple-double Thursday night, when he finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Edmead is the first Hofstra player with at least 20 points, eight rebounds and eighth assists in a single game since Cruz Davis had 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a 95-61 win over Division II Molloy on Nov. 10 and the first player to post such a line against a Division I foe since Aaron Estrada had 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the 89-81 upset of then-no. 24 Arkansas on Dec. 18, 2021. He is the sixth Hofstra player to finish with at least 10 points, eight rebounds and eight assists since Juan’ya Green posted the lone triple-double in school history Dec. 28, 2014, when he had 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in an 88-62 win over Long Island University at Barclays Center. In addition, Edmead is the first Hofstra freshman with at least 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists since Chaz Williams had 20 points, eight rebounds and nine assists in a 75-64 win over Drexel on Feb. 10, 2010. And speaking of that line…
PRESTON AND DYBANTSA
…Preston Edmead is the second Division I freshman this season to record at least 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in a game since BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, the likely no. 1 pick in this June’s NBA Draft, posted a triple-double with 33 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the Cougars’ 109-81 win over Eastern Washington on Dec. 22. Once again, pretty good company And thus, Edmead will be the no. 1 pick in the 2027 draft, after he comes back to Hofstra for his sophomore season. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.
CRUZ-IN
Cruz Davis continued bouncing back from his mini-slump Thursday night, when he scored 16 points while adding eight assists and four rebounds. The eight assists were one shy of his season- and career-high, set in the 70-69 upset win over Syracuse on Dec. 13. Davis, whose streak of 21 straight double-digit scoring efforts ended when he was held to seven points in the 66-64 loss to Charleston on Jan 29, has 40 points on 15-of-26 shooting from the field, including 5-of-12 from 3-point land, over his last two games after going 8-of-35 from the field, including 3-of-16 from beyond the arc, against William & Mary and Charleston from Jan. 24-29. Davis has scored in double figures in 44 of the 55 games in which he’s played for Hofstra after reaching double figures just five times over 28 games in his first two seasons at Iona and St. John’s. The Dutchmen are 27-17 when Davis scores in double figures.
CRUZ-IN TOWARDS 1,000 POINTS
Cruz Davis inched closer to an impressive milestone Thursday night, when his 16 points increased his total at Hofstra to 971 points. That leaves him (carries the one, drops the remainder) 29 points shy of joining the 1,000-point club. There are 42 members of the 1,000-point club at Hofstra, which was joined most recently by Darlinstone Dubar and Tyler Thomas during the 2023-24 season.
DECADY DANCE
Joshua DeCady returned from a two-game injury absence and had another solid all-around game Thursday night, when he finished with 15 points, one rebound and one steal in 21 minutes off the bench. DeCady, who scored his first 12 points in the final 9:22 of the first half as the Dutchmen took control with a 21-14 run, played a reserve role after starting his previous 12 games dating back to Dec. 7. He has scored in double figures six times in 22 games this season after doing so just three times in the 25 games in which he played last season.
VICTORY!
Junior newcomer Victory Onuetu emerged from a lengthy slump Thursday night, when he had six points, 12 rebounds and two blocks in 26 minutes off the bench. Onuetu entered Thursday with just eight points and 28 rebounds over his previous five games, a span in which he fouled out three times and was ejected once. Most of that production came Jan. 24, when Onuetu had eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds in an 89-82 loss to William & Mary. Onuetu has recorded at least 10 rebounds eight times in 24 games this season.
GERMAN FOR STARTERS
German Plotnikov had another one of his patented solid glue guy games Saturday afternoon, when he finished with 10 points while adding one rebound, one assist and two steals over 30 minutes. Plotnikov was 0-for-3 from 3-point land but went 5-for-6 from inside the arc as he scored in double figures without draining a 3-pointer for the first time at Hofstra. He has scored at least seven points in 17 of the 22 games in which he’s played this season after scoring at least eight points 34 times in his first 95 games over the previous three seasons. Plotnikov has also scored in a career-high 31 straight games dating back to last Feb. 8.
BIGGIE GOES SIX-SEVEN
Heh. Six-seven. Sorry, I have a 13-year-old. Anyway, Biggie Patterson bounced back from a rough game against Monmouth by finishing with six points and seven rebounds over 24 minutes Thursday night. Patterson, who was scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting while adding one rebound in last Saturday’s 73-57 win over Monmouth, has (does the math) six points and eight rebounds in the last two games after collecting 37 points and 14 rebounds in his previous two games against William & Mary and Charleston from Jan. 24-29. The Dutchmen improved to 7-7 with Patterson in the starting lineup. They are 6-0 when he comes off the bench.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
Silas Sunday continued chipping in where needed Thursday night, when he had two points, three rebounds and three blocks over 11 minutes. The 11 minutes marked the fifth time in CAA play Sunday has played fewer than 20 minutes. The three blocks tied a season- and career-high set 10 times previously, most recently Jan. 29 in the 66-64 loss to Charleston. Sunday has also scored in all 24 games this season after scoring in 26 of 33 games last season.
JAEDEN JUMPS INTO ACTION
Freshman Jaeden Roberts snapped a two-game scoreless streak at just about the last possible moment Thursday night, when his dunk with 26 seconds left accounted for the final points of the game. Roberts, who also drew a foul over two minutes, has played eight minutes over the last three games after averaging 7.5 points over 13.6 minutes per game in the 11 previous games in which he played from Dec. 7 through Jan. 24. The Dutchmen are 13-4 in Roberts’ appearances.
JUST JOSH-IN
Graduate student Joshua Aaron Reaves, who emerged as a member of the rotation over the previous three games, was scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting from 3-point land while adding one rebound over six minutes Thursday night. Reaves entered Thursday with 26 points and 11 rebounds over his previous three games after recording just 10 points — all against non-Division I foes — over 71 minutes in his first 12 appearances of the season. He didn’t play in four straight games prior to his appearance against William & Mary on Jan. 24 and sat for 10 of the Dutchmen’s first 20 games.
CLUB TRILLION FOR TSYNKEVICH
Graduate student Alex Tsynkevich ended each half on the floor Thursday night, when he played 2:01 without recording a stat. Tsynkevich has played in a season-high three straight games, his longest streak at the Division I level since he played in three straight games for Alcorn State from Mar. 2-7, 2024.
OVER THE AIR
This afternoon’s game is slated to be carried live on CBS Sports Network, which is channel 215 in the Optimum/Altice Are Our Overlords Universe, at least until our Optimum/Altice overlords decide to drop CBSSN in a carriage dispute. Not-so-fun fact: The Dutchmen have lost their last six games on CBS Sports Network and squandered a double-digit lead in all except the most recent defeat, an 89-85 loss to ELO on Jan. 17. Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
SCOUTING TOWSON
The Tigers, under 15th-year head coach Pat Skerry, are 13-11 this season and 5-6 in CAA play following an 82-50 win over Hampton last Saturday. Towson has won four of six since opening 0-4 in league action.
The Dutchmen and Tigers had one common opponent during non-league play. The Dutchmen opened their season Nov. 3 with an 82-78 loss to Central Florida, which beat Towson 86-61 on Dec. 7. In CAA play, both teams have beaten Northeastern and Drexel and lost to William & Mary and North Carolina A&T. The Dutchmen swept Monmouth, which beat Towson, and lost to Charleston and ELO, each of whom the Tigers defeated.
The Dutchmen, who were picked to finish tied for eighth in the CAA preseason poll, are ranked a CAA-best 110th at KenPom.com. The Dutchmen are back in the top spot after a one-game sabbatical following UNC Wilmington’s 85-78 loss to William & Mary on Thursday night. The Dutchmen are 52 spots higher than they were to open the season but 13 spots lower than their season-high entering the Jan. 10 game against Monmouth. The Tigers, who were picked to finish first, are ranked 163rd — 21 spots lower than their preseason ranking and 43 spots lower than their season-high entering a game against UC San Diego on Nov. 26 but also nine spots higher than their ranking prior to last Saturday’s win.
According to KenPom.com, the Dutchmen rank second in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (115.4 points per 100 possessions) and seventh in defensive efficiency (109.2 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 65.0 possessions per 40 minutes, the 11th-most in league play. The Tigers rank 10th in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (104.6 points per 100 possessions) and third in defensive efficiency (103.5 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 65.5 possessions per 40 minutes, the 10th-most in league play.
The Tigers return five players from last year’s team, including Tyler Tejada — the reigning CAA Player of the Year and preseason player of the year — as well as Dylan Williamson, who joined Tejada on the preseason all-CAA first team. Tejada, a true junior who has spent his entire career at Towson, leads the Tigers with 16.4 points per game and ranks second with 5.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, but he missed last Saturday’s game. Williamson, a redshirt junior who has also played his entire career for Towson, is averaging 14.5 points and a team-high 3.5 assists per game. Graduate student Jack Doumbia Jr., who played one season apiece at Cloud County Community College and Tallahassee Community College before spending two years at Norfolk State and one year at Wright State, is third on the Tigers with 10.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. True sophomore Caleb Embeya, another returnee, is averaging a team-high 5.8 rebounds per game.
KenPom.com predicts a 70-64 win for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 3 1/2-point favorites. That’s a pretty big difference. The Dutchmen are 13-9 against the spread this season after covering their last two games following a six-game spread losing streak.
THE ECC RACE
Yes, this is still a thing to me, hello Litos. Delaware is long gone in search of a good place to get lost in El Paso and Las Cruces, but Hofstra, Drexel and Towson remain and are playing an actual round-robin this season. So we can do standings! Which I would probably do regardless. Anyway, the Dutchmen can clinch this very real championship today by completing a season sweep of the Tigers. Quirky!
HOFSTRA 2-0
Towson 1-1
Drexel 0-2
THE CAA RACE
OK fine here’s a real race with real stakes. And while it’s a little early to start wondering about the seeding implications of each game, we do need to take a moment to marvel at the crazy balance/parity in the CAA, where nine of the 13 teams are either 6-5 or 5-6. How many teams are either 6-5 or 5-6?
Charleston 9-2
UNC Wilmington 8-2
Drexel 6-5
HOFSTRA 6-5
William & Mary 6-5
Monmouth 6-5
Stony Brook 6-5
Towson 5-6
Hampton 5-6
Campbell 5-6
ELO 5-6
Northeastern 2-9
North Carolina A&T 2-9
I broke the ties via records within each group. Not sure if that’s the correct way to go about things this early in the season, but regardless, there’s nine teams at 6-5 or 5-6! And there is a chance EVERY team in that group will be 6-6 after today except Monmouth, who is off. That’d be a pretty good Saturday for the Hawks (but not the Dutchmen)
THE GAME BEFORE THE BIG GAME
Sure, the Super Bowl is tomorrow, but everyone knows the biggest game of the weekend is this afternoon! And because it seemed like a quirky thing to do, I looked up the Flying Dutchmen’s record in their final game before the Super Bowl. And it is…29-30! But it was 29-29 before the Dutchmen’s pre-Super Bowl winning streak ended at five games last Feb. 8, when they fell to Stony Brook, 80-75, at winter homecoming. Oh no. Fun fact: The Dutchmen have played ON Super Bowl Sunday six times, most recently on Feb. 7, 2021, when the Dutchmen beat Drexel 79-74 hours before the Buccaneers beat the Chiefs.
ALL-TIME VS. TOWSON
Hofstra is 49-31 against Towson in a series that began during the 1982-83 season, when both schools were in the East Coast Conference. The Dutchmen won the first meeting between the rivals this season on Jan. 8, when Cruz Davis scored 32 points in a 78-67 victory.
Hofstra and Towson opposed one another in the ECC and the North Atlantic Conference/America East before moving together to the CAA for the 2001-02 school year. Hofstra has faced only two opponents as often as it’s faced Towson: Fellow longtime ECC/NAC/A-East/CAA rival Drexel as well as Delaware. Sigh.
Last year marked just the third time since 1982-83 that Hofstra and Towson were in the same conference but played each other just once in the regular season. The teams also played once apiece due to the unbalanced schedule in 2011-12 and 2023-24.
WINTER HOMECOMING
Everyone knows real homecoming is in the fall with football, but, well, you know what happened there. The Dutchmen fell to 4-1 in winter homecoming last Feb. 8, when Stony Brook earned an 80-75 win. Sigh. It was the fourth winter homecoming game decided by five points or fewer or in overtime. The 2021 homecoming game against Charleston, which was going to be played without fans due to the pandemic, was canceled due to, yup, the pandemic. Towson will be the second two-time winter homecoming opponent for the Dutchmen.
2/8/20: Hofstra 75, Northeastern 71
2/5/22: Hofstra 85, James Madison 78 (OT)
2/4/23: Hofstra 79, Stony Brook 58
2/3/24: Hofstra 59, Towson 56
2/8/25: Stony Brook 80, Hofstra 75
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER (OR BLUESKY) IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Let Pat Skerry have the Super Bowl tomorrow bias! (The Massachusetts native is one of the few Patriots fans who rooted for the team pre-Belichick and Brady)
Richie Palacios bias! (The Rays utility man played at Towson and has also appeared in the majors with the Guardians and Cardinals, in case it ever comes up in a certain grid game)
Your college newspaper was originally named The Oriole bias! (At least according to Wikipedia, which is never wrong)
The Orioles are giving out Pete Alonso and Tupac bobbleheads this year! (Not on the same day, though)
