The Flying Dutchmen won the only must-win game of the year Wednesday night, when they frittered away most of a 23-point second half lead before re-asserting Island supremacy by edging SUNY-Stony Brook, 72-67. The Dutchmen are scheduled to take a third shot at getting over .500 for the first time tonight, when they are slated to head to the Jersey shore to visit Monmouth. Here’s a look back at the win over the Patriots and a look ahead to the Hawks.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Tareq Coburn (19 points, eight rebounds) led all scorers for a second straight game, but it was Jalen Ray who hit the biggest shots as the Dutchmen avoided an epic collapse at the Arena. Ray was just 2-of-9 from the field when he sank a jumper with 2:41 left that stopped a 22-2 run by SUNY-Stony Brook. Mouhamadou Gueye followed with a dunk for the Patriots to pull them back within 64-61 and Ray missed a 3-pointer, but with a chance to tie the score, Juan Felix Rodriguez turned the ball over on the subsequent possession and Ray followed with another jumper to extend the lead back to five. Gueye then hit two free throws but freshman Vukasin Masic sealed the victory with his first career basket. Caleb Burgess cemented his grip on the point guard spot by scoring a career-high 12 points and adding six assists while committing just one turnover. Isaac Kante (15 points, eight rebounds) flirted with a double-double and Ray finished with 10 points.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. SUNY-Stony Brook 12/9)
3: Tareq Coburn
2: Caleb Burgess
1: Jalen Ray
SEASON STANDINGS
Tareq Coburn 9
Jalen Ray 5
Isaac Kante 5
KVonn Cramer 3
Caleb Burgess 2
COACHSPEAK: “I thought we played 32 good minutes. Great energy — what we didn’t have the other night in the second half against Iona, we had tonight.”—acting head coach Mike Farrelly
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
No! And it didn’t take long to figure that out. The Dutchmen beat Central Connecticut, 72-67, on Dec. 15, 2014 for Joe Mihalich’s third win at the helm. As the child of a pair of Central Connecticut grads, I may or may not have dubbed that The Beach Bowl.
The Dutchmen have yet to record a unicorn score this season. C’mon guys, get with it. The Dutchmen recorded 13 unicorn score victories last season, three more than in 2018-19, which was when we first started tracking unicorn scores. The term unicorn score was coined by Mets superfan, historian and blogger Greg Prince to describe a score by which the Mets had never previously won.
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER FOUR GAMES
As you have probably gathered by now, the Dutchmen are 2-2, which is tied for the 34th-best start in program history. Thirty other teams began 2-2, most recently last year’s squad. Things turned out OK after that. This is the third straight 2-2 start for the Dutchmen, the program’s longest stretch of 2-2 starts since a five-season stretch from 1941-42 through 1945-46. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through four games.
NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 2-2
1976-77: 3-1
1999-2000: 2-2
2000-01: 4-0
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 2-2
NIT TEAMS
1998-99: 1-3
2004-05: 4-0 (most recent 4-0 start)
2005-06: 2-1
2006-07: 1-3
2015-16: 3-1
2018-19: 2-2
NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1958-59: 2-2
1961-62: 3-1
1962-63: 2-2
1963-64: 3-1
Other notable four-game starts:
2017-18: 3-1 (most recent 3-1 start)
2013-14: 1-3 (most recent 1-3 start)
1994-95: 1-3 (Jay Wright’s first team)
1993-94: 0-4 (VBK’s last team, most recent 0-4 start)
This feature is inspired by Mets superfan and blogger Greg Prince, who measures how the current Mets compare, record-wise, to previous teams through the same point in the season.
WHO STILL RULES THE ISLAND?
Hofstra does, of course. The win last Wednesday was the Flying Dutchmen’s fifth straight over SUNY-Stony Brook and the sixth in seven seasons since the series resumed in 2014. Hofstra is 25-22-1 in all sports against SUNY-Stony Brook since the two schools began scheduling each other again in the spring of 2014, including 20-11-1 since the 2016-17 school year began. (To be fair, Hofstra is 1-1 this year following the Flying Dutchwomen’s 63-52 loss to SUNY-Stony Brook on Monday afternoon)
FOUR FOR FARRELLY
Acting head coach Mike Farrelly improved to 2-2 at the helm with the win over SUNY-Stony Brook. He is the first head coach to open 2-2 since Butch van Breda Kolff did so in his second stint in 1988-89 and the eighth to do so overall. Jack McDonald (1936-37), Jack Smith (1943-44), Paul Lynner (1962-63), Roger Gaeckler (1972-73), Joe Harrington (1979-80) and Dick Berg (1980-81) are the others. Mo Cassara (2010-11) and Joe Mihalich (2013-14) each opened 1-3 while Tom Pecora opened 3-1 in 2001-02. Frank Reilly (1947-48) and van Breda Kolff (1955-56) each began 4-0 while McDonald began his second stint at 3-1 in 1946-47.
STILL NOT TWO UNDER .500
The win Monday also ensured the Dutchmen would not fall two games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2016-17 season. Only 65 other Division I teams have gone as long or longer without falling two games under .500, including 56 programs whose streak predates the 2016-17 finale and nine others who were last two games under .500 as of the end of their ’16-17 season.
Among true mid-majors (defined by me as schools outside the Power 6, AAC, A-10, West Coast and Mountain West), Hofstra’s streak is exceeded by just 13 schools and matched by two more. Two schools fell off the list last week as Charleston lost on Wednesday and UNC Greensboro lost on Thursday to fall two games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2014-15 season and the end of the 2015-16 season, respectively. Here’s the full list and the date the program was most recently two games under .500:
Louisiana Tech: 2/16/12
New Mexico State: 1/3/15
UAB: 1/17/15
Furman: end of ’14-15
Vermont: 12/8/15
Northern Kentucky: end of ’15-16
Loyola Chicago: end of ’15-16
Georgia Southern: 11/22/16
Belmont: 11/25/16
Liberty: 1/3/17
Buffalo: 1/31/17
Murray State: 2/25/17
South Dakota State: 2/18/17
HOFSTRA: end of ’16-17
Hawaii: end of ’16-17
Western Kentucky: end of ’16-17
WHEW
The Dutchmen led by as many as 23 points Wednesday night before SUNY-Stony Brook got as close as three points a handful of times in the last three minutes. That marked the biggest near-blown lead for the Dutchmen since Feb. 14, 2019, when they led by 24 points in the second half of a 99-95 win over Charleston.
EIGHT WAS ENOUGH
The Dutchmen had eight players score in the first half Wednesday, the most players they’ve put into the scorebook before halftime since eight players scored in the first half of a 94-74 win over — whoa — Monmouth on Nov. 9, 2019.
TORRID TAREQ
So far, the answer to who is going to replace the production of Desure Buie and Eli Pemberton is Tareq Coburn. The senior remained hot Wednesday, when he scored 19 points while shooting 7-of-11 from the field. Coburn has shot 54.1 percent (20-of-37) while scoring 68 points in the Dutchmen’s last three games. It’s his highest-scoring three-game stretch as well as his best shooting performance over three games since he shot 63.3 percent (19-of-30) against Rider, Manhattan and SUNY-Stony Brook from Dec. 8-19, 2018.
CALEB’S THE BURGEONING POINT GUARD
The competition to replace Buie at point guard, meanwhile, ended almost as quickly as it began. Caleb Burgess had a second straight strong game Wednesday, when he set career-highs with 12 points in 35 minutes while dishing out six assists, one shy of the career-high set the previous game against Iona, and committing no turnovers. Burgess has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 13/1 over the last two games, which is the most assists with one turnover or fewer over a two-game span since Buie also had a 13/1 assist-to-turnover ratio against UNC Wilmington and Towson on Feb. 16-21, 2019. Any doubt the job belongs to Burgess was removed last week when junior college transfer Shawndarius Cowart, who was expected to battle for the job with Burgess, left the team after playing four games and entered the transfer portal.
WELCOME TO THE ALL-TIME SCORING LIST
Freshmen David Green and Vukasin Masic scored their first collegiate points in bookend fashion Wednesday. Green, who started and went scoreless in his first three games, scored all five of his points Wednesday in the first 2:41. Masic, inserted into the game in the final minute because KVonn Cramer had four fouls, drained the most clutch first career basket in memory by hitting a baseline layup with 31 seconds left left to put the Dutchmen up 68-63.
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’s game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN3. Hofstra will provide a radio feed, as well as live stats, at the Pride Productions hub.
MONMOUTH AND THE MAAC
Monmouth, under 10th-year head coach King Rice, is scheduled to open its season tonight. The Hawks and Hofstra were scheduled to open the season Nov. 25, but that game was postponed hours before opening tip after a Tier 1 member of the Monmouth program tested positive for the coronavirus. The positive result forced Monmouth to cancel games against Maryland (Dec. 1) and St. Francis (Dec. 4).
This is expected to be the only non-conference game for Monmouth, which is scheduled to open MAAC play against Saint Peter’s on Friday. I joined The Hawks Nest Podcast over the weekend to discuss the game, check out the podcast here.
Monmouth was picked to finish third in the preseason MAAC coaches poll after going 18-13 and finishing tied for third in the MAAC with a 12-6 league mark last season. Senior guard Deion Hammond was named to the preseason all-MAAC first team after earning first-team honors last season, when he led the Hawks with 16.3 points per game.
This is the fourth straight season in which Hofstra and Monmouth have opposed each other. The Dutchmen are 4-6 all-time against Monmouth but have won the last three games, including last season, when Hofstra cruised to a 94-74 win on Long Island.
At KenPom.com this morning, Hofstra is ranked 160th while Monmouth is ranked 188th. KenPom.com predicts a 74-73 loss for the Dutchmen. Why don’t you believe in us, Ken? Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 1-point underdogs. The Dutchmen are 2-2 against the spread this season.
Hofstra is 102-119 all-time against current MAAC schools. The loss to Iona on Dec. 5 snapped a six-game winning streak for the Dutchmen against the MAAC. This marks the 14th time in the last 15 seasons the Dutchmen are scheduled to play at least two MAAC schools (the 2014-15 schedule had no MAAC teams).
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Rum ham bias! (Mac and Frank ate rum ham while Dee and Dennis had a nightmarish experience at the Jersey shore)
Sun block drink bias! (That’s how Charlie tripped out)
Chris Hogan bias! (The AFC East-touring wide receiver played football at Monmouth, cool, I-AA football attention!)
North Carolina blue blood bias! (Rice and assistant coach J.R. Reid both played for North Carolina back when I rooted for the Tar Heels instead of Hofstra)
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