Not pictured: Sixteen-year-old me doing my own King Rice celebration impersonation in my living room.
The most remarkable streak in college basketball continued Saturday afternoon, when the Flying Dutchmen once again never trailed by more than a possession on their way to a 75-62 win over William & Mary. The Dutchmen will once again be the lone CAA team captivating the nation tonight, when they host Monmouth in the first league game between a pair of teams who used to be nearly annual non-conference foes. Here’s a look back at the win over the Tribe and a look ahead to the Hawks.
THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Aaron Estrada and Tyler Thomas scored 20 points apiece as the Flying Dutchmen put together a workmanlike win in Williamsburg. After Thomas scored eight points in a game-opening 19-10 run, William & Mary went on a 13-2 run to take its second and last lead. The Dutchmen then went on an 8-0 run by scoring on their next four possessions before carrying a 37-31 lead into the half. William & Mary got within two points three times early in the second before Estrada scored seven points in a 22-3 run that gave the Dutchmen a 63-42 lead midway through the half. The Dutchmen then took the air out of the ball the rest of the way and hoisted just 14 shots the rest of the way. Estrada had seven assists and no turnovers along with four rebounds while Thomas added three assists and six rebounds. Darlinstone Dubar finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks while Jaquan Carlos added 11 points. Warren Williams had eight points, eight rebounds and four blocks and Nelson Boachie-Yiadom added five blocks and four rebounds.
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. William & Mary, 1/7)
3: Aaron Estrada
2: Tyler Thomas
1: Darlinstone Dubar
SEASON STANDINGS
Aaron Estrada 33
Tyler Thomas 22
Darlinstone Dubar 21
Jaquan Carlos 9
Amar’e Marshall 6
Warren Williams 5
Nelson Boachie-Yiadom 5
Griffin Barrouk 1
WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?
No! But the Dutchmen’s previous 75-62 win — over Fordham on Nov. 23, 1985 — was all the way back in the opening game of the final season of the pre-shot clock era. I was in seventh grade and watching in real time all the music videos I post for nostalgic 3-point plays!
The Dutchmen have four unicorn score victories this season after recording 11 unicorn score victories last season, no unicorn scores in 2020-21, 13 unicorn scores in 2019-20 and 10 unicorn scores in 2018-19. 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. You may also know it as a “Scorigami,” a term popularized in the NFL.
WHO HAD THE KEITH HERNANDEZ?
Aaron Estrada made it two straight Keith Hernandezes by putting the Dutchmen ahead for good at 25-23 with a tie-breaking jumper with 8:37 left in the first half. All three of Estrada’s Keith Hernandezes have come in the first half, which is exactly the type of thing that major league hitters did when the game-winning RBI was a thing, which is why it’s not a thing anymore. But the hold remains. Anyway!
Jaquan Carlos tie-breaking 3-pointer vs. Princeton, 11/7/22 (1:11 left 2H)
Tyler Thomas tie-breaking 3-pointer vs. Iona, 11/11/22 (:35.2 left 2H)
Darlinstone Dubar go-ahead layup vs. George Washington, 11/14/22 (5:09 left 2H)
German Plotnikov go-ahead 3-pointer vs. San Jose State. 11/17/22 (6:32 left 2H)
Tyler Thomas tie-breaking jumper vs. UNC Greensboro, 11/26/22 (14:56 left 1H)
Aaron Estrada go-ahead jumper vs. Quinnipiac, 11/27/22 (17:28 left 1H)
Tyler Thomas go-ahead 3-pointer vs. Old Westbury, 12/22/22 (19:02 left 1H)
Tyler Thomas tie-breaking jumper vs. Delaware, 12/29/22 (19:42 left 1H)
Aaron Estrada tie-breaking 3-pointer vs. Hampton, 1/5/23 (19:27 left 1H)
Aaron Estrada tie-breaking jumper vs. William & Mary, 1/7/23 (8:37 left 1H)
Estrada is now just one Keith Hernandez behind Tyler Thomas in this prestigious category.
Tyler Thomas 4
Aaron Estrada 3
Jaquan Carlos 1
Darlinstone Dubar 1
German Plotnikov 1
The Keith Hernandez is bestowed upon the player who scores the points that put the Dutchmen ahead for good in a victory. The stat pays homage to Hernandez, the World Series-winning Cardinals and Mets first baseman who had a record 129 game-winning RBIs when the stat was inexplicably discontinued after the 1988 season.
THE FLYING DUTCHMEN AFTER SEVENTEEN GAMES
With Saturday’s win, the Dutchmen improved to 10-7. In addition to being a good enough record to make the NFL playoffs the last two seasons (why’d they mess up a good thing?). This ties the 2022-23 team for the 32nd-best record in school history through 17 games. This marks the Dutchmen’s second straight 10-7 start and the 11th 10-7 start in program history. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through 17 games:
NCAA DIVISION I TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1975-76: 9-8
1976-77: 12-5
1999-2000: 12-5
2000-01: 13-4 (marked fifth win in program-record 18-game winning streak)
2019-20 (IT COUNTS TO US): 12-5 (most recent 12-5 start)
NIT TEAMS
1998-99: 11-6
2004-05: 11-6
2005-06: 13-4
2006-07: 12-5
2015-16: 12-5
2018-19: 14-3 (most recent 14-3 start, win in 17th game marked 11th win in the 16-game winning streak)
NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS
1958-59: 12-5
1961-62: 15-2 (loss in 17th game snapped 14-game winning streak, most recent 15-2 start)
1962-63: 11-6
1963-64: 14-3
Some other notable 17-game starts:
2020-21: 11-6 (most recent 11-6 start)
2016-17: 9-8 (most recent 9-8 start, last time over .500)
2014-15: 13-4 (most recent 13-4 start)
2013-14: 6-11 (most recent 6-11 start, Joe Mihalich’s first team)
2012-13: 5-12 (most recent 5-12 start)
2008-09: 10-6 (most recent 10-6 start)
2007-08: 4-13 (most recent 4-13 start)
2003-04: 7-10 (most recent 7-10 start)
1994-95: 3-14 (most recent 3-14 start, Jay Wright’s first team)
1993-94: 2-15 (only 2-15 start, worst 17-game start in school history, VBK’s last team)
1990-91: 8-9 (most recent 8-9 start, last time under .500)
1987-88: 4-13 (loss in 17th game was seventh loss of program-record 13-game losing streak)
1985-86: 8-9 (last time under .500)
1964-65: 9-8 (last time over .500)
1959-60: 16-1 (most recent 16-1 start & Hofstra’s winningest team, percentage-wise; win in 17th game was sixth win of season-ending 13-game winning streak)
1957-58: 13-4 (loss in 17th game snapped 10-game winning streak)
1939-40: 9-8 (over .500 for good)
1936-37: 7-10 (season complete)
Hofstra has never been 17-0, 1-16 or 0-17 through 17 games.
One season was completed in fewer than 17 games:
1937-38 (10-4)
Full records not available for the following seasons: 1936-37, 1941-42, 1942-43, 1945-46, 1948-49, 1949-50, 1951-52, 1954-55, 1957-58.
This feature is inspired by Greg Prince, who measures how the current Mets compare, record-wise, to previous teams through the same point in the season.
NUMBER TEN THROUGH FORTY-NINE
With Saturday’s win, Speedy Claxton improved to 31-18 (.633) as head coach. That’s tied with Butch van Breda Kolff for the second-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 49 games at the helm. A tie!
Paul Lynner 39-10 (.796, 49th game was the 19th game of his second season in 1963-64)
Butch van Breda Kolff I 31-18 (.633, 49th game was the 23rd game of his second season in 1956-57)
SPEEDY CLAXTON 31-18 (.633, 49th game was the 17th game of his second season in 2022-23)
Mo Cassara 27-22 (.551, 49th game was the 16th game of his second season in 2011-12)
Dick Berg 23-26 (.469, 49th game was the 22nd game of his second season in 1981-82)
Butch van Breda Kolff II 23-26 (.469, 49th game was the 20th game of his second season in 1989-90)
Joe Mihalich 22-27 (.449, 49th game was the 16th game of his second season in 2014-15)
Jay Wright 17-32 (.347, 49th game was the 21st game of his second season in 1995-96)
Tom Pecora 16-33 (.327, 49th game was the 17th game of his second season in 2002-03)
Roger Gaeckler 16-33 (.327, 49th game was the first game of his third season in 1974-75)
The records are incomplete for Jack McDonald’s first stint from 1936 through 1943 as well as the tenures of Jack Smith (1943-46) and Frank Reilly (1947-55).
Three coaches had one-season tenures lasting fewer than 33 games at Hofstra. McDonald went 18-6 in the lone season of his second stint in 1946-47 while Joe Harrington went 14-14 in 1979-80 and Mike Farrelly went 13-10 in 2020-21.
(Fun fact: Hofstra won in van Breda Kolff’s 50th game at the helm)
WINNING IN THE NEW YEAR (again)
The win Saturday afternoon improved the Dutchmen to 2-0 this month and kept them on pace for the winningest calendar year in program history. #Facts This is the seventh time this century the Dutchmen have opened at least 2-0 in January. The Dutchmen are looking to open 3-0 in January for the first time since 2019, when they went 7-0 and the CAA just went ahead and gave them the automatic bid because there was no reason to play the rest of the season.
ONE POSSESSION OBSESSION
The Dutchmen trailed just twice — at 5-3 and 23-21 — for a total of 43 seconds Saturday. They’ve now trailed for 106 seconds (that’s 1:43, kids) over the last five games, a span in which they’ve never trailed by more than one possession yet only gone 4-1 (still hard to believe). Old Westbury led 2-0 for 15 seconds in the Dutchmen’s 96-48 win on Dec. 22 and the Dutchmen led wire-to-wire in an 87-73 win over Delaware on Dec. 29. North Carolina A&T led by one point twice for a total of 48 seconds early in the first half Dec. 31 before breaking a tie at the buzzer of the Aggies’ 81-79 win and the Dutchmen led Hampton wire-to-wire last Thursday.
THE DEFENSE DIDN’T REST (part one)
After limiting William & Mary to 62 points Saturday, the Dutchmen are now 4-1 this season when allowing fewer than 70 points and 13-3 in such games under Speedy Claxton.
THE DEFENSE DIDN’T REST (part two)
William & Mary shot just 29.3 percent (12-of-41) from inside the 3-point line Saturday. It was the lowest 2-point field goal percentage by a Hofstra opponent since Dec. 28, 2018, when Delaware shot 29.7 percent (11-of-37) from inside the arc in the Dutchmen’s 91-46 win.
TWO TWENTY-SOMETHINGS
Aaron Estrada and Tyler Thomas led the way for the Dutchmen Saturday afternoon, when they scored 20 points apiece. Per research by Hofstra SID Stephen Gorchov and WRHU alums Kevin Dexter and Rob Joyce, the Dutchmen are now 26-12 since the start of the 2013-14 season (Joe Mihalich’s first season) when at least two players score 20 points. The Dutchmen are 3-0 this season when two players score at least 20 points, Thomas (26 points) and Darlinstone Dubar (22 points) led the way for the Dutchmen in an 83-78 win over Iona on Nov. 11 before Estrada scored 31 points and Thomas added 20 points in an 87-73 win over Delaware on Dec. 29.
EXCELLENT ESTRADA
The 20-point game was the second straight for Aaron Estrada, his ninth in 14 games this season and the 25th time he’s scored at least 20 points in the 46 games he’s played for Hofstra since the start of last season. Estrada had just one 20-point game in his first 37 games for Saint Peter’s and Oregon.
ESTRADA’S STAT STUFFER (the good and the—wait, just the good)
One game after finishing with 20 points, five assists and seven turnovers against Hampton, Aaron Estrada collected 20 points and seven assists without turning the ball over Saturday. He’s the first Hofstra player to have at least 20 points and five assists with no turnovers since Desure Buie had 21 points, five assists and no turnovers in a 91-69 win over Holy Cross on Dec. 1, 2019. Prior to Saturday, the previous Hofstra player to finish with at least 20 points and seven assists with no turnovers was Juan’ya Green, who had 30 points and seven assists (plus eight rebounds) with no turnovers in a 91-63 win over William & Mary on Jan. 24, 2016.
NO DOUBTING THOMAS
The 20-point effort for Thomas was his third of the season and the 19th of his career dating back to his freshman season at Sacred Heart in 2019-20.
QUADS IN DOUBLE DIGITS
Four players scored in double figures for the Dutchmen Saturday, when Darlinstone Dubar (14 points) and Jaquan Carlos (11 points) provided the complimentary scoring behind Aaron Estrada and Tyler Thomas. It was the third straight game in which the Dutchmen had four double-digit scorers and the fifth time this season they’ve had at least four players score 10 points in a game. Thomas, Dubar, Estrada, Carlos and German Plotnikov all reached double figures in the 83-78 win over Iona on Nov. 11.
DUBAR SHOPPING AT THE FIVE AND DIME
Darlinstone Dubar finished with 14 points and five rebounds Saturday. It marked the ninth time this season he’s had at least 10 points and five rebounds in a game and the 22nd time he’s done so in 49 games since arriving at Hofstra last season.
IT’S A BLOCK PARTY (part one)
The Dutchmen finished with 12 blocks Saturday. Nelson Boachie-Yiadom led the way with five blocks and Warren Williams added four blocks while Darlinstone Dubar had two blocks and Aaron Estrada finished with one block. Per loyal reader EvanJ, the 12 blocks are the most for the Dutchmen since they finished with 12 blocks in a 92-89 overtime win over Rider on Feb. 20, 2010. That was a BracketBuster game. Remember that nonsense? Good riddance.
IT’S A BLOCK PARTY (part two)
Boachie-Yiadom and Williams are the first set of Hofstra teammates to finish with at least four blocks in the same game since Feb. 4, 2016, when Juan’ya Green and Rokas Gustys had four blocks apiece in a 70-67 loss to UNC Wilmington. I would not have guessed that was the previous block party tandem!
ALMOST PERFECT
Warren Williams finished with eight points Saturday, when he made his first four shots before missing his last attempt. That cost him a chance at the first set of back-to-back perfect shooting games (minimum four attempts) in his five-year career. Williams was 5-for-5 shooting and finished with 12 points against Hampton last Saturday.
ZERO POINT ZERO
Nelson Boachie-Yiadom had his second unusual stat line of the season Saturday, when he had four rebounds and five blocks but scored no points and attempted no field goals or free throws in 21 minutes. It was the second time this season Boachie-Yiadom had no points and no field goal or free throw attempts while playing at least 20 minutes. He finished with four rebounds, three assists, one block and one steal in 22 minutes against Massachusetts on Dec. 11. Boachie-Yiadom is the first Hofstra player since at least 2010-11, the first season of the Play Index era at College Basketball Reference, to have at least two games in which he had no field goal or free throw attempts while playing at least 20 minutes. Rokas Gustys had 10 rebounds and one steal in 30 minutes against Rider on Dec. 9, 2017 while Moussa Kone had two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 29 minutes against Oregon State on Nov. 16, 2011.
DEUCES TO FREE THROWS?
If the Dutchmen still led the nation in free throw shooting over the last four seasons, I’d say Saturday was the equivalent of a player taking one at-bat in the season finale and exiting to protect his lead in the batting average race (hi Jose Reyes!). The Dutchmen made some truly quirky history by going 2-for-2 from the free throw line against William & Mary. Per Hofstra SID Stephen Gorchov, the two free throws are the fewest attempted by the Dutchmen since at least the 1986-87 season. I told you it was quirky! In addition, Saturday was just the fourth time since the 2010-11 season the Dutchmen have shot five or fewer free throws.
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’s game is slated to be carried live on FloHoops.com (subscription required). It’s definitely the only interesting CAA game on the platform this evening! Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
GETTING TO KNOW MONMOUTH
Tonight marks the Dutchmen’s third game against one of the four schools — Monmouth along with North Carolina A&T, Hampton and Stony Brook — that joined the CAA on July 1. Of course, unlike with North Carolina A&T and Hampton, we already know Monmouth and Stony Brook — regular non-conference foes until this season — a bit.
Monmouth, located in West Long Branch, NJ, was founded as Monmouth Junior college in 1933 — two years before Hofstra was founded as Hofstra College, which I guess means Monmouth has a lower Stonecutters number than we do — before becoming Monmouth College in 1956 and then Monmouth University in 1995. It has an enrollment of a little more than 6,100. Among the school’s alums are late American diplomat Tom Gallagher as well as werewolf paranormal romance (that sounds like an interesting date) author Terry Spear and Christie Pearce, who won three Olympic gold medals with the United States women’s soccer team and captained the gold medal-winning squads in 2008 and 2012.
In sports, Monmouth fields 10 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams. The school’s nickname is the Hawks.
Monmouth moved to Division I in 1983, when it joined the Northeast Conference. The school moved to the MAAC for the 2013-14 academic year.
The men’s basketball team won the NEC tournament and earned an NCAA Tournament bid four times — most recently in 2006, when the Hawks beat Hampton in a play-in game to earn the school’s first NCAA Tournament win. *Spiderman meme goes here* The men’s soccer program hosted first-round NCAA Tournament games from 2009 through 2011 and earned a win in the 2011 tourney.
Monmouth began playing football in 1993 and has played in the I-AA/FCS playoffs three times — in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The Hawks earned a first-round win over Holy Cross in 2019. Must be nice.
For our extended one-on-one with Monmouth head men’s basketball coach King Rice, click here.
SCOUTING MONMOUTH
The Hawks, under 12th-year head coach Rice, are 1-15 this season and 0-3 in CAA play following a 67-35 loss to Drexel on Saturday.
The Dutchmen and Hawks had no common opponents in non-conference play.
The Dutchmen, who were picked to finish second in the CAA preseason poll, are ranked 120th at KenPom.com. The Hawks, who were picked to finish 10th, are ranked 355th.
According to KenPom.com, the Dutchmen rank second in the CAA in offensive efficiency (107.3 points per 100 possessions) and fifth in defensive efficiency (103.2 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 68.2 possessions per 40 minutes, the fifth-most in the league. The Hawks rank last in the CAA in offensive efficiency (88.9 points per 100 possessions) and 11th in defensive efficiency (109.1 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 69.5 possessions per 40 minutes, which ranks third in the league.
Junior forward Myles Foster leads the Hawks with 11.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Freshman guard Jack Collins ranks second in scoring at 9.2 points per game and is tied with junior forward Klemen Vuga for second in rebounding at 3.8 rebounds per game. Per KenPom.com, Monmouth is the eighth least-experienced team in Division I with an average of 0.58 years of experience per player.
KenPom.com predicts an 82-61 win for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 20-point favorites. The Dutchmen are 7-8-1 against the spread this season.
ALL-TIME VS. MONMOUTH
Hofstra is 6-6 all-time against Monmouth in a series that began in 1983-84. The Dutchmen beat Monmouth in each of the last five seasons and earned a 77-71 victory in the final clash of the teams as non-conference foes on Dec. 22, 2021.
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Brian Reese bias! (One of the stars of North Carolina’s 1993 national champions rejoined Rice’s staff this year)
Justin Robinson bias! (Rice recruited the Hawks’ all-time leading scorer)
You have a bowling alley on campus bias! (This is something I learned this week and that’s pretty cool)
Charlie drank suntan lotion bias! (This one goes out to my fellow Sunny fans)
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