Can we petition to get Sheldon Cooper to play 40 minutes tonight? Asking for a friend.
Well, sure, 40-0 would have been great, but I suppose going 39-1 and still winning the national title would be pretty neat, too. The Flying Dutchmen will officially embark on their pursuit the first 39-1 finish in history (it’s true, I looked it up!) tonight, when they visit no. 7 Houston.
As was the case following the previous three games — and as will hopefully be the case all season — I ran down the boilerplate postgame material from Tuesday’s 79-61 loss to Florida State in Thursday’s Keep It Perky. Today will be about the individual news and notes from that defeat as well as a preview of the Cougars. Enjoy!
A SORTA NICE DEFEAT
With Tuesday’s loss, the Dutchmen became the 295th Division I team to suffer a defeat this season. Another way to look at it: Their loss left only 69 unbeaten teams left in Division I. Heh. (That figure is now down to 51, which isn’t nearly as sophomoric)
WIRE-TO-WIRE LOSS
The Dutchmen didn’t lead Tuesday for the first time this season (obviously) and the first time since Dec. 7, 2022, when they fell to no. 4 Purdue, 85-66. Last season was the first time the Dutchmen didn’t suffer a wire-to-wire loss since the 2018-19 campaign. The Dutchmen have just six wire-to-wire losses since the start of the 2019-20 season.
JEAN FITS
Jean Aranguren continued his strong start Tuesday, when he led the Dutchmen with 14 points while adding seven rebounds. Aranguren has opened the season by scoring in double figures in a career-high five straight games. He is the first Hofstra player to begin his career by scoring at least 10 points in each of his first five games games since Zach Cooks scored in double figures in his first 11 games in 2021-22.
ARANGUREN THE DUAL THREAT
Jean Aranguren continued establishing himself as a double-double threat Tuesday, when he finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. It marked the third time this season Aranguren has pulled down at least seven rebounds. He had 18 points and nine rebounds (along with nine assists) in the 90-76 win over Iona on Nov. 8 before recording his first double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds in the 75-71 overtime win over Massachusetts last Saturday. Aranguren posted at least 14 points and seven rebounds in a game just once last season, when he had 22 points and eight rebounds for Iona in an 85-65 win on Dec. 21.
DIMES FOR JAQUAN
I feel like we’ve used that header before! Jaquan Sanders didn’t have a voluminous scoring night Tuesday, when he finished with 13 points while going 3-of-7 from 3-point land. But Sanders added a career-high five assists, including at least two gorgeous feeds for layups by Michael Graham and Cruz Davis. Sanders previously had three assists in game, first in Seton Halls 83-69 loss to Marquette on Dec. 27, 2022 and then again in the 90-76 win over Iona on Nov. 8.
HERE’S TO YOU MR. ROBINSON
OK maybe it is time to call him the Microwave (HAVE YOU GOOGLED IT YET CRAIN). KiJan Robinson continued to establish himself as a legitimate scoring threat off the bench Tuesday, when he finished with 13 points while going 3-of-6 from 3-point land in 18 minutes. The 13 points tied a career-high for Robinson, who also had 13 points in a 102-68 win over Buffalo on Nov. 20, 2023. Robinson’s 21 points over the last two games are the second-highest two-game figure in his career behind the 23 points he collected against George Washington and Buffalo from Nov. 14-20, 2023.
BENCH BRIGADE
KiJan Robinson symbolized the Dutchmen’s improved play off the bench Tuesday, when he became the first player to reach double figures in a reserve role twice this season. Robinson had 10 points in the 89-62 win over Division III Old Westbury on Nov. 4. He was also the only player to score at least 10 points off the bench multiple times last season, when Robinson did so three times. But a Hofstra player has already scored at least 10 points off the bench four times this season — Silas Sunday and Joshua DeCady have done so once apiece — after just five such instances last season, when Bryce Washington and German Plotnikov each did it once.
CRAZY EIGHTS
Michael Graham continued to perform well Tuesday, when he had eight points and eight rebounds in a season-high 25 minutes. The eight rebounds tied a season-high for Graham, who also had eight rebounds in the 89-62 win over Old Westbury on Nov. 4, and were his most against a Division I foe since he had eight rebounds for Loyola Marymount in a 78-70 loss to Portland in the West Coast Conference tournament on Mar. 8. Graham was 4-of-5 from the field Tuesday and is shooting 72 percent (18-of-25) this season after shooting a combined 62.9 percent the previous four seasons for Elon and Loyola Marymount.
GOING NINE
Cruz Davis just missed joining Jean Aranguren and Jaquan Sanders in double figures Tuesday, when he finished with nine points. Davis has at least nine points in each of the first five games this season. He had six games with at least nine points as a freshman at Iona in 2022-23 #Nice before scoring seven points in four games for St. John’s prior to suffering a season-ending injury last year.
TJ TO THE EXTREME
A hot-and-cold season continued Tuesday for TJ Gadsden, who was scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting before fouling out after 20 minutes. Gadsden, who added a rebound and two assists Tuesday, is the first Hofstra player to foul out after going scoreless over at least 20 minutes since Caleb Burgess did so over 27 minutes in an 82-74 loss to Iona on Dec. 16, 2021. Gadsden has just eight points and 13 rebounds in the four games outside of last Saturday, when he finished with nine points and 11 rebounds in the 75-71 overtime win over Massachusetts.
GERMAN’S SLUMP ENDS
German Plotnikov, the lone returning player who made a start last season for the Dutchmen, ended his five-game scoreless streak when he sank a jumper with 8:10 left in the game Tuesday night. Plotnikov, whose scoreless streak dated back to the CAA Tournament semifinal loss to Stony Brook on Mar. 11, was the first player to play at least five straight games without scoring a point since Silas Sunday went nine straight games without a point from Jan. 4 through Feb. 1.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY
Silas Sunday continued establishing himself as the 1A at the five Tuesday, when he hit his only field goal attempt and finished with two points and three rebounds over 15 minutes. Sunday, who played at least 14 minutes in three straight games just once in his first two seasons with Iona and Hofstra, has played at least 14 minutes in each of the last four games after being limited to five minutes at the end of the season-opening 89-62 win over Old Westbury on Nov. 4. He is also 8-of-8 from the field in those four games after he didn’t hoist a shot against Old Westbury.
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’s game is slated to be carried live on ESPNPlus, which you have if you have the Disney Bundle, which you have if you have a child under 18. (Alas mine mostly watches Max and Netflix, sigh) Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
HOUSTON AND THE BIG 12 CONFERENCE
Houston, under 11th-year head coach Kelvin Sampson, is 2-1 this season following a 91-45 win over Louisiana on Nov. 13.
Houston was picked to finish second in the 16-team Big 12, which had only 10 teams as recently as two seasons ago. Why is math so hard? Because geography is even harder following the migration of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12 (fare thee well) following last season and Brigham Young from the West Coast Conference following the 2022-23 season.
Anyway! Graduate student LJ Cryer, a preseason all-Big 12 first-team selection who is in his second season at Houston after opening his career with three seasons at Baylor, shares the team lead in scoring at 12.3 points per game with fellow graduate student J’Wan Roberts. Juniors Emanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan, the latter of whom began his career with two seasons at Oklahoma, are both averaging 10.3 points per game. Roberts, a five-year member of the Houston program, and sophomore Joseph Tugler lead the Cougars with 6.3 rebounds per game while Uzan has a team-high 6.3 assists per game.
Per KenPom.com, Houston ranks fourth nationally in offensive efficiency (119.6 points per 100 possessions) and second in defensive efficiency (89.7 points per 100 possessions) while ranking 349th in tempo (65.8 possessions per 40 minutes). Imagine me uncomfortably yanking my collar, a la Homer Simpson.
The Dutchmen and Cougars have no common opponents this season.
Hofstra is 0-1 all-time against Houston in men’s basketball. The Dutchmen nearly pulled off a huge upset in Speedy Claxton’s head coaching debut Nov. 9, 2021, when the Cougars overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to earn an 83-75 overtime win.
This marks just the sixth all-time meeting between the schools in any sport. The Flying Dutchwomen basketball team fell to Houston, 54-44, at the Fordham Holiday Classic on Dec. 29, 2019 while the volleyball team is 0-3 against Houston with its most recent loss in the 1990 National Invitational Volleyball Championship.
Hofstra is 0-7 all-time against current Big 12 schools with single losses to Cincinnati, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU and Utah in addition to the loss to Houston. However, only Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State were actually members of the Big 12 when they beat the Dutchmen.
The Dutchmen haven’t faced a Big 12 team since Nov. 13, 2009, when they opened the season with a 101-65 loss to Kansas, Slightly quirky: Cincinnati earned its final pre-Big 12 win Mar. 18, 2023, when the Bearcats ended the Dutchmen’s season with a 79-65 win in the second round of the NIT at the Arena.
At KenPom.com this afternoon, Hofstra is ranked 146th while Houston is ranked third. That’s high! KenPom.com predicts a 77-56 loss for the Dutchmen, but what does he know anyway? Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 25-point underdogs. That’s a LOT of points to give, just saying. The Dutchmen are 3-1 against the spread this season.
RAREFIED KENPOM AIR
As noted one graph above, Houston enters today ranked third at KenPom.com. The Cougars are the highest-ranked KenPom.com opponent for the Dutchmen since Dec. 22, 2017, when no. 1 Villanova beat Hofstra 95-71 at Nassau Coliseum.
HOFSTRA VS. TOP 25 TEAMS
Houston is ranked no. 7 in the AP poll and no. 7 in the coaches’ poll. This marks the 27th time the Dutchmen have faced a team ranked in the top 25 in at least one of the polls in the DD Era (1993-pres). The Dutchmen are 4-22 in the previous 26 games but 2-2 in the last four games following an 89-68 loss to then-no. 21/19 Duke on Dec. 12.
This is the third straight season in which the Dutchmen are playing at least one regular season league game against a team ranked in both polls as well as the fifth straight season they are playing a ranked opponent.
12/12/23: No. 21/19 Duke 89-68 L
1/28/23: No. 18/18 Charleston 85-81 W
12/7/22: No. 4/4 Purdue 85-66 L
12/18/21: No. 24/19 Arkansas 89-81 W
11/19/21: no. 20 Maryland 69-67 L
11/9/21: no. 15 Houston 83-75 L (OT)
12/22/20: no. 23 Richmond 76-71 W
11/29/20: no. 24 Rutgers 70-56 L
12/22/17: no. 1 Villanova 95-71 L
12/11/16: no. 6 Kentucky 96-73 L
11/12/13: no. 3 Louisville 97-69 L
11/18/10: no. 8 North Carolina 107-63 L
11/13/09 no. 1 Kansas 101-65 L
11/17/09 no. 12 UConn 76-67 L
12/22/06 no. 23 Syracuse 85-60 L
2/23/06 no. 25 George Mason 77-68 W
12/30/04 no. 7 Syracuse 80-75 L
11/22/02 no. 21 Gonzaga 69-61 L
12/4/01 no. 9 Syracuse 91-65 L
3/15/01 no. 15 UCLA 61-48 L***
3/17/00 no. 14 Oklahoma State 86-66 L***
11/20/98 no. 6 Maryland 89-59 L
12/2/98 no. 25 St. John’s 70-49 L
11/27/97 no. 19 Louisville 75-66 L
12/14/96 no. 19 Xavier 79-43 L
12/28/95 no. 8 Villanova 91-57 L
***NCAA Tournament
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Hakeem Olajuwon bias! (The two-time NBA champion reached back-to-back NCAA championship games as the center for the legendary Phi Slama Jama teams)
Speedy Claxton is much better at coaching his alma mater than Clyde Drexler bias! (It’s true, you could look it up)
Sheldon Cooper bias! (Jim Parsons, who perfectly portrayed Sheldon, is a Houston alum…this one’s for Molly, whose favorite TV show is Big Bang Theory, and also because the basketball scene is hilarious)
Doug Drabek has an awesome mustache bias! (This one’s for high school friend Dan, who was enamored with Houston alum Drabek’s mustache during the 1992 NLCS)
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