The smallest arena in Division I is also the only one built on the site of the first World Series game, which is quite cool.
The quirky weekend continues this afternoon for the Flying Dutchmen, who will try to move closer to clinching a top-four CAA Tournament seed when they ship up to Boston to face Northeastern in the smallest arena in Division I, albeit at a normal 2 PM tip time.
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 Hampton in last night’s Keep It Perky. Today will be about the individual news and notes from that win as well as a preview of the Huskies. Enjoy!
WIN ONE, LOSE ONE, WIN ONE
With Thursday’s win, the streakiest team in America (possibly) has alternated wins with losses over a three-game span for the first time since Nov. 30-Dec. 7, when the Dutchmen beat Pennsylvania 77-60 in the Cathedral Classic finale, lost to Columbia 72-70 and upset Syracuse 70-69. Wow! Spanning two months!
A LOPSIDED WIN
The Dutchmen’s 36-point margin of victory Thursday night was their second-largest margin of victory of the season behind the 92-23 win over Division III Old Westbury on Dec. 10. It was the Dutchmen’s most lopsided win over a Division I foe since Mar. 5, 2023, when they rolled to a 94-46 win over William & Mary in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals.
ONE POSSESSION OBSESSION
The Dutchmen never trailed by more than two points Thursday night, when Hampton led just twice, first at 2-0 and then at 4-2. It was the fifth time in the last six games the Dutchmen have never trailed by more than one possession. After earning wire-to-wire wins over Monmouth (73-57 on Jan. 31) and Northeastern (80-63 on Feb. 5), the Dutchmen trailed just once against Towson in a 71-49 win on Feb. 7 and trailed five times but never by more than three points in a 66-62 win over Charleston on Feb. 12.
THE DEFENSE DIDN’T REST (part one)
The Dutchmen, as you may have gathered by now, allowed just 43 points in Thursday night’s win. That’s the fewest points the Dutchmen hav allowed against a Division I foe since Jan. 4, 2025, when they earned a 55-37 win over Northeastern. The Dutchmen have won their last 24 games when allowing fewer than 50 points dating back to Jan. 2, 2010, when William & Mary recorded a 48-47 win at the Arena.
THE DEFENSE DIDN’T REST (part two)
The Dutchmen held Hampton to 4-of-23 shooting from 3-point land Thursday night, It was the second straight game the Dutchmen have surrendered four or fewer 3-pointers — UNC Wilmington was 4-of-14 from beyond the arc in a 70-66 win last Saturday — and the seventh time they’ve done so this season. The Dutchmen last held teams to four or fewer 3-pointers in a game seven times in the same season during the 2019-20 campaign. Hmm.
SLOW START (but a fast finish)
The Dutchmen scored their fifth-most points in CAA play this season despite remaining scoreless until Joshua DeCady’s dunk with 16:55 left in the first (obvs) half. That’s the longest this season the Dutchmen have remained scoreless to open a game, three seconds longer than their drought at the start of last Saturday’s 70-66 loss to UNC Wilmington, and the longest the Dutchmen have remained scoreless to open a game since Feb. 15, 2025, when they were blanked until Jean Aranguren’s jumper with 16:44 left against…Hampton, who went on to rout the Dutchmen 67-49. So Thursday worked out a little better than that.
HOW MANY PLAYERS SCORED FOR THE DUTCHMEN THURSDAY?
Niiiiiine players. Everyone who saw the floor scored except Jaeden Roberts, who played the final 3:50. It marked the fourth time this season at least nine players have scored for the Dutchmen and the first time since Dec, 10, when all 12 players on the roster scored in the 92-23 win over Division III Old Westbury. The Dutchmen previously had at least nine players score against a Division I foe on Nov. 30, when nine players scored in a 77-60 win over Pennsylvania. Ten players scored for the Dutchmen in a 95-61 win over Division II Molloy on Nov. 10.
CRUZ CLIMBING THE LIST
Cruz Davis, playing his second full game as the newest member of the Hofstra 1,000-point club, continued climbing the all-time scoring list Thursday night, when he finished with a game-high 20 points to increase his career total to 1,052 points and leapfrog Percy Johnson for 40th place. Davis enters today nine points shy of surpassing Darius Burton for 39th place and 18 points away from moving past Derrick Flowers for 38th place.
37.) Ameen Tanksley 1,090
38.) Derrick Flowers 1,069
39.) Darius Burton 1,060
40.) CRUZ DAVIS 1,052
41.) Percy Johnson 1,045
42.) James Shaffer 1,022
43.) John Irving 1,018
CRUZ-IN
Cruz Davis had another impressive all-around game Thursday night, when he had a game-high 20 points to go along with five assists, four rebounds and a career-high four steals. Davis, whose career-long 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 121 points on 44-of-87 shooting from the field, including 14-of-36 from 3-point land, over his last six 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 48 of the 59 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 30-18 when Davis scores in double figures.
THE 20/5/4 CLUB
A little specific, but hey, a little specificity never hurt anybody. Cruz Davis is the first Hofstra player to finish with at least 20 points, five assists and four steals since Zach Cooks had 20 points, five assists and five steals in a 98-84 win over Detroit Mercy way back on Nov. 27, 2021.
THE GOOD KIND OF THIEVERY
As you may have gathered by now, Cruz Davis collected a career-high four steals Thursday night. Davis previously had three steals in a game six times for the Dutchmen, most recently in a 95-61 win over Division II Molloy on Nov. 10. The four steals were tied the single-game high this season for a Hofstra player set by German Plotnikov in the 82-78 loss to Central Florida on Nov. 3. The last Hofstra player with more than four steals in a game was Plotnikov, who had five steals in a 69-67 overtime loss to Campbell on Jan. 25, 2025.
BIGGIE’S BIRTHDAY BASH
As the great Sarah Langs says, birthdays are important! And Biggie Patterson celebrated his 23rd birthday in style Thursday night, when he had 12 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. The double-double was the team-leading third of the season for Patterson, who has recorded two of his double-doubles as a reserve. Patterson is the first Hofstra player with multiple double-doubles off the bench since Stephen Nwaukoni had three of his six double-doubles in a reserve role during the 2013-14 season. The 12-point effort continued a quirky season-long statistical trend for Patterson, who has played in 24 games and has 12 double-digit scoring efforts while scoring six points or fewer 11 other times. Speaking of season-long trends, the Dutchmen are now 9-1 when Patterson comes off the bench and 7-7 when he starts.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
Silas Sunday had what is turning into his usual solid game Thursday night, when he finished with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting while adding six rebounds, one assist and one block over 21 minutes. The 12 points were the most for Sunday since he had 12 points in a 73-57 win over Monmouth on Jan. 31. He has five double-digit scoring efforts this season after reaching double figures just four times over 65 games in his first two seasons with the Dutchmen. Sunday also finished with at last six rebounds Thursday for the fourth time in the last six games and the 14th time overall this season. He has scored in all 28 games this season after scoring in 26 of 33 games last season.
PRESTO!
Preston Edmead continued the most impressive freshman season by a Hofstra player this decade — or maybe a lot longer — Thursday night, when he flirted with a double-double by finishing with nine points and nine assists to go along with two rebounds.It was th second time this season Edmead has collected at least nine points and nine assists in a single game. He had 13 points and nine assists in a 71-49 win over Towson on Feb. 7. Edmead has scored in double figures in 22 games this season, the most double-figure scoring efforts by a Hofstra freshman since Charles Jenkins scored in double figures 27 times in 29 games in 2007-08. That’s…that’s pretty good. So is this: Edmead’s 426 points (15.2 ppg) through 28 games are four more than Jenkins had through 28 games during his freshman season in 2007-08 and 12 more than Antoine Agudio had through 28 games during his freshman season in 2004-05. Speedy Claxton’s freshman season lasted just 27 games in 1996-97, but he finished with 11 fewer points over 27 games than Edmead had over 27 games this season. Pretty good company.
PRESTON VS. SPEEDY
Now this is quirky and cool: Speedy Claxton began his sophomore season by scoring 20 points for the Dutchmen in a 69-55 win over Bucknell on Nov. 21, 1997. So that means Claxton and Preston Edmead BOTH have 428 points through 28 games at Hofstra. What’d I tell you? Quirky and cool! Not surprisingly, their stats through 28 games are remarkably similar.
Speedy Claxton: 15.2 points per game/3.5 assists per game/4.5 rebounds per game
Preston Edmead: 15.2 ppg/4.8 apg/3.5 rpg
Exact same number of points and Claxton had 30 more rebounds while Edmead has 37 more assists. Wild.
GERMAN FOR STARTERS
German Plotnikov bounced back from his quirky game against UNC Wilmington last Saturday with another solid glue guy effort Thursday, when he finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting — including 1-of-5 from 3-point land — while adding two rebounds, two steals, two blocks and one assist over 34 minutes. Plotnikov, who last Saturday became the first Division I player this season to play at least 35 minutes without hoisting a shot, scored all nine of his points in the second half Thursday. He also had at least two steals and two blocks for the second time in three games. Plotnikov collected two steals and three blocks in the 66-62 win over Charleston on Feb. 12. He has recorded at least two steals in a game seven times this season and played at least 30 minutes 19 times in 26 appearances.
DECADY DANCE
Joshua DeCady made his offensive contributions count Thursday night, when he finished with seven points, three rebounds and one block over 20 minutes. DeCady did most of his damage in the first half for a second straight game by scoring the Dutchmen’s first five points — including his historic first Keith Hernandez on a 3-pointer with 15:29 left, more on that shortly! — before adding a dunk for the Dutchmen’s first basket of the second half. He had 11 of his 14 points in the first half in last Saturday’s 70-66 loss to UNC Wilmington. The 20 minutes were the fewest for DeCady in the five games since he returned from a two-game injury absence Feb. 5. The Dutchmen are 11-5 when DeCady starts and 6-4 when he comes off the bench.
DECADY JOINS THE CLUB
As noted in last night’s Keep It Perky, Joshua DeCady made a quirky bit of history Thursday night by collecting his first Keith Hernandez in his 51st career game. That’s by far the deepest into a career a player has recorded his first Keith Hernandez (or at least since the 2022-23 season) — even amongst the players whose careers predated the advent of the Keith Hernandez. And because I’m a weirdo, here’s when in their Hofstra careers each of the 18 players with at least one Keith Hernandez (at least since the 2022-23 season) recorded their first Keith Hernandez!
Jean Aranguren: Game no. 1
Tyler Thomas: Game no. 2
Darlinstone Dubar: Game no. 3
German Plotnikov: Game no. 4
Preston Edmead: Game no. 4
Biggie Patterson: Game no. 6
Cruz Davis: Game no. 7
Jacco Fritz: Game no. 8
Michael Graham: Game no. 9
AJ Wills: Game no. 12
Warren Williams: Game no. 14
Eric Parnell: Game no. 15
Jaquan Carlos: Game no. 20**
Silas Sunday: Game no. 23
Aaron Estrada: Game no. 40*** (game no. 8 in 22-23)
KiJan Robinson: Game no. 43
Bryce Washington: Game no. 46
Joshua DeCady: Game no. 51
**Carlos’ first Keith Hernandez was the first Keith Hernandez and came in the first game of the 2022-23 season
***Estrada’s first Keith Hernandez came in the eighth game of the 2022-23 season
I’m not weird for tracking this stuff, no sirree.
VICTORY!
Junior newcomer Victory Onuetu had a solid game while mostly staying out of foul trouble Thursday night, when he had four points, six rebounds, one block and one assist over 15 minutes. Onuetu, who drew three fouls Thursday, saw his most extensive playing time since he logged 26 minutes against Northeastern in a 80-63 win on Feb. 5. He has scored four points or fewer in 10 of the 15 CAA games, a span in which he’s fouled out five times and been ejected once while drawing four fouls three other times. Onuetu has also come off the bench in each of the last seven games after starting 17 of the first 21 games.
JUST JOSH-IN
Graduate student Joshua Aaron Reaves returned to the scoring column Thursday night, when he scored four points while adding two rebounds over seven minutes. He scored all of his points in a span of 11 seconds in the final two minutes of the second half. Reaves was scoreless in each of the previous two games and in three of the four games since he scored a season-high 17 points in a 73-57 win over Monmouth on Jan. 31. He has 33 points and 22 reboudns over the last eight games after recording just 10 points — all against non-Division I foes — over 71 minutes in his first 12 appearances of the season. Reaves played in each of the Dutchmen’s first five games this season before sitting out 10 of the next 15 games from Nov. 28 through Jan. 22. The eight consecutive appearances for Reaves marks his longest streak since he played in all 32 games for Mount St. Mary’s during the 2023-24 season.
WHERE THERE’S A WILLS THERE’S A WAY
AJ Wills returned to action after missing seven straight games Thursday night, when he scored the Dutchmen’s final points on a layup with 48 seconds left. The appearance was the first for Wills since he played six scoreless minutes against North Carolina A&T in a 79-78 loss on Jan. 22. Wills has 25 points in six appearances since Jan. 3, including 18 in the second half or overtime. He had just 28 points in his first 10 games.
JAEDEN JUMPS INTO ACTION
Freshman Jaeden Roberts continued a quiet stretch Thursday night, when he returned to action after sitting the previous two games and was scoreless over the final 3:50. Roberts has two points over 15 minutes in the last five games in which he’s played 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 15-4 in Roberts’ appearances.
OVER THE AIR
This afternoon’s game is slated to be carried live on FloHoops.com (subscription required, click here for options). Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
SCOUTING NORTHEASTERN
The Huskies, under 20th-year head coach Bill Coen, are 6-19 this season and 2-12 in CAA play following a 70-61 loss to Drexel on Thursday night. It was the eighth straight loss for Northeastern, which is its longest losing streak since a 12-game skid from Dec. 12, 2021 through Feb. 3, 2022 that ended with 11 straight CAA defeats.
The Dutchmen and Huskies had one common opponent during non-league play. The Dutchmen upset Syracuse 70-69 on Dec. 13, one week before the Orange beat Northeastern, 91-83. In CAA play, both teams have lost to UNC Wilmington and William & Mary. The Dutchmen swept Towson and Monmouth, each of whom beat Northeastern, while splitting with Charleston and beating Campbell, both of whom defeated the Huskies. The Dutchmen beat Drexel and lost to Stony Brook, both of whom swept Northeastern. Hofstra lost to ELO, which split with Northeastern, and to North Carolina A&T, whom the Huskies defeated.
The Dutchmen, who were picked to finish tied for eighth with Northeastern in the CAA preseason poll, are a CAA-best and season-high 93rd at KenPom.com. That’s a nice 69 spots higher than they were to open the season, four spots higher than their previous season-high entering the Jan. 10 game against Monmouth and a whopping 10 spots higher than their ranking prior to Thursday night’s win. The Huskies are ranked a season-low 284th, which is 66 spots lower their preseason ranking as well as 126 spots lower than their season-high entering the Nov. 15 game against Vermont and seven spots lower than their ranking prior to Thursday night’s loss.
According to KenPom.com, the Dutchmen rank first in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (114.3 points per 100 possessions) and fifth in defensive efficiency (103.7 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 64.6 possessions per 40 minutes, the 11th-most in league play. The Huskies rank eighth in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (107.9 points per 100 possessions) and 13th and last in defensive efficiency (121.4 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 69.9 possessions per 40 minutes, the second-most in league play.
The Huskies return five players from last year’s team, but LA Pratt is out for the season with a broken foot suffered Nov. 11 while Youri Fritz, the younger brother of former Hofstra center Jacco Fritz, missed six games earlier this season. In addition, Northeastern has also lost redshirt freshman Xander Alarie and true freshman Miles Newton, each of whom began the campaign in the starting lineup alongside Pratt and Fritz, to season-ending injuries.
Junior William Kermoury, who has spent his entire career with Northeastern and is the lone remaining member of the opening night lineup, returned from a two-game absence Thursday and leads the Huskies with 13.3 points per game. True freshman Xavier Abreu is averaging 12.5 points per game. Fritz is averaging 9.8 points and a team-high 4.5 rebounds per game. Junior guard Mike Loughnane, who opened his career with two seasons at Davidson and is the only player on Northeastern to appear in every game, is averaging a team-high 3.4 assists per game. Sophomore guard Luca Soroa Schaller ranks second on the Huskies with 3.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
KenPom.com predicts an 81-71 win for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 8 1/2-point favorites. The Dutchmen are 16-10 against the spread this season after covering (and winning) four of their last five games.
THE CAA RACE
With 10 days left in the regular season (which ends on a Tuesday, quirky), it’s definitely time to start wondering about the seeding implications of each game while we continue to marvel at the crazy balance/parity in the CAA, where nine of the 13 teams have between six and eight losses and the third through 11 seeds are still entirely unsettled. Hey how many teams have between six and eight losses?
UNC Wilmington 12-2
Charleston 11-4
HOFSTRA 9-6
Monmouth 8-6
Stony Brook 8-6
Drexel 8-7
Campbell 7-7
William & Mary 7-8
Towson 6-8
Hampton 6-8
ELO 6-8
North Carolina A&T 3-11
Northeastern 2-12
That was a pretty productive Thursday for the Dutchmen, who vaulted into third place thanks to their win and UNC Wilmington’s comeback victory over Monmouth. The Dutchmen will be no worse than the no. 3 seed in the CAA Tournament if they win out…which of course is no sure thing. It was also a really good night for Campbell, which beat William & Mary at the buzzer to complete a season sweep of the Tribe.
UNC Wilmington has clinched a top-four finish and the double bye while Charleston can do so with a win over Monmouth today.
Speaking of Monmouth, the Hawks are in fourth over Stony Brook via a head-to-head win (they play again next Thursday night). Towson and Hampton split their season series and are each 2-1 in the 6-8 group, but the Tigers are ninth because of their win over current no. 2 seed Charleston. ELO is 11th by virtue of going 0-2 against Towson and Hampton.
ALL-TIME VS. NORTHEASTERN
Hofstra is 33-27 against Northeastern in a series that began during the 1949-50 season. All but three of the meetings have come in conference play since the 1994-95 season, when Hofstra joined the North Atlantic Conference. Northeastern is the only school the Dutchmen have played twice per regular season since 2005-06, the Huskies’ first season in the CAA.
The Dutchmen won the first meeting between the teams this season on Feb. 5, when Preston Edmead (23 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) flirted with a triple-double in a wire-to-wire 80-63 win at the Arena. The Dutchmen are seeking their fist regular season series of the Huskies since the 2022-23 campaign.
THE BARONE BOWL
The Barone Bowl was established by me and Northeastern graduate Mike Brodsky during the 2009-10 season, after Northeastern and Hofstra dropped football within two weeks of one another (Hofstra’s decision, of course, was reached after a multi-year study, wink wink nudge nudge).
The Barone Bowl pays homage to the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond in which a Hofstra kicker boots a 68-yard field goal against Northeastern but Frank Barone catches the ball and refuses to give it up. Apparently that wasn’t the type of publicity either school liked. Anyway.
Hofstra enters tonight with an 19-17 lead in the Barone Bowl series. The Dutchmen, who have ended the season with the all-time series lead just four times, have won 16 of the last 23 clashes between the teams since Northeastern’s eight-game winning streak from the 2011-12 through the 2014-15 seasons. While a win today will ensure the Dutchmen end the season with the all-time Barone Bowl lead, the trophy can be wrested away by the trailing team if it wins a CAA Tournament game between the rivals.
This, unfortunately, is a purely symbolic trophy, one which you will not find displayed by either school. But you can find me and Brodsky talking about it on Twitter! Along with Immaculate Grid, which he’s much better at than me.
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER (OR BLUESKY) IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
You play at the site of the first World Series game bias! (That great bit of info comes from our friend Jonathan Wagner)
You now have the smallest arena in Division I bias! (Cabot Center, where the Huskies will play while their new arena is built, seats 812, a dramatic reduction from the 5,066-seat capacity Matthews Arena)
Son of a Dukie bias! (Injured redshirt freshman Xander Alarie is the son of Mark Alarie, who was a senior when Duke made the NCAA title game for the first time under Saint Michael before playing five seasons in the NBA)
You just want Bill Coen to get his 200th CAA win instead of Speedy Claxton getting his 100th career win bias! (We all love Bill but let’s hope he gets no. 200 on Thursday)
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