Who knew we were watching a preview of the CAA championship game on Jan. 31, when Hofstra was 4-5 after five straight losses and Monmouth was 5-4 while still wondering if Kavion McClain would ever be cleared to play? Craziest best sport on the planet. Let's go.
A wild roller coaster season arrives at the most all-or-nothing point possible tonight, when the Flying Dutchmen will look to earn the program’s sixth NCAA Tournament berth (and HOPEFULLY the program’s fifth actual trip to the NCAA Tournament *waves hands at everything*) when they face Monmouth in the CAA championship game. Ohhh baby.
The third clash this season between the budding rivals was set up Tuesday night, when Preston Edmead hit the shot heard around the basketball world — an off-balance, banked 35-footer with three-tenths of a second left in overtime — to lift the third-seeded Dutchmen past seventh-seeded Towson, 68-65. Fourth-seeded Monmouth locked up its trip to the finals earlier in the evening by beating ninth-seeded Campbell, 74-64.
As will hopefully become the routine once again the rest of the season, I ran down the boilerplate material from Sunday’s win in an overnight Keep It Perky. I also wrote the usual Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young championship game post, though with a little different tack. Today will be about the individual news and notes from the win over the Tigers as well as a a preview of the Hawks and the CAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. Enjoy! And try to breathe normally while consuming some solids. I know it’s not easy.
LET’S GET TO THE WORKIN’ OVERTIME PART
Winning an overtime game in the CAA Tournament? In this or any other economy? With Monday night’s win, the Dutchmen improved to 2-4 in overtime games in the CAA Tournament. The Dutchmen also beat Delaware, 78-74, in overtime in the 2019 semifinals but lost to Northeastern (double overtime in the 2010 quarterfinals), William & Mary (double overtime in the 2015 semifinals) as well as twice to UNC Wilmington (2016 championship game and 2023 semifinals). So, you know, last night was a lot better than that.
TWO POSSESSION OBSESSION
The Dutchmen never led by more than six points and Towson never led by more than four points Monday night in what was not only by far the closest game of the CAA Tournament but also, by this measure, the Dutchmen’s closest game in more than four years. Prior to last night, the Dutchmen hadn’t played a game in which neither team led by more than six points since Dec. 31, 2021, when William & Mary earned a 63-62 win in Virginia. Happy New Year! The Dutchmen’s biggest lead in that game was six points while the Tribe’s biggest lead was four points.
CRUZ CLIMBING THE LIST
Cruz Davis, the newest member of the Hofstra 1,000-point club, continued climbing the all-time scoring list Monday night, when he finished with 18 points to increase his career total to 1,138 points and leapfrog Mike Moore and Wandy Williams into 34th place. Davis enters tonight two points shy of moving pst Nathaniel Lester for 33rd place and 22 points way from surging past Ted Jackson for 32nd place.
31.) Rokas Gustys 1,184
32.) Ted Jackson 1,159
33.) Nathaniel Lester 1,139
34.) CRUZ DAVIS 1,138
35.) Wandy Williams 1,131
36.) Mike Moore 1,128
37.) Richie Swartz 1,107
38.) Ameen Tanksley 1,090
39.) Derrick Flowers 1,069
40.) Darius Burton 1,060
41.) Percy Johnson 1,045
42.) James Shaffer 1,022
43.) John Irving 1,018
PRESTO!
Preston Edmead continued the most impressive freshman season by a Hofstra player this decade — or maybe a lot longer — Monday night, when he drained the game-winning 35-footer with three-tenths of a second left in overtime to cap an evening in which he collected 22 points, three rebounds and three assists while playing all 45 minutes. Edmead has scored in double figures in 27 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. Edmead also had more points through 30 games than Antoine Agudio did during his 30-game freshman season in 2004-05, more points through 29 games than Jenkins had in his freshman season and more points through 27 games than Speedy Claxton did during his 27-game freshman season in 1996-97.
PRESTON VS. SPEEDY
Speaking of pretty good company and something very quirky and cool: Speedy Claxton, whose freshman season lasted 27 games in 1996-97, played the sixth game of his sophomore season on Dec. 3, 1996, when he scored 21 points in a 64-46 win over…I kid you not, Towson. As I said in Keep It Perky last night, this is not just quirky, it’s eerie. So that means Edmead (513 points) has TWO fewer points than Claxton (515 points) through the first 33 games of their Hofstra careers. This after they were separated by ONE point (Claxton 501, Edmead 500) through 32 games. What’d I tell you? Quirky and cool! Not surprisingly, their stats through 33 games are remarkably similar.
Speedy Claxton: 15.6 points per game/3.8 assists per game/4.5 rebounds per game
Preston Edmead: 15.5 ppg/4.5 apg/3.5 rpg
Two points apart and Claxton had 33 more rebounds while Edmead has 23 more assists. Wild.
CRUZ-IN
Cruz Davis recovered from a slow start Monday night, when he scored 18 points while adding five rebounds, four assists and one steal over 41 minutes. Davis, who scored 16 points in the second half after being limited to two points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first half, has 48 points on 15-of-32 shooting — including 7-of-14 from 3-point land — in the first two games of the CAA Tournament. He was held to 16 points (eight points apiece) on 6-of-22 shooting, including 1-of-7 from 3-point land, in the final two games of the regular season against Stony Brook and Drexel from Feb. 28-Mar. 3. Wow! Spanning two months! Davis has scored in double figures in 51 of the 64 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 33-18 when Davis scores in double figures.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!
Are we sure Silas Sunday doesn’t have another year of eligibility? Sunday had what is turning into his usual solid game in the biggest of spots Monday night, when he finished with four points, 11 rebounds and one assist while not committing a foul in a career-high 32 minutes. Sunday, who had 12 rebounds in Sunday night’s 92-61 win over William & Mary, has recorded at least 10 rebounds in three of his last five games after pulling down at least 10 boards just three times in the first 28 games this season and four times in his first 93 games at Hofstra, The 32 minutes for Sunday broke his previous single-game high of 31 minutes set twice previously, most recently in a 66-62 win over Charleston on Feb. 12, and marked the 20th time he has logged at least 20 minutes in a game this season after he did so just seven times over the previous three seasons.
NO FOULS FOR SUNDAY ON MONDAY
The most impressive stat of all for Silas Sunday on Monday night might have been the zero fouls in 32 minutes. Sunday is the first Hofstra center to play at least 30 minutes without recording a foul since Isaac Kante logged 30 minutes without picking up a foul in an 82-73 win over UNC Wilmington on Jan 30, 2021 and the most minutes a center has played without a foul since Kante played 33 minutes in a 77-69 loss to St. Bonaventure on Dec. 19, 2020. And as good as Kante was, he was a center in name only at 6-foot-7 — five inches shorter than Sunday.
DECADY DANCE
Joshua DeCady had his best all-around game in almost a month Monday night, when he finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 41 minutes. The 10 points and six rebounds (a Bad Company reference should go here #DeepCut) were the most for DeCady in each category since he collected 14 points and five rebounds in a 70-66 loss to UNC Wilmington on Feb. 14. The six rebounds Monday were DeCady’s most since he had nine rebounds in a 67-64 overtime win over Monmouth on Jan. 10. DeCady has scored in double figures eight times this season after doing so just twice in the 25 games in which he played last season. The Dutchmen are 16-5 this season when DeCady starts and 6-4 when he comes off the bench.
GERMAN FOR STARTERS
German Plotnikov had his usual solid glue guy game Monday night, when he scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting — including 2-of-5 from 3-point land — while adding four rebounds, one block and one steal in 38 minutes. Plotnikov has 74 points on 25-of-45 shooting, including 14-of-32 from 3-point land, over the last six games after he had 48 points on 17-of-44 shooting, including 9-of-28 from 3-point land, in his previous six games from Jan. 29 through Feb. 14. Most of that production came in a 66-62 win over Charleston on Fe. 12, in which Plotnikov scored 20 while going 6-of-13 from beyond the arc. Plotnikov has scored at least nine points in a game 17 times this season after doing so 19 times in his first 95 games over the previous three seasons.
BIGGIE OFF THE BENCH
Biggie Patterson made his time on the court count Monday night, when he scored five points and pulled down three rebounds over 15 minutes. Patterson, who played at least 24 minutes in each of the previous three games, hit a 3-pointer with 9:54 left in the first half but played just 2:58 in the second half before replacing Cruz Davis when the latter fouled out with 3:40 left in overtime. Twenty-eight seconds later, Patterson drew a foul while picking up a key offensive rebound and hit the two free throws to give the Dutchmen a short-lived 61-59 lead. The five-point effort continued a quirky season-long statistical trend for Patterson, who has played in 29 games and has 15 double-digit scoring efforts while scoring six points or fewer 13 other times. Speaking of season-long trends, the Dutchmen are now 14-1 when Patterson comes off the bench and 7-7 when he starts.
VICTORY!
Junior newcomer Victory Onuetu had another quiet game Monday night, when he was scoreless with two rebounds and one assist while collecting three fouls over 13 minutes. Onuetu has scored one point or fewer in each of the last three games and nine times in the last 17 games overall after doing so just once in the first 16 games. In addition, Onuetu has either fouled out, drawn at least three fouls or been ejected 17 times in 20 CAA games. Onuetu has also come off the bench in each of the last 12 games after starting 19 of the first 21 games.
JUST JOSH-IN
Graduate student Joshua Aaron Reaves extended his consecutive games streak at the last possible second — or split-second — Monday night, when he was on the floor for Towson’s final in-bounds pass with three-tenths of a second left. Reaves has played two minutes or fewer in three of the last five games after averaging 14.8 minutes per game over an eight-game span from Jan. 24 through Feb. 19. Reaves has 42 points and 27 rebounds over the last 13 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 13 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.
OVER THE AIR
Tonight’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. Oh thank goodness we’re done with Flo for the season. Unless the Dutchmen play in the CBI, which…yeah, let’s aim higher, especially after last night. Hofstra will provide a radio feed as well as live stats at the Pride Productions hub.
BACK IN THE FINALS
The Dutchmen are in the CAA championship game for the first time since 2020 and the fifth time overall. They are 1-3 with losses in 2006, 2016 and 2019 before finally breaking through in 2020. Which, then, yeah.
This is the Dutchmen’s 11th trip to a conference championship game in the Division I era. The Dutchmen are 6-4 with wins in the East Coast Conference title game in 1976, 1977 and 1994, wins in the America East championship game in 2000 and 2001 and a loss in the 1986 ECC title game.
THIRD SEED THE CHARM?
Umm…well, not really? The Dutchmen are the first no. 3 seed to reach the CAA Tournament championship game since 2015, when Northeastern beat top-seeded William & Mary, 72-61. That was played a little more than 24 hours after Daniel Dixon hit the game-winning 3-pointer with under a second left in double overtime to lift William & Mary to a 92-91 win over the Dutchmen, So I don’t know if thats a good sign or a bad sign.
This is probably not a good sign! The no. 3 seed is 4-11 all-time in the championship game with alternating losses and wins since 2006, when the Dutchmen lost to UNC Wilmington. Let’s change that up, shall we?
SCOUTING MONMOUTH
The Hawks, under 15th-year head coach King Rice, advanced to the championship game by pulling away from ninth-seeded Campbell for a 74-64 win in the first semifinal Monday night. Kavion McClain, playing his 10th game since being freed from NCAA eligibility purgatory, scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures for Monmouth, which improved to 19-14. The Hawks, who earned the no. 4 seed by going 11-7, began tourney play Sunday, when Jason Rivera-Torres had 14 points and eight rebounds in a 65-57 victory over fifth-seeded Drexel.
The Dutchmen and Hawks had three common opponents during non-league play. The Dutchmen beat La Salle (63-58 on Nov. 28), Syracuse (70-69 on Dec. 13) and Quinnipiac (74-66 on Dec. 21), all of whom defeated Monmouth. In CAA regular season play, both teams swept Towson and Northeastern and lost to UNC Wilmington. The Dutchmen swept Drexel, which split with Monmouth, and split with Stony Brook, whom the Hawks swept, as well as Charleston, which beat Monmouth. Hofstra beat Campbell and Hampton, each of whom defeated Monmouth, and lost to William & Mary, North Carolina A&T and ELO, all of whom the Hawks beat.
The Dutchmen, who were picked to finish tied for eighth in the CAA preseason poll, are ranked a CAA-best 87th at KenPom.com. That’s 75 spots higher than they were to open the season, 30 spots higher than they were while carrying a five-game losing streak into the Jan. 31 game against Monmouth and three spots lower than entering Monday’s game. The Hawks, who were picked to finish sixth, are ranked a season-high 179th, which is 23 spots higher their preseason ranking as well as 63 spots higher than their season-low entering a game against Lehigh on Dec. 21 and two spots higher than entering Monday’s game.
According to KenPom.com, the Dutchmen rank second in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (113.6 points per 100 possessions) and second in defensive efficiency (102.2 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 63.9 possessions per 40 minutes, the 13th-most (or fewest) in league play. The Hawks rank ninth in the CAA in conference-only offensive efficiency (107.1 points per 100 possessions) and fifth in defensive efficiency (103.5 points per 100 possessions) while averaging 67.1 possessions per 40 minutes, the seventh-most in league play.
The Hawks return a whopping nine players from last year’s team. Junior Jason Rivera-Torres, a newcomer who opened his career with one season apiece at Vanderbilt and San Francisco and was named to the all-CAA second team and all-defensive team, leads Monmouth’s qualified players with 15.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while ranking second with 3.0 assists per game. Sophomore Justin Ray is averaging 11.3 points per game while freshman Stefanos Spartalis is averaging 10.5 points per game and ranks second on the team with 4.9 rebounds per game. Senior Jack Collins, who has spent his entire career at Monmouth, is averaging 7.2 points per game and leads the Hawks with 4.5 assists per game while ranking second with 5.5 rebounds per game. Of course, the key player for Monmouth is senior Kavion McClain, who didn’t play in either of the two regular season clashes against Hofstra but is averaging 16.9 points and 5.4 assists per game in 10 games since he was declared eligible. McClain opened his career with two seasons at Howard College, a junior college, before spending one season apiece at Abilene Christian and Texas Southern.
KenPom.com predicts a 73-66 win for the Dutchmen. Per the wise guys in Vegas, for entertainment purposes only, the Dutchmen are 4 1/2-point favorites. The Dutchmen are 19-12 against the spread this season after winning but not covering last night. We’re fine with that.
ALL-TIME VS. MONMOUTH
Hofstra is 10-9 all-time against Monmouth in a series that began in 1983-84. The Dutchmen nudged ahead (hopefully not temporarily!) by sweeping the regular season series this year. Preston Edmead scored 24 points and AJ Wills recorded the quirkiest Keith Hernandez of all-time by draining the tie-breaking 3-pointer to open overtime in a 67-64 win at the Arena on Jan. 10 before Cruz Davis scored 24 points in a wire-to-wire 73-57 win in New Jersey on Jan 31. That win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Dutchmen and lifted them into a tie with Monmouth at 5-5 in the CAA. And here we are, 38 days later. The win ended a three-game losing streak in the series for the Dutchmen, whose 2024-25 season ended with a 65-60 loss to Monmouth in the second round of the CAA Tournament in the first postseason clash between the teams on Mar. 8, 2025. The stakes will be a bit higher tonight.
ONCE, TWICE, THREE TIMES A VICTORY?
As you may have just read, the Dutchmen swept Monmouth in regular season action this year. With last night’s win over Towson, Hofstra improved to 13-5 all-time when facing in a conference tournament a team it beat twice in the regular season. Prior to last night, the Dutchmen lost their previous two rematches to Charleston in 2022 and Stony Brook in 2024.
2025: Beat Towson
2024: Lost to Stony Brook
2022: Lost to Charleston
2020: Beat Drexel
2020: Beat Northeastern
2019: Beat Delaware
2017: Lost to Delaware
2016: Beat Drexel
2016: Beat W&M
2014: Beat UNCW
2011: Beat W&M
2009: Beat UNCW
2001: Beat Vermont (America East)
2001: Beat Maine (America East)
2000: Beat Boston U. (America East)
2000: Beat Drexel (America East)
1992: Beat UMBC (East Coast Conference)
1991: Lost to UMBC (East Coast Conference)
1984: Lost to Lafayette (East Coast Conference)
THINGS YOU CAN SHOUT ON TWITTER (OR BLUESKY) IF CALLS GO DO NOT GO HOFSTRA’S WAY
Kavion McClain got treated better by the NCAA than Brad Kelleher! (Not a high bar to clear there)
Andrew Ball looks like an over-35 player but crushes us bias! (But hopefully not tonight)
Bench mob bias! (An oldie but a goodie 10 years later)
The Gang Goes To The Jersey Shore bias! (This will either be a dream episode or another nightmare, let’s see what happens!)
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