Keep It Perky: St. Joseph's

Me, realizing Trey Boyd III has Sideshow Bob-esque hair and I can make copious Sideshow Bob references.

Good afternoon and welcome to another season of possibly not very well-timed Keep It Perky postgame recaps! Sorry, was a bit of a busy week, will try to get these up in the first 24 hours after a game going forward.

As a reminder for readers old and new alike, Keep It Perky presents the postgame boilerplate material — recap, 3 Stars, the Dutchmen’s record through however many games and Speedy Claxton’s standing with previous Hofstra coaches through however many games, plus, hopefully, the unicorn score and Keith Hernandez bits — in one file.

This allows me to keep I’ll Be Quirky focused  solely on the bits and bytes of the preceding game and the preview of the next contest. It worked pretty well when I debuted it late in the 2023-24 season before bringing it into CAA games in 2024-25 and the entire slate last year, though I’ve never actually written an IBQ after the season-ending loss. Tradition! Or something like that.

And another reminder that as is the case with IBQ, none of this is solely or even mostly my idea. Loyal readers Jaden Daly, Stephen Gorchov and Jess Kalbfleisch all suggested this to me and Jess came up with the different moniker. Thanks to them for their help and input. And without further ado, here’s this season’s first I’ll Be Perky!

THE MOST RECENT GAME SUMMARIZED IN ONE PARAGRAPH

Sideshow Trey Boyd III (18 points) had an impressive Hofstra debut to lead five players in double figures for the Dutchmen, who took care of business against their Division III foe by leading wire-to-wire in the season opener. Boyd (five points) and Tanner Thomas (six points) combined to mount an 11-2 run that put the Dutchmen head by double digits for good before the midway point of the first half. The Dutchmen led 40-23 at the half, led by at least 30 points for the final 12:04 and led by as many as 50 down the stretch. Joshua DeCady, the lone returnee form the CAA champs, had 12 points, eight rebounds over a team-high 28 minutes. Nick Jefferson had 11 points and six assists off the bench while Thomas (10 points, seven rebounds) and reserve Imanuel Zorgvol (10 points, six rebounds) both flirted with double-doubles. Twelve players scored for the Dutchmen.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. St. Joseph’s, 11/2)

3: Trey Boyd III

2: Joshua DeCady

1: Nick Jefferson

SEASON STANDINGS (duh)

Trey Boyd III 3

Joshua DeCady 2

Nick Jefferson 1

WAS THIS A UNICORN SCORE?

Yes! This tends to be the case for the Dutchmen, who have recorded a unicorn score in 10 of their 11 games against non-Division I foes since we began tracking unicorn scores in 2018-19. Ironically, in that it’s coincidence, the Dutchmen’s closest previous final to a 97-51 win was a 94-48 win over another Division III school, Old Westbury, on Dec. 22, 2022. 

The Dutchmen have one unicorn score victory this season (obvs) and 68 (so close) unicorn score victories since the start of the 2018-19 season, when we first started tracking unicorn scores.

2026-27: One unicorn score

2025-26: Seven unicorn scores

2024-25: Seven unicorn scores

2023-24: Seven unicorn scores

2022-23: 12 unicorn scores

2021-22: 11 unicorn scores

2020-21: Zero unicorn scores (really)

2019-20: 13 unicorn scores

2018-19: 10 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. You may also know it as a “Scorigami,” a term popularized in the NFL.

WHO HAD THE KEITH HERNANDEZ?

Appropriately enough, Joshua DeCady, the lone returnee from the defending CAA champions, recorded the first Keith Hernandez of the title defense by hitting the tie-breaking 3-pointer to give the Dutchmen the lead for good at 5-2 with 17:39 left in the first half. DeCady now has four career Keith Hernandezes, all in the Dutchmen’s last nine games and eight victories. Quirky!

SEASON STANDINGS (duh)

Joshua DeCady 1

ALL-TIME STANDINGS (or at least since the 2022-23 season)

Tyler Thomas 16

Darlinstone Dubar 14

Cruz Davis 9

German Plotnikov 8

Jean Aranguren 5

Joshua DeCady 4

Preston Edmead 4

Aaron Estrada 4

Silas Sunday 3

Biggie Patterson 3

Michael Graham 3

Warren Williams 3

Jacco Fritz 2

Jaquan Carlos 2

A.J. Wills 1

Eric Parnell 1

KiJan Robinson 1

Bryce Washington 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 ONE GAME

As you may have gathered by now, the Dutchmen are 1-0. This ties the 2026-27 team for the best record in school history through one game! Fifty-one other teams began 1-0, most recently the 2024-25 squad. Here is how some notable Hofstra teams have fared through one game:

NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS

1975-76: 1-0

1976-77: 1-0

1999-2000: 0-1

2000-01: 0-1

2019-20 (it still counts to us): 0-1

2026-27 (I get to add to this list, IT HAS HAPPENED!!!!): 0-1

NIT TEAMS

2005-06: 1-0

2006-07: 0-1

2015-16: 1-0

2018-19: 1-0

2022-23: 1-0

NCAA DIVISION II TOURNAMENT TEAMS

1958-59: 0-1

1961-62: 1-0

1962-63: 1-0

1963-64: 1-0

The last four NCAA Tournament teams all lost their season opener. Seems like a good year to end that streak.

Some other notable, uhh, one-game starts:

2021-22: Speedy Claxton loses his debut

2020-21: Mike Farrelly loses his debut

2013-14: Joe Mihalich loses his debut

2010-11: Mo Cassara wins his debut

2001-02: Tom Pecora wins his debut

1994-95: Jay Wright loses his debut, retires in shame

1988-89: Butch van Breda Kolff wins his re-debut

1980-81: Dick Berg wins his debut

1979-80: Joe Harrington loses his debut

1972-73: Roger Gaeckler loses his debut

1962-63: Paul Lynner wins his debut

1955-56: Butch van Breda Kolff wins his debut

1947-48: Frank Reilly wins his debut

1946-47: Jack McDonald wins his re-debut

1943-44: Jack Smith loses his debut

1936-37: Jack McDonald loses his debut in Hofstra’s first game

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.

NUMBER TEN THROUGH ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE

With Monday’s win, Speedy Claxton improved to 106-63 (.627) as head coach. That’s the third-best known winning percentage for a Hofstra coach through his first 169 games at the helm.

Butch van Breda Kolff I 128-41 (.757, 169th game was the 18th game of his seventh season in 1961-62) 

Frank Reilly 121-48 (.716, 169th game was the 13th game of his seventh season in 1953-54) 

SPEEDY CLAXTON 106-63 (.627, 169th game was the first game of his sixth season in 2026-27) 

Paul Lynner 101-68 (.598, 169th game was the ninth game of his seventh season in 1968-69) 

Tom Pecora 93-76 (.550, 169th game was the 16th game of his sixth season in 2006-07) 

Joe Mihalich 91-78 (.538, 169th game was the fifth game of his sixth season in 2017-18) 

Jay Wright 89-80 (.527, 169th game was the 24th game of his fifth season in 1998-99) 

Dick Berg 87-82 (.515, 169th game was the 30th and final game of his sixth season in 1985-86) 

Roger Gaeckler 80-89 (.473, 169th game was the 10th game of his seventh season in 1978-79) 

Butch van Breda Kolff II 78-91 (.462, 169th game was the 28th game of his sixth season in 1993-94) 

Dick Berg’s sixth season ends with an 80-76 loss to Drexel in the ECC championship’s game. Incredible but even bad things that happened to Hofstra before I knew what a Hofstra was no longer bother me after last season. The only bad thing about the 169th and penultimate game of Butch van Breda Kolff’s second stint — a dramatic 90-89 overtime win over Troy absolutely is a State to lift the Dutchmen into the 1994 ECC championship game — is I missed it. But I did get to see Bryan Adams and sting perform “All For Love” at Madison Square Garden, so I have that going for me.

The records are incomplete for Jack McDonald’s first stint from 1936 through 1943 as well as the tenure of Jack Smith (1943-46).

Smith finished 27-32 in his three seasons while Mo Cassara finished 38-59 in his three seasons. Three coaches had one-season tenures lasting 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.