Drexel 63, Hofstra 56 (Or: Yogi was right)

This photo serves two purposes: It summarizes the last couple weeks for the Flying Dutchmen while also paying homage to the Icepick, who was always nice to me for liking remnants of the hair metal era.

In macro terms, I’m pretty sure the entire state of the CAA was summed up in the final few minutes of Drexel’s 63-56 win over the Flying Dutchmen Saturday.

Two games into the conference season was all it took to prove that trying to predict or project the CAA is a job for the sadistic. Drexel, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the CAA, became the only road team Saturday to win by beating the early-season darlings and a program that is 81-28 at the Arena since it opened nine years ago. The Dragons rank last in the CAA in just about every key offensive category, yet they salted away the victory Saturday by mimicking another Philadelphia-based men’s basketball team and shooting 5-of-7 from the field over the final 8:04.

And with eight seconds to play and Hofstra down five, Greg Washington—who was 3-of-17 from the free throw line last season—heaved a free throw attempt at the backboard, hoping he or a teammate would grab the carom to maintain a snowball’s-chance-in-hell of victory.

But he made the damn shot. Imagine that. The guy who couldn’t hit a free throw if his scholarship was on the line last year now CAN’T EVEN MISS WHEN HE TRIES.

(And how about Georgia State, which hasn’t beaten a Division I team since 1983, shocking red-hot Old Dominion?)

Those conference-wide observations are all well and good, of course, but we deal mostly with the micro here at Defiantly Dutch. And what the unpredictability of Saturday taught us is that the Flying Dutchmen are already in big, big trouble.

(This is as good a time as any to mention I took the game in from a barstool at P-Sam’s in Torrington, CT and that I was quite obviously the only person in the entire state not partaking in a day of dominance by the UConn Huskies. For having MSG-Plus—which is apparently on the Are You Crazy Nobody Wants This Station tier of cable back home; I guess that’s payback for mocking its very existence a few months ago—and airing the Hofstra game during UConn’s bowl game, P-Sam’s, a favorite hangout during my imbibing days, is now the official out-of-state bar of Defiantly Dutch. I’m sure management is thrilled. Back to our regularly scheduled pessimism)

The result Saturday was inconceivable to anyone who listened, attended or even scoured the box score from the Flying Dutchmen’s 90-79 victory over Towson in the CAA opener Dec. 6. In that contest, the Dutchmen came back from an early 10-point deficit, received at least nine points from five players, racked up 19 assists and committed just 11 turnovers.

Twenty-eight days later (well, now it’s 30, but you know what I mean), that team is nowhere to be found. The Dutchmen never led Saturday, and it never felt as if they had a game-changing run in them. Charles Jenkins and Cornelius Vines, who combined for 45 points against Towson, had none in the first half. Hofstra had nearly three times as many turnovers (20) as assists (seven).

Jenkins had a team-high five turnovers and fouled out for the first time this season, a pair of telling statistics for a player who so often displayed a natural and seemingly effortless touch for taking over games yet lately can’t seem to make anything happen, no matter how hard he tries.

With the Dutchmen down 42-34 and just under eight minutes left, Jenkins took the inbounds pass and raced up the right sideline…and dribbled the ball off his leg in front of the Hofstra bench. Jenkins had four turnovers or more in two of his first seven games but has committed at least four turnovers four times in the last six contests. He hit 50 percent of his shots Saturday, but in a season-low 10 attempts.

Two of the three fouls Jenkins picked up in the second half also symbolized the Charlie Brown-like black cloud that’s followed him around for weeks. Evan Niesler stole the ball from Jenkins, who raced down the court and raised his arm—seemingly just enough to contest the shot but not enough to earn the foul—as Scott Rodgers went to the basket. But Jenkins was a split-second late and caught Rodgers’ arm. And Jenkins fouled out with 3:53 left, when he was called for a charge on a drive to the basket.

(This provides a convenient excuse to mention that the refs, in my completely unbiased and nuanced opinion formed from the aforementioned barstool, stunk like a Staten Island landfill in August. I mean, seriously, Hofstra had 24 fouls compared to just 16 for Drexel? Some of those flops from Drexel that resulted in offensive foul calls on the Dutchmen were Razzie-worthy. But, again, just my opinion)

Vines did a decent Jenkins impersonation following the latter’s disqualification as he scored Hofstra’s next nine points. But it was an exasperating 14-point performance for Vines, one Tom Pecora—albeit unwittingly—best summarized with his expression in this photo from the game story on the Hofstra site. Vines missed his first five shots and chucked up a couple painful-looking desperation shots in the final minute.

Pecora displayed his exasperation multiple ways Saturday. He started Mike Davis-Saab, who had more DNPs (seven) than DPs (five) in the first 12 games. Davis-Saab played just two minutes, but Greg Johnson, whose senior season began with a pair of DNP-CDs in the Charleston Classic, took over point guard duties and led the Dutchmen with 34 minutes—including the entire second half—off the bench.

Tony Dennison, Miklos Szabo and Darren Townes—who were in the starting lineup in six straight games from Fordham through Iona—played a combined 17 minutes, including just one in the second half. Pecora even picked up one of those trying-to-rile-the-team up Ts in the second half. Didn’t work.

Little seems to work lately, and it’s as puzzling as it is frustrating. Maybe it’s just blog bias talking, but I refuse to believe the Towson game was a fluke. The Dutchmen were playing good, gritty ball for weeks before that. They weren’t a perfect team—even back then the point guard quandary lurked—but they were a lot better than this.

Where did that team go? It better show up tonight in Boston, where the Dutchmen are faced with one of their most pivotal early-season conference games in memory. Facing Northeastern, another fierce defensive team and a squad that’s beginning to play like the team that was a pre-season favorite, doesn’t seem to be the medicine for whatever ails the Dutchmen.

But if the Dutchmen don’t get on track now, when will they? With Delaware, VCU, Drexel again and Northeastern again awaiting following tonight, a season that once seemed to promise magic in March is threatening to turn very late very early.

Maybe a DD road trip will cure whatever ails the Dutchmen (hey, they’re 2-0 in road games I’ve attended this year). I’m planning to make my first visit to Northeastern tonight. If you’re there, I’ll be the guy yelling about Carlos Pena.

(Pre-road trip edit: Pick to click is Jenkins. Just has to be, right?)

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

Defiantly Dutch Q&A: Bernard Tomlin

Old Westbury coach and former Flying Dutchmen star Bernard Tomlin. (Photo courtesy Old Westbury)

Those of us who went to Hofstra in the early 1990s remember the East Coast Conference as more of a curiosity than an actual conference and correlate it with the Flying Dutchmen’s days on the remote fringes of Division I. But Bernard Tomlin remembers the ECC as something far more legitimate and associates it with Hofstra’s first foray on to the national stage.

Tomlin was a senior starter on the 1975-76 Flying Dutchmen, who won the ECC to earn Hofstra’s first trip to the Division I tournament. The Dutchmen opened a 13-point lead on UConn in the first round of the 32-team tourney but lost, 80-78, in overtime.

Tomlin, who has been the men’s basketball coach and assistant athletic director at Old Westbury since 2001, comes back to Hofstra Arena tonight when the Panthers face the Dutchmen in the first meeting between the schools. We talked to Tomlin earlier this afternoon about his time at Hofstra, that memorable NCAA Tournament game, his position at Old Westbury and how close he came to being named Flying Dutchmen head coach in 1994. Thanks to Tomlin for taking the time to speak to us on game day as well as Old Westbury SID Harris Rappel for facilitating the interview.


What do you remember about your final game at Hofstra, the 80-78 overtime loss to UConn in the NCAA Tournament?

The one thing that I do remember is it was a very, very competitive game and we led pretty much all afternoon. And they made a nice run towards the end, tied it and we lost it in overtime. It was just a great experience. Back then,, there were only 32 teams in the tournament. So if you’re in the NCAAs, everybody was home watching. It was a lot of fun for Hofstra, that period of time.

The NCAA Tournament wasn’t quite the event back then it is today. What kind of publicity and attention did Hofstra get?

I think mainly because we were New York—towards the end of our season, we had every major newspaper, we had the TV stations and so on. The NCAA, locally, was St. John’s, maybe Manhattan but never really Hofstra. So the idea of having athletes that had the talent to play at that level, that was quite unique.

Do you ever think what if about the game against UConn—what if a shot had fallen in for Hofstra or fallen out for UConn?

You replay those things. I had a shot at the end that I turned into a jump pass. Never thought I should have shot it, because one of our bigger guys, Pat Kammerer, was wide open underneath. I had an athlete closing out at me—can’t remember [his name]—he got a little hand on the pass and [the ball] went up. But we gave it our best. It was one of those games where we left it all on the floor.

Along those lines: Given how UConn has become a perennial national power, do you ever think about what might have been for Hofstra as a program if the Flying Dutchmen won that game and went deep into the tournament?

All of those elite programs, they really kind of make the commitment across the board in terms of what they’re doing [with the program]. And you’re right—certainly, a Final Four run changes the face of a college. And we’ve see that happen with the mid-major programs. But it was a nice time. And then the following year, a large part of our group remained and we made another run [to the NCAAs, where Hofstra lost to Notre Dame 90-83]. So it was a nice two-year period. And I was actually out with my coach, Roger Gaeckler, this summer and we just were really happy to have the experience. Not many athletes or coaches get a chance to experience that.

What kind of profile did the basketball team have on campus?

Because we were a young program, I think people knew that we had good talent. My senior year, we went to the national tournament. But I think everybody looked at us and said ‘Well, they have some talent, but will they ever be able to meld as a team?’ So we didn’t have the big crowds. The biggest crowd we got was the reception we got [after returning] from Philadelphia after we had won the ECC championship.

Thirty-odd years later, it’s still a challenge to get people on to the Hofstra bandwagon. Why do you think that’s the case?

The problem you have in the metropolitan area is you have the pro franchises and you just have so much entertainment to compete with. So until a team really gets hot and people start reading about them, it’s hard to generate a following. I know locally, even with my own family, I’m competing against the Nets and all the other teams that are playing during the same time.

You were among the finalists for the Flying Dutchmen head coaching job in 1994. What do you remember about that process and how close do you think you were to getting the position?

All through the process, I was told that—and I was unfamiliar with this terminology—I was in the “catbird seat.” I said ‘What does that mean?’ [laughs] But, you know, it’s a gray area when you’re competing. And obviously, so many people were involved in the process. And I think they’ve all made good choices. And I’ve been really happy with what I’ve been able to accomplish as a small college coach. It was a real honor to even be considered.

In addition to coaching the men’s basketball team, you’re also the assistant athletic director at Old Westbury. What goes into that job and how did you move into athletic administration?

I work very closely with all the teams. We’re involved in the budget process right now. We’re trying to upgrade our programs. Just added two new sports, we have women’s soccer for the first time. We also have men’s and women’s golf. It’s pretty much more of the traditional role of a small college assistant athletic director or administrator.

I had always been pretty much a coach, and when I worked at Stony Brook, I was a full-time coach. Obviously, Division II and I, there’s a lot more responsibility as far as recruiting nationally, fundraising, those kinds of things. Small-college coaches that work full-time usually have numerous responsibilities and they wear one or two hats.

What are your thoughts upon returning to Hofstra? Do you remember the last time you coached there?

Wow. Memory lane. [laughs] I’m not sure what year, but when I was at Stony Brook, we played there. I think this was Speedy’s junior year [note: Hofstra hosted Stony Brook in 1996 and 1997, Claxton’s freshman and sophomore years]. You could see that team was just about to take off. They had so many good athletes and Jay was doing a great job. You’re always anxious because you know that you’re going against a good staff and you know these guys do a great job recruiting and a really good [job of] coaching.

Lastly, what do you plan to say to your guys before playing Hofstra tonight?

Just go out and compete. A lot of times, what happens in these games is the same guys you play against in the summer league games now are on the other side in a Division I jersey. So you kind of have to work through that. Obviously, they have some physical advantages with the size and the athleticism. But a lot of times, our athletes are a lot more comfortable than the coaches because they know what it’s like playing against these players. It’s not in a strict environment, but they’ve had that experience before.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.