Northeastern 58, Hofstra 51 (Or: Happiness one step behind)

Another tune that sums up this year's Flying Dutchmen. (And yes: To the well again with Extreme!)

Someday, college basketball historians will scan the smoldering embers of the 2011-12 Flying Dutchmen season and wonder how a team that should have been no better or worse than a middle-of-the-pack, .500-level team ended up mired at or near the bottom of the CAA and enduring one of the program’s worst seasons in a generation.

Those historians will find the answers to their questions if they can stumble across a DVD copy of the Dutchmen’s 58-51 loss to Northeastern Saturday at Matthews Arena. Therein is the explanation for how the Dutchmen could outperform the Huskies in many statistical categories yet lose the Barone Bowl Trophy (if only it existed) and fall by seven points in a game that was not as close as the final score indicated.

And the game film also provides the reasons why the Dutchmen are 1-10 in CAA play—and tied for next-to-last place now that Towson has ended its record losing streak, which @NUHF, @atowne07 and my wife “watched” via Twitter at Conor Larkin’s around the corner from Northeastern, have I mentioned lately on any social media forum how much of my soul I’d be willing to sell to move to Boston?— and why January 2012 was the program’s losingest month since January 1995, even if the Dutchmen have outscored by a mere 62 points since New Year’s Day.

Of course, you’d have to pay particularly close attention in watching the DVD, because the difference between victory and defeat for the Dutchmen this season is as fine as the blink of an eye.

“This is a tough league,” Mo Cassara said. “When you’re not playing well, and your margin for error is very small, one turnover for us almost seems like it’s four or five right now. We’re trying to create some easy baskets and we just haven’t been able to do that. We haven’t been able to string enough winning plays together to win.”

While the Dutchmen were once again frigid offensively—they endured eight scoreless stretches of at least two minutes and shot just 30 percent from the field in scoring 51 or fewer points for the third straight game—and had just 15 defensive rebounds to 11 offensive boards for Northeastern, they seemingly concocted a good recipe for winning by forcing six more turnovers than they committed (16-10) and by scoring more points than the Huskies off turnovers (18-11), second chance baskets (15-12), the fast break (10-7) and from the bench (12-2).

Yet the Dutchmen were done in by missed opportunities in every single one of those categories. The Dutchmen had the ball down one in the waning seconds of the first half, but at the end of an otherwise sharp possession, Matt Grogan’s pass down low was stolen by Jonathan Lee, who converted it into a layup that gave the Huskies a 30-27 halftime lead.

Three times in the second half, the Dutchmen forced a turnover and created a fast break but threw or kicked away a chance to close within six points. A David Imes pass eluded Nathaniel Lester just before the under-16 timeout while Mike Moore and Lester accidentally booted the ball off steals by Imes and Moore, respectively, in the final five minutes.

These games don’t exist in a vacuum, of course, but who knows how the tempo and tone would have been changed if the Dutchmen converted all three of those turnovers into fast break points?

Imes’ steal and turnover happened at the beginning of a two-minute stretch in which neither team scored but the Dutchmen missed four shots—two 3-pointers by Moore and two layups by Imes. Moore (17 points, steals) and Imes (10 points and eight rebounds) were the most impressive players on the court for the Dutchmen, but they needed 28 shots for those 27 points.

“Mike Moore had 17 points, but he’s 1-for-9 from 3,” Cassara said. “If he’s 4-for-9, it’s probably a one-possession game. We just need that extra shot to go in. We stole the ball a couple times going down the court to cut it to six and we didn’t even get a shot.”

As for Northeastern, it managed to get the extra shot to go in when it mattered most. The Huskies had eight third-chance points, including a 3-pointer by Lee to start the second half and spark a 10-2 run that basically buried the Dutchmen. Northeastern’s first 3-pointer of the game, by Quincy Ford, was also off a pair of offensive rebounds. And later in the first half, Ford drained a jumper after he rebounded the second of a pair of missed free throws by Kauri Black.

“I told our team I thought we had probably about 10 points in defensive breakdowns where we were late guarding or we weren’t in position,” Cassara said.

There’s no statistical measure for when a team is worn out by losing, the bad breaks it has absorbed and the bad breaks it can’t seem to help but create for itself. The Dutchmen seemed to reach that point Saturday for the first time this month—a month in which they were the only CAA team not to play consecutive home games as well as one of two teams with two two-game road trips (Towson). They were also one of just three teams (along with Old Dominion and Towson) to have two stretches in which they played three of four games away from home.

For the first time since the six-point loss to UNC Wilmington three weeks earlier, the Dutchmen never seriously threatened in the second half. They got within six points once in the final 16:54, on a meaningless 3-pointer by Shemiye McLendon with 42 seconds left.

Cassara did some mixing and matching in hopes of generating something—both Dwan McMillan and Stevie Mejia were on the bench for most of the final eight minutes—but the 10 points the Dutchmen got from their reserves came on a 3-of-13 shooting performance. Northeastern’s two bench points, meanwhile, came on a 1-of-3 effort.

The Dutchmen finally get a homestand this week—it’s Alanis-level ironic that the Dutchmen are playing a school-record 17 home games this season yet spent all of January living out of a suitcase—when Towson and Georgia State visit and Cassara hopes his squad can embark on a February that will at least leave everyone feeling a little better about this season while providing the returnees something to build on for next year.

“We’ve got a week at home, no travel, back to school, hopefully get a little bit of rhythm and get some confidence back and we get a couple shots to fall at home,” Cassara said.

Cassara and the Dutchmen could find reason for optimism Saturday on the other end of the court. Northeastern lost its first eight CAA games last year by a total of 86 points, a margin inflated by a 28-point loss to George Mason. But the Huskies won four in a row immediately after that, finished 6-12 in CAA play—by far the best record of any team to ever open 0-8—and are entrenched in fifth place this season at 7-4.

“We were in that situation last year, where we played good basketball but just not winning basketball,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. “I think you learn more from losing than you do winning.”

For the Dutchmen’s sake let’s hope the learning stops now that school has started.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Northeastern, 1/28)

3: David Imes

2: Mike Moore

1: Stevie Mejia

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 48

Nathaniel Lester 32

Dwan McMillan 17

David Imes 14

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

Stevie Mejia 6

Moussa Kone 2

Bryant Crowder 2

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

In which I tip off the season with THE GREATEST PHOTO IN THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET (G-rated division)!!!

That's me and Gary Cherone. Litos is right. We have it better.

Twenty-four nights ago, a few hours after the Flying Dutchmen's first practice of 2011-12, I was stiff and nursing a sore back in a bar in Rochester. Getting old and standing still for hours at a time waiting for the headlining act to take the stage is a bitch.

A bar eight hours from home is an odd place to be when you get to be my age, especially on a national holiday such as FIRST PRACTICE OF THE YEAR DAY! (Doesn’t really roll off the tongue—I blame Hallmark) But I was there with a definitive Defiantly Dutch purpose:

I was going to get my picture taken with Gary Cherone as we held aloft a 1994-95 Hofstra basketball poster.

Of course, by merely clicking here you know the story has a happy ending. And if you’re a regular visitor, either here or on Twitter, you probably know that Extreme—the band Cherone fronts, though not the one I saw in Rochester, more on that shortly—is the Official Band of Defiantly Dutch and that their 1991 hit “Hole Hearted” is our official anthem.

In August 2009, Extreme put on the best show I ever saw, one that turned me into a super-duper Internet sensation (snort). In terms of both background music and philosophies, Cherone and Extreme are a big part of the Defiantly Dutch operation.

Trying to find correlations or similarities between oneself and a famous entertainer is an inherently dangerous proposition, one that skirts a little too close to a giant ego stroke. “Hey look at me I’m just like so-and-so!” So let’s make this clear: I’m not declaring I’m anything like Cherone. He’s sung two top-five hits and on three top-10 albums, performed as the lead in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” headlined arenas and stadiums around the world with both Extreme and Van Halen and, with Extreme, stole the show at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. I quote sitcoms on Twitter. He survived the slings and arrows of being The Other Lead Singer in Van Halen. I survived the slings and arrows of bashing Jim Larranaga.

But in terms of both words and actions, Cherone’s work is an inspiration. I came to think of “Hole Hearted” as an especially appropriate song about writing as multiple deadlines came and went for my Red Sox book (I know, what are the odds, me missing deadlines—in my defense, I was writing 90 percent of a monthly magazine and posting multiple stories per day on the accompanying website) and I began to wonder if I’d ever finish it. “Should have known from the start I’d fall short with the things I do” is not only a pretty sobering thought for a writer, it’s also a pretty downbeat way to end an album.

I finally managed to finish what I started and remain proud of the final product, yet in the nearly four years since I was kicked to the curb by Corporate America and forced into the world of non-journalism writing, I’ve found just about every line of “Hole Hearted” particularly relevant—about not only the act of writing but also the challenge of trying to find time for a passion that no longer pays the bills yet remains just about as essential to me as breathing. As the saying goes: It’s hard to write, but it’s harder not to. (True story: Carl Van Doren, who spoke those spot-on words, died in my hometown in Connecticut).

Extreme is on a long hiatus (guitarist Nuno Bettencourt is touring as Rhianna's lead guitarist—bet you never expected a Rhianna reference here), so Cherone put together Hurtsmile along with his brother, Mark, and released a self-titled CD (Google it, kids!) last winter. The CD is similar to Extreme in that it’s not easily categorized and requires and rewards repeated listens. My wife’s cousins go to college in the Rochester area, so when I saw Hurtsmile’s tour itinerary, we decided to make a weekend out of it.

I’d heard for years that Cherone was a friendly to fans and regularly met with them after shows, so I had it in the back of my mind that maybe I’d get to shake his hand. But while packing the car the day before our departure, the idea struck me: Bring the 1994-95 poster schedule and ask him to pose for a picture with it. I mean, that would be brilliant—Defiantly Dutch doesn’t get much more, umm, defiantly dutch than the lead singer of Extreme holding aloft a poster picturing Jay Wright’s first team.

Of course it’s also insane, and silly-sounding to anyone else, so while I put the poster in the trunk, I wasn’t all that sure I’d actually ask him for a picture, never mind one in which we’re holding the poster.

It took one song for me to figure out that I had to find a way to get this picture taken. There were just a few dozen people milling about at the Montage Music Hall, and I counted just 14 people lined up along the front of the stage when Cherone and Hurtsmile appeared after four opening acts.

Yet Cherone took the stage as if he was playing in front of tens of thousands, racing around in such a fury that he was soaked in sweat by the end of the first song. At multiple points during the show, Cherone thanked those in attendance and said he appreciated all those who came out as well as the club owners for hosting the concert.

This Hurtsmile “tour” was actually just a two-date trek to upstate New York and was at least the band’s third mini-tour of the year in the United States. My guess is none of these jaunts are money-making endeavors for Cherone and the band and that a lot has to go right just to schedule these short trips. I can appreciate that, and hope that while Hurtsmile was driving home, a drunken fan of a rival and overlooked late ‘80s/early ‘90s hard rock band didn’t plow into their van.

But despite the haphazard scheduling and the lack of profitability, Cherone maximized and cherished the opportunity, put everything he had into the show in Rochester and performed as if he was playing Madison Square Garden.

I like to think I can appreciate that too. I can’t write here as much as I’d like to, and that disappoints me. I’ve got about 10 story ideas that I figured I’d post in the preseason and all 10 are still in my head. Nothing would make me happier than focusing all of my energies on this blog. If that is not possible, then what I can do is make sure the posts I do make are worth reading, and that I deliver as promised if I must emphasize quality over quantity.

That said, I’ll also make some modifications in order to post in a more frequent and timely fashion now that the season has started. You already saw the first new wrinkle of the season, the “Postgame Buffet.” This is intended to get a recap up shortly after, you know, the game has actually been played. I’m not a huge fan of bullet point recaps, and this may only last until Charles Jenkins comes out of the stands to beat George Mason with a 93-footer and I find it impossible to try and wax poetic about what I just saw, but it drives me crazy to waste time trying to find the right tone and the right phrasing while a day or more goes by.

So as a compromise, I offer “The Day After,” which will be a more traditional story providing further analysis of a particular part of the game. The hope is, without trying to cram everything into one piece, I’ll offer two better and better focused pieces. My initial feeling is I’ll post the Postgame Buffet the day after the game, even on the weekends, with The Day After appearing, in true Alanis irony, two days after the game is actually played.

We’ll see how it goes, and I thank you in advance for your patience both with my sporadic posting as well as the imminent adaptation process. And thanks to Gary Cherone for the inspiration and motivation, for a pretty cool conversation following the show and for posing for the photo after I told him about Extreme’s exalted status over here. And I bet he thought hitting number one with “More Than Words” and singing for Van Halen was a big deal!

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

In which I compare the 3-0 CAA start to young lust, thereby once again invoking Aerosmith, and hope our Boston brethren don’t end the honeymoon today

Fun fact: The actual video for this song is X-rated. Who knew? Good thing I checked! Also, yes, I will apparently craft a headline around every Aerosmith song from Pump and Get A Grip

They don’t pay me good money here (and by “they” I mean “I”) to come up with new and more profane ways to declare how much I don’t like George Mason, or to find a different and helpful way to look at Hofstra basketball, or to come up with witty and original descriptors.

But for the longest time (that’s to see if new reader Missy is still reading) following the suck it Mason win over Mason, I couldn’t come up with the proper way to describe what it’ll be like going from playing Mason to playing Northeastern tomorrow.

I mean, Hofstra and Northeastern, we’re as close as Hofstra and Mason are contemptuous—certainly tighter than either school is with anyone else in this conference in which we are now so obviously misplaced. We’re obvious Northern Bias schools. Ten days after Northeastern exterminated football, Hofstra followed suit (but that’s just coincidence, snort).

Tom Pecora’s favorite coach in the league he so loathed was Northeastern’s Bill Coen. The two teams couldn’t stop complimenting each other after the Huskies edged the Flying Dutchmen 74-71 in a classic double overtime duel in last year’s CAA Tournament,

Personally speaking, approximately three-quarters of my followers on Twitter are from Northeastern, and about half of those went to Hofstra before embarking upon grad school at Northeastern. (Mild exaggerations) I worked in Boston for four years, and loved every second of it. (No exaggeration) I’d be one happy guy if I could figure out a way to blog about Hofstra from Boston. In fact, when I win the lottery, I’m going to piss away my winnings by moving to Boston, starting a Red Sox website and getting limousine service to and from Hofstra games every winter. (My wife doesn’t know this yet, so don’t tell her)

And I almost forgot: Long Island and Boston are home to two of the greatest musical acts to ever grace the Earth, Billy Joel and Extreme. So yeah. I like Boston, and can’t wait to head into Matthews Arena tomorrow (unless the useless meteorologists of the world screw up another forecast and it takes me 18 hours to go 120 miles, but I digress and will rant about that in the Five Pregame Thoughts).

Oh, and finally, after 24 or so hours of pondering, I came up with a way to describe what tomorrow will be like. Imagine getting “get a room you two” freaky in public with your smoking hot new girlfriend (or boyfriend), all in front of your wicked (see what I did there?) stupid ex-girlfriend (or ex-boyfriend). You know how satisfying that is? That’s what Wednesday felt like. I think I need serious therapy.

Anyway, tomorrow is like taking that awesome hot new girlfriend (or boyfriend) to meet the family. It’s going to be nice and comfortable and everyone’s going to like everyone and the honeymoon is going to continue. Probably. Hopefully. As long as everything goes according to plan. We don’t really know.

See, this 3-0 CAA record is the basketball version of those first glorious couple weeks with that new girlfriend (or boyfriend). We had no idea how great this was going to be, no idea that a seemingly routine first date would turn into this torrid love affair. Hofstra is all alone in first place, for God’s sake. That’s like—umm, well, you know, it’s like stuff I probably shouldn’t mention here. But it’s good.

We know it’s early, and a lot can go wrong, but damnit, we don’t want to think about that now. We just want to enjoy the ride, enjoy the good feelings, enjoy the euphoria. We just want to umm, keep watching the Flying Dutchmen win games, and worry about if this is built to last later.

We know, though. We know that even if it is the real deal, there will be hiccups. No relationship remains blissfully carefree forever and nobody goes 18-0, or even 16-2. Hopefully it doesn’t happen today, or Wednesday, or even next Saturday against preseason favorite Old Dominion. But it will happen. At some point, someone will say something stupid or someone’s friends will grumble that someone is spending too much time with that new girlfriend or boyfriend or…well, something will happen. That is guaranteed.

And Northeastern is the type of place where it could happen. The Huskies are 0-3, one of three teams winless in CAA play, and crazy young: Your good friend and mine Mike Litos noted that through Dec. 31, Northeastern’s freshmen and sophomores had combined to play 1,839 minutes. Juniors and seniors played 606—all but 14 from seniors Chase Allen and Vinny Luma.

Northeastern also wasn’t playing very good defense, at least before Wednesday’s sludgy 49-34 loss to Old Dominion, and Coen won’t tolerate that for long. That second figure, by the way, is not a misprint. It’s better to take on the Huskies in Boston now than in February, when they will be the spoiler nobody wants to face, but you’ve got to figure that the Huskies will be an ornery bunch Saturday and eager to take out their aggressions (figuratively speaking, the program is pure class), even if the target is a familial foe.

Once the shine does come off, the real test begins. And we of course believe in the Flying Dutchmen’s ability to bounce back, become better for the rough patch and build a better relationship because of it, so to speak. But man, I hope it doesn’t happen today, because this young lust is fun for us middle-aged types.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

Northeastern 74, Hofstra 71 (Or: Some will win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues)

In an evening filled with memorable images, the most revealing and unforgettable happened as the Flying Dutchmen and Northeastern walked to center court for the overtime tipoff. Matt Janning, Northeastern’s star senior, strolled past Charles Jenkins and slapped hands with the CAA Player of the Year.

“I went up to him and said ‘Let’s do this one more time,’” Janning said.

They had so much fun the first time they did it a second time, and it’s somewhat surprising the two teams didn’t stick around Richmond Coliseum until well after midnight. But Janning willed his Huskies to victory last night as he had a hand in the two baskets that tied the game at the end of regulation, drained a tying 3-pointer in the first overtime and drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer in the second overtime as Northeastern hung on for a 74-71 double overtime win in an instant classic in the CAA quarterfinals.

The Huskies advance to tonight’s semifinal against William & Mary and immediately become the adopted team of Defiantly Dutch. The Dutchmen, whose only two losses in the last 12 games came at the hands of Northeastern, head home this morning, wondering, for the second straight season, what could have been after a narrow and heartbreaking quarterfinal loss.

“Someone’s gotta win and somebody’s gotta lose,” Tom Pecora said.

My wife and I will head home at some point today, too, wishing the weekend was one or, preferably, two days longer. The yellowed good luck T-shirts I packed for Sunday and Monday will return to my bureau unworn. We no longer have to wonder how we’ll pull off an all-night drive home Monday, or how she would function at school Tuesday.

I had a particularly cheesy video ready to go for Monday morning and was imagining the euphoric championship-winning Tweets. But those will have to wait for at least another season, as will the celebratory spin of this Defiantly Dutch anthem. Despite the thousands of words I wrote in an attempt to will it to happen, the greatest second half run in CAA history didn’t turn into the greatest Cinderella tournament run in CAA history.

Sure, the loss sucked, and, since the Dutchmen led for most of the second half and squandered a four-point lead in the final 90 seconds of regulation, will probably sting more than last year’s 52-51 loss to Old Dominion.

But sometimes you just have to appreciate the journey (or the Journey, whichever you prefer). This was the first double overtime game in the CAA Tournament since 1999, and presuming the planet survives December 2012, you can bet that anyone who witnessed last night’s game—whether in person or online—will remember it come 2021.

It was a phenomenal game—two teams playing their hearts out for the chance to play for one NCAA Tournament bid, matching for 50 minutes the other’s competiveness and passion and playing with a mutual respect that further bonded the squads—in which all the memorable plays ran together, creating the basketball equivalent of a tie-dyed T-shirt.

“Billy Coen, he’s one of my closest friends in the league and we talk a lot about both of our teams,” Tom Pecora said. “And Matt Janning is an easy kid to root for. He’s a wonderful young guy.”

“Charles Jenkins is a great player and you can’t help but respect his talent,” Northeastern forward Manny Adako said. “They’re so talented on defense. Greg Washington is always blocking shots. They play really well together and they don’t really talk trash at anybody. You can tell they’re a family. You have to respect that. They just go out there, having fun and playing hard.”

For most of the second half, it seemed as if the Dutchmen’s effort would translate into an upset win. They didn’t trail for the final 11:47, held at least a two-possession lead for much of that time and had all the momentum heading into the final few minutes thanks to an impassioned performance on the offensive boards that generated three second chance baskets down the stretch.

Jenkins (24 points) was the one willing his team to victory, hitting his only two 3-pointers of the game to give the Dutchmen their first two leads of the second half as well as a layup with 7:15 to play that broke a tie. Greg Washington once again made up for a foul-plagued first half cameo with a big second half, scoring seven points—four on a pair of thunderous dunks—and adding two blocks.

But Janning, who had 26 points in the greatest game ever for someone who shot 6-for-16, just would not let Northeastern lose. After the Dutchmen missed two shots to extend the lead to six with less than 1:40 to play, Janning went under the basket and hit a gorgeous underhanded layup to pull the Huskies within 52-50. Then, after Cornelius Vines missed a 3-pointer but grabbed his own rebound, Janning stole the ball from Jenkins with 19 seconds left, led the Huskies up the court without calling a timeout and, a la Jenkins the night before, dished underneath to Kauri Black, who hit the tying basket with six seconds left.

Jenkins, who missed a game-winning shot at the buzzer in the loss to Old Dominion 52 weeks earlier, got a decent look at the basket but missed a running 3-pointer as time expired. Northeastern had all the momentum as well as fresher bodies in the overtime, especially once Chaz Williams fouled out less than 30 seconds in, but the Dutchmen staved off elimination in remarkable fashion in the final half-minute, first with the are-you-kidding-me Vines alley-oop pass to Washington, who caught the ball too far from the rim yet managed to volley it into the basket as he was fouled to give the Dutchmen a shot at the tying 3-point play.

Washington missed the free throw and Chase Allen hit two free throws with 20 seconds left to extend the lead to 60-57, but Vines hit the shot of his life with a 3-pointer and the Dutchmen suffocated Allen on the other end to force the second overtime, where the Dutchmen finally ran out of steam as Vines and Jenkins fouled out and Janning hit his second back-breaking long 3-pointer to give the Huskies the lead for good at 70-67 with 45 seconds left.

“A lot of experience was on the floor and you guys saw what happened to us here last year, [quarterfinal] loss to Towson,” Janning said. “And we’ve been saying all week that we didn’t want that to happen again.”

The Dutchmen did all they could to squeeze every last drop out of the conference season, ending the game with little-used freshman Yves Jules and walk-on Matt Grogan on the floor and with Halil Kanacevic taking the last shot. Kanacevic grabbed a rebound after Allen missed a free throw with 3.1 seconds left and awkwardly dribbled the ball to near mid-court, where he heaved a desperation shot as time expired that bounced off the top of the rim.

“I think their maturity and their experience showed and our inexperience poked its head out just enough,” Pecora said. “One of our freshmen makes a play that probably is a play that they wouldn’t make at this time next year, whether it’s a rebound or whether it’s getting us a good look at the basket or whatever it might be.”

As he spoke, Jenkins sat to his left rubbing his temple and a red-eyed Vines sat to his right. “I just hate losing,” Jenkins said, his voice barely audible.

Vines, who came as far in the last month as any player has ever come under Pecora, poignantly tried to hang on to the remaining strands of his collegiate career. As he left the podium, Vines picked up the placard displaying his name and school.

Vines walked out of the interview room and picked up a copy of the Hofstra student newspaper, The Chronicle. He absent-mindedly leafed through it as Jenkins finished some individual interviews. With Jenkins still chatting, Vines walked over to a TV showing the James Madison-William & Mary game. Vines got close enough to touch the television, gazing intently and sadly at those still playing as he gripped the towel around his neck, and grew so engrossed he didn’t notice when Jenkins left. Vines turned around, saw Jenkins was gone and walked off alone into the locker room.

“I just didn’t want it to be over,” Vines said a few minutes earlier. “I promised them I would give them everything that I had. For that to happen—for me to foul out—it just hurt a lot.”

The rest of the Dutchmen don’t want it to be over either, which may or may not have been denial talking. Asked if he could appreciate the Dutchmen’s sizzling second half run, Pecora instead said the program would be interested in a CIT or CBI bid if it was offered—a dramatic departure from his mindset a year ago.

“I’ll be on the bus drive tomorrow and I’ve got that legal pad with me all the time and I’ll be writing down combinations on the floor, and I’ll be on the road Monday morning, if not tomorrow night, going to visit kids that we’re recruiting,” Pecora said. “So that’s kind of therapy when the season ends, you know? The last thing you want to do is sit around and mope.”

The rest of us alternate sitting around and moping with wishing for a CBI or CIT bid, because it delays the inevitable reboot of this whole process—or spending 50 or 51 weeks hoping the next season is finally the one in which our investment pays off with euphoria and not heartbreak the first weekend of March and it’s somebody else’s coach who is unwittingly channeling Journey at the podium.

“I’m not ready to be a senior at Hofstra,” Jenkins said. “I’m having a great time at my school and the last thing I want to think about is being a senior. That’s something I’m not looking forward to.”

Maybe, after a game that had it all and still left us wanting more, he—and we—can wait a little longer for next season to begin.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Northeastern, 3/6)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Cornelius Vines

1: Greg Washington

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 69

Chaz Williams 28

Halil Kanacevic 23

Miklos Szabo 21

Cornelius Vines 19

Nathaniel Lester 19

Greg Washington 18

Yves Jules 1

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.