Bits and Bytes: Of going forth in fourth and going scoreless

The Flying Dutchmen better end up connecting four! (This game ruled)

One of the segments of yesterday’s recap that ended up on the cutting room floor was a reminder that the Flying Dutchmen’s three-game losing streak should have us focused only on Northeastern on Saturday and not any sort of machinations over the final three weeks of the CAA schedule that could allow the fourth-place Dutchmen to move up in the standings.

We remain steadfast in following that wordy variation on a familiar cliché, but the entire CAA hit a mathematically relevant mile marker Wednesday, when the conference season reached the two-thirds mark. So it’s acceptable—just for today, or at least until the Dutchmen win tomorrow and get us all pondering how they can still finish first!—to look back at the history of teams that were in the top four through 12 games (dating to when the league expanded to 12 teams in 2005-06) and whether or not they eventually earned a bye.

Generally speaking, the news is good for teams that are in top four after 12 games: Seventy-five percent—15 of 20—of those squads earned a bye. But, more importantly for our purposes, the team in the most precarious position is the fourth-place squad.

Only two of the five teams that have been in fourth place at this point in the season have earned a bye, and each of the last three teams in this position have fallen out of the top four by season’s end: Drexel fell to sixth in each of the last two years and Delaware fell all the way to seventh in 2007-08. Uh-oh, that’s an awful lot of ECC representation there.

But wait! ECC alumni also account for the fourth-place teams that landed a bye: Drexel in 2006-07 finished fourth and Hofstra took third in 2005-06. Hooray ECC!

As for the first-, second- and third-place teams through 12 games: The news is really good for co-leaders VCU and George Mason (VCU currently holds the tiebreaker because the Rams beat Old Dominion while Mason fell to the Monarchs) as the first- and second-place teams after 12 games have not only earned a bye but also accounted for the regular season champion every year.

History is less convincingly on the side of third-place Old Dominion, as three of the teams in third through 12 games have finished in the top four (William & Mary in 2007-08 fell to fifth and VCU in 2005-06 fell to sixth). Of course, the Monarchs have their own bit of history suggesting they’ll stay in the top four: They’ve earned a bye in each of the last seven seasons.

Going by the trends, Old Dominion being in the top four at this point is a good sign for the Dutchmen, since the Monarchs have come from outside the top four and earn a bye three times (from tied for fifth to fourth in 2008-09, from tied for sixth to fourth in 2007-08 and from tied for fifth to fourth in 2006-07). The others: William & Mary (from sixth to third last year) and UNC Wilmington (from fifth to second in 2007-08).

—One trend that is not a good one for the Dutchmen is Greg Washington’s sudden slump. The senior co-captain has gone scoreless in each of his last two games, which, as we noted yesterday, is particularly jarring since it comes on the heels of a three-game span in which he shot 63 percent as well as an eight-game stretch in which he scored in double figures six times and an 11-game stretch in which he shot 58 percent (51-of-88). Only eight players have ever shot that well for Hofstra over the course of an entire season dating back to 1947-48.

However, scoreless games—at least this season—are nothing new for Washington, who has now failed to score in four of his 23 starts this year (he didn’t score against Western Kentucky Nov. 19 and UNC Wilmington Jan. 19). That’s double the total he had in 43 career starts entering this season. And both of those bagels came during his freshman season, when he made just six early-season starts.

Washington is the first Dutchman to go scoreless in consecutive starts since Greg Johnson capped the 2008-09 season with back-to-back 0-fers against UNC Wilmington and Old Dominion. Darren Townes also had two straight scoreless starts earlier that season against James Madison and UNC Wilmington.

However, neither Johnson nor Townes spent nearly as much time on the court during a scoreless effort as Washington, who played 29 minutes against Drexel and 31 minutes against George Mason. Johnson played 17 minutes combined in his two games while Townes played a total of 26 minutes in his back-to-back scoreless starts. Dating back to 2008-09, only one other Dutchmen has started and gone scoreless while playing more than 25 minutes (Nathaniel Lester, 28 minutes against Georgia State Feb. 25, 2009)

In (pardon the pun) defense of Washington, he contributed far more in his consecutive scoreless efforts than either Johnson or Townes. Washington racked up four rebounds, five blocks and a steal against George Mason and seven rebounds, one block and two steals against Drexel. He also had 10 rebounds in 34 minutes against Western Kentucky (he had just one rebound when foul trouble limited him to 15 minutes against UNC Wilmington).

Johnson, meanwhile, had a total of one assist in his final two games with the Dutchmen while Townes collected five rebounds and two blocked shots in his back-to-back scoreless games.

Only one other Dutchmen has gone scoreless in a start this season (Brad Kelleher against Iona Dec. 29). The Dutchmen received just three scoreless starts last year, all from Cornelius Vines. Remarkably, the Dutchmen had 16 games in which a starter went scoreless in 2008-09, which makes their 21-win season all the more impressive. Johnson “led” the way with five scoreless starts while Townes and Arminas Urbitus had four apiece and Lester, Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo had one each.

—As we posted last week on Twitter, Flying Dutchman legend Loren Stokes, who has played professionally overseas since his graduation in 2007, is back in the States and playing for Erie, the NBA Developmental League affiliate of the Cavaliers and Raptors.

The Erie Times-News ran a lengthy and interesting feature this week on Stokes, who has had a real rough go of it over the last couple years. His Mom, who was diagnosed with colon cancer while Stokes was at Hofstra, died of the disease a year-and-a-half ago and Stokes returned home from Belgium after last season and hadn’t played until signing with Erie as he took care of his daughter and uncle, both of whom were sick.

His uncle died last Saturday night, one night after Stokes debuted for Erie and scored five points with three rebounds and two assists in a win over Maine. Here’s hoping things begin getting better for Stokes, and soon.

—Oh and one more interesting nugget from that story: Stokes’ coach is Jay Larranaga, son of you-know-who. We kid you not. This comes a little more than three years after Stokes was teammates in the NBA Summer League with that wonderful piece of work Tony Skinn.

And we think we’re haunted by 2006. You think son of you-know-who ever asks Dad for tips on slowing down Stokes or has a Chris Farley Show moment with Stokes?

—I vented on Twitter earlier today about this “scouting report” from SI.com identifying Charles Jenkins as the 13th-best NBA Draft prospect among college seniors. The placement is fine, but the analysis is something south of well-informed. See for yourself.

—Lastly, belated congrats to Loyal Reader Jojogunne, who trounced the field in the Charles Jenkins Record Game by nailing everything almost to the second. He predicted a free throw in the 30th minute. Pretty damn impressive—as was just how close Jenkins came to hitting his average time for his 16th point. As we noted early Saturday, Jenkins scored his 16th point an average of 31 minutes into a game. He scored the record-breaking point with 10:15 to go—a mere 16 seconds away from the 31st minute. All of which proves that if you’re going to bet (even if you wager and win nothing at all!), bet the trends.

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

Hofstra 66, Delaware 61 (Or: Emotional Rescue)

Austin Powers raises a glass to the Flying Dutchmen, even if their win wasn't quite as beautiful as Vanessa Kensington.

A starving man will eat anything and think it’s the greatest thing he’s ever consumed. Liverwurst, gruel, even a Hofstra Burger that’s been sitting under those heat lamps since the library only had 500,000 volumes.

It won’t take until a little later, when his stomach is full and maybe barking a little bit, that he’ll realize that liverwurst or gruel or Hofstra Burger from 1973 was actually not nearly as good as he thought it was. But no-longer-starving man is still grateful for the food, since, you know, eating something that Emeril or even Rachael Ray (don’t worry, I resisted the urge to post a not suitable for work picture…barely) would scoff at is still better than going hungry.

I mention this not because I’m hungry (though my wife made a great pot roast in the slow cooker) but because at around 9 p.m. last night, the Flying Dutchmen’s 66-61 win over Delaware (a game covered by, be still my beating heart, at least four daily newspapers—the Daily News, the Post and the News-Journal in Delaware, link to Newsday story further below) was the greatest tonic ever for a team starving for a win after dropping two straight conference games and four of five contests overall.

Better than the two America East championship game victories over the Blue Hens. Better than the NIT win over St. Joseph’s. Better than beating St. John’s for the first time (and the second time, and the third time, and the fourth time, too).

Greg Johnson was outstanding at the point, racking up seven assists and no turnovers (that’s a ratio of infinity, you know). Slumping Charles Jenkins scored 18 points. Nathaniel Lester, who for so long has seemed to be the very definition of a tweener—just a little too big and unpredictable on offense to be a guard, not big enough or forceful enough down low to be a small forward—led the Dutchmen with eight rebounds, including a pure effort grab that led to a key late lay-up by Cornelius Vines. It’s the second time in four games Lester has collected eight boards.

The Dutchmen looked like a complete team during a 15-2 run that turned a 22-17 deficit into a 32-24 halftime lead. They hit five of 10 shots and outrebounded the Blue Hens 9-5 during the stretch.

A team whose performance from the free throw line is not for the faint of heart was, shockingly, almost perfect—24-of-26, including 20-of-20 in the second half. That’s got to be the Dutchmen’s best performance from the line since at least 1956 (give or take a couple decades, of course).

Two days after Tom Pecora had to take some air out of the tires, Vines played with his familiar swagger as well as the good kind of emotion in scoring a game- and career-high 23 points. He shot and missed at will to open the second half (0-for-6) but hit three of his last four shots, including a pair of rare lay-ups. Vines set a season-high by attempting 11 shots inside of the 3-point line, a pretty notable shift for a guy who took two or fewer shots from inside the arc seven times in his first 14 games.

After hitting the second lay-up to extend the Flying Dutchmen’s lead to 58-54, Vines ran down the court with his arms in the air, extorting a predictably small Intersession crowd to make the type of noise that filled the Arena with an atypical roar—for a few seconds, at least.

The Dutchmen seemed to follow Vines’ lead. Dane Johnson did the arms thing when he came off the court after he drew a charge that negated a potential game-tying basket by the Blue Hens. And the bench—full of downcast, morose expressions most of the last five games—was so lively in the final minutes that Pecora had to threaten to turn the bench around and drive back home.

In retrospect, of course, the win wasn’t THAT good. As my wife sang to the tune of “We Are The Champions”: “No time for Blue Hens, because we are marginally better than you!”

The issues that have dogged Hofstra since mid-December haven’t been solved. The Dutchmen endured another terrible game from the field in shooting just 29.7 percent (19-of-64), their second-worst performance of the season. The Dutchmen were fortunate that Delaware shot just 30.5 percent (18-of-59) and that Marc Egerson, Jawan Carter and Alphonso Dawson, who averaged a combined 49.6 points entering the game, were a combined 6-of-37.

Jenkins led the way again—so to speak—for the cold-shooting Dutchmen by making just four of his season-high 24 shots, many of which barely grazed the rim. On the bright side, Jenkins at least got his shots Wednesday—he set a season-low in shots in each of the previous two games—and he displayed some of his Loren Stokes-like ability to fill up the boxscore even when he’s not filling the basket.

Jenkins was 10-of-10 from the free throw line, tied a season-high with a team-best three steals and committed just two turnovers after turning the ball over 15 times in his previous three games. And as the lede to this Newsday story indicates, at least Jenkins is smiling about his struggles instead of torturing himself (more on the latter in a bit).

After opening that eight-point halftime lead, the Dutchmen let Delaware hang around and eventually take the lead. The game was a one-possession nail-biter for most of the final five minutes before Monte Ross did his best Bruiser Flint imitation and got T’d up with seven seconds left.

And the depth that appeared so promising in November continues to be a mirage. Only seven players saw at least 12 minutes of playing time and Miklos Szabo, Darren Townes and Tony Dennison—who were expected to be regular starters—played a combined 19 minutes.

So it wasn’t a thing of beauty. But the rebuilding of the overall psyche couldn’t begin until the Dutchmen got a win, no matter how ugly and lacking in style points it was. And 2-2 in the CAA going into VCU looks a whole lot better than 1-3, which would have bordered on disastrous given the hot start enjoyed by the Dutchmen and the resultant raised expectations.

Jenkins, the symbol of the Dutchmen’s recent struggles, also summarized the relief of Dutch Nation. Seconds after the final buzzer, Jenkins—who spent most of the previous 40 minutes expressing his frustration by banging his right hand on the floor or on the padding attached to the basket—kneeled down at midcourt and gently tapped the “H” twice.

Hunger satiated. Mojo stirring. Bigger and more satisfying feasts, hopefully, to come.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

A Q&A with Tom Pecora in which he prays for mojo

Sure, Pecora was referring to Austin Powers' mojo. But there's nothing funnier in the world than posting a picture of Homer's overfed and "house-trained" helper monkey.

Caught up with Tom Pecora this morning, immediately after the shoot-around at Hofstra Arena and a few hours before the Flying Dutchmen try to snap out of their funk against ECC rival Delaware.

Pecora is optimistic the Dutchmen will—warning! Old-school pun coming up!—right the ship soon but also candid about the causes of his team’s recent nosedive and what the Dutchmen—and struggling players such as Charles Jenkins, Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo—will have to do to aid the cause. He also discusses the emotional nature of Cornelius Vines, expresses his hope that the Dutchmen’s six seniors will play with a renewed sense of urgency now that the clock is winding down on their careers and how he handles the criticism he’s absorbed over the last few weeks.

Oh and Pecora also gives me months and months of photo material by uttering the word “mojo.” Oh sweet bountiful gift.

Enough out of me, go read what Tom has to say. Thanks to Tom for his time and to Jeremy Kniffin for setting up the interview. See you at the game tonight. I’ll be the one storming the court. (True story: Heard Queen’s “We Are The Champions” on the way to Hofstra. A good sign, perhaps?)


The last few weeks have obviously been rough for you guys. Was there a specific turning point in that stretch or was it a gradual build?

I think it was distinct. I think we were playing well into finals. We came out of finals and played poorly at UMass. It’s like Austin Powers—we’ve lost our mojo. [laughs] I think it’s directly related to Charles. Charles has got to get back to playing the way he’s capable of playing. If he plays poorly, we probably win three of the last four games. But he’s just played worse than that. And he’s aware of it and he and I talk about it all the time. The other night, 1-for-9 and six turnovers, he’s never played worse than that. So everything’s looking up from there, I think, for him.

He continues to work hard. They all do and it’s nothing a win won’t fix. You’re never as good as you think you are and never as bad as you think you are. So we’ve just got to find a way to win one tonight and then we’ll be 10-5, you know? [laughs] All of a sudden, you lose a few and guys aren’t scoring [and] they stink, I don’t know what I’m doing—all those wonderful emails you get from loyal fans. The same guys that were emailing you when you were 26-5 and calling you a genius. Like I say, you’re never as good, you’re never as bad.

What do you think is wrong with Charles? Is it just a matter of dealing with his first hiccup as a collegian?

I don’t believe in that sophomore jinx nonsense, but I think—hey, look, we’re playing better teams as we get into conference play. He is the focal point of everybody’s scouting report. And very often, when that happens, it can turn into a positive if other guys start stepping up. And now, all of a sudden, you become a more dangerous team by getting secondary and second- and third-level people making big-time plays at times. That hasn’t happened over the last few games. Cornelius Vines, he hasn’t played well. Greg Washington hasn’t played well at the same time and Greg Washington was kind of blossoming into a pretty good player. So it’s all part of the growth process. We say all the time: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve got to finish strong.

Does this stretch remind you at all of the 2004-05 season, when you went 1-5 immediately after a 9-0 start?

I didn’t compare it to that—a few people had mentioned that to me, but yeah, that could be. Look, the spirit is good, which is similar to that group. Yesterday, we came in after losing Monday night and not being able to score at all. I said ‘All right, we’re going to watch a real good college basketball team today. We’re going to watch some tape before practice of a game.’ And we watched our game versus Towson. And I said ‘That’s a good team. That’s you guys three weeks ago. So c’mon. Let’s get back to playing with the kind of passion, doing the things that we can do, and we’ll be fine.’

Outside of falling behind 12-2 early, that was a pretty thorough game for you guys.

We played our asses off. We had great spirit. It was a team effort. And all those things are very important to me. So yeah, I wanted them to see that. I wanted them to see themselves. And afterward, I said ‘That was you and that was you and that was you and that was you and it was everyone in this room. It’s nobody different.’ I think we’ll be OK.

Why have Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo been inconsistent?

I think with Tony and Mikey, there’s a transition. I know we went through this with Adrian Uter. It took him about halfway through the season—it’s coming up at the end of this week for them—to really start figuring it out. It’s the speed of the game, the intensity—not only of the game, but the practices. In junior college, [Szabo] was the biggest, strongest in most games and Tony was the most athletic, quickest. So they could just get by on raw talent, where now they’ve got to work on every possession to make plays happen. But I think that’s coming along.

How do you approach a slump like this as a coach?

Well, I think they play off of you, so the one thing you never do is panic. And you just don’t lose faith in them, because I truly believe offensively—especially the shooting aspect of offense—is so much confidence. It’s from the neck up. So I have to let them know I still believe in them. If they’re not doing their extra work and their extra shooting—especially this time of year—then it’s crazy, because we’re not in classes. They all come in at night and shoot, so long as they continue to work hard, I have faith in them. I think—I know—we have a very good bunch of young men and I think the problem is they’re all trying to please everybody so much that when they don’t play well they get down. And you’ve got to almost be a little bit of a jerk in the sense to keep that swagger and say ‘Hey, I’m gonna make the next one, I don’t care that I missed that one. I’m gonna forget about that play and make the next play.’

Cornelius is a player who seems to have that swagger, that ability to forget a bad shot.

Yeah, Cornelius—we’ve got to rein him in a little. Which, to be quite honest, I would rather do. It’s nice to have to take a little air out of the tire instead of having to pump it up all the time.

He got pretty emotional after a couple foul calls Monday, after which you and some of his teammates were seen trying to calm him down.

He doesn’t realize you throw your arms up—well, the officials, they’re egomaniacs too. And they’re gonna say ‘This [expletive] kid’s showing me up. Boom. Here’s a touch [technical foul]. How do you like that? Now you’ve got to sit.’ And that’s all part of the game. That’s part of being mature and understanding. It’s just like a coach who goes out and flails his arms and pointing and stuff. Well, of course you’re going to get a ‘T.’ Or they’re going to punish your team next three trips down the floor. You’ve got to understand what’s really going on out there.

What has allowed Greg Johnson to work his way back into the starting lineup?

We have six seniors, so I’m hoping that some of these seniors step up and have the kind of years seniors usually can have for you. [In] Greg Johnson’s case, I think he’s our only true point guard and he gets us into offense and he can handle double-teaming and things like that, that kind of pressure, better than others. He kind of played the way I thought he would play the other night, but I thought we’d get more out of the sophomores, Jenkins and Washington.

When you talk about seniors emerging, do you think back to 2001 and the likes of Roberto Gittens and Greg Springfield really coming on during the second half?

Especially those two. It’s funny—Norm Richardson was here at Christmas and we were talking about that and he says ‘Hey, Roberto didn’t start playing like Roberto until we had 12 games left.’ Greg Springfield, the same thing. Sometimes, seniors, the light goes on. ‘Holy [smokes], I’ve got a dozen games left, I’ve got 15 games left.’ So that’s something I’ll start putting on the board in the corner somewhere. I’ll have the countdown, game-wise, and let them see that each day.

What are your thoughts so far on the rest of the CAA?

Crazy. Crazy—even more so [than usual]. I think the crazy thing about the CAA is this four games in a week thing. [It’s] good for some teams and not so good at all for others. Some teams are playing three home games, some teams are playing one or I think two. You already don’t play a balanced schedule. You just go out, you’ve got to play who’s on your schedule. You’ve got to find a way to win the game and then just look at your next game. You can’t think about it too much because there’s no method to it.

There’s no break in the schedule for you guys. Do you ever worry about your team looking ahead and seeing the challenges ahead—VCU, Drexel, Northeastern—and placing more pressure on itself to win now and end this skid?

That’s the league. That’s any good league. You know, look: When we were playing in the other conference years ago, this was the best job in the conference. We had the best players in the conference. And you could look at your schedule and you could say ‘All right. We’re going to win here, here, here, here and here’ and there were teams that we didn’t lose to over a five-, six-year period. That’s not going to happen in this league. The level of play is higher. Everything is better.

We really talk all the time about one-game winning streak and live in the moment—that type of stuff. I don’t think they get worried about that. I think coaches think about that kind of stuff. We’re the ones who need to be concerned with that, not them.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

Bowling for baskets

If you were 10 years old in 1984, you, too, probably had to wait several days to read about Miami upsetting Nebraska. Kids these days, with their later bedtimes, BCS Championship Games and Internet...they have no idea how good they have it.

It’s a moot point this year, since Jan. 2 falls on a Friday and everyone in a public school is off until Monday, but today reminds me that the best part about going to college—other than “18 and over” Happy Hours, of course—was not having to go back to class on Jan. 2. The looming return to school put a damper on New Years Eve and ruined New Years Day, which was one long torturous reminder that I could no longer stay up as late as I wanted.

I was never a big college football fan, probably because I never got to see the national championship decided because I had to be in bed by 9 during elementary school. Who knows how different I’d be today if I was able to stay up 25 years ago and watch the classic 1984 Orange Bowl in which Miami shocked previously unbeaten Nebraska to move from fourth to first in the final polls?

Now, of course, there are more bowl games played after New Years Day than on it, including classics that feature powerhouses such as Buffalo, UConn, Ball State and Tulsa, and the national championship takes place a full week after New Years Day, by which point every CAA team but two will have played four conference games. (How’s that for a smooth segue?)

As a college basketball fan, New Years Day is now welcome, because it signals the real start of conference play. We’ve spent weeks alternately wondering and fretting over how good the Flying Dutchmen are. By the end of this stretch of three games in five days, we’ll have a good idea which instinct was correct.

So will the fans of every other CAA school. Michael Litos pointed out eariler this week that what is fun for us is hell for coaches, but Hofstra seems to have little to complain about, at least from a travel perspective: The Dutchmen play Drexel Saturday, travel to Northeastern Monday and host Delaware Wednesday. No plane rides, only one night in a hotel and no traffic if they travel to and fro Boston at the right times.

Of course, schedule-wise, it’s a beast. Recent games against Drexel and Delaware—Hofstra’s biggest traditional rivals—have been appropriately suspenseful. The Flying Dutchmen won their two games over Drexel by a combined 17 points last year, but five of the seven games between the teams the previous three seasons either went into overtime or were determined by a basket. The last three games against Delaware have been settled by five points or less while the Dutchmen are 1-2 in Northeastern’s band box since the Huskies joined the CAA in 2005.

Drexel is the perfect team against which to begin this measuring stick stretch. The Dragons were a consensus pick to finish at or near the bottom of the CAA, but Bruiser Flint is too good a coach and his teams too tough to bring up the rear two years in a row. Drexel beat Rider and St. Joseph’s over the last six days to improve to 4-6 (I may or may not have a post later about how it seems like everyone is getting hot entering CAA play), but the only teams it lost to by more than six points were Georgetown and Memphis. And those guys are pretty good.

The Dragons aren’t a mirror image of the Dutchmen, but similarities shared by the teams—as page two of Jeremy Kniffin's notes package indicates, both teams have been cold from the field and the free throw line but make up for some of those offensive struggles by outrebounding the opposition—should ensure another physical, intense game that will be a lot more compelling and fun to watch than the box score will indicate.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Greg Johnson—who set career highs with 15 points in 40 minutes against Drexel in Philadelphia last January—plays a pivotal role. And if the Dutchmen are going to win, they’ll need two guys to help Greg Washington out down low. So the picks to click Saturday are Miklos Szabo and Darren Townes. Hey, I’m nothing if not loyal.

Oh, and the over/under on technical fouls earned by passionate and vocal head coaches who laugh at the confines of the coach’s box is 1.5.

I may or may not be there, as I might be out of state and taking this one in on TV. If I’m not there, say hello to my wife. She’ll be the one snagging T-shirts from the grip of Sully Ray.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

Christmas (Flying Dutch, please beat Iona at home)

Who sings Christmas better than Darlene Love?

Crazy days and nights here at Defiantly Dutch World HQ as we prepare to host Christmas Eve and travel Christmas Day, so a real quick post today (which, of course, is what a blog is supposed to be, but I was typing something long-winded and missed that memo).

First, I’ll follow in the footsteps of fellow Huey Lewis and the News fan Michael Litos as well as Kyle Whelliston at Mid-Majority by sort of establishing a posting pattern for the holidays. We’ll have a recap of tonight’s game tomorrow and then we’re off until Monday. The plan is to post the first three days of next week, but that may change too. I’ll be out of state at that time so we’ll see what happens.

On to tonight: I’m curious to see what kind of lineup Tom Pecora utilizes. Is tonight the night to see if Greg Washington can handle 30 minutes? Dane Johnson and, in particular, Darren Townes have not met expectations thus far. Not saying to bury those guys, but they’re seniors and Washington is looking like a game-changer as a sophomore. Pecora sees in the long- as well as the short-term. It might be time to start making Washington a centerpiece.

Pecora loves Mike Davis-Saab, who is one of those truly team-first guys. I won’t be surprised at all if he sees double digit minutes as Pecora tries to shake up Johnson and Townes. In fact, Davis-Saab is the pick to click (groan).

Tony Dennison has a bigger long-term role than Greg Johnson, but he’s been ice cold and it’s starting to affect Charles Jenkins. Plus, Johnson committed just one turnover in 17 injury-plagued minutes against Iona in February. I think you’ll see a lot of him tonight.

And don’t sleep on the Gaels just because they’re 4-7 and because the strength of their OOC schedule (224) is lower than the much-maligned slate played by Hofstra (189). Iona has played three teams ranked in the top 105 by Ken Pomeroy (the Flying Dutchmen have played just one, Clemson), lost to Wisconsin by two in overtime and to Southern Miss by one. Of course, the Gaels have also played six teams ranked 230 or lower and lost to Western Michigan (whom Hofstra beat in OT for its first win of the year) by 13, so there you go.

I’ll predict a Hofstra win, because that’s what I do, but I also won’t be surprised if Pecora is willing to absorb some painful lessons in this one.

Either way, if you do nothing else besides watch/listen to Hofstra tonight, make sure you watch Darlene Love on Letterman, because it’ll put you in the Christmas mood and get you right here, especially if you’ve been slow to get into the spirit thus far. That, and Love on Letterman is as much a part of Christmas as Charlie Brown. And games against Iona, apparently.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

We're no. 11! We're no. 11! (And other bits and bytes)

Vyvyan, Neil, Nigel and Mike are all on the bandwagon, even if we're playing popular American music instead of British punk.

Some bits and bytes, most looking back, one looking ahead:

—The bandwagon is getting more crowded. Two wins last week seemed to impress the coaches who vote in the mid-major poll at Collegeinsider.com. The Flying Dutchmen made the biggest leap in the rankings in moving from 19 to 11 in a poll released Monday. Only one CAA team—VCU at no. 9—ranks ahead of Hofstra.

Plenty of room here, but if you don’t hurry you might have to fight for seats in the middle and front of the bus. Because everyone knows the cool kids sit in the back, and the prime real estate—the very last seats on the bus—are already occupied by Sully Ray and my wife. They’re also in charge of the music, which means an eclectic mix of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and the New Kids on the Block performing the very worst Christmas song ever recorded.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

—My first attempt at pegging a surprise contributor (that game needs a much better name, BTW, so if you’ve got any ideas, email me at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com) went fairly well Saturday. Neither Tony Dennison nor Darren Townes had breakout games, but both produced something to build upon in the 68-52 win over St. Francis.

Dennison remained cold from outside (0-for-3 from 3-point land) but drove the lane for four layups and finished with nine points in 26 minutes, his most extensive playing time since Manhattan. Dennison is listed at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, right around the size of the recent superstar guards at Hofstra, but he looks broader than Loren Stokes, Carlos Rivera or Antoine Agudio and better built for slashing to the basket, particularly if he never finds his form from beyond the arc (11-for-40 thus far).

After playing just 27 minutes in the previous three games combined, Townes played 21 minutes against St. Francis and tied a season-high with seven rebounds. He also had six points and equaled his season total entering the game with two blocks, including one of his fellow no. 21, Nigel Byam (best name of the year, bar none).

—I hope someone else in the audience hears/sees the name Nigel and thinks of The Young Ones, the freaking hilarious British comedy that aired on Sunday nights on MTV in the mid-80s. It’s true: MTV used to show something other than music videos. I know that’s shocking to you, kids.

—I can’t decide if someone should assume point guard duties from Charles Jenkins or not. He seemed a bit out-of-sorts Saturday, when he tied his season low by scoring 11 points on a season-worst 4-for-16 shooting. He drained his only 3-pointer in six attempts immediately after Greg Johnson replaced him at the point following the second media timeout of the first half.

Yet on the other hand…why mess with what’s working when your best player is able to make multiple contributions even when his shots aren’t falling? He had 10 rebounds Saturday, tying his career high set against Iona in February. And the other time he had 11 points, he dished out a career-high nine assists against Manhattan.

He also added seven assists Saturday, putting him within flirting distance of the first triple-double in school history. When your best player has a down game by his standards yet still puts up a line that reads 11-10-7, you’ve got a pretty good best player.

Jenkins has earned plenty of comparisons to Stokes, but while Stokes had plenty of eye-popping double-doubles (like the 30 points and 15 boards he racked up against William & Mary Jan. 20, 2007), he never put up a line like the one Jenkins produced Saturday. Among recent players, Rivera came closest to Jenkins’ stat line, coincidentally enough against St. Francis on Dec. 20, 2005, when he had 11 points, 10 assists and four boards.

—Greg Johnson, meanwhile, had one of those “why can’t he do this all the time” games Saturday, when he scored five points (only the third time this season he’s gotten into the scoring column), tied a season high with three assists and recorded five steals, two more than he had all year coming into the game. He did have three turnovers in 17 minutes, so it wasn’t quite perfect. But as the lone pure point guard on the roster, I remain convinced he’s going to pull a Roberto Gittens in the second half of the season and get big minutes down the stretch.

—Shame on me for not pointing out Friday that a win Saturday would lift Tom Pecora out of a tie for fourth place on the all-time win list at Hofstra with his best friend and predecessor, Jay Wright. Well, congratulations to Pecora, who now has 123 wins in just over eight seasons. He’s 23 wins behind Frank Reilly and 29 wins behind Paul Lynner, so Pecora will become the second-winningest coach in Hofstra history when the Dutchmen cut the nets down in Detroit on the first Monday of April! Alas, Butch van Breda Kolff’s 215 wins are still multiple seasons away for Pecora.

I have no idea how rare it is, but I can’t imagine it’s all that common for a heir apparent to record more wins than his mentor. Either way, it’s pretty cool that two coaches have been able to craft such distinctive legacies over a 15-season span.

—Lastly, the game against UMass this weekend just got a lot more interesting after the Minutemen shocked Kansas, 61-60, Saturday. Sure, the Jayhawks were decimated by graduation and early departures for the NBA and the win was in Kansas City and not at Allen Fieldhouse, but still, a win over the defending national champs on their turf is pretty remarkable anytime.

The win provided further proof UMass is better than its 3-6 record: The Minutemen have lost three games by four points or fewer and dropped another by seven points. They also played Memphis, which fell to Kansas in the national championship game last year, so the schedule is RPI friendly.

Speaking of the RPI: I have zero faith Hofstra can get an at-large bid even if it goes 31-2 and falls in 12 overtimes in the CAA final, but regardless, this is the Dutchmen’s best chance to boost its standing in the RPI before conference play starts. More on the Minutemen later this week, but one look at the UMass roster and the year-to-date stats indicates this will be the biggest test—literally—of the Dutchmen’s new-found depth and inside presence. A win Saturday and the bandwagon might get really cramped.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.

Hofstra 90, Towson 81 (Or: All aboard HAHAHA!!!)

Ozzy Osbourne indicates how many games he thinks Hofstra will win in the NCAA Tournament. Which is good, 'cause who can understand what he says anyway?

Sorry for the lack of a post Monday. The last three days have been crazy at Defiantly Dutch World HQ, with actual paying work making its way across my desk, a visit to the dentist for Root Canal 2: Electric Drillboogaloo and the wife and I spending far too many hours shopping for and preparing the HQ for new furniture.

True story: Dante’s original manuscript for his Divine Comedy mentioned 10 circles of hell, the last one of which was shopping for furniture. But his editors said 14th century readers didn’t have the attention spans and were too busy arguing over global warming and fearing the day they’d fall off the edge of the flat Earth to read about 10 circles of hell, so he had to axe it to nine. I swear. I learned it in English class.

Anyway, for a little while Saturday night, I was worried root canal and furniture shopping had met, courted each other, fallen in love, gotten married, had a baby and named it Hofstra-Towson. I was suckered into spending the $5 for the Towson webcast of the game, and not only was it impossible to get in at 7 p.m., but when the game finally appeared on my screen, Hofstra was losing 12-2.

Worse yet, a few seconds later, I realized I’d paid $5 for a webcast that had all the quality of a basketball snuff film. I mean, seriously, I understand the need to create new revenue streams in this happy happy joy joy economy, but c’mon. At least make it so it’s possible to tell the teams apart.

The webcast got no better, but fortunately, the Flying Dutchmen did in a 90-81 victory. (Also, nobody was hacked to pieces) All the usual caveats apply about how it’s only one game and there’s still 17 games left in the conference season and a whole lot can change between now and the next CAA contest and Towson, while solid thus far, is still a consensus pick to finish in the bottom third of the conference.

But still, if you’re the type of person who likes to plan ahead and hates being rushed and likes to laugh at the harried and irresponsible and panicked, I’d go ahead and book a reservation on the Hofstra bandwagon. Cause it may just get as crowded as the Port Jefferson-Bridgeport ferry on Christmas Day (which, as a harried and irresponsible and panicked individual, I always make at the last possible second).

First Saturday of December and all, this was as thorough and encouraging a victory as I’ve seen (or barely seen) in a long time. We all remember Hofstra victories where the Dutchmen got hot from 3-point land—and the vaguely unsettling feeling engendered by those wins, that knowledge that somewhere over the hill, maybe even in the same game, there was an extended period of time awaiting the Dutchmen in which they went cold from beyond the arc and couldn’t find another way to create some offense.

But such worries were minimal in the first half Saturday, even though all seven of the Dutchmen’s 3-pointers came from two players—Cornelius Vines was 5-for-7 and Charles Jenkins was 2-for-2—and though Zygis Sestakos (0-for-5), Tony Dennison (0-for-2) and Nathaniel Lester (0-for-1) combined to miss all eight of their 3-point shots.

Typically, you’d fear the market correction on Vines and Jenkins, but the pre-season hope that this would be a deeper and more versatile Hofstra team was proven correct again in the second half, when the Dutchmen went 2-for-9 from 3-point land yet still scored 41 points.

More than half the points in the final 20 minutes were scored by the “bigs,” including five apiece by Dane Johnson and Miklos Szabo (who hit one of the 3-pointers) and two by Arminas Urbutis. No one looked (or sounded) as good, though, as the suddenly emerging Greg Washington, who had nine points and nine boards in the second half alone on his way to his second straight double-double.

The Dutchmen also got a where-in-the-hell-has-THIS-been performance from Greg Johnson, who committed just one turnover in 22 minutes—one minute more than he’d played combined in Hofstra’s five previous games against Division I foes—and was 6-for-8 from the free throw line in the second half.

Speaking of the free throw line, the Dutchmen were 10-of-10 from there in the first half and 25-of-31 overall (80.6 percent), a remarkable performance for a team that had shot below 50 percent from the line in its last two games and had yet to even reach 70 percent in a game once this year.

Other stats as fun as they are encouraging: Five players scored nine or more points, eight played at least 13 minutes and the Dutchmen outrebounded Towson 39-30. And despite the 90 points, it wasn’t a perfect game on offense. Dennison scored just two points on 1-of-6 shooting. Darren Townes started but played just eight minutes—none in the second half—after picking up three fouls.

As good as the Dutchmen looked against Fordham and in spurts against Manhattan, it needed to happen against a conference foe to lend it an additional air of legitimacy. There’s no easy way to beat the Dutchmen and they’re nowhere near a finished product.

These guys are for real. Get on board. I’ve got a feeling the bandwagon is going to begin filling up pretty soon.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.