As seniors, Szabo and Vines turn this thing around

Cornelius Vines and Miklos Szabo take one more trip into the Lions Den following the Flying Dutchmen's 87-73 win over Georgia State on Senior Day Saturday. Photo by Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle.

Senior Day at Hofstra Arena was a seemingly routine affair Saturday, when Miklos Szabo and Cornelius Vines proceeded right from a moving pre-game ceremony into the starting lineup and went on to contribute to the Flying Dutchmen’s convincing 87-73 win over Georgia State.

Both players left the court in the second half to a warm ovation—Vines did so while blowing kisses to all corners of the Arena—and took one last trip over to the Lions Den after the final buzzer to thank the students for their support. At his post-game press conference, Tom Pecora spoke fondly of Szabo and Vines and said the Dutchmen’s success would not have been possible without them.

But Pecora knew better than anyone how the path to a textbook Senior Day was a grueling one—for Szabo and Vines as well as himself—and how such a festive afternoon seemed inconceivable just weeks earlier, when Szabo and Vines were occupying Pecora’s doghouse as the Dutchmen’s season threatened to splinter apart.

“There’s a quote, some coaching quote [from] Tom Coughlin,” Pecora said Saturday. “‘Coaching is making guys do what they don’t want to do so they can be what they want to be.’ And that’s something I talk to my staff about and the players about all the time. It’s our job to get you out of your comfort zone, because very few people are self-motivated enough to make themselves great. They have to have somebody behind them pushing them.”

The process of pushing Szabo and Vines out of their comfort zones and into the roles Pecora expected them to fill turned into one of the biggest challenges of Pecora’s career. Pecora demands leadership out of his seniors, no matter how many years they have been part of the program. To cull that out of junior college transfers such as Szabo and Vines—who comprised the least-experienced senior class of the Pecora Era—was a particularly delicate exercise, especially given their drastically different personalities.

Szabo’s natural shyness is compounded by his self-consciousness over the age and language differences between he and the rest of his teammates. Szabo turns 24 in August and is a full five years older than freshmen Halil Kanacevic and Paul Bilbo.

“It’s kind of hard for me, since I’m not an American, I’m not from here, I’m doing things different than the other kids,” Szabo said last Friday. “So it’s a little bit hard for me to be a leader, because I don’t really have too much in common with the guys. We’re good friends and stuff, but the freshmen sometimes just don’t listen to me because I’m like an outsider.”

Vines is actually a few months older than Szabo (he turns 24 in June), but his gregariousness makes it far easier for him to interact as a peer with the younger Dutchmen. Yet he arrived at Hofstra having never been part of a team where he had to do anything other than shoot the ball as often as he wanted.

As this season began, Pecora told Vines he needed him to shoot less, involve his teammates more and concentrate on defending the opposition’s best guard. But while Pecora wanted Vines to smoothen out some of his edges, he needed the opposite to happen with Szabo, who rarely looked last season like the player who led the junior college ranks in rebounding during his sophomore season at Broward Community College.

“I had a conversation with him one time and I remember saying ‘Mike, if my son Sean can grow up and be as good a man as you are, I’d be thrilled,’” Pecora said last week. “‘But if he was a basketball player and he played the way you’re playing, I would tell him to stop playing basketball. And he’d be a great kid that didn’t play basketball. You have all this talent. I just want you to go out and play with a little passion and a ferocity and you’re really going to help this team win.’”

For weeks—months, even—it seemed as if Pecora, Szabo and Vines could never get in sync. Flashes of brilliance by both players were followed up by frustrating bursts of near-invisibility. Szabo played perhaps his best game in a Hofstra uniform in the CAA opener against Towson Dec. 5, when he racked up a career-high 22 points and added eight rebounds, but he played fewer than 10 minutes in four of the Dutchmen’s next six games and briefly lost his starting job in early January.

Vines drained six 3-pointers in the near-upset of UConn on Nov. 17 but hit just 12 treys in his next eight games and lost his starting job after producing an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2/6 over a three-game span. “I just couldn’t buy a basket at the beginning of the year,” Vines said last Friday. “I was in a little bit of a funk. I went to the bench. When that happens, that just takes some stuff out of you and you start thinking ‘What am I doing wrong? What do I have to do to get right, to get my stuff together?’”

Szabo began working his way back into Pecora’s good graces in mid-January and is shooting 57 percent (45-for-79) since returning to the starting lineup Jan. 12. He’s had at least five rebounds in 12 of his last 16 games after recording five or more boards just six times in the first 15 games.

“It’s basketball—you’ve always got a chance,” Szabo said. “We’ve got a chance every practice to prove ourselves. We’re fighting it out [in] practice, fighting for positions.”

But while Szabo was racking up a double-double against George Mason Jan. 19. Vines was being benched at halftime for telling Pecora he had no confidence in his shot. Vines sat the next game against Drexel with a knee injury as the Dutchmen were routed by the Dragons to fall to 2-7 in conference.

“I love this game, and for it to be taken away from me a couple times this year really hurt,” Vines said. “I went back to my room and cried a couple times. I told myself ‘I can’t cry no more about it. It’s time to man up and do what I’ve got to do.’ And I learned a lot.”

Like Szabo, Vines earned his way back into the starting lineup in practice, and Pecora encouraged him by once again flashing the green light. Pecora told Vines before the game at UNC Wilmington Feb. 13 that he owed him the nearly 40 3-pointers Vines needed to reach his total from last season.

Vines responded by hitting a school-record tying seven 3-pointers against the Seahawks and has hit 22 3-pointers in his last five games—as many 3-pointers as he had in the preceding 18 games dating back to Dec. 5. He has also reached double figures in each of his last five games after scoring as many as 10 points in just seven of his first 25 games.

For Vines, the roller coaster senior season is an appropriate finale to a fascinating college career that has been as much about personal discovery as anything that has happened on the court.  While at Hofstra, Vines has begun to establish a relationship with his father, with whom he was estranged in high school, and Vines was joined by his Dad as well as his mother and grandmother during Senior Day festivities Saturday.

“He’s been coming to a lot of games this year, so it’s exciting to see him [and] we’re trying to build a bond,” Vines said. “Growing up was interesting. My Mom was my Dad and my father probably made it to see me play in high school probably twice, three times at the most."

Vines had a scholarship offer to Hartford coming out of Henninger High School in Syracuse but didn’t have the grades to get into the America East school. He went to Globe Institute of Technology in Manhattan—the same JUCO that Darren Townes attended—but left after one semester in which he rarely attended class. He ended up at Iowa Lakes Community College, where, as he told the Syracuse Post-Standard in 2008, “…the biggest building was as tall as me.”

Vines didn’t land at Hofstra until late in the spring of 2008, and he remains grateful to Pecora for being secure enough to handle an emotional player who admits he can annoy opposing players, coaches and fans.

“I always play with confidence, I always play with a swagger—the only one that can take that away from me is me,” Vines said. “I’m always smiling. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I’m gonna talk smack. It’s just how I play basketball. Some people may look at it like he’s ignorant or whatever, but that’s just how I’ve been playing the game since I’ve been [young]."

Said Pecora: “I remember this, watching as a young coach and seeing a kid behave in a certain fashion. And you’d say ‘How can a coach let him do that?’ When you’re a young coach, you’re so worried about what will people [think], will they be afraid I don’t have control of my program? And then after you do this for 20 years, you realize, hey, I know I’ve got control of my program.”

Pecora proved as much in February, finally eliciting from Szabo and Vines the type of leadership and performance he needed and turning their experience at Hofstra into a positive one when it very easily could have become a forgettable disappointment for all involved.

“I personally believe that college is just a means to get to where you want to get,” Szabo said. “I enjoyed my two years at Hofstra. I liked playing basketball over here, I tried to get the best out of it I could and I liked it.”

“Today being the last regular season practice on the floor, it is sad, but it’s exciting,” Vines said. “I came far. Whoever would think, from where I came from, that I’d be playing Division I basketball?”

“I think they’ve both done a very, very good job and I’m really proud of both of them,” Pecora said last week. “They’ll be part of this whole thing. When we recruit kids, we tell them ‘It’s not about four years it’s about 40 years.’ With JUCO kids, it’s not about two years, it’s not about 20 years. They’re in it for 40 years, too.”

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

Drexel 75, Hofstra 62 (Or: It’s all the same, only the names will change…everyday it seems the Dutchmen are wasting away)

Who knew New Jersey's second-best rock star was singing about Long Island college basketball way back in 1987?

To drive down Hempstead Turnpike Saturday night was to travel the bell curve of emotions experienced by Flying Dutchmen fans this season.

We drove to Miller’s Ale House, the restaurant where we watched the Dutchmen open the season against Kansas, to buy a gift card for Loyal Reader and former Vander Poel Hall roommate John, whose surprise 40th birthday party was Saturday night. (Happy Birthday dude, in your honor, I will sleep through my alarm this morning!)

Seventy-one nights earlier, the conversation and mood in the car during the drive to Miller’s was overflowingly optimistic. The Dutchmen could beat Kansas…they could beat UConn in the preseason NIT four days later…they could win the CAA Tournament in March…they could win a game or two in the NCAA Tournament.

Sure, it all seemed a bit outlandish, but it wasn’t stare-at-white-walls crazy, either. The Dutchmen wouldn’t open the season by visiting two of college basketball’s holiest places if big things weren’t possible, right?

Being in the car on a Saturday night also reminded me of three weeks earlier, when my wife and I hashed out the one-point loss to William & Mary while driving around the Island. She thought it was a sign of bad things to come. I worried it defined a season and perhaps an era, one in which the Dutchmen would master the near-miss. But still…it was early. The unbridled optimism was gone, but there was still plenty of sun visible behind the clouds.

Not anymore. There was no optimism in the car conversation Saturday night, no glimpses of the sun to be found a few hours after the Dutchmen fell to Drexel, 75-62, in a game that was absolutely nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate.

Unlike both William & Mary games and the first George Mason game, there was no second half lead, no possibility the Dutchmen could record that Signature Win the program has lacked the last several years. And they were not even competitive in defeat, unlike against Old Dominion or the last two home games against VCU and Mason.

The Dutchmen led once after the first media timeout of the afternoon, fell behind by double digits for good with a little more than six minutes left in the first half and were down by 30 (63-33) less than halfway through the second half before ending the game on a meaningless 29-12 run that made the final score cosmetically closer. They were down by 20 with 30 seconds left before scoring the final seven points, including five in the final five seconds on a 3-pointer by Chaz Williams and a layup by Nathaniel Lester following his steal of the inbounds pass.

It almost would have been better if the Dutchmen ended up suffering the worst conference loss of the Pecora Era (24 points at the hands of both Mason—hi new friends!—in 2009 and UNC Wilmington in 2002), because the final score might lull those who didn’t see the game into believing it was another fairly close loss for a team that seems to be one win away from getting over that proverbial and clichéd hump.

It wasn’t. It was a disaster. It IS a disaster—the worst season of the Defiantly Dutch Era.

The Dutchmen have lost five straight games for the first time since the 2002-03 season and are 2-7 at the halfway point of the CAA season, their worst mark through nine games under Pecora and the program’s worst record through nine conference games since Jay Wright’s first team was 1-8 in the North Atlantic Conference in 1994-95.

At least during those seasons, some hiccups and long losing streaks were to be expected. The ’94-95 team was transitioning to a new conference and adapting to a completely new coaching staff. The ’02-03 team was in its second year in the far more competitive CAA and played half that season with starters Rick Apodaca and Wendell Gibson suspended due to failed drug tests.

But this—whatever “this” is—wasn’t supposed to happen. The schedule was not upgraded with the expectation that the Dutchmen would be 2-7 and 9-12 by the time Super Bowl hype began. Teams that feature the preseason co-player of the year—and neither Wright’s first team nor Pecora’s second squad had anyone near the caliber of Charles Jenkins—are not supposed to be buried this early.

Maybe the high hopes of Nov. 13 were more tongue-in-cheek than realistic—even I, the world’s biggest Hofstra Homer, didn’t foresee an NCAA Tournament berth this year—but nobody’s worst-case scenario foresaw the Dutchmen sliding towards the basement at the halfway point of the conference season and facing an incredibly long and unlikely road back to respectability.

The presence of Jenkins and what appears to be a more forgiving second half schedule suggests the Dutchmen could turn this around fairly quickly and at least salvage a decent finish. And all this pessimism be damned, I know all it will take is consecutive wins for visions of a miraculous March run to begin dancing in my head.

But history is not on the Dutchmen’s side. Eighteen teams have opened conference play 2-7 or worse since the CAA began playing an 18-game conference schedule in 2001-02. Only one team—Towson in 2001-02—has played better than .500 in the second half. Those Tigers also recorded the best finish of the 18 clubs, but they finished seventh in what was then a 10-team league.

Since the CAA expanded to 12 teams in 2005-06, the highest finish for a team that began 2-7 or worse is ninth. And the teams that were 2-7 or worse at the halfway point have combined to win only five CAA Tournament games. Only one team—Towson last season—got as far as the semifinals.

And what, aside from Jenkins, is to indicate the Dutchmen will make history, or at the very least join Towson as a squad that somewhat turned its season around?

Their next three games, and six of their final nine conference tilts, are against teams that are currently 3-6 or worse. But the two teams that will visit Hempstead this week, UNC Wilmington and Delaware, are coming off victories, and after that the Dutchmen head to James Madison, which is presumably still located in Virginia, where the Dutchmen are 0-3 this year and 3-10 in the last three years. Oh well, at least the two lone regular season wins in that span were one-point decisions over James Madison.

In addition, the Dutchmen no longer look like on the cusp of a breakthrough, as they did earlier this month. This is a team that appears to be in the throes of a complete meltdown.

The Dutchmen shot 40 percent or less for the fourth time in five games Saturday, allowed the opponent to shoot better than 45 percent for the fourth straight game and allowed an opposing player to set a career high in points for the third time in those four games.

Jenkins scored 13 points, albeit on 3-of-10 shooting, and Miklos Szabo continued his resurgence with 14 points and five rebounds in a career-high 34 minutes. Szabo has played at least 32 minutes in three of the Dutchmen’s last four games after failing to exceed 31 minutes in any of his first 36 games at Hofstra.

But Cornelius Vines—who sat out the second half Tuesday after telling Pecora he lacked confidence—didn’t play at all Saturday, even though the Dutchmen are down to seven scholarship players, and juniors Lester and Greg Washington, who were supposed to comprise the Dutchmen’s core along with Jenkins, continued their inexplicable descent.

Lester played 24 minutes, fewest of the starters and the sixth straight game in which he has played fewer than 30 minutes. He played at least 30 minutes in 11 of the Dutchmen’s first 15 games. Washington had six points and six rebounds, but only two points and one rebound in the first half.

One minor positive about bottoming out—whether it finally happened Saturday or whether it’s yet to take place—is it will allow for more on-the-job auditions for freshmen such as Yves Jules and David Imes as Pecora finds out what he has for next year behind Jenkins and freshmen Williams and Halil Kanacevic. Imes is sidelined by a high ankle sprain but Jules played 23 minutes Saturday and scored a career-high eight points, including seven unanswered immediately after Drexel took its 30-point lead.

Things are so bad that we’ve got to gaze six hours south to our good friends in Mason Nation for some glimmers of hope. The Patriots are 8-1 and tied for first place with a starting lineup comprised of three sophomores and two juniors. So maybe the Dutchmen will make a dramatic leap forward next year with Jenkins and four underclassmen in the starting lineup. Of course, Mason's starters have the experience of reaching the CAA championship game and playing in a postseason tournament game, two luxuries that will almost surely continue to escape the Dutchmen this season.

Relying on George Mason for encouragement is no fun at all. But what choice do we have, after a drive down Hempstead Turnpike reminded us the 2009-10 Dutchmen are on the road to nowhere?

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Drexel, 1/23)

3: Miklos Szabo

2: Charles Jenkins

1: Yves Jules

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 37

Chaz Williams 21

Halil Kanacevic 18

Nathaniel Lester 18

Miklos Szabo 15

Cornelius Vines 8

Greg Washington 8

Yves Jules 1

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

VCU 81, Hofstra 68 (Or: Flying Dutchmen, stop teasing)

Nothing good comes from teasing, as we all learned by reading Judy Blume in fourth grade. This book RULED. (It was this picture, BTW, or a clip of Eddie Murphy mimicking Michael Jackson or some hair metal video from the '80s with the word "tease" in the title. You can see my quandary)

Tom Pecora sees the same roster you see. He watches, over and over again, the film of the game you saw last night, when the Flying Dutchmen fell to VCU 81-68, and the game you saw Saturday, when the Dutchmen never led in falling to Old Dominion 57-44.

He knows there are ample excuses to be made for a Flying Dutchmen team that now has as many players in sweats on the sidelines as it does on the court. He knows there are slivers of good news to be rescued from back-to-back defeats, that both times the Dutchmen turned a potential blowout loss into something respectable, and that there are flashes of promise that indicate better days are only a friendly bounce of the ball and maybe a confidence boost away.

But Pecora turns 39 again next week and this is his ninth season as the head coach at Hofstra, which makes him the third-longest tenured coach in the history of the school. He is not logging on to CAAZone and calling for himself to be fired, but this is his legacy job, one located a few minutes from where he grew up, and he is as tired of missing the NCAA Tournament as you are.

With freshman Chaz Williams and Halil Kanacevic having earned their way into the starting lineup, he knows a good case can be made that next year will be a lot better than this one. But he also remembers 2006-07, and how the overwhelming preseason favorite to win the CAA squeaked into the NIT as much on name recognition as merit.

Excuses and rationalizations and all the wait 'til next years are getting him—and, by extension, you and me and everyone else reading this—nowhere.

“It’s a tease, man, you know?” Pecora said. “I don’t want to be teased. I want to win.”

There was no real hope of that in the final 30 minutes Tuesday night. Despite missing Williams, who was on crutches with a high ankle sprain suffered against Old Dominion Saturday, the Dutchmen did a decent job of handling VCU’s full court press early in the first half, but they could not keep up with the Rams’ speed nor with the size of Larry Sanders, the behemoth who had 31 points and five rebounds and operated basically untouched down low, where he made 11 of his 13 shots.

VCU ended the half on a 30-12 run to take a 40-25 lead into the locker room, and though the Dutchmen produced several mini-runs in the second half, they were never able to get closer than seven points.

“Having one or two more bodies definitely would have helped the process,” Pecora said. “For me, it’s frustrating because there’s times you know the right coaching move to make, but you can’t make those moves because of who’s on the floor, whether it’s inexperience or you don’t have the size to do what you want. So it changes your game plan.”

Still, injuries and a thin roster are not an excuse for the Dutchmen playing as passively as they have the last few weeks. One of Pecora’s three goals every game is to commit 12 or fewer turnovers, but the Dutchmen have made more than a dozen turnovers in six of their last eight games and made an even 12 in the other two. Pecora expects aggressiveness out of the Dutchmen on offense, but they took just 12 free throws Tuesday, the seventh time in eight games they have gone to the line 14 or fewer times. And four of those free throws were off technical fouls.

He also felt the Rams outhustled and outmuscled the Dutchmen, which was a difficult admission to make for someone who—wait for it!!—prides himself on coaching teams that embody New York grittiness.

“I just thought they played with greater energy, and that’s a great concern of mine,” Pecora said. “Something we’ll work on [today] in practice. We’re not going to get the other guys back for a while. So we are who we are right now.”

And he expects the Dutchmen, as thinly constructed as they are right now, to be good enough to win games in the CAA. Pecora looks at a roster that now only goes seven deep, at least until Williams and David Imes recover from their high ankle sprains, and remembers how the best team he ever coached only went seven deep.

Six deep, for all intents and purposes: In the epic overtime win over St. Joseph’s in the 2006 NIT, the starting five played 203 out of a possible 225 minutes. Fifteen days earlier, in the CAA Tournament win over George Mason that in any sane and rational and fair world would have catapulted the Dutchmen into the NCAA Tournament, the starting five played 192 of a possible 200 minutes.

“Seven players isn’t an excuse,” Pecora said. “There’s teams that play seven every night. I’ve seen teams go to the Final Four playing seven players. Excuses only satisfy the people who make them. I tell that to the team all the time.”

Pecora sees the decent stat lines Tuesday from seniors Miklos Szabo (12 points and seven rebounds in a season-high 32 minutes) and Cornelius Vines (17 points, including four 3-pointers) as well as an inspired second half from Greg Washington (four points and four blocks, including two on consecutive possessions). Such performances hint at a greater potential, but Pecora wonders where these efforts have been all season and why the Dutchmen must be in crisis mode before his veterans can produce like this.

“Is that what it takes? To be down to get [them to play well?]” Pecora said. “That’s a very immature way to play basketball. That’s what I’m concerned about—the maturity of them and the leadership of these veterans.”

He sees another performance from Nathaniel Lester (eight points and seven rebounds) that looks a lot better in print than it did in person. Lester made his first two shots Tuesday and then went 2-for-10 the rest of the way. He didn’t take a single free throw, was charged with five turnovers and played just 28 minutes on a night in which the Dutchmen were thinner than they’ve been all season.

Pecora was answering a question about Szabo and Washington when he uttered the following words, but they apply as much to Lester as anybody else: “When you become a junior and you get an opportunity to be a starter, then the thing you should bring to the floor is consistent play at a very high level. And I’m searching for that out of all of our veterans.”

Even Charles Jenkins, who had 23 points and seven assists but also shot just 7-of-18 from the field and committed seven turnovers. “As a leader, I’m disappointed in myself,” a sullen-looking Jenkins said. “It’s about winning. It’s not about anything else.”

More than halfway through the season, though, “anything else” is happening as often as winning.

“We’re beyond excuses,” Pecora said. “We are what we are right now. We’re a .500 team, we’re 2-4 in the conference and we better find a way to win our next one. And that’s what it comes down to and that’s what college basketball season are about. Win or lose, the next morning—or late that night if you’re not sleeping—you get up and start watching tape and you just think about the next one. And then you think about the next one.

“And in March—hopefully late March—you look back and say ‘What kind of year did we have?’ That’s got to be our mindset as a group. You’re in survival mode. That’s how mature basketball teams look at it.”

But is that how the Dutchmen will look at it?

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. VCU, 1/12)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Miklos Szabo

1: Cornelius Vines

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 30

Chaz Williams 18

Nathaniel Lester 18

Halil Kanacevic 17

Miklos Szabo 9

Cornelius Vines 9

Greg Washington 8

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

Bits and Bytes: Previewing ODU…and chewing over some stats, suspensions & stupid network tricks

Conan O'Brien only LOOKS as tall as Gerald Lee.

Quick apology for the sporadic posting this week. Just have not been able to get back into the usual Monday-Friday flow after the super duper car crash and the subsequent weirdness, which I will do my very best to put into words over the weekend because there needs to be a written account of the sheer lunacy of it all.

In the meantime, let’s get back into the flow of things by breaking down today’s big game at pre-season favorite Old Dominion. Unfortunately, this marks the third straight season in which the Dutchmen and Monarchs play just once, which is too bad since ODU has earned Favored Rival status here at Defiantly Dutch.

Since Hofstra joined the CAA, seven of the 18 games between the two teams have been decided by a basket or less—including perhaps the most exciting regular season game ever played at the Arena, the 65-63 win over Old Dominion in 2006 in which Aurimas Kieza drained a 3-pointer as the buzzer—while another was decided by four points and another was decided by five points.

The Dutchmen handed Old Dominion its only home loss in both 2004-05 and 2005-06, but the Monarchs have eliminated the Dutchmen from the CAA Tournament three times in the previous six seasons—including last year, when Gerald Lee scored 30 points and pulled down 10 rebounds and Charles Jenkins’ 3-pointer at the buzzer fell shy as the Dutchmen lost to the future CIT champions 52-51, and yes, that was a passive-aggressive swipe at Hofstra for being too good to play in the CIT—and knocked Hofstra out of the NIT with a quarterfinal win at Hofstra (arrrrrrgh) in 2006.

This may be the most challenging game of the taxing early January schedule for the Dutchmen, who took a bus down to Norfolk yesterday—their second bus ride to Virginia in five days—and will return tonight in order to get two practices in before VCU visits Tuesday to cap the 5-in-10 stretch.

“I don’t ever remember, in all my years of coaching, having a stretch like this—we’re playing five games in 10 days and trips back and forth to Virginia in the course of it,” Pecora said after the Dutchmen’s 77-61 win over Towson Wednesday.

And in between bus rides the Dutchmen have the task of playing at one of the CAA’s toughest venues. “I said to the guys ‘Hey, Old Dominion is why you came to play in college, Hofstra at Old Dominion,’” Pecora said. “It’s going to be 8,500 people, the place is going to be rocking, they’ll all hate us. It’s awesome. And there’s nothing better than going there and winning. And we’ve had the opportunity to do that.”

The key is seizing the opportunity today is very, very simple: The 3 Stars of the Game must—MUST—include someone other than Jenkins, Chaz Williams, Nathaniel Lester and Halil Kanacevic. More specifically, that someone has to be Greg Washington and/or Miklos Szabo. The Dutchmen cannot win if Lee is a one-man wrecking crew again.

As good as Kanacevic has been thus far—and as timely as his ascension to the starting lineup appears to be, right before back-to-back games against teams with dominant big men—it’s not fair to expect him to single-handedly contain Lee, who has three years of experience and at least two inches on Kanacevic. Washington and Szabo don’t have to shut Lee down, either, just minimize the damage he wrecks down low. That said, it would be a huge help if one of them could channel Darren Townes, who had the best game of his oddly quiet senior season in collecting 10 points and seven rebounds against ODU in the Dutchmen’s wire-to-wire 60-51 win Feb. 10.

At the least, Washington and Szabo have to carefully distribute the 10 fouls at their disposal. The Dutchmen are in trouble if one (or both) of those players picks up two fouls in their first couple minutes.

Limit Lee to a merely human effort and the Dutchmen have quite a shot at pulling off the upset and recording the get-over-the-hump win they have not recorded since, let’s be honest, 2005-06. Either way, it’ll be a sludgefest determined in the last minute again.

And regardless of the result, enjoy the game, because we must appreciate the opportunity to watch Hofstra against Old Dominion on MSG while we can, since Hofstra is leaving the CAA as soon as humanly possible and leaving both Old Dominion and DD-era Favored Rival Delaware behind in The Land Where They Still Play Football and since MSG is no longer the network most likely to televise a Hofstra game.

This is the second of the Dutchmen’s three schedule appearances on MSG. The Dutchmen have appeared twice already on FIOS, which about 17 people get here on Long Island, and their next two television appearances will be on ESPNU, which Cablevision doesn’t carry. You know, like HGTV and the Food Network.

A couple other quick bits and bytes for the weekend:

—A real interesting stat courtesy of some detective work by Loyal Reader John K., who read Jeremy Kniffin’s typically outstanding game notes and did the math to figure out that the Dutchmen’s leader in assist-to-turnover ratio is…we kid you not, Cornelius Vines, whose 1.54 mark is just ahead of Williams (1.43) and Jenkins (1.39).

Now, granted, Vines’ place atop that category is largely a result of his work in the non-conference schedule as well as Williams’ recent sloppiness. The last time Vines had at least two more assists than turnovers was Dec. 20 against St. John’s. Still, it’s proof Vines—much-maligned among Dutch Nation (snort) for his errant long-distance shooting—is deserving, on both sides of the ball, of the pivotal role he’s playing even after being benched for Williams.

—Speaking of Williams and stats, the freshman has hit his last seven 3-point attempts, just two shy of the school record set by Mike Radziejewski in 2002-03. Neither Williams nor Pecora were aware of the streak when informed of it Wednesday night.

“I wish you hadn’t told him that,” Pecora said, tongue planted firmly in cheek.

—And speaking of behemoth big men, VCU star center Larry Sanders was suspended for the Rams’ game today against Delaware for committing a flagrant foul against Drexel Wednesday. Oh sure. He couldn’t have waited until TODAY to earn a one-game suspension, could he?

Interesting only to me was that VCU coach Shaka Smart declined comment beyond a canned quote and had his players off-limits yesterday. Booo. That’s BCS stuff out of a guy who is supposed to be different than the typically controlling head coach. Or maybe I’m just a grump, I don’t know.

—Lastly, and only tangentially related to Hofstra: I’ve been a big fan of Conan O’Brien since I caught his debut show on NBC during my first month at Hofstra in 1993, so I’ve been following with a good deal of interest the eminently predictable shenanigans at NBC, which is apparently trying to correct the mistake it made in giving Jay Leno the 10 p.m. hour five nights a week by returning him to 11:35 and pushing O’Brien—who took over The Tonight Show last June—to 12:05.

TV critic David Bianculli—who, in a bit of irony that is not really irony, has also been my favorite TV critic since I discovered him upon his debut with the New York Daily News in the fall of 1993—nails the insanity taking place at NBC in writing that the network is “…shattering a TV tradition older than any of the executives making this bone-headed decision.

“NBC is strangling The Tonight Show, and burying its own history and heritage.”

Hmm. Sounds familiar.

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

Hofstra 77, Towson 61 (Or: The Kids Are Alright)

Halil Kanacevic apparently wasn't the only freshmen exhausted Wednesday night.

The most revealing sequence of the Flying Dutchmen’s 77-61 win over Towson Wednesday took place in the final five minutes with the game well in hand. Towson’s Josh Brown missed a 3-pointer and a group of players tussled for the rebound. Halil Kanacevic emerged from a scrum of several players with his 10th board of the night as fellow phenom Chaz Williams went crashing to the floor.

Kanacevic, who had passed the ball to Cornelius Vines, paused and went back to help up Williams while Vines stopped in his tracks as well. Once Williams was back on his feet, Vines resumed moving up court.

The message: As the freshmen go, so go the Dutchmen.

Kanacevic and Williams were the Dutchmen’s top two scorers for the second straight game. Kanacevic, for the second straight game, established a new career high in points (18) and recorded a double-double. He also added a career-high five blocks. Williams cooled off after a red-hot first half in which he drained all four of his 3-pointers but still finished with 16 points, the fifth time in six games he’s scored at least 10 points.

“I think this is the first press conference we’ve had with both of the freshmen here,” Tom Pecora said as he sat down, flanked by Kanacevic and Williams. “I know it won’t be the last.”

They also were the Dutchmen’s most reliable players at the most pivotal time of the game. The freshmen combined to score 24 of the Dutchmen’s final 31 points of the first half, during which the Dutchmen twice came back from five-point deficits to take a 45-36 lead at intermission. Williams hit three of his 3-pointers during a 20-6 run that ended the half.

“I hope these two guys battle each other for rookie of the year in the conference,” Pecora said. “But for them to do that, we’ve got to win. And some nights, it’s going to take a little bit more than others.”

The Dutchmen would be in pretty good shape if they could bottle their performance Wednesday. In addition to the continued breakout of the freshmen, Charles Jenkins had 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists and no turnovers while Vines (10 points, three rebounds) and Miklos Szabo (eight points, eight rebounds) and produced the type of numbers Pecora wants to see out of his lone seniors.

Of course, certain caveats apply, such as this is the last time the Dutchmen are scheduled to face Towson this season (and maybe ever, if Hofstra is successful in getting the hell out of the CAA). Towson brings the best out of the Dutchmen, offensively and otherwise: The Dutchmen are 15-5 against the Tigers since the two schools moved to the CAA and have scored 77 or more points eight times in the last 12 meetings.

Both Szabo and Vines have enjoyed their best games against Towson: Szabo had a career-high 22 points and added eight boards against the Tigers Dec. 5. He’s had as many as eight rebounds in a game just once in his other 13 games this year. Vines, meanwhile, had six 3-pointers against Towson and enjoyed the first of his three 20-point games with the Dutchmen in the first meeting between the teams last season (a career high he tied against UConn).

And as impressive as Kanacevic and Williams were Wednesday, they still had plenty of freshmen moments. Kanacevic appeared to be dragging for much of the game, so much that we thought he might actually get sick on the floor.

“I was kidding with Halil—he was dragging up and down the floor before he came out, like ‘Oh my God, I can’t run,’” Pecora said. “Then we go the ball [and] he pop shot a 3. I said ‘It’s amazing how much energy is in that round ball. It’s like an energy sphere.’”

Williams finished with three assists and seven turnovers, the fifth straight game in which he’s had at least as many turnovers as assists. In that span, he’s collected 12 assists while turning the ball over 27 times as his assist-to-turnover ratio, which was once just shy of 3:1, has fallen to just 1.43:1 (60/42).

“He got confused for a while there, he thought it was dodge ball,” Pecora said. “He had seven turnovers, you can’t do that. I just said to him ‘You’re a New York City guard. I was a bad New York City guard. You take pride in not turning the ball over. That’s one thing you don’t do.’ So they’re still [a] work in progress.”

If the growing pains are this promising, though, imagine what the final product might look like. “These guys are going to be here for the rest of this and three more years,” Pecora said. “So we’re excited about that. We’re very excited about [it].”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Towson 1/6)

3: Halil Kanacevic

2: Charles Jenkins

1: Chaz Williams

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 24

Chaz Williams 18

Nathaniel Lester 18

Halil Kanacevic 16

Greg Washington 8

Cornelius Vines 7

Miklos Szabo 5

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

Hofstra 67, Florida Atlantic 63 (Or: Vacation’s all the Dutch ever wanted…)

Tom Pecora hadn't even met Bob McKillop yet when the Go-Gos penned their song about the 2009-10 Flying Dutchmen!

As seniors in their final season of eligibility, Miklos Szabo and Cornelius Vines will not be a part of the next Flying Dutchmen core. And as a junior who fluctuates between impressive and invisible, there are no guarantees Nathaniel Lester will be a starter by this time next season.

Still, on a team in which there are as many newcomers as returnees, Tom Pecora believes at least two of the three inconsistent veterans must emerge as regular contributors in order for the Flying Dutchmen to reach their potential and contend for the CAA title. What transpired Tuesday wasn’t exactly the blueprint Pecora would have drawn up on the plane ride to Florida, but it was enough to lift the Dutchmen in their non-conference finale.

Lester scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, drained five straight free throws in three trips to the line following the final media timeout and recorded a pivotal steal with 37 seconds left and Hofstra up one as the Dutchmen held on to edge Florida Atlantic, 67-63, in warm and beautiful Boca Raton (it’s 19 degrees on Long Island as I type this…just saying).

Lester, who keyed the late rally by the Dutchmen in their 61-52 loss to Davidson last Monday, had another quiet first half Tuesday (three points, three rebounds and one steal in 12 minutes) but scored 12 points after Jenkins picked up his fourth foul with 12:35 left. His first three baskets of the second half all came with the Dutchmen nursing a one-point lead.

“I thought Lester stepped up big,” Pecora said by phone afterward. “He’s a junior and he made some big plays for us with a few minutes left.”

Lester’s performance was just one encouraging element of a victory as well-rounded as it was much-needed. The Dutchmen snapped a two-game losing streak despite receiving almost nothing in the second half from Charles Jenkins, who scored all but two of his 17 points in the first half, spent eight minutes on the bench after recording his fourth foul with 12:35 left to play and was on the court for less than three minutes before he fouled out with 2:20 to go.

With Jenkins on the bench, the Dutchmen first went on a 12-0 run to turn a 43-41 deficit into a 53-43 lead and then held off a series of Florida Atlantic rallies. The Owls closed within one point three times, all with Jenkins out of the game, but never tied the game or took the lead.

“I thought it was a great team win,” Pecora said. “Everyone did a little bit, and that’s important when you go on the road. Charles got in foul trouble and we had to find a way to win the basketball game…it’s important to win a game like this so you know you can win it without Charles if the situation arises.”

Greg Washington, the other inconsistent veteran and a non-factor most of this month, continued to struggle from the field (five points on 2-of-9 shooting) but pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds while adding four blocks, one shy of his season high. Washington had just one rebound in 28 minutes against Davidson last Monday.

And Pecora, who spoke of the Dutchmen being a team in transition after the loss to Davidson, continued to increase the role of his freshmen: At one point late in the game, Pecora had Lester and four freshmen—Williams, Halil Kanacevic, Yves Jules and David Imes—on the court.

Williams was far better in the second half (seven points, four assists, one turnover and three steals) than in the first half (five points, two assists, five turnovers and two steals). Imes didn’t play at all in the first half but was on the court for nine minutes in the second half (more playing time than he recorded in all but one of his first six games) and scored the Dutchmen’s final basket, a put-back with 4:14 left. Jules played 18 minutes, the fourth time he has played at least 10 minutes in a game but the first time he’s done it in a close contest (the Dutchmen beat Farmingdale, Elon and New Hampshire by an average of 27 points)

“It’s funny, because you have to coach differently—you have your things you’d like to do, but you know the young group is not ready to do them,” Pecora said. “It makes things challenging for you. I thought they made the shots they needed to make, they defended and rebounded.”

The challenge for Pecora as CAA play finally approaches this weekend is to figure out how to get Lester, Szabo and Vines to contribute regularly. Lester’s effort Tuesday snapped a streak of five straight games in which he scored nine or fewer points.

Szabo continued his Darren Townes impersonation Tuesday by opening the game red-hot and spending most of the second half on the bench. Szabo scored the Dutchmen’s first four points and five of their first seven points but went scoreless the rest of the way as he missed his final seven field goal attempts. He started the second half but sat for the final 16:17.

Vines, meanwhile, scored just one point—the third time in the last seven games he hasn’t scored from the field—and sat for the final 11:51.

“The key to our season [is] these three guys,” Pecora said. “We’re going to get a good amount from the freshmen, but you can’t expect them to help you win games. Mikey Szabo, Nathaniel Lester and Cornelius Vines—two of these three guys, if they’re playing well, we’re not going to lose most nights.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Florida Atlantic 12/29)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Chaz Williams

1: Greg Washington

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 19

Nathaniel Lester 15

Chaz Williams 14

Halil Kanacevic 10

Greg Washington 8

Cornelius Vines 7

Miklos Szabo 5

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

Pecora hopes senior moments are still to come for Szabo, Vines

What kind of senior moments will Miklos Szabo and Cornelius Vines have?

A frustrating afternoon for Miklos Szabo Saturday appeared best summarized when the senior was on the court with freshmen Chaz Williams, David Imes, Yves Jules and walk-on Matt Grogan as time expired in the Flying Dutchmen’s 75-58 win over New Hampshire.

Szabo hoisted the Dutchmen’s first shot Saturday, a 3-pointer from the right corner that got stuck in between the basket and the backboard. Things didn’t get any better from there for Szabo, who picked up four fouls in just seven minutes, including two in the first 86 seconds of the game. Szabo sat the rest of the first half, started the second half and immediately hit a lay-up—and then recorded his third foul on the subsequent trip down the floor.

While Saturday marked Szabo’s briefest stint of the season, it was far from his first underwhelming one. He has picked up at least four fouls in six of 10 games this season and has recorded fewer than two rebounds three times and fewer than two points twice.

But if Tom Pecora was sending a message to Szabo by having him finish a blowout win as the only senior on the floor with four freshmen, it was one of encouragement, not punishment. Pecora typically relies heavily on his seniors, and he has been critical of Szabo and Cornelius Vines multiple times this season. But he also knows that he has to exhibit some patience with his lone seniors, both of whom transferred to Hofstra from community colleges prior to last season and who represent his least experienced senior class ever.

“It’s challenging for them, because you come from junior college, there’s still that transition period,” Pecora said last week. “But your timeframe is condensed. You don’t have that—I don’t want to say it’s a throwaway year, but you don’t have that freshman year where you can say ‘Hey, I’m only a freshman.’ So everything’s got to be sped up.”

Unfortunately for Szabo and Vines, injuries and/or ineffectiveness slowed their process as juniors. Vines started the Dutchmen’s first 17 games but lost his job due to his errant shooting. Szabo, who missed the first two games of last season due to NCAA sanctions, made seven starts in 19 games and missed 10 contests due to a broken arm he suffered against Northeastern Jan. 17.

“I think I was just starting to step up my game at that point, because I had my best game before the game I hurt myself [12 points and five rebounds at Drexel Jan. 14],” Szabo said last week. “I was just getting to start to play a little bit better and then all of a sudden I broke my arm. That wasn’t too good, but that’s life.”

Inconsistency remains an issue for both players. Szabo has six points and seven rebounds over 26 minutes in his last two games, but he had 22 points and eight rebounds against Towson in the CAA opener Dec. 5.

“We’re not going to dump on Mikey now,” Pecora said Saturday. “It’s easy, when, after Towson he’s 22 and 8. If I was hugging him then and I wasn’t hugging him today, then I’d be a fraud, you know? That’s not how we do it. He needs it more now than he did then. So we’ll stand by him. He’ll come around.”

Vines came around against both Towson, against whom he had eight points, six assists, five rebounds and no turnovers, and New Hampshire, against whom he scored 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point land. But in between against Manhattan, he had just one point, five rebounds, no assists and four turnovers.

Both seniors also have the task of adapting on the fly to new roles. The trigger-happy Vines, who was 3-of-20 from beyond the arc in the three games prior to his New Hampshire breakout, is being asked to serve more as a point guard who defends the opposition’s best player and drives the lane on offense while Szabo, who played more on the perimeter last season with Dane Johnson, Darren Townes and Arminas Urbutis occupying the inside, is being relied on far more in the paint this season.

“Last year, he wanted me to be more [like] Halil is this year—more of a screen and pop guy because I had the ability to shoot,” Szabo said. “But this year he wants me, because I’m the biggest [and] the strongest on the team, to represent more of an inside presence.”

While Pecora continues to preach patience and the ability of Vines and Szabo to play pivotal, starting roles on a promising Dutchmen team, the quality and quantity of the freshmen behind them means their margin for error is not limitless and that he may, a year from now, be referring to them as he does to the six seniors of the class of 2009, who were role players on last year’s 21-win team.

But even if that turns out to be the case, Vines and Szabo know they can still lead by example by counseling the freshmen on how to deal with Pecora’s high expectations as well as the inevitable ups and downs of Division I basketball.

“He demands a lot, and it’s on me and Mikey’s shoulders,” Vines said last week. “I talk to the freshmen, let them know you’ve got to understand and when you get your time, when you’re called on to go in there and produce, just be positive—every time, because I know last year, I started the first 17 games then sat a couple games and I got down on myself. But you can’t do that. So I can tell them from my experience that you can’t get down on yourself. Stay positive.”

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

Bits and Bytes: Eight is enough for Szabo?

Life With Corny is playing with a yellow light, but is Tom Pecora about to flash a red light at Miklos Szabo?

The Flying Dutchmen have fielded (is the right term courted, since basketball is not played on a field? Hmmm) the same starting lineup in each of their first seven games, the longest such stretch to open a season since the quintet of Aurimas Kieza, Adrian Uter, Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio and Carlos Rivera started the first nine games in 2005-06.

But after consecutive games in which the Dutchmen were dominated down low by Charlotte and Fairfield, Tom Pecora said there could be a change for the CAA opener at Towson Saturday. Miklos Szabo will have to work his way out of the doghouse in practice this week after recording just four rebounds in 45 minutes in his last two games. Szabo is averaging just 6.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in six contests against Division I competition this year.

“If he doesn’t rebound in practice this week, he won’t start on Saturday and I’ll take away his minutes,” Pecora said Monday. “We compete every day in practice for minutes, and these guys will tell you: Around here, you get what you deserve. And if he’s not rebounding the basketball, he doesn’t deserve to start and he doesn’t deserve to get minutes. We all have our jobs to do and his is to defend the post and rebound the ball, and he’s not doing either right now.”

The Dutchmen unveiled three different starting lineups in their first seven games last year and five different lineups over the same span in 2007-08.

—One player who will surely push Szabo for playing time is freshman David Imes who made his collegiate debut Monday after missing the first six games with a high ankle sprain and scored a basket in six minutes. “He’s a tough kid, he’s been great in practice,” Pecora said. “He’s a rebounder by nature. This was a good matchup, these kinds of teams, for him, because you can play small.”

—The Dutchmen’s other senior, Life With Corny, has also been the target of some Pecora criticism, but his lean line Monday (two points and no field goals in 23 minutes) was better and more pivotal than it looks. Vines shared the team lead in rebounds with five and also had four assists for the second straight game. He had as many as four assists in a game just once in 31 contests last season.

Vines also continued his season-long hustle on both ends of the floor, particularly in scrambling for the rebound of his missed 3-pointer midway through the second half. Vines took quite a shot from Yorel Hawkins but hit the subsequent two free throws to give the Dutchmen a 61-60 lead. They’d never trail again.

The most amazing thing: He took just two shots, which, you should not be surprised to read, is a career low. Life With Corny taking two shots in 23 minutes is like me taking one trip to the all-you-can-eat buffet.

I don’t think Vines has morphed into a point guard, but he’ll have a vital role—and Pecora will have done a helluva job coaching—if a player who prefers to shoot first, second, third and 27th can contribute by playing with the yellow light Pecora has often spoke about.

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

Charlotte 80, Hofstra 72 (Or: Tom Pecora said there’d be days like this…man he wasn’t fooling)

Long before he started looking like a freak (seriously, you better have an iron stomach if you're going to Google images search Steven Tyler), falling off stages and causing breakup rumors to swirl around Aerosmith, Steven Tyler was singing songs about the Flying Dutchmen!

The kiddie corps didn’t drive Tom Pecora crazy Tuesday night, but the veterans did.

Pecora said before the season that the Dutchmen would be in trouble if the team didn’t take on the personality of its holdovers, and so it was that Cornelius Vines and Miklos Szabo ended up in his crosshairs after the Dutchmen’s lapses in defensive intensity and a second half shooting slump resulted in an 80-72 loss to Charlotte in the final consolation round game of the Preseason NIT in front of another embarrassingly low crowd of 783 at the Arena.

“When you have five new guys, everyday is a new experience,” Pecora said. “And everyday is a learning experience. So you add tonight to the list.”

Pecora praised the Dutchmen Monday for their tenacity on defense against Elon, but Charlotte and its inside combination of 6-foot-8 Chris Braswell and 6-foot-6 Boston College transfer Shamari Spears provided a far greater challenge. The duo combined for 41 points on 15-of-22 shooting while Braswell pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for the Rams, who outrebounded the Dutchmen 45-36. It was only the second time this season and the 13th time in 39 games dating back to last season that the Dutchmen have been outrebounded.

Spears, in particular, gave the Dutchmen fits: He hit his first four shots of the game, including a 3-pointer, and scored 17 points in the first half before the Dutchmen managed to limit him in the second half. But even with Chaz Williams stepping into help Greg Washington collapse on him, Spears was able to dish the ball back out to the perimeter and create opportunities for the Rams.

The potency of Braswell and Spears also stretched the Dutchmen’s already-thin rotation beyond its breaking point. Szabo, Washington, Nathaniel Lester and Halil Kanacevic all had two fouls by halftime and Szabo, Lester and Kanacevic all picked up their third fouls by the first media timeout of the second half.

The Dutchmen only suited up eight players with David Imes still recovering from an ankle injury and the NCAA continuing to twiddle its thumbs with Brad Kelleher, who apparently committed a greater sin in playing with some pros in Australia than Kentucky’s John Wall did in accepting “travel benefits” from an AAU coach who just also happened to be a sports agent.

“The defensive discipline is more just knowing when you can’t pick up a silly [foul], because we need the bodies on the floor,” Pecora said. “I thought we [had] pretty good effort, but we’re also coming off playing two teams that are nowhere near as talented or as athletic, and I think that we had to raise the bar with our defensive effort. And we didn’t get it.”

Pecora found plenty to critique in the first half but was hopeful the Dutchmen would pull out the victory when they went into the half leading 41-39. But the Dutchmen went cold from the floor in the final 20 minutes, during which they shot just 32 percent (12-of-38), including 13 percent from 3-point land (2-of-15). It was the second-worst half of the season for the Dutchmen, who shot 23 percent in the first half against UConn eight days ago.

The Dutchmen’s top two scorers Tuesday, Washington and Charles Jenkins, shot a combined 8-of-14 in the second half. The rest of the team was just 4-of-24, including 1-for-8 after a Jenkins jumper pulled the Dutchmen within 71-67 with 2:43 left. Included in that stretch was a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Lester that was halfway down the basket before it rimmed out.

Vines, a night removed from perhaps his most complete game in a Hofstra uniform, was 0-for-7 from 3-point land in the second half and finished with just three points in 36 minutes. It wasn’t a completely lost night for Vines, who had seven rebounds (one shy of his career high) and was his usual rabble-rousing self with Spears, with whom he exchanged words after Spears fouled Washington midway through the second half. A minute or so later, Vines went over to Spears and offered his hand, but Spears refused to shake it as Jenkins sarcastically clapped his hands at Spears.

Szabo, meanwhile, had seven points and only two rebounds overall and was just 1-of-3 with no rebounds in nine minutes in the second half

“Not much from our seniors,” Pecora said.

Vines and Szabo, a pair of junior college transfers who were part-time starters last year in their first season with the Dutchmen, have struggled to find consistency in the first two weeks of the season. Vines has played more than 30 minutes and scored six or fewer points three times while Szabo has one double-double but has also recorded four or fewer rebounds in a game three times.

“[Vines] might have taken one or two ill-advised [shots],” Pecora said. “He was just trying to do too much. He missed a 3 and then fouled a guy in the backcourt. It’s not lack of effort, but as a senior, you’ve got to have a little more poise and understand the game will come to you.

“And then they shot 33 free throws in our building. We shot 18. They had a much better post presence than we did. So our post guys have got to step up a little bit.”

The Dutchmen’s troubles on the boards and from the floor overshadowed a typically solid game by Jenkins and the continued breakout of Washington. Jenkins was limited to nine points in each of the last two games due to the injury he suffered against Farmingdale and the lopsided nature of the win over Elon, but he racked up 25 points and committed just one turnover in 40 minutes Tuesday. Washington scored a career-high 18 points and led the Dutchmen with nine points and three blocks in a season-high 31 minutes. Williams added 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and no turnovers in 23 minutes.

“These two guys put up numbers,” Pecora said as he was flanked by Washington and Jenkins in the interview room. “But there are other things that have to take place. We’re not a two-man team.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Charlotte 11/24)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Greg Washington

1: Chaz Williams

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 9

Nathaniel Lester 7

Greg Washington 5

Chaz Williams 5

Cornelius Vines 4

Halil Kanacevic 4

Miklos Szabo 2

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

Oh, relax kids, I’ve got a gut feeling this year’s Uter is around here somewhere

Adrian Uter transferred to Hofstra, Uter is a foreign exchange student from Germany at Springfield Elementary. Good enough for me!

First things first: Be patient and forgive me over the next few days if posts are brief and/or sporadic. The wife and I are traveling out-of-state on short notice today and I’m not sure if we’ll be able to listen to/watch the game tonight or how much time we’ll have to post over the next couple days. Hopefully everything returns to some semblance of normalcy soon and we can get back to giving the word count a good workout.

As for tonight against Drexel, Tom Pecora’s comments Monday about transfers Cornelius Vines, Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo—“Your transition period is over”—reminded me of Bill Parcells’ famous saying about rookies and the increased expectations and responsibilities that will greet them in the NFL: “You’re not on scholarship anymore.”

Except, well, Vines, Dennison and Szabo are on scholarship. But Pecora’s sentiment is the same as the one espoused by Parcells: No more talk about inexperience, no more chalking up early season struggles to the adaptation process. The training wheels are off. You can’t run with the big dogs if you stay on the porch. Place your own cliché here, baby. (That is the most extreme of inside jokes, by the way)

As of the first tip in Philly, the regular season is more than halfway over (of course, with the Flying Dutchmen destined to win all three CAA tournament games and six NCAA Tournament games, the actual midway point of the season won’t arrive until a week from Saturday at James Madison). I imagine Pecora isn’t too displeased with Vines, who is one of only two players to start every game and whose non-stop motor and unflappability as a shooter are valuable traits.

But it’s time for Dennison and Szabo to begin chipping in like Pecora envisioned when he brought them to Hempstead—Szabo more so than Dennison, the latter of whom isn’t a pure point guard and isn’t shooting well enough to get more than a handful of minutes in relief. The Dutchmen, though, can really use Szabo to add to their front court depth, especially with Greg Washington slumping and Dane Johnson having played 30 minutes in a game just once.

When discussing the transfers last week, Pecora mentioned Adrian Uter—who, like Szabo and Dennison, transferred to Hofstra from Broward CC in Florida—as someone who experienced his share of initial struggles in moving from a JUCO to Division I. And Uter’s final stats in 2004-05 (6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds. 19.1 minutes per game) are quite comparable to Szabo’s stats through his first 14 games (3.9 points. 5.8 rebounds. 18.9 minutes per game). Szabo missed the Dutchmen’s first two games while serving an NCAA suspension for playing with professionals in his native Hungary.

There are also some notable similarities in how Uter and Szabo performed through 14 games. Each had had one double-double, two games in which they recorded 10 or more rebounds and four games in which they played 30 or more minutes.

But overall, Uter made a bigger and more immediate impact than Szabo. With Wendell Gibson missing the first half of the season recovering from knee surgery, Uter started 13 of the Dutchmen’s first 14 games, during which he averaged 7.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 25.2 minutes per game. Uter scored in double digits six times and pulled down seven or more rebounds six times.

Szabo has scored 10 or more points twice and had seven or more rebounds four times. In addition, his 30-minute performances, though, all occurred within his first five games.

Uter started the Dutchmen’s 15th, 16th and 17th games before giving way to Gibson, who started the final 13. Uter’s numbers over the final 16 games of the season dropped precipitously: He averaged 5.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 13.9 minutes per contest over that span.

For the Dutchmen to end this season the same place they ended the 2004-05—or better—they’ll need Szabo to finish this season the way Uter began it four years ago. And there’s no better time than tonight for that emergence to begin (how’s that for a segue?).

Szabo is the pick to click and the guess here is Greg Johnson, who scored a career-high 15 points at Drexel 362 days ago, plays another 38 to 40 minutes and enjoys another impressive game at the point. Perhaps a few days away from the gym and a return to Philly and the scene of his most impressive game last season (21 points, seven rebounds and six steals) allows Charles Jenkins to further shake his slump.

Another interesting thing to watch: How many passes the Dutchmen make per possession now that Johnson is re-entrenched as the point guard. Jon Wagner, who is chronicling the Dutchmen and Jenkins in particular this season for the Queens Ledger, has been steadfast in his belief that the more the Dutchmen move the ball, the better the offense performs, as he notes in this very interesting post.

In addition, you’ve also got to figure a defense that has suffocated opposing guards during conference play won’t allow Scott Rodgers to go off like he did 11 days ago.

With sizzling Northeastern coming to Hempstead Saturday, this would be a fine time to steal a roadie. And a win in the not-so-cozy confines of the DAC would also line up with the trends in a series that summarizes the unpredictability of the CAA. The Dutchmen are just 2-6 at home against Drexel in the Pecora Era—pretty remarkable for a team that is 65-27 overall at the Arena in that span—but they’ve won three straight in Philly to lift their record at the DAC to 3-4.

The unexpected, after all, is expected. How’s that for a new twist on an old cliché?

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com. And join the Defiantly Dutch group at Facebook today!