Bits and Bytes: Breaking all the rules for Brad Kelleher’s debut

Back when Ozzy was merely hard to understand and Zakk Wylde's hair was only a little long!

I’m not saying I’m an obvious Hofstra homer, but if Dick Vitale ever stumbled across this website, he’d tell me to tone it down, baybee. But since Hofstra has been kind enough to grant me a credential to basketball games, I follow the same rules I lived by back during my pre-Defiantly Dutch days: No rooting in the press box, err, on press row, err, in my longtime seats.

Today, though, when Brad Kelleher finally makes his Division I debut after 20,305,210 days on the sideline (give or take 20 million) and about as many appeals to the buttheads that run the NCAA, I will break the rules, and I will put down my notebook and cell phone and whatever else I happen to be carrying, stand up and applaud. And I encourage you all to join me in giving Kelleher the type of ovation and making the type of noise the Arena has rarely if ever heard.

Even on a team filled with compelling stories, Kelleher’s is unique. After all, he’s waited hundreds of practices, 42 games and three head coaches for today’s opportunity. Stand up and cheer for him today.

Fortunately, though, my advice may not be necessary. Major credit to Hofstra for making Kelleher’s debut the focal point of the marketing for today’s game and to Kelleher himself for penning a Letter to the Editor that appeared in The Chronicle this week.

And major credit also goes to Hofstra—and that Tweeting/Facebooking machine Mo Cassara—for building a real buzz not just about today’s game but about the Flying Dutchmen in general. The Dutchmen have drawn an average of 3,229 fans to the first three home games. Last year’s first three scheduled home games (I’m discounting the Preseason NIT games though I shouldn’t) drew an average crowd of 2,626. Hopefully the gap between this year and last year keeps growing today.

A few other quick Bits and Bytes as we get ready for this afternoon:

—Bless modern technology. On the way to Connecticut Wednesday night, the much better half and I listened to the Flying Dutchmen’s epic 89-85 overtime win over Binghamton—on her cell phone. Talk about driving while distracted. It was incredible to listen to Charles Jenkins take over a game like few, if any players ever have at Hofstra in scoring 33 of his career-high 40 points after halftime, including the Dutchmen’s final 15 of regulation. I swear, it was like 1 on 5 out there.

Well, actually, it was 2 on 5. Mike Moore finally had the breakout game everyone has been waiting for, and it ended up being the most overshadowed 28-point effort of all-time. I haven’t had time to look this up, but I can’t imagine there have been many games like this in which two people accounted for so much of the boxscore:

Jenkins/Moore: 23-39 FG, 8-14 3-PT, 14-18 FTs, 68 pts, 8 assists, 3 TOs

Rest of team: 8-24 FG, 1-4 3-PT, 4-7 FTs, 21 pts, 2 assists, 9 TOs

Fun fact: Jenkins’ 40-point effort was the first by a Hofstra player since Speedy Claxton against Maine during the 1999-2000 season. The second-leading scorer that night was Norman Richardson, with a mere 19.

—The Binghamton game is one of those games where it felt as good to win as it would have felt bad to lose. Binghamton entered Wednesday as one of the lowest-scoring teams in Division I and in the midst of what is surely going to be a season-long punishment for selling its soul in exchange for an NCAA Tournament berth in 2009.

It was shaping up as a rare breather for the Dutchmen, a chance to get Jenkins some pine time in the final 10 minutes and for little-used bench players such as Paul Bilbo, Roland Brown and Matt Grogan to get some run. It, of course, turned into something a lot more suspenseful than that, but at least the Dutchmen won and kept building momentum. A loss would have been as demoralizing as the Western Kentucky defeat.

—And because we’re all about consistency here, the three stars from Wednesday night (no suspense here!):

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Binghamton, 12/8)

3: Charles Jenkins

2: Mike Moore

1: Greg Washington

SEASON STANDINGS

Charles Jenkins 22

Mike Moore 8

David Imes 6

Dwan McMillan 5

Greg Washington 4

Shemiye McClendon 2

Stephen Nwaukoni 1

—Jenkins’ brilliant effort earned him a feature story in today’s Wall Street Journal titled “New York’s Best College Player.” Duh.

—Lastly, while I congratulate Hofstra on closing a record sponsorship deal with W.B. Mason, I wish someone had thought twice—or at least consulted with me—before agreeing to let the office supplier sponsor the new lounge at court level. The official name will be the “W.B. Mason Pride Lounge.” Read that a couple times. That’s right. Our official lounge will feature the word “MASON” followed immediately by “PRIDE.” Why must I be mocked at every turn?

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

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.