Bits and Bytes: Of Litos and Lester and Larry

For the Flying Dutchmen to succeed in March, Nat Lester needs to become the Brandon Walsh to Charles' Jenkins Nat Bussischio. I either tried too hard with that analogy or knocked it out of the park, not really sure which.

Your good friend and mine Mike Litos is at the top of his game today. His morning post absolutely nailed the joke that is the Brad Kelleher fiasco, reasonably questioning what has taken the NCAA so long to rule on the case—Kelleher played alongside professionals in his native Australia, which is apparently a worse crime than taking money from an agent—yet also subtly blasting holes in the entire process and the concept that anything about it is fair. Me, I would have spent 2,500 words calling the NCAA a bunch of morons, but Litos has the perspective and the distance to let the charade speak for itself.

One thing I will add: I have little doubt the NCAA is taking its sweet-ass time at least in part to punish Tom Pecora for daring to criticize it way back on Nov. 24, when Pecora unloaded on the NCAA after someone asked him for an update on Kelleher following the loss to Charlotte.

“We’re just waiting to hear from the NCAA,” Pecora said. “They’ve had everything since early September. But that’s what the NCAA does. Don’t get me started. It wouldn’t take this long if we were at Kentucky. And that’s got nothing to do with the people here. People here are busting their ass trying to get this thing done. But that’s just the way life is.”

This is what I mean when I declare that Hofstra fans don’t realize how good they have it with Pecora. He gets that life in Division I favors the big boys and expects the Dutchmen to win while competing by their ever-morphing rules, yet he’ll stand up for his team when it is being railroaded, consequences be damned.

Then this afternoon, Litos whipped up a post in which he called tonight’s Flying Dutchmen-VCU game not only the biggest of the season for both teams but the biggest of the season thus far in the CAA. The similarities between the teams make this a particularly compelling game: Both squads have younger players emerging as the core at the expense of veterans. And both teams are 2-3, so neither can afford a loss if they hope to earn a top-four finish and first-round bye.

Yet someone is going to end the night 2-4, unless Bud Selig takes over as CAA commissioner between now and 7 p.m. Further increasing the pressure tonight: Both teams are headed for long road trips Saturday—the Dutchmen to William & Mary and the Rams to Georgia State.

Litos writes that make-or-break time is nearing for Cornelius Vines and Greg Washington, but I’d say the player who really needs to emerge now or else is Nathaniel Lester. The Dutchmen can win with Vines and Washington as role players—Vines defending the opposition’s best player and occasionally nailing a 3-pointer, Washington providing a body and some blocks down low on defense and hitting 15-foot jumpers on offense—who play less than 25 minutes. It’d be nice to get more than that out of the 6-foot-10 Washington, but the emergence of Halil Kanacevic has lessened the demand for Washington to become the big man the Dutchmen have almost never had.

Lester is not in danger of losing his starting job, but the Dutchmen absolutely cannot get beyond Saturday in the CAA Tournament if he doesn’t emerge as their second-best player and second-most reliable veteran behind Charles Jenkins. He doesn’t have to produce a double-double every night, but he’s too good to be this inconsistent. Here are his points and rebounds over the last six games:

vs. Davidson: 2-5

vs. Florida Atlantic: 17-7

vs. William & Mary: 14-10

vs. George Mason: 9-9

vs. Towson: 8-4

vs. Old Dominion: 4-4

The Dutchmen are 7-4 when Lester plays 30 or more minutes and 2-4 when he does not. They are 6-2 when he goes to the line at least five times, and the two losses were to William & Mary and George Mason. He has to attack the rim and become the other indispensible member of the starting five. That simple.

If he does that tonight, the Dutchmen have a much better chance of winning this literal toss-up. The Dutchmen’s ability to turn a surefire rout into a competitive loss at Old Dominion is cause for encouragement, especially considering they did it against a team that has one of the CAA’s two best big men in Gerald Lee. VCU, of course, has the other in Larry Sanders. Washington and Miklos Szabo must limit his effectiveness.

Throw into the equation the home court advantage and the lack of internal strife and I like the Dutchmen in another nail-biter that goes down to the final minute. Either way, see you there. I’ll be the guy yelling about how much the NCAA Clearinghouse sucks.

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

Bits and Bytes: VCU edition

Two unidentified members of the Flying Dutchmen, above, celebrate following a really good morning run at unseasonably warm Jones Beach. Will the training be enough to knock off Clubber Lang, err, VCU? And were Rocky and Apollo the first bromance? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Sully Ray—who, by the way, is still oh-for-the-season when it comes to catching T-shirts—called Thursday afternoon to talk about what we’d just seen Wednesday and what we might see Saturday, when the Flying Dutchmen visit preseason favorite VCU. The hope, expressed an hour or so before VCU was to face Drexel in Philly, was that maybe a game against Bruiser Flint’s scrappy and physical bunch would exhaust the Rams and leave them particularly vulnerable less than 48 hours later.

So much for that. Apparently, the upset last Saturday at the hands of Delaware in the Real CAA Opener woke up the Rams, who were driving the so-calm-I-wonder-if-he-has-a-pulse Anthony Grant crazy but have won their last two games by 29 points apiece. Now, granted, those wins came against UNC-Wilmington and Drexel, each of whom was roundly picked to finish at or near the bottom of the CAA. But still: Two straight wins by 29 points means sneaking up on VCU is out.

There are plenty of interesting storylines as the Dutchmen seek to beat VCU in Virginia for the first time ever. Hofstra is 0-6 all-time at VCU and has beaten every other conference foe on the road at least once.

A Dutchmen team that—warning! Terrible pun coming up!—prides itself on defense, albeit out of necessity these days, gets the highest-scoring team in the conference and the NBA-bound Eric Maynor, who ranks 14th in the country with 22.5 points per game. Charles Jenkins’ performance Wednesday gives some hope that he can contribute even if he remains ice-cold from the field, but maybe going against Maynor—with whom Jenkins was neck-and-neck for the conference scoring lead before his epic slump—will give him an additional jolt.

Is Cornelius Vines’ willingness to shoot inside the 3-point line—and occasionally drive to the basket—is a trend or an aberration? The Dutchmen will be a much better offensive team if it’s the former.

It’ll also be interesting, especially with Greg Washington in a mini-slump and still not quite a 30-minute-a-game guy, to see if the Milk Carton likes of Darren Townes and Miklos Szabo see a lot more PT against the Rams, who have just two players 6-foot-8 or taller averaging 19 minutes per game.

I can’t blame anyone whose prediction is pain for Hofstra, but my guess is the Dutchmen are more relaxed Saturday now that they’ve got a win under their belts. And hey, the unpredictable is predictable in the CAA these days and Delaware beat VCU and the Dutchmen beat Delaware, which means the Dutchmen will win. Either way, tune in to MSG-Plus, unless you live outside of the Island and five boroughs, in which case you’re screwed.

Some other bits and bytes heading into the weekend:

—The plan is to write more about this next week, but I’ve decided Dutch Nation’s criticism of Vines is particularly misguided because the Flying Dutchmen have never had a guy like him…ever. Think about it: In the last 15 years, have you ever looked on the court and said “If he wasn’t wearing a Hofstra uniform, I’d loathe that guy?” Oh sure, the likes of Loren Stokes or Speedy Claxton earned some scorn from opposing fans, but that was more of the jealous, damnit-that-guy-drives-me-crazy-because-all-he-does-is-figure-out-a-way-to-beat-us type of contempt.

Vines, on the other hand, has as much swagger when he’s 0-for-10 as he does when he’s 5-for-10. And in my completely unbiased opinion, I think that’s good. Except if he was on the other side. Then I’d say it’s bad. And so would you. Even if you think he’s bad right now.

—True story: While writing this blog, I saw the video for The Rolling Stones’ “Emotional Rescue.” I think that’s ironic, in the sense that it’s not ironic at all.

—Ken Pomeroy, who was projecting at least 13 conference wins for the Dutchmen three weeks ago, is off the bandwagon too. We’ll remember this, Ken!

—I blogged Wednesday about the similarities between this Dutchmen team and the 2004-05 edition, but the first team I thought of while driving home from Boston Monday was the 1995-96 squad. Those Flying Dutchmen had two transfers playing vital roles in Lawrence Thomas and Seth Meyers (the one we don’t loathe). It had a couple of seniors who were once starters but who had been relegated to little-used reserve roles in Matt Carpenter and Chris Johnke.

And that team went into a major, season-ruining nosedive after a convincing win over Towson State (that’s right, Towson was going by its rightful name back then). An 83-63 win over the Tigers was the third straight NAC win for the Dutchmen, who improved to 4-4 in conference play and 7-7 overall. I remember this stretch occurred during Intersession and had me worrying that I’d made a huge mistake agreeing to go to Florida with my future wife for spring break, which coincided with the start of the NCAA Tournament. Hofstra was going to go dancing and I wouldn’t get a chance to cover it.

Turns out I had absolutely nothing to worry about. The Dutchmen followed the rout of Towson State by losing their next nine games. And the conference losing streak reached 10 games before they beat Hartford at MSG in the regular season finale. The Dutchmen were bounced by Northeastern in the play-in round of the NAC Tournament, after which Sully Ray and I went to the Stone Balloon and eventually ended up in a party in the room of a couple New Hampshire players. Seriously. It was a very, very long drive home the next day for Sully Ray.

Where was I? Oh yeah. In retrospect, the comparison to the 1995-96 team was a bit of a panicked one. That team’s longest winning streak was three games and its high-water mark was one game over .500—at 1-0 and 2-1. These Dutchmen extended their winning streak to eight by following the Towson win with victories over Stony Brook and St. Francis. And while Darius Burton was an outstanding player, he wasn’t a Jenkins- or Washington-type.

—And one more thing about the 2004-05 team. It ended the regular season on a six-game winning streak, during which it won home games against James Madison, UNC-Wilmington, Towson and George Mason and beat Delaware and Old Dominion on the road. This year, the Dutchmen’s final six conference games include four home contests against Towson, Old Dominion, James Madison and UNC-Wilmington and a pair of roadies at Delaware and Georgia State. (The Bracket Buster is also in there)

I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.