Postgame Buffet: Northeastern 64, Hofstra 62 (Or: Only missed by a fraction)

Right now, Dutch Nation (snort) is despondent.

I knew the Flying Dutchmen were totally toasted with less than a minute to play Wednesday night, when the above song started playing during a timeout at Hofstra Arena. I mean, I get the intent—the message is all about seizing the moment and all that good stuff—but as the video tells us: Right now maybe we should pay attention to the lyrics.

And right now, a missed beat keeps haunting the Flying Dutchmen, who lost to Northeastern, 64-62, in the year’s first Barone Bowl to fall to 0-5 in the CAA. To quote a Boston-based band (which is what I usually do here), it’s the same old song and dance for the Dutchmen, who have lost their five CAA games by a grand total of 26 points, by far the fewest of any team to start 0-5 since 2001-02. Here’s the postgame buffet that was delayed by work and not a two-day mourning period. Really.

1.) Once again, defensive breakdowns at the end cost the Dutchmen. Except this just wasn’t a matter of allowing a handful of baskets in the final couple minutes, a la against James Madison and Florida Atlantic. The Dutchmen squandered a pair of seven-point leads by allowing Northeastern to score on an amazing 17 of its final 20 possessions over the final 12-plus minutes, and that counts Jonathan Lee missing a free throw with 4.6 seconds left. So Northeastern basically ended the game by scoring on 17 of its last 19 possessions. Tough to win when that happens.

“If you told me tonight we were going to hold them to 64 points, I really would have thought we would have won the game,” Mo Cassara said afterward. “We went in some stretches again where our offense wasn’t clicking and our defensive intensity and focus let down.”

2.) That wasn’t the case at the beginning of the game, when the Dutchmen suffocated Northeastern into missing its first eight shots, kept the Huskies scoreless through their first nine possessions and carried a shutout into the first media timeout. But after falling behind 9-0, Northeastern went on a 12-0 run to grab the lead and begin a game-ending stretch in which it shot a mind-boggling 23-of-42 from the field.

“We’ve been talking about it the last few days, really the last few weeks, what I call multiple effort,” Cassara said. “I think we do a really good job defending maybe one action or two actions, but then we relax for half a second, we get beat or we’re a step slow. We had two times where we had a 3-point lead and we gave up a 3-pointer and a 3-point play where we got beat to the basket. We can’t have that happen. It’s hampered us all year. We do a good job of an initial five, 10, 15 seconds sometimes, then we have a breakdown at the very end.”

3.) The breakdowns weren’t limited to the defense. The Dutchmen had a seemingly solid offensive game, shooting 60 percent in the second half, and an even 50 percent overall while putting three players into double figures. Mike Moore (nine points) and Dwan McMillan (eight points) each finished a basket away from making it four or five players with at least 10 points. Moore, who is battling a lingering groin injury, had a career-high five assists and continually looked to get teammates involved while McMillan had seven assists and just two turnovers.

However, the Dutchmen got just five points from their bench as Shemiye McLendon, Moussa Kone and Stevie Mejia combined for just five field goal attempts. David Imes was 5-of-7 from the field, but one of his misses was a dunk. And while Stephen Nwaukoni continued his breakout performance in CAA play with 10 points, nine rebounds, three steals and two blocks, the one shot he missed was a thunderous dunk attempt just before the first half buzzer that nearly resulted in a Darryl Dawkins moment (Google it kids!). Nathaniel Lester had another big second half, during which he scored 14 of his team-high 19 points, but he stepped out of bounds with five seconds left to basically end the Dutchmen’s hopes.

“Go back to the end of the first half—we do a great job running a play, we send two guys to the offensive glass, two guys trying to dunk the ball and the ball comes out,” Cassara said. “Right now it’s one bounce for us, it’s one play. That’s how fine our margin for error is. Unfortunately we’re doing some good things. We just haven’t been able to finish them off.”

4.) Once again, Nwaukoni’s performance threatened to get lost in the haze of another gut-wrenching defeat, but he is rapidly evolving into a legitimate post presence for the Dutchmen. His ceiling at one point seemed to be that of someone who could absorb minutes, but with 38 rebounds in his last four games and an improving offensive skill set, he’s starting to look like a legitimate CAA big man and someone who could contend for a rebounding title in his final two seasons.

“Stephen’s giving us great energy, he’s keeping a lot of basketballs alive and doing a great job around the basket,” Cassara said. “Really did a good job on post defense tonight. He’s continuing to improve and we need him to do that.”

5.) This was the Dutchmen’s fourth CAA loss by six points or less and their third by two points or less, which statistically makes them the best team to open CAA play 0-5 since the conference expanded (only one of the other 11 teams to open 0-5—William & Mary last year—lost its first five conference games by less than 50 points). But this might have been a season-crushing defeat.

As tough as it was to lose to James Madison and the Humpty Hitchens Experience and as tough as it was to lose by one point to Delaware after never leading, losing to Northeastern at home by two points—after leading for more than 13 minutes in the second half, becoming the first team to score 40, 50 and 60 points in a low-scoring game and losing even though they never trailed by more than three points—might be more than this or any team could bear, especially with a treacherous stretch coming up. How’s this sound: at Old Dominion today, Drexel Wednesday, at James Madison next Saturday, at VCU Jan. 23, George Mason Jan. 25, at Northeastern Jan. 28. Gulp.

While he spoke optimistically as usual Wednesday night, Cassara looked spent as he sat slumped at the podium. “It’s frustrating to lose anytime, and I think it’s especially frustrating for these guys and our staff and our team when we’ve been stringing some good practices together,” Cassara said. “Our intensity and our focus has been good. We’ve remained positive. And like I’ve said, we’ve lost three league games by five total points, So sure, it’s frustrating.

“But we have to continue to move forward. I [said] in the locker room, the great thing about being a basketball player: We get to play again in a couple days and the great thing about this league is we have another great opportunity in two days.”

Right now, that doesn’t sound so great.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Northeastern, 1/11)

3: Stephen Nwaukoni

2: Nathaniel Lester

1: Dwan McMillan

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 35

Nathaniel Lester 23

Dwan McMillan 14

Shemiye McLendon 9

Stephen Nwaukoni 8

David Imes 8

Stevie Mejia 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

Postgame Buffet: UNC Wilmington 86, Hofstra 80 (Or: I ain’t seen the sun since I don’t know when)

I can see this "0FerFile," though.

Things were so much simpler and promising when I was younger. I was focused, committed and optimistic; certain I could not only change myself but the world around me.

But here it is, a week later, and not only has my diet yet to begin, I prepared for writing during the overnight hours by wolfing down an ice cream sundae. Not only is my office not clean, it still looks like it needs FEMA intervention.

Most importantly, the Flying Dutchmen have as many CAA wins today as they did on New Year’s Day. Which is to say none. From taking random happenings and declaring they were a sign of a magical evening and season ahead to starting a file on my desktop titled “0FerNotes,” this has not been the start to 2012 anyone envisioned.

In fact, it officially became the worst start to a calendar year of the Defiantly Dutch era Saturday, when the Dutchmen dropped a not-as-close-as-it-seemed 86-80 decision at UNC Wilmington. The Dutchmen are 0-4 in CAA play, the first time they have opened conference play with four straight losses since 1987-88, and history suggests the year will only get longer from here.

So how DID we get here (the Dutchmen at 0-4, not me still eating and working amidst a pile of paperwork like it’s 2011)? Feast on the postgame buffet. Don’t lie. Your diet hasn’t started yet, either.

1.) While there are plenty of valid ways to spin the belief that 0-4 record is not as bad as it looks and that the Dutchmen’s future isn’t as bleak as it might seem, an 0-4 start brings out the inner Bill Parcells/Bill Belichick: It is what it is and you are what your record says you are.

For the Dutchmen, the most ample proof of the gridiron theorem was on display during a pair of destructive stretches in each half in which UNC Wilmington took control. The Seahawks scored on 11 of 13 possessions in a 6:51 span in the first half as they turned an 18-13 deficit into a 38-28 lead. That run was sparked by four offensive rebounds which the Seahawks turned into seven points and symbolized an evening in which the Dutchmen allowed season-highs in points and points per possession (1.217) and had little answer for power forward and sure-fire All-CAA pick Keith Rendleman (19 points on 7-of-10 shooting) while allowing the Seahawks to hit nearly 50 percent (8-of-18) of their 3-pointers.

The Dutchmen briefly managed to cut the gap to three late in the first half and kept the deficit below 10 in the early minutes of the second half before UNC Wilmington went on an 11-0 run in which the Dutchmen failed to score on eight straight possessions, during which they were 0-for-9 from the field and twice failed to convert offensive rebounds into points. The field goal drought actually reached 10 attempts before Stephen Nwaukoni ended the funk for the Dutchmen with a free throw.

Maybe the Dutchmen are better than 0-4, but they don’t have the manpower or the depth to dig out of the holes they have tended to create for themselves this year. The Dutchmen trailed by at least 15 points Saturday for the third straight game and the seventh time this season. They’re 0-7 in those games.

2.) Offensively, the boxscore seems to be an encouraging one for the Dutchmen, who reached 80 points for the fourth time in six games and lost by six points or less for the third time in CAA play.

Nathaniel Lester had 23 points, his second-most ever, and tied a career high with 12 rebounds. Mike Moore scored 22 points and had three assists and three steals. Dwan McMillan also got into double figures with 11 points to go along with two assists and two steals.

But the close margin of defeat and the apparent offensive outburst were each of the lies, damn lies and statistics variety. The Dutchmen got closer than eight points just once in the final 16 minutes—on Nwaukoni’s jumper with four seconds left. The Dutchmen hit all four of their field goal attempts in the final minute, which improved their second half shooting percentage to 29.3 percent (12-of-41). In addition, the Dutchmen had just eight assists, a remarkably low figure on an 80-point night.

And much of the production from the Dutchmen’s three leading scorers was cosmetic. Lester scored eight of his points in the final 41 seconds, 10 points in the final two minutes and 15 points in the final 7:03. Moore was just 7-of-19 shooting, including 2-of-11 in the second half and 2-of-8 overall from 3-point land. McMillan scored five of his points in a 14-second span midway through the second half. In other words: Too little and/or too late.

While the idea of Moore and Lester teaming up to replace Charles Jenkins—with Lester playing the finisher role once defenses key on Moore in the second half—sounds good, they need to distribute their scoring in a more productive manner. They also need help, particularly from Shemiye McLendon, who was scoreless and played just 15 minutes on a night in which six Dutchmen finished with at least three fouls. The Dutchmen got more fouls (10) than points (nine) from their bench, though a couple of Matt Grogan’s four fouls were burned in the waning seconds.

3.) It was not an entirely negative night for the Dutchmen, who got encouraging performances from big men Nwaukoni, Moussa Kone and David Imes. Nwaukoni had nine rebounds and has pulled down an impressive 29 rebounds in the last three games. That’s sixth-most in the conference since CAA play resumed, which makes the Dutchmen the only team with two players in the top six (Lester has 32 boards in the last three games). Nwaukoni, the hardest worker—and perhaps the rawest player—on the Dutchmen, also continued evolving on offense and again displayed his new-found jumper during an eight-point performance.

Kone tied a career-high and set a new one, respectively, with six points and seven rebounds in just 15 minutes. Imes was rendered a non-factor in the first half thanks to three fouls, but he had five points and three rebounds in 15 second half minutes, which puts him right on pace for the near double-double Mo Cassara would love to see from him on a regular basis. With Old Dominion and Drexel coming up in the next 10 days, the Dutchmen will need their forwards to continue creating opportunities on the boards.

4.) What other positives are there to be taken from this 0-4 hole? The Dutchmen have the talent to win CAA games—they are not undertaking the most massive rebuilding project in conference history, a la Towson. If they can score 80 points on a night in which they shoot less than 40 percent and lose by six after their worst defensive effort of the season, then how far are they away from turning a corner and winning some games?

The Dutchmen’s four losses have been by a combined 26 points, the second-smallest margin of defeat amongst the 14 CAA teams that have started 0-4 since 2001-02. (William & Mary lost its first four CAA games by 24 points last year) For all intents and purposes, they are a Humpty Hitchens half-court shot and three missed free throws against Delaware away from being 2-2 and being amongst the gaggle of teams in the CAA’s muddy middle.

A season that has already been unpredictable even by #CAAHoops standards also provides hope the Dutchmen can make up some ground quickly. VCU, pegged by a certain dope as the no-doubt-about-it conference champion after the Rams’ rout of the Dutchmen last Monday, has lost two in a row and is looking up at George Mason and Old Dominion as well as Georgia State, Delaware and UNC Wilmington, just like we all figured back in October.

(Fortunately, VCU’s loss to Georgia State Wednesday inspired self-satisfied Mason fans to crawl out of the woodwork and declare I have no idea what I’m talking about. And this time it didn’t even take suggesting Jim Larranaga falls in the water whenever he walks off the poolside deck at his palatial Miami home.)

It certainly helps to view the Dutchmen’s chances through blue-and-gold tinted sunglasses, but the idea they could win three or four in a row just as quickly as they lost three or four in a row is not completely outlandish. Which is all well and good and optimistic, but…

5.) …the Dutchmen will have to make history just to approach .500. Since the CAA expanded in 2001-02, the average finish of the 12 teams to open league play 0-4 is 11th (well, 10.46th) with 3.23 wins. Six of those squads finished last (10th prior to 2005-06). Only Towson in 2009-10 and Northeastern last year managed to win as many as six games and only Towson finished as high as eighth. Teams that have opened 0-4 since 2001-02 have won a total of four CAA Tournament games, none after the Friday opening round games.

In addition, the last Hofstra team to open conference play 0-4 finished 2-12 in the East Coast Conference (you can look it up, Litos!) 24 seasons ago. Now, of course, that won’t have an impact on the Dutchmen as they try crawling out of this hole. But the scope of the job ahead is daunting, and if the Dutchmen dug themselves all the way to China in starting 0-2, then they’re in Antarctica by now.

And history is not on their side as they prepare for Northeastern Wednesday: Only three of the last 12 teams to open 0-4 won their fifth game. Oh geez. I really don’t want to have to update my “0FerNotes” file Wednesday night.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. UNCW, 1/7)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Mike Moore

1: Stephen Nwaukoni

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 35

Nathaniel Lester 21

Dwan McMillan 13

Shemiye McLendon 9

David Imes 8

Stephen Nwaukoni 5

Stevie Mejia 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

Different methods, same objective for Cassara and Peterson

Among the 53 Division I men’s basketball programs that changed head coaches after the 2009-10 season, only four are giving a greater share of minutes to and receiving more scoring from their freshmen this season—in the head coach’s second year at the helm—than UNC Wilmington. Seven freshmen have combined to play 1,354 minutes and score 489 points for the Seahawks, which represents 52.1 percent and 55.2 percent, respectively, of UNC Wilmington’s overall output.

At the other end of the spectrum is Hofstra. Only four of the 53 schools with a second-year head coach are receiving less minutes and scoring from their freshmen than the Flying Dutchmen. While the class technically consists of three players—Moussa Kone, Jordan Allen and Jereme Good—Allen is expected to redshirt and Good is a walk-on. So Kone has accounted for all 48 points and all but six of the 258 minutes the Dutchmen have received from freshmen, which represents 4.7 percent of the points and 8.6 percent of the Dutchmen’s overall output.

Yet while the circumstances by which Buzz Peterson and Mo Cassara inherited their teams demanded that they build their programs in different ways, they are doing so with the same goal in mind: To bring about the type of stability that yields the success to which both schools have grown accustomed. With the Dutchmen visiting UNC Wilmington tonight, we thought it would be interesting to look at their approaches and ask each coach the rationale behind the decision-making process.

***

While Cassara took over a program loaded with senior and veteran leadership and focused on bringing in his first impact class of newcomers in his third season, the cupboard was just about bare at UNC Wilmington for Peterson, who inherited a 9-22 team and saw four players either transfer or flunk out of the program in his first few months.

With point guard Chad Tomko entering his senior year and only one building block—sophomore big man Keith Rendleman—in place, Peterson not only had the opportunity to start anew with his second recruiting class, but little other choice.

“What we decided to do, instead of going the transfer or juco route, we decided, hey, let’s just go with the high school kids,” Peterson said Friday. “Let’s build this program up and back into the top third [of the CAA] like it used to be. So it’s going to take some times, let’s go that route.”

Peterson and his staff ended up signing eight freshmen for this season, two of whom are redshirting. Luke Hager took a redshirt before the season and Craig Ponder, who started three of the first four games, opted to redshirt after suffering an ankle injury in November. Of the six remaining freshmen, three—Adam Smith, K.K. Simmons and Cedrick Williams—rank among the Seahawks’ top four in points scored and minutes played. Smith leads the way with a team-high 16.8 ppg in just a shade over 30 minutes of action.

Emphasizing youth required patience on the part of Peterson as well as the UNC Wilmington administration and fanbase, which, after four losing seasons in the last five years, is eager to again taste the success the Seahawks enjoyed in winning four CAA titles from 2000 through 2006.

“You’ve just got to make sure that your AD and president and everybody are on board,” Peterson said. “Sometimes, your boosters and alumni, they want to see you win instantly. But the problem is this thing was not in great shape. What we’re trying to do is get it back to where it was. It’s not easy and it takes a little time if you want to do it the right way, the only way I know how to do it.”

Peterson and his staff, meanwhile, have found it necessary to remain patient in all facets of coaching—from re-implementing most or all of what they put into place last season to guiding the newcomers through their freshmen year.

“It seems like we’re almost starting all over again,” Peterson said. “I feel like we’re doing a lot of the same things, teaching a lot of the same things, I put in place last year. So hopefully after this year, a lot of that is in place and we can start the building process.”

The Seahawks have exceeded expectations thus far: Despite a rigorous schedule that included road games at Maryland, Dayton, Toledo and Wake Forest, UNC Wilmington is 6-7, including 6-2 since an 0-5 start, and 2-1 in CAA play after beating Northeastern in Boston on Wednesday for the first time in program history. A win tonight would give the Seahawks their first four-game winning streak in almost four years.

“Eager to learn—eager to learn and listen,” Peterson said of his freshmen. “Sometimes they don’t follow through. But they’re bright-eyed and seeing what it’s like to go through [a season]. They really do listen and that’s the thing about having some young kids. It [results] in some good habits and it pays off. This bunch here is willing and they want to get better.”

“We’ve got to be patient with them and it’s not just watching them on the basketball court. We’ve got to watch everything they do, not just on the court but off the floor. Trying to just instill some good habits, on and off the floor. After time that will pay off.”

***

For Cassara, the challenge was balancing long-term objectives with giving the veterans he inherited a chance to win in their final season or two. Last year’s team featured Charles Jenkins, the best player in school history, as well as Greg Washington, Hofstra’s all-time leading shot blocker, and won 21 games while finishing third in the CAA.

Two of this year’s captains are fifth-year seniors Nathaniel Lester, who redshirted last year, and Mike Moore, who is in his second season at Hofstra after transferring from Fordham. The Dutchmen have exhibited flashes of promise in beating Cleveland State and Iona but are 6-9 overall and 0-3 in the CAA, where two of their losses have been by a combined three points.

“That’s certainly in your mind all the time—those guys are all veteran guys, older guys, who have paid their dues and worked to get to the position they’re in,” Cassara said.

With that in mind, Cassara and his staff tried finding players in the spring of 2010 who could contribute right away. Of the four players in Cassara’s first recruiting class, three have played vital roles for the Dutchmen during the last two seasons. Senior point guard Dwan McMillan and sophomore forward Stephen Nwaukoni are current starters while sophomore guard Shemiye McLendon is the Dutchmen’s sixth man.

“I think because of the coaching changes and some various other things, we’re still very much in that process of really trying to string recruiting classes together,” Cassara said. “Over the last year-and-a-half we’ve had to plug some holes to get us through.”

Cassara’s approach with his second recruiting class was impacted by a series of developments last spring. Malik Nichols, who committed to Hofstra in the fall of his senior year and was expected to play right away for the Dutchmen, opted to go to prep school and re-open his recruitment.

And Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Taran Buie decided to transfer from UConn and Penn State, respectively, The Hofstra staff had ties to both players—ex-UConn assistant coach Patrick Sellers is the newest member of Cassara’s staff while Cassara heavily recruited Buie while he was an assistant at Boston College—and focused their efforts on the duo, who agreed to transfer to Hofstra this summer.

“Those guys are not only very talented and can definitely be very good players in this league, but we had ties to them both,” Cassara said. “So that changes your focus a little bit, to look at transfers and different possibilities. Those two guys popped up at the right time.”

McCoombs-Daniel and Buie can also provide the type of stability not often associated with transfers. McCoombs-Daniel will turn 23 shortly after he suits up for the Dutchmen for the first time while Buie will have three seasons of eligibility remaining.

With McCoombs-Daniel, Buie and Allen all practicing with the Dutchmen on a daily basis, Cassara is hopeful the chemistry—between the redshirts and the Dutchmen who will return next season as well as incoming freshmen Dallas Anglin and Jimmy Hall—will take less time to develop once November rolls around.

“I think they have a nice situation, to sit back and see some of the things that might work and might not work,” Cassara said. “They’re gaining knowledge and information and experience. I think down the road that will benefit them. It may not necessarily come to fruition in the first month of next season, but I think that can be very valuable down the road for those three guys.”

With much of next year’s class of newcomers already in place, Cassara, like Peterson, sees the objective of rebuilding the program coming to fruition, even if the current composition of their rosters is different.

“We’re still very much in that process of really trying to string recruiting classes together,” Cassara said. “Now we’re starting to look over the long run and plug some holes with transfers and redshirts.

“I think we’ve started to back up some kids for next year, we’ve signed young kids. Now we just want to continue to build with this and string a couple of classes together and get some real consistency in the program.”

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

A Christmas (present) story of a Jenkins jersey journey

VICTORY!!!!

It’s not every day you go from half-asleep to wondering if you’ll get arrested for theft (that’s not really a theft) in about half an hour. But my unexpectedly adventurous Friday began with a text from Hofstra’s head SID Stephen Gorchov at 2:33 p.m.:

“Jenkins starting tonight”

No first names needed. No punctuation either. Some statements don’t need exclamation points.

My wife got home from work a few minutes later and I told her the good news. Suddenly our Friday night plans had to end with us home and in front of the TV by 10:30. OK, who am I kidding, those were already our end game plans. But still. We were excited.

Then she said “You’ve got to go to Bay Shore!”

Bay Shore is not normally a place someone goes when he or she is excited. Sure, it’s got the Boulton Center theatre and a nice waterfront. But other than that, meh, you know, where we live now is as exciting. Which is to say not at all.

However, Bay Shore was also our former home. More importantly, our old apartment in Bay Shore was where the NBA Store has sent the Charles Jenkins T-shirt my wife ordered for me for Christmas. Twice. Even though we haven’t lived there since October 2006, a few months after I cost us our security deposit by tearing the paint off the walls following The Great Tom O’Connor Screw Job.

How it ended up there—twice, even though my wife corrected the address twice—is a long story I don’t really want to get into right now, since Jenkins is starting tonight and I don’t have a lot of time. But if I wanted to wear the T-shirt tonight, I had to get to Bay Shore pronto, because according to UPS, the second T-shirt was delivered there this morning.

So I got into the car and raced to Bay Shore. I broke the speed limit like usual, but knew “Jenkins starting tonight” would not only get me out of a ticket but earn me a police escort to my old apartment.

Alas, the long arm of the law didn’t interrupt me in my mission, and as I drove on to my old street, “Home Sweet Home” started playing on XM. That’s got to be a good sign, I thought.

I pulled into the complex and held my breath. What would I do if the box wasn’t there? Knock on the door? Introduce myself to the guy or gal who inherited the apartment?

“Hi. You don’t know me, but I used to live here and you have my Charles Jenkins T-shirt. It was mailed here by accident by the NBA—what? Charles Jenkins. Played at Hofstra. CHARLES JENKINS. HOFSTRA. School in Hempstead. On Long Island. Half an hour from here. Why are you reaching into your pocketbook OWWWW MY EYES WHY ARE YOU MACING ME??”

Then again, what would I do if it WAS there? Just run up, grab it, get in the car and peel ass out of there? That wouldn’t look weird or suspicious or criminal at all.

I turned towards our old apartment and gazed towards the corner of our stoop, where packages were always left. I didn’t see it. My heart sank. Damnit. Now I have to knock on…

NO WAIT THERE IT IS!!!

Better yet, the complex was largely empty of cars. The parking spots around our apartment were all open. There was one car idling in the roadway a couple dozen feet away. I pulled into my old spot and sat there for a minute, hoping that car would leave soon and that Joe Blow in My Old Apartment didn’t show up in the interim. “That package there? It’s mine.”

Then I saw a woman from another apartment go out and towards the idling car. That’s it, I thought, this is MY TIME. I pumped myself up by humming the first few bars of “No Easy Way Out.” (Admit it, you don’t know if I’m kidding or not) I opened the door, darted out and up the stairs, noted that the apartment next door still had pumpkins out, grabbed the package, saw my wife’s name on the label and headed back to the car.

Between the time I opened the door and the time I sat back in the driver’s seat, I expected half a dozen neighbors to be yelling at me and the cops to show up and order me from the vehicle. I’d be taken to jail, get Mo Cassara’s voice mail with my one phone call and spend the weekend in solitary after I kept chanting “Jenkins starting tonight.” I’d need various entertainers to take up my cause in order to have any shot at escaping a lifetime in prison.

But absolutely nothing happened. Lady at the car remained at the car. Nobody was looking at me. As usual with Hofstra-related things, I was the only one going nuts. I called my wife and mustered up the most dramatic voice I could.

“I got the package.”

I peeled ass out of there and raced home, feeling like equal parts Jack Bauer, MacGyver and Encyclopedia Brown. A mile or so from the apartment NBA Store refuses to recognize, Howard Jones’ “Things Can Only Get Better” turned up on the radio. For 28 years now I’ve thought that song was lame and saccharine. But this time, with Hofstra 0-3, a Charles Jenkins T-shirt on the seat next to me and Jenkins readying for his first career start, I could only think: Preach on Howard. Wherever you are.

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

Postgame Buffet: Delaware 67, Hofstra 66 (Or: Do I have to write the words?)

Also good: This Jan. 4 came and went without me ending up on the side of the road and my car all busted up.

I thought I’d seen it all in 18 years of watching Hofstra basketball. Conference championships—some of which were even won in leagues that actually existed!—eight-point plays, stunning comeback wins, buzzer-beaters by iconic future NBA players.

Of course, rooting for the Flying Dutchmen means plenty of lows—that’s to be expected as a mid-major fan. But still, we’ve been through a lot, from wondering if we’d ever get into a real conference (cough, hi Litos, cough cough), pondering the what ifs about a narrow loss in the conference tournament, the heartbreak that defined what should have been a euphoric 2006 postseason, a month-long period in 2010 in which the Dutchmen had as many coaches as they had the previous 22 years and all the blown leads and last-minute losses that still stick in our craw all these years later.

But even by our star-crossed standards, last night’s 67-66 loss to Delaware was utterly freaking brutal. I’m sadistic enough to try and find out if a team has ever lost a one-point game in which it never led, so I’m glad there doesn’t seem to be a way to conduct this research.

However, I’m absolutely positive that if a team has ever done what the Dutchmen did last night, it didn’t do it like the Dutchmen, who fell behind by 15 points barely six minutes in yet clawed back to tie the game four times in the final 5:14 but squandered three chances to take the lead—the last time when Mike Moore, an 80 percent foul shooter, missed both free throws with 22 seconds left and the game tied 65-65—and lost when Shemiye McLendon missed the potential game-tying free throw with two seconds left.

It sucked. It really, really sucked. What could have been a seismic, season-defining victory that served as a testament to the toughness and resiliency of the Flying Dutchmen instead turned into a crushing defeat that could linger as long as the James Madison defeat, which was the second loss in a four-game skid.

Regardless of how the Dutchmen bounce back at UNC Wilmington Saturday, they are now mired in a hole from which it is almost impossible to emerge (more on that in a bit). Really, it couldn’t have been any worse if the Blue Hens beat the Flying Dutchmen back up the New Jersey Turnpike, broke into the Hofstra Arena and stole the 2000 and 2001 America East championship banners.

Yet because I’m a sadist, and so are you, I’m going to write a lot about it, and you’re going to read it in the postgame buffet. Which this time is being authored by someone who DIDN’T stay in a craptastic Howard Johnson’s and catch the stomach flu there. So yay. I’ve got that going for me.

1.) In ways symbolic and literal, the Flying Dutchmen are paying the price for Charles Jenkins’ greatness the last three seasons. Buoyed by Jenkins’ ability to shift into Wolf/Takeover/Beast mode in the final minutes, the Dutchmen were 27-9, with three losses per year, in games decided by six points or less or in overtime in his final three campaigns.

They are 1-3 in such games this year. The easy thing is to say the fates have evened out, but fate has a funny way of evening out once Jenkins is on the west coast. The Dutchmen have not found someone to replicate Jenkins’ ability to put the team on his back and will it to victory.

There are players displaying the potential to fill that role. Moore had two game-tying jumpers and scored 24 points despite being shut out for the first 13-plus minutes. Lester finished with a double-double (15 points and 11 rebounds) and put together another big second half in which he scored 11 points. Stephen Nwaukoni had a career-high 12 rebounds, including seven in the second half and three offensive boards in one sequence.

Between the opening tip against Colgate and halftime Wednesday, David Imes was 17-of-27 from the field. McLendon has scored in double figures in three of his last four games and has a penchant for late-game dramatics: Wednesday marked the first time in four tries he’s missed a free throw that could tie or put the Dutchmen ahead in the final two minutes.

But no one has pulled a Jenkins yet and made the difference between defeat and victory. As the leading scorer in the CAA, Moore is the player most qualified to assume Jenkins’ role, and he just cannot—cannot—miss two free throws with the chance to give the Dutchmen the lead for the first time in the final half-minute of play.

Especially when he’s such a reliable free throw shooter: The back-to-back misses marked just the third time Moore has missed both ends of a free throw sequence in 48 games at Hofstra. He’s missed fewer than two free throws in a game 35 times. To lose when Moore had the chance to complete the comeback at the free throw line might be the most demoralizing part of the defeat.

2.) Last-minute free throw shooting potentially costing the Dutchmen a comeback win is the most easily lamentable part of the defeat, but a sloppy first half—and in particular a rough first few minutes—was the real culprit and the reason the Dutchmen had to spend the entire game playing catch-up.

The Dutchmen committed six turnovers in the first were down 19-4 a mere 6:13 into the game. It was just about the polar opposite of what Dwan McMillan promised after the loss to VCU, and McMillan and the other veterans in the starting lineup have to do a better job of making sure the undermanned and undersized Dutchmen—who have little margin for error in the best of times—don’t put themselves in such predicaments.

The Dutchmen also need more consistency out of the veterans. Lester, who has reached double figures in scoring in each of the last seven games, needs to be a bigger part of the offense in the first half. Moore needed 25 shots for his 24 points last night. Imes missed six of his last seven shots last night. And McMillan is just 2-for-10 from the field with seven assists and eight turnovers in the last two games.

3.) The resiliency of the Dutchmen and the ability of Mo Cassara and his staff to make halftime adjustments remains encouraging. While it’s reasonable to worry the Dutchmen will be feeling the after-effects of this loss for games to come, it speaks volumes for their character that they were able to keep chipping away at Delaware’s lead and trade flurries with the Blue Hens in the second half, even if they never got the tie-breaking basket that probably would have led to victory. The Dutchmen also committed just four turnovers in the final 34 minutes.

And Cassara continues to mix and match and find ways to bring the Dutchmen back into games. The three-quarters press defense worked wonders in the second half, when the Dutchmen caused eight turnovers, and while Blue Hens power forward Jamelle Hagins put up an eye-popping 21 points and 18 rebounds, he was limited to six shots in the second half. Effort—from players or coaches—will rarely be an issue for the Dutchmen which is just one reason why…

4.) …losses like last night really sting. This is a team for whom you wish success. Of course, as the curator of a mildly biased Hofstra blog, I always feel that way. But this team, in particular, is easy to root for. It will be remembered as a transition-era bunch, which is a nice way of saying the core players were stuck here when Tom Pecora left and the Cassara-recruited role players are just holding down the fort until he builds the program back up.

You want a team like this to have some success so that its one run together doesn’t go down as an eyesore in the media guide. While we’d all obviously like to see this season end with an NCAA Tournament game or seven, it would be satisfying—not to mention far more realistic—to see the Dutchmen finish a game or two above .500, make a little run in the CAA Tournament and perhaps accept a berth to the CIT (but, dear God, not That Which We Shall Not Name).

But history suggests that’s just about impossible now. The Dutchmen and Towson are the 19th and 20th teams to open CAA play 0-3 since the CAA expanded in 2001-02. Of the previous 18, only one finished .500 in conference play and won more than one game in the CAA Tournament. And that was George Mason, which bounced back from an 0-3 start to finish in sixth place at 9-9 and advance to the championship game in 2006-07. And as you know, the Patriots had some players who had played pretty deep into the season the year before (grrrr).

Even with Mason’s turnaround boosting the numbers, the average finish for a team that starts 0-3 is far from good—10th place (well, technically 9.78th) with exactly four conference wins. Other than Mason, no 0-3 team has ever won more than one CAA Tournament game.

To put the average finish for an 0-3 team into context: Hofstra won five games in its worst CAA season back in 2001-02. And the Flying Dutchmen haven’t won fewer than five conference games (discounting the five-game ECC season of 1993-94) since 1987-88, when it went 2-12 in the ECC (no, really, Litos, I swear!). That squad is just one of three Hofstra teams to open conference play 0-3 or worse in the last 30 years. The other was the 1995-96 team, which finished 5-13 and lost in the first round of the NAC Tournament in Delaware (oh my God it all connects!). So…yeah. It’s a long climb back.

5.) There will almost surely be more nights like last night, and also more nights like last Thursday against Iona in which the Dutchmen win a game in which nobody thought they had a shot. It’s that kind of season in the CAA—why hello there, first-place Georgia State—and one in which an 0-3 start doesn’t have to be as ruinous as perhaps it would have been in past seasons. The basketball season is full of ebbs and flows, and the Dutchmen could be feeling really good about themselves a week from today if they can head to UNC Wilmington Saturday, beat the Seahawks and return home and beat Northeastern on Wednesday.

But shedding last night’s loss, heading to North Carolina tomorrow and earning a road win is a lot to ask, especially now that UNC Wilmington just beat Northeastern in Boston for the first time ever and has won four in a row and six of eight. Scratching out two wins in the next six days is a lot to ask, yet the alternative—with the Dutchmen following up the home game against Northeastern with games against Old Dominion, Drexel, James Madison, VCU, George Mason and Northeastern again—is too dreadful to consider.

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Delaware, 1/4)

3: Nathaniel Lester

2: Mike Moore

1: Stephen Nwaukoni

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 33

Nathaniel Lester 18

Dwan McMillan 13

Shemiye McLendon 9

David Imes 8

Stephen Nwaukoni 4

Stevie Mejia 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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

At 0-2, Hofstra’s in a big hole (Or: Hello? China? Little help?)

This may or may not be a self-portrait.

Once again channeling the first week of March here with some quick research and reportage of data (makes me sound important!). With the Flying Dutchmen falling to 0-2 in CAA play with the loss to VCU Monday, I was curious to find out how teams who have opened 0-2 have fared in the long run.

Short answer: Not good.

Over the previous 10 seasons (since the America East Four joined the CAA), 30 teams have lost their first two CAA games. The average number of wins for those teams: 5.3. And the average finish for an 0-2 team is ninth (well, technically, 8.87th), though that is skewed a bit by the fact there were only 10 teams through 2004-05.

Only five of those teams have finished .500 or better in conference play and only one finished as high as fourth—and that was Drexel back in 2004-05, when the top six teams earned first day byes in the 10-team CAA. No team has won the CAA after opening 0-2, though both George Mason (2006-07) and William & Mary (2007-08) made it to the title game after playing on Friday. And James Madison reached the CIT semifinals after opening 0-2 in 2008-09.

So the climb will be steep for the Dutchmen as well as fellow 0-2 squads Drexel, William & Mary and Towson. There is some good news heading into tonight for these four teams: Twelve of the 30 previous squads to open 0-2 won their third game, including Hofstra in 2002-03 and 2007-08. Of course, Drexel faces Towson in another #ECCHoops tilt, so at least one team will be 0-3.

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

Postgame Buffet: VCU 80, Hofstra 63 (Or: Never mind that noise you heard it’s just the HAVOC under your bed)

VCU's going to give the rest of the CAA nightmares all year long. (Also: Enjoy this, for when it is from an era in which the idea of Metallica uniting with Lou Reed sounded like parody instead of reality)

And on the second day of the year, everyone else in the CAA realized they were playing for second place.

VCU continued its sizzling post-Final Four run by routing the Flying Dutchmen, 80-73, at Hofstra Arena. While the margin of victory was plenty, it could have been much worse. In winning its eighth in a row, VCU dominated the Dutchmen with athleticism, depth and efficiency: The Rams played 13 players (not at once, though it seemed that way at times), had three players shoot 45 percent or better and had just 29 possessions in the second half, when it bled the clock and took advantage of the undermanned Dutchmen by pulling down eight offensive rebounds over the final 10 minutes.

“At the top—that’s the best team we’ve played,” Mo Cassara said. “They’re better, deeper, more athletic than Oregon State, Cleveland State or Iona. And I think the other piece of that is they’re playing very well right now. I told Shaka [Smart] after the game I saw them play on TV earlier in the season and they were a very different team than they are right now.”

Barring a stunning upset in Richmond, we’ll all be watching VCU on TV the first Monday night of March. Since the next game is a mere three hours away as a I type this (hooray for being back to work!) here’s a quick VCU postgame buffet.

1.) Had a certain someone else who led a CAA team to the Final Four over the last six seasons been coaching the Rams, VCU could have put up 100. But that’s what makes VCU so scary. While the Rams have the firepower to channel Loyola Marymount circa 1990, they compliment their gobs of talent with resourcefulness and by playing within an actual system. This is what happens when a coach follows up a seemingly once-in-a-lifetime Final Four run with actual substance. It will absolutely not take VCU five years to win another NCAA Tournament game.

(Who knew? It still feels so good to take shots at That Guy)

“[People] talk about VCU, how aggressive they are athletically, but they do a great job of sharing the ball,” Cassara said. “They do a great job of sharing the ball. They make that extra pass all the time. I thought we did a great job a handful of times—10, 20, even almost 30 seconds defensively—then one breakdown, they make an extra pass.”

2.) That said, the effectiveness of VCU’s “Havoc” style of ball can’t be understated. While it was encouraging to see the Dutchmen play so well against a high pressure team such as Iona, it didn’t take long Monday to realize the Rams’ athleticism and skill level was on an entirely different level. VCU’s relentless nature stunned the Dutchmen, who committed 21 turnovers—their most since Jan. 9, 2010 against Old Dominion.

Dwan McMillan, who played so well in the Dutchmen’s three-game winning streak, turned the ball over six times and fouled out. Five other Dutchmen had at least two turnovers apiece.

“One time on the bench I said ‘We’re just a little slow to every ball tonight,’” Cassara said. “And then about five minutes later I said ‘Either we’re really slow tonight or they’re just really, really fast.’ I think it’s a combination of those things. We need the ball to go into the basket to get a little confidence and every time we got it close, they just made a tough shot.”

“Coming in before the game, Coach [Patrick] Sellers drew up the game plan and he said that if we come into the postgame saying that we handled their pressure and we didn’t have as many turnovers as we had on this stat sheet right here, we would have won the game,” Mike Moore said. “That obviously wasn’t the case.”

3.) Cassara said Sunday the Dutchmen would be in trouble if Moore didn’t lead the CAA in scoring, and the Dutchmen got a glimpse at what life could be like if Moore was shut down. Limited by a groin injury he suffered against Iona and smothered by VCU, Moore scored just 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting.

While the Dutchmen had three other players in double figures, only Shemiye McLendon (13 points on 4-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point land, in 26 minutes) came close to becoming the big-time scorer the Dutchmen needed with Moore hampered. David Imes had 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting but missed much of the first half with foul trouble while Nathaniel Lester (10 points, nine rebounds) scored all his points with the game no longer in doubt in the second half.

“I thought Nat did a better job of being aggressive tonight, especially in the second half,” Cassara said. “We have to get more production from David and Nat and Shemiye and continue to share the ball. I thought a couple times mike really shared the ball well, he threw the ball ahead, he gave some other guys good shots and good looks. Unfortunately we just couldn’t get enough stops on the other end to cut the gap.”

4.) While looking for positives in a 17-point defeat trends dangerously close to the moral victory zone, there were some causes for encouragement in the Dutchmen’s performance. VCU ended any hopes of a Dutchmen comeback by opening the second half on a 6-0 run and expanded the lead to 20 with 15 minutes to play, but the Dutchmen closed the gap to 13 points four different times and avoided getting completely blown out of the building.

There were also several parts of a winning equation in place: In addition to the four players in double figures and Imes continuing his offensive resurgence, Stephen Nwaukoni pulled down eight rebounds in just 23 minutes. Despite a lack of size, the Dutchmen should be fine on the boards, especially as Nwaukoni (four fouls) and Moussa Kone (four points and four fouls in 11 minutes) become more efficient and experienced. And Stevie Mejia provided much-needed depth at point guard by scoring four points in 11 minutes in his return from the hamstring injury that was expected to sideline him well into January.

The Dutchmen also impressed Cassara with their effort and enthusiasm despite trailing by double digits for most of the final 22 minutes. “I told our guys in the locker room there’s some positives,” Cassara said. “I thought in the huddle all of our guys continued to battle. They continued to say the right thing. I think a month ago, we weren’t ready to face that kind of adversity.”

5.) The good news is that on most nights this season, the Dutchmen won’t need everything to fall into place just to have a chance to compete. The bad news is they are 0-2 heading into a two-game road trip to Delaware and UNC Wilmington, but they need a couple wins in a hurry because the schedule gets progressively rougher after this week: Northeastern, at Old Dominion, Drexel, at James Madison, at VCU, George Mason, at Northeastern.

This is where that James Madison loss in December hurts. It’s a lot easier to stay afloat in the CAA by winning every other game when you’re 1-1 instead of 0-2.

“That’s going to be one of those games in this league where [when] you have to play three games [in six days], it’s a lot less about them and a lot more about us,” Cassara said of tonight’s tilt. “We’ve got to come out with great energy and great effort and we’ve got to go find a way to win some games on the road.”

Fortunately for the Dutchmen, McMillan seemed to be in pre-Iona mode right after the game when he promised a better performance moving forward.

“They just brought more effort and energy tonight, something that we had for the last week-and-a-half, two weeks,” McMillan said. “But you won’t see that out of us anymore. We’re gonna step it up on Wednesday.”

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. VCU, 1/2)

3: Mike Moore

2: Shemiye McLendon

1: David Imes

SEASON STANDINGS

Mike Moore 31

Nathaniel Lester 15

Dwan McMillan 13

Shemiye McLendon 9

David Imes 8

Stevie Mejia 3

Stephen Nwaukoni 3

Bryant Crowder 2

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