Monmouth 91, Hofstra 62 (Or: Dark side’s calling)

New season, new recap theme!

Trying something new (and old) here with five-ish post-game thoughts. How long will it last? Who knows? Enjoy!

1.) Given all that’s gone on during the preseason for the Dutchmen, and the inexperience on the roster, a loss to Monmouth was not surprising. But the gains the Dutchmen made in shaving a 19-point halftime deficit to 12 disappeared over the final 8:40, when Monmouth outscored Hofstra 27-10. The 29-point loss was the Dutchmen’s worst season-opening loss to a non-power conference foe since the 1972-73 team fell to Temple, 80-48. In other words: Oof.

2.) As evidenced by the margin of defeat, this was a thorough loss for the Dutchmen, who shot just 29 percent from the field and missed more shots in 65 attempts (46) than Monmouth did in 72 attempts (36). Gulp. The Dutchmen also turned the ball over 23 times, their most since Jan. 5, 2009 against Northeastern. Stevie Mejia had a particularly rough game as he committed a career-high eight turnovers and was 2-of-10 from the field. Mo Cassara and Co. need a lot better out of Mejia, who provides the Dutchmen a rare bit of experience at the most important position on the floor.

3.) The Dutchmen’s other returnees—David Imes, Stephen Nwaukoni and Moussa Kone—fared a bit better by combining for 20 points, 23 rebounds and four blocks. Caution must be exercised in pro-rating these stats over 31 games, since Monmouth only played two players taller than 6-foot-7, but the Dutchmen will benefit if Imes can become a weapon from outside (both his field goals were 3-pointers, giving him one-third as many as he had last year) and Nwaukoni (11 rebounds) and Kone (a career-high 10 rebounds as well as six points on 4-of-6 shooting) can establish themselves on the boards.

4.) This season is all about, to quote Tom Pecora, early pain for late gain Nobody wants to hear that, but with nine newcomers—and Taran Buie and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, the two most anticipated imports, suspended for the first two games—it’s the truth. The growing pains began Friday, when newcomers accounted for 107 of the 200 minutes and nine players played at least 13 minutes. The latter happened just once last season, against Binghamton.

As for the newcomers, Jordan Allen, Kentrell Washington, Jimmy Hall, Shaq Stokes and Dallas Anglin combined to shoot just 9-of-35 with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 6:8, but it has to start somewhere. Stokes shared the team lead with 12 points, albeit on 4-of-12 shooting, while Anglin was just 1-of-11 shooting and Washington 0-for-4 with three turnovers.

5.) Hall was by far the brightest spot on an otherwise frustrating night. Hall looked like the rawest of the Dutchmen’s freshmen when he struggled in the second half of the Blue-White Scrimmage and didn’t play in the first half of the exhibition against Queens, after which Cassara hinted Hall had to develop off the court, as well. But Hall was the best player on the floor for the Dutchmen Friday when he pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds (including eight offensive boards) and scored 11 points in just 26 minutes off the bench. He is only the third Dutchmen to post a double-double in his collegiate debut since the turn of the century, joining Kenny Adeleke and Halil Kanacevic in the select club. This, of course, also means he has a 100% chance of finishing his career somewhere else. Welcome to life as a fan of the Flying Dutchmen, Molly!

3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. Monmouth 11/9)

3: Jimmy Hall

2: Moussa Kone

1: Shaq Stokes

SEASON STANDINGS (duh)

3: Jimmy Hall

2: Moussa Kone

1: Shaq Stokes

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

Just The Facts: Transfers in their first game for Hofstra

Hofstra will have four transfers making their debuts for the Flying Dutchmen this season. Here is how transfers—both of the Division I and JUCO variety—have fared in their Hofstra debuts since 1991.

1991: Demetrius Dudley 33 pts/7 rbs vs. Navy

1993: Chris Johnke 0 pts/5 rbs vs. Iona**

1994: Jamil Greene 1 pt/2 rbs/1 assist vs. New Hampshire**

1995: Seth Meyers 14 pts/5 rbs vs. Stony Brook

1995: Lawrence Thomas 20 pts/4 rbs/2 assists vs. Villanova

1996: Lance Dunkley 2 pts/3 rbs/1 assist vs. Stony Brook**

1996: Duane Posey 8 pts/4 rbs/1 assist/2 blks vs. Stony Brook

1997: Mike Renfro 6 pts/3 rbs/1 assist/1 steal vs. Bucknell**

1998: Jason Hernandez: 7 pts/ 2 rbs/1 assist/2 steals vs. Maryland

1998: Abdul Sylla 0 pts/3 rbs vs. Youngstown State

1999: Greg Springfield: 7 pts/5 rbs/10 blocked shots vs. New Mexico State***

2000: Osei Miller: 2 pts/2 rbs vs. Northern Illinois

2004: Kenny Harris: 3 pts/1 rb/1 assist/2 steals vs. Florida International**

2004: Adrian Uter: 0 pts/2 rbs/1 block vs. Florida International**

2007: Darren Townes: 5 pts/5 rbs/1 steal/1 blocked shot vs. Holy Cross**

2007: Dane Johnson: 3 pts/1 rb/3 blocked shots vs. Holy Cross**

2008: Tony Dennison: 5 pts/4 rbs/1 assist vs. Clemson**

2008: Cornelius Vines: 12 pts/3 rbs/3 steals vs. Clemson**

2008: Miklos Szabo: 4 pts/11 rbs/2 assists/1 steal vs. E. Tennessee State**

2010: Mike Moore: 13 pts/4 rbs/4 assists vs. Farmingdale State

2010: Dwan McMillan: 15 pts/2 rbs/6 assists1 steal vs. Farmingdale State**

2010: Brad Kelleher: 2 pts vs. Florida Atlantic**

2011: Stevie Mejia: 7 pts/1 rb/4 assists/1 steal vs. Long Island

2011: Bryant Crowder: 13 pts/6 rbs/1 steal vs. Rhode Island**

**--junior college transfer

***--10 blocked shots are a school record

Seven semi-useful things to know: Monmouth

Epic flat-top for the win!

Welcome to a new feature that may or may not become a staple of Defiantly Dutch coverage. Who knows? I will explain more shortly. But there’s an hour to go before tip so there’s no time to chat!

1.) Monmouth leads the all-time series with Hofstra, 4-1. The Hawks won the last meeting between the teams, 87-79, on Dec. 10, 2003. The Flying Dutchmen earned their lone win in the series in the first game between the clubs in 1983, when Hofstra won 77-43.

2.) Like Hofstra, Monmouth’s pre-season preparation was drastically altered by Hurricane Sandy. Monmouth is located in West Long Branch, New Jersey, right on the Atlantic Ocean. The Hawks spent several days practicing in Scranton, PA following Sandy’s direct hit.

  

3.) Monmouth returns three starters from a team that went 12-20 under first-year head coach King Rice (who played collegiately at North Carolina, my pre-Hofstra favorite team, and rocked the flat-top better than anyone in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s). However, the Hawks went 10-8 in the Northeast Conference and were 12-12 following an 0-8 start.

4.) Overall, Monmouth returns 44.7 points and 17.7 rebounds per game from last year’s squad. The Dutchmen return just 22.6 points per game and 17.1 rebounds per game from their 10-22 team.

5.) Monmouth is the first of three Northeast Conference opponents Hofstra will face this season. The Dutchmen will host Wagner on Dec. 4 and visit Long Island University on Dec. 8. Hofstra is 107-58 all-time against current NEC foes and Monmouth is the only school that has played Hofstra multiple times and has a winning record against the Dutchmen.

6.) The Dutchmen are 43-33 all-time in season openers. They haven’t won a season opener on the road, though, since Nov. 21, 2004, when the Dutchmen beat Florida International, 69-67.

7.) As many as six players could make their debuts for Hofstra tonight: Sophomore Shaquille Stokes, a transfer from Hawaii, and freshmen Jordan Allen, Jimmy Hall, Dallas Anglin, Darren Payen and Kentrell Washington.

We’ll have a different kind of debate…when I moderate (The Sequel!)

This one goes out to @VABeachRep!

I’m not sure if you know this, but Hofstra is hosting the second Presidential Debate tonight. No, really, it’s true. There hasn’t been much publicity about it and the university is bashful about its role in determining the man who will rule the free world for the next four years, so you’ll have to take my word on it.

But seriously: As always, I am excited for Hofstra, even if I am, like four years ago, a little skeptical about all the ancillary benefits we are told the debate will provide our beloved alma mater.

(Added bonus: This time around, I get to be ticked off that the lies used to explain away the euthanasia of football are being used to extol the virtues of hosting the debate. Hooray!)

And like four years ago, I am once again perplexed as to how I didn’t end up being selected as debate moderator. Candy Crowley is a perfectly fine candidate to moderate, but without a Flying Dutchman or Dutchwoman running the show, who will fight for the issues important to the Hofstra community?

Politics, like everything else in American life circa 2012, is all about the niche. And all I care about is how Barry or Mitt will help make the Hofstra and Long Island experience better for both ancient alums like me and the whippersnappers who weren’t even gleams in their parents’ eyes way back when I was grooving to Candlebox during Happy Hour at Fezziwigs. Have I said too much again?

1993 musical interlude!

Alas, I have once again been relegated to the sidelines, so I thought it only fair to present to the public the issues that I—and you—should care about. Here you go: The 10 questions that would be asked tonight, if only I were in charge of the American democratic process:

1.) Is it true that part of the terms of hosting the debate, Hofstra demanded that the winner of the Presidential election agrees to change his name to David S. Mack?

2.) Do you know how much revenue football players generate for a Division I-AA program by playing in the NFL? I’m asking for a friend.

2b.) Also, if elected President, how soon will you use federal funds to re-instate football here at Hofstra?

3.) North Korea, the Middle East…blah blah blah, all sound and noise concealing the real issue in American politics: The Hofstra-Stony Brook cold war. So upon being elected President, how soon will you broker a détente between the two warring parties and get them playing each other again in every sport?

4.) We have heard a lot about Obamacare and Romneycare. What kind of care and assistance do you have in mind for the families of prospective college students overwhelmed by the catastrophic rise in college tuition? For example, there’s a northeast-based school where full-year tuition has risen from $11,060 in 1994-95 to $27,600 in 2008-09 to $34,900 in 2012-13. (No names, of course) What will you do to ease the burden and the increasing belief that college education is only for the elite?

5.) As a former Illinois senator and Massachusetts governor, respectively, both of you worked in cities and states with close ties to Hofstra athletics. Mr. President, please discuss how Hofstra’s double-overtime win over Northeastern Illinois in the 1994 ECC title game impacted your life. And Mr. Governor, please discuss how your life was lacking in meaning until Boston University served as the opponent in the first-ever game at Hofstra Arena—the very spot you’re standing in right now!—in January 2000.

6.) The stimulation of the economy begins at the local level, and at Hofstra, nothing stimulates the economy quite like Nassau (guffaw) Coliseum (hysterical laughter). What will you do to first broker peace between the NHL and its players union, thereby guaranteeing a 2012-13 season and the opportunity for students to walk across the street to the Coliseum, and then to facilitate the building of a new arena to replace the stinking deathtrap that is the Coliseum so that acts other than the circus, the Harlem Globetrotters and Bruce Springsteen come to the Coliseum?

7.) What kind of role will you play in keeping the CAA alive with northern-based expansion and moving all basketball tournaments to the aforementioned new Nassau Coliseum?

8.) Burning meal card points on overpriced sodas and pastries during the final week of the semester at Dutch Treats is a Hofstra tradition so old it even predates me. It’s a shame that this money turns into fake money once it is added to a meal card. Therefore, I ask you how quickly you can turn meal card points into actual currency, issued in good faith by the United States Treasury, that we can use to buy and sell goods and services outside the Hofstra campus.

9.) How soon after you are inaugurated will you name Charles Jenkins Minister Of Wolf-Related Problem-Solving Activities? Mr. President, you are already well-acquainted with Jenkins' feats and resume, after your debate prep at William & Mary.

10.) Lastly, can you use federal disaster funds to create extra parking spots at Hofstra? I mean, if you think it’s tough to find a spot today, you should come here on a Wednesday in November. How is that a 240-acre campus never has an open parking spot between 8 am and 9 pm? Mr. President and Mr. Wannabe President, knock down those trees and give us parking spots.

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

Seven Wishes

Two posts in a row with a Night Ranger song! My plan to return them to the top of the charts is underway!

It's been a little more than mark three weeks since the CAA voted unanimously to maintain the status quo and exclude from postseason conference tournaments schools that have already announced their intention to leave the league. That assured Old Dominion and Georgia State will not be eligible for the 2013 CAA Tournament, which, coupled with the APR-related absences of Towson and UNC Wilmington, means there will be a grand total of seven teams competing for the automatic berth during what will be a three-day tournament next March.

The resolution of the eligibility issue means we can now focus solely on conjecturing about expansion, which is really all anyone has been conjecturing about since way back in March, when VCU was still in the CAA. No really. VCU was in the CAA. You could look it up.

Tom Yeager, who was candid to a fault while the rumors swirled around VCU and George Mason, has been understandably quiet about expansion possibilities, but he told the Daily Press in Virginia last Friday that he expects the CAA to reveal its new teams sooner than later.

So I am running out of time to offer up my long-brewing seven wishes about CAA expansion and realignment. Get it? Seven wishes? Seven teams in the CAA Tournament? This is why they pay me the big bucks.

There's also a double meaning to the seven wishes, but you'll have to read all the way to number seven for that answer. Ha! I buried the lede on you.

(As always, the caveat remains that nobody ever listens to me about these things—understandably so—so don't go thinking any of this is going to happen. Except no. 7.)

1.) The CAA almost certainly can't do this, but I'd love to see expansion limited to one team. A 10-team conference is perfect for scheduling purposes. Every team plays every opponent twice. Boom. Done. Of course, a 10-team league leaves the CAA in the position of having to do this whole expansion thing all over again the next time someone leaves, and if I was a betting man, I'd wager at least one of the George Mason-Delaware-James Madison (in that order) trio still has wandering eyes despite a $1 million exit fee. What, you thought the ever-nefarious Tom O'Connor was being magnanimous, or just wanted to see Blaine Taylor in Richmond one more time, when he recently suggested lame duck schools should remain eligible for the conference tournament?

2.) So if the CAA must expand beyond 10 teams, here's hoping it only goes to 12. Again, Yeager may feel as if he has no choice but to go to 14 (or higher) because he needs to protect himself against future departures. As we have learned the past seven seasons, a 12-team league is decidedly imperfect from a scheduling perspective, though it would be a lot better if the CAA were finally divided into north and south divisions and each team played 16 conference games (two against division rivals and one apiece against teams in the other division).

A 12-team alignment is also less-than-ideal when it comes to stoking pre-season optimism. There can only be one champion, of course, and the odds of being the 1 in the 1-in-12 are daunting, especially in a league in which just four schools have won the title in the last 11 seasons. The departures of VCU and Old Dominion—who combined to win the last four titles and seven of the 11 since the CAA expanded to 10 in 2001-02—have the rest of us feeling pretty optimistic. But to expand to 14 would be discouraging, even if there may not be a choice.

3.) With the geographical power of the league suddenly shifted northward—the America East five account for more than half of the remaining CAA membership—this is a perfect opportunity for Hofstra, Northeastern, Drexel, Delaware and Towson to flex their muscles and push for equal representation of northern-based schools in expansion. Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it.

As three northern, non-football playing schools, you can be sure Hofstra, Northeastern and Drexel are tied together at the hip throughout this process. If one school wants (or doesn't want) something, then it's got a pretty good chance of finding an ally with at least one of the other two.

Two is the big number here. Per the CAA's bylaws, a three-quarters majority among schools "in good standing" (i.e. not ODU and Georgia State) is required to approve a new member. So two nay votes will doom a prospective newcomer. The surprising shift of bitter Northeastern rival Boston University to the Patriot League was an implicit admission the Terriers would never get the votes required to go to the CAA.

Of course, there's nothing stopping at least two of the James Madison-UNCW-William & Mary-George Mason quartet from banding together, saying "SOUTHERN BIAS WILL LIVE FOREVER!" and putting the kibosh on any expansion that favors northern schools. I don't envy Yeager's task here…

4.) …but it doesn’t mean I can't ask Santa Yeager to focus solely on northern-based schools that are happy playing football at Division I-AA. Adding CAA football schools New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island as full-time members would get the league to 12, enhance the synergy between basketball and football and solidify the north as the league's new power base.

That, of course, is not very likely to happen. New Hampshire and Maine are not the easiest places to get to in the middle of the winter (or any time of year, for that matter) and their men's basketball programs have combined for a grand total of zero NCAA Tournament appearances all-time out of the America East/NAC/ECAC North (hi Litos!). Rhode Island, meanwhile, just hired Danny Hurley as its head men's basketball coach and probably isn't looking to take what would be perceived as a step down to the CAA.

A secondary option is to look to schools such as Albany and Robert Morris, both of whom have thrived playing football in the Northeast Conference (one of the two schools has earned at least a share of the NEC title 11 times in the league's 16-year existence) while making multiple NCAA Tournament appearances in men's basketball over the last decade. And from a basketball perspective, a move from the America East (for Albany) and the NEC (for Robert Morris) would be a clear step up. But do basketball teams want to fly into Albany and out to Pittsburgh every winter?

In a perfect world, Stony Brook would be an ironclad lock to climb aboard and provide more representation from a northern school that plays football, but there's that whole Hofstra-hates-Stony-Brook-and-vice-versa thing. Oh well. Maybe next time.

5.) Is it too much to ask Blaine Taylor and Ron Hunter, now that they've had their say, to acknowledge they were collateral damage in their schools' hare-brained decision to pursue a berth in the NobodyGivesARatsAss.com Bowl and lay off the us-against-the-big-bad-world-that-is-out-to-screw-us rhetoric? Yes, yes it is. Which is why Taylor and Hunter are two of our favorites and two of the best coaches in the league.

Taylor and Hunter are reminders that outstanding coaches manage to find motivation and slights just about anywhere. Last year, Hunter used the minimal expectations for Georgia State, which was 59 games under .500 in its first six seasons in the CAA, to drive the Panthers to a sixth-place finish. Then, after Georgia State was largely overlooked in the conference award balloting, he riled up the Panthers so much they handed the Flying Dutchmen the worst loss in CAA Tournament history.

Taylor, meanwhile, has built Old Dominion into the league's premier program over the last decade and didn’t seem to appreciate being overshadowed by VCU's Final Four run when he told the VCU student newspaper, The Commonwealth Times, that "…the tournament can make rock stars out of very average people." Snarky? Sure. But I'd much rather have someone acting snarky when his Big Dog status is threatened than glomming on to the bandwagon and then searching for the nearest exit because not so deep down he can't handle no longer being the Big Dog.

Taylor's comment inspired VCU coach Shaka Smart—speaking of someone who can find motivation anywhere, hey, thanks again for that stupid Tweet, Andre Cornelius!—to utter this gem after the Rams beat Old Dominion 61-48 in Richmond in January: "I don't know if we were rock stars tonight or average people." Awesome.

The CAA voting to uphold the tournament ban on exiting teams will provide both men plenty of material the next eight months. Of course, if it was the other way around—and, say, Hofstra and Delaware were leaving to go back to the America East but were still allowed to participate in a final CAA Tournament—you can bet Taylor and Hunter would be muttering about how unfair it is for these lame duck teams to compete for the title. Which is why we like them so much.

6.) Now that the Richmond Coliseum is almost surely out of the picture as the long-term home of the CAA Tournament (I will pause to allow you to run naked around the living room in celebration), it's time to rotate the site. True neutrality doesn't benefit a league that relies on the income from the CAA Tournament to pay the bills, but alternating the location every year even among the mid-Atlantic schools will quiet a whole bunch of us squawkers. I would be a very happy person if the CAA Tournament was at the Bob Carpenter Center. I would not, however, stay at the Howard Johnson's, because I'm no longer 25 and stupid.

7.) Most important of all, the CAA must make "Seven Wishes" the motto for the 2013 tournament (listen to the song—it is appropriate for both the participating schools as well as those that left the league) and get Night Ranger to perform a concert during the weekend. Wait, what? Hear (or read) me out.

I usually hate the idea of concerts accompanying sporting events—nobody at all went to the Home Run Derby in Kansas City Monday and said "My life will be ruined if I don't get to see Zac Brown perform a song before Chris Berman makes America's collective ears bleed "—but the modified nature and unknown locale of the CAA Tournament means the league will have to get creative in order to lure fans from out of town and out of state.

So why not a couple concerts? If the tournament remains scheduled for Saturday-Sunday-Monday (March 9-11), have an older band—like, say, and this is just an example, NIGHT RANGER—play a show Friday night to get the old farts such as myself into the host city. Then, after the tripleheader Saturday, have a concert headlined by a younger and hipper act (i.e. an artist whose music I've never heard GET OFF MY LAWN) to keep the college kids in town.

I'm sure organizing concerts is a logistical nightmare and it'll be a challenge to actually get people to go from the tourney site to wherever the concert is held. (Unless the concert takes place 30 minutes after the final game on the floor of the host arena, which would mean people writing on deadline during a concert. I sense I'm the only one who thinks that would be awesome.)

But this unique tournament requires a unique approach. So Santa Yeager, I implore you: Get Night Ranger to play the tournament, wherever it is located. No, I thought of this while completely sober. Why do you ask?

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

Someday they will

Hoping to do for Night Ranger what some Arizona DJ did for Sheriff in 1988. (GOOGLE IT everyone except @NUHF!)

I am not paid good money to come up with words at times like this. But I am, contrary to what you might think reading my Twitter feed, just about speechless.

Several hours after coming agonizingly close to what would have been, by far, the biggest victory in the history of Hofstra athletics, I have no idea how to put the Flying Dutchwomen's flirtation with a berth in the Women's College World Series, and the pair of 2-1 Super Regional losses to South Florida Saturday that ended their season, into proper context.

Part of me wishes I could just give this the who-what-when-where-and-how wire service treatment and be done with it. But something that stings this much, and made Hofstra fans care so much, deserves more than straight wire copy.

In particular, the five Ws would do a disservice to the Flying Dutchwomen, who were so close to flinging their gloves skyward that we could taste the celebratory Tweets and feel the cotton of our College World Series T-shirts, and to the mercilessly cruel twists of fate that have them flying home this morning instead of boarding a flight to Oklahoma City.

A team that was as close to perfect as possible heading into the Super Regional—the Dutchwomen won 37 of 38 games in the 45 days leading up to Saturday—and needed to win just one more game to make the World Series instead saw its season conclude with two one-run losses in a span of six hours.

The Dutchwomen left an average of seven runners on base in 54 games prior to this weekend but stranded 31 in three games in Tampa. They left 11 on in Saturday's first game, when the Dutchwomen had the go-ahead run in scoring position five times, including one runner at third, in the first eight innings and had the winning run at second with one out in the eighth. After South Florida scored twice in the top of the ninth, the Dutchwomen twice loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning.

"If we could have gotten one key hit…" Dutchwomen coach Bill Edwards told reporters at the postgame press conference. "We were leaving runners at second and third, bases loaded, time and time again. It's obviously a credit to the pitching, but we've been here before and it's amazing how you get on a run and you win so many games because you're getting those key hits.

"And all of a sudden you get in a situation where we had the same opportunity today in both games that we've had in the last 40 games of the year. And it's amazing how this game—how we really have no control over the game."

It's also amazingly cruel that the one person who controlled Hofstra's fate, and did more than anyone could have possibly asked in order to get the Dutchwomen into the World Series, was the one who not only took both losses but made the final out in each game.

In 19 years of following Hofstra athletics, I have never seen an individual performance as gallant, inspiring and noble as Olivia Galati's effort Friday and Saturday. To simply write Galati threw all 27 innings this weekend doesn't do her justice. She threw all 11 innings of the longest Super Regional game ever Friday night, then another nine in Saturday's opener, then all seven in the elimination game that started 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.

Most of us will never comprehend nor know how tired Galati had to be out there as the sun beat down on her Saturday, yet her facial expression never changed as the pitcher Edwards calls the Dutchwomen's version of Secretariat willed her way through 328 pitches over 25 hours.

I am loathe to use the word heroic in the sporting context, but Galati this weekend came as close as anyone will ever come to deserving that adjective. It was an honor just to watch it, for those of us at home as well as in the Hofstra dugout: Edwards called it Galati's performance the greatest he'd ever seen in 44 years of coaching.

"Tops. Top," he said. "Championship games in hockey, football, softball. Tops, right here to my left. Number one."

If life was fair, instead of unnecessarily cruel, there would be four more days of wondering how far Galati could carry the Dutchwomen and marveling at how Edwards got the CWS trip he so richly deserves. Now we must wonder if the Dutchwomen will ever get this close again.

The last time the Dutchwomen were within one win of the College World Series was 2004. Long time ago. Galati is back next year for her senior season, which means the Dutchwomen will be very, very, very good once again, but the NCAA Tournament is a crapshoot. A run at the College World Series is as much about a draw as it is talent.

And as always, at some point, the advantages Everyone Else has are too much to overcome. But couldn't they have been too much to overcome later this week instead of yesterday, when South Florida was able to swap out pitchers Sara Nevins and Lindsay Richardson and utilize pinch-runners and benefit from the stellar defensive play of LSU transfer Jessica Mouse?

It is easy to lapse into what-if mode at moments like this, and kind of cathartic to do so. But it would not be fair, to either us or the Dutchwomen, to let sadness and disappointment overshadow what was derived from the run to the edge of the College World Series.

The softball team gave Hofstra 15 well-deserved minutes of fame. After the Dutchwomen were the subject of features in all the local papers as well as some national outlets in the days leading up to the Super Regional, New York sportswriters Steve Serby and Peter Botte and New York Giants PR man Pat Hanlon Tweeted about the three games.

"I told the team 'We gave Hofstra University more press in two weeks than they're going to get in the presidential debate, which is probably going to last a month,'" Edwards said. "But that's what athletics can do. And that's how proud I am of these kids and how far they've taken this program."

The poor people who follow me on Twitter now know all about Flying Dutchwomen softball (262 softball Tweets the last two days, give or take 5,000, will do that) and have hopefully boarded the bandwagon. We know of at least one new fan: The daughter of loyal reader and very good friend @NUHF declared Hofstra her favorite softball team because her Dad's alma mater, Northeastern, doesn't offer the sport.

And the flurry of text messages I sent and received after the second loss reminded me, once again, of how good we have it as Hofstra fans and how we make up for with our passion what we lack in numbers:

"I'm in tears."

"Never more proud to be a Flying Dutchman."

"I can't leave my laptop—still trying to get closure on Facebook, watching press conferences, etc. Once I shut down laptop, it's all over."

"Sometimes this game is unbelievably wonderful to us," Edwards said. "And days like today, it's cruel."

For now this joins the litany of near-misses that keep us all awake at night, from those we recall vividly over the past two decades to those that happened when we were barely out of diapers, such as the Flying Dutchmen basketball team's narrow losses to Notre Dame and UConn in consecutive NCAA Tournaments in 1976 and 1977, or those that happened when we couldn't have identified Hofstra on a map, such as when the football team saw its unbeaten season end in the Division III semifinals in 1990.

Someday, if my wife and I have done our job as parents, our unborn child will carry the burden of yesterday as his or her own. It is part of the collective experience, from newborn to ninety, that bonds Hofstra fans, allows us to absorb the stings of these crushing near-misses and unites us in the belief that someday, the result will be different.

Yesterday wasn't our day. But someday it'll be a Hofstra team flinging gloves or basketballs or lacrosse sticks skyward after slaying Goliath on the national stage.

Someday they will. Someday we will.

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

When it comes to Hofstra softball, there's no taking this for granted

More celebrations to come for the Flying Dutchwomen?

The greatest compliment and biggest insult you can ever pay someone or something is to say he/she/it is underappreciated. You have to be pretty good and pretty reliable to be underappreciated—after all, an underachiever is never underappreciated.

But to under appreciate something means taking it for granted, which isn't a very nice thing to do. Reliability and consistency should be valued, not overlooked and assumed.

For the better part of 23 years now, Hofstra sports fans have taken the success of Bill Edwards and the Hofstra softball program for granted. Through four athletic directors and three conferences and two university presidents, Edwards has been the constant. The sun will rise, the sun will set and the Flying Dutchwomen will win a league championship—21 in a row and counting.

The Dutchwomen have garnered plenty of attention for that record streak, which included 11 consecutive conference tournament championships from 1998 through 2008. But GEOGRAPHICAL BIAS was supposed to mean there was a ceiling on what the Flying Dutchwomen could accomplish on a national level.

As great as the program is and as well-run as it is under Edwards' watch, there is no arguing that Hofstra, as a non-BCS school located in a cold weather region, has two strikes against it at the start of every season. Edwards does his best to prepare the Dutchwomen for May (and June?) by scheduling up in February and placing Hofstra in a variety of tournaments down south, but come the NCAA Tournament, the teams that can practice year-round and recruit from a seemingly limitless talent base will win out.

Until last weekend, anyway, when the Dutchwomen went to UCLA's Easton Stadium—the Mecca of college softball—and trailed for all of a half-inning in going 3-0 against UCLA and San Diego State and advancing to a Super Regional (the softball version of the Sweet 16) for the first time. The Dutchwomen will attempt to reach the Women's College World Series—say that over and over again—this weekend, when they visit South Florida in the best-of-three Super Regional.

Now everyone has no choice but to appreciate Edwards and the Dutchwomen have done, not just in the last couple months but in the last couple decades.

"This win today is for all the little guys, the mid-majors, the non-BCS schools that do what we do," Edwards told reporters after Sunday's regional-clinching win over San Diego State.

The Dutchwomen are the first northern-based team to reach a Super Regional since UMass in 2006. If the Dutchwomen beat South Florida twice this weekend, Hofstra will become the first non-BCS, non-warm weather school to reach the College World Series since UMass in 1998.

I am so excited by this prospect I am able to write the following sentence without vomiting (barely): If the Dutchwomen make the Women's College World Series, it will be as momentous an achievement in softball as George Mason's run to the Final Four in 2006.

(I lied. Barf.)

But this does not feel like a Cinderella run—not with one of the most successful pitchers in the country, Olivia Galati, taking the ball every single game. Galati has a nation-best 0.91 ERA, has more than 15 times as many strikeouts (363) as walks (24) and has won 31 straight starts, the second-longest streak of all-time behind, coincidentally, the streak authored San Diego State coach Kathy Van Wyk 30 years ago. "Why not us?" is a popular phrase in times like these, but this is not a case of the little team that could hoping to fell a giant with a well-placed rock fired from a slingshot.

No matter what happens this weekend, we will always have the days leading up to the Super Regional, when the small but loyal band of Hofstra sports fans—even those of us guilty of taking softball's success for granted—were united by the Dutchwomen's run.

"We have it better" is the term coined by #CAAHoops guru Mike Litos to describe the unique bond shared by the conference's basketball fans, but it applies here as well. Few outside our circle will understand why we're so worked up about this weekend, which just makes it that much better.

It is downright inspiring to see Twitter taken over by softball tweets, to trade text messages with fellow fans (my favorite remains a friend writing "I am shaking" late Sunday afternoon) and to see how the success of the Dutchwomen transcends generations and coasts. There's Charles Jenkins telling Cornelius Vines to tune in to WRHU, Mo Cassara raving about the Dutchwomen on Twitter and Facebook, former softball SID Jeremy Kniffin traveling from his California home to see the team at UCLA and Stuart Rabinowitz proclaiming he'll host a parade for the Dutchwomen if they win the College World Series. Yes. THAT Stuart Rabinowitz.

We don't get many opportunities like this, so we're going to savor—and appreciate and not take for granted—every second this weekend. And next weekend too. Yeah. I said it.

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