Hofstra started their season with a convincing win at home over LIU. Then on Wednesday, they traveled to Corvalis, Oregon to play Oregon State. The game was close throughout. But in the end, the Beavers prevailed 82-72 over the Pride. Hofstra came back home for a chance to rebound against another NEC team, Saint Francis.
Even though Saint Francis was 0-2, both games were close losses. The Terriers had Seton Hall on the ropes, leading most of the game before eventually falling to the Pirates at the Prudential Center in overtime 75-71. Then Saint Francis traveled to Lafayette. They had a six point lead midway in the second half before losing to the Leopards 79-73. This was their third of nine straight games on the road for the "Rise and Fire" Terriers, who had forty nine 3 point attempts in their first two games (St Francis had made nineteen of those attempts). I noted in a tweet earlier today (@gmoore21566) that their motto should be the Intellivision B-17 Bomber game's cry "Bombs Away!".
After a birthday party for my younger son Jonathan at Chuckie Cheese in Hicksville, my older son Matthew and I made our way to the Mack Center at Hofstra University in Hempstead. After we entered the arena, we found out it was a free Hofstra team poster day. Matthew gladly took his poster along with his pretzel and we made our way to our seats.
It was clear early on that, offensively, this was going to be a contrast of styles. Saint Francis was content to look for the open three on the Hofstra two-three zone, while the Pride looked to drive to the basket on the smaller Terriers. And the end result was going to be a close game. Saint Francis' largest lead of the first half was four, 17-13, after, what else, a P.J.Santavenere three pointer.
In the first half, the Pride behind Mike Moore and Nathaniel Lester were taking their defenders to the hole. In particular, Moore was having success, often by being fouled. He went to the line eight times, hitting seven of his free throws, on his way to scoring fourteen points in the first half. Lester was also effective, scoring seven points before having to sit part of the half due to two fouls. Hofstra's biggest lead of the first half was six, 28-22, after a David Imes three pointer. The Pride only had three 3 point attempts in the first half.
Meanwhile, St Francis was living up to their B-17 Bomber reputation. Of their twenty seven first half field goal attempts, fifteen of them were three pointers, connecting on five. Leading scorer Travis Nichols buried two of those five three pointers, scoring eight points.
The Terriers three pointers offset the Pride's advantage in free throw attempts in the first half, nineteen to six. What made things closer was the Pride only made twelve of those three point attempts. And the Pride didn't help themselves on the boards, managing not even one offensive rebound in the first half.
So it was no surprise to anyone that the score was 32-30 Hofstra at the half. During halftime, the crowd's attention was drawn to an interesting contest where students competed in a rapid fire free throw shooting contest for a round trip JetBlue ticket.
At the start of the second half, the Pride picked up where they left off on offense. Nathaniel Lester scored the first four points for Hofstra, as the Pride continued to work inside for layups. However, the Terriers changed their offense at the start of the second half. They worked the ball inside to Akeem Johnson, who scored seven points in a little over three minutes and Saint Francis was up 42-39 with a little over sixteen and a half minutes left.
Over the next twelve minutes, the lead changed back and forth often in the second half (eight times overall in the game). The Terriers had a three point lead, 57-54 with 6:24 left. But the Pride went on a 7-0 spurt, culminated by who else, Mike Moore with a turnaround jumper to put the Pride up to stay 61-57 with a little more than two and a half minutes left..
It was during this time that the Pride's most improved player, Dwan McMillan was directing the team. McMillan was supposed to be the backup point guard for Hofstra this season now that Rhode Island transfer Steve Mejia was eligible to play after sitting out a year. But Mejia has struggled early on in the season and McMillan's inspired and tenacious play, along with his ability to hold onto the ball and create opportunities, has resulted in a significant amount of playing time. During the last six minutes of the game, McMillan, not Mejia, was on the court.
The Terriers would not quit. Nichols would hit a jumper off a set timeout play to cut the lead to 61-59. Then after a few empty possessions by both teams, Saint Francis' Dre Calloway was fouled on a layup attempt. The Lions Den student section, hungry for a chance to make a difference, screamed as loud as they possibly could on the free throw attempts. To them, Calloway was fresh meat. And Calloway obliged, missing both free throws badly and the Pride had another chance to put the game away.
But last season's second best free throw shooter in the CAA, Moore, missed both of his free throw attempts. Again, the Terriers had a chance again to tie or take the lead. But Calloway again played the goat, turning the ball over. Shemiye McLendon stole the ball from Calloway and immediately was fouled. The man nicknamed "Ice" by Hofstra Blogger Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch, calmly buried his two free throws. Hofstra held on for a hard fought 63-59 win.
Moore led the way for Hofstra with a double double, twenty three points and ten rebounds. Lester nearly had a double double of his own, thirteen points and nine rebounds. Nichols had twelve points to lead Saint Francis, while Johnson added eleven points. The big difference in the game was free throw attempts. Hofstra had thirty six attempts, though they only made twenty three. Saint Francis only had thirteen, making ten. And of course, the Terriers matched their season average on three point attempts, attempting twenty five three pointers on the night, hitting only seven.
For Saint Francis, their long November road doesn't get any easier with a Tuesday night game vs. St John's. As for Hofstra, they are home again to Florida Atlantic, also a Tuesday night game. Another night at the Mack Center, another recap for the 800 Games Project.
Last week was the Hofstra Season Ticket Holder Scrimmage and Reception. As I entered the Mack Center, my son Matthew and I headed to an open seat. There I saw my old friend, Mr. Defiantly Dutch himself, Jerry Beach. Jerry was already there watching the scrimmage with his much better half Michelle. As I walked up to the Dutchman, I started singing "I'm back in the saddle again". Yes, I am old school and thanks to my country music loving parents, I got to know the classic Gene Autry ditty. Thus in my sixth year of writing this blog, it's the perfect theme for today's post.
So when Hofstra hosted Division II Queens College yesterday in an exhibition game, even though it didn't officially start the college basketball season, it was the start of the season to me. And the best way to give a preview of the Pride for the 2011-12 season was to base it around the game vs. the Knights.
A season ago, Hofstra was centered around Charles Jenkins, their three time Haggerty Award and two time CAA Player of the Year guard. Jenkins led the Pride to a 14-4 conference record and a 21-11 overall record. Based on statistical analysis, Jenkins was probably the most important player to his team in the country. Due to the NBA lockout, Jenkins was on hand to watch Hofstra's exhibition game and spent a good part being interviewed by the WRHU radio announce team.
As you would expect for an exhibition game, the stands were lightly filled, despite free admission. Only a few rows of students filled the Lions Den behind the east basket. Hofstra had their cheerleaders, dance team and the pep band there as well. The dance team was in fine mid-season form. The pep band was also in midseason form. Unfortunately that meant, as usual, they didn't sound good at all.
As for Hofstra's starting lineup, seniors Mike Moore and Nathaniel Lester, along with junior transfer Steve Mejia, comprised the backcourt. Junior David Imes and freshman Moussa Kone started in the frontcourt.
Moore was the second leading scorer on the Pride, averaging nearly fifteen points per game and is one of the top free throw shooters in the CAA. He is no longer the wingman for Jenkins, but now one of the tri-captains of the team and the main scoring threat in his senior season. Coach Mo Cassara is counting on Moore to fill the leadership void and also partly makeup for the scoring lost by Jenkins' graduation.
Lester is a redshirt senior, returning from a quad injury that sidelined him for the entire 2010-11 season. In the 2009-2010 season, he played the sixth man under former coach Tom Pecora, averaging eight points per game. Lester is also another one of the tri-captains for Cassara and he is being counted on to average double digits in scoring.
Mejia is the transfer point guard from Rhode Island who sat out last season. In his sophomore season with the Rams, he averaged 18 minutes, 3.5 assists and only 1.2 turnovers per game. He now has a chance to play thirty plus minutes with the Pride and Cassara is counting on additional scoring from Mejia as well..
Imes, the most improved player from last season, is looking to improve again this season. He averaged 7.6 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game. Imes seem to struggle at times yesterday, but later in the game he found his rhythm as he scored two baskets in a row to keep the Pride up thirteen, 59-46. Cassara will be counting on Imes to be a consistent inside scoring force.
Kone was a surprise starter for the Pride. He is a 6 foot 7 freshman from the Bronx who has a nice lefthanded touch around the basket and has impressed during practices. Kone is one of two new frontcourt players for the Pride, who need to sorely improve on their rebounding from a year ago.
The game started out very sluggish with Queens getting an early 5-0 lead. The Knights actually still had a lead 14-13 with 10:40 left before the Pride took the lead for good. It was two bench players who sparked the Pride over the final ten plus minutes of the first half. Sophomore Shemiye McLendon, who often provided instant offense for the Pride off the bench last season, provided several points off the bench. Also, JUCO transfer Bryant Crowder provided points as well as solid defensive work to propel Hofstra to a 33-22 lead. In the second half, Crowder had a thunderous slam off an entry pass that gave the crowd their highlight of the game.
The halftime stats exemplified the Pride's probable strengths, weaknesses and improvements for the season. Hofstra was 12 of 17 from two point range in the first half but 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. Moore had 12 points in the first half, most coming from driving the lane. The Pride held the Knights to 35.7 percent shooting in the first half. Most of Queens' points came from Khalil McDonald, who scored nineteen points in the game.
The second half showed promise for Hofstra. Kone and Crowder were able to get down the court pretty quickly.. It was alsio impressive to see the two big men play very fundamentally sound basketball on both ends of the court. With sophomore Stephen Nwaukoni filling out the frontcourt rotation, the Pride actually have more depth up front than last season. If this game was any indication, the rebounding looks to be much improved as Hofstra outrebounded Queens 40-26.
In the second half, Queens got no closer than ten points the rest of the way. Hofstra was up by as many as nineteen, 67-48 before cruising to a 71-57 win over Queens. Moore led all scorers with 20 points. Lester added 13, Crowder 12 and Mejia 10. The Pride shot 48 percent from the field and eight players played 13 or more minutes. Senior Dwan McMillan, who impressed me during last week's scrimmage, sat due to an apparent injury. Once he is healthy, he will fill out what seems to be a nine man rotation.
The game made it very apparent how Hofstra will have to play this season. As shown by the scoring breakdown, it will be much more of a team effort to makeup for the loss of Jenkins on offense. Against Queens, Hofstra made a concerted effort to drive the lane and work the ball inside. Due to their height, Lester and Moore provide difficult defensive matchups for opponents. .It made sense, because based on a 3-15 performance from beyond the arc, the Pride may be lacking a consistent three point shooting threat.
On the defensive end, the Pride played with a lot of effort and Cassara was doing a lot of coaching with his players when they missed assignments or didn't have the correct positioning. As noted earlier, Crowder and Kone seem to bring better athleticism and rebounding to Hofstra. I was also impressed on how both of them played on the defensive end. Also, having two 6 foot 5 guards in Moore and Lester will help in rebounding.
Finally, the key is Mejia. Mejia had a very solid game with ten points and nine assists (though he had four turnovers). He did a very good job driving the lane and finding the open man. Mejia also went to the free throw line nine times, though he needs to improve on his percentage, as he only he hit five of those attempts from the charity stripe.
Jenkins was obviously the main reason why Hofstra was so successful in conference. But another important element was that Hofstra did an excellent job in ball possession and free throw shooting. Hofstra led the CAA in assists to turnover ratio and free throw percentage and was third in turnover margin (VCU and George Mason were 1-2). Hofstra needs to be as good in those categories again because the window of margin is now much less with Sir Charles gone.
The Pride get their first test against a very good LIU team this Friday, November 11. The Blackbirds are the defending NEC champions who have six of their top eight players returning. LIU's high scoring, uptempo game will be a serious challenge to Hofstra's defense.
Hofstra Pride - 21-11 last season, 14-4 CAA. Lost in CAA Semifinals to ODU. Lost at Evansville in first round of CBI.
Strengths - Veteran guard leadership in Moore, Lester and Mejia.
Improvements - More athletic big men. Deeper nine man rotation (once McMillan is healthy).
Questions - Scoring options to make up for the loss of Jenkins. Consistent outside shooting threat.
