DURHAM, N.H. – With the non-conference slate in the books, save for a BracketBusters date in February, Hofstra will head into the meat of Colonial Athletic Association play looking better than a year ago. At that time, the Pride had struggled to a 2-8 mark, including a CAA loss early in December. This time around, they will enter at 9-3, including a 90-79 win at Towson on December 6.
In picking up a 62-57 win at New Hampshire on Saturday, the Pride also did something else: snap a two-game losing streak. Hofstra won eight in a row after dropping their season opener to Clemson in the Charleston Classic, then lost at UMass and at home to Iona.
“It’s a relief,” sophomore guard Charles Jenkins said of Saturday’s win. “One of our goals this year was not to lose two games in a row, especially one at home.”
Jenkins makes this team go. The conference’s Rookie of the Year last year is averaging 19 points per game and also leads the team in assists. His emergence as a passer, after he had 37 more turnovers than assists last season, is perhaps more noteworthy than the fact that he’s ahead of the departed Antoine Agudio’s scoring pace right now. After Saturday’s game, he has 51 assists and 41 turnovers; he’s nine off his assist total for all of last season. In the two games where he scored a season-low 11 points this season, he had nine assists in one and seven assists in the other.
“He’s got to be solid, and I think sometimes we forget he’s still only a sophomore,” said associate head coach Van Macon, who addressed the media after Saturday’s game because head coach Tom Pecora was under the weather and left the bench in the first half. “He’s still got some growing to do, but I think the end result is that he’ll be a really good player when it’s all said and done.”
It’s easy to forget that about Jenkins not only because of what he’s done, but also what he’s being asked to do. He’s the team’s primary ball-handler and also the team captain, even though he’s the youngest player on the roster.
While some previous Hofstra teams featured guards, this team is loaded with frontcourt bodies. In fact, holdover Dane Johnson has been supplanted in the starting lineup by Miklos Szabo, and Mike Davis-Sabb, who was a key reserve as a freshman, is now a bit player. While they still play with three guards, they now have a world of options inside. They can play a few different ways depending on the matchup, and have the pleasant problem of a wealth of options.
The one inside player who is an X-factor with this team is Greg Washington. The redshirt sophomore didn’t have the kind of impact last season that some expected, but it was mainly a case of growing pains and, to some degree, unrealistic expectations. The physical nature of the game was difficult to handle, but he’s up to 220 pounds and has a better feel for the game.
“Last year was a lot of pressure, it was my first year,” said Washington, who led the Pride with 13 points against New Hampshire. “This year is different. I’m doing all that I can to stay on the floor, and it helps with my teammates. We have a lot of bigs, so if something happens, we can just go to the bench.”
Part of what makes Washington a key is that while his length allows him to block and alter shots at the defensive end, he offers something different offensively. He’s a capable outside shooter and had it on display Saturday, knocking down a couple of shots at key moments. That changes up from just about every other post player they have.
“A lot of teams think that our bigs can only work in the paint,” said Jenkins. “For Greg to hit big shots from about 15 feet puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
Macon said that Washington is the one frontcourt player they can always use, based on his play to this point. The staff is hoping for a little more consistency out of the others, as well as a couple of the guards. While the guards still do a lot of the scoring – Jenkins and junior college transfers Cornelius Vines and Tony Dennison combine to average 40.4 points per game as the team’s top three scorers – Vines and Dennison both struggled shooting in the two consecutive losses. Neither was a star on Saturday, although they did combine for five assists and just one turnover. Vines, who has struggled from the foul line, made two key free throws in the last minute.
Hofstra has struggled mightily shooting from long range, a marked change from the past four seasons where Agudio was always a threat from just about anywhere past mid-court. But in turn, the Pride have become a solid offensive rebounding team, averaging almost 19 per game en route to having the best rebounding margin in the CAA. Those extra possessions help because they turn the ball over 15 times per game.
While Hofstra has a nice 9-3 record, they haven’t knocked off a group of world-beaters. None of the teams they have defeated is a good bet to be in the NCAA Tournament except perhaps as an automatic qualifier. It is, however, a record that should give the team some confidence. More importantly, the personnel options they have give them a chance to contend if they improve.
“We’ve got to get to a good eight or nine guys who are contributing at a high level every game, and if we can do that, I think we can be a pretty good team,” said Macon.
