Hofstra's resounding statement shows championship potential in historic CAA-opening win

Justin Wright-Foreman's 29 points led Hofstra to eighth straight win as Pride demolished Delaware to open conference play Friday. (Photo by Vincent Simone/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

HEMPSTEAD, NY -- Joe Mihalich revealed his frequent challenges to his current Hofstra team to eclipse the bar set by his 2015-16 roster, a unit that won the Colonial Athletic Association's regular season championship before losing a heartbreaking postseason title game in overtime, denying the Pride of an opportunity to appear in what would have been its first NCAA Tournament since 2001.

The drought in the nation's most prestigious postseason tournament remains active, but so, too, does Hofstra's volcanic offense and staunch defense, both of which erupted at opportune times Friday night as the Pride recorded its largest margin of victory in CAA play since joining the league on the heels of back-to-back America East Conference crowns, thrashing Delaware by a 91-46 final score that also indicated the worst defeat for the visiting Blue Hens program in its own CAA existence.

"Obviously, you want to raise the level of your play for conference play," Mihalich remarked as Hofstra (11-3) won its eighth straight game by opening the first half on an 18-5 run and never looking back, leading by 30 points at halftime and receiving a copacetic 29 points from leading scorer Justin Wright-Foreman in a systematic demolition of an up-and-coming Delaware squad. "We were playing for first place, and we took care of business here. They all were focused, locked in, hungry, and wanted to show that we're a good team in this league."

Viewed as a co-favorite in the CAA along with reigning champion College of Charleston -- who opens conference play Saturday -- and last year's runner-up, Northeastern, who scored a 10-point victory in its league opener Friday against Drexel, Hofstra fired perhaps the most powerful opening salvo by shooting 53 percent from the floor and connecting on 14 three-point field goals while holding Delaware to a meager 26 percent shooting display.

"Definitely," Wright-Foreman coolly stated when asked if the Pride had made a statement to its CAA brethren.

"Watching him play -- I said it before -- it's like magic," Eli Pemberton, who added 17 points of his own in his return to the rotation after an injury-induced one-game absence, said of Wright-Foreman and his role as Hofstra's catalyst. "I just love it. It's crazy, especially in games like today. I feed off him. This is my partner in crime. He gets everybody going, not just me."

Wright-Foreman, a redshirt freshman behind Juan'ya Green on the aforementioned 2015-16 team, has assumed the role of alpha dog for the Pride this year, and like his predecessor, has CAA Player of the Year honors to corroborate his metamorphosis. Pemberton has stepped into the second guard slot previously occupied by Brian Bernardi, and Tareq Coburn has taken on the swingman duties previously performed by Ameen Tanksley. Collectively, along with primary ball handler Desure Buie, Hofstra has itself a quartet of players who have met the challenge of not only reaching the bar set by its star-crossed group of three years prior, but also surpassing it.

"They're just getting better and better," Mihalich said with regard to the Pride's defense, which has held its opponents under 60 points in three of the past four games to stake a claim as one of the more active units on that side of the basketball in the coach's five-plus years at the helm. "They're reading each other, they have a sense of where the other guy is, and they're enjoying themselves out there, they're communicating and they're feeding off each other. It's fun to watch."

"It just starts off the court," Pemberton added. "Our chemistry's really good, especially playing with guys like that and how close we are, it makes it kind of easy for us to play defense for each other. In years past, it hasn't always been too great, but I feel like this year, this is the closest team I've had."

Therein lies the biggest difference between Hofstra now and three years ago. While the 2015-16 Pride team had overpowering talent that was able to flip the switch between cruise control and needing to ramp up the intensity, this year's group is not only closer, but scrappier and more cognizant of the sum of its whole being greater than the collective parts. Wright-Foreman may drive the bus, but there have already been several team victories in the first two months, with the likes of Coburn and graduate transfer Jacquil Taylor -- who amassed 12 rebounds Friday -- playing equally as integral parts in a machine that is starting to resemble the last great Hofstra hope, especially in its cohesiveness.

"We were close, very close," said Wright-Foreman. "And that's one of the things that me and Desure -- before this season even started -- used to just talk about, and Elijah too, because he's seen it. How close we were off the court is just very important, just being with other and how it helps our confidence, just helps us work together as a collective unit. That was the most important part coming into the season."

"I think the guys will back me up on this: We've been talking about that team a lot," Mihalich said of the resemblance to the 2015-16 season. "I've made references to that team, and I've talked about how good that team was. But I've challenged these guys to be better than them, and I've made references to how that team got knocked off by Stony Brook and Siena in the non-conference (season). We didn't let that happen."