Early character-building wins show massive upside for Hofstra

Hofstra’s 2-0 start has drawn improvement and confidence from Speedy Claxton and his players, and has begun to resemble some of its championship past through just one week. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Three years ago, when Hofstra took its coaches, players and fans on a fairytale ride to a Colonial Athletic Association championship before the pandemic washed away the chance to witness a possible NCAA Tournament run that would have made an all-time team’s legend grow even stronger, the Pride had several pieces of its anatomy symbolic of a March winner.

Hofstra had the scoring guard in Elijah Pemberton that year. It had the point guard in Desure Buie who rose through the ranks and quickly became the heart and soul of the ensemble. It had the shooters in Jalen Ray and Tareq Coburn who could instantly light a spark with his first shot. It also possessed a strong-willed big man in Isaac Kante who would not be denied inside the paint. But above all else, one statistic — one intangible — clearly won out every night in Hempstead, a measure that was unguardable and won more games for Joe Mihalich’s outfit than it lost:

Heart. Championship muscle.

The never-say-die spirit was alive Friday in the Pride’s home opener, a somewhat titanic clash of local mid-majors on Long Island against Rick Pitino and Iona. And as the Gaels kept coming, Hofstra kept answering. Bending, but not breaking, scratching, clawing, scrapping inside the final minute until Tyler Thomas stepped into a 3-pointer in the left corner that swished through the hoop for the ultimate coup de grace in an 83-78 defeat of Iona for the Pride’s first 2-0 start in five years, when Justin Wright-Foreman was still setting records and torching nets in the third act of his four-year tour de force.

“I told them to keep fighting, to stay with it,” head coach Speedy Claxton would say after the initial glow of an impressive victory in every facet had just begun to settle. “This is our game. We came too far to let this one go. I think that’s when Tyler came down and hit that big three.”

So many things about this year’s Hofstra team beat a striking resemblance to 2019-20, a season that first started to feel special when the Pride walked out of Pauley Pavilion with a high-major scalp of a UCLA team that would reach a Final Four 16 months later. Pemberton’s scoring prowess is reincarnated in reigning CAA Player of the Year Aaron Estrada, who toughed his way to 10 points despite being bottled up by Iona’s defense most of the night Friday. Thomas and Dstone Dubar, who combined for 26 and 22 points, respectively, are this roster’s version of Ray and Coburn, as is sophomore German Plotnikov. Graduate transfer Nelson Boachie-Yiadom, who neutralized all-conference big Nelly Junior Joseph and — according to Claxton — won Hofstra the game, is reprising the role of Kante, to be joined by Warren Williams when the former Manhattan forward returns to the floor. And in Buie’s role as the man who makes the motor run is Jaquan Carlos, the sophomore just now coming into his own after feeling out the college game in his rookie season.

“He’s turned the corner for us,” Claxton said of Carlos, whose first two games included the go-ahead shot Monday to sink Princeton before a team-high seven assists against Iona’s pressure in a full 40-minute display of tenacity and fearlessness. “He had a slow freshman year start, but JC’s one of our better players. He knows exactly what we’re trying to do on offense and defense, and he’s the key. He holds it together.”

Then, there is the intangible. Iona went on a 12-0 run out of a Pitino timeout that was called to stem a tide that rose with a Thomas 3-pointer, one of six for the former Sacred Heart star. Hofstra, with Claxton confident in his team’s ability to play through adversity, weathered the storm and responded with a 14-2 spurt of its own to fully restore the lead it had when Pitino stopped the clock. Iona struck again when Quinn Slazinski’s floater through the lane put the Gaels ahead by one, at 51-50. Not even three minutes later, the Pride — again undaunted and in no panic as Claxton allowed his group to find its way — ripped off 10 straight points to flip the script into a 60-51 advantage.

Iona tried one more time to break the hosts, using a 10-3 stretch punctuated by a Berrick JeanLouis transition three to pull even with Hofstra at 74. But Thomas answered with a step-back jumper. Then, after Slazinski hit a pair of free throws to square the match at 76 as the final minute beckoned, Estrada found Thomas alone in the corner for the last of his trifectas, all the margin Hofstra would need on this night.

“I gotta give all the credit to Hofstra,” Pitino conceded repeatedly. “They hit one big shot after another.”

Hofstra's identity three years ago was established in similar fashion, through battles and early in the year before conference play only legitimized the power and potential that would soon be realized. Two games may be a small sample size and could invoke hyperbole, but sometimes history teaches us not to ignore what meets the eye at first blush. And this debut impression, this year with this Hofstra team, is certainly encouraging.

“They’re big-game players,” Claxton said of his young pupils. “Those are shots they’re used to making and taking. We practice those shots every day. They’re not scared of the moment, these guys are going to rise to the occasion.”