Six years later, Hofstra gets back what it lost in 2020 shutdown

Speedy Claxton (right) celebrates with Cruz Davis (5) after Hofstra avenged its 2020 misfortune Tuesday by winning CAA championship. (Photo by Joe Orovitz/Hofstra Athletics)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Richard Bach is a 20th century American author who, on the surface, would have no discernible connection to college basketball.

However, one of Bach’s most well-known quotes is somewhat relevant to the hoops world after Hofstra emerged from the Coastal Athletic Association tournament to be the last team standing, and thusly, the conference’s NCAA Tournament representative.

If you love something, Bach posited, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t come back, it never was.

March 10, 2020 was a night that, on the surface, marked Hofstra’s ascent to the summit for the first time since 2001. The Pride had just defeated Northeastern to win the CAA tournament championship, and was on its way to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since someone named Jay Wright patrolled the sidelines in Hempstead and a Christ the King product named Craig “Speedy” Claxton was his point guard.

The world had other ideas.

Not even 48 hours after Hofstra and its fans could bask in the glory of being among the 68 teams that comprise the sport’s greatest spectacle every year, the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. Sports were shut down. For Hofstra, it was yet another kick to the gut, another punch to the solar plexus in a two-decade stretch rife with cruel body blows. So regrettably, begrudgingly, the Pride was forced to release its cherished memento into the wild, its fans wondering if — never mind when — it would ever find its way back.

Six years later, to the day, it did.

March 10, 2026 started with Claxton, now in his fifth season as Hofstra’s head coach, calling a timeout less than two minutes into the game as Monmouth took a 6-0 lead. Claxton called another timeout in the second half after Kavion McClain knocked down a trio of three-point shots to vault the Hawks back in front on the strength of a 13-4 run out of the intermission. The response each time was symbolic of how Hofstra has come to be known.

Claxton frequently reminds his team that the game rewards toughness, and that anything less than a 100-percent effort will not produce success. Hofstra’s exploits in closing out Monmouth, one night after needing overtime and a shot from Preston Edmead that will live on forever across Long Island, demonstrated the requisite level of tenacity needed to dance.

“That’s always what it’s gonna come down to, toughness,” Claxton reiterated. “And we compete with the best of them. It’s a toughness game and the tougher team is going to win, and for a majority of the night, we were the tougher team. That’s what we always hang our hat on.”

Hofstra summoned one last tough stretch after Monmouth refused to fade in the final seconds, with Cruz Davis and German Plotnikov sealing the championship at the free throw line. Shortly thereafter, a reunion few in the Pride’s fan base would readily admit was possible commenced. Even Claxton, who has tasted championships at literally every level in his career, did not know how to react at first, crying tears of joy in an embrace with associate head coach Mike DePaoli before reflecting properly after the magnitude of the moment had time to set.

“This moment is so surreal,” Claxton said, speaking from the heart. “It means so much to myself, this program, this university. I couldn’t be happier for these kids, man. This is a moment that they’re going to share for a lifetime.”

The coach was then asked about the closure of retrieving that which was loved and lost, issuing a bold warning that extenuating circumstances may as well turn around and head the opposite way.

“Nothing better stop us this year,” he said, breaking into his trademark effervescent grin. “I’m hoping that everything goes according to plan, we can go through Selection Sunday, see who we’re playing and actually get to fully experience the tournament and everything that it has to offer.”

Hofstra regained the love it lost Tuesday night, proving it was destined to belong on Long Island all along.

And the Pride is not letting it go this time, at least not without a fight. 

Hofstra’s CAA title means more to those who have agonized, suffered and bore 25 years of crosses

Speedy Claxton raises CAA championship trophy aloft as Hofstra avenged having NCAA Tournament stripped from it in 2020 with victory over Monmouth Tuesday. (Photo by Hofstra Athletics)

By Christian Heimall (@ChrisHeimall)

Special to Daly Dose Of Hoops

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three lead changes, four ties, and each team with its largest lead ballooning to seven at various points.

What started out as that familiar pit in the stomach of every fan when your team gets off to a slow start turned into that overwhelming confidence when it stormed back and seemingly took control. The ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and all-around energy shifts of a championship game provided every bit of optimism, anxiety, and euphoria.

This is not a post about the actual game, but the emotions of a fan who finally got to see something he always wanted to.

Something happens when you cover a team and not the sport as a whole. The fondness for the players, the coaches, the logo, and yes, the fans, grows on you. The roots grow deeper and thicker when that team is your alma mater. And no matter the time spent since graduation, or the distance traveled from campus, those feelings are hard to shake.

I graduated from Hofstra University in 2011, spending all four years as part of the student-run radio station, WRHU-FM. I didn’t enroll in Hempstead for athletics, but instead called Long Island home for the opportunity to call games on radio and learn the craft of being a play-by-play broadcaster. Something happened during those four years, though.

Despite all the mentoring and teaching about being ‘unbiased’ and ‘professional,’ the joy of seeing my team win overtook it all. 

My career as a student broadcaster ended in the same way that Charles Jenkins’ playing career did (not to compare arguably Hofstra’s GOAT to myself); with a semifinal loss to Gerald Lee and Old Dominion and, ultimately, a loss in the CBI to Evansville. It was an emotional time not knowing when my next broadcast would come, but also knowing a team and a program that had every shot at the NCAA Tournament had come up short with uncertainty about a chance to return.

I was fortunate to build relationships with players, coaches, and staff, many of whom I’m still friends with a decade-and-a-half since I left. So it should come as no surprise that despite my post-graduate career taking me to places like Iowa and North Carolina, or working for other schools and teams, that the Pride of Long Island still lived in my heart. I followed the team as best I could, attended games when they traveled to my area, and always put them on TV when the chance would arise. 

That love for the alma mater never wavered, and has helped maintain numerous connections. In 2016, it was ten of us reuniting at a bar in New York City to watch an overtime loss to UNCW. We reminisced and commiserated together, always vowing we would be back. In 2019, it was an expletive-filled group chat as we bemoaned a defeat at the hands of Northeastern. And one year later, it was a different tone, but the same expletives as the demons were exorcised…we thought. 

Less than one week after winning OUR first CAA tournament championship, the world shut down and COVID denied us all the opportunity to go dancing. Fast forward to tonight, six years removed from that roller coaster of emotion and willingly jumping on another one, this time with a front-row seat.

Three lead changes, four ties, and each team with its largest lead ballooning to seven at various points. What started out as that familiar pit in the stomach of every fan when your team gets off to a slow start turned into that overwhelming confidence when it stormed back and seemingly took control. The ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and all-around energy shifts of a championship game provided every bit of optimism, anxiety, and euphoria. 

After 40 intense, and incredibly well-played, minutes of basketball, it all came pouring out.

Cruz Davis and German Plotnikov hit clutch free throws to seal just the second Coastal Athletic Association tournament title ever. More importantly, it righted a wrong that the universe could not have predicted. 

I have long wanted to witness my Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team hoisting the trophy. And while watching it on TV is special, physically being there to see it is just that much better. Yes, I teared up on press row watching the final nine-tenths of a second tick off the clock. Not just because I’m someone who fell in love with the Pride almost 20 years ago, but because finally (FINALLY), for the first time since 2001, Hofstra is going dancing.

A celebration that was cut short by a once-in-a-lifetime tragedy will be run back tenfold and carried for as long as the madness will allow for OUR Hofstra Pride.

FDU starts postseason with rout of Saint Francis in NEC quarters

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

TEANECK, N.J. — Coaches will tell you the season is divided into three parts: Preseason, conference season and postseason.

FDU, after running through the second part with an unblemished record, kept its winning ways intact as the third and most crucial part of the campaign commenced Monday.

The Knights defeated Saint Francis, 81-56, in the NEC tournament quarterfinals at Bogota Savings

Bank Center, and advanced to the semifinals, where they will host Le Moyne on Thursday.

FDU (28-4) started fast and never looked back. The Knights began with an 11-0 run against a Saint Francis team they faced just four days earlier in their

regular season finale, and established a 28-11 lead after the first period.

Sophomore guard Ava Renninger led the way for FDU with a versatile 19 points, six rebounds and five assists. Kailee McDonald added 15 and freshman Reese Downey, in her first conference tournament outing, amassed 13 points.

“It’s not easy to play a team a third time, then back-to-back,” FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley said.

FDU defeated Saint Francis in its final regular season game last Thursday, 61-39.

“The first (playoff) game is always the hardest,” Gaitley said. “I think the kids responded very well. Every night, someone else is stepping up, and that’s a big difference.”

Points of Emphasis

Running the table: FDU, despite its personnel losses, was in a position to repeat as NEC champion, per many observers. But to go undefeated again?

“We had a conversation this summer,” Gaitley said. “Ava said, ‘I don’t see us going undefeated.’ (Renninger jumped in lightheartedly, saying, ‘I didn’t say that!’) We both thought that we were such a mixed group. Great kids. The year before, everybody had a lot of seniority. This group was m mixed with a lot of new kids. We didn’t know what we would get from the freshmen, then Lilly (Parke) went down. There were a lot of question marks (and) we played through some tough games early.”

“Winning close games early, like at Manhattan, helped us. These guys are understanding the details as we go along. I’m so proud of them. On a given night, someone different is stepping up.”

Renninger added her thoughts, saying, “the freshmen stepped in and saw our culture, and have done a tremendous job along the way. A lot of us have been overlooked and underrecruited. It’s hard to beat a ‘chip on the shoulder’ hard-working team.”

Unselfishness: A key trait and reason behind the success of this FDU team.

“Our offense is second-most important,” Renninger said. “Defense is our priority, but we have five scorers on the floor. Anyone can score, and what’s great is we move the ball. We are a very unselfish team, that’s why you see someone different step up on a given night.”

“I had the most tonight, but I could get two points. If I have to rebound, that’s what I will do. I think you can say that for the other players on the team.”

Defensive concerns: The score might hint this was an easy win for FDU, but Saint Francis did pose defensive concerns for Gaitley’s group.

“A lot of teams we play have at least one kid who is not a threat from three,” she said. “In this case, everyone out there had hit double-figure threes. You can’t just drop off someone and help in the lane. We had to switch on a lot of screens, which meant that our kids were sometimes playing a guard. I think the rest of the time, we will face teams that allow us to be who we are on defense.”

Rebounding: FDU won the battle of the boards by a convincing 48-25 margin, 15-5 on the offensive end. FDU’s Akeelah Lafleur grabbed a game-high nine boards. As has been happening most of the season, several players contributed to the Knights’ prowess on the glass. On this night, there were six players with five or more rebounds.

“In practices, we demand it,” Gaitley said of the emphasis on rebounding. “We shoot with the lid on the basket. No fouls, get after it. In games, play through. If you don’t box out, you come out. It’s a reminder that that is what got us here. We do a lot of rebounding drills. We go five to the boards.”

Resilience: The Red Flash made a few brief runs, none to seriously challenge, yet they kept playing.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” acting head coach Raphael McNeill said. “We want to keep fighting, keep fighting, it’s a testament to these young ladies, a very resilient group. “They play hard and that’s why it hurts me. I wanted to give them an opportunity to keep going. We just ran up against a bus tonight, Fairleigh Dickinson, my hat is off to them. Whenever we got on a run, Ava would find a way with a three or finding someone else. We were fighting, but just didn’t have enough energy to keep it going.”

End of an era: The final buzzer sounded an end to Saint Francis’ time in Division I. For decades, the small school in Loretto, Pa. had built a rich and storied tradition. Next season, the Red Flash will play at the Division III level.

“We have to start a new (era),” McNeill said. “It is the end of an era. We got our 400th (NEC) win, now we have to start with our first PAC win. It’s definitely going to be difficult, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity if it’s presented to me. Saint Francis will have the opportunity to thrive. We have to find some quality student-athletes and keep going.”

Notes. In the tempo-free recap, it was a 67-possession game with FDU owning a sizable 121-84 edge in offensive efficiency. The Knights shot 48 percent from the floor and 9-of-31 from deep. Saint Francis hit for 40 percent, but was 0-for-7 from beyond the arc.

Saint Francis had a slight 42-40 edge in points in the paint, but FDU had a resounding 14-2 lead in second-chance points. FDU also had success attacking the basket, especially in the second half.

“Once you see the team fouls (expand) from the opponent, you want to attack the basket,” Gaitley said. “We’ve given such green lights to (outside) shooters. I don’t want to take that away. We identified the matchups and started to attack aggressively.”

“It was exciting,” Downey said of her first conference tournament experience. “I was a little nervous, but I thought I did a good job.”

That she did.

Fairfield’s three-peat another step in the realization of a special vision

Fairfield celebrates third straight MAAC championship, realizing another layer of Carly Thibault-DuDonis’ vision. (Photo by Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Carly Thibault-DuDonis came to Fairfield four years ago with a vision.

The daughter of Mike Thibault, the winningest head coach in WNBA history, Carly’s name spoke for itself. But her pitch to Fairfield athletic director Paul Schlickmann was centered around not merely building something special as a means to a power conference job, but rather, truly building and sustaining a juggernaut.

“When we interviewed for this job, it was very clear from the top to the bottom,” Carly’s husband and assistant coach, Blake DuDonis, recalled. “From (Fairfield president) Dr. (Mark) Nemec to Paul Schlickmann and taking over for a championship coach in Joe Frager, it was very clear that the infrastructure was set up to be successful. And coupled with Mahoney Arena, location, academics, we thought it was a sleeping giant.”

“We’ve said pretty unabashedly: Why can’t this be Gonzaga of the East? Why not? We’ve got all the stuff, we’ve got the support. The school cares about women’s athletics, which matters, so we thought we could turn this into a program that was consistently in the NCAA Tournament, whether that’s (by) winning the league or as an at-large. So we really, honestly, kind of saw this.”

Fairfield is back in the NCAA Tournament for a third consecutive year, and fourth time in five seasons, after Monday’s MAAC championship win over Quinnipiac, once the school most Northeast mid-majors aspired to be and still among the most formidable programs in the sport. The accolades for the Stags in just four years under Thibault-DuDonis speak for themselves: Three conference tournament titles, a pair of Top 25-ranked seasons, and a record of 102-26 since replacing Joe Frager in 2022. Still just 34 years of age, her youth is prevalent in the enthusiasm with which she approaches her program, considering its maintenance a labor of love.

“I literally love waking up and coming (to)…I don’t even know if I can call it work,” she said, wearing a wide and honest smile. “I love the people that I’m surrounded by. Not just the administration, but the other coaches in our department. The energy of our student-athletes is truly unlike anywhere I’ve ever been. We’re taking steps towards our goals and we’ve found success, but the day-to-day is so much fun. I learn from everybody around me. We have so many people who are aspirational, and so, you’re motivated every day.”

Perhaps the greatest example of Thibault-DuDonis’ motivation has been the openness and nonchalance with which she has turned down multiple high-major interview opportunities, staying committed to seeing her vision at Fairfield through to the fullest. The Stags’ core of seniors Janelle Brown and Lauren Beach, and juniors Meghan Andersen and Kaety L’Amoreaux, have stayed in the program and resisted the lure of the transfer portal just the same, choosing to further burnish their legacies and pour more of themselves into an atmosphere that has truly become the embodiment of a family.

“I love it here,” Andersen declared. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, honestly, and that’s the truth. My recruitment process was very short, but one of the things (assistant) Coach (Erika Brown) said, and all the coaching staff just kind of dialed down on, was we want to go 4-for-4. And we’re 75 percent there right now.”

“I think it’s a true testament of walking the walk and talking the talk,” Blake DuDonis said. “We recruit against a lot of power conference schools and Carly has constantly turned them down, so we can honestly look people in the face and say, ‘we’ve turned them down, so why wouldn’t you? Why don’t we do this here together, why don’t we stay and build something sustainable and long-serving?’”

The commitment to the greater good is something DuDonis termed “competitive credibility” when describing his wife’s refusal to be a social climber in a sport that skews more toward big money than ever before. In that instance, Fairfield has shown that while the money may be abundant someplace else, the dreams and success can be greater and more resonant by fostering them in an environment where the intrinsic value becomes tangible.

“We didn’t just come here to take it and make it a stepping stone,” Blake reiterated. “We came here to be an elite women’s basketball program, and I feel like we took another step forward this year doing that.”

“We had a group of seven that have been here two, three, four years together, and that is so special,” Carly reflected. “There’s so many reasons why they choose to be at Fairfield and why they choose to continually come back when they would have other options in a world that is constantly putting other options in your face. They knew that they were going to have not only a great education, but they were going to have people around them that were going to pick them up on the bad days, and we could also go be one of the best teams in the country. You don’t have to sacrifice being one of the Top 25 teams in the country for what college athletics should feel like still.”

Fairfield’s five-out, motion offense, which de-emphasizes the traditional forward role in favor of a “road runner” model that highlights the perimeter attack, has also become a favorite of players and fans alike since Thibault-DuDonis has grown as a coach. With it comes an integrated player voice, not only in how things are run, but also in preparation.

“When we have our first recruiting class come in and you go 31-2, it gives you a little bit of credibility where people go, ‘hey, something cool is going on over there,’” Blake DuDonis said. “But I do think the players enjoy the freedom we give them. They have a say in scouting reports. We talked about at halftime, a certain action Quinnipiac was running, and we asked them: ‘Hey, what would you be more comfortable doing on defense? Would you either do this or this?’ And now they’ve got some attachments to the game plan.”

“We’ve been fortunate to find the right type of human beings that respond to our coaching and that we can coach up. We love these kids, we love on them hard, and we coach them hard.”

The love has revealed itself to be a two-way street of mutual appreciation, another outlier in a time where relationships between players and coaches, and even inside and outside the ropes, become increasingly transactional. Thibault-DuDonis is not about that. Her desire to be transformational, both inside the locker room and through her actions and reaffirmation to the Fairfield program, sets the boldest and most powerful example.

“It makes it more satisfying to win a championship with people you have all this trust and love and joy built up together,” she said. “We’ve been through the highs and the lows, and it does mean that much more when I’m hugging Nellie and Beach at the end, and we’ve done all four years together. It’s pretty special.”

For Merrimack and Siena, opportunity to represent MAAC on dance floor is one not taken for granted

Joe Gallo and Merrimack are 40 minutes away from conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth nearly a decade in the making. (Photo by Jaden Daly/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — One school stands a proven winner and deserving favorite, yet still largely unknown outside of its conference and region despite a decade-long track record of success across three levels.

Across the court is the presence of a longtime flag-bearer in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and mid-majors in the Northeast, one seeking to regain its luster and take the floor in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.

In some ways, Tuesday’s MAAC championship clash between Merrimack and Siena represents new money against the establishment, so to speak, but at its core, the matchup yields two teams with a shared mission to add to their winning traditions.

The runaway regular season champion this season with a 17-3 record, Merrimack is on the conference tournament title stage for a third time in four seasons, furthering a winning tradition cultivated at the Division II level. The Warriors moved up to Division I in 2019 and promptly won the NEC regular season crown, but were unable to participate in any postseason tournaments after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season in March. Ineligibility for the NCAA Tournament while in the transition period kept Merrimack from advancing in 2023, when it won the NEC tournament, and a loss to Wagner in the final the following year thwarted any hope of a coronation. Now in its second year in the MAAC, and led by freshman Player and Rookie of the Year Kevair Kennedy, Merrimack is hopeful the third time can be the charm.

“Every step of the way, I think people doubted us a little bit,” head coach Joe Gallo proposed. “Like, ‘this school’s really going Division I,’ and it worked out pretty well that first season. Then, ‘oh, they’re gonna make the jump to the MAAC that quick,’ and then we had the year we had last year and learned a little bit.”

“I think we approached February a little bit different this year. We’ve approached some things, the way we’ve operated coming down here, and being the one seed the way we were. At this point now, this is why you work since July, to be in this game.”

Nine years have passed since Siena last played for a MAAC championship. The Saints were awarded the conference crown in 2020 due to their first-place standing when the pandemic forced a shutdown of all sports, but have not cut down a net since the third of Fran McCaffery’s title-winning squads won the MAAC 16 years ago this month. A familiar face in upstate New York patrols the sidelines, as Gerry McNamara has brought Siena to the doorstep just two years after taking over for Carmen Maciariello. McNamara, much like the Saints program, has his own storied March history dating back to his time as a Syracuse player and assistant under Jim Boeheim. But the chance to burnish his own resume pales in comparison to what a return to the grand stage can do for Siena’s rich legacy.

A national champion as a player at Syracuse, Gerry McNamara looks to deliver MAAC tournament championship to Siena in second year as Saints’ head coach. (Photo by Lisa Schlager/Siena Athletics)

“I’ll say this: It’s why the kids that are in our program came to Siena,” McNamara said. “It was part of the recruiting pitch. The vision is why Justice (Shoats) and Gavin (Doty) came back, and Brendan Coyle. That’s why we went out and got the guys that we got in terms of filling the frontcourt. This was always the goal.”

“For me, being with these kids, the Siena tradition is a second thought, to be quite honest. I know there’s a great tradition here, that’s why I came here. But the relationship I have with the players I’ve coached, you just want it for them, and then we could add to what is already a storied program in terms of postseason play. But my mind and focus is I would really love this for my kids. They’re wonderful.”

SoCon Tournament Photo Gallery

Photos from the 2026 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship from March 6-9, 2026:

(All photos by Jordan Ferrell/Daly Dose Of Hoops)