Speedy Claxton links past history with burgeoning future as Hofstra’s new head coach

Pictured here with fellow Hofstra legend Justin Wright-Foreman, Speedy Claxton (left) now adds to legacy at his alma mater as Pride’s new head coach. (Photo by the New York Post)

The latest trend in college coaching hires is for a program to reach into its past, bringing back a legendary former player to try his hand at guiding his alma mater as the head coach. It has already taken place twice in as many weeks, with former Knicks boss Mike Woodson diving into the collegiate pool for the first time, and just two days ago at North Carolina, where Hubert Davis officially moved over one chair on the bench after assisting the legendary Roy Williams.

This practice has had mixed results, as for every Juwan Howard or Fred Hoiberg, there is also an Eddie Jordan or Clyde Drexler. But for Hofstra University, now trusting the reins to the native son who put the program on the map, Craig Claxton — better known as Speedy — is much closer to the former than he may ever come to the latter.

For starters, Claxton possesses experience at the highest of levels, with eight years in the NBA and a championship alongside the likes of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker to jump off the page on the recruiting trails. In a world where young players are always looking for the quickest path to the professional ranks, a coach who has been down the same road instantly resonates.

Next, Speedy’s eight-year stint as an assistant coach on a staff that guided Hofstra out of one of its darkest hours as an institution and into a champion makes him ready to seize the moment. You can argue that fellow assistant coach Mike Farrelly, the interim coach this past season after Joe Mihalich suddenly retired due to undisclosed health issues, was the logical successor on Long Island after recruiting the core of so many of the Pride’s postseason teams since 2013 — and there is certainly a valid gripe there after the admirable job he did in guiding Hofstra through a campaign where it was snakebitten by COVID-19 at the most inopportune of times in the waning stages of the regular season — but Claxton’s work in developing lead guards the likes of Justin Wright-Foreman and Desure Buie, two huge reasons why Hofstra won 53 games in the two seasons before this one to pair with consecutive regular season conference championships and the 2020 Colonial Athletic Association postseason tournament crown whose luster was dimmed in the wake of March Madness being shut down, were what won the former point guard over with athletic director Rick Cole and an eager alumni base intent on continuing the status quo.

Finally, in a similar vein to how Davis highlighted the link to history at North Carolina, Claxton is a similar puzzle piece at Hofstra, the common thread binding the halcyon days under Jay Wright and upward mobility when Tom Pecora shepherded the Pride into the CAA to the past eight years where Mihalich steered the ship back into tranquil and prosperous waters. At the mid-major level especially, continuity is always important, and when established tradition beckons to be reawakened, sometimes the call is impossible to ignore even if you have two capable architects on the same bench.

He played there, he served there. Now, Craig Claxton gets to lead at Hofstra, hoping to deliver results in a fashion befitting of the moniker he earned on the hardwood a quarter-century ago.