The 2010-11 Hofstra Men’s Basketball Season in Retrospect – Part II

After Hofstra's exciting 92-90 overtime comeback win over James Madison, the Pride stood at 8-1 in the CAA and 14-6 overall.   It was their best conference start since the 2006-07 team started out 9-1 in conference.  A lot of Hofstra fans were excited and one of them was me.  I ended up writing an article about the Hofstra-Madison game I attended for the Mid Majority's 800 Game Practice Run.  

@The_CAAFootball 2011 Online Preview Magazine

The @The_CAAFootball 2011 Preview is now available online. This season’s publication is full of rich media links for all fans to use during the summer months leading up to the start of the 2011 CAA Football season. Clicking on the links below will open printer-friendly documents (PDF files), which include embedded resources.  Open any of the 21 printer-friendly documents on this page and then run your mouse over the page headers to find interactive links.  By clicking on any page header you will open Microsoft Word (.docx) documents or Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) documents (statistical pages) which include all of the raw text on the corresponding page/section. The same goes for photos and logos in the publication.  By clicking on any image in the printer-friendly document you will open high-resolution (.jpg) files which can be downloaded for use in any form of media. If you run your mouse over and click on select headers on the All-CAA Football page (51), 2010 All-American page (52) and the Year-By-Year Standings page (65) corresponding web pages and YouTube videos will begin to play. Lastly, all web addresses and email addresses within the document itself will open the corresponding web pages as well as trigger email composition windows. — 2011 CAA Football Preview — Front Cover — 2011 Composite Schedule — Page 1 — 2011 CAA Football Media Services/Table of Contents — Page 2 — 2011 CAA Football Communications Directory — Page 3 — CAA Football — Pages 4-5 — Delaware Blue Hens — Pages 6-9 — James Madison Dukes — Pages 10-13 — Maine Black Bears — Pages 14-17 — Massachusetts Minutemen — Pages 18-21 — New Hampshire Wildcats — Pages 22-25 — Old Dominion Monarchs — Pages 26-29 — Rhode Island Rams — Pages 30-33 — Richmond Spiders — Pages 34-37 — Towson Tigers — Pages 38-41 — Villanova Wildcats — Pages 42-45 — William and Mary Tribe — Pages 46-49 — 2010 CAA Football Season In Review — Pages 50-57 — 2010 CAA Football Statistics — Pages 58-64   — CAA Football Year-By-Year Standings — Pages 65-68 — CAA Football All-Time Records — Pages 69-75   — 2011 CAA Football Preview — Cover-to-Cover

So Who Is Brian Mull Anyways?

“Happiness is not in another place, but in this place…not for another hour…but this hour.” Walt Whitman. Now that Luke Hancock has found a home , our 2011 vessel of drama appears to be pulling into port. Pat Skerry has a staff; so does Larry Hunter. VCU locked up Shaka Smart. Paul Hewitt is amassing his staff, and his corps will not include Hancock. Unless somebody uncovers a late recruiting gem–nearly impossible because guys like Dave Telep are very good at their job–the meaningful players on each CAA team’s roster are set, and likely headed to attend summer school. Finally, mercifully, we feel as if we can talk about next year. It was a concept we were loath to address since so much was up in the air, and Days of Our Lives wasn’t yet out of commercial break. We still owe you a little from last year and that will come. VCUs Final Four run was inspiring, meaningful, and profitable, but it means even more when put next to Mason’s Final Four run, VCUs win over Duke, ODUs win over Notre Dame, and Last Year Generally Speaking. Plus, the conference summer meetings are in two weeks. Those are bound to take on special meeting, given what’s written in this paragraph. But we finally get to do our favorite thing around these parts–talk about basketball and the upcoming CAA season. I’ll say this for Mason: those who think they will move forward without missing a beat are ostriches. Luke Hancock was the kind of player that makes everyone around him better, and a glue guy from a coaching standpoint. Jim Larranaga could ask Hancock to move the basketball, score, or do the little things Mason needed to win. It’s why he could score 18 against Villanova in the NCAA tournament, or score four points, grab eight rebounds, and have seven assists. Hancock could be that guy, but he could also be the guy that allowed someone else to be that guy. That kind of glue is very important in a transition situation, because those kinds of players keep everyone “together,” in a sense, until they all figure it out. Talent is talent and of utmost importance, but you need buy-in. Hancock is the kind of player that helps teammates buy in. Paul Hewitt is ushering in change, different, for the first time since before Y2K. There will be adjustments. This isn’t to say good or bad. Just different and it will take some time. And here resides our jumping off point. Ed Nixon was that guy for VCU. Ben Finney for ODU. (Interestingly, with Hancock, all three are gone this year.) One of the reasons JMU continues to to intrigue me is because Devon Moore is that guy, and he’s the primary ballhandler. What’s more, one of the reasons William & Mary is providing CAAHoops a summer’s worth of head-scratching is because Quinn McDowell is both a glue guy and one of the best players in the conference. So here’s where we are as we head into Memorial Day week: the one thing that was unquestioned between the time VCU lost to Butler and this weekend–Mason is preseason the #1 CAA team–must be questioned. What else? Drexel: returns everyone but Gerald Colds. Samme Givens is the best player in the league nobody talks about, and Frantz Massenat and Dartaye Ruffin played major minutes. VCU: Lost four major seniors, but returns Brad Burgess and its own freshmen class who played minutes…you can never count them out. ODU: Shockingly thin in the frontcourt for ODU, but don’t we always wonder about ODU eight months before they rip off 14 CAA wins? JMU: so stinking much talent but in desperate need of kum-ba-yah. Delaware: Hagins and Saddler are the real deals. Last year was a step forward, and this year? NU: 0-8 and then 6-4…sophomore class with experience in being the guys that hae to make plays. Towson: you would think the cupboard is empty. You would be wrong. It may be deviled ham, but Skerry has something in the cupboard. Hofstra: post-Jenkins, who really knows, but 14-4 was more than Jenkins. The Pugs: I’m telling you now, Quinn McDowell can make a freshmen and sophomores look awfully upperclass. UNCW: Buzz has a bumper crop. Might be a couple years away, but did you expect seven wins last year? Georgia State: Ron Hunter will bring energy and cohesiveness, and that’s what they’ve lacked.

2011 CAA Football Roundup – 5.22

It has been an unusually long time since we posted here on the blog.  A lot has been going on in the conference office preparing for the upcoming 2011 season and we have been hunkered down in those preparations.  The biggest bit of information fans should be looking for later this week is the 2011 CAA Football Preview publication.  Over the last couple weeks we have been preparing the document which will be posted at CAASports.com as well as here on the blog (we’ll have a link available to the publication both on Facebook and Twitter as well).  This year's publication will not be printed, but rather be available in rich PDF form.  The file (available over several hyperlinks) will include links to usable photos, raw text from the publication and video productions from CAA Football.  Fans will be encouraged to browse the PDF files and click on the links to download images and watch the videos.  We are getting you ready for the 2011 season! Last week CAA Football officials travelled to Bethesda, Md., to work on the 2011 CAA Football television schedule with our television partners at Comcast.  We feel we came out of our day-long meeting with a very good tentative lineup.  We plan to present our tentative lineup to our coaches and athletics directors at the CAA Football Annual Meeting on the first weekend of June.  Once all of the scheduling requirements (gametimes, regional clearances, etc.) has been hammered our we will be ready to release it publicly.  Look for those times to begin making their way out to the public in mid-June. Our schools, even though spring football has wrapped up on campus, continue to stay busy with news.  Delaware student-athletes, including former Blue Hen Siddiq Haynes, took part in a Field Day with local Newark Elementary schools last week.  Former Blue Hen Pat Devlin was honored at the Delaware Athletics Award Banquet.  The quarterback was named the Outstanding Male Athlete of the Year during the 2010-11 school year. Progress on the upgrades at JMU's Bridgeforth Stadium continue.  Click here to visit the webpage which includes photo galleries of the progress dating back to November.  Below are two of the most recent photo galleries dated May 20. As many as 85 Maine student-athletes took part in Commencement activities during the first week of May.  Click here to see a photo gallery of several of the Black Bear student-athletes including a handful of the football student-athletes. Massachusetts head coach Kevin Morris filled a spot on his staff for the upcoming 2011 season when he announced the hiring of Joe Tricario as the Minutemen’s new Special Team Coordinator .  Morris also released three dates of his football camps for this summer.  Click here for details and a registration form.  The Minutemen posted a video last week they found from Patriots' All-Access detailing the NFL franchises road to the NFL Draft scouting the New England region which included student-athletes from UMass.  Take a look at that below. New Hampshire head coach Sean McDonnell and his squad earned NCAA public recognition last week for their work in the classroom.  The Wildcats were recognized for having an Academic Performance Rating among the Top 10 percent of all FCS programs .  McDonnell also set the dates for the New Hampshire football camps to be held later this summer.  Click here for extensive details on registration and more.  Lastly the Wildcats released a video highlighting some of the Top Plays from the 2010-2011 year.  Watch that production below. The voice of Old Dominion Athletics, Ted Alexander, received a new title and position within the Monarchs Athletic Department earlier this month.  Alexander was named the Director of Broadcasting for ODU Sport Properties beginning on July 1 .  Congrats to Ted!  The Monarchs' senior quarterback Thomas DeMarco continues to garner preseason recognition.  The Palm Desert, Calif., native was named to the Quarterback Watch List by College Football Performance Awards . Gorhody.com caught up the Rams’ new quarterback coach Liam Coen , who also happens to be a former All-CAA Football quarterback at UMass during his playing days.  Rhode Island's Fifth Quarter Club also set the date for its Annual Golf Tournament on June 10.  Click here for more details.  The Rams were one of several CAA Football squads to hold a Bone Marrow donor registration drive and we found this video recapping the event and how the Rams are recruiting potentials donors to possibly save lives. Towson continues to pump out all sorts of news from its football program.  In conjunction with its spring game and Tiger Bowl the Tigers welcomed back numerous football alums to its campus for a friendly football game.  Click here for a recap and take a look at the photo gallery from the event below. The annual Joe Vitt Crab Feast and Golf Outing to benefit the Tiger Football program will be held June 25 .  Registration for the event is available.  Towson's influence in the community continued earlier this month when members of the football program took part in Dumpster Days at Rodgers Forge .  Watch the video recap of the event below as well.  With the NFL Lockout still ongoing Baltimore Ravens' receiver Derrick Mason has been working with Towson head coach Rob Ambrose to hold closed workout sessions at Unitas Stadium later this week …tremendous publicity for the Tiger program. Villanova bolstered its staff with a new defensive line coach this past week.  Wildcat head coach announced the hiring of former Maryland Terrapin coach Dave Sollazzo . William and Mary head coach Jimmye Laycock will be honored by the Colonial Virginia Council of Boy Scouts with its Good Scout Award .  Former Tribe defensive lineman Mike Stover picked up an All-America honor from the National Strength and Conditioning Association .

Hancock transferring from GMU to Louisville

Luke Hancock has decided to transfer from George Mason to Louisville, a source told CBSSports.com on Saturday. Hancock averaged 10.9 points and 4.3 assists for the Patriots last season and hit the game-winning shot in George Mason’s victory over Villanova in the NCAA tournament. He’ll sit out next season per NCAA transfer rules and then have two years of eligibility remaining starting in 2012-13. Hancock also considered Michigan, Marquette, Virginia Tech and multiple other schools.

Tomko signs with agent; hopes to land in Europe

Tomko signs with agency out of his hometown Charlotte

Six, Eight Nuggets…

Quick in one place: What? Are those blue skies above me? Can’t be. The offseason rolls on… Mason signed 6-8 Eric Copes, a highly-touted freshman. (Newcomers: we eschew rankings and stars as part of a general disdain for recruiting.) Copes was going to attend GW, but came to Mason along with his uncle, Ronald Houston. Uncle Ronnie was hired by Paul Hewitt as an assistant after Houston was let go at GW. VCU nabbed first Jared Guest, a smooth 6-8 defensive specialist, for this year. Then Shaka Smart received a  verbal commitment from 6-8 Justin Tuoyo for 2012. Tuoyo is similarly ballyhooed as Copes. Pat Skerry is not gathering (Benny) Moss. Skerry signed 6-8 Jervon Pressley, who is expected to make an immediate impact in the Tigers front court. If the name is familiar, it’s because Pressley had verballed to Georgia State and Rod Barnes two years ago. Skerry also added sharpshooting guard Mike Burwell (not 6-8), a transfer from South Florida. Burwell will sit out the upcoming season and have two years remaining. YouDee reached into its St. Joseph’s cupboard and pulled out a player and a coach. Monte Ross added 6-8 bruiser Carl Baptiste as a transfer–eligible after sitting this year, and assistant coach Phil Martelli Jr. The prodigal son replaces RC Kehoe. Friend of CAAHoops Alex Faust from Nor’easter recently won the 2011 Jim Nantz Award as the nation’s most outstanding collegiate sportscaster. Good kid, that Faust; we’re convinced he didn’t make a Faustian deal. Georgia State also continues to gain momentum as Ron Hunter picked up Virginia Tech castoff Manny Atkins. It’s a coming home party for Atkins, who is a shockingly short 6-7. Seriously, Atkins will be available to play in 2012-13. (Side note: is it me, or are players and coaches burning up I-81 as quickly as possible to get out of Blacksburg?) Hunter also can look across the dinner table and chat up his son, 6-5 RJ Hunter. The son is another one of those kids who is projected to be a difference-making shooter. Finally, the CAA Summer meetings are upon us (June 6-7). We’re efforting to obtain the agenda, and taking donations to fund travel. I kid about the travel part but will see what useful detail we can uncover. (Note: they are generally less exciting than you think.)

UR will introduce WebstUR as new mascot

The University of Richmond will introduce WebstUR, a headband-wearing, muscle-bound spider, as its new mascot

ODU women’s basketball coach Wendy Larry resigns

Link: ODU women’s basketball coach Wendy Larry resigns

The 2010-11 Hofstra Men’s Basketball Season in Retrospect – Part I

It was two months ago Sunday since Hofstra played in its final game of the 2010-11 season, a first round loss to Evansville in the CBI.  But the first season under Mo Cassara had a lot more triumphs than defeats.  And considering how the 2010-11 season started, it was truly an amazing ride. The 2010-11 season really started in April of last year when Tom Pecora left the comforts of Hempstead

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