By Ed Morrone

With all of the hype that Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio and Carlos Rivera have received heading into this season, people seem to forget that five players, not three, make up a basketball lineup. With that being said, while Hofstra certainly does have one of the nation’s best backcourts, what can be said about the team’s frontcourt?

First and foremost, it’s inexperienced. When the Pride lost seniors Adrian Uter and Aurimas Kieza to graduation, not only did the team lose 20.4 points and 15.1 rebounds per game, but it also lost its best two leaders. Uter and Kieza were not always statistical juggernauts, but they did carry a comforting floor presence that made the other players around them better. Also, Kieza tallied 35.4 minutes per game (second on the team) and Uter was fifth with 27.8, so Hofstra is going to have trouble finding the horses that can stay out on the floor late in the second half of big games.

However, the Pride is confident it has at least one guy who is ready to make the leap to the starting lineup, and that guy is sophomore Chris Gadley. The 6-9 Gadley only averaged 1.5 points and 2.7 rebounds per game last year, but he often showed incredible upside. In the Pride’s NIT win over Nebraska, Gadley grabbed eight clutch rebounds when Uter was saddled with foul trouble. He also had a career-high 11 rebounds in a loss at Towson while Uter was still rehabbing from an ankle injury.

In Tuesday night’s exhibition win over the New York Institute of Technology, Gadley again gave fans a reason to believe, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking seven shots in just 14 minutes.

“Chris had a great preseason for us, and he’s going to be a catalyst,” head coach Tom Pecora said. “I wish I would’ve gotten him more minutes last year, but he’s going to get a lot early in the year. We may take a couple on the chin because of that, but he’ll make us a better team in the long run.”

In the short time Gadley did play on Tuesday, he like a completely different player than last year when he often had trouble catching his wind while running up and down the floor. He appears to have slimmed down and added more muscle to his 260-pound frame and has also looked very strong on the defensive end. Gadley still needs a lot of work in terms of his low post scoring and cleaning up on the offensive glass, but for a young man who may just be the key to the Pride’s season, all of that will come with time and experience.

Gadley was tripped up and banged his head on the floor on Tuesday night and was thus unavailable for comment after the game, but his impressed teammates did the talking for him.

“He’s going to be a force down low and change a lot of shots,” Agudio said. “We need him to do the dirty work down low.”

“Chris is key because he’s a big guy that clogs up the middle,” Stokes added. “This is going to be his breakout year.”

While the other spot in the frontcourt is still up for grabs (Zygis Sestokas, Mike Davis-Sabb, Arminas Urbutis and Greg Washington are all candidates), the unproven Gadley is certainly making strides in the right direction.