In 2005, a 4-year-old boy named Aaron was putting up shots at a park in Woodbury, New Jersey with his grandfather before heading to school for the day. 17 years later, his love for the game remains intact, and Aaron Estrada has emerged as a bonafide star for the Hofstra men’s basketball team in just his first year with the Pride. 

Estrada traces his passion for basketball back to both his father and grandfather, having grown up watching his father play and routinely taking trips to the park with his grandfather. By the time he reached high school, his years of work were already paying off, as he made the basketball team at Woodbury Junior-Senior High School and was breaking school records and leading his team to capture their conference’s championship by his junior year.

When it came time to decide where he wanted to play collegiately, he opted to stay relatively close to home, enrolling at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City. His rookie campaign with the Peacocks saw him make an immediate impact, playing in 28 games and making the starting lineup in half of those. His strong play in limited minutes garnered him the attention of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and he brought home the MAAC Rookie of the Year trophy in 2020.

He didn’t stay in his home state for long, though, as he transferred to the University of Oregon for his sophomore campaign. He was heavily recruited by Dana Altman’s coaching staff, but the transfer was largely inspired by Estrada’s aspirations of playing basketball on a bigger stage.

“What I didn’t know is, I always thought that to get your name out there you had to be playing for the higher [level] schools,” Estrada said. “I got caught up into that, really, so that was one of the big reasons why I left St. Peter’s because I got caught up in my head … People were telling me, ‘You’re better than this school, you need to be playing [at a] high-major [school] if you want to go to the NBA,’ so I was listening to that and taking it in.”

The success he found at Saint Peter’s wasn’t so easily replicated in Eugene, Oregon, as Estrada received minimal playing time with the higher-profile Ducks. Tallying just 28 points across his nine appearances for Oregon, and with the coach most involved in his recruitment to the school now departed from the program, Estrada decided it was time for yet another change heading into his junior year.

His decision to return to the tri-state area was made largely in order to bring him closer to home, but it was his conversations with Hofstra men’s basketball head coach Speedy Claxton that made Hofstra his destination of choice.

“From the first time that I got in contact with [Claxton], I knew this is where I wanted to come because they were different from other schools that were recruiting me,” Estrada said. “I had a Zoom call with the coaching staff, and they charted out – nobody had ever done this to me before – they charted out my strengths, my weaknesses, my [statistics] and all that, and then they charted how they were gonna help me to get where I wanted to go with basketball … Once they did that, I knew that these guys, the whole coaching staff was invested in me.”

He was convinced. So much so, in fact, that he committed to Hofstra right after the call ended.

In his first game with the Pride, Estrada made it clear that he was here to shoot. He took 17 shots in the season-opener against the University of Houston, finishing with 15 points and seven rebounds in the overtime loss. He quickly found his stride offensively, and he became a consistent contributor in the closing months of 2021. Just before the new year came around, however, Estrada seemed to find another gear, and it’s been pedal to the metal ever since.

“When Zach [Cooks] went down [with an injury], everybody had to really push to give that much more effort because he was the soul of our team,” Estrada said. “Once he went down, somebody had to step up, and Coach Speedy always gave me the confidence. He always told me, ‘Be aggressive. Don’t be afraid to be aggressive [and] play your game,’ and I feel like when your coaching staff is behind you and they support you a lot, that gives you confidence. When you get confidence, you just play and good things happen, and that’s what’s been happening for me, really.”

Good things happening has become the norm for when Estrada steps on the floor. Since Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play began with the Pride’s Dec. 29, 2021 matchup at the College of William & Mary, Estrada has scored at least 16 points in every contest, a streak of 13 games currently. 11 of those 13 games saw him reach the 20-point mark, and, perhaps most importantly, the team is 9-4 in that stretch, good for the third-best conference record in the CAA.

Having earned the nickname “Mr. Mid-Range” for his sufficiency in the nearly lost art of mid-range jumpers, Estrada is a threat to score from anywhere on the court. Despite struggling with his three-point shot early in the season, he’s found his stroke over the past month: after going 0-3 and 0-4 from beyond the arc in games against the University of Delaware and Drexel University respectively, he’s shot nearly 53% from three since Jan. 22, making 28-of-53 shots in that span. During the Pride’s current four-game win streak, he’s shot 55% or better from deep in each match.

He attributed his regained confidence in his three-point shot to the support he received from Claxton and his entire coaching staff. The danger he’s been posing to defenses from behind the three-point line has given CAA teams headaches when scheming against him.

While three schools in three years might sound like a recipe for disaster for some, Estrada has found his college experience as a whole to have uniquely equipped him for the level of play he’s reached as of late.

“I think I got the experience of every level of college,” Estrada said. “I got the low-major, mid-major and high-major [experiences]. I would say it’s a blessing and a curse, because you don’t want to be transferring [constantly], not being loyal to schools, but I feel like I gained something from each level.”

With the regular season winding to a close and the Pride in position to challenge for the CAA Championship in March, Estrada knows what’s needed of him in order to bring Hofstra back to the dance.  

“We’ve got to stay focused and locked in,” Estrada said. “Stick with what we’ve been doing to win. If everybody buys in, everybody plays their role and does their part, then I don’t think anyone in the CAA can really beat us, honestly. I think we have the best team all-around, from the top of the roster to the bottom.”

Photo courtesy of Adam Flash/The Hofstra Chronicle