Last season, Hofstra men’s basketball had one of the best seasons in program history. The Pride went 27-8 overall to set the school record for wins. They were 15-1 at home, finished first place in the conference boasting a 15-3 record in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play and were the No. 1 seed in the CAA tournament before falling to Northeastern in the championship game. The Hofstra Pride had a lot of success last season and will look to carry that into this upcoming year to reclaim their spot at the top of the conference and seek an NCAA tournament berth.

This season, the Pride will be heading into battle without one of the best players in Hofstra history, Justin Wright-Foreman, who was drafted with the 53rd pick to the Utah Jazz. “We had an NBA player on the team, he was magical, he was one guy that was always going to get that big bucket. This year there are five guys who can get that big bucket,” said Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich. “This year there are five different guys, maybe six, that can lead the team in scoring any given night and it’s kind of fun to know that.”

While Wright-Foreman’s presence on and off the court will surely be missed, other Hofstra veterans are ready to step up and take over the reins of the team. 

Senior Eli Pemberton, who many viewed as playing a supporting role to Wright-Foreman, was named to the All-CAA First Team for the preseason and has high hopes for the team. 

“It’s more of a balanced team now … we got a lot of guys who are going to step up immensely, a lot of guys who averaged single-digits, I don’t think they are going to average single digits this year. It’s going to be more of a team effort and if everyone buys in its going to be a great year,” said Pemberton

Last season, Pemberton averaged 15 points a game while also amassing 4.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 0.9 blocks in the 35.4 minutes per game he played last season. 

“I know I have to take on a different role, I was always the shadow to [Wright-Foreman]. I’m going to have a bigger role,” Pemberton said. “I’m a junk-yard dog, I do more than just one thing, whatever is going to get my team to win, I’m going to go do that.”

Pemberton’s partner in crime, senior Desure Buie, will also look to be a key to the team’s success this season. Last year, Buie was third in points on the team after Wright-Foreman and Pemberton, averaging 10.7 per game while leading the team in assists with 5.2 per game and 2.3 steals per game in the 34 games he played in. He was also named the CAA Defensive Player of the Year and made both the All-CAA Third Team and CAA All-Defensive Team for his play a year ago. 

Like Pemberton, he was named to the All-CAA team for the preseason, but was placed on the second team. The goals for Buie remain the same for this season: “[To] get defensive player of the year again, for the second time and as a team win,” he said. 

Buie and the Pride know they will face challenges every night, as winning the CAA last year puts the team on the map and paints a target on their back. 

“Everybody’s good in our league, [we’ve] got to be the best defensive team every night so we can win games,” Buie said. 

Before the season began, the Pride were picked to finish first in the CAA preseason poll voted on by all 10 conference head coaches, 10 sports information directors and other respective media members. 

“There is nothing good about that, it’s fool’s gold. We are proud that people have that opinion about our program and our players, but all the people who picked us haven’t watched us practice this year. They’re doing it based off of last year,” Mihalich said. “You either have to prove people right or prove them wrong, we’ll just have to prove them right.” 

Being picked first in the CAA polls is surprising to some, who thought the program would suffer without Wright-Foreman leading the way, but with Wright-Foreman’s departure we see many new faces join the program. Hofstra will be adding sophomore Omar Silverio and freshmen Caleb Burgess, Kvonn Cramer and Jermaine Miranda to the team. Mihalich is confident that they will be major players for the program, but knows that it will be a work in progress. 

“There are some days they play like freshmen, some days they play like newcomers, but there are other days when they show how talented they are. We have to remind ourselves as coaches it’s still their first year here, but we are excited about them, they are really good players,” Mihalich said. 

Hofstra will also feature key contributors such as senior Tareq Coburn and junior Jalen Ray returning this year. 

In addition the team expects a lot from junior Isaac Kante, who will start at center for the Pride. 

Their starting lineup will see Buie at the point, Ray at the guard spot, Pemberton and Coburn playing the forwards with Kante starting down low. 

“We need to be fast, scrappy and defense. It’s going to be a lot more defense this year and guys who can sit down and really play defense,” Pemberton said. 

Without the star-powered lineup the Pride showed a season ago, Hofstra will look to an evenly-spread offense with Pemberton and Buie leading the pack for the Pride.

Image courtesy of Hofstra Athletics