By Ed Morrone
As the Pride sat in Margiotta Hall for Selection Sunday on March 12, the team waited for an announcement that never came. As the field of 65 was unveiled, Hofstra was one of the last few teams left out, and a dejected silence quickly fell on the room.
There wasn’t a doubt in anybody’s mind in that room that the Pride would be on is way to the big dance for the first time in five years. Still, it wasn’t meant to be, and one of the main reasons experts across the country gave for the decision was that Hofstra’s strength of schedule, in particular its non-conference opponents, was too weak to garner the team a spot in the field. That day still gives head coach Tom Pecora fits, and despite last season being in the past, he says he always will believe that his team belonged.
“I believe last year’s was good enough,” Pecora said. “The RPI is supposed to bring that into the equation and when our RPI is 30, I don’t think there should be any questions about strength of schedule. How do you get your RPI that high if you aren’t playing a tough schedule?”
This year, Pecora hopes to dispel any schedule questions with one that has the Pride on the road for the season’s first month. The team starts off the season with UNC-Charlotte, a team that always seems to be in the mix for a tournament berth in March. From there, the Pride will play at Manhattan, against Hawaii and possibly California in the Great Alaska Shootout. The schedule also contains games against Saint Joseph’s in the Holiday Festival, at No. 20 Syracuse and a possible late December match-up with local rival St. John’s. And let’s not forget the rigors of the conference schedule, as the CAA has quietly become one of the nation’s deepest leagues overnight.
“You have to be a mature team in going about your business and that’s what veteran teams do,” Pecora said. “We’re hoping our experience gets us some wins on the road. Then, we get our home games in January and February, we can be ahead of the curve having won some non-conference games and build on our win total from there.”
Still, many pundits maintain that the Pride didn’t do enough in terms of scheduling, something that could hurt the team if it again fails to win the conference again come March. For example, George Mason has games at No. 12 Duke and Wichita State, Drexel plays Villanova and Syracuse, Old Dominion and James Madison both play at No. 8 Georgetown and Northeastern goes against No. 4 Pitt, No. 15 Boston College and No. 18 UConn. Thus, the Pride will have to hope its heavy road schedule will be enough.Of course, Hofstra can make all of this a moot point if it simply wins the conference tournament down in Richmond during the first week of March.
“We’re trying not to worry about the at-large bids,” senior guard Loren Stokes said. “We worried about that last year and didn’t get in, so we just have to go out and win the whole thing because we know nobody’s going to give us a break at the end of the year.”
Stokes certainly brings up a good point, and if the team does what everybody expects it to do, then the Pride won’t have to sit in Margiotta Hall this March and await its fate.
