By Joe Pantorno, Sports Editor

It took a little while longer than expected, but Hofstra University’s Charles Jenkins was selected in the second round with the forty-fourth overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors.

Jenkins becomes the first Hofstra player since Speedy Claxton in 2000 when he was taken by the Philadelphia 76ers with the twentieth pick to be selected in the draft.

Hofstra Pride was loud and clear from Newark, NJ as chants of “Charles Jenkins,” could be heard throughout the Prudential Center. Those who could not make it to the draft were glued to their televisions.

Whether it was Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara and his team at Bar Social on campus or the most devoted fans from Boston to Oakland in their living rooms, there was an outpour of Jenkins support.

The Springfield, Queens native will join a Warriors team that finished twelfth in the Western Conference with a 36-46 record and though Charles will now call home on the other side of the United States, there is a New York presence within the Warriors franchise.

The man that scouted Jenkins is indeed Claxton, Hofstra’s star point guard from 1996-2000, who tweeted shortly after the Warriors forty fourth pick, “Congrat Charles don’t make me look bad now.”

Newly appointed head coach and former ESPN analyst Mark Jackson attended school at St. John’s University in Queens and was drafted by the Knicks in the first round of the 1987 draft.

Jenkins’ new teammate, David Lee spent the first five years of his career in New York as one of the few bright spots for the New York Knicks, who surprised and stunned fans yet again last night with the selection of Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert with the seventeenth pick.

The selection of Jenkins will probably mean the end of either guard Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry’s time at Golden State. For now, it’s up to Jenkins as he tries to earn a spot on this Warriors team and show the league what he is worth.