When the Hofstra men’s basketball team fell to Northeastern University in the 2019 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament championship, questions regarding who would take over the team following Justin Wright-Forman’s departure loomed over the heads of the Pride.
Desure Buie answered those questions.
In his fifth season playing for Hofstra, Buie has emerged as the leader, averaging 18.5 points per game while leading the team to their second consecutive CAA regular season title. As his Hofstra career comes to a close in the coming weeks, Buie hopes to embark on a journey that no Hofstra player has experienced since 2001: a trip to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“It’s a family here. It’s been a heck of a ride and I’m not looking forward to [its] end,” Buie said. “I love my teammates, I love my coaches, I love the people behind the scenes, including my teachers and my advisor. I love everything about Hofstra.”
Early in his Hofstra career, Buie was in the shadows of other greats such as Wright-Foreman and Juan’ya Green.
As a freshman, Buie averaged 12.6 minutes per game and only three points per game while Green was wrapping up a distinguished career for the Pride, finishing 22nd in program history in points and sixth in total assists. Green led the team with 17.8 points per game that season and guided them to the CAA championship game and an appearance in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).
Despite the limited playing time, Buie took advantage of every learning opportunity he could get and valued the lessons he learned from Green his freshman year.
“Having a point guard like [Green] my freshman year playing in the conference, I learned a lot from him,” Buie said. “Just watching him when I was off the court seeing things I couldn’t see on the court – I learned a lot from that.”
Following Green’s departure, Wright-Foreman stepped in as the star and leader. With Green gone, Buie also saw an opportunity to make a name for himself. Unfortunately, Buie tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after only eight games and missed the remainder of his sophomore season.
It was a difficult time for the young guard from the Bronx, but Buie never quit. While a torn ACL is known as one of the most devastating injuries to come back from in sports, Buie stayed strong and used motivation from his daughter, Jada, to work through his rehab.
“Rehab takes a lot of mental focus, so you’ve got to be mentally tough for that because you seem down; you’re drained. But I had my ‘why’ – my daughter – and that pushed me through rehab a lot,” Buie said.
At 19, Buie became a father and his life changed forever. While balancing his schoolwork and leading his team is already hard enough, Buie also had to focus on being a dad and Jada became a driving force in his comeback and his success this season.
“That’s who I do it for: [Jada], my mom. I just want to be a great father, a great role model to my nephews and my daughter, so that’s who I do it for,” Buie said. “She’s enough reason for me to try my best and be better every single day.”
Buie returned to the court for the 2017-18 season, but he still had a lot to prove. With Wright-Foreman cemented as the new number one for the Pride, Buie was slated into a bench role for nearly half of the regular season. He started 18 games out of 30 for Hofstra and averaged 6.4 points per game.
However, Buie broke out in a big way towards the end of that season and became a valuable asset for the Pride’s offense, both on and off the court. He notched his first career 20-point game against University of Delaware in a 90-63 win over the Blue Hens. From there, Buie took off as a player and leader, crediting Wright-Foreman as a great mentor and friend.
Wright-Foreman’s advice is something that Buie carries with him each game.
“Be relentless. I’m not as gifted of a scorer as him, but he’s relentless,” Buie said. “He doesn’t stop, he doesn’t quit. His scoring ability is second to none, but I just see sometimes when he gets into his spots and stuff like that, how he scores so easily so I just try to break down some of that.”
Buie started in Hofstra’s final 15 regular season games in 2018 and reached double figures in five of the last six. While Wright-Foreman was in the midst of becoming one of the greatest scorers in Hofstra history, Buie was secretly becoming the player he always knew he could be.
In 2018-19, Hofstra experienced the greatest season in program history and Buie played a huge role. He was third on the team in scoring, averaging 10.7 points per game while starting every game. The offense clicked on all cylinders and featured a strong core of Wright-Foreman, Eli Pemberton, Jacquil Taylor, Tareq Coburn, Jalen Ray and Buie.
That core group won a record 27 games and made it all the way to the CAA championship game. A win would’ve meant an automatic spot in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, but devastatingly for the Pride, their memorable run came up just short in an 82-74 loss to Northeastern University. Following an 84-78 loss to North Carolina State University in the NIT that same year, Hofstra’s season ended and so did Wright-Foreman’s collegiate career.
With the Pride’s offense missing 27.1 points per game in their lineup in 2019-20, the Pride needed to find a new leader.
Buie knew going into the season that he had to be a key player.
“I just knew I had to step into a bigger role. I didn’t imagine it to be this way, but this is just how it came out,” Buie said. “I didn’t plan it in my head like, ‘I’m going to go out there and be the star.’ That wasn’t my approach. I just did whatever the team needed me to do and it just happened to play out this way.”
Buie’s career year propelled the Pride to a 23-8 regular season record and a first-place finish in the CAA for a second straight season. Some of his best games this season include a career-high 44 points against Elon University, 35 points versus Towson University and 29 in a historic win at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on Nov. 21, 2019.
His performance against UCLA was the spark he needed in order to put the team on his back and try to finish what they started a year ago.
“Of course, your non-conference games prepare you for conference, so playing against UCLA and having 29 points was important,” Buie said. “You watch [UCLA] on TV so playing in [Pauley Pavilion] was very special.”
“I just wanted to go out there and win, so that definitely gave me a confidence booster and the mentality that I can do that against any other team,” Buie said.
Although his future as a basketball player is unknown, Buie knows he will be in good hands wherever he ends up.
“Every kid’s dream is to play in the NBA, but realistically everybody doesn’t get there,” Buie said. “Wherever basketball takes me, whatever God’s got planned for me, I’m going to just rock with that.”
Buie was a fighter throughout his entire Hofstra career. He overcame a career-threatening injury, balanced school with his daughter and took control over the Pride when they needed him most. Whatever happens the rest of this season, the Hofstra faithful will be proud of how far Buie has come and wish him all the best in the future.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
