CAA

Hofstra Enters 2019-20 As The CAA Favorite, Just Don't Ask Joe Mihalich

Hofstra Enters 2019-20 As The CAA Favorite, Just Don't Ask Joe Mihalich

Hofstra was picked first in the CAA preseason poll earlier this month despite collecting fewer first-place votes (14) than Charleston.

Oct 29, 2019 by Jerry Beach
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More than 30 Division I schools will be the preseason pick to win their conference this season. And the coaches of all those teams will find a way to explain why the electorate was too generous with its results.

Most of these lamentations are simply a way to minimize external expectations while keeping players from getting too enamored with their press clippings. Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich, though, has more evidence supporting his case that his team might have been over-ranked.

The Pride was picked first in the CAA preseason poll earlier this month despite collecting fewer first-place votes (14) than Charleston, which received 18 first-place votes but placed second in the balloting.

“And if I were trying to be honest and pick the teams, I would pick Charleston first,” Mihalich said during Hofstra’s media day last Wednesday. “And then I think we’re one of five teams that could get picked second.”

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Mihalich also noted the Pride might have been picked first based on recency bias. Hofstra went 15-3 and was the wire-to-wire regular season leader in the CAA before falling to Northeastern in the conference championship game.

“As I reminded our guys yesterday: We got picked first because of what we did last year,” Mihalich said. “We got picked first because of who we were last year. Well, it’s not last year anymore.”

The most resounding evidence of 2018-19 being in the rear view mirror was on NBA League Pass less than 12 hours later, when Justin Wright-Foreman trotted on to the court with his Utah Jazz teammates prior to the season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Wright-Foreman won CAA Player of the Year honors in his final two seasons at Hofstra and finished second in the country in scoring last season before the Jazz selected him (and College of Charleston forward Jarrell Brantley) in the second round of the draft.

Of course, it says plenty for a team’s chances when it loses an NBA-bound two-time Player of the year and still gets picked first in the preseason poll. Nor were the league’s coaches and media members the only ones to peg Hofstra as the favorite. The Pride were also atop the CAA in Ken Pomeroy’s tempo-free preseason rankings, which were released Oct. 20.

While Wright-Foreman and center Jacquil Taylor, the most accomplished big man to play under Mihalich at Hofstra, are gone, Mihalich’s high-octane system always unearths scorers. Wright-Foreman scored just 44 points as a freshman in 2015-16, when he was the understudy to another CAA Player of the Year, Juan’ya Green.

Mihalich believes the extra scoring will come from a trio of holdover starters — seniors Desure Buie and Eli Pemberton and junior Tareq Coburn — as well as junior Jalen Ray, who will see more time after establishing himself as a sharp-shooting reserve the previous two seasons. The Pride is also excited about redshirt sophomore Isaac Kante, who transferred from Georgia prior to last season and is expected to take over for Taylor in the post.

“When you lose Justin, with the role that he had, everybody’s role becomes different,” Mihalich said. “So Desure is not just a point guard, he’s going to score more. And Elijah will score more, hopefully, this year. Jalen Ray will now have to score more. We’ll probably throw it inside more than before because Isaac Kante can score inside. Tareq Coburn could lead us in scoring.”

Being picked first is also validation of what Mihalich has built in six seasons at Hofstra, which had just four scholarship players on the roster when he arrived in the spring of 2013. The Pride has won 63 regular season CAA games under Mihalich, the third-most in the league, six ahead of Charleston and and just one victory behind Northeastern and William & Mary.

All four perennial contenders lost major pieces. Brantley graduated and joined Wright-Foreman out west. Northeastern’s most valuable player, Vasa Pusica, graduated while juniors Donnell Gresham Jr. and Shawn Occeus transferred and turned pro, respectively. William & Mary returns star big man Nathan Knight but was otherwise decimated by transfers following the firing of longtime head coach Tony Shaver.

So into the void, at least in the weeks before the season opener, steps the Pride — even if Mihalich is uncomfortable with Hofstra’s frontrunner status.

“I think it speaks to people respecting your program,” Mihalich said. “And we want to be proud of what we’re doing, so it makes us proud. It makes us really proud to be picked first. I don’t agree with it, but it makes us proud to be picked first. It shows that people know we’re a good program.

“At the same (time), we talk about things that happened in the past. And we need to talk about things that could happen this year.”

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