Long Island residents and non-residents alike can agree on at least one thing: Long Island is a weird place.

If you don’t live on the Island, all you probably know about it is it’s a tail-like extension of New York, a member of the state in name only. Great Neck, which is on the Nassau-Queens border, is 159 miles from Albany, the state capital. The capitals of five of six New England states are all basically that close to Albany or, in the case of Hartford, much closer.

Long Island isn’t Manhattan, it’s not one of the three other boroughs — sorry, Staten Island exists for Long Islanders to have someone to mock — that serve as an acceptable substitute for city living. It’s not whatever your definition of upstate is.

It’s just out there, where people drive fast and talk faster, the latter with a funny accent. And of course, if you are of a certain age, you remember the many, many field days the tabloid media had with the Amy Fisher-Joey Buttafuoco debacle. 

If you live on the Island, you understand why we have an inferiority complex. Our housing market is awful — What’s remodeling on Long Island? Slapping up some siding! — and too many residents spend too much time commuting back and forth to the city. While we might be hours away from the state capital and forgotten, ignored and/or mocked by everyone else, Long Island’s population of nearly eight million would make it the 13th-largest state.

The island’s two counties have very distinct histories and identities that are overlooked. While Nassau County, the site of America’s first post-World War II suburbs, has turned into a hustling and bustling extension of the five boroughs, Suffolk County still has miles upon miles of farmland and otherwise relaxed bucolic country living.

And outside of the suddenly relevant Islanders, our sports and entertainment culture is whatever is going on in the city (or, if you like really bad pro football, New Jersey). Even Billy Joel, a proud Long Islander, has to go into the city to perform his residency at Madison Square Garden.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. 

Long Island sports fans don’t have to just count the Islanders as their own. They don’t have to live vicariously through the salad days of the old Big East via St. John’s and Syracuse. There are two Division I schools on Long Island, located fewer than 40 miles apart and possessing their own distinct histories — as well as an establishment-new kid on the block dynamic — that stokes a rivalry.

And far more often than not, the Hofstra and Stony Brook men’s basketball teams play entertaining games against one another. The schools, which didn’t oppose each other between the 2009-10 and 2013-14 seasons due to a cold war between the administrations, played for a sixth straight season Tuesday, when the Pride retained bragging rights with a 71-63 win.

Hofstra, which has been a Division I school since the 1960s, is now 5-1 since play resumed against Stony Brook, which was a Division III school until 1995 and transitioned to Division I during the 1999-2000 season. The Pride/Flying Dutchmen are 23-5 all-time against the Seawolves/Patriots.

“The reality is it’s not been a very competitive series, if you go through the history,” Stony Brook head coach Geno Ford said. “We’ve got to find a way to beat them. We’ve played them close the last few years and had chances in the waning moments and not come out on top, which is frustrating.”

The Pride’s win Tuesday marked the fifth time since the rivalry resumed that the final margin of victory has been fewer than 10 points. There were six lead changes and two ties in the second half after Hofstra carried a 36-34 lead into the locker room, marking the fifth time in six years the teams were separated by six points or fewer at intermission. 

“It was a great, great game,” Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich said. “Two teams just went tooth-and-nail and toe-to-toe and every other cliche thing you want to talk about.

“We never caved, they never caved. It was a heckuva game. Just fun to be a part of it.”

Presumably, most of the 3,111 people who attended the game at Hofstra felt the same way, regardless of their rooting interests. The crowd was the largest for a Hofstra-Stony Brook game in Hempstead, but the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex was still only three-quarters full.

It’s not just a Nassau County thing, either. The three games between the schools at Stony Brook’s Island Federal Arena — in 2015, 2017 and 2018 — drew 3,334 fans, 2,735 fans and 2,539 fans, respectively. Only the 2017 game featured a crowd larger than Stony Brook’s season average, and that was by a whopping 13 fans.

“I don’t know that we see a spike — you hope you do, you want it to turn into something where everybody on Long Island gets excited about college hoops in December, because it’s easy in March, when it’s conference championship time,” Ford said.

There are built-in excuses. It was a Tuesday night, a work and school night for everyone. This marked the fourth straight season the game fell on a weeknight. The weather was miserable and got worse as the game went on. 

But pardon Hofstra and Stony Brook if they think the excuses sound tired and rehearsed. The schools are located in an area filled with people tired of the Island being overshadowed by the big city, yet also too willing to ignore the affordable, entertaining and high-quality Division I basketball right in their backyards.

The Seawolves, who have made one NCAA Tournament appearance and reached the America East title game five times this decade, were picked to finish third in the league this season. The Pride, which has made it to the CAA title game twice this decade, was picked to finish first in the conference this year.

Single-game tickets at Hofstra start at $9. Out at Stony Brook, single-game tickets begin at $12. Parking is free and plentiful. Sure, 3,111 fans are nice, but where were the other 1,112 that would have created a sellout?

“Just being honest, I wish some more people would come and enjoy it,” Mihalich said. “It was a good crowd, but it’s a great chance to come to a great place.

“And it’s a Tuesday night. Nothing else going on. It’s Tuesday night. There’s nothing to do. There’s no soccer games, there’s no dinners to go to. Come on out and watch a good basketball game. We had a good crowd and we have some great, loyal fans. But it’d be nice to have even some more people come and make it feel like the crosstown rivalry game.”