HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Apparently, the New York Giants aren’t the only ones to be motivated by their own late-season resurgence.
Yes, even for a struggling Hofstra Pride men’s basketball team, the Giants’ push from a 7-7 record to within a victory of the Super Bowl has become a source of inspiration.
Hofstra (6-13) leads the Colonial Athletic Association in moral victories, but nearly halfway through its 18-game regular season conference schedule, the Pride (0-7 in the CAA) is still seeking its first actual conference win, despite having come so close to a victory in several of its losses this season.
Head coach Mo Cassara’s team has lived through its own adaptation of the well-known 1993 film “Groundhog Day.”
Over and over, the same hard-fought effort, yet the same disappointing, gut-wrenching result in the end.
Following Hofstra’s latest of several tough, last-minute defeats this season, a 56-50 loss to CAA preseason favorite Drexel (13-5, 5-2 CAA), at the Mack Sports Complex on Wednesday night, Cassara drew on the Giants’ rise from their own earlier season struggles, as Big Blue prepares for Sunday’s NFC title game in San Francisco.
Addressing his team after the game, Cassara pointed to the Giants’ recent portion of their 2011 season for encouragement.
“I used a little from the New York Giants-[Green Bay] Packers analogy,” Cassara said. “The Packers were the best team in the league all year, and the Giants were in disarray. They weren’t winning, they were going to fire the coach, the team wasn’t going to make the playoffs, and they won one game at a key time. And, then all of a sudden, they’re playing well. And, we’re just waiting for that one win. It’s going to come. I told our team it might come in February, it might come the last week in February. [But], if we can string a couple together, and then win a [few] games in that CAA tournament, that’s what we’re going to remember.”
As with the Giants’ past four games (and the next one or two), the CAA tournament in early March is all that matters for Hofstra, regardless of how many games they might win before then.
Getting as hot then (to reach the Pride’s first NCAA tournament in eleven years) as the Giants have been over the past four weeks is unlikely, with Hofstra trying to accomplish that in a mid-major league which has sent two teams to the Final Four in the past six years.
But, stranger things have happened in sports, and the Pride does have the CAA’s leading scorer in Fordham transfer senior guard Mike Moore (20.1 points per game), who fouled out against Drexel on a questionable offensive foul call prior to making a layup in the final seconds, with Hofstra trailing 52-50.
Taking a cue from Cassara while sounding like Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin, when the Giants’ coach was steering his own team through adversity, Moore imparted some words of reassurance to his teammates.
“We’ve been in every game… I told the guys, I played on a losing team at Fordham,” said Moore, who was part of a 15-42 stretch (including a 3-25 season as a sophomore) over two years at Fordham, before joining Hofstra last year.
“I know what a losing team is, and I don’t think we’re a losing team. I just think the [bounce of the] ball’s not going our way [or] a call’s not going our way, but I think we work hard and we deserve to win… I just told the guys to stay positive. I believe in them, the coaches believe in them, we just have to stay positive.”
Agreeing with Moore’s assessment, Cassara said, “I don’t see a losing team in that locker room. I see a team that continues to come out and fight, battle, and practice hard every day. We just haven’t been able to execute enough plays down the stretch.”
Aside from a 17-point home loss to last year’s Final Four participant Virginia Commonwealth, the rest of the Pride’s six conference losses have come by and average of just 4.2 points, including four heartbreaking defeats in the final seconds. Those setbacks are in addition to a few other close non-conference losses.
Similar to the way Coughlin continued to believe in the Giants, Cassara found some value from another difficult loss on Wednesday night.
“I’m proud of our effort,” he said. “I think our effort continues to be great. We’re in every game. That’s the preseason number one team in the league in a very, very good league. They’re a team that’s now won 11 of their last 12 games. I thought we went toe-to-toe with them.”
Trying to focus on bigger picture through tough times, the way Coughlin did with his team, Cassara sees potential down the road for Hofstra, and he believes the best is yet to come for the Pride when it might matter the most.
“I love these guys,” he said. “We’re going to keep battling and find a way to string a couple of wins together, and hopefully, we can be the New York Giants.”
Source: Jon Wagner (postgame press conference, Mack Sports Complex)