Hofstra men's basketball preview: Is a big turnaround at hand?

Speedy Claxton was angry.

It was the night of Feb. 8, and Claxton had watched his Hofstra men’s basketball team drop an 80-75 decision to Stony Brook at the David S. Mack Sports and Entertainment Complex.

When it was over, he decided that the time was right to share some harsh truths about his team.

“Until we get some toughness, we’re not going to win another game,” Claxton said during an abbreviated postgame news conference. “It is a serious, serious, serious lack of toughness in that locker room with these kids . . . I don’t know if they even care.

“I just don’t know about these kids. We had a closed-door meeting with the team and then we gave them some time to talk amongst themselves. We kept talking about us. We got to stop the talk and just go out there and do it, but we didn’t get it done.”

About eight months later, the Claxton who sat next to German Plotnikov was in a significantly different frame of mind from the one whose patience had worn out last February.

“The bigs, they are battling every single day and they are wearing each other out,” Claxton said with a chuckle during CAA media day. “They’re almost coming to blows because they know it’s a competition. They’re competing for minutes.”

For a team that is coming off a 15-18 record (6-12 in conference play), perhaps having heated internal competition for roles can be a precursor of a season in which Hofstra begins to right itself.

The Pride were selected to finish eighth in the conference by the coaches, who also chose junior guard Cruz Davis to the all-conference first team.

Davis, who started all 32 games for the Pride last season, averaged 14.4 points, 4.4 assists and 3.8 rebounds and shot 41.2% from the field in 35 minutes per game.

“I personally love playing with C.D.,” said Plotnikov, who set career highs in games started (19), points per game (6.1), rebounds (2.7), and minutes per game (25.0). “I love playing with Cruz. He’s a pass-first guy to me. And even though he’s still aggressive, that’s kind of a great thing about him. I mean he could go out there and give you 30 points against Delaware or he could go out there and [dish] it out to his teammates on any given night. So it’s a blessing to play with a guy like that. I think good things are coming toward him [and I think] he is going to have a big season for us.”

Said Claxton, “Last season was a new role for [Davis]. This upcoming season is going to be another new role because he’s going to be the go-to guy. And he’s going to have to be way more consistent than he was last year.

“I think that was his biggest thing last season. He wasn’t consistent enough whereas now he’s got [a] handle [on] that and he knows what’s expected and it’s not going to be his first time in that role.”

The player whom Claxton seemed most excited about is Victory Onuetu, a 6-10 forward-center who came over from Spain. According to Eurobasket.com, Onuetu averaged 10.9 points and 6.1 rebounds for CB Prat Juventus of the third-division Spanish Basketball League.

During a Zoom call with reporters who cover the league, Claxton shared the tale of how Onuetu found his way to Hempstead. Hofstra announced his addition in September on the program’s Facebook page.

It is the old story of a coach losing a recruit, only to be tipped off about another.

“We were actually recruiting someone else and then that same person, he mentored Victory,” Claxton said.

“And when we missed out on the other kid, he said, ‘Well, I have another kid,’ and that was Victory. He said [Victory] was even better than the last kid, so he kind of hooked us up with Victory. That’s kind of how it came out . . .

“At that point, we had struck out on a couple bigs. And the kid that came in before Victory, he wanted to come to Hofstra but I wanted someone else, so I kind of pushed his visit. He obviously didn’t like that, so then when I tried to get him, when I circled back, he didn’t want to come. But we still built a good rapport with his mentor and it turned into us getting Victory.”