Joe Mihalich restored dignity to Hofstra in his first season. He made the Pride a CAA contender in his second season. Will an NCAA Tournament be the end result of his third season?
Hofstra couldn’t ask to be in a better position, after clinching a share of its first CAA regular season title on Saturday afternoon, along with UNC-Wilmington, since joining the conference following the 2000-01 season.
On Senior Day, the Pride honored the players — notably Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley — who helped Mihalich turn the program around so quickly — the duo left Niagara with him three years ago — before they led Hofstra to a 72-63 victory over the College of Charleston at the Mack Sports Complex.
With 22.4 seconds left, Mihalich pulled Green, who received a standing ovation from the large crowd before sharing a long hug with Mihalich.
“This is what they deserve, this is what we talked about,” said the 59-year-old Mihalich, choking up twice during the press conference as he discussed Green and Tanksley, the entire Hofstra team standing behind the three. “When they decided to leave [Niagara] and decided to come here, this is what we talked about, winning and becoming better players.”
Green, the point guard from Philadelphia and the likely CAA Player of the Year, led the Pride with 17 points and 10 assists, Brian Bernardi and Rokas Gustys (14 rebounds) each had 13 points, and Tanksley and Denton Koon followed with 10 apiece.
Hofstra (22-8, 14-4 CAA) is now three wins away from its first NCAA Tournament since 2001, and will begin its quest next Saturday in the quarterfinals as the top seed in Baltimore, when it faces the winner of No. 8 Elon-No. 9 Drexel. Last year, Hofstra took William & Mary to double overtime into the semifinals, before Daniel Dixon’s 3-pointer with 0.5 seconds left sent them into a long offseason. They’re ready to climb that hurdle now.
“That’s why we came here, to win championships, and we just won a regular season championship,” said Mihalich, who came to Hofstra after 15 years and two NCAA Tournaments at Niagara. “When we recruit, that’s what we talk about, to be the best team in the league. That’s what we are right now. We have to go prove it in the playoffs.”
Such an afternoon was a long shot just three weeks ago, after the Pride blew large leads in back-to-back devastating losses to UNC-Wilmington and James Madison. But they followed with six straight wins, highlighted by Thursday night’s road victory over the co-league champions, rallying from a 19-point deficit.
“It’s not the wins that have made us the best team in the conference, it’s the losses — it’s how we dealt with the losses and how we responded from the losses,” Mihalich said. “What did we do? We went 6-0.”
Mihalich took over a program in disarray three years ago, reeling from a seven-win season and the arrest of five players, four for stealing and reselling over $20,000 worth of Apple electronics from dorms of fellow Hofstra students. He sat in Atlanta at the Final Four with athletic director Jeff Hathaway in 2012, and together they went over everything needed to return the program to where it once was, the kind of players they wanted to bring in, the kind of high-character people needed to regain the faith of the school.
“We’ve done that primarily with Joe Mihalich, who is the guy who set the course for this program beginning three years ago,” Hathaway said.