The Hofstra Men's Basketball team, which is coming off a school-record tying 26 wins a year ago, opens its 2006-07 season when it travels to Charlotte on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. contest.
The Pride played its final tune-up before the regular season when it defeated New York Insititute of Technology in an exhibition game 69-47 on Tuesday night at the Mack Sports Complex (formerly Hofstra Arena). Senior guard Loren Stokes (Buffalo, NY) led the way with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while junior guard Antoine Agudio (Huntington Station, NY) added 17 points. The Pride also played without senior guard Carlos Rivera (San German, PR - pictured), who was nursing a minor injury but should be in the starting line-up on Saturday.
Hofstra's three guards are a big reason why it enters the 2006-07 season with high expectations. The trio represents the highest-scoring returning backcourt in all of Division I, with a combined 46.3 points per game a year ago. Stokes, who already ranks seventh in Hofstra history with 1,497 career points, led the way with 17.4 points per game, while Agudio was close behind with 17.2 points per game, while becoming the first sophomore in school history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Rivera averaged 11.7 points per game, and had an assist to turnover ratio of almost 2:1 (117 assists, 60 turnovers).
Stokes enters the 2006-07 season as one of 50 preseason candidates for the John Wooden Award, given to the top player in all of Division I. He was the Preseason Player of the Year in the Colonial Athletic Association, and was one of 16 player named to the collegeinsider.com All-America team. In addition to ranking seventh in career points, he also already ranks ninth in career steals and 11th in career assists at Hofstra, and could climb into the top 15 in rebounding as well, despite standing just 6-3 and 175 pounds.
Agudio enters 2006-07 needing just 19 three-pointers to tie the school record for a career as only a junior. Agudio broke the single-season school record as a freshman in 2004-05 with 82, then broke his own record last year with 91. He is currently tied for 26th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,018 points and was a Preseason First-Team All-CAA selection, after earning second-team honors at the conclusion of last year.
Rivera begins a new season with 796 points, needing just 204 to join his two backcourt mates in the Pride's 1,000-point club. Rivera was named to the CAA All-Tournament last year, after playing all 120 minutes wihtout committing a single turnover as Hofstra reached the championship game. He matched his career high with 25 points in Hofstra's CAA semifinal win over George Mason, which went on to the 2006 Final Four.
Up front, Hofstra will need to replace graduated seniors Adrian Uter and Aurimas Kieza. The Pride has five big bodies it can rotate at the two frontcourt positions, with sophomores Chris Gadley (Amherst, NY), Arminas Urbutis (Kaunas, Lithuania) and Mike Davis-Sabb (Bronx, NY) returning from last year's team. Freshmen Greg Washington (Brentwood, NY) and Mantas Leonavicius (Vilnius, Lithuania) will also be in the mix, while 6-5 swingman Zygis Sestokas (Vilnius, Lithuania) started at one of the forward positions in the Pride's exhibition game to give it a smaller line-up.
After meeting Charlotte, the Pride will have a week off before traveling to face local rival Manhattan on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. Hofstra will then go on the road to the Great Alaska Shootout, with its first game coming on Thanksgiving night against Hawaii.
