(11-17-2020 03:18 PM)dan10 Wrote:  3rd seems and feels a bit disappointing to be honest. The league lost so many high caliber players this offseason and we returned a full slate. I truly would be a bit upset if we finish third. This should absolutely be a 1st place team this year or else we have issues we likely cant overcome. The tournament is a different animal but I would really like to see a regular season title and at least a semi final appearance. Short of that, this season will have to be considered a failure.

Last season's top six all lost a lot. The CAA has had players who were below-average starters or subs become stars by the time they graduated. Hofstra's Desure Buie averaged 3.0 as a freshman, 2.8 in a redshirt season with 8 games, 6.0, 10.7, and 18.2. Justin Wright-Foreman averaged 1.6, 18.1, 24.4, and 27.1. W&M's Nathan Knight averaged 8.2, 18.5, 21.0, and 20.7. UNCW's Jordon Talley averaged 8.8, 8.5, 7.6, and 16.9. Northeastern's T.J. Williams averaged 6.9, 9.6, 6.8, and 21.4 to win POY. VCU's Jamal Shuler averaged 2.2, 5.8, 8.6, and 15.5. ODU's Valdas Vasylius averaged 7.9, 9.2, 8.8 and 15.6. You had Scott Rodgers average 2.7, 8.0, 9.2, and 13.6. You have to hope that not many of Hofstra's Jalen Ray, Tareq Coburn, and Isaac Kante; Charleston's Brevin Galloway and Zep Jasper; W&M's Luke Loewe; Elon's Hunter McIntosh and Hunter Woods; Delaware's Ryan Allen, Kevin Anderson, and Dylan Painter; Northeastern's Tyson Walker; and Towson's Jason Gibson can average 15+.

If Shawndarius Cowart, who had elite JUCO statistics, can be a good PG, Hofstra will be hard to beat. If he's a bust or gets injured, Hofstra could be average. Having to choose between teaching a senior a new role, a player who hardly played last season, or a freshman is a choice no team wants to have to make. Jalen Ray averaged 1.9 assists last season, which is the most by any returning Hofstra player.

If you combine Butler with three or four guys who can shoot threes above average, you could be hard to stop. Butler averaged 32.5 minutes with only 2.36 fouls per game and 1 foulout. He was second on the team with 2.15 assists, and his assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.34, whereas many forwards have more turnovers than assists. JMU's Dwight Wilson (who transferred away) had 12 assists and 39 turnovers. Hofstra's Isaac Kante had over twice as many turnovers as assists. Butler was one of seven CAA players to average at least 5 rebounds and have more assists than turnovers. The other six were Grant Riller, Marcus Sheffield II, Mike Okauru, Matt Lewis, Bolden Brace, and Eli Pemberton, and Okauru and Lewis are the ones who didn't graduate.

Edit: Hofstra's assistant coaches say Caleb Burgess is leading JUCO star Shawndarius Cowart in the battle for PG. Burgess is a sophomore who had 14 assists in 145 minutes last season. David Green will start as a freshman. He will be the 4, which will allow Tareq Coburn to be the 3. Hofstra usually starts four guards, and Green is a guard/forward. He's from Ocoee High School a little west of Orlando, and that school produced Grant Riller. Omar Silverio, who led Hofstra's bench with 3.1 points; sub forward/center Kevin Schutte, who averaged 1.4 points and 2.3 rebounds; and freshman Kvonn Cramer, who redshirted last season; are expected to contribute. Silverio and Schutte are juniors. Redshirt senior Stafford Trueheart wasn't mentioned. He had 13 starts in 2017-2018, 9 starts in 2018-2019, and didn't start in 2019-2020. In addition to Jalen Ray, Isaac Kante, Coburn, Green, Cowart, Burgess, Silverio, Schutte, Trueheart, and Cramer; Hofstra has Cole Eiber, who is a graduate transfer after playing three seasons at non-Division I Western New England; sophomore walk-on Carl Gibson Jr., who played 6 minutes last season with 1 missed field goal as his only non-zero statistic; freshman Zion Bethea; and freshman Vukasin Masic. Hofstra has four seniors, four juniors, two sophomores, and four freshmen.