HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) Joe Mihalich didn’t show up on Hofstra’s campus three years ago riding a white horse. He did arrive and turn around a basketball program saddled with off-the-court issues that left the roster depleted and the image in tatters.
The Pride finished 7-25 in 2012-13 and four players were arrested on burglary charges stemming from dormitory room break-ins.
This season, the attitude is as far as it can get from that year. The Pride are picked as the preseason favorite to win the Colonial Athletic Conference.
Mihalich gives the credit to his staff and the players. He didn’t know if the third season would be the one that saw such expectations.
”I don’t know if you ever put a number on it but I knew we could turn it around because this is a great place with great leadership,” Mihalich said Thursday at the team’s media day. ”Everything was in place to turn it around and I wouldn’t have come (from Niagara) if it wasn’t. I believe Hofstra can be a special place for basketball.”
The optimism for this season comes from the three leading scorers returning off a team that went 20-14 and played in the CBI. All three, however, are guards, giving the Pride one of the better backcourts in the nation.
”It’s humbling,” senior guard Juan’ya Green said of the attention the backcourt has received. ”It just tells us how hard we worked and we pushed each other to be the best we could.”
Green is the point guard. He averaged 6.5 assists last season and will again be the director of the offense.
”My teammates trust me and Coach Mihalich trusts me and he knows I’ll pick out the right play at the right time,” Green said.
The 3-point specialist is junior Brian Bernardi, who made 95 3-pointers last season, shooting 40.4 percent from beyond the arc.
”My whole life I’ve always been able to shoot the 3,” he said, standing just behind the 3-point line for an interview. ”I practice and prepare and I shoot every day. I made four 3s at the Nets’ arena when I was in sixth grade so I knew I was supposed to be a shooter.”
The third member of the backcourt is 6-foot-5 senior Ameen Tanksley, the team’s true swingman who helps with the rebounding. He averaged 16.2 points and 5.5 rebounds last season while making 74 3s.
”There’s no pressure for one player to be the big scorer,” Bernardi said. ”We share the ball and that makes it hard for our opponent.”
Mihalich knows everyone points to his backcourt and that could cause problems if the Pride were to face a team with size up front.
”One of our challenges is to figure out a way to defend really big frontcourts but they have to defend us too,” Mihalich said. ”That’s the great cat and mouse game of basketball. We’re small and quick. You’re big and strong let’s see who wins.”
The Hofstra players all break into big smiles when this season’s schedule is brought up. There is a trip to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam in November and a game against Appalachian State on Dec. 6, at Madison Square Garden. It will be the Pride’s first appearance at the Garden in six years.
”It’s been one of my dreams to play in Madison Square Garden,” Bernardi said. ”And the Virgin Islands, that’s just great.”
Mihalich is looking at a different part of the schedule – the CAA Tournament with an NCAA Tournament bid on the line.
”It’s all about three days in March,” he said.
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