Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Hofstra men’s basketball team is showing early signs of a rebound season.
Coming off a disappointing 15-18 2024-25 campaign, Hofstra displayed its championship potential by winning three games in three days at the Cathedral Classic at the Palestra in Philadelphia Thanksgiving weekend against La Salle, Merrimack and Penn.
The Pride will need to accomplish a similar feat in early March at the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament and the Philly sweep showed fifth-year head coach Speedy Claxton his team may have the grit to cut down the nets.
“We know if we want to go to the NCAA Tournament we are going to have to win three games in three days,” said Claxton, who guided Hofstra to the NCAAs as a standout point guard in 2000. “This was good preparation work and now they know they are more than capable of doing that.”
The Pride made another statement a week later with an 80-73 win at ACC opponent Pittsburgh
Hofstra returned six players from last season in which the Pride dropped several close conference games to finish 6-12 in the CAA. It was picked to finish eighth in the 13-team CAA and are looking to prove the doubters wrong with a determined core led by junior guard Cruz Davis, a St. Johns transfer who averaged 14,4 points per game for the Pride last season.
“He is way more comfortable in the offense and what we expect on both ends of the floor,” said Claxton of Davis, who tallied a career high 36 points in the Pitt win.
Graduate student guard German Plotnikov adds a veteran presence in the lineup after averaging 6.1 points and 2.7 rebounds last season. The 6-foot-5 Belarus native is a threat from three-point range who connected on 40.2 percent of his shots from beyond the arc last year.
Silas Sunday, a returning 7-foot power forward, is making strides in the paint during his third season on the Hofstra roster and posted a career high 15 points to go along with seven rebounds in a 78-58 win against Merrimack in the second game of the Cathedral Classic in Philadelphia.
Freshman Preston Edmead has quickly emerged as an offensive threat and is second on the team in scoring through 10 games which included a 23-point performance in Hofstra’s 83-77 win at Bucknell on Nov. 14. The 6-1 local product from Deer Park averaged 24 points during his senior season at The Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts.
“He is killing it and it is because he works so hard,” said Claxton of Edmead. “Typically, if you love basketball you are going to do well here at Hofstra and he is someone who loves it and is in the gym throughout the day working on his craft.”
Hofstra also added some inside strength with 6-10 forward/center Victory Onuetu, a standout in Spain who competed in the FIBA U20 European Championship. Onuetu nearly tallied a double-double in an 81-73 loss at Iona on Nov. 7 with 13 points and nine rebounds.
Biggie Patterson, a 6-7 Iona transfer, adds another weapon in the paint who registered eight rebounds and tied a career high with three blocks in the Merrimack win.
Claxton pieced together a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare Hofstra for the rigors of conference play which includes a road tilt at Syracuse this Saturday at 4 p.m. airing on ACC Network. The Pride also tipped off the season with a closely contested 82-78 loss at Big 12 foe Central Florida.
“We always want to schedule tough,” Claxton said. “Playing hard games in non-conference prepares you well for conference play.”
Hofstra opens up the CAA schedule with a Dec. 29 home game against Campbell at 7 p.m. The Pride closes the regular season hosting Long Island rival Stony Brook on Feb. 28. and longtime conference rival Drexel on March 3.
