The local clash between Seton Hall of the Big East and Hofstra University of the CAA should be an exciting one early in the season. The Pirates of Seton Hall enter with a 1-1 record on the season with a win over St. Peters (57-53) and a loss to Fordham University (57-56) on Saturday. Hofstra enters with a 2-0 record with wins over SUNY Old Westbury (89-62) and Iona (90-76) on Friday. While neither team is expected to have big seasons this year, they’re two teams that will cause chaos and problems in their conferences.
Tubby Smith is in attendance and is honored by the tournament organizers for all his accomplishments in College Basketball he finished ranked 36th in wins with 642, Jay Wright who coached Villanova is currently tied with him for the spot in career collegiate wins.
Tubby has one National title to his name he won it with Kentucky University in the 1997-98 season with 6-star players who would go on to play in the NBA. He also went to the final four once, while appearing in the big dance for 18 years with an overall record of 30-17.
His career spanned over 7 teams ( Tulsa (79-43), Georgia (45-19), Kentucky (263-83), Minnesota (124-81), Texas Tech (46-50), Memphis (40-26) and High Point (45-68)) He amassed a career record of 642-370, .634 W-L% over 31 Years of coaching. The High Point Alum will always be remembered as one of the best coaches in the collegiate game.
His Father Guffrie fought in World War II and received a Purple Heart after he and his fellow soldiers were ambushed in the Italian Alps. During that battle, nearly every American was killed, but Guffrie promised God that if he made it back to Maryland, he would be a servant to his faith and his community for the rest of his life.
Orlando Smith is Tubby’s official name, he was nicked named Tubby as a child and decided to run with Tubby Smith. The nickname was given by his grandmother, Tubby was inducted into the High Point University Hall of Fame in 2016, he was also named National Coach of the Year three times, Took five different schools to the NCAA Tournament – Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota and Texas Tech – making him one of only two coaches all-time to take five different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He also was a big part of Team USA basketball where he helped coach the USA Olympic basketball team to a gold medal in 2000. Coached 13 NBA draft picks; 22 former players have gone on to play in the NBA. Received the John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award.
The first half of play continued between Hofstra and Seton Hall in an absolute barn burner that resulted in a halftime score of 24-22 in favor of the Pirates of Seton Hall. I mean I’ve seen local high schools with better field goal and free throw percentages in the first half of play. While neither team is picked to win a national title its shocking to see how two historically good programs have fallen this far from grace now that they’re in the NIL era of college sports. Both programs are in big markets and yet the talent on the court is sub-par at best with no true standout in sight.
The second half saw more of the same basketball we watched in the first half. The talent just isn’t there for an exciting game and it’s truly a shame given the first game of the Tournament was filled with top players and competitive basketball. The best sequence in this one was the final minutes of the game when we saw Hofstra finally pull ahead of Seton Hall who failed to convert on many free throws and open shot allowing the lower division one opponent to hang around and eventually steal the win. Speedy Claxton found a way to get just enough out of his roster to pull off the upset over a Big East foe. While Seton Hall sits at the bottom of the Big East with a 1-2 record overall and their stat line says all you need to know. Shooting just 17-48 (35.4%) from the field, 6-20 on 3-pts (30.0%) and 8-17 on Free Throws (47.1%). There is no way you can compete with big teams which fill the Big East let alone a mid-conference team like Hofstra with numbers like this.
The Season is early and Seton Hall has a history of showing up late in the year, maybe they will again this year but you have to wonder if there will be anything to show up for with opponents like #24 Rutgers, #22 St. John’s, #15 Marquette, #14 Creighton, and #3 UCONN not just on schedule but in your conference as well. The next game for Seton Hall will be against Wagner on Saturday Nov 16th at noon back in Newark, NJ at the Prudential Center. While 3-0 Hofstra will face UMass on Saturday back at Nassau Coliseum 7 pm start for the final game of The Icons Of The Game Tournament. UMass fell to Louisiana Tech earlier tonight during game 1 of the tournament.
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