Daily Sports Digest: New York Rivalry Resumes Tonight

The rivalry between Hofstra University and may not have the clout of Connecticut/Syracuse or Duke/North Carolina, but make no mistake it is real, and these two local programs both want to win tonight’s contest badly.

Both programs are located miles outside of New York City and they compete every year on the court and in recruiting. Coaches at both programs stressed how important it is to keep New York players in New York, and every year the schools go toe to toe trying to sign some of the nation’s best young talent. A win tonight could help give either coach an edge in the recruiting battle.

Hofstra Head Coach Mo Cassara and Iona Head Coach Tim Cluess are both in their second years at their schools, and their teams have gotten off to very different starts this year. The Hofstra Pride had a very solid season in 2010-11 but after Charles Jenkins graduated and went on to the NBA the 5-7 Pride have struggled to make up for his absence on the court. Conversely, Iona comes into this year’s game at 10-2 and they are sporting one of the best offenses in the country as the Gaels currently rank in the top 10 in points, assists and field goal percentage, and point guard Scott Machado leads the country in assists.

Machado and Iona’s big man Mike Glover have become one of the NCAA’s best duos and Coach Cassara and the Pride will have a hard time stopping them come game time.

“I coached in the ACC for four years at Boston College and I coached against a lot of great players. Those two guys could play at any major school that I have ever seen. They are elite guys and they are as good as anyone we will play all year,” Cassara said.

On the other hand, Hofstra’s Mike Moore has evolved into one of the best offensive players in the country and the way Iona defends him could go a long way in deciding the outcome of the game. Cluess doesn’t want to focus too much of the defensive game plan on one player because he knows Hofstra has several guys that can fill up the stat sheet.

“I think if you look at their last game they had five guys in double digits so you have to watch the whole team. You can’t just concentrate on one player because they have other guys that can beat you. But we obviously need to pay attention to him and not let him get easy opportunities,” Cluess said.

For whatever reason, New York City schools fail to promote one another through competition the way Philadelphia schools do and both Cluess and Cassara view it as a problem.

When St. Johns is a top program like they were last year, it helps bring national attention to the other local college teams like Iona and Hofstra, but with the absence of a true “Big 5” or rivalry tournament New York colleges fail to prop up each other.

“We are really struggling in that area, I think it’s something that they used to do in New York much better and teams would play each other on a yearly basis so the rivalries were much stronger than they are now. I think in order to get that back, we need to start building those competitive games and tournaments up against each other,” Cluess said.

“New York has so many different schools at so many different levels, and certainly we have Madison Square Garden and the Big East and St. Johns. I think there are a lot of neat inner rivals, but certainly whether or not you can get everyone together in one venue to play a series with the tradition of the Big 5 has never happened before. It certainly seems like a great idea but for whatever reason that has never come together,” he said.

While more nationally recognized programs like St. Johns and Fordham have shied away from local rivalry games, Iona and Hofstra have gone on to embrace them. Iona won last year’s contest in New Rochelle, and this year’s game could have a similar outcome on Long Island, but both coaches understand that success for both the schools is what is best for New York basketball and both Coach Cluess and Coach Cassara were very complementary of their opponents.

“He (Cassara) did a great job. He took over late and he got the kids to play very competitively last year and had a really good season. He is bringing in good players and he got the kids playing hard—they won two in a row. He does a very nice job,” Cluess said.

“He (Cluess) has done a terrific job. I can honestly say that we went up there last year and I walked out of that gym saying that they were a really well coached team. It was actually a turning point for us. We got beat handily up there and we were able to regroup and went on to have a very successful season from there,” Cassara said.

The teams square off Thursday in Long Island at the Mack Sports Complex on the campus of Hofstra University. Check out a full photo gallery of my visits to the Iona and Hofstra practices the day before the big game on Facebook.

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Yesterday’s Results:

Sport: Boys Basketball

Game: New Rochelle vs. Kingston

Score: Kingston Won 57-55

Highlights: Kingston’s Justin Robinson led the way with 22 points in the win. New Rochelle’s Joe Clark had 22 in the loss. Check back later for a story on the game.