WASHINGTON, D.C. – If it’s not exactly repeating itself, history sometimes has an interesting way of reinventing itself in a similar fashion.
It had been 23 years since the Hofstra Pride last played in the NCAA Tournament when former Long Island point guard Craig “Speedy” Claxton led Hofstra back to the Big Dance in 2000 as one of the program’s best players ever.
Now, as Hofstra’s fifth-year head coach, Claxton relied on Long Island freshman phenom point guard Preston Edmead to lead the Pride to its
first NCAA Tournament appearance in 25 years.
That is, as long as the world doesn’t suddenly shut down again, like it did the last time Hofstra qualified for the NCAA tournament on March 10, 2020, two days before the COVID global pandemic canceled the event, turning March Madness into March Sadness.
“Nothing better stop us this year,” said Claxton, who after getting drafted as an NBA first-round pick and having six-plus productive but injury-plagued NBA seasons (while winning an NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs) was in his penultimate season of an eight-year run as a Hofstra assistant coach during that fateful time in 2020. “It was great winning it that year, but we didn’t actually get to compete in the Tournament. I’m hoping that everything goes according to plan, [that] we can go through Selection Sunday, see who we’re playing, and we actually get to fully experience the tournament [and] everything that it has to offer.”
Barring another highly unexpected catastrophe, those things should all come to fruition this time after third-seeded Hofstra defeated the fourth-seeded Monmouth Hawks, 75-69, to capture its second Coastal Athletic Association tournament championship at CareFirst Arena on Tuesday night, six years to the day after the Pride’s 2020 title.
The victory marked only the fifth time the program, which began in 1936 (one year after Hofstra’s founding as a university), qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The last time Hofstra played in the tournament was in 2001, without Claxton, after he graduated.
With the Pride’s past as prologue, 26 years after Claxton was named the America East Conference tournament’s Most Valuable Player, Edmead became the 2026 CAA Most Outstanding Player, even despite shooting just 2-for-12 in Hofstra’s 31-point quarterfinal win over sixth-seeded Willliam & Mary.
The Pride didn’t need Edmead in that win (although he did still score 13 points while making eight of nine free throws). Junior guard Cruz Davis scored 30 points, graduate guard German Plotnikov added 17 points (as each shot 5-for-9 from 3-point range), and Hofstra’s trademark defense kicked into high gear.
Although Davis backed up his CAA Player of the Year award in that game and ultimately joined Edmead on the CAA all-tournament team, he struggled over the final two rounds, shooting 6-for-17 in the semifinals and just 3-for-13 in the championship game.
Hofstra won the title, in large part, because of how it gelled as a true team under Claxton. While Davis and Edmead combined to lead the way all season, others, like Plotnikov, senior guard Biggie Patterson, sophomore forward Josha DeCady, senior center Silas Sunday and junior center Victory Onuetu were all important pieces, each filling vital roles in their own ways.
But to complete its mission of winning another CAA championship, the Pride needed Edmead to step up when it mattered most, the way Claxton did as a senior, 26 years earlier.
And he certainly did.
When the Player of the Year, Davis, didn’t quite play at that level in the CAA semifinals and finals, the CAA Rookie of the Year and All-CAA Second Team member, Edmead, put Hofstra over the top.
Edmead committed just four turnovers in 115 total minutes, over the Pride’s three tournament games, including none in 45 minutes in the semifinal against Towson. Edmead beat the Tigers with 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting and a miracle, game-winning, 28-foot banked 3-pointer with only 0.3 seconds left in overtime.
Asked if he called “bank” on that shot, Claxton jumped in to answer with a smile, “He called game.”
In the final, with no one else scoring more than 12 points for Hofstra, Edmead played with the poise of a seasoned senior rather than a first-year player, scoring a game-high 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while adding another 8-for-9 performance at the foul line to hold off Monmouth down the stretch.
When a reporter asked Edmead how he can be stopped, Claxton interjected again, saying, “Pray. Pray he’s having an off night… that kid is well beyond his years. I can’t believe that kid is a freshman. He’s playing way better than I played as a freshman.”
In defeat, Monmouth head coach King Rice said simply of Edmead, “That freshman is good.”
But it was Claxton’s praise which Edmead especially took to heart.
“It makes me feel good,” Edmead said. “It makes me feel like I’m doing something right because he is greatest point guard to come through Hofstra.”
Among extremely select company, Edmead became just the third CAA player to win the conference Rookie of the Year and the tournament Most Outstanding Player awards in the same season, joining UNCW’s Brett Blizzard (2000) and Delaware’s Jyare Davis (2022).
Reaching the NCAA Tournament as Hofstra’s head coach was a moment Claxton thought of ever since he first took the job. Having been part Pride teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament as a player, as an assistant coach, and now as a head coach, Claxton (who was born in Hofstra’s hometown of Hempstead, N.Y.) loves to be thought of as a Hofstra legend.
“I like that word,” he said with a wide grin. “I’m a big fan of that word. This is a legendary moment for me, for my family, this program. I’m just happy to share this experience, this moment, with my guys because I know what this moment means. They might not know right now, but when they get older, they’re going to fully understand what this is.”
Given his own personal history, Claxton is the perfect person to impart that idea to his players.
“I won a championship at every level, high school, collegiate, professional [and] my collegiate championship meant the most to me,” Claxton said. “I speak to zero of my high school teammates, zero of my professional teammates, and I still speak to a lot of my college teammates.”
Turning to his players on the floor, just after clinching the title Claxton continued, “This is a special moment for you guys. I hope you guys realize that. This will forever bond you.
“This moment is so surreal. It means so much to myself, this program, this university. It means everything. These guys gave it to us every single day. This started way back in June, when we first got to campus. They listened to every single thing that we had to tell them. I couldn’t be happier for these kids.”
Claxton was especially proud of his team’s resilience.
“We had so many ups and downs throughout the year,” he said. “We had a great non-conference schedule and record, then we got into conference play and we got off to a great start (4-0). Then we got injured and we lost five in a row, but to these kids’ credit, they never wavered, not one bit. They still believed in what we were preaching, what we were trying to teach them, and what we were trying to get across to them, and right from there, we took off. The only [CAA] team that beat us at full strength was (CAA regular-season champion) Wilmington (by four points at home).”
Hofstra was not projected to cut down the nets at the beginning of the season.
“They picked us eighth? They were buggin’” Claxton said. “I don’t worry about preseason predictions and all that type [of] stuff because it’s just a matter of opinion. I knew from day one, when I got my guys on the court, in June, that it was gonna be a special year for us. I wish I would have documented it, video-wise, because this is special… for this university, for this program, and for my players… They’re going to remember this for a lifetime. There’s nothing like winning a mid-major college championship.”
A big part of what makes it special for Edmead is that like Claxton, he’s local, from Long Island’s Deer Park, N.Y., roughly 20 miles east of Hofstra’s campus.
“It means so much,” Edmead said. “Being a kid from Long Island, the program is based on Long Island, it means everything. I wouldn’t want to win with anyone besides this team. I love them.”
With Edmead’s emergence, events have come full circle for Claxton over the past 26 years, from being the star point guard who helped eventual Hall-of-Famer Jay Wright reach his first NCAA Tournament, to being on the other end of a similar situation, with Edmead hailing from the same general area and playing the same position, now delivering for Claxton.
But Edmead does have one thing on Claxton: he reached NCAA Tournament a lot sooner, as a freshman, while Claxton did so as a senior.
Of course, Claxton would be even happier to see Edmead be a part of something he was unable to accomplish: not only reaching, but winning, an NCAA Tournament game (or more).
With the right draw, that may be possible, considering what the Pride can bring to The Dance: a very competitive, defensively-sound team that is 21-1 when allowing under 70 points this season and that hasn’t lost by more than eight points this year, as well as a rare backcourt combination consisting of a conference Player of the Year shooting guard, along with a Rookie of the Year and Most Outstanding Player point guard.
“We really play off each other,” Edmead said of he and Cruz. “We’re both such ball-dominant guards, but we can do everything. [We both] can shoot, [we both] can drive, so it makes the game so much easier.”
That’s one key advantage that Edmead has now that Claxton didn’t have when he played in college. Although Claxton had great talent to complement him, he was a conference Player of the Year, while Edmead gets to play alongside one.
Whatever else happens from here is yet to be written, but the scenario of the local, star point guard helping to put the Hofstra on the map in 2000 before taking his beloved alma mater back to that point now – for the first time as a head coach, while developing another local, star point guard – is undeniably one of the best national storylines in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The rest of the nation – some of which doesn’t know the Pride well at all – will start to hear that tale when, for the time in a quarter-century, Hofstra’s name will once again be called loud and clear, for all to hear, on Selection Sunday.
