Last season Hofstra went 21-12 and played in the CBI in Mo Cassara’s first season. But he had some help, senior Charles Jenkins. The dynamite 6’3 guard from Queens was the driver behind the Pride’s offense for the past four seasons. He averaged 22.6 points per game last season. Now begins life after Jenkins.
How is Hofstra going to deal with that loss? It’s certainly not going to be easy.
Jenkins used 28.4% of Hofstra’s possessions when he was on the court last season, which was 92.3% of the time (10th in the nation). Basically the ball was always in his hands. And with good reason. Jenkins finished with an offensive efficiency of 123.5, 35th in the nation. That means that every time Jenkins finished a possession Hofstra scored an average of 1.23 points. That’s enough to win a lot of basketball games.
The trick for Cassara is going to be that no one else played such a huge role in the team’s offense. 6’5 junior guard Mike Moore was second on the team with a usage percentage of 23.7%. He was also very efficient offensively with a 108.5 offensive rating. Theoretically next season will be Moore’s chance to carry the offense and the Fordham transfer will need to up his scoring average from the 14.9 points per game it was at last season to around the 17-20 range.
Another person that can help on offense is Shemiye McLendon. He averaged 6.1 points per game last season in 20.0 minutes per game. Given more playing time he could certainly score more. Freshman that aren’t afraid to shoot become sophomores who aren’t afraid to shoot and that’s a good sign for Hofstra. Hopefully McLendon is spending a lot of time in the gym working on his shot, because he’s going to have to raise his 31.3% three-point shooting and 36.7% two-point shooting next season along with cutting down his turnovers in order to be a positive contributor on the offensive end.
The other option that should definitely be considered is to get David Imes more involved in the offense. Last season he used only 15% of the team’s possessions while on the court, but had an offensive rating of 107.5. He’s a good rebounder and doesn’t turn the ball over too much. If he could improve his free throw shooting from last season’s 62.0% mark and be a little more assertive he could definitely move into the mid teens on a per game basis.
No matter what happens, in order to deal with life after Jenkins Hofstra is going to have to do one other thing – improve its defense. Last season the Pride finished 8th in the CAA in defensive efficiency, allowing 105.5 points per 100 possessions. In order to prevent falling too far back from the team’s third place finish in conference (ahead of Final Four darling VCU) that’ll have to improve.
It’s always tough to replace a player like Jenkins, but Hofstra has a chance to maintain it’s success in the Cassara’s second season if the pieces fall into place.
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