One week after Chris Casey was hired at Niagara, sophomores Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley received their releases to transfer out from the school.

Friday they finalized their decision on where they will go by joining their former head coach Joe Mihalich at Hofstra. The school officially announced Green and Tanklsey joining the Pride along with Jamall Robinson, who received a release out of his letter of intent at Niagara, who will also join Mihalich at Hofstra.

“We’re in the business where we need to get good players and that’s what we did,” Mihalich said of the additions.

Green and Tanksley will come in as juniors and will have to redshirt and sit out one season before they can play during the 2014-15 season. Robinson will be eligible to play to start the fall.

Green won the MAAC Rookie of the Year Award in 2011 and finished on the first-team All-MAAC as the Purple Eagles won the regular season championship. Tanksley averaged 11.3 points per game last season and started every game for Niagara.

Mihalich said that Green and Tanksley contacted him after receiving their release from Niagara and he ran it by Hofstra athletic director Jeff Hathaway prior to taking on the two Niagara transfers.

“He’s going to know everything that’s going to happen here just like I do that’s the way I’ve always done it,” Mihalich said of his contact with Hathaway. “I’ve always felt like the communication you got to work hand in hand with your athletic director. Believe me a big reason why I’m here is because of Jeff Hathaway he’s a terrific AD, he’s one of the best in the whole country.”

Mihalich said he has known Green and Tanksley for the last four years, having recruited them out of the Philadelphia area to play for him at Niagara for two seasons.

“You can’t help but get close to these guys,” Mihalich said. “You develop a relationship. It’s hard to put into words because it’s not just the two hours a day you’re on the practice court, it’s study hall, it’s the traveling, it’s all that stuff. It’s when there’s a special relationship there.”

Hofstra also added former Niagara commit Robinson who contacted Mihalich after he received his release from the MAAC school.

“Jamall Robinson is a winner, he’s a versatile guy,” Mihalich said. “He can play a couple of different positions. He’s physically ready to play right now even though he’s a freshman. He’s got a good body good size and strength.

“He can probably score a little bit better than people give him credit for, but he’s a good player. We’re excited about him he’s going to help us.”

Green, Tanksley and Robinson join Chris Jenkins and Eliel Gonzalez in coming to Hofstra under Mihalich. The incoming freshmen will join the team in late June for workouts during summer session.

Now with nine spots filled, seven of whom will be eligible to play next season with Green and Tanklsey sitting out per NCAA rules, Mihalich said that they will work on adding two more players, a point guard and a scoring combo guard.

“We just want to get the right guys,” Mihalich said. “Some people say it’s hard to fill up a roster, that’s not true. It’s easy to fill up a roster if you don’t really pay attention to getting the right players and the right people.”

“It’s easy to fil up a roster, but its hard to fill up a roster the right way and that’s our challenge right here is to get some good guys.”

Hofstra has had players visit campus and Mihalich said that he’s been able to sell the opportunity to play.

“We’ve had a couple kids who that were concerned about that, concerned about the lack of people here, but that’s okay,” Mihalich said. “That means that we don’t want them. We want kids that want to make an impact, kids that want to play right away. We want kids that like this situation so any kid that didn’t like it, that’s fine that’s good by us because they don’t like the situation then it’s not right for them. That’s fine they can go somewhere else.”

Having four scholarship players when Mihalich took over the job, he said he would like to make up for lost time when he gets the team together for workouts during the summer sessions.

“Can’t wait to get going,” Mihalich said. “We lost the spring. There’s everybody who was doing stuff with their guys we lost it. First of all we only have four guys here so didn’t do any team stuff, we couldn’t do anything.”

Mihalich said they will look to bring in two more players but said “it would have to be somebody pretty special” to take in another transfer.

“We’re open to anything,” Mihalich said. “We’re open to anything and everything.”

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo. For more on Hofstra’s non-conference schedule, check out the non-conference schedule tracker.

The Hofstra Pride are set to announce that they have named Niagara University head coach Joe Mihalich as their next basketball coach, multiple outlets have reported.

The announcement is scheduled for Wednesday at noon at Hofstra. Mihalich was the longest tenured head coach in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, having coached 15 seasons at Niagara and posting a 265-203 record at the school.

Mihalich led the Purple Eagles this past season to the regular season championship before falling in the MAAC Tournament semifinals to eventual champion Iona.

Last week, Mihalich would not comment on whether or not he was contacted by Hofstra and said, “You have to remember who you work for. I’m the basketball coach at Niagara University and that’s who I’m working for right now.”

On Friday Mihalich won the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award at the CollegeInsider.com Awards banquet in Atlanta.

Iona head coach Tim Cluess appeared to be the favorite last weekend for the job until talks broke down. The coach re-committed for the next five years to the Gaels. After Mihalich joins Hofstra, St. Peter’s head coach John Dunne will be the longest tenured head coach at their position in the MAAC. Dunne will be entering his eighth season at the school.

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.