The CAA went into the New York area to raise the league's visibility, so it's odd that of all the good-but-not-great teams that make up the league's core this year, Hofstra has received the least love. They won nine of ten against the middle of the RPI table in late December and early January, and are coming off a
triple overtime barnburner against UNCW. Junior guard
Loren Stokes is probably the name mid-major junkies know from this squad, but he's not even their leading scorer -- that would be fellow 6'3" junior
Antoine Agudio, who's averaging 17.1 ppg. Those two are the reason why the Pride are the pre-pre-pre-preseason favorites for 2006-07.The preseason 2005-06 fave and league champion Monarchs have won six in a row to leap back atop the CAA standings, but there's something unsatisfying about the run - they've handled the
bad teams easily enough, and have come perilously close to drops against the
good teams. We're still waiting for ODU to recapture the form it's capable of, and a convincing win tonight might help get that mojo back.