Hofstra takes another hit as knee issues end Jamal Coombs-McDaniel’s season
Dec 21, 2012, 12:23 PM EDT
AP The hits just keep on coming for Mo Cassara and the Hofstra Pride.
After getting through a November that was capped by the dismissal of four players due to their arrest on charges of burglary, December won’t close well either as it was reported by Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com that junior forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel will miss the remainder of the season due to lingering knee problems.
Coombs-McDaniel, a reserve on Connecticut’s 2011 national championship team, was expected to be an impact transfer alongside Penn State transfer Taran Buie entering the 2012-13 season but that never materialized as the Boston native never took the floor for the Pride.
Add in Hawaii transfer Shaquille Stokes being one of the four players dismissed from the team and Buie (15.3 ppg) is the lone transfer making his Hofstra debut in 2012-13 that remains. Also dismissed from the program in late November were freshman Jimmy Hall, the team’s leading rebounder at the time, Kentrell Washington and Dallas Anglin.
Sitting at 3-8 with a game against Tulane on Saturday, Hofstra has struggled mightily on the offensive end of the floor as they’re averaging just 63.9 points per game. And in the Pride’s last six games, all losses, they’ve managed to score more than 57 points just once (88-84 loss to LIU Brooklyn).
The 6-7 Coombs-McDaniel, who was a very good scorer in high school at the Tilton School, was expected to given Cassara a much-needed offensive option upon his return to the court. But that isn’t going to happen, and will ultimately keep Hofstra down in the lower region of the CAA standings.
With teams such as Drexel (3-7), Delaware (3-8) and Old Dominion (1-10) off to slow starts, year one after the departure of VCU has not been a good one for the CAA.
Just two teams (William & Mary and George Mason) have above .500 records currently, and with Towson, UNCW (both for APR issues), Georgia State and ODU (those two are joining new conferences) ineligible for the conference tournament who knows what will happen in March.
But with their severely depleted roster, it’s difficult to see a Hofstra team that’s down to seven scholarship players being able to take advantage of the situation and grab the CAA’s automatic bid.
Raphielle also writes for the NBE Basketball Report and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.
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