HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Mo Cassara joked that when he took over the Hofstra basketball team last year, the three most common questions he faced went as follows.
“Who are you?”
“Are you really the coach?”
“And can I talk to Charles Jenkins?”
During his first year taking over an unsettled Hofstra program, Cassara could always rely on Jenkins to pump in 20 or more points per game. As a result, the Pride went 21-12, 14-4 in the CAA.
The prolific shooting guard graduated as the school’s all-time leading scorer and became a second-round pick of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
But now that Jenkins is gone, Cassara admits that he will face more uncertainty in his second year as coach.
Cassara will lean heavily on 6-foot-5 senior shooting guard Mike Moore, a Fordham transfer who averaged 14.9 points last season but is no Charles Jenkins.
Moore, who graduated last year, said he walks around campus and hears people telling him, “You got the juice now.”
“It’s only right people expecting me to fill in the role,” Moore told SNY.tv. “And I’m really taking on that challenge, and I’m looking forward to it and I’m embracing it.”
“I hope those comparisons don’t ever come up because Mike is a very different player, he plays differently,” Cassara said. “And certainly I don’t think anybody can be Charles Jenkins on so many levels. But Mike is a prolific scorer. He’s proved that he can score in this league, and I think he’s worked really hard in this offseason to become one of the better scorers in the league.”
Moore won’t have to fill Jenkins’ role alone, though.
Hofstra also features junior forward David Imes (7.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg), senior guard Dwan McMillan (6.8 ppg), sophomore guard Shemiye McLendon (6.1 ppg) and two redshirts, senior guard Nat Lester of Brooklyn and junior guard Stevie Mejia.
Cassara said Moore, Mejia, Lester and Imes will likely start.
“After that it remains to be seen,” he said.
Cassara is setting the bar high, too.
George Mason received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament last year and VCU won the CAA’s automatic bid and then marched all the way to the Final Four.
Cassara figures Hofstra has a shot at an at-large bid, too, if it doesn’t win the postseason tournament. The Pride haven’t been to the Big Dance since 2001.
“Me personally, that was my goal, to make it to the NCAA Tournament before I graduate college,” Moore said. “And this is my last year, and the goal’s still the same.”
TRANSFERS LYING IN WAIT
Hofstra also features two high-profile transfers in sophomore guard Taran Buie (Penn State) and junior forward Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (UConn), both of whom become eligible in 2012.
Moore says they’ve already upped the intensity level in practice.
“Taran is definitely a scrappy player,” he said. “When you’re playing against guys that played at high levels, that’s definitely going to make you up your game in practices.”
In addition to Buie and Coombs-McDaniel, Hofstra secured verbal commitments for 2012 from 6-1 Seton Hall Prep combo guard Dallas Anglin and 6-7 St. Anthony power forward Jimmy Hall.
Cassara confessed it’s tempting to look ahead to the 2012-13 season when all four of those guys become eligible, but insists he’s focused on winning with this group.
“I think it’s hard to not look ahead, but I’m excited about this group as well,” he said.
