3 things Alabama fans should know about Hofstra
By David Wasson
Published:
One of the truly awesome facets of the NCAA Tournament for fans of SEC teams is that programs you’ve paid practically zero attention to all season long suddenly become more important than the names of your children.
Welcome to the March Madness Effect, where vital nuggets of information on teams like McNeese and Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara and Saint Louis will become as necessary as food and water until tipoff.
Fortunately, here at SDS we have done the crash course work for Alabama fans scrambling around trying to learn as much as they can about the Hofstra Pride – the Crimson Tide’s first-round opponent (Friday, 3:15 p.m. ET, TruTV).
Oh sure, hoops junkies probably already knew that Hofstra is the (literal) pride of the Colonial Athletic Conference. And said junkies also probably know that Hofstra used to be known as the Flying Dutchmen and hail from Hempstead, New York, which is on Long Island.
But what don’t you know about Hofstra? Here are 3 vital tidbits…
1. Speedy Claxton is their coach, and he can ball
You may remember Claxton as the star of the 2000 Pride during their second-to-last run to the NCAA Tournament – and first after the mascot change from Flying Dutchmen to Pride (paying homage to a pair of on-campus lions at the time…). Anyway, Claxton was a star at Hofstra – twice being named America East Player of the Year, delivering 22.8 points per game in his senior season and having his No. 10 retired in the rafters.
Despite standing just 5-foot-11, Claxton was selected in the first round of the 2000 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 20th overall pick. Claxton would go on to play for the 76ers, a San Antonio Spurs title-winning team, the Golden State Warriors, the New Orleans Hornets and the Atlanta Hawks, scoring 9.3 points and dropping 4.3 assists per game as a pro.
Claxton joined the Hofstra staff in 2013 before ascending to the head coaching gig before the 2021-22 season. In that span, he has turned in 4 20-win seasons out of 5 runs (105-62 overall), including the current 24-10 campaign the Pride currently enjoy.
2. Cruz Davis is their shooting guard, and he can ball, too
A 6-foot-3 lefty, Davis is a potential matchup nightmare for Alabama in the first round. The CAA Player of the Year, Davis was limited by injury in his first 2 years at Iona in 2022-23 and St. John’s in 2023-24. After transferring to the Pride, Cruz has found steady footing in his last 2 seasons at Hofstra under Claxton and is one of the premier mid-major scorers in the country.
Davis, who delivered 14.2 points per game as a junior in 2024-25, enters the NCAA Tournament ranked 30th in the country in scoring at 20.2 points per game. He is also a very capable distributor, ranking 89th nationally at 4.6 assists per game.
Davis dropped 30 points against William & Mary in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals, popped for a career-high 36 points against Pitt on Dec. 7 and has 18 games of at least 20 points this season alone. In fact, Davis has been held under 10 points only 3 times all season in 34 games.
3. Hofstra has never won an NCAA Tournament game
Typically, that 0-4 record would bode well for Alabama – until you factor in where both the Crimson Tide and Pride are seeded in the 2026 Big Dance. Since seeding began in 1985, No. 13 seeds in the NCAA Tournament have a 33-127 record against No. 4 seeds – pulling off an upset at a roughly 20-21% clip.
In other words, this is the perfect spot for Hofstra to be in to continue that statistical trend.
The Pride twice came tantalizingly close to cracking their personal seal on the Big Dance, losing to UConn 80-78 in overtime of the 1976 regional quarterfinals (which was then the first round of the 32-team field). The next season, in 1977, Hofstra took Notre Dame to the limit before falling to the Fighting Irish 90-83.
The Pride’s other 2 NCAA Tournament appearances have been, ahem, less notable. Oklahoma State spanked Claxton and Hofstra 86-66 in the first round of the 2000 tournament, and UCLA took down the Pride 61-48 in the first round of the 2001 tournament.
Incidentally, Hofstra was more competitive in the NCAA Division II tournaments it played in – going 4 times from 1959-64 and making the Elite Eight in 1964.
Will Alabama win its first-round matchup over Hofstra? Here’s what Kalshi has to say about it, where Alabama has an 88% chance to win:
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
