Flying Dutchmen Fans

So, it seems according to ESPN, our old friend Tom Pecora has taken over as HC at Quinnipiac. Former HC Dunleavy has taken a general manager position at Villanova. I'm not sure if this is an interim or permanent appointment.

Good for Pecora. He seems to love the game and mostly did right by Hofstra. I wish him well.

He mostly did right by Hofstra? Nope.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

So what's the reason for the Nope?

Pecora had Charles Jenkins


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The "Nope" might have something to do with jumping ship to Fordham. That move touched off a series of events that took YEARS to undo (Welsh, laptops, etc...)

Pecora had Jenkins, Chaz Williams and Kanacevic coming back the following year…potentially one of the best Hofstra teams ever. I understand…Pecora left for the big paycheck.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mark19th wrote:Pecora had Jenkins, Chaz Williams and Kanacevic coming back the following year…potentially one of the best Hofstra teams ever. I understand…Pecora left for the big paycheck.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes...what might have been....

In hindsight, I don’t blame Pecora for leaving
Because of Rabinowitz and the way the football program was cut. He had no idea what the future.‘ Of Hofstra athletics was going to be
Tom new about football being cut before Coach Cohen knew. Also one of his assistance was down in Florida recruiting wide receivers and had to be called back and had no idea what was going on.
The money was good from Fordham, and if not a lateral move was a slight move upward in conferences

Pecora leaves Hofstra for Fordham, taking solid Hofstra
recruits with him. Two future thousand-point scorers, Chaz Williams and Halil Kanecevic, transfer from Hofstra to UMass and St Joe’s respectively.
Hofstra replaces Pecora with ex-Providence College coach, Tim Welsh, who never coaches a game because he was fired a month into his tenure for getting drunk and falling asleep at a Hempstead Tpke traffic light.
Shell-shocked Hofstra administration hires inexperienced Welsh assistant, Mo Cassara, to take over as head coach. Cassara lasts three years, recruiting a number of players who turned out to be better at stealing computers than playing basketball. Cassara is canned and uses the money owed under his contract to open successful restaurants on the south shore of Long Island.
Pecora lasts five years at Fordham, going 44 -106.
Eventually, he winds up as an assistant coach at Quinnipiac and then head coach there.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well as far as Cassara is concerned he did get some good players in here unfortunately maybe they were more in interested in being entrepreneurs then playing basketball. Jimmy Hall out of powerhouse St Anthony's in N.J. somehow was kicked off his HS team but made his way on to our roster. He was a very good player and put up good numbers for Kent State. Taran Buie another bad boy ran into some trouble at Penn State and transferred here. Then you have Jamal Combs-McDaniel who was a 5 star recruit out of Massachusetts who transferred from UCONN after having a few strong games over there. He never played a minute for us a real shocker but was touted by the coaching staff as a good candidate to be POTY in this conference. Thank God for Joe Michalich who won here with kids of high integrity.

triplec2195 wrote:hen you have Jamal Combs-McDaniel who was a 5 star recruit out of Massachusetts who transferred from UCONN after having a few strong games over there. He never played a minute for us a real shocker but was touted by the coaching staff as a good candidate to be POTY in this conference. Thank God for Joe Michalich who won here with kids of high integrity.

To be fair, Combs-McDaniel did not play due to injuries. I do not believe he was one of the bad boys.

I think he was arrested here in NY for possession not sure but he was arrested in Massachusetts. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/666 ... onnecticut

Sorry Mark - I agree with Stu. Pecora's move was based in my view on Rabinowitz' hostility to the athletic program. The legacy of that hostility is still being felt. You can't blame Pecora for bailing on that. You might rather look to Jack Hayes on the Welch hiring too - he obviously did not properly vet his fellow Providence alum. Between football being cut, Tim Welch, Danowski leaving and other stuff that was an awful time for Hofstra athletics.

Good luck to TP up at Quinnipiac, which is apparently now first and foremost a hockey school. I think he will do fine in the MAAC. Kind of surprised TP wanted another HC job after all these years out of the game, maybe he was just waiting for the right gig, I think Quinnipiac is positioned well in that conference.

If you can't get over Pecora leaving Hofstra 13 years ago, that is just kind of sad to be honest.

So after a big win at Fairfield yesterday, Pecora has Quinnipiac on a 7 game win streak and sitting first place in the MAAC halfway through the season at 8-1 in the league (and 16-4 overall). Guess he can still coach.

The two biggest what ifs for the overall state of the program since the Jay Wright era to me are - what if Pecora had stayed? And what if covid didn't knock out the 2020 tourney?

(And what if Wilmouth was healthy this year now a close 3rd )

No the 3rd is what if Amare Marshall didn't transfer. We knew what he could give us not so with Wilmoth.

This would be an amazing story (and would probably get some national press in March) if he guided Quinnipiac to its first NCAA tournament berth in its 26-year history in D-I after not being a head coach for eight years following a terrible 44-106 five-year stint at Fordham in which he finished 14th in the MAAC his first four years and 12th in his last year there.

Tom is a good coach and better recruiter. He knows how to get stuff done...good for him he's having success at Quinnipiac.

Pecora gets a four-year extension, through 2027-28.

We are a long way from that Fordham move, both time-wise and now career arc-wise for Pecora.