Roster overhaul: Speedy Claxton ready for challenge of getting Hofstra men's hoops team to mesh

Class is in session.

Because it has to be.

Eight newcomers guaranteed it.

And so Speedy Claxton and his coaching staff are spending their days teaching Hofstra basketball concepts to an essentially brand-new team.

“It’s been hard,” Claxton said when asked about the teaching process. “We have so many new guys. We [have] to go very slow with everything and not just gloss over anything.

“It’s [going] to take time because even for the returners, it’s relatively new to them because they haven’t been in that position. So we’re going slow right now. Like I said, this is [going to] take time. It’s [going to] take time for them to figure out what we’re doing on both sides of the basketball, so we just [have to] be patient with them.”

It is a new era at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, and yet the external outlook is the same for the Pride, who were picked to finish fourth in the preseason coaches’ poll.

The ranking could be viewed as a testament to the quality and staying power of the program. But for Claxton, the preseason rankings — whether positive or negative or indifferent — are irrelevant.

“Honestly, I couldn’t care less about preseason rankings,” he said. “They really don’t mean much. That’s just all opinion-based. Come talk to me at the end of the season and see where we finish. But preseason rankings I really don’t pay much attention to. Whether picked first, second, third, fourth, last, it really doesn’t matter.”

Claxton and sophomore guard KiJan Robinson believe the 2024-25 edition is overflowing with competitiveness. Which means jobs are available to be had.

Claxton’s fourth team is using the time allotted before the season tips off to learn one other’s on-court idiosyncrasies and for the coaching staff to experiment with lineups and rotations.

“It just brings adjustment,” Robinson said. “Just for guys to learn how to play with each other. [There] might be different lineups out there, but because we’re a new team, we’re just trying to get adjusted to figuring out [everybody’s playing] styles and how we fit together.”

Claxton said he will count on Robinson (3.3 points per game in 32 games last season) and senior guard German Plotnikov (6.0 points per game in 29 games last season) at least in the non-conference portion of the schedule to be significant contributors for the Pride.

“Every guy on the team is [going to] be in a new role,” Claxton said. “[Even] some of the returners who saw limited minutes.

“KJ, he’s [going to] have to step up and take that next step and be more consistent. Hopefully he can take a huge jump here in his sophomore year. He kind of just [has] to figure it out, but he knows what we’re doing on both sides of the basketball, so [we’re] expecting some great things out of him.

“Another guy, Silas Sunday, who saw some limited minutes for us last year, he’s had a great preseason so far. Big body down low. He can score it. He’s getting better moving laterally, so we love having him and Plotnikov, who started for us halfway throughout the year.

“We just expected more consistency out of him. He’s been here for two years now and played significant minutes both of those years. So hopefully he can be the leader of this team and show the new guys how we do things.”