Flying Dutchmen Fans

Jojogunne wrote: ↑Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:48 am I found this clip on YouTube called "Cruz Davis 2015 King James Shooting Stars Classic," but I don't know if this is OUR Cruz Davis.

The team is the U11 Gulf Coast Shooting Stars. They're based in Houston; our Cruz is from the Dallas area.

What do you think? The kid is a sparkplug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CLJyVI9mvs

Really good find and what game he had as an 11 yr. old!! Way to go Jojo!!

I showed the clip to Cruz after the game. He laughed and confirmed that this is his younger self. I said you were great then and even better now.

That's great stuff Jojo! Cruz is, and can be even more, special - he needs to find that next gear to really become what he can. Let's see how he matures through the 2nd half of this season...

Another CAA player of the week honor for Cruz and rookie of the week for Edmead. Its their 3rd and 6th respectively already this season

https://gohofstra.com/news/2026/1/12/me ... pride.aspx

Cruz is likely to finish the season as the CAA's leading scoring, a first-team All-CAA member and possibly the CAA POTY.

He's also a very strong defensive player and could make the the all-defensive team -- maybe even defensive POTY.

What do you think his chances are at winning both CAA POTY and defensive POTY? Or at least making first-team All-CAA and the CAA defensive team?

Jojogunne wrote: ↑Fri Feb 20, 2026 12:58 pm Cruz is likely to finish the season as the CAA's leading scoring, a first-team All-CAA member and possibly the CAA POTY.

He's also a very strong defensive player and could make the the all-defensive team -- maybe even defensive POTY.

What do you think his chances are at winning both CAA POTY and defensive POTY? Or at least making first-team All-CAA and the CAA defensive team?

The voters often go by stats. Rivera-Torres can be viewed as a better two-way play in that regard, ranking ninth in scoring and first in steals, as the only CAA player with over two a game (2.1). He and his teammate Jack Collins (1.8) are the top two. Davis is one of seven tied for 19th with 1.0 steal per game. Hopefully, they also look at the subjective part of how they play D and who is called upon to guard and stop opponents' best scorers in addition to just the numbers. But when it comes to numbers, Rivera-Torres is also part of a Monmouth team that only ranks 7th in the CAA in points allowed (despite also having a third player, Justin Ray, in the top 25 in steals) while Davis helps to anchor a team that allows a CAA-low 66.9 ppg and which is 15-1 when allowing under 70 points.

I also think voters would be more inclined to spread the wealth and pick others for the defensive team and DPOY if they would (as will likely happen) give Davis the POY and First Team All-CAA awards.

I just hope this won't be yet another year when Hofstra racks up another POY award (along with a ROY award this time as well) but fails to dance. The awards are great, and keep 'em coming, but we've seen that movie too many times before, in which they're top-heavy with the best talent the CAA has to offer, but not quite good enough beyond that, or collectively, to cut nets.

Davis isn't great at the defensive statistics of defensive rebounds, steals, and blocks, which is okay. Players guard different players over the course of a game, so it is never possible to calculate opponents' points per game or opponents' field goal percentage as an individual statistic. Considering how often he plays 40 minutes, Davis guards many players over the course of a season.

As for Edmead winning ROY, NC A&T's Lewis Walker is one of 21 players this season averaging at least 19 points and at least 5 rebounds in at least 18 games (I made up that amount of games). Edmead is one of 58 players averaging at least 15 points and at least 4 assists in at least 18 games. The last CAA ROY to average at least 15 points was Delaware's Ryan Allen, who averaged 15.3 in 2017-2018. The highest average by a CAA ROY is George Mason's Nate Langley, who averaged 19.5 in 1994-1995.

I really don't see Cruz as a POY, and he hasn't had what I would consider a POY season. He's wildly streaky. He disappears for entire halves of games, sometimes even 75% of games. POY's don't do that. He's turns the ball over way too much, and he's not automatic like many HU POY's before him. You can't really consistently depend on him to take over games, to put the team fully on his back, and win them on his own.

Now, all that to say, I like Cruz a lot, and very thankful he's with HU - he's a strong player and he's helped this team win plenty of games - seems like a good citizen, and committed to the program - plus he's just a Jr - another year and offseason improvement and he can be absolute beast.

And frankly, I'm not really interested in a POY right now - I want a full team winning the crown. That's what works - HU has wasted so many POY's it's crazy - that's not led them to any NCAAT's. The one we qualified for we didn't have the POY. And I'd like to continue on that path. HU is awful when they have to depend on one guy to win it all - NEVER works. So let's not.

I like having a deep team with lots of weapons making it nearly impossible to shut them down - can't key in on any one person, the entire squad is a threat. That will make a champion.

Pols who is better in the CAA. He has carried this team more times than not. Right now he is my POY.

I didn't think Tyler Tejada had a POY season last season, and Davis is better than Tejada then and Tejada this season. D.J. Smith does not shoot threes well enough for POY. Chadler Cuthrell is better than Smith, and it is impressive to average 20.2 points in only 27.7 minutes. On the other hand, that means Davis plays 10.5 minutes more, and I am guessing that every conference's POY will be within 10 minutes per game of his conference's leader. Guards normally win, and Cuthrell does not get enough rebounds to get many double-doubles. The guys who get the most double-doubles score too little to be considered for POY. Jlynn Counter is one of six players this season to average at least 15 points, at least 5 rebounds, and at least 5 assists, but Davis scores 5.1 more, and shoots a little better. KenPom has Davis first, Cuthrell second, Erik Pratt third, Counter fourth, and Patrick Wessler fifth. Pratt does not shoot well enough for POY, and I would rank Counter above him. Wessler shoots .596, but among guys who shoot by the basket, Sunday shoots .680. Wessler averages 13.5 points. If he averaged 16.5, I would consider him for POY. In conclusion, Davis is not as good as Jenkins or Wright-Foreman as seniors, but Davis still deserves POY.

Of course we would rather win the CAA Tournament than POY, but that does not make it bad to win POY or mean we should criticize Davis for not leading us to a championship. Polito said he can disappear for half or three-fourths of games, but other teams would love a guy who can do that and still average 21.1. I wonder where he ranks in most 20+ point halves.

It’s a fair question HUSID, I’m really not sure to be honest. I don’t think the CAA has had any really dominant player - Cruz deserves to be in the convo and to your point a case can certainly be made - but he isn’t dominant like most POYs would be.

But who is? No one really lol

I would imagine it will be a player from one of the two teams that make the title game. Hope HU is in it.

Player of be year awards are great and we’ve had guys win those. But did that get us dancing and did that specific POY get us dancing. NO

I’d rather get to the dance consistently (hell that’s start with a trip this year) then have POY’s on our team. Just saying. Not that important…dancing is

If Hofstra finishes strong and gets the 3 seed I think Cruz gets it. Jlynn Counter at Charleston probably 1a as best all around player on a top team. Wessler and Nolan Hodge are good, but not at Cruz or Counter's level statistically. Cuthrell and DJ Smith not on good enough teams. But agree there isnt a runaway favorite the way a guy like JWF was in the past.

dutchPride86 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 2:36 pm If Hofstra finishes strong and gets the 3 seed I think Cruz gets it.

It's been that way all season and won't change if Hofstra TCB in the last two games and gets the 3 seed.

Especially if he finishes as the CAA leading scorer on a 3 seed, which he is right now by almost a full ppg, he will absolutely be voted the POY.

Davis is also 4th in the CAA in APG (4.7), right there with his own PG (3rd, at 4.8), and sixth in FG%.

This is not as open a debate as led to believe here.

Polito wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 2:04 pm I would imagine it will be a player from one of the two teams that make the title game. Hope HU is in it.

The awards are done before the CAA Tournament. Last year the awards were announced on March 6, and the CAA Tournament started on March 7. If the awards are announced on the same day of the week, they will be announced on Thursday March 5.

Wags wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 8:38 pm

dutchPride86 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 2:36 pm If Hofstra finishes strong and gets the 3 seed I think Cruz gets it.

It's been that way all season and won't change if Hofstra TCB in the last two games and gets the 3 seed.

Especially if he finishes as the CAA leading scorer on a 3 seed, which he is right now by almost a full ppg, he will absolutely be voted the POY.

Davis is also 4th in the CAA in APG (4.7), right there with his own PG (3rd, at 4.8), and sixth in FG%.

This is not as open a debate as led to believe here.

Agreed Wags Cruz has already won POTY and Preston ROTY by even a wider margin. But lets win the war this year and punch our ticket again(2020) to the dance but this time we'll actually play in the tourney.

Ah yes, ok thanks EvanJ, fair enough. And you all are likely correct, he very well may win it and the case can be made for him. This might just be a me thing, I don't really feel like he's been a great POY - he needs a lot of work IMO, but no one else jumps out, so perhaps he's the best of a very mediocre CAA this year.

Now for Preston, that's a no-brainer - kid is ROY all day.

Polito wrote: ↑Mon Feb 23, 2026 1:51 pm Now for Preston, that's a no-brainer - kid is ROY all day.

I thought so too, but maybe not so fast now. As Evan mentioned, Lewis Walker is among the CAA scoring leaders (he's currently fifth) and he's made a strong ROY push down the stretch. He picked up his second straight ROW award today, his third in five weeks, and fourth of the season.

He's still on one of the league's worst teams though, while Preston is running the show at the point for what could be a 3 seed. So, that should matter a lot. Still, it would be great if Edmead could get one more ROW instead of Walker in this final week-plus. That would make it 8-4 instead of Walker possibly making it 7-5. And it would also be great to see Edmead tie Agudio's CAA record with an 8th ROW.

Polito wrote: ↑Mon Feb 23, 2026 1:51 pm This might just be a me thing, I don't really feel like he's been a great POY - he needs a lot of work IMO, but no one else jumps out, so perhaps he's the best of a very mediocre CAA this year.

Curious Polito when you say he needs a LOT of work, where is Cruz lacking to you?

Yes there was a stretch where he was disappearing for too long during games, but I think he's for the most part moved past that. As for performing in the clutch, fair to ding him for missing the shots against UNCW. But then he also deserves credit for making the tough layups inside final 2 mins at Charleston and for making the correct pass to set up German for the gw at Cuse. He also dropped 36 pts on Pitt.

If we're comparing him to Hofstra's other recent POY winners:

- Id argue he's the best defensive player of all of them
- He's a better 3pt shooter than Estrada and Green (and by percentage better than Tyler Thomas too believe it or not)
- He's a better passer than Thomas and JWF
- He's a better scorer than Green and Estrada (not gonna argue if you say Estrada would have averaged more if not for better supporting cast, but Davis is averaging more ppg than Estrada ever did)

I'm not saying Davis is better than any of those guys, but I think he's still a more than worthy POY candidate. Also for the argument that CAA POY race is mediocre... you have 5 players currently averaging 19+ ppg, tied for the most in the CAA going all the way back to at least 02-03 (that's as far back as espn app goes. Lol). Its just that none of the 5 are on either of the top 2 teams in the league.

Nine of the other 30 conferences (30 percent) do not have anybody averaging at least 19 points, and the CAA having five players is tied for the second most of any conference. The Big Ten has six, but that is from 18 teams compared to the CAA's 13 teams.

I do not know if awards voters will look at box scores, but even if they do, they will not look at play-by-plays to find out if a player went a long time without scoring.