{"id":391626,"date":"2026-11-03T03:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391626\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T03:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T03:12:16","slug":"college-basketball-nyc-area-preview-all-area-teams-and-local-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391626\/","title":{"rendered":"College basketball NYC area preview: All-Area teams and local predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Storylines for the metro college basketball teams as the season kicks off:<\/p>\n<p>NEC champions reload\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>LIU cruised to the NEC regular-season crown and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/10\/sports\/liu-wins-nec-championship-with-return-to-march-madness-for-first-time-since-2018-already-secure\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reached the NCAA Tournament<\/a> in March for the first time since 2018. Coach Rod Strickland may have even more talent this winter with three former high-major players joining his program: guards Daquan Davis (Providence) and Vasean Allette (TCU), along with forward Jahki Howard (Utah). The Bewley twins, Matt and Ryan, are an intriguing duo. They are 6-foot-9 former five-star recruits who were initially ruled ineligible because they received money for signing with Overtime Elite in high school. They won a court order and are eligible. They attended junior college Daytona State last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Can Hofstra repeat?<\/p>\n<p>The Pride were picked to finish third in the CAA despite <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/20\/sports\/speedy-claxtons-hofstra-challenge-is-only-just-beginning\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">losing their top four scorers<\/a> from last year\u2019s conference champions. Hofstra added some key pieces in the transfer portal, most notably guards Justin Moore (Loyola Chicago), Deywilk Tavarez (Loyola Chicago) and Tanner Thomas (Sacred Heart). Keep an eye on junior forward Joshua DeCady taking a big step forward. Hofstra is on a run of eight winning seasons in the last nine years, a streak that should continue based on coach Speedy Claxton\u2019s history of developing newcomers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joshua Decady #4 of the Hofstra Pride takes the floor during the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament in Tampa, Fla., March 20, 2026. NCAA Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Optimism in Piscataway\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rutgers opened eyes in the preseason in a pair of close losses to St. John\u2019s and Villanova. The Scarlet Knights return six of their top seven scorers from a year ago, highlighted by senior guard Tariq Francis, an honorable mention All-Big Ten performer a year ago. Virginia Tech transfer Christian Gurdak gives Rutgers offensive punch at center. Prediction: This group will finish closer to the middle of the Big Ten than the bottom. Continuity is underrated in this free agency era of college basketball, and the Scarlet Knights have a ton of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Storylines for the metro college basketball teams as the season kicks off: NEC champions reload\u00a0 LIU cruised to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3361,141677,46380,67280,49931,141678,9,56,63,65,64,30447,141679,319,428,3363,64945],"class_list":["post-391626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-preview","tag-fordham-rams","tag-hofstra-pride","tag-iona-gaels","tag-liu-sharks","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-rutgers-scarlet-knights","tag-seton-hall-pirates","tag-sports","tag-sports-plus","tag-st-johns-red-storm","tag-stony-brook-seawolves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}