BY RODERICK BOONE
With a layup late in the first half of Hofstra's 57-45 win over Georgia State today, Antoine Agudio moved into sole possession of third place and past Rich Laurel on the school's all-time scoring list. So who exactly is Laurel? We 'splain below in our latest Hofstra hoops history lesson.
Laurel played for Hofstra from 1973-77, guiding it to a 23-7 mark, an East Coast Conference championship, and a berth against Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament during his senior season. He averaged a whopping 30.3 points per game, the highest single-season mark in program history. He scored 908 points in his senior year alone, shooting 53.5 percent from the field and 80.8 percent from the charity stripe. He was Hofstra's leading scorer in 20 consecutive games and scored at least 25 points in 17 of those contests, a big reason he was the recipient of the Haggerty Award. It's given annually to best player in the metropolitan area.
As a junior, he helped lead Hofstra to its first Division I appearance in the NCAA Tournament with a 20.3 points per game average.
Following his impressive career at Hofstra, he was a first-round draft selection of the Portland Trail Blazers and played for a portion of one season with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Comments (1)
There is much more to the Rich Laurel story...I was the sports information director at Hofstra when he played there. He went to Overbrook HS in Philadelphia (Wilt Chamberlain) is another alumnus, where he broke many of his records.
The only reason Richie got to Hofstra was because he prepped at St Paul's in Garden City where then Hofstra basketball coach Roger Gaeckler virtually lived with him to convince him to go to Hofstra as he was originally recruited by virtually evey top school including Kentucky.
Richie went on to have an outstanding professional basketball career in Europe, primarily in Italy where he became quite a celebrity...as a DJ and I believe ultimately a radio station owner.
It would be great if Newsday could do a profile on Richie, and some of the other players Antoine is passing in his quest to become Hofstra's all-time leading scorer.