By Kyle Kandetzki - SPORTS EDITOR
Men’s basketball sophomore guard Eliel Gonzalez is transferring to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, following a season where his contributions were few and far between.
Gonzalez, a Puerto Rico native, is moving from DI to junior college according to The Basketball Times' Joshua Parrott, and closer to where he played his high school ball (in Florida). The 6’2” redshirt appeared in 19 games, and only averaged 4.1 minutes, scoring just 24 points total in 2014-15.
Hints of a transfer from someone on the team have loomed since the Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich said in an interview with WRHU that the team still had one more scholarship to fill, when it appeared the roster should have been filled. With Gonzalez’s departure, 12 of Mihalich’s 13 allotted scholarships have been used.
Eliel’s lack of use in his first season stemmed from a roster stacked with talented guards, including Brian Bernardi, Dion Nesmith and most notably Juan’ya Green, who averaged 36.4 minutes per game, a huge plus for the Pride, but not for Gonzalez’s playing time.
Despite Green going into his last season in 2015-16, the outlook for inheriting a more consistent role on the team appeared bleak for Gonzalez, after the program recruited highly touted NYC guards Desure Buie and Justin Wright-Foreman to join the team this coming season. Buie, a three-star guard from the Bronx, is assumed to be the heir to the point guard position after Green graduates.
Gonzalez’s top contribution came in a non-conference blowout of Coppin State, where he played 17 minutes and notched nine points.
Mihalich has yet to bring in the final player to his roster, but one would think he might be looking for a younger player, as the Pride has a senior class that is five players deep.
The final addition to the team will be the fifth new player to the team this upcoming season, along with Buie, Wright-Foreman, Princeton transfer Denton Koon, and Tufts (DIII) transfer Hunter Sabety.