Back from Indiana, Rob Hodgson eyes the Quakers

MASTIC BEACH, N.Y. -- On a slowly eroding sand dune by the ocean, Rob Hodgson endures another rigorous midafternoon workout. Last year's Long Island basketball player of the year prepares for his collegiate hoops career, a deferred dream he may realize at Penn. A few blocks away at William Floyd High School, Bob Hodgson, father and coach, sits in his second-floor office. A pair of 11th graders scurry around, redecorating the room with memorabilia. On the bulletin board is an Indiana Hoosiers team photo from this past season, in which Rob Hodgson is pictured. Hodgson spent the fall semester in Bloomington, Ind., before returning to Long Island. He was redshirted by Indiana coach Bobby Knight -- something he found out two days before the first exhibition game. "It was just a matter of not feeling really comfortable with the redshirt," Hodgson says. "That's almost like working without getting paid. That was hard. And just not feeling comfortable with trying to project where I was going to fit in." So the 6-foot-7, 220-pound Hodgson is attending Suffolk Community College and searching elsewhere for an education and basketball opportunity. The same day a newspaper ran a story Hodgson was transferring, he got calls from a dozen schools. It is the same process he underwent a season ago. Coaches visit this oceanside Suffolk County community from some of the biggest basketball programs in the country. South Carolina coach Eddie Fogler paid a visit here last week. Big East-bound Rutgers coach Bob Wenzel has returned as well. Wenzel's picture is also on the wall. He was a teammate of Hodgson's father at neighboring West Islip High School a couple decades ago. Other suitors include Harvard, Vanderbilt, North Carolina State, Fordham and North Atlantic Conference member Hofstra, a 45-minute drive from Mastic Beach and the favorite of Long Islanders who hope one star might stay at home. A newspaper clipping on the bulletin board in the coach's office bears the headline: Hodgson & Hofstra A Natural. Ticket stubs from the March 3 Penn-Brown game, when the Quakers clinched the Ivy League title, now hang on the same wall. And downstairs by the gymnasium rests a trophy proclaiming the number "2,532," which is how many points Hodgson scored in his career at Floyd -- the third most in New York state history behind Kenny Anderson and Kenny Wood. Penn coach Fran Dunphy visited two weeks ago. The Hodgsons had met Dunphy in Philadelphia the day of the Penn-Villanova game. They were impressed with Dunphy's sense of humor and quiet temperament. Hodgson's father drove Dunphy to Penn Station in New York after the coach missed the Long Island Rail Road train departing from Mastic Beach. Rob Hodgson first got to see Penn play when the Quakers faced Nebraska and Florida in the NCAA Tournament at Nassau Coliseum last year. He was particularly impressed with the fan support. "People come out of the woodwork for that," he says. "My goodness. There were so many people here. It was incredible. They had sweatshirts with the big 'P' on the backs." Hodgson is a coach's son who has played both guard and forward. He has great court vision, and the ball will likely go through his hands should he select the Quakers. Hodgson expects to make a decision in the next week. He joined a Floyd varsity basketball team in eighth grade that had never qualified for the playoffs. The school had only won one league game in the previous five years. By his senior year the Colonials were 21-2 and Suffolk County champs with him at point guard. Hodgson averaged 29.7 points and 15.2 rebounds per game his senior season. In 105 games on varsity since eighth grade he never scored less than double digits. Hodgson -- who was born in Mitchell, S.D., moved to Ohio, then back to his family's native Long Island -- is actually the second in his family to accept and then turn down an offer from Knight. His father was headed to Army when rumors of Knight's departure from West Point began to surface. He ended up playing at Penn State. Rob Hodgson compares his father's disciplinary coaching to Knight, although it appears the Floyd coach is slightly more approachable than his Indiana counterpart. "If you're going to go there, you have to expect to get yelled at," Hodgson says. "That's something everyone on the team expects. It's not anything like you go to Indiana and, 'Oh no, Coach Knight's yelling at me.' It's not like no one's ever heard of it before." Penn coach Dunphy has a slightly different demeanor, but the Floyd coach says he made a good impression. "Coach Dunphy is a great guy. He's very different than the other coaches. He's very quiet. He's very funny," Hodgson's father says. "When we came down for the Brown game we came in the locker room afterward. You could see the closeness that exists on the team and the respect and admiration the guys have for him."

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