HOFSTRA

The nation's third-leading scorer has become the pride of the Pride's greatest player

SPEEDY CLAXTON, the Pride's first national star and a seven-year NBA player, originally saw Justin Wright-Foreman (3) when the ninth-grader attended a camp he was running at Christ the King High (also Claxton's alma mater), in Middle Village, N.Y. But the two didn't really bond until after Wright-Foreman's freshman year at Hofstra, where Claxton is an assistant coach.

A 6'2" guard, Wright-Foreman had scored just 44 points that season and was considering a transfer. Instead, Claxton helped Wright-Foreman improve his skills, drilling him on defense and building his court awareness. It was time well spent. Through Feb. 15, Wright-Foreman was averaging 26.2 points (third in Division I) and shooting 43.2% beyond the arc. But unlike the two scorers ahead of him, Campbell guard Chris Clemons and Detroit guard Antoine Davis, Wright-Foreman is far from reliant on long-range shooting. The senior gets most of his buckets off ball screens, a knack that has caught the eye of NBA scouts.

Even with their 22--4 record, the Pride will likely have to win the CAA tournament to make their first trip to the Big Dance since 2001, when Jay Wright—now a two-time NCAA champ at Villanova—was the coach. "Justin will go down as the second-best to ever play here," Claxton says with a laugh. Then he gets serious: "He will get his jersey retired. He'll go down as the greatest scorer the program has ever had."

79 Consecutive games in which Wright-Foreman has scored in double figures.