New York Colleges Unite for a Day, Hoping to Revive a Bygone Era

Stony Brook’s Lucas Woodhouse enjoys studying 19th- and 20th-century United States history. Yunus Hopkinson of St. Francis is a fan of the soliloquies spun by the rapper Tory Lanez. Manhattan College’s Zavier Turner, originally from Indianapolis, said his “welcome to New York” moment came when he went out for a slice of pizza and encountered a rat the size of a cat.  If those sound like confessions plucked from a speed dating event, that is not too far off. Inside David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex at Hofstra University on Wednesday afternoon, players and coaches from eight New York City-area midmajor college basketball programs sat around tables not selling themselves to potential suitors but promoting their stories and those of their teams in front of a rarity: a large news media audience.