BUFFALO – In the biggest game of his life, of all their lives, Speedy Claxton needed the biggest game of his life.

Little Hofstra was going to huff and Little Hofstra was going to puff but Little Hofstra was not going to be able to blow down Oklahoma State last night unless Claxton had the kind of game that superstars are supposed to have on center stage.

“He’s gonna have to have maybe the biggest game of his life,” said Flying Dutchman forward Norman Richardson, who had recovered from a 24-hour virus. “[Oklahoma State] is very athletic and I heard they pride themselves on their defense, so I think he’s gotta come out and score big and get people involved, and he’s gonna have to help us on the boards as well.”

Claxton is the leader of this New York band that never stopped dreaming of being Cinderella.

“He’s gotta have a big-time game,” Hofstra coach Jay Wright said. “If they have to overcommit to him, he makes everybody else better where he’s so hot, they have to shift to him.”

Claxton couldn’t wait to strut his Corona stuff. He had no fear. He felt no pressure. From P.S. 127 to now, he has lived for this kind of game.

“I think I’m gonna have to have a big game,” Claxton said. “I’m not gonna go out and try to do anything spectacular, though. I’m gonna let the game come to me like I’ve been doing, and hopefully, I have a good game.

“It’s gonna be a lot of fun. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. It’s gonna be my first time. So I’m gonna try and make the best of it.”

He has had a wondrous career. Everyone has a favorite Claxton play.

“The most amazing thing I’ve seen Speedy do was his junior year at Hartford, we had a backdoor play set up for him and Jason Hernandez threw an alley-oop to him, and he went over a 6-9 center, dunked on him,” Richardson said. “Speedy yelled and screamed in his face, and he got a tech for it.”

“It happened this year,” assistant coach Tom Pecora said. “We were double-teaming the ball. He went and doubled the first pass. So he was across from our bench on the weak-side wing. The ball got skipped. He ran to where the ball was skipped on the opposite corner of the court and deflected it off the big guy’s foot. So I turned to Brett Gunning, our assistant, I said, ‘That’s what people aren’t gonna understand how much we’re gonna miss plays like that next year.’

“And then the next possession the team went zone and we threw an alley-oop and he dunked over a guy about 6-8. And I said, ‘Well we’re gonna miss that, too!'”

“The Delaware tap-in at home last year when Speedy won the game,” Jeff Fox offered. “Speedy was up above the rim. Duane Posey took a corner jumper with like three seconds left, and Speedy came in and he was above the rim and he put it in off the backboard and laid it in as time expired. That was one of the most amazing things I’ve seen when you see a 5-10 kid with his head above the rim putting it in.”

Wright seconds that opinion. “Tie game,” he said. “We had the ball with about six seconds left. We had to go the length of the court. We threw it in to Hernandez. They denied Speedy. Hernandez threw it to Posey. Posey caught it on the baseline and shot it. He had a great look. It came off. Everybody sighed. And Speedy came flying through the air and tipped it in at the buzzer to win it.”

“Everything he does is amazing; he does something amazing new every day,” Rick Apodaca said. “From dropping 40 points on Maine to just dropping 24 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, or having 22 points and 11 rebounds against Drexel.”

Then Apodaca was asked to pick just one play.

“One play,” Apodaca said, and thought long and hard. “In one of our scrimmages in the beginning of the year, it was a jump ball. We won the tap, and I think Greg [Springfield] tapped it to him. He just took off and rose from probably about a step behind the block on one leg and [center] Lars [Grubler] wanted to contest him and Lars just saw him go up and Lars just stopped. Best thing I’ve seen, ever. He went up like he just came off a trampoline.”

What did Claxton think? “My best play?” he asked. “It probably would have to be the buzzer-beater that I made against Delaware to beat them. I tapped in the ball at the buzzer, and it gave us a victory over Delaware.”

What about Hartford? “It’s a designed play for me that we always run,” Claxton said. “At first when I’d seen the pass, I thought it was too high. Somehow I caught it. I actually didn’t see him until after I dunked the ball. I heard the whistle blow. I got excited, and I actually caught a tech for that.”

Brooklyn’s Richardson has played with Stephon Marbury and Erick Barkley.

“I think Speedy is right up there with them guys,” Richardson said.

Hofstra needed Speedy Claxton to be right up there with them guys last night.