NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Everyone, even future Hall of Famers, is bound to have an off night. Just last spring, Stephen Curry went 1-of-10 from the field. And that wasn't even the worst shooting  night of his career.

Yet when CNU leading scorer Toa Hollenbeck missed five of six shots two Saturdays ago against East Texas Baptist, that others had done worse was of little comfort. With the Captains' next game the following day, he needed a sounding board.

CNU coach John Krikorian's door is always open.

"Coach and I had a talk about settling my mind a little bit," Hollenbeck said. "I was struggling a bit mentally because I had a rough game the night before, and I tied that into me being caught up in my own performances.

"He helped me realize there's more than just basketball. You've got to settle your mind a little bit, and that helped me a lot. That talk totally cleared out my head."

The next day, Hollenbeck scored a career-high 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, 6-of-8 from deep, in a 93-88 win over Mary Hardin-Baylor. The only difference from the day before was his mindset.

"Toa is a little bit of a perfectionist, and sometimes you want to succeed so badly that you become your own worst enemy," Krikorian said. "We talked about it and, you know, it's just basketball. No player has played a great game every time they stepped on the floor."

A 6-foot-3 junior from Chesapeake, Hollenbeck is averaging 18.2 points a game despite being third on the team in minutes played. Four weeks ago, in only his 74^th game, he became the 35^th player in program history to reach 1,000 points in his career.

Hollenbeck has always been a shooter, but this season he's also getting to the paint and drawing fouls. In his first two seasons, he averaged three attempts from the line and shot 71%. This season, he's averaging 5.5 trips to the line and hitting 86.5%.

Hollenbeck's parents, Barry and Sine, met in her native America Samoa while he was stationed in the Coast Guard. Toa was born in Panama City, Fla., and the family lived in New York, New Jersey and Hawaii before settling in Chesapeake.

By now, you're probably wondering where the name Toa came from. His given name is Barry Keith Hollenbeck Jr., but Sine nicknamed him Toa — the Samoan word for warrior. It has stuck all these years, and most probably assume it's on his birth certificate.

The family was living in Hawaii when Toa, then 11, decided he wanted to start playing basketball. He had knowledge at his fingertips with his father, who had some coaching experience.

But in a case of bad timing, Toa had just broken his left arm riding his bike. No matter, Barry had him work on form shots with his right hand.

"He had grown up playing (street) hockey and other sports," said Barry, now the associate head coach at Regent University. "I don't know what got into him, but he decided he wanted to take basketball seriously.
"He was pretty dedicated right away — even with a cast on his arm."

Toa began high school ball on the JV team at Indian River in Chesapeake. His sophomore year was interrupted by COVID, and after his family moved, Toa played two seasons at Grassfield. He scored a career-high 36 points in his senior year against First Colonial.

Although he knew little about CNU's program before the recruiting process, Hollenbeck quickly became impressed and committed. On the night of March 18, 2023, he was in Greensboro, N.C., to play in the Virginia vs. North Carolina All-Star game.

Also that night in Fort Wayne, Ind.: The Captains' national championship game against Mount Union. Just before his game was to tip, Hollenbeck saw Trey Barber's buzzer-beater off the glass to give CNU a 74-72 win and the title.

"They had just won a national championship," he said. "I knew it was going to be an elite team, so I would have to put even more work in."

In his freshman year, Hollenbeck played in every game and averaged 19.5 minutes as a freshman. Although he made only one start, he was third on the team in scoring at 11.1 points a game.

As a sophomore, he bumped his scoring to 14.4 per game, second on the team to Jahn Hines. He scored 30 points, then a career high, and knocked down 7-of-9 tries from the arc against John Jay in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Captains' run ended the following day, and it didn't take Hollenbeck long to get started on the following season. Work ethic has never been an issue with this guy.

"Sometimes when the gym is closed, I go to the outdoor courts, the James River Courts, and practice shooting," he said. "One time I went out there in the snow.

"That's how much I love the sport. I enjoy being around basketball that much."

Hollenbeck was a senior playing fall basketball at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton when Krikorian, with 9-year-old son Jack in tow, first saw him play. He immediately made Hollenbeck a priority.

Three-plus years later, he's glad he did.

"As a coach, he's exactly the kind of guy you want on your team," Krikorian said. "He does the right things, he's incredibly coachable, he's an extreme competitor. I don't know if he's exceeded expectations (from) when we recruited him, but man, he's at least met them."