MAAC MidSeason Review

The MAAC Blog has done their mid season storyline segment. I was surprised that they hardly mentioned Fairfield except they have Cooley as their Coach of the Year and they do have Derek Needham as one of the top 10 players of the league (even though they spelled his name wrong).

There is no mention of how they expect the Stags to fair in the second half of the season and they do not really mention how great Iona has done.

The coach of the year would be very difficult to choose right now. Yes, Cooley has done a GREAT job this year with the absence of Nero and Hawkins and Edney still trying to become what they once were. Even with the struggles of Needham and the at times pathetic offensive displays of shooting the ball anywhere on the court. With all that stacked against him, he has found a way to win and make a defense that is currently the second best in the nation.

With all that said Iona has also done a great job, but things have come much easier to them.. It will be interesting to see how things will go on February 4th.

Loyola 66 Fairfield 65

The Fairfield University men's basketball team (12-4, 5-1 MAAC) ended their 11 game winning streak as they were edged by the Loyola Greyhounds (7-9, 3-3 MAAC). Click for a complete recap and boxscore.

The Least You Should Know:
-This is the first loss for the Stags since late November when they were defeated by St.Joseph at the Webster Bank Arena. Speaking of streaks, this is the first time they lost at Loyola since 1998. They previously had a 13 game winning streak on the road against the Greyhounds.

-This is by far the most points that they allowed to a MAAC team and the most points given up since November 15th when they lost to Rutgers. This is the second most allowed in any game on the season.

-Ryan Olander sat after he picked up his fourth foul, he only played 28 minutes on the game. When he went on the bench Justin Drummond went on a tear and scored 7 points.

-The Stags did have a chance at the end of the game but Ryan Olander could not hit the three pointer, and the Greyhounds followed with a dunk off the inbounds (even though it might have been a 5 second violation)

This was a bad game all over. The defense really struggled as Loyola seemed to be able to score at will, and they did hit alot of clutch threes when they needed it the most. Without Olander, the Stags seemed very thin and Loyola took advantage and really killed the Stags in the paint and all over on offense.

The key stat is of course: 8-19. That is what the entire team did at the free throw line. It was really embarrasing to say the least. They were getting better at the line in recent games but obviously not here. Needham, Edney, and Hawkins who are the team's best free throw shooters went a combined 4-12 from the line. Inexcusable as those three players should be your leaders that step up in crunch time, but Fairfield seemed to be lacking leaders down the stretch.

Before the game the team watched the match between Buster Douglass and Mike Tyson and the coaches explained that they could become like Mike Tyson and just settle to be good, or they could stay hungry. Obviously, they got knocked out.

Player of the Game: Derek Needham with a team high 14 points (4-7 from 3) and 4 assists.

Up Next: The Stags travel to Rider to play the Broncs on Monday 1/17 at 7 PM.

Men’s Basketball Reaches 7 Straight Wins

The Fairfield University's men's basketball team continued to travel on their winning successful ways on Monday as they were victorious for the seventh straight game, the third time they have amassed a winning streak of that many under Coach Cooley. Their latest victim became the Vermont Catamounts, a team that Fairfield lost to a season ago in the annual BracketBuster contest. Although this was a non-conference game, it became a true challenge for the red hot Stags. The first six decisions of the winning streak have had some fans wondering about how legit the triumphs were. The half a dozen wins came against schools whose combined record was 8-38 which including two teams that were yet to show up on the other side of the loss column. Arguably the only 'big' win of the recent swing had been the blowout at Siena. But the Stags were looking for that "quality win."

 

The Vermont Catamounts became what they were searching for. They came into the game ranked 16^th in the Mid-Major Poll and 37^th in the National RPI rankings. "They were tough to prepare for," fifth year head coach Ed Cooley said, "they are a quality opponent."

 

When the Stags started struggling out of the gate, the loaded bandwagon quickly became less packed. Many question marks started to arise such as the injuries to Yorel Hawkins and Warren Edney and the doubt if Ryan Olander can truly be that big presence they desperately need. Those questions were answered on Monday.

 

"Warren and Yorel changed the game," Cooley said. Edney tied for the team lead with 15 points with Hawkins picking up his first double-double of the season recording ten tallies and rebounds. "We had to go out there and match their intensity," Edney said. The senior has reached double figures in almost all of the Stags games despite coming off the bench in the last few as he recovers from minor injuries. Coach Cooley does not care how or when he gets on the court, "I just like Warren there period," he said. "He's an oddball… if he was on a pool table he'd be a different color because when he hits something the whole game changes," Cooley said.

 

Hawkins recorded double figures in points for the fourth time in his past 5 games. It was the first time that both Warren Edney and Yorel Hawkins both ended the game in double digits.

 

The seniors were not the only two to steal the spotlight. Junior Ryan Olander showed that he can be a spark on this team. It has become a play maker who can shift the momentum of the game. The contest was culminated by a highlight reel one handed put-back dunk that he slammed down that brought a buzz to the usually quiet Arena at Harbor Yard. "Coach always says when the shot goes up get to the glass," Olander said. After the years of criticism about his toughness and his strength, Olander is going out there to answer his detractors. "When big guys get it the sky's the limit," Cooley said, "and he's close to getting it…he's going to be a hell of a player."

 

Cooley says the part of the game that the team prides themselves on is their toughness. It is evident if you witness and improved Olander for example. "Our guys lift weights and I don't want them to lift weights just to go to the beach," Cooley said.

 

The month of December was supposed to be the most difficult stretch for this squad. They were opposing two MAAC foes including the defending champions in rival Siena, a top 50 nationally ranked RPI team, and other contests that look like "trap" games. So far they have leaped over every hurtle. But their next game is a mountain. They travel to Gainesville to face the 19^th best team in the nation, Florida. This team has answered every whistle and have really heated up in the cold month of December.

    

On the Right Track

After not having a scorer reach double figures, four Fairfield student- athletes registered more than 10 points in the win against Norfolk State, the most this season in any game. The team had no more than two double-digit scorers in one game in the previous four outings. Warren Edney led all Fairfield scorers with 20 points, followed by starters Derek Needham (17 points) and Keith Matthews (15 poitns). Jamel Fields came off the bench to score 15 points as well.

Warren Edney also became the First player to score twenty points in a game. It was his first twenty point performance since he tallied 24 in the 2008-09 season opener against Memphis.

Fans miss Majok Majok

In the recent poll entitle "What is the biggest adversity for the Stags" the fans overwhelmingly chose the loss of Majok Majok. Here are the results:

Loss of Majok Majok 54%
Greg Nero Injury 28%
Yorel Hawkins' Knee 8%
Warren Edney Ankle 8%
Sean Crawford Foot 0%
Loss of Adam Jones 0%

I personally voted for the Greg Nero injury and think there is too much stock put into Majok Majok. Yes he is a big loss. Yes the recruiting class is much weaker without him. But when Greg Nero played in 2008 he was the Stags BEST player. To have a potential all-MAAC player come in maybe at 75% and the possibility of being at 100% by the MAAC tournament is still better than an uknown commodity. Who says Majok Majok would have made an impact? Maybe he finds a difficult tranisition to the college game. We will never know.

You can also make the argument for Warren Edney injury being big. Cooley and others have described him as a "player of the year" candidate when he is healthy. Early in 2008 he was a big surprise and had a great early portion of the season. That being said, Cooley admits that he does not think Edney will ever fully recover and remember he has not played in almost 2 years! There will surely be rust and who knows if he will ever get back to his old form?

Warren Edney still feeling pain

According to Chris Elsberry of the CT Post, Stags head coach Ed Cooley has stated that senior forward Warren Edney is still bothered by his right Achilles heel. This is the same injury that kept him out all of last year and most of the 2008 season. Cooley expects that Edney will have to play with some amount of pain this season. Edney averaged 9.1 PPG and shot 45% from the floor in 13 games in 2008.

Bad news just keep on mounting for the Stags. Edney showed alot of life and promise in 2008 until he got hurt. I mean scoring 22 points aganist Memphis and hitting the game winning shot aganist Iona was impressive. The Stags are still a good team without him but WITH him they could be dominant.