In his admittedly early MAAC predictions for '14-'15, Steve Amedio is picking Fairfield for 9th next season (ahead of Canisius and Niagara) with Iona, Siena, and St. Peter's picked for the top three spots.
Could be another rebuilding year for the Stags, who faced inexperience issues in the backcourt this past season and will again this year, due to reported transfers. Guards Justin Jenkins, Sean Grennan and Lincoln Davis all appear to be leaving Fairfield. And, the team's best player, Maurice Barrow, is graduating. It leaves talented 6-6 forward Marcus Gilbert, bruising forward Amadou Sidibe and promising sophomores-to-be K.J. Rose and Doug Chappell as four likely starters. The rest of the playing group is a question mark.
2. SIENA
....Siena is clearly in the mix for the top spot in the coming season. And, it doesn't hurt to have the league's best coach in Jimmy Patsos.
Post by gofairfield on Apr 14, 2014 10:55:28 GMT -5
I think 9th place is generous. I think we'll be battling to stay out of last place. Attendance will clearly take another hit too. We will probably average around 1,600 next year.
I do not think we will be inexperienced or rebuilding next year. While I expect that some of our Freshman could play significant roles, most of minutes will be going to Juniors and Soph’s that have 1-2 seasons experience. The biggest question mark still remains us finding 3 impact guards. If we can get an impact JUCO guard, then blending in either a Segura and/or Nelson with KJ/JUCO, will not be rebuilding and should result in us competing for 1 thru 5 in the league. If we don’t get a JUCO scorer at guard, then that puts a lot of pressure on Segura/Nelson. And we saw last year what that could mean.
Regardless, We will improve on our 3 main weaknesses of last year ….. Ballhandling, Passing and Quickness
Post by ctghostman on Apr 14, 2014 15:57:02 GMT -5
I'm hoping that more help does come and we can out perform 9th. Based off "bird-in-hand", though, 9th is about right. If that's the case - projected 9th, we're making a huge mistake in not making a change (SJ) right now. If the roster changes significantly and we project higher - at least top four, then I guess you can argue that SJ should stick around. If we don't finish top four while taking "chances" on JUCOs/Transfers that don't get it done, then we need to clean house - SJ & GD and others (Reed/FvA) need to go. If you're going to "Iona" the program, it better pay immediately off for all involved.
Post by nashvillestag on Apr 14, 2014 17:13:34 GMT -5
Interesting that in these predictions, almost no consideration is taken for any new players each team might have, except of course for Iona, which is accurately portrayed as likely to again feature some good transfers or JC players. So for that reason I am buying the premise that the Gaels will be at the top again. And based on how they finished the season I do think Siena is a legitimate contender. I am not buying St. Peter's for 3rd however. (This time Desi Washington will NOT make every last second shot against the Stags). On the other side of the ledger I don't think Canisuis will just drop out of the sky to 10th inspite of who they lose. Baron will restock enough based on these past couple of years to at least remain a mid level squad. The Stags, obviously still a huge question mark at this stage of the game, and yes without a movement toward a minimum middle of the pack would signal big trouble for Sydney I would think. But for those of you that think he should be gone now, forget about it, he isn't, and he isn't going to thrown out just because of a "projection" by someone who really doesn't know much more than many of us at this point.
Really Ghost? If the Mens' Basketball Team doesn't finish in the top four, the coach, AD, VP and the President all should be fired? How about just shutting down the whole University? Nuce run but it just didn't work out. Just read thar FU finished in the top 15 in the Nation in athletes' graduation rate Mens' BB rate was 100%. Does that get FVA another year?
First off, our Ballhandling and Passing were very poor last year, with only one player (KJ) that had any type of Passing/Assists. New Players like Segura bring Quickness and Ballhandling, Nelson brings 6 assists a game as a 2G, plus a high Basketball IQ, and Degnan has a pedigree of a passing big man like MOS and Evanovich. Big upgrades in those skilled areas in 3 positions. However, its still not a definate of how many minutes each will play. Thats why we need a JUCO to also provide immediate impact.
The guards we bought in this year lacked ball handling, passing and quickness.
Really Ghost? If the Mens' Basketball Team doesn't finish in the top four, the coach, AD, VP and the President all should be fired? How about just shutting down the whole University? Nuce run but it just didn't work out. Just read thar FU finished in the top 15 in the Nation in athletes' graduation rate Mens' BB rate was 100%. Does that get FVA another year?
Really - on the admin - -they're not exactly knocking the cover off the ball in more than just basketball. They've been out performed by their peers - Leahy from QU is a prime example of this. Problems with hoops - high profile - adds to a long list of mediocre results from this crew. I've posed the question here before - name the major accomplishments of this regime? its tough to do.
Our problems can be summed up with three simple words - "We can't score". According to ESPN, we finished 322nd in America in scoring with only 63.4 points per game, and 339th in field goal percentage, making only .398 of our shots. There's our problem in a nutshell, we need more players who can shoot the ball.
Our offense is definitely a huge concern going into 2014-15. What is our offensive scheme going to be? How do we improve on a .398 shooting percentage?
IMO, our low FG% has more to do with not getting easy/open shots. Open layups off passes, O-board Putbacks, and transition baskets off steals….. the types of baskets we should shoot 80-90%. Also, we just need more players that can penetrate and dish to open shooters. I think we had good shooters last year, but not enough players that could create good offensive opportunities for the shooters. I think adding the shooting Nelson, a Big man that can shoot in Degnan, a JUCO to Marcus, Smith and Chappell, give us a lot of guys who can make the shot.
But it also comes down to having a 2G that can score/pass/Handle. That’s a scoring position, and probably the position that we had the worst production. We need someone at 2G who can give us production of a Needham or Terrance Todd
Post by redseastag on Apr 15, 2014 11:57:33 GMT -5
Chappell looked like he was pressing quite a bit last year, but I really liked the look of his shot. I know it seems crazy, since we saw so little of him for much of the season, but I still have hopes that he can be a contributing two guard. I think he and Nelson will battle for time, unless we get a Juco transfer, and I think Segura will push KJ for time. We need speed and quickness at the guards in order for Smith to play, because he struggles to match up on the outside against the opposing 3 man. If he could play inside a bit more and be a stretch four, he'd give us a lot more flexibility, but he's too weak right now.
Potential Starters:
1. KJ Rose 2. Tyler Nelson 3. Marcus Gilbert 4. Coleman Johnson 5. Amadou Sidibe
I think Sydney should be looking to split Sidibe and Malcolm at the 5, because they struggle with fouls. Occasionally they could play together, but I think it would be better to have them each focusing on center. Malcolm can instantly change the game with his presence and should allow our guards to press their wings and point more, while Amadou is more of a banger on the boards. Marcus has to help more on the boards, because I think we left the 4 and 5 alone too much to rebound last year. If our 1, 2, and 3 don't rebound, we won't be successful. I really think Smith should be rotating with Coleman to give us two good pick and pop players. He can make the opposing 4 uncomfortable by drawing him way away from the basket. Segura has to be able to facilitate if KJ gets into foul trouble or needs a breather, because I don't see another pg among the bunch. I think we're likely to play in a PIG next year, but I think we will be much better than this year (even though that doesn't seem so hard to imagine, sadly).
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