Fairfield – William & Mary Early Edition Game Notes ♫

[reindeerfan]

Early Edition Game Notes is intended to be fun, informative and sometime irreverent way to look at the numbers, but if you take this stuff too seriously you are cautioned against reading any further. Please proceed at your own risk!
PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR! .
Fairfield – William & Mary Early Edition Game Notes ♫
Fairfield University (2-6, 0-0 MAAC) VS William & Mary (6-3, 0-0 CAA)
Sunday, December 8, 2019 • 2:00 PM EST
Alumni Hall, Fairfield, CT
SERIES HISTORY
There has been a long hiatus in this series with the last match-up between the two programs taking place in 2007 (corrected). The Stags hold a 2-1 lead in the series.
LAST TIME OUT
Landon Taliaferro scored a career-high 34 points and Taj Benning made six free throws in the final 16 seconds Sunday to help Fairfield hold off Texas A&M 67-62 in the seventh-place game of the Orlando Invitational. Taliaferro made 12 of 18 shots, including a school-record 10 3-pointers in 15 attempts for the Stags. The strong shooting performance came two days after Taliaferro went 0 of 9 from behind the 3-point line against Davidson. Texas A&M (3-4) trimmed a 61-52 deficit to three with consecutive 3-pointers from Savion Flagg, but the Aggies guard missed a potential game-tying trey before Benning closed it out from the line for Fairfield. Vincent Eze had 10 points and 13 rebounds for Fairfield. It was Fairfield's first win over a Power 5 Conference school under Jay Young.
HISTORY OF WILLIAM AND MARY MASCOTS
Game notes for this game could never be considered complete without an in-depth look at the Mascot traditions of one of America’s oldest institutions.

William & Mary is the second oldest college in the United States (326 years old), the school has a mascot tradition that is even more sordid than Siena's. If you go back to the era when the pen was first invented, William & Mary’s teams were called “The Orange and White.” Why? Well, because these were the colors the team wore. However, it didn’t take them long to realize that white is a pretty terrible color to wear if you’re concerned about constantly washing and replacing dirty jerseys. So in 1909, W&M changed its uniform colors, and the team became known as “The Orange and Black. Since there is no obvious mascot to pair with the name Orange and Black other than perhaps a pumpkin, William and Mary went through many seasons where they had a child as a mascot. In addition to children, William & Mary sported “Dammit” the campus dog as a mascot from 1922-1926. And it became a tradition that whenever the team lost the coach would kick the dog and say Dammit. Unfortunately after being repeatedly kicked Dammit didn't live very long. He was followed by an interesting mascot, Cal the alligator. Yes, you read that right, an alligator name Cal. Cal never uttered a sound, and you might guess that he was named after US President Calvin Coolidge who had the nickname Silent Cal. In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge wore a Native American Indian headdress of the Sioux tribe in a photo, thus changing world history as it was around this time period that the nickname “Indians” was first associated with the W&M basketball team; No one knows why one event would have anything to do with the other, but there seemed to be no reason for William and Mary to adopt an Indian at this time. Soon the athletic teams all took on the name and sported a logo that featured an Indian with a knife and tomahawk which lasted from 1937 – 1974. A man dressed in full Indian garb was featured at all home games along with a pony named Wampo (deriving from the initials of William And Mary POny). While not basketball related, in 1938 Wampo was kidnapped by students from the University of Richmond prior to a football game. W&M Students organized search parties in an effort to recover the pony and after fruitless searches for the mascot, William and Mary students started bonfires in Richmond to try and get warm, some of which burned out of control damaging portions of the city. Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, it all turned out all right as Wampo was eventually discovered and returned home. In 1978 the use of the Indian in their logo started to become controversial and W&M started to phase out the term Indians taking the Indian off of their athletic logo and moving to just feathers. The feathers logo lasted a very long time, all the way up to the early 2000s, when suddenly people discovered that feathers were highly offensive to many including song birds and Native Americans. How feathers could be offensive to this second group was most puzzling because for centuries Indians had made headdresses from feathers. But apparently they were nonetheless extremely offensive items. In May 2006, the NCAA ruled that the old athletic logo for William & Mary, which includes two green and gold feathers, could create an environment that is "offensive to the Native American community." Many at W&M wished they had selected a less offensive name like the Savages or the Seminoles, a team that the NCAA allowed to maintain their American Indian Mascot and imagery. It was during this time period that Colonel Ebirt, a green blob of a mascot sort of thing that somewhat resembled a frog appeared, (ebirt is of course Tribe spelled backwards). Ebirt was also sometimes mistaken for the Grimace of McDonalds fame. Though officially adopted by the athletics department Colonel Ebirt didn't last long. In 2009, W&M’s President appointed a committee to help select a new mascot for the College. After careful consideration of close to 1000 submissions, the committee assembled five finalists: a Griffin, a King and Queen, a Phoenix, a Pug, and the Wren. You would think with 1000's of people thinking about this that someone would have come up with some better ideas, but no, those were the finalists. And the Griffin came out on top despite objections from Canisius College, a school that was concerned their academic reputation would be besmirched if students began to confuse the two institutions based on the similarity of the mascots.

And while this entire tale might best seem fitting for the "Heard but Probably Not True Section" however it really cannot be properly placed there because everything but the snarky observations are completely true.....
COMIC OF THE DAY
Mother goose and Grimm
Mother Goose and Grimm by Mike Peters first appeard in syndication in 1984.
The only Indian name the ncaa would let us use

SCOUTING THE GRIFFINS
The William & Mary Tribe (yes, they still go by the name Tribe even though their mascot Reveley is a Griffin) are 6-3 overall. The team is ranked 19th for offensive field goal percentage shooting 49.4% while attempting 55.6 shots per game. The Tribe shooting percentages include 70.6% for free throw percentage and 39.8% for three point percentage so far this season.

Senior Nathan Knight remains hot garnering his fourth career CAA Player of the week award on Monday. Knight averaged 29 points and 11 rebounds per game last week. He tallied 28 points and 12 rebounds in the win over Morehead State, before posting 30 points and 10 rebounds at Buffalo.
Start of a win streak?
After playing well through much of the Orlando Tournament the Stags return home riding high after a win over a major conference opponent Texas A&M. Fairfield is now 1-0 on the season versus teams with an ampersand in their name, and they are hopeful their success in this area will translate into a win versus William & Mary. Fairfield is 4-2 all time versus the ampersand schools: North Carolina A&T 1-0, William & Mary 2-1 and Texas A&M 1-1.
WORTH REPEATING
Landon Taliaferro established a new single game record for three point shots made in a game for Fairfield. Here are the all-time best three point shooting performances in Stags history:
3-Pt. Field Goals Made
10
Landon Taliaferro vs. Texas A&M, 12/1/19
9
Mike Evanovich vs. G. Mason, 3/16/10
Curtis Cobb vs. Manhattan, 1/5/17
8
Landon Taliaferro vs. Rider, 1/03/19
Landon Taliaferro vs. Manhattan, 2/24/19
Mike Evanovich vs. Rider, 1/30/10
Jermaine Clark vs. Manhattan, 1/17/99
Greg Francis vs. No. Carolina, 3/13/97
Derek Needham vs. Siena 2/14/13
Unforunately this data is not available to the average fan or the media as Fairfield no longer includes individual game records in their media guide
MAAC RECORD
While his 10 Threes were impressive, Landon came up a bit short of the MAAC record. The conference record is held by Iona’s AJ English who hit 13 - three point field goals in a game versus the Stags (12/1/2015).
NCAA RECORD
The NCAA Record for Treys in a game is 15
15—Keith Veney, Marshall vs. Morehead St., Dec. 14, 1996 (25 attempts);
Josh Williams, Robert Morris vs. Mount Aloysius, Nov. 14, 2018 (25 attempts).
LANDON’S GOT NOTHING ON HIM
While Landon Taliaferro’s .446 shooting percentage from deep seems impressive, W&M Junior Luke Loewe entered the week leading the CAA in 3-point shooting at 58.8% (10-of-17). He knocked down a career-high three triples vs. Morehead State. He also ranks fourth in the league in field goal % (63.0).
ON THE BLOCK
Fairfield’s run against the leading blocked shot specialists in the nation continues against W&M. The Griffin’s Nathan Knight entered the week with 184 career blocked shots, which ranks fifth among active NCAA D1 players. He is second in W&M history and less than 70 blocks shy of the school record.
GOOD FROM THE LINE
Taj Benning is shooting 92.3% from the line this season. Benning entered the week 29th in the nation in Free Throw shooting. As of Monday, December 2nd he was second in the MAAC conference trailing only Manhattan’s Nehemiah Mack who was at 92.9%.
GOOD FROM CLOSE
Jesus Cruz was ranked among the top 2 players in conference in Field Goals made and top 10 in Field goal percentage prior to the completion of play on Sunday.
GOOD FROM DEEP
Landon Taliaferro entered the week 7th in the nation in 3 point field goals made with 29. VanderBilt’s Aaron Nesmith leads the nation in this category with 34 made threes in only 7 games. Taliaferro entered the week 146th in the nation is 3 point shooting percentage. Landon is also 14th is three point baskets attempted with 69.
NATHAN KNIGHT
Entering the week W&M Senior Nathan Knight ranked 15th among active NCAA D1 players in career points with 1,647. He is less than 600 points shy of the Tribe’s career record.
DON’T BET AGAINST THESE STAGS
The Stags beat the spread versus Texas A&M, now going 6-1-1 versus the spread on the season.
IT COULD BE WORSE
Saint Peters and Niagara won this weekend so there are no longer any winless teams in the MAAC Conference. Still with the win over Texas A&M, Fairfield now has more wins than Marist, SPC and Niagara.
IT COULD BE A LOT WORSE
Mississippi Val, UMES, Howard, Houston Baptist, Central Connecticut, Kennesaw St. and Florida A&M remain winless this season. In a scheduling blunder of massive proportions Fairfield did not schedule Florida A&M this season.
MOST EXPERTS AGREE
The Basketball experts that stated Fairfield was the best 1-6 teams in the country were right. However, with their win Fairfield is no longer the top 1-6 team in the nation, they now vie for recognition as the best 2-6 team with East Carolina, Troy, McNeese, IUPUI, Southern Miss, Elon, Tennessee Tech, LIU, Presbyterian, SIUE and Saint Joseph's.
IT TAKES A THIEF
Jesus Cruz (4th/12) and Vincent Eze(8th/10) are both in the top 10 in the MAAC conference in steals. They average a 1.5 and 1.25 per game respectively.
IT TAKES A THIEF
Chris Maidoh is 3rd in the conference in Blocks with 9.
STREAK ENDED
Jesus Cruz’s streak of double-digit scoring games by ended at 7 in the win on Sunday. It was the longest such streak of his career.
STREAK STARTED
Landon Taliaferro hopes to extend his streak of consecutive games with 10 or more three point baskets versus W&M.
TRIVIA QUESTION
Who is the only Stag player to score 1100 points in his career and have a shooting career shooting percentage below .400?
Answer to follow below
HEARD BUT PROBABLY NOT TRUE
Listening to Eze
In a conversion in Orlando, Vincent Eze reportedly stated, “I used to be addicted to basketball...
but I rebounded.”
Alumni Hall Deemed Fourth Most Popular Basketball Venue in Fairfield

First Selectman Mike Tetreau, has named Alumni Hall, Fairfield’s fourth most beloved venue for Basketball. Tetreau named the Roger Ludlow Gym, The Gym at McKinley Elementary School and the YMCA pool ahead of Alumni Hall. While the pool is technically not a basketball venue, it is pretty popular and basketballs have been seen on occasion near the diving board. It was likely the mid-summer hot spell that pushed the Y ahead of Alumni Hall.
The facility dropped one place from last year’s rankings, and many have speculated as to why students and members of the community have started to lose interest in the Fairfield program. While some have theorized poor promotion and an unpopular coach affected attendance last year, one outspoken fan named Laura feels the issues started when there was an increase in the price of popcorn.“ No matter what anyone tries to tell you, that’s where it all started. You won’t get good attendance with so many unhappy customers paying steep prices for popcorn. And the food is horrible. Folks can only take so much of the food at Alumni Hall”
Despite the drop Fairfield University President is proud of the number four ranking, but remains hopeful that Jay Young can help lead the program back to the highly coveted number 3 spot.
TRIVIA ANSWER
Fairfield’s 4th leading scorer all time, Derek Needham had a .382 shooting percentage. He and Jermaine Clark are the only 2 – 1000 point scorers not to average a shooting percentage of .400 (40%) or higher for their careers.
2010-13 - 1,875 Points
……….. Gms FG-A……. Pct.
Totals 131 628-1642 .382
TRACKING CAREER LEADERS
THREE POINT FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
Player Pct. Year
1. Shane Miller 0.430
2. Landon Taliaferro .422 (119-282)
3. Mike Evanovich 0.402
4. Michael Van Schaick 0.398
5. Craig Martin 0.390
6. Jonathan Han 0.381
7. Tyler Nelson 0.373
8. Michael Bell 0.369
9. Kevin George 0.367
10. Tyquawn Goode 0.366
*Based on a minimum of 100 made three point shots.
THREE POINT FIELD GOAL MADE CAREER
Player 3pts Years
1. Tyler Nelson 315 2015 2018
2. Derek Needham 281 2010 2013
3. Marcus Gilbert 242 2013 2016
4. Greg Francis 230 1994 1997
5. Jermaine Clark 167 1999 2001
6. Mike Evanovich 165 2006 2010
7. Michael Van Schaick 163 2004 2007
8. Kyle Commodore 162 1996 1999
9. Jonathan Han 157 2006 2009
10. Herbie Allen 130 2006 2009
….. Landon Taliaferro 119 18-pres
*Based on data from Sportreference.com
BLOCKS
Blocks
Player Blks Years
1. Deng Gai 442 02-05
2. Ryan Olander 206 08-12
3. Anthony Johnson 200 07-10
4. Harold Brantley 185 88-91
5. Didier Boucard 165 95-98
6. Rob Thomson 147 01-04
7. Jonathan Kasibabu 141 16-19
8. Coleman Johnson 128 13-16
9. Drew Henderson 124 90-93
10. Maurice Barrow 87 11-14
11. Greg Nero 80 07-11
12. DeWitt Maxwell 76 03-06
……….
……Wassef Methnani 47 18-pres
……Chris Maidoh 9 19-Pres
128. Aidas Kavaliauskas 1 17-pres
1000 CAREER POINTS IN THEIR SITES
Player 3pts Years
Jesus Cruz 712 17-Pres
@stagsmensbball, #MAACHoops, #heardbutprobablynottrue
♫ ♫2019-2020♫

[nashvillestag]

RF, your history section about W&M is extensive, interesting and entertaining. So extensive in fact that I'm sure my nephew who happens to be an assistant coach on their baseball team probably doesn't know most of this stuff. Therefore I think I'll tell him to read this, the better to help him in his recruiting pitches. Anyway, fun reading for sure.

BTW, one slight mistake in your "fact" section concerning the series history. While it is correct the schools have only played each other three times, actually the most recent were back to back games (home and away) during the early Cooley years, maybe 2006-7, 7-8. Something like that.

[FU73]

actually the most recent were back to back games (home and away) during the early Cooley years, maybe 2006-7, 7-8. Something like that.

2006-07
2/17/2007 - vs. William & Mary W, 61-45

2007-08
12/31/2007 at William & Mary L, 50-71

[reindeerfan]

Dec 4, 2019 17:28:47 GMT -5 nashvillestag said:

RF, your history section about W&M is extensive, interesting and entertaining. So extensive in fact that I'm sure my nephew who happens to be an assistant coach on their baseball team probably doesn't know most of this stuff. Therefore I think I'll tell him to read this, the better to help him in his recruiting pitches. Anyway, fun reading for sure.

BTW, one slight mistake in your "fact" section concerning the series history. While it is correct the schools have only played each other three times, actually the most recent were back to back games (home and away) during the early Cooley years, maybe 2006-7, 7-8. Something like that.

Nashville, thanks for the correction. Sloppy work on the part of the early edition staff as the source this data came from clearly stated,"1st meeting" and somehow when that data was translated into the last meeting when it went into the game notes.

I have learned from creating these notes that the staff for Fairfield or any sports information team does have a tough job to avoid mistakes in these documents. There is so much data to review. Still I remain disappointed when I see mistakes in the early edition or in the media guide. With regards to the media guide, some of the mistakes in it are quite obvious that could be easily identified if someone who has been around a while were to proofread it, or if a student with a calculator were just to check some basic math. Its really difficult for whoever prepares the document to proofread their own work, it needs to be proofread by someone else.

Thanks again for catching the mistake, and thank you FU73 for posting the correct information.....

[reindeerfan]

Colonel EBIRT

[reindeerfan]

Official game notes
game notes

[tournas]

A lot of hype going around campus - should be a big student turnout! Go stags.

[FU73]

William & Mary is a 1.5 point favorite in Alumni Hall.

Matchup-Current Line-(Total)-Time
William Mary -1.5 2:00 PM
Fairfield (130)

www.vegasinsider.com/college-basketball/teams/team-page.cfm/team/fairfield

[stagthomas]

Dec 7, 2019 20:57:19 GMT -5 tournas said:

A lot of hype going around campus - should be a big student turnout! Go stags.

Awesome to hear. Is the coaching staff making their way around campus? What's been going on? Thanks for your input.

[tournas]

I’m a big believer in this team and the future - been following for a while now. Not much promotion by the team/staff around campus. Pizza promotion would be great idea!

[stags74]

Well the hype was only in someone’s mind because only a few students were at the game. Appeared to be a good community presence, but students not really.

[FU73]

stags74 said: Well the hype was only in someone’s mind because only a few students were at the game. Appeared to be a good community presence, but students not really.

The next home game when students return from Christmas Recess and classes start again is Wednesday, January 15. I'm not sure that a National Hat Day "promotion" is going to get more students to the game in Alumni Hall. Time for Athletics to rethink the current promotions and not wait until next year to try something different?

National Hat Day: The first 300 students in attendance will receive a Fairfield beanie hat.

[stags74]

I wanted to write off the lack of student attendance at Sunday’s game to the beginning of final exams today. However, after reviewing the academic calendar I see that today 12/9 is the last day of scheduled classes and exams do not begin until Thursday morning of this week. So apparently student apathy towards FF men’s hoop continues whether or not the students need to get into a bus to see the game in WBA or simply walk across campus to “classic” AH . There was a good crowd generated by what appeared to be the community( children and parents). If I was the school that is the demographic that I would be promoting to generate increased attendance.

[stagz]

Dec 9, 2019 15:00:07 GMT -5 stags74 said:

I wanted to write off the lack of student attendance at Sunday’s game to the beginning of final exams today. However, after reviewing the academic calendar I see that today 12/9 is the last day of scheduled classes and exams do not begin until Thursday morning of this week. So apparently student apathy towards FF men’s hoop continues whether or not the students need to get into a bus to see the game in WBA or simply walk across campus to “classic” AH . There was a good crowd generated by what appeared to be the community( children and parents). If I was the school that is the demographic that I would be promoting to generate increased attendance.

And stringing some wins together would not hurt. Think that has been an an achilles heel for Ffld since Cooley. How many times did we go on a 5 game winning streak? Not many.

[FU73]

There was a good crowd generated by what appeared to be the community( children and parents). If I was the school that is the demographic that I would be promoting to generate increased attendance.

And stringing some wins together would not hurt. Think that has been an an achilles heel for Ffld since Cooley. How many times did we go on a 5 game winning streak? Not many.

2019-20 Home Attendance
Bucknell (WBA) L - Home & Season Opener -1,083
UMass (WBA) L - 1,087
William & Mary (AH) L - 2,161 (87% filled)

Except for the die-hard Stag fan, Stag Basketball is an entertainment option for students, our area alumni, families, the University Community and the local community. It has to be a fun experience, it has to be enjoyable to watch and it has to be convenient and reasonably priced to get them out of their homes, away from their televisions, off their devices and out of the dorms. The lack of NCAA Tournaments (last was in 1997), NIT bids (last was in 2011), the awful 24 loss Sydney Johnson years and the losing record so far (2-7) in the Jay Young rebuilding year is not helping getting more people interested. The "Coming Soon" new Alumni Hall Convocation Center will help attendance but is there anything in the lobby of AH to let people, especially the locals even know about it?

The 112th annual Battle of the Bronx game between A-10 Fordham (5-3) and MAAC Manhattan (4-3) had 2,298 fans at Fordham's 3,200 seat Rose Hill Gym on Saturday afternoon.