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Post by stag76 on Jan 24, 2024 13:43:50 GMT -5
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Post by FU73 on Jan 24, 2024 15:12:04 GMT -5
 "I'm so proud of every single person in this program and how they've all contributed to our collective success," Coach Thibault-DuDonis said. "Nothing we accomplish is due to one individual, and I'm so thankful to have the staff, student-athletes, and support that I have to allow our program to be recognized on a national stage."
"The culture and family that Coach Carly has created here goes to show how much she pours into our team and the community," Senior Captain Lauren Beach said. "She is the definition of a selfless, relentless leader and the best role model we could ask for. Coach Carly is the coach that players dream of playing for, and we have the privilege of learning from her every day. We are extremely proud and grateful for Coach Carly, and know that there is still much more to come."
"As a team we are extremely proud of Coach Carly and we know this is just one of the many accomplishments that she will achieve in her lifetime as a coach," Senior guard Janelle Brown said. "For anyone that knows Coach Carly, she is one of the greatest motivators, role models, and people of influence you will ever meet. The amount of time she invests in us as a team and tries to get the best out of us each and every day is what sets her apart. Not to mention her selflessness, passion, and overly competitive personality. We are ecstatic for her and this accomplishment and grateful to be part of her journey." |
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Post by ctbobs on Feb 8, 2024 18:21:12 GMT -5
Terrific article in the Hartford Courant on-line tonight about CTD and the Stags. Can’t link it from where I am, plus it’s behind a paywall. But a great read if you can access it
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Post by jenningsbeach on Feb 8, 2024 23:39:04 GMT -5
Coming into her own: With a top coaching pedigree, Carly Thibault-DuDonis has Fairfield women’s basketball buying in, winning big
By LORI RILEY | lriley@courant.com | Hartford Courant
PUBLISHED: February 8, 2024 at 5:40 p.m. | UPDATED: February 8, 2024 at 5:41 p.m.
FAIRFIELD – When Carly Thibault-DuDonis came to Fairfield in mid-April of 2022, Lou Lopez-Senechal, Fairfield’s MAAC Player of the Year and the team’s leading scorer, transferred to UConn a few days later to play her final season.
Another player transferred to Tulane and another to Saint Peters for their graduate seasons. The Stags’ top 3-point shooter and their third-leading scorer graduated. The remaining players weren’t sure what to expect. Their coach, Joe Frager, had just retired after his team won the MAAC tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001.
At the press conference that day, Thibault-DuDonis stood before her new players and told them she knew that they didn’t come here for her, but that she came to Fairfield for them. Her first season was decent, 15-15, and even though she didn’t have a lot of offense, she instilled a defensive mindset to offset that.
It didn’t take long for Thibault-DuDonis to make her mark. This season, the Stags (20-1) are one of the hottest teams in women’s college basketball. Thursday they won their 18th straight game, a 76-49 victory over Marist, in front of 1,891 fans gathered for a Kids Day matinee. Their only loss came Nov. 12 at Vanderbilt, 73-70.
The Stags are getting votes in the AP poll and have the longest win streak in the country behind South Carolina (21-0).
“I would say it’s coming together a little sooner than we anticipated,” Thibault-DuDonis said Thursday. “But I do think this is where we intended to go.”
It’s a bit of a surprise, considering this year’s starters are mainly transfers and freshmen. Freshman forward Meghan Anderson leads the team in scoring (16.9 ppg) and rebounding (5.2). Junior guard Kendall McGruder, a transfer from the University of North Texas, led the Stags Thursday with 16 points. Senior guard Izabela Nicoletti-Leite, who transferred from Florida State last year, had six assists, as did freshman guard Kaety L’Amoreaux.
“I kind of thought, ‘Well, they’ll be better this year,’” Carly’s father, Washington Mystics general manager Mike Thibault, said Wednesday from Belgium, where he is working as an assistant coach for the U.S. national team. “I thought they’d be in the top three in the league.
“And here they are. It’s fun to go watch them. You can tell they’ve totally bought in to how they’re playing.”
Senior guard Janelle Brown, who decided to stay at Fairfield when Thibault-DuDonis came on board, didn’t start her first two years and is now the team’s second-leading scorer and the team leader. She had a double-double Thursday, 15 points and 10 assists, along with six steals and six rebounds.
“I felt like I was trusting my gut,” Brown said. “I was going to stick with my roots. I’m Fairfield through and through.”
Brown did not make a good impression the first day of workouts when she was late because she had just gotten off a plane from Puerto Rico.
“(Thibault-DuDonis) was like, ‘You know I usually make my players do 6 a.m. (running),” Brown said. “I’m like, ‘Coach, we’re not going to start off on the wrong foot so I’m going to do that 6 a.m.’ So I ran.
“That was our first day. Her first day as a coach. And I was late. From that day on, she’s been holding me to that high standard, pushing me to my full potential and I can’t thank her enough for that.”
The Stags have embraced an uptempo style and defensive intensity. They are fourth in the country in scoring defense and lead the MAAC both offensively (74.4 ppg) and defensively (53.4 ppg allowed).
Thibault-DuDonis, 32, spent her formative years in Connecticut when her father coached the Connecticut Sun, playing at East Lyme High School. She went on to play at Monmouth and got her first coaching job at Florida State. She drew from that experience, as well as her assistant coaching stints at Eastern Michigan, Mississippi State and Minnesota, in forming her own ideas of how she wanted to coach.
From Florida State coach Sue Semrau, she learned about connecting with her players, caring about the “student-athlete experience,” as she put it. From Eastern Michigan coach Tory Verdi, she learned about preparing for games and scouting. Her defensive philosophy and approach to building defensive habits comes from Vic Schaefer at Mississippi State and at Minnesota under Lindsay Whalen, she learned that she had a say in the team process and brought that to Fairfield with her.
Thibault-DuDonis enjoyed being an assistant coach and wasn’t so sure she wanted to be a head coach. She still doesn’t love public speaking or being in the spotlight. Her father, in fact, said he is surprised how naturally she interacts with recruits and others.
“When she was young and thinking about coaching, the part I wondered about – she was kind of quiet when she was young – was the recruiting part,” Mike said. “She’s a natural at it. I mean, I listen to her on the phone with a recruit and I’m like, ‘That’s my daughter?’”
He laughed.
“She has a way of connecting,” he said. “You can see it in her coaching on the court, during practice in how she interacts with players. I think that’s the part I’m most proud of.”
She talks to her father or mother Nanci or brother, Mystics coach Eric Thibault, pretty much every day.
“There’s maybe a handful of times I’ve offered advice to her,” said Mike, who watches all Fairfield’s games online and has been to about five games in person. “She will talk to us more about, if it’s basketball, not Xs and Os as much, but about players’ personalities, reaching kids. She doesn’t need much advice from us.”
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Post by stag76 on Feb 9, 2024 15:23:13 GMT -5
^Two items concerning Coach Carly which aren’t included in the article:
1. She is 4th all-time at Monmouth on made three pointers with 166.
2. She was the valedictorian of her 2013 class at Monmouth.
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