Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Manhattan 74.2 at CANISIUS 82.1, 7:00 PM ET Monmouth 68.7 at FAIRFIELD 69.9, 7:00 PM ET Iona 95.0 at NIAGARA 84.5, 7:00 PM ET Siena 67.7 at SAINT PETER'S 67.8, 7:00 PM ET
The Vegas line has the Stags as a 2.5 point favorite.
From the ASBURY PARK PRESS: "Fairfield-Monmouth: Three Things to Look For"
If Monmouth can survive these next three road games, it gets four straight at home before closing out the regular season at Siena. After the jump, we present three things to watch for when Monmouth makes the return trip to take on a Fairfield team that has won just once in MAAC-play.
1. A change at the point: Josh James is making his first start tonight at point guard in place of Justin Robinson, who will play, but has been slowed by a sore foot and is just a little banged up 23 games into his freshman season....
2. Factor from the first game that needs to be cleaned up: One thing that jumps out is the fact that Fairfield had 17 second-chance points, which is simply too many.... Fairfield is a decent rebounding team, ranking sixth in the MAAC with 11.1 offensive rebounds per game, but 17 second-chance points against that team is not good enough.
3. Slow down Marcus Gilbert and Maurice Barrow: Fairfield’s two leading scorers at 13.5 and 12.8 points per game, respectively, Gilbert and Barrow nearly fueled a road upset of Monmouth in the first meeting by combining for 39 points and going 9-for-20 from 3-point range. There have been few bright spots for Fairfield, but Gilbert and Barrow, the reigning MAAC Sixth Man of the Year, have played well. Slow one, or even both of those guys down, and Monmouth should find itself in position for a road win.
Stags favored. Our schedule is going thru the stretch where we will be playing the teams that we had 2nd half leads and lost .... Monmouth, @siena, @st Peters, and @niagara. Need to make significant progress against these 4.... at least 3-1.
We are are a mirror image of Monmouth in 2 ways..... The play 2 frosh guards like us and they play two 6-5's as their leading scorers (Jones and Nicholas)... just like us. This will be a barometer game to see if we are improving.
Also, we could be going on a 5 game winnning streak
Losing, Grennan & Davis left at home in the prior game, plus open recruiting of multiple players to an already over filled roster, can't be making the players feel too good about themselves. I'd be shocked in the next four if we're better than 1-3. I don't know what Vegas is thinking tonight.
Also, we could be going on a 5 game winnning streak....
Other than Canisius and Rider, the 6 remaining teams that the Stags will play having losing records and are PIG teams.
Stags at Monmouth - 3 point Loss Siena at WBA - 8 point Loss Stags at Quinnipiac - 4 point Loss Stags at Rider - 8 point Loss Niagara at WBA - 4 point Loss Canisius at WBA - 26 point Loss St. Peter's at WBA - 1 point Loss Stags at Marist - 19 point Loss
Remaining MAAC Schedule (4 Home & 4 Away): 2/7/2014 * Monmouth University Bridgeport, Conn. H 7 PM on ESPN3 2/10/2014 * Siena College Albany, N.Y. A 7 pm 2/13/2014 * Quinnipiac University Bridgeport, Conn. H 8:30 pm on ESPN3 2/15/2014 * Rider University Bridgeport, Conn. H 4 pm 2/20/2014 * Niagara University Niagara University, N.Y. A 7 pm
2/22/2014 * Canisius College Buffalo, N.Y. A 2 pm 2/25/2014 * Saint Peter's University Jersey City, N.J. A 7 pm 2/28/2014 * Marist College Bridgeport, Conn. H 7 pm
Stags favored. Our schedule is going thru the stretch where we will be playing the teams that we had 2nd half leads and lost .... Monmouth, @siena, @st Peters, and @niagara. Need to make significant progress against these 4.... at least 3-1.
We are are a mirror image of Monmouth in 2 ways..... The play 2 frosh guards like us and they play two 6-5's as their leading scorers (Jones and Nicholas)... just like us. This will be a barometer game to see if we are improving.
Also, we could be going on a 5 game winnning streak
JS, I hope you are right. I seem to remember a prediction you made during the first season of Cooley when you said the team was about to go on a winning streak even though the record was dismal at the time. And they indeed did so. But as far as I am concerned I say let's win a game first before we can predict any streaks. That should be the teams' mantra anyway. The old cliche', "one game at a time."
The schedule is easier the rest of the way so wins are possible. But the biggest obstacles to a turnaround are:
1) lack of confidence 2) not knowing how to close out games 3) fear 4) dissention
We have enough talent to beat the bottom 4 teams in the MAAC but we probably lack the confidence to do so.
Well since point #2 will probably play an important part in any win I would think that overcoming that problem quickly (like tonight) might go a long way towards clearing up the problems of #1, #3 and #4.
Post by reindeerfan on Feb 7, 2014 16:25:25 GMT -5
Yeah. Just like losing can be infectious winning can be too. I thought we would have had some momentum after knocking off Manhattan I have been surprised that wasn't more of a springboard to other wins.
