A more appropriate title for the article would be: "Iona's high recruiting of JUCO and transfer players has ushered in new era in MAAC".
I think Hawk's comment points to the basic discussion with whom do you want to play.
FU has some important decisions to make if they don't want to become the doormats of the MAAC.
When you have other schools playing by different rules or standards, your ability to compete becomes increasingly difficult.
People point to Stanford, Georgetown and others who have excellent academic standards and great sports programs.
But, it becomes more difficult when you are Fairfield who does not have the academic or sports reputation at that level.
That said, my point is FU will not accept how you need to recruit in D1 men's basketball at this level.
I will not go into my rants that we should be in the Patriot League, but we are in limbo. We want to be competitive, but we are not willing to do the things that will make you competitive in the league as do some other schools--nothing illegal but certainly living in the gray.
So if you want to compete, you need to play by the same rules as your competition. That says you move to a like minded league OR start doing the things that will make you a top performer every year. The FU approach has kept us out of the NCAA for years (and we got lucky in 1997 when we finished the season at the bottom of or the MAAC). Even if you do compete at the top of the MAAC for a few years, history has told us you never have the horses to take it all, unless you get lucky.
My point is, IMO at this level you cannot have both ways in spite of what many on this board believe. FU has always shied away from JUCOs and as we have recently learned, that will not work in the MAAC. And, the great transfer from 4 year schools are rare (Rakim was a very unique situation).
Either way, make a decision and stop this mediocre approach. I know which way I would take it, but at this point I don't care. Just do it!
Paulie, I get your argument and I am half convinced that you are right. But when I look at the lineup of MAAC schools and think that Fairfield cant outrecruit them I come to the conclusion that we have had the most inept bunch of recruiters in D1 history.
Majority of mid-major recruits want to run and score, we walk and dont score.
"Teams are playing faster and freer in our league," the 54-year old Iona head coach said this past weekend. "It's a fun league to be in. People like to see offense. Everyone plays hard defensively, but everyone's got some very good offensive players.".
So do the fans. The last two seasons, including the current season, has seen a drop in home attendance at the WBA from Ed Cooley's final year in 2010-11. Less fans are going to Bridgeport to watch the Stags:
Actually our Pace of play this year is ranked 181st, which is our quickest pace of play since TOT's last year.
People want to to see wins and teams that are battling for 1st place. Sure it helps a bit if offense/tempo was better, but the MAAC is ranked #1 in Tempo/Pace of play, and I don't see how that has generated significantly more interest.
It all comes down to winning. And for the most part, Academics of HS kids at Fairfield is similar to most teams in the MAAC. Where there is a difference is that we have NOT taken advantage of JUCOs (Glover, Laury and others), Transfers with playing experience/success (Momo, Rakim, Wade, Ajou, Baron, Washington as oppossed to Grennan, Gilbert, Spann, Evanovich Oglesby and Mamdou). And 5th year seniors.
Why couldn't we get Momo Jones or Glover as Iona did??? A Needham-Momo combo would have looked just as good as a Machado-Momo
Last Edit: Feb 28, 2014 11:57:45 GMT -5 by JoeStag
Actually our Pace of play this year is ranked 181st, which is our quickest pace of play since TOT's last year.
People want to to see wins and teams that are battling for 1st place. Sure it helps a bit if offense/tempo was better, but the MAAC is ranked #1 in Tempo/Pace of play, and I don't see how that has generated significantly more interest.
It all comes down to winning. And for the most part, Academics of HS kids at Fairfield is similar to most teams in the MAAC. Where there is a difference is that we have NOT taken advantage of JUCOs (Glover, Laury and others), Transfers with playing experience/success (Momo, Rakim, Wade, Ajou, Baron, Washington as oppossed to Grennan, Gilbert, Spann, Evanovich Oglesby and Mamdou). And 5th year seniors.
Why couldn't we get Momo Jones or Glover as Iona did??? A Needham-Momo combo would have looked just as good as a Machado-Momo
Well if you can believe some of the scuttlebut that has been going around (particularly from this forum), perhaps we are going to find out if Sydney and the coaches are going to be able to pick the RIGHT transfer or JUCO player(s) during this offseason in order to try to get the program moving back to respectability quickly. And also will the 4 HS seniors already committed be the right fit? If the new infusion of talent, mixing with the best holdovers (Marcus, KJ, Amadou) work well together, then maybe this season will be looked at as an anomaly in a year or so. But if not, then unfortunately the SJ regime will have failed. So truthfully the pressure is on. A lot is riding on how these new guys perform next season.
Post by ctghostman on Feb 28, 2014 14:27:39 GMT -5
Wade wasn't a disaster - he was, worst case, solid - we hyped him to be more than that. We also never saw him play for the coach who recruited him. We'll never know if Wade in ECs style would have been different than SJs style.
Wade wasn't a disaster - he was, worst case, solid - we hyped him to be more than that. We also never saw him play for the coach who recruited him. We'll never know if Wade in ECs style would have been different than SJs style.
If playing PG an average of over 25 minutes a game and winning an average of over 20 games each year (not to mention being on a NCAA tournament team) qualifies as a "disaster," then I would like to know what the kid would have to achieve to get a little higher rating. Of course you are right Ghost, yes he was overhyped coming in, but then again his style and numbers (especially assists/turnovers) were very similar as a Cougar and as a Stag.
Wade wasn't a disaster - he was, worst case, solid - we hyped him to be more than that. We also never saw him play for the coach who recruited him. We'll never know if Wade in ECs style would have been different than SJs style.
Wade wasn't a disaster - he was, worst case, solid - we hyped him to be more than that. We also never saw him play for the coach who recruited him. We'll never know if Wade in ECs style would have been different than SJs style.
Wade was not a disaster. I liked Wade. He was overhyped. But he would be playing 40 minutes on this team. He however was not as good a fit playing side by side with Needham. Needham was not a high percentage shooter, and Wade needed someone like that to get the ball to. Needham didn't need Wade like another shooter might because Needham's game was more about creating his own shot. The two playing together forced us to play short at the 2, which gave the opponents two guard more outside looks.
Wade was a good talent but he was not surrounded by the right group of players to take advantage of his skills. During the Wade-Needham era we did not often have the right combinations of skills on the floor together. . If that team had one high percentage shooter, they would have won the maac tourney both years. Even though we didn't have the right high percentage shooter on that squad, I felt the team played its best when one of Wade or Needham was out, as it forced Sydney to use the personnel differently.
Last Edit: Feb 28, 2014 17:08:50 GMT -5 by reindeerfan
Plenty of our players need off season development plans. Hope Sydney agrees and helps them with this. It is a shame not to be aggressively developing Malcolm's skills.
Speaking of hyped up transfers, what about Malcolm? The jury is still out on him. Why can't we catch a break with some of these players?
I do not think Malcolm was overhyped. I think most people knew that he did not play hardly at all the last 2 years and he would be rusty. In addition his offense was a work-in-progress. However, he still has a lot of Potential.
Wade's success was measured in W-L's. Our record was much better when Wade was in the line-up. When he was injured or not in the Line-up our record was under .500. Thats what he meant to the team. In addition, our perimeter defense was outstanding with Wade, Needham and Nickerson. The quickness of those 3 made it very difficult for our opponents to even attempt a 3-point shot. We were ranked 3rd in the nation in allowing the fewest amount of 3-point attempts.
I think we can easily see the difference between this years 7-win team and last years 19 win team was in our guards.