Post by dalydoseofhoops on Aug 9, 2021 0:09:11 GMT -5
Spoke to Jay on Friday. I have an even better feeling than I did going into the summer, and I thought this was a top 5 team as soon as Taj and Jesus came back:
So Leach isn’t practicing fully yet after surgery last season . Jay said he will be ready in September. I hope so
Willis at 6-9 has been a surprise and could be an all MAAC player. Good early signing there.
Best news. Maidoh hits 210 pounds. I hope he puts it all together like we saw from Cook. And Jason has so much upside. Great that all three with Crisler are healthy.
Jay mentioned redshirts. Seems likely. Just not a lot of minutes available
With Alumni Hall having been demolished to make way for a new convocation center that will open in 2022, the Stags will once again be playing their home games at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport this coming year, perhaps affording the opportunity to create an uptick in fan support to supplement the buzz already created by the new building literally in the middle of the Fairfield campus.
“I think it’s a game-changer for us and for the campus, quite honestly,” said Young. “It’s going to be a centerpiece and it gives us a brand-new place where students can roll out of bed and create a real home-court advantage. I’m down there all the time yelling at the construction workers to keep going when they’re on their 15-minute break. The sooner we get in there, the better.”
Before the ribbon is cut on the future home of Fairfield basketball, however, the present remains in a season of upside, and Young is confident that the growth at the end of February and beginning of March will only manifest itself further and in greater detail over a full season.
“Guys enjoy playing here,” he said. “For us, I think it’s important that we build and get guys better. Sustained success for us is to develop guys and get them better. I like this group, and we’ve got a long way to go — I realize that — but I like where we’re at as a program. We’ve got to win more games, make that move now in year three, where we’ve got a winning record, competing again for another championship and playing in the upper half of our league. Those are my expectations for this year’s team.”
“We have a picture in our locker room of the final score of that game last year, and I don’t want our guys to forget that feeling. We want to get back there and win that game.”
Actually, with Pitino in the conference, I’m less euphoric than usual. I believe he will pull things we can’t or would never stoop to, and his recruits will always be a bit more highly rated based on his rep. It’s a classic question: can a squeaky clean program of perennial underdogs, i.e. the Stags, succeed against a win-at-all-costs program? It’s great for rallying our fans though.
…. and so it begins as it does every year, stag euphoria!
Yes of course there is optimism at the beginning of every season, and obviously a lot of times in the past, optimism at the beginning led to frustrations later when things didn't go quite as planned. However in reading the above quotes from Jay Young, if you look closely I think you will see that he is really being fair and quite honest in his expectations for the team this year. "We've got to win more games, make that move now in year three, where we've got a winning record, competing again for another championship and playing in the upper half of our league" is exactly the way he has stated it. So based upon how the second half of last year's campaign went and who is coming back I don't think those are unreasonable expectations at all. Is that being euphoric or over-estimating the prognosis of what should happen this winter? Maybe I think of the term a little bit differently than you but in my mind that is just being realistic. Anyway I do know that by stating it this way, if for some reason the Stags fall short of these what I would call modest goals, Jay would have a lot of criticism to answer to in March, and that would only be fair.
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2021 13:29:36 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
Actually, with Pitino in the conference, I’m less euphoric than usual. I believe he will pull things we can’t or would never stoop to, and his recruits will always be a bit more highly rated based on his rep. It’s a classic question: can a squeaky clean program of perennial underdogs, i.e. the Stags, succeed against a win-at-all-costs program? It’s great for rallying our fans though.
Yeah unfortunately you're right, with Pitino in the league, chances are the Gaels are always going to have the most talent and coach (no matter what you think of him as a person). So yes as a fan, euphoria (like thinking of being favorites to win the MAAC Tournament) is a hard position to justify. OTOH compared to what the make-up of the Stags are now compared to the first two years of where they were under Jay Young should lead to a certain amount of optimism that things are at least headed in the right direction, should it not? I guess in summary though, all the other nine league teams in the conference not named Iona will have had the same problem as Fairfield. But that still doesn't mean the Stags can't have a good overall season and put themselves in a position where they will at least have a chance to win in the end similar to last year. And who knows what will happen with slick Rick in the future?
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2021 8:54:23 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
"I’m down there all the time yelling at the construction workers to keep going when they’re on their 15-minute break. The sooner we get in there, the better.”
LOL...that is hysterical!!! :-)
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2021 10:16:36 GMT -5 by Stagophile
Post by dannynoonan on Aug 9, 2021 10:19:14 GMT -5
I'm cautiously optimistic.
There can be such a fine line between winning and losing in college basketball. Hymes hits that short shot in OT and we finish 7-17 with a PIG loss. But he misses and we go on a run to end the season in respectable fashion and create optimism.
Pitino is taking some swings at several 5-star and 4-star recruits. He has whiffed on all of them so far as they are committing to high level programs.
Pitino is taking some swings at several 5-star and 4-star recruits. He has whiffed on all of them so far as they are committing to high level programs.
But he has hit on a few 3s, and that sure beats the average MAAC roster made up of mostly 2s.
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2021 13:31:02 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
There can be such a fine line between winning and losing in college basketball. Hymes hits that short shot in OT and we finish 7-17 with a PIG loss. But he misses and we go on a run to end the season in respectable fashion and create optimism.
Agree. Our regular season games often seemed so hard to win but easy to lose. Just got by the Jaspers but cruised vs. Monmouth. Who can know? No guarantees of anything come next tournament. But I think we will have a good team out of the gate and a good season. As for Willis, he didn’t have great numbers either when signed early and VC just had one other offer, Kennesaw State. So not a sure thing. But when you get a player in the gym and start working with him, you can look ahead a bit. I hope Willis works out because Cook is well on his way. And real good bigs don’t usually come at us in pairs.
Post by reindeerfan on Aug 10, 2021 18:15:01 GMT -5
I think we have an interesting trio in Maidoh, Cooke and Willis. I expect Maidoh and Cooke to advance there games this year, I think rebounding and shot blocking should be improved, not sure if we will see a ton of offense other than put-backs but its the preseason and I should be wildly optimistic right?
Last Edit: Aug 10, 2021 18:15:23 GMT -5 by reindeerfan
I think we have an interesting trio in Maidoh, Cooke and Willis. I expect Maidoh and Cooke to advance there games this year, I think rebounding and shot blocking should be improved, not sure if we will see a ton of offense other than put-backs but its the preseason and I should be wildly optimistic right?
Well in the article Jay did mention the possibility of red-shirting a couple of players based on the makeup of the roster as it now stands. I'm not sure that would be a great idea based on how often kids tend to leave a program after a year or two for greener pastures after getting "coached up" by the original school, although come to think of it the Stags didn't get hurt at all by the transfer route this spring. So who knows if that would be a good idea if that indeed happened. Anyway, again if it did happen I would have to believe Willis might be the first in line because of Maidoh and Cook probably being ahead of him. As far as both Chris and Supreme are concerned I would imagine some improvement on offense from both if only incrementally. Actually the latter at times showed off a pretty good low post game where he could score off of paint touches. He was of course very inconsistent at that, so if he could get better in that area, that could really help the cause. And Chris has a little bit of a mid-post type game to augment his athleticism, something that might come in handy as he increases his strength. Anyway it will be interesting to see how Jay handles the situation. The Stags have a chance to make the center position much more a spot of strength then they have had since Kasibabu left if these guys do indeed get better with their games.
I'm very excited and interested to see how this Stag team starts this year. As Jay said, "year 3 we need to start winning more games". I like the pieces we have in place and was pleasantly surprised we didn't lose anybody through transfer. It kind of illustrates the players have bought into Jay's system and believe they can do some great things as a group and be the change this program needs. I'm cautiously optimistic that this group will play at a much higher level this year. I know every team went through Covid last year, but I believe the uncertainty last year with Wojcik & Crisler waivers really affected this team early on. Also having no offseason with so many new faces & the previous class of Freshman recruits especially Madioh & AJ not really having a summer to develop showed early on. This team needs to build on the momentum from the MAAC tournament run from last year. I think Iona will be the team to beat this year (and probably every year). I also believe the conference as a whole will be stronger this year. With all this being said, the proof will be on the floor. Go Stags!