No. 10 Saint Peter’s – 70 | No. 7 Fairfield – 52 Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall | ATLANTIC CITY, NJ Box Score (XML)
Defending MAAC Champion, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks continued its postseason MAAC success, picking up a 70-52 upset victory over Fairfield in the first round on Tuesday night. The Stags never trailed in the opening stanza, gaining a lead as high as nine points on two separate occasions. With less than five minutes on the clock, the Peacocks outscored Fairfield 11-2, powered by an 8-0 run to close the half, knotting the game at 28-28. Saint Peter’s Jaylen Murray would score all eight of the Peacock’s points during the run, hitting a pair of triples along the way. The Peacocks would carry that momentum right into the second half, scoring 15 of the first 20 points over the course of nine minutes, taking a double-digit lead at 43-33. Nine would be the closest Fairfield could get the rest of the night as Saint Peter’s built leads as large as 17 points twice, before its largest advantage of night (18 points) with the final score. Murray finished with a season-high 23 points, to lead all other players. Isiah Dasher scored 13 points and Kyle Cardaci added 11 in the victory. Fairfield had two players surpass double-figures, with Chris Maidoh leading the way with 12 points and Allan Jeanne-Rose totaling 10 points. Saint Peter’s will advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinal round, with a meeting against No. 2 Rider on the docket at 9:30pm. maacsports.com/news/2023/3/8/buyb1-2023-hercules-tires-maac-mens-basketball-championship-first-round-recap.aspx
"Congratulations to Saint Peter's; we got outplayed tonight," said Head Coach Jay Young. "But I told the guys in the locker room that we'll get back to work and we'll be back. We'll take a look at everything, focus on what we need to improve on, and do everything we can to be in a better position when we come back here next year."
“They beat us at our own game tonight,” he said. “We’re one of the top 15 teams in the country defending the three and they’ve struggled to shoot the three but made nine on us.”
“You gotta make some plays in this tournament to move on,” Young said. “We had done a good job on (Jaylen) Murray in the previous two games, but tonight, we could not stop him,” Young said
“Jaylen Murray played like an elite guard tonight,” Young said. “We didn’t have a lot of answers for him.”
"My sophomore year, I missed the tournament and it was a terrible feeling," said Maidoh. "So I was focusing on rehab and staying in shape to make sure I did everything I could do to be out there tonight."
“Our school, our president and our athletic director have been tremendous,” Young said. “We have as nice of a facility as you can have in the country and now it’s our job to keep it full and win games there.”
Bottom line we have a beautiful facility .. this Coach is inept , and most of us agree on this forum he must go and go now . The kids look like they have no confidence in him , his rotations and adjustments during games are awful , in short he does not know what he is doing . It’s embarrassing and if the administration does not see this after this years performance they will never see it !! The players and fans deserve a Coach who is knowledgeable and can inspire .. this guy has neither … time to go
The bottom line is that you can be the best X's and O's guy in the world, but if you don't have the talent, it's tough to win. RECRUITING is the key and to be successful, you need a STAFF that can walk into any and every gym and is instantly recognized and in a POSITIVE LIGHT. If that's not the case, you need to outwork EVERYONE so that becomes the case. IMO, we have not seen that from this staff and it won't change by reshuffling the deck.
Well, here we are. The morning after… what a wonderful performance last night, luckily in front of 11 actual fans in the stands. Here’s where I am: the MAAC is dead. Playing in AC, in the middle of the week on ESPN44 with low grade video quality and announcers who barely know the teams is the absolute worst. And, what do they do? They renew for 3 more years. I wonder if the A-Sun would take us? Re: Fairfield hoops, nothing is going to change; we can and will and have complained and complained about the lack of a competitive product and nothing happens. Read that again: “a competitive product.” We’re not asking to be Gonzaga or Creighton. We just - most of us - want a competitive product. We can bark all we want about resources but, the simple and indisputable fact is that, even with ample resources dedicated to most sports at Fairfield, we cannot produce a competitive product. Instead, we have teams that struggle to score, struggle to defend, struggle to compete; anyone who watched last night (or many games this season) will agree that we were not competitive. At all. We have the facilities, we have the “resources,” so what is the problem? I get it, there’s an element of secret sauce but that sauce generally takes a competitive program and elevates it to elite status. While that would be nice, how about just fielding a team that is prepared, competitive, able to not go 8mins a game without scoring a point, able to crack 60 points consistently, able to compete. We got doored by most of the teams in our conference this season - look at their RPIs. This isn’t murderer’s row we’re facing day in and day out..
This isn’t a prosecution of the players. They try, they do what they’re told to do. It’s who’s delivering those instructions l. That’s where the blame lies. But, also, using that logic, the coach does what the AD says and the AD does what the President says. So, the message should be to Nemec: clean house. We lost arguably the most successful coach in school history in Kress (btw, no replacement yet), we have regressed in Lax from being nationally ranked to losing games to Bryant, Nova, etc., our hoops team is now at or near the late Mitch years of competitiveness and there seems to be no desire to shake things up. What else needs to happen?
So, we’ll all lament our fortunes here. Nothing will change and we’ll have the exact same debates/discussions next year as well. Ned?? Ned Ryerson..
In my career, I have made hiring mistakes. It happens.
The key is to recognize it and act.
If a manager can't or won't do that, they are not performing in their job.
As we have seen from the Giant recent history, finding winning coaches is tough. The MAAC is a tough conference where every game seems to come down to the final 5 mins and are usually close. If with your personnel, you can’t figure out how to win those games, there is a problem. Every strategy needs to be on the table in a conference like ours to pull out Ws. You have to adapt to your personnel and the game to win. If you can’t, you lose. I don’t know if running out looking for a new coach is the answer. I am not on the inside or close enough to the situation, but if our coach is not using every strategy to win, not adapting to personnel and games, there is a problem. If recruiting prospects for this season, don’t include 2 guards with speed that can score, there is a problem. These are the things that need to be evaluated as we move forward from here.
So we are saddled with a Head Coach and staff that can't recruit all that well, despite many more resources than other schools in the MAAC (which has become a decidedly mediocre conference or worse). I never coached at the college (or even high school) level, so I can't declare that they do not coach well, but I can certainly observe the product on the floor: an offense that is plodding and nearly inept at times, with prolonged scoring droughts expected and the norm in most games; a defense that doesn't fit the recruited personnel and remarkable stubbornness in sticking with that defense, even when the opponent is exploiting and gashing it; variable effort, focus and intensity.
I am not an insider. I do not know the current thoughts of the administration. I do know that like every other off season for many years I will go ahead and renew my season tickets, because I love the school and love basketball, even though I attend fewer and fewer games each season because play on the floor is poor, slow, tedious and not entertaining. So maybe alumni and fans like me are the problem by continuing unconditional support?
As we have seen from the Giant recent history, finding winning coaches is tough. The MAAC is a tough conference where every game seems to come down to the final 5 mins and are usually close. If with your personnel, you can’t figure out how to win those games, there is a problem. Every strategy needs to be on the table in a conference like ours to pull out Ws. You have to adapt to your personnel and the game to win. If you can’t, you lose. I don’t know if running out looking for a new coach is the answer. I am not on the inside or close enough to the situation, but if our coach is not using every strategy to win, not adapting to personnel and games, there is a problem. If recruiting prospects for this season, don’t include 2 guards with speed that can score, there is a problem. These are the things that need to be evaluated as we move forward from here.
But most recent Giant history shows you if you do find the 'right' coach, the 'culture' can change immediately with positive results. We have hired 'nice guys' and 'nice' student - athletes with below par results. It's time to assess and evaluate the entire program - top to bottom. It truly befuddles me that we do not have one true all-league athlete (besides Cook). Our guards are at the bottom of the league in terms of creativity, athleticisim and scoring ability. Most concerning is that there's no real help on the way. Our red-shirts are of the same profile. Matt Curtis will help but not significantly (if you are expecting him to be the 'guy' you will be disappointed).
Fairfield is at a crossroads, we need to hire someone with an 'edge', proven track record recruiting and a true vision for success to match our new facility. Complain all we want about Iona (Pitino), Loyola (Patsos), Niagara (Paulus), and many others - they outrecruit us, outplay us and defeat us on a regular basis with less assets. Manhattan (2 loses) and St. Peters (last night) in total rebuild and program still find a way. Truly disturbing!
And all this as we get to ready to celebrate the 49th birthday of one of the stars of the LAST Fairfield team to get to the NCAA's, Greg Francis (born 4/4 1974)
I’m writing my letter to Nemec today. If the were corporate America and your top two product lines / divisions (bball and lax) had the results they did the last several years despite increased investment, the person overseeing this (AD) and the product heads (Young and Baxter) would be canned.
There are millions of dollars invested here, this is D1 sports. It should be a results oriented business and frankly the results aren’t there. Someone needs to be held accountable otherwise don’t bother asking alumni to contribute money to support either program if you aren’t going to value a winning product. The sample sizes are large enough at this point.
From a talent perspective, this team needs a massive upgrade at the guard positions. I agree with others... it's going to take multiple guys. There are things I wish our forwards would do better and I think they can improve - but the Stags aren't losing because of them.
Sydney Johnson, Fairfield Men's Basketball (5 winning seasons and 4 postseasons) 2011-2019 (116-147)(.441), (68-84)(.447)
Jay Young, Fairfield Men's Basketball (0 winning seasons and 0 postseasons) 2019-20 (12-20)(8-12) 2020-21 (10-17)(7-11) 2021-22 (15-18)(8-12) 2022-23 (13-18)(9-11) Total (50-73)(.406), (32-46)(.410)
Those in charge at Fairfield University: Mark R. Nemec, President (president@fairfield.edu) Paul Schlickmann, Vice President for Athletics (kgeiling@fairfield.edu) Zach Dayton, Deputy Director of Athletics (zdayton@fairfield.edu) Dr. Brett Burchette, Director of Athletic Development/Senior Associate Director of Athletics (bburchette@fairfield.edu) Mike Jarvis II, Associate Director of Athletics/Associate Director of Athletic Development (mjarvis@fairfield.edu)
I saw the arena as a springboard. It has not received its due because of lousy basketball and the snub by Ensor /ESPN on the ESPN featured game.
Nemec has to pay attention. People are polite, but I’m sure he’ll catch on overhearing the buzz at alumni events and such. Sports is a common interest and topic of discussion that unites all generations of Fairfield friends and alumni.
Schlickmann is undoubtedly handcuffed by his own poor decision on Young, made worse by the extension. Maybe this recent embarrassment at least has him thinking about what he has done. He has to draw the line here and give Jay an ultimatum. If he doesn’t, expect more wish-washy talk next year. The excuses will be rolled out…injuries, delay in construction, pandemic, schedule, etc. The thing is we are not close in having a MAAC leading team. Other coaches strike me as gutsier, more motivating, more creative, more perceptive, more objective, more persuasive with recruits, etc. The lack of a winning season speaks for itself.
Listen, I share the disappointment of everyone here. But the anger…the outrage? That’s on you all. What during the course of this season gave you the idea the season would end any other way? What over the course of the past 4 years would give you the idea the season would end any other way? This is who we are. This is not just what this administration tolerates, but it’s what the hardcore fan base tolerates.
I have stopped going to games. I monitor but rarely post here any more. Many here hyped up this season with no rational reason to do so. We continue to hype up recruits that we know nothing about. Save me your outrage when Jay Young is back next year. Save me your outrage when we are in the PIG again next year. Stop going to games. Stop going to events. Stop giving your hard earned money and precious time to this program. If this still surprises you then you are just Charlie Brown trying to kick the football with Lucy holding it.
