Fairfield – Wagner Early Edition Game Notes ♫ 23-24 - 206
Dec 15, 2023 22:29:51 GMT -5
FU73, stag76, and 1 more like this
Post by reindeerfan on Dec 15, 2023 22:29:51 GMT -5
Early Edition Game Notes is intended to be fun, informative and sometime irreverent way to look at the numbers, but if you take this stuff too seriously you are cautioned against reading any further. Please proceed at your own risk!
PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!
.
Fairfield – Wagner Early Edition Game Notes ♫ 23-24 - 206
Fairfield University (4-6, 1-1 MAAC) VS Wagner (4-5, 0-0 NEC)
Sunday, December 17, 2023 • 2:00 PM
Fairfield, CT
LAST TIME OUT
Trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, Fairfield stormed back and beat Sacred Heart by a score of 67-57. Jalen Leach lead the team with 15 points, while Jasper Floyd again filled out the stat line with 10 points and a team high 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Brycen Goodine rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 points, while Louie Bleechmore matched Floyd with 7 boards. For the game, SHU had more turnovers than Chef Cédric Grolet, with Solomon and Sobel committing 4 each. The win was the third straight for the Stags – all on the road against teams selected to win their respective conferences in the preseason (Rider, Yale, Sacred Heart). Fairfield now stands at 4-6 on the year, and remains undefeated (10-0) versus their cross-town foes.
SERIES HISTORY
Sunday’s contest between the Wagner Seahawks and Fairfield Stags is just the twelfth all-time meeting between the schools with the Stags holding a 6-5 edge. Wagner won the last 2 meetings, but each game has been close with many games in this series being decided by 6 points or less.
TEAM NAME AND MASCOT TRADITION
The Seahawk was first adopted as the Wagner College mascot in 1947. There have been many different versions of the Seahawk costume, the first costume was all black, and it looked more like a raven on a bad feather day than a Seahawk. Later, other costumes were made in the classic Seahawk Green color. The current Mascot Costume is more than 25 years old, and one might say it is well worn. Others might use the term "falling apart." Students have organized a campaign to try to raise enough money to buy a new mascot costume because the athletic department is "too cheep" (ignore the bird pun) to allocate funds for a new one. Apparently, the department can't even afford to name the Wagner Mascot, the Mascot is known to students on campus as, "the Mascot." At this point in the preview EEGN would typically insert a couple of Seahawk jokes but the situation with the Wagner Mascot is too pathetic to joke about.
Wagner joins many other teams that are represented by the Seahawk including St. Mary's College of Maryland (Solomon The Seahawk). Keiser University(The Keiser Seahawk), Salve Regina University - ("The Seahawk"), UNC Wilmington(Sammy C. Hawk) and of course the Seattle Seahawks Football Team (Blitz the Seahawk).
ABOUT THE SEAHAWKS
The Seahawks are coming off of a 73-50 loss to BU following two road wins at Coppin State (62-59) and Stony Brook (60-59).
Wagner has three double-digit road losses to Rhode Island, Seton Hall and Providence along with an overtime defeat at Fordham (68-64). Melvin Council Jr. leads Wagner with 13.6 ppg, while Tyje Kelton owns a team-high 5.3 rpg alongside 7.0 ppg.
Javier Ezquerra (5.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg) owns a team-high 3.0 apg with 1.8 spg. Wagner is averaging 61 ppg and 35.7 FG% while holding opponents to 65 ppg and 43.8 FG%. The Seahawks keep the miscues to a minimum, averaging just 9.5 turnovers per game while forcing 13.6.
COMIC OF THE DAY
HERMAN
Herman is a single panel comic strip written and drawn by Jim Unger. Herman was syndicated from 1975 to 1992, when Unger retired, running for 18 years in 600 newspapers in 25 countries.
AMONG NATIONAL STEALS LEADERS
With 3 steals versus SHU, Jasper Floyd moved to 12th in the nation in steals per game with a 2.80 spg average. Entering the week his 28 steals placed him 9th in the nation, and first in the MAAC. De'Shayne Montgomery of Mount Saint Mary’s has appeared in 1 less game and has 26 steals.
RECORD SETTING PACE
There are only 4 seasons where a Stag has averaged as many as 2 steals per game:
1. Kyle Commodore, 1998-99 2.7
2. A.J. Wynder, 1984-85 2.4
3. Didier Boucard, 1996-97 2.2
4. Kyle Commodore, 1997-98 2.0
Jasper has a chance to challenge Kyle Commodore’s single season mark from the 1999 season
NCAA FREE THROW LEADER BOARD
With his 4-4 performance from the line versus SHU, Jalen Leach improved his free throw percentage to 95.65, placing him 9th in the nation. Currently there remains 1 qualifying player (Reese Waters) who has not missed a free throw this season as earlier in the week Lonnell Martin, Charles Lane, Jr. had their first miss from the line. With his 5-6 from the line versus SHU Jasper Floyd fell to the 40th spot with a 90.91 Free Throw Percentage
NICE TO SEE
Birima Seck made his first appearance of the season playing 6 minutes sinking a free throw and getting his first block as a Stag.
Double Digit Men
Jasper Floyd and Jalen Leach have now each reached double digits in scoring for 5 straight games. Brycen Goodine also reached double digits versus Sacred Heart and remains tops on the team with 7 double digit performances this season.
DID YOU KNOW - WITH SJ
The first recorded use of raisins in potato salad was by an 1890's Chicago Housewife named Mallory Regis Pickford who was only trying to dissuade her in-laws from ever visiting again. The stunt failed spectacularly when her mother-in-law inexplicably loved it.
SECOND HALF ADJUSTMENTS
For the past few years, the Stags have been consistently outscored by their opponents in the second half. However, so far this year, the Stags seem to be making half time adjustment and winning the second half. Overall, Fairfield has scored 729 points this season versus competition that has scored 731. Fairfield has been outscored in the first half by 56 points while the Stags have outscored their opponents by 54 point in the second half. Notably, in the last 3 games Fairfield has outscored their opponents by 22 points after the break. Rider(1), Yale(8) and SHU(13). The Stags have come from being down by double digits to win the last 2 games.
SECOND HALF JUGGERNAUTS
Fairfield is an impressive 53rd in the nation in second half scoring, averaging 41.7 second half points on the season, and 44.3 second half points over the last 3 games.
SCORING
So far this season Fairfield is averaging 72.9 PPG, 8 points higher than last year when the team averaged 64.9 ppg and finished 334th in the nation in offensive production. Fairfield currently sits 233rd in the nation in scoring but their 2nd half offensive output puts the team in the top 15% of programs in the nation.
BLOCK LEADER
With his block versus SHU Peyton Smith now has 13 blocks for the season and moves into a tie with Jalen Leach for first on the career blocks list among active players. The duo now trail Fairfield’s all-time block leader Deng Gai by only 429 blocks.
COOKING WITH TYSON
As the holidays approach Tyson shares instructions on making a ginger bread house.
Ingredients:
Loaf of bread
Ground Ginger
Instructions
Place ginger on a slice of bread. Stack break around the ginger like a house of cards.
CONFERENCE LEADERS
Several Stags are among top 5 in the conference in statistical categories:
Points
Mervin James 18.8
Matt Balanc 17.9
Dakota Leffew 17.6
Siem Uijtendaal 15.6
Ahmad Henderson II 14.9
Rebounds
Frank Mitchell 9.8
Brehima Seydou Traore 9.3
Mervin James 6.9
Tariq Ingraham 6.9
Harlan Obioha 6.9
Assists
Savion Lewis 7.9
Jasper Floyd 4.7
Tre Dinkins 4.0
Xavier Lipscomb 4.0
Dakota Leffew 3.9
Blocks
Peyton Smith 1.3
Amarri Tice 1.3
Jaden Daughtry 1.3
Sultan Adewale 1.2
Killian Gribben 1.2
Steals
DeShayne Montgomery 2.9
Jasper Floyd 2.8
Brehima Seydou Traore 2.3
Joel Brown 2.2
Siem Uijtendaal 1.9
Minutes
Dakota Leffew 36.8
Siem Uijtendaal 33.2
Jasper Floyd 33.1
Tre Dinkins 32.3
Bralyn Smith 31.6
MILESTONES
Jalen Leach sank the 100th Free Throw of his career versus SHU.
STREAKS
Jalen Leach has now made 17 consecutive free throws, the longest streak since Jake Wojcik made 28 consecutive during the period spanning late in the 2020-21 season to December of the 2021-22 season.
The current three game winning streak is the longest for Fairfield since the Stags won 4 in a row last January of 2023 with wins over Saint Peters, Canisius, Siena and Mount Saint Mary's.
Fairfield has not won 4 consecutive road games since the 2021-22 season when the Stags won 5 straight road games defeating SHU, Canisius, Niagara, William & Mary and Fairliegh Dickenson.
Fairfield never won more than 5 straight games or 5 consecutive road games during the Jay Young era.
MAGIC NUMBERS
16 – Wins needed to get to 20. The Stags have not surpassed 20 wins in more than 10 years (2011-12 season)
19 – The number of wins Chris Casey will need to surpass Paul Cormier for 30th place all-time in MAAC coaching victories.
72 – The number of points Caleb Fields needs to reach the 1000 career point mark.
93 – Number of days until the MAAC Tournament begins
154 – The number of points Alexis Yetna needs to reach the 1000 career point mark.
556 – The number of points Jalen Leach needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
745 - The number of points Brycen Goodine needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
871 – The number of points James Johns needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
HEARD BUT PROBABLY NOT TRUE
YETNA READY TO GO?
Reports are that during practice this week Chris Casey shot Alexis Yetna more than 200 times with an upholstery gun. Medics say he is fully recovered.
STAGS STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN REPUTATION AS BAD OFFENSIVE TEAM
After four consecutive years as one of the worst offensive teams in the Metro Atlantic Conference, Fairfield coaches are worried they may not be able to maintain this position with the addition of Jasper Floyd to the program. How will the staff be able to teach Floyd not to score so much? Will they have to keep him out of the line-up to keep the teams point totals down? What about Brycen Goodine? He is already averaging more than 12 points a game something no Stag did last year. Fields, Leach and Smith will also present a difficult challenge for the staff to deal with, and in general, the influx of better offensive talent has the coaches scrambling to find ways to keep the team from scoring too much. To compound the problem, Chris Casey has abandoned Jay Young’s offensive strategy of wasting a lot of time handing the ball from player to player at places far from the basket where they have no opportunity to score until the shot clock expires. Abandoning this strategy, and moving to one that is actually designed to score points, will make the task of keeping the team from scoring that much more difficult. Current staff is considering enlisting help from Young to see if there is anything he could do to help Fairfield maintain their 343th best offensive ranking from a year ago. Jay Young seemed confident that if Casey could resume using the old offensive sets, the team could return to scoring less than 75 points in most games this season…..
PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!
.Fairfield – Wagner Early Edition Game Notes ♫ 23-24 - 206
Fairfield University (4-6, 1-1 MAAC) VS Wagner (4-5, 0-0 NEC)
Sunday, December 17, 2023 • 2:00 PM
Fairfield, CT
LAST TIME OUT
Trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, Fairfield stormed back and beat Sacred Heart by a score of 67-57. Jalen Leach lead the team with 15 points, while Jasper Floyd again filled out the stat line with 10 points and a team high 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Brycen Goodine rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 points, while Louie Bleechmore matched Floyd with 7 boards. For the game, SHU had more turnovers than Chef Cédric Grolet, with Solomon and Sobel committing 4 each. The win was the third straight for the Stags – all on the road against teams selected to win their respective conferences in the preseason (Rider, Yale, Sacred Heart). Fairfield now stands at 4-6 on the year, and remains undefeated (10-0) versus their cross-town foes.
SERIES HISTORY
Sunday’s contest between the Wagner Seahawks and Fairfield Stags is just the twelfth all-time meeting between the schools with the Stags holding a 6-5 edge. Wagner won the last 2 meetings, but each game has been close with many games in this series being decided by 6 points or less.
TEAM NAME AND MASCOT TRADITION
The Seahawk was first adopted as the Wagner College mascot in 1947. There have been many different versions of the Seahawk costume, the first costume was all black, and it looked more like a raven on a bad feather day than a Seahawk. Later, other costumes were made in the classic Seahawk Green color. The current Mascot Costume is more than 25 years old, and one might say it is well worn. Others might use the term "falling apart." Students have organized a campaign to try to raise enough money to buy a new mascot costume because the athletic department is "too cheep" (ignore the bird pun) to allocate funds for a new one. Apparently, the department can't even afford to name the Wagner Mascot, the Mascot is known to students on campus as, "the Mascot." At this point in the preview EEGN would typically insert a couple of Seahawk jokes but the situation with the Wagner Mascot is too pathetic to joke about.
Wagner joins many other teams that are represented by the Seahawk including St. Mary's College of Maryland (Solomon The Seahawk). Keiser University(The Keiser Seahawk), Salve Regina University - ("The Seahawk"), UNC Wilmington(Sammy C. Hawk) and of course the Seattle Seahawks Football Team (Blitz the Seahawk).
ABOUT THE SEAHAWKS
The Seahawks are coming off of a 73-50 loss to BU following two road wins at Coppin State (62-59) and Stony Brook (60-59).
Wagner has three double-digit road losses to Rhode Island, Seton Hall and Providence along with an overtime defeat at Fordham (68-64). Melvin Council Jr. leads Wagner with 13.6 ppg, while Tyje Kelton owns a team-high 5.3 rpg alongside 7.0 ppg.
Javier Ezquerra (5.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg) owns a team-high 3.0 apg with 1.8 spg. Wagner is averaging 61 ppg and 35.7 FG% while holding opponents to 65 ppg and 43.8 FG%. The Seahawks keep the miscues to a minimum, averaging just 9.5 turnovers per game while forcing 13.6.
COMIC OF THE DAY
HERMAN
Herman is a single panel comic strip written and drawn by Jim Unger. Herman was syndicated from 1975 to 1992, when Unger retired, running for 18 years in 600 newspapers in 25 countries.
AMONG NATIONAL STEALS LEADERS
With 3 steals versus SHU, Jasper Floyd moved to 12th in the nation in steals per game with a 2.80 spg average. Entering the week his 28 steals placed him 9th in the nation, and first in the MAAC. De'Shayne Montgomery of Mount Saint Mary’s has appeared in 1 less game and has 26 steals.
RECORD SETTING PACE
There are only 4 seasons where a Stag has averaged as many as 2 steals per game:
1. Kyle Commodore, 1998-99 2.7
2. A.J. Wynder, 1984-85 2.4
3. Didier Boucard, 1996-97 2.2
4. Kyle Commodore, 1997-98 2.0
Jasper has a chance to challenge Kyle Commodore’s single season mark from the 1999 season
NCAA FREE THROW LEADER BOARD
With his 4-4 performance from the line versus SHU, Jalen Leach improved his free throw percentage to 95.65, placing him 9th in the nation. Currently there remains 1 qualifying player (Reese Waters) who has not missed a free throw this season as earlier in the week Lonnell Martin, Charles Lane, Jr. had their first miss from the line. With his 5-6 from the line versus SHU Jasper Floyd fell to the 40th spot with a 90.91 Free Throw Percentage
NICE TO SEE
Birima Seck made his first appearance of the season playing 6 minutes sinking a free throw and getting his first block as a Stag.
Double Digit Men
Jasper Floyd and Jalen Leach have now each reached double digits in scoring for 5 straight games. Brycen Goodine also reached double digits versus Sacred Heart and remains tops on the team with 7 double digit performances this season.
DID YOU KNOW - WITH SJ
The first recorded use of raisins in potato salad was by an 1890's Chicago Housewife named Mallory Regis Pickford who was only trying to dissuade her in-laws from ever visiting again. The stunt failed spectacularly when her mother-in-law inexplicably loved it.
SECOND HALF ADJUSTMENTS
For the past few years, the Stags have been consistently outscored by their opponents in the second half. However, so far this year, the Stags seem to be making half time adjustment and winning the second half. Overall, Fairfield has scored 729 points this season versus competition that has scored 731. Fairfield has been outscored in the first half by 56 points while the Stags have outscored their opponents by 54 point in the second half. Notably, in the last 3 games Fairfield has outscored their opponents by 22 points after the break. Rider(1), Yale(8) and SHU(13). The Stags have come from being down by double digits to win the last 2 games.
SECOND HALF JUGGERNAUTS
Fairfield is an impressive 53rd in the nation in second half scoring, averaging 41.7 second half points on the season, and 44.3 second half points over the last 3 games.
SCORING
So far this season Fairfield is averaging 72.9 PPG, 8 points higher than last year when the team averaged 64.9 ppg and finished 334th in the nation in offensive production. Fairfield currently sits 233rd in the nation in scoring but their 2nd half offensive output puts the team in the top 15% of programs in the nation.
BLOCK LEADER
With his block versus SHU Peyton Smith now has 13 blocks for the season and moves into a tie with Jalen Leach for first on the career blocks list among active players. The duo now trail Fairfield’s all-time block leader Deng Gai by only 429 blocks.
COOKING WITH TYSON
As the holidays approach Tyson shares instructions on making a ginger bread house.
Ingredients:
Loaf of bread
Ground Ginger
Instructions
Place ginger on a slice of bread. Stack break around the ginger like a house of cards.
CONFERENCE LEADERS
Several Stags are among top 5 in the conference in statistical categories:
Points
Mervin James 18.8
Matt Balanc 17.9
Dakota Leffew 17.6
Siem Uijtendaal 15.6
Ahmad Henderson II 14.9
Rebounds
Frank Mitchell 9.8
Brehima Seydou Traore 9.3
Mervin James 6.9
Tariq Ingraham 6.9
Harlan Obioha 6.9
Assists
Savion Lewis 7.9
Jasper Floyd 4.7
Tre Dinkins 4.0
Xavier Lipscomb 4.0
Dakota Leffew 3.9
Blocks
Peyton Smith 1.3
Amarri Tice 1.3
Jaden Daughtry 1.3
Sultan Adewale 1.2
Killian Gribben 1.2
Steals
DeShayne Montgomery 2.9
Jasper Floyd 2.8
Brehima Seydou Traore 2.3
Joel Brown 2.2
Siem Uijtendaal 1.9
Minutes
Dakota Leffew 36.8
Siem Uijtendaal 33.2
Jasper Floyd 33.1
Tre Dinkins 32.3
Bralyn Smith 31.6
MILESTONES
Jalen Leach sank the 100th Free Throw of his career versus SHU.
STREAKS
Jalen Leach has now made 17 consecutive free throws, the longest streak since Jake Wojcik made 28 consecutive during the period spanning late in the 2020-21 season to December of the 2021-22 season.
The current three game winning streak is the longest for Fairfield since the Stags won 4 in a row last January of 2023 with wins over Saint Peters, Canisius, Siena and Mount Saint Mary's.
Fairfield has not won 4 consecutive road games since the 2021-22 season when the Stags won 5 straight road games defeating SHU, Canisius, Niagara, William & Mary and Fairliegh Dickenson.
Fairfield never won more than 5 straight games or 5 consecutive road games during the Jay Young era.
MAGIC NUMBERS
16 – Wins needed to get to 20. The Stags have not surpassed 20 wins in more than 10 years (2011-12 season)
19 – The number of wins Chris Casey will need to surpass Paul Cormier for 30th place all-time in MAAC coaching victories.
72 – The number of points Caleb Fields needs to reach the 1000 career point mark.
93 – Number of days until the MAAC Tournament begins
154 – The number of points Alexis Yetna needs to reach the 1000 career point mark.
556 – The number of points Jalen Leach needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
745 - The number of points Brycen Goodine needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
871 – The number of points James Johns needs to reach the 1000 career point mark
HEARD BUT PROBABLY NOT TRUE
YETNA READY TO GO?
Reports are that during practice this week Chris Casey shot Alexis Yetna more than 200 times with an upholstery gun. Medics say he is fully recovered.
STAGS STRUGGLE TO MAINTAIN REPUTATION AS BAD OFFENSIVE TEAM
After four consecutive years as one of the worst offensive teams in the Metro Atlantic Conference, Fairfield coaches are worried they may not be able to maintain this position with the addition of Jasper Floyd to the program. How will the staff be able to teach Floyd not to score so much? Will they have to keep him out of the line-up to keep the teams point totals down? What about Brycen Goodine? He is already averaging more than 12 points a game something no Stag did last year. Fields, Leach and Smith will also present a difficult challenge for the staff to deal with, and in general, the influx of better offensive talent has the coaches scrambling to find ways to keep the team from scoring too much. To compound the problem, Chris Casey has abandoned Jay Young’s offensive strategy of wasting a lot of time handing the ball from player to player at places far from the basket where they have no opportunity to score until the shot clock expires. Abandoning this strategy, and moving to one that is actually designed to score points, will make the task of keeping the team from scoring that much more difficult. Current staff is considering enlisting help from Young to see if there is anything he could do to help Fairfield maintain their 343th best offensive ranking from a year ago. Jay Young seemed confident that if Casey could resume using the old offensive sets, the team could return to scoring less than 75 points in most games this season…..
Edition 206 @stagsmensbball , #stagsmensbball, #MAACHoops , #heardbutprobablynottrue , #EEGN , #HBPNT ♫2023-2024♫
************************************************************************
************************************************************************
