Merry Christmas to all our ardent Stag fans! I hope you are as pleased as I am with the play of our 4 talented guards. If I were an assistant coach or advisor to Coach Casey I would suggest that he ( when game circumstances allow) utilize all 4 guards and a Bleechmore/Smith big man to spread the floor and open up shooting space for all 5 ( much less outside shots for Bleechmore/Smith) to shoot the three or drive to the hoop as all do so well. I just want to maximize our scoring by having the 4 guards ( Goodine needs more minutes than he is getting now) on the court whenever feasible( I fully understand the downside of lack of size, rebounding. etc.) I love our up tempo offensive strategy and just hope to increase the offensive firepower we are blessed with this year.
Luke should be on speed dial no matter what or we all will be living with regret as fans moving forward.
Luke has been a 'hot' name for ~5 years now, yet with all the HC openings that have been filled in that time, no one has hired him. What is holding him back?
Merry Christmas to all our ardent Stag fans! I hope you are as pleased as I am with the play of our 4 talented guards. If I were an assistant coach or advisor to Coach Casey I would suggest that he ( when game circumstances allow) utilize all 4 guards and a Bleechmore/Smith big man to spread the floor and open up shooting space for all 5 ( much less outside shots for Bleechmore/Smith) to shoot the three or drive to the hoop as all do so well. I just want to maximize our scoring by having the 4 guards ( Goodine needs more minutes than he is getting now) on the court whenever feasible( I fully understand the downside of lack of size, rebounding. etc.) I love our up tempo offensive strategy and just hope to increase the offensive firepower we are blessed with this year.
So many options because of the talents of our 4 guards, that's for sure. But what I think makes our team so dangerous (on a MAAC level of play) is the fact that almost to a man, everyone Casey puts out on the court is more than capable of shooting the ball plus handling, passing and spacing the court in a respectable manner even if they don't fall under the category of one of the aforementioned back court players. Talking specifically Bleechmore, Johns, Smith, and now you have to add the athletic talents of Seck (although I don't think you want him lofting 3s) as guys who are most likely going to have a positive impact at any point in a given contest. So while I understand your yearning to have our talented four and more specifically Goodine getting as many minutes as possible to maximize scoring, the fact is the way Chris has been handling the rotations has been working, and for that reason I wouldn't want to mess up a good thing by changing things up too much. But that said, actually in one specific case, the Wagner game, if my memory is correct he did indeed go to this very alignment for a majority of the 2nd half with Smith sitting as Bleechmore lined up with the guards. What this showed to me was that Casey was more than willing to make an adjustment based on a game situation, and that's a good trait to have I think. Anyway I think we both agree that based on how things were just three weeks ago, the resurgence of the Stags has certainly brought a smile to our faces and hence adds to what I hope would be a Merry Christmas to us and all the Stag fans who read this forum!
Post by doowopbill on Dec 24, 2023 10:57:13 GMT -5
I totally agree, Nash, with all of your expert analysis above. Your memory served you well as that Wagner game is when Coach Casey smartly utilized our 4 guards and Bleechmore in productive fashion. I like your term "yearning" to describe my thoughts on using our 4 guards. I feel strongly that( aside from any significant difference Yetna may or may not bring) as our guards ( however utilized) go, so goes the success of this hopefully very successful MAAC season. Once again Merry Christmas and good health to all.
Is 5 games the longest win streak we’ve ever had going into Christmas?
As part of our 11 game win streak in 2010-11 (we had the Florida late December game cancelled due to a snow storm), the team won 7 straight prior to Christmas. In terms of all time not sure but I gotta think this is probably it.
Is 5 games the longest win streak we’ve ever had going into Christmas?
As part of our 11 game win streak in 2010-11 (we had the Florida late December game cancelled due to a snow storm), the team won 7 straight prior to Christmas. In terms of all time not sure but I gotta think this is probably it.
The 1965-66 team won 13 straight! I gotta believe that's the record. And while I can't pinpoint exactly how many of these were actually before Christmas, I can say that the start of the streak began with the second game of the season, a tremendous upset of a ranked Boston College squad at their old gym, the Roberts Center. So I imagine it was quite a few before the holiday.
Post by jenningsbeach on Dec 24, 2023 12:53:55 GMT -5
That team in Cooley's final year won 17 of 18 from Nov. 26 to Feb. 27; the only blemish was a one-point loss to Loyola on the road. As previously mentioned, the Fairfield-Florida game was a weather cancelation. The Stags probably lose that one if played so the streak would have ended at seven.
Kudos to the athletic department for filling in the schedules back to the 1948-49 season. I didn't even realize it until just now. Lots of good historical information throughout.
Last Edit: Dec 24, 2023 13:13:47 GMT -5 by jenningsbeach
As part of our 11 game win streak in 2010-11 (we had the Florida late December game cancelled due to a snow storm), the team won 7 straight prior to Christmas. In terms of all time not sure but I gotta think this is probably it.
The 1965-66 team won 13 straight! I gotta believe that's the record. And while I can't pinpoint exactly how many of these were actually before Christmas, I can say that the start of the streak began with the second game of the season, a tremendous upset of a ranked Boston College squad at their old gym, the Roberts Center. So I imagine it was quite a few before the holiday.
1965-66 Season Results (19-5 overall) 12/4 St. Joseph’s College& L, 74-100 12/7 at Boston College W, 100-93 ot 12/11 at St. Peter’s College W, 89-82 3ot 12/14 St. Anselm’s College W, 77-61 12/18 at Xavier University W, 90-81 12/20 at Duquesne University W, 68-65 ot 12/22 at St. Francis College (Pa.) W, 100-94
12/29 Univ. of Massachusetts W, 100-82 12/30 Acadia University (Canada) W, 84-43 ** 1/3 Fairleigh Dickinson W, 82-65 1/8 College of Holy Cross W, 82-61 1/12 Stonehill College W, 108-66 1/22 at Southern Conn. State W, 90-58 1/31 Niagara University W, 82-65 2/5 at Villanova University^ L, 55-61 2/7 Assumption College W, 91-72 2/9 at Providence College L, 62-74 2/12 at University of Bridgeport L, 87-88 2/14 American University W, 102-81 2/19 at St. Bonaventure Univ. W, 65-52 2/22 Canisius College$ W, 84-78 ot 2/26 at Georgetown University L, 75-77 2/28 at Rider College W, 75-72 ot 3/3 University of Bridgeport W, 111-60
& - New Haven Arena; ^ - Palestra; $ - Memorial Auditorium (Buffalo) ** - Exhibition Game
It’s been shown that other Fairfield teams have had a 5 (or more) game winning streak before Christmas, but I really doubt that any of those other winning streaks included a game with a 30 point halftime lead on a D1 opponent (FDU) as well as a win against a team where we were a 16.5 point underdog going into the game (Yale).
I was asked a question last night that I don't know the answer to. When was the last time we had a 30 point halftime lead on a D1 opponent. Maybe someone on the EEGN staff or another poster has the answer to that question.
Unfortunately most of the EEGN staff cannot give this question much attention as we are working in our day jobs . This is a real research project. But I do not believe there was another game versus a D1 opponent in the last 15 years where Fairfield led at the half by 30 points. Off the top of my head, without doing much research, to verify any of this I believe these are the top 5 first half leads since 2008:
22 Manhattan - January 31, 2017 21 Maryland ES - November 24, 2015 21 Norfolk State - November 26, 2010 20 Marist - January 24, 2013 20 Saint Peter's - February 15, 2012 Editors note: No real research has been done to support the above stats.
Turns out the last Fairfield team to have a halftime lead of 30 or more points against a D1 school was the 2005 team who had a 47-14 halftime lead over Canisius during the January 28, 2005 game at the Arena at Harbor Yard in a game we won 82-65. Drew Kingsley researched this and deserves credit for finding the answer. Fairly confident that, unlike FDU, Canisius did not upset a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament in the preceding season to the one where we had the huge halftime lead on them. 🙂
To me, an interesting difference in the two games is in 2005 we shot 19% from beyond the arc but at FDU we shot 43% on our 3s including 67% in the first half where we built the huge lead.
. This is a real research project. But I do not believe there was another game versus a D1 opponent in the last 15 years where Fairfield led at the half by 30 points. Off the top of my head, without doing much research, to verify any of this I believe these are the top 5 first half leads since 2008: