The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Fairfield, SHU hoops to meet; Stags to open at Big East foe
Neither Joe Frager nor Jay Young could recall just how many variations of the Fairfield women’s and men’s basketball nonconference schedules landed on their desks in the last few months. However, once all the COVID-19-related hurdles have been cleared and some clarity emerged, there was one obvious benefit from the constantly changing slate of games.
Barring any further changes, Fairfield and Sacred Heart will square off in both women’s and men’s basketball for the first time since 2016.
“Putting our nonconference schedule together was challenging to say the least,” said Frager, the Fairfield women’s coach in a virtual roundtable discussion with Young, the men’s coach, on Thursday night. “It has changed on us about three or four times. We had lost a lot of the games we had scheduled. We had a game at Penn State that we weren’t able to play, we had St. John’s on the schedule and we weren’t able to keep that. With the Patriot League announcing no nonconference games, that blew some games up for us. We were supposed to play both Army and Navy.”
The Fairfield women, considered one of the top contenders in the MAAC, will play host to Sacred Heart on Nov. 25, at Seton Hall on Nov. 30, at Hofstra on Dec. 6 and at home against Bryant on Dec. 22. There is still a chance for a fifth nonconference game to be added.
The Fairfield men’s program recently agreed to open the season Nov. 25 at Providence, a squad coached by former Stags coach Ed Cooley.
“Like everybody in college basketball, when they announced the change in the starting date, our nonconference schedule was truly blown up,” Young said. “We tried to salvage some games that were already on it; we tried to add some new games. We lost quite a bit of revenue with some guarantee games that we couldn’t play. We got into a multi-team event at Stony Brook University with Stony Brook and Sacred Heart (Nov. 28-Dec. 1). The only other game we have scheduled is on Dec. 22, a return game with William & Mary. We’re hoping to add another game in December. We thought we had another game done, but we thought we had another game done about four or five times this year and that has changed.”
Change is the operative word in 2020.
Teams have needed to adjust their preseason preparations due to the coronavirus. Both programs had a brief pause in activities in the last week, recruiting has become a video conference call showcase, and after believing that the 2019-20 season would be their final season playing home games at Alumni Hall, construction of the new convocation center has been pushed back by a year, so there will be more contests at Alumni Hall.
“We use the word perspective a lot and it’s going to be a year like no other,” Young said. “You have to keep things in perspective, we get to do what we love with competing and we’re in position to play games. I think every program in the country is going to have to go through something like this. We talk a lot about how can we be the program that’s different and come out of this and be resilient, use this to our advantage. It’s been challenging, there’s no doubt about it. I think it’s going to continue to be challenging.”
BULKING UP, WAITING ON DECISIONS
Young said former Fairfield Prep standout John Kelly, who redshirted a season ago, has been given a scholarship. He said Kelly has bulked up, as have several other players, including Chris Maidoh.
Young laughingly said, “The good news is he’s 20 pounds heavier, the bad news is he was 172 pounds when he got here, so he still hasn’t hit the 200-pound mark, but I think it’s no secret that I think Chris can be a special, special player in our program. He’s a different guy than he was last year, just a completely different person.”
Caleb Green and Tshiefu Ngalakulondi are eligible after transferring from Holy Cross and St. Bonaventure. They weren’t eligible to play in games a season ago, but could practice with the Stags, so Young has a pretty good idea of what they bring to the team.
Green started all 64 games he appeared in at Holy Cross, averaging 9.9 points and 3.1 assists per game. Ngalakulondi played 37 games in two seasons at St. Bonaventure with 11 starts during the 2018-19 season when he had a pair of double-doubles.
Young said he is still waiting to hear from the NCAA whether 6-foot-9 sophomore Zach Crisler and 6-5 junior Jake Wojcik will be eligible to play this season after transferring in from Rice and Richmond.
“It’s out of our hands, it’s in the NCAA’s,” Young said. “Their stuff has been (submitted), soon I guess, but the other by-product of COVID is that the NCAA did have to lay off a lot of people who heard waivers, so maybe it’s going a little slower than usual too. We’re hoping soon, that’s what we’re being told. I don’t know what soon means, but we’re hoping soon.”
WOMEN HAVE HIGH ASPIRATIONS
Frager’s team will be led by MAAC Player of the Year candidates Lou LopezSenechal and Katie Armstrong, who combined for 28.7 points and 12.4 rebounds a season ago. Callie Cavanaugh and Rachel Hakes also return, giving Fairfield four players who started every game last season. Andrea Hernangomez was the team’s topscoring reserve and Frager
is looking for more from her and the other returning role players. He’s also very encouraged by his four freshmen, although one is in quarantine after her roommate was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.
“We certainly have high aspirations of what we think we can do as a team this year, but I don’t think there’s any team in this conference where you’re looking at a 20-0 conference season. I think it’s going to be very competitive,” Frager said. “We believe we’re one of the better teams in the league and it’s our aspiration to compete for a championship this year. We’re jumping out of our sneakers right now.”
PROVIDENCE, PITINO HIGHLIGHTS FOR MEN
Two opponents that jump off the men’s schedule: Providence and Iona, coached by Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.
“We had originally reached out to him (Cooley) about (playing) and it just couldn’t be worked out,” Young said. “When everybody’s nonconference schedule got hijacked, I think we were all bobbing and weaving. Brian Blaney,
his assistant, reached out to (Fairfield assistant coach) Chris Casey to see if we would have an interest in opening up. It made sense with Ed’s connection to Fairfield, the fact that it was a bus trip and we could get down and back there. It just made perfect sense. Hopefully it’s a game that we can continue to play after this year.
“Having him (Pitino) in the league has already generated some great publicity we normally wouldn’t have had. I’ve been on a bunch of MAAC calls with him and he’s been really engaged with the conference, wants to help in any way he can. I think he’s kind of rejuvenated himself and I think it’s great to have a Hall of Fame coach in the conference. When we play them (Dec. 18 in Fairfield, Jan. 12 in New Rochelle, N.Y.), it’s about our players being better than his players. When we throw it up, it’s basketball, but I have a lot of respect for Coach and I really feel it’s nothing but positives. He’ll have them ready to play, there’s no doubt about that.”