New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Loyalty Rewarded
Given time, Quinnipiac’s Fabbri, Yale’s Jones have constructed two powerhouse programs
NEW HAVEN — Watching the trio of Jen Fay, Aryn McClure and Paula Strautmane lead the way as the Quinnipiac women’s basketball program secured a spot in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the last five years or seeing Ivy League Player of the Year Miye Oni, allconference guard Alex Copeland and the rest of the veteran starting five for the Yale men’s basketball team put together another 20-win season, it’s easy to forget just how far these programs have risen under the leaders with remarkable staying power.
Quinnipiac was coming off back-to-back 4-22 seasons when Tricia Fabbri was hired back in 1995. Yale hadn’t posted a winning record in Ivy League play in eight straight seasons when Jones was handed the keys to the Bulldogs’ program in 1999. Yet, in the last five seasons the wins and postseason berths have come at a fast and furious pace for both programs eager to make postseason magic once again.
This not a case of a pair of overnight sensations. Fabbri and Jones had some trying times, losing streaks and stretches of mediocrity. With the administration backing them, they were able to stay true to their vision and look at the programs now. Quinnipiac just won the MAAC tournament for the third season in a row, Yale earned a share of the Ivy League regular-season title giving the Bulldogs three league crowns in five years.
“We had some rugged years in between 2002 [when Yale finishing in a three-way tie for first place in the Ivy League] and 2015 but we were able to turn it quickly,” said Jones, who won his 300th career game earlier this season. “When I took the job over in 1999, there were 310 Division I teams and Yale was ranked 308th. Even in between 2002-15, we didn’t have the same success we were having now but we were in the top half of the league every single year and before I got here, that rarely happened. Building a program and getting it to where it is now, taking that next step to where we are good every year certainly if the expectation when I took over the job that we are doing what we are doing now, I certainly would have been let go but I don’t know who can have that expectation in 1999 when it was the worst team in the country.”
Jones, despite leading Yale to the Ivy League title in his third season, had 17 more losses than wins in his first six seasons. Fabbri, who oversaw Quinnipiac’s move from Division II to Division I, was 62-111 in her first seven campaigns. At many program across the country, they never would have been given the time to turn around the fortunes of a pair of struggling programs.
“You really have to look at those schools and those programs of how much do they really care about the success,” Fabbri said. “There are no one-hit wonders, you can’t skip steps, you don’t have the foundation. You need to take the time to sustain growth and you’d better invest in that person if you think you have that person with a five or six-year deal. You have to be smart about that and then you are going to get the return on the investment.
“You have to have the pieces to the puzzle and if you are looking at someone who is going to come in and change it in two or three years, chances are that person who brought you in they didn’t change anything in two or three years so you hae to be realistic in your approach.”
Before the championship aspirations came true for Fabbri and Jones, they had an advantage of working for bosses who were willing to let them do the jobs they were hired to do. Neither Tom Beckett nor Jack McDonald work at Yale or Quinnipiac these days but with each successful season that Fabbri and Jones put together, their role in making it happen can’t be overlooked.
“As an athletic director, one of most important things that we do is hiring the leaders of our programs,” Beckett said. “I believe personally that if you put all of your research and all of your work into trying to find the rising stars and you believe in them enough that you provide them with this appointment, you have to be patient. Patience is tested and there are times when you need to continue to just say I believe in this coach, I believe we made the right choice. You keep supporting that individual and when things work out like they have in James Jones’ story and many others at Yale, it is a great ending.”
Fabbri and Jones have crossed paths countless times over the years. Although they have different coaching philosophies, they also happen to have many similarities, especially when it comes to hiring driven and respected assistant coaches and recruiting team-first players to build their programs around.
The players have put their trust in the coaches who have engineered this impressive run of success in recent years.
“She has been coaching for 20 something years so she knows what she is doing,” Quinnipiac senior guard Brittany Martin said. “She is excellent, she knows the game, she knows how to coach. We are able to listen to her and understand what she wants us to do and we have a great coaching staff as well, the rest of them. She is the head of this team and we couldn’t do it without her.”
The current group of Yale seniors have seen tremendous success over the last four years as the four winningest classes in program history have come during that span.
“You really have to look at those schools and those programs of how much do they really care about the success. There are no one-hit wonders, you can’t skip steps.”
— Quinnipiac women’s basketball coach Tricia Fabbri
“I know he is one of the hardest working coaches in the league and in college basketball and I admire him for that,” said Yale senior forward and team captain Blake Reynolds. “Playing for him is such a joy, we talk about it, the other seniors and I how we never wished to have another head coach so we love being around him, love having him in practice, he is the perfect amount of being tough on us when he needs to be and our best friend off the court, he always has our back no matter what. He is such a great guy and a great coach to play for.”
It’s been quite a year for college basketball in the New Haven area with the Albertus Magnus and New Haven men’s teams earn national tournament bids, the Quinnipiac men in position to earn a share of the MAAC regular-season crown heading into the final day of the regular season. Leading the way has been Fabbri’s Bobcats and Jones’ Bulldogs.
“Good always happens to good and you see how well he is respected in the community and I would hope that I have that same community respect as well,” Fabbri said. “What I love about James being in his company is you can open up the door and have a cup of coffee with him. I’ve been in his company, in his presence, he was down coming in when I was scrimmaging down at Yale, I was peeking in on his practice afterwards, just sharing that camaraderie and watching what his team was doing, you were talking about what your team does and it is good, you know good people in two minutes and that is what you need more of.”
Fabbri opened up a few eyes by reaching the regionals in 2017 and leading Quinnipiac to another NCAA tournament win last year. Jones’ Yale team shocked more plenty of folks with a win over Baylor in the 2015 NCAA tournament. Few people can appreciate what they are doing than Fabbri and Jones since they reside in similar worlds.
“I hope to be as good as she is one day,” Jones said. “She has done a tremendous job and I’ve seen her coaching style and it is a lot different from mine but she has done an outstanding job building that program. They have a lot of positives over there, you look at that arena they play in, I don’t know if there is a better job in the league than Quinnipiac in terms of the resources that are given. We are trying to catch up to some people with some resources here so Yale is at the same level as some of the other programs. She has done an outstanding job with what she has and the resources that she has.”