They’re ranked, set for run
No. 25 Fairfield looks to NCAAs
On March 3, Fairfield women’s basketball senior Nellie Brown was glued to her seat, watching as her team stepped onto the national stage.
The Stags were about to start film study when the coaching staff dropped a bomb. After a 24-game winning streak, Fairfield was ranked for the first time ever.
“It was a complete shock,” Brown said. “I just sat there in the film room while everybody’s up, jumping around, hugging each other, and I’m just stuck. I was just stuck in the excitement — stuck in a moment.”
No. 25 Fairfield, now 28-1 after a 20-0 regular season in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, has become the nation’s plucky mid-major success story. The Stags are the first ranked MAAC program since Marist in 2011 and enter the postseason with 26 straight wins. Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis appeared on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” last Wednesday.
The rise to national prominence has been years in the making.
Thibault-DuDonis joined the program after Fairfield made a successful run to an NCAA Tournament berth in 2021-22. Her father is Mike Thibault, the winningest WNBA coach, and her brother Eric coaches the Washington Mystics. Her husband, Blake DuDonis, is an assistant women’s coach at Fairfield.
Thibault-DuDonis had a grander vision for the Stags. She studied recent mid-major powers like Florida Gulf Coast, Drake, and South Dakota, and learned what styles helped them break out. She and Blake coined a new basketball position: the Road Runner, shortened to “Meep” after the sound of the Looney Tunes character.
“When you recruit nowadays, nobody wants to be a post player, and so we talked a lot about changing that narrative of what that group will play like,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “We want to be able to get rim-runs and layups, but then their versatility allows them to step out on the perimeter, and attack mismatches, and shoot the three.
“We’ve got great depth on our team, so when we talk about The Road Runners, they just keep coming at you — they never stop.”
The new mold has been a hit on the court and the recruiting trail. Freshman Meghan Andersen, a 6-foot-1-inch forward, is officially listed as a Road Runner on the roster. She’s averaging 15.6 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 52.8 percent from the field as the MAAC Rookie of the Year.
“When I was being recruited by [Fairfield], they told me where they see me fitting, and that’s kind of exactly how I saw myself playing,” Andersen said. “Not your traditional post player, but someone who can run the court and play a little bit on the perimeter, too.”
The Stags have the secondlongest active win streak in Division 1 behind unbeaten South Carolina. They rank 10th nationally in effective field goal percentage (54.8 percent) and fourth in defensive rating (79.7).
Brown (13.3 points, 3.6 assists, 47.4 3-point percentage) says the system makes her life easier at point guard.
“It just feels like the weight’s off my shoulders,” Brown said. “I don’t have to do too much. I don’t have to shoot 12,000 shots just to hit my season average; I don’t really care about that. All I’ve got to do is move the ball and then GUS: go until stop.”
Brown, the MAAC Player of the Year, used to notice the sparse crowds for games in contrast to the men’s team packing the arena. As the Stags keep winning, the local support keeps growing. Players routinely sign autographs for swarms of young fans after games.
“I think for Kids Day [Feb. 8], I signed three of the same papers,” Brown said. “I’m like, ‘Girl, you’ve got to get to the back of the line because there are other kids here that I’ve got to get to.’ ”
“There are parents that come up to us after games and just say how much their kids love to watch us, and how they look up to our team,” Andersen said. “It’s impactful, and it just means a lot to us.”
Women’s basketball in Connecticut has been ruled by the dynastic UConn Huskies. Now Fairfield is carving out its own fan base. But there’s no rivalry beyond the court, according to the team.
“I think they are an awesome beacon of light for women’s basketball in our state, and a great example for what it can look like when you build it,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I don’t think that two flowers blooming next to each other need to compete.”
Local contenders
Holy Cross and Boston University advanced to the Patriot League semifinals with victories Monday. If they keep winning, they could meet in the championship in a rematch of last year’s title bout . . . Merrimack cruised past Central Connecticut State, 76-51, in the NEC quarterfinals Monday. The Warriors travel to top-seeded Sacred Heart Thursday . . . Harvard enters the Ivy League tournament as the third seed and will play second-seeded Columbia Friday . . . Northeastern, the No. 11 seed in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament, will host No. 14 UNC Wilmington Wednesday . . . Smith College secured a second straight Final Four appearance in Division 3 after taking down Bowdoin, 5247, Saturday. The Pioneers will play Wartburg (Iowa) Thursday in Columbus at 5 p.m . . . . Bentley and Assumption both made the NCAA Division 2 tournament.