The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
At long last, Fairfield’s Young sees DI coach in the mirror
FAIRFIELD — There’s a list stuck to the bathroom mirror inside Jay Young’s house.
“I brush my teeth at night, so it’s the last thing I see before I go to bed,” the firstyear Fairfield basketball coach said Monday. “I brush my teeth in the morning, so it’s the first thing I see when I get up.”
The list is the MAAC preseason coaches’ poll. There 11 are teams. Fairfield is picked 11th.
“I certainly understand why the coaches would pick us last,” Young said. “It’s not like I was shocked when I saw it. But we’ve certainly talked about it and talk all the time about having an edge.”
Young pulls out his cellphone and shows me the photo of his mirror and, yes, the list is right behind his toothbrush.
“I showed the team the picture and I said, ‘What’s our edge?’ ” Young said. “Now what we’ve got to do is go out and prove people wrong.”
Jay Young’s dream, one more than three decades old, will come true Tuesday night at Webster Bank Arena. An assistant at Salem State, Fitchburg State, Northeastern, head coach at junior college Newbury, assistant again at Northeastern, head coach at DII New Haven, assistant for 14 years for Steve Pikiell at Stony Brook and Rutgers … yes, Young can look in the mirror today and see a Division I head coach ready to face Bucknell.
He pulls off a rubber wristband he’s wearing.
“This is the game plan right here,” Young said. “Everybody who touches the program has one of them.”
The wristband reads, “Defend. Rebound. Win.” Led by Landon Taliaferro and Jesus Cruz, all the
players have them. The coaches have them, even athletic director Paul Schlickmann and school president Mark Nemec have one.
“I know it’s simplified, but it’s what we believe in,” said Young, who replaced Sydney Johnson after a 922 season. “We’ve got to have an identity and our identity is defend and rebound. That’s how we’re going to start to build the program.
“Shots will come and go, but those are the two things you can do consistently every night. It’ll give us a chance to stick around, hopefully be good the last four minutes if it’s close and steal a few wins.”
When Young was hired in April, he reached out to nearly every head coach he knew.
“The two pieces of advice I got a lot was take your time with recruiting and take your time with your staff,” Young said. “Having lived it, now I know the feeling. The first few days you’re overwhelmed. You have a practice with the team, you’re out there by yourself and it’s, ‘Oh s...’ ”
Enter Chris Casey, Patrick Sellers, Bryan Dougher, and Jim McDonnell.
“When you build something, you go through these ups and downs and obstacles and you’ve got to have great people around you,” Young said. “That’s something Steve Pikiell always talked about with me.”
Young recruited Dougher to Stony Brook, where he was the Seawolves’ alltime leading Division I scorer, and became director of basketball operations there and at Rutgers.
“I knew I wanted to give someone a shot, a young guy, like someone gave me a shot and Bryan always has been that guy,” Young said. “I also was looking for a guy who maybe had been a head coach before, gone through some of the stuff I’m going to go through and help me navigate those waters. There also was a huge bonus with Chris.”
Young has known Casey since they were Division III assistants and Casey was at Western Connecticut. The huge bonus is Casey was head coach in the MAAC at
Niagara for six years before he was replaced in March. Like Pikiell, Casey coached under Howie Dickenman at Central Connecticut where Sellers played and also was an assistant. Young met Sellers through Pikiell. Sellers coached at UMass, UConn, an exile year in China, Hofstra, Creighton, DePaul and Fairleigh Dickenson. He is remembered as getting caught up in the Nate Miles affair at UConn. He must also be remembered as being exonerated by the NCAA.
“I love my staff,” Young said. “They work their tails off. We’re trying to get more athletic.”
That staff has brought in five players, three are eligible this season. Chris Maidoh, 6foot10, 180 pounds, and Allan JeanneRose, 67, are freshmen. Maidoh is expected to start at the 4 against Bucknell. “I don’t know if they’re ready, but hopefully a year from now they’re a lot better from the experience.”
Vincent Eze, a 68 graduate transfer from Maine, has been out with a foot injury and is a gametime decision. Kevin Senghore-Peterson starts at the 5. Transfers Caleb Green, a guard from Holy Cross, and Tshiefu Ngalakulondi, a forward from St. Bonaventure, are not eligible until next season. Fairfield has one commitment so far for 2020. Jason Edokpayi is a bouncy 4 from Mount St. Joseph in Baltimore.
The Stags will play eight of their 13 games at Alumni Hall this season. After Bucknell and UMass on Saturday, only three more will be at Webster Bank. The plan is to break ground in the spring for the new 3,500season Convocation Center and tear down Alumni Hall through the summer. All home games next season will be at Webster Bank. Ideally, the new place will be ready for the conference schedule midway through the 202122 season.
“We’ve been selling it (to recruits), we’ve got a video presentation,” Young said. “It’s going to be great. We think it’s going to be a game changer to have it on campus and have the students involved.”
Beyond Taliaferro at the 2 and Cruz at the 3, junior Taj Benning will start at point guard. Neftali Alvarez, who arrived last fall as a freshman to some fanfare to play for Johnson, is gone to Mercer. Young met with Alvarez the first day he got the job and the guard participated in a few workouts before he decided to transfer.
“He’s from Miami, a long way from home, I didn’t recruit him, there’s a whole new staff,” Young said. “I wished him the best. He’s a good kid. When you build a program. you need guys who are all in. I certainly understand those type of things occur with coaching changes.”
The Stags did put Taliaferro and Cruz on the preseason AllMAAC teams, indicative the cupboard isn’t bare.
“Landon had a very good summer and preseason,” Young said. “He missed a week and the first of two scrimmages (against NJIT and Sacred Heart) with a foot injury. I don’t think it’s serious. We need him to score. I think generating points will be an issue with us. He’s improved off the dribble. He’s in the best shape ever. He has worked hard to be more than a catchandshoot guy. You look at his numbers in conference play last year, when everyone knows what you can do and moved him off the threepoint line.”
Taliaferro, who led the Stags in scoring at 12.3 points, shot 46 percent in the nonconference from the three and 39.7 percent in the MAAC.
“Jesus is an interesting cat,” Young said. “He has got a men’s league game and I mean that as a compliment. He has all the tricks. He has a unique way of getting himself into trouble offensively and then getting out of trouble by pivoting. Sometimes on the perimeter he travels, he goes too quick. You’d never teach it, but I like his game. He’s like a Swiss Army knife.”
Young knows there will be some eyeopening moments early on. The Stags play at No. 7 Maryland on Nov. 19. They’ll play USC and either Davidson or Marquette in the 2019 AdvoCare Invitational at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Disney World.
“I’m not sure it’ll be the happiest place on earth that week,” Young said, breaking into a laugh.
He touches his wrist band. He talks about keeping an identity even through losses. He talks having an edge.
Jay Young is ready to coach, ready to build.