Fairfield Mirror 11-7-12 Sports B-Section

Basketball preview 2012-2013 Page 1Sports

DEREK BRITTANY DESMOND KATELYN COLIN LAURA AND YOUR FAIRFIELD NEEDHAM MACFARLANE WADE LINNEY NICKERSON VETRA STAGS

FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH FAIRFIELD ATHLETICS A FAIRFIELD BASKETBALL PRODUCTION A SYDNEY JOHNSON AND JOE FRAGER FILM “MAAC AVENGERS” DEREK NEEDHAM, BRITTANY

MACFARLANE, DESMOND WADE, KATELYN LINNEY, COLIN NICKERSON, LAURA VETRA AND YOUR FARIFIELD STAGS.

ON COURT NOVEMBER 2ND AND NOVEMBER 9TH

MAAC AVENGERS

2012-2013 BasketballSeason Preview

Brought to you by: - Jennifer Calhoun: Sports Editor

-Thomas Shea: Assistant Sports Editor

A Look Inside The Issue:

“The Ins and Outs of Men’s Basketball” pg 3

“Three-Point Sharp Shooters” pg 10

Pull-out poster on page 6!!

Right/middle photos: Aryanne Pereira/The MirrorLeft photo: Jeannine Nocera/The Mirror

Photo illustration Nicholas DiFazio/The Mirror

Cover design Jennifer Calhoun/The Mirror

Basketball preview 2012-2013 Page 2Bas-

StagS begin fight to avenge MaaC

“The goal is to win a MAAC Championship.”

Short and simply stated, but still repeated by every single member of the Fairfield University Men’s Basketball Team, including Coach Syd-ney Johnson.

Last year the Stags came close to winning the MAAC Tournament, but their efforts were not enough to earn them the hardware they so desper-ately wanted. And this season, they are ready to avenge their loss.

In a hard fought battle at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, MA, the Stags fell to Loyola Maryland 48-44 in the finals of the MAAC Tour-nament. Fairfield held the lead going into the half, but under the pressure of the Greyhound attack, they surrendered their lead and ultimately lost the game.

In the regular season, the Stags finished in fourth, be-hind Iona, Loyola and Man-hattan. They ended the season with a record of 22-15 overall and 12-6 in conference play.

“I would say [last season] was a success, because we had so many injuries and still made it to the championship with a lot of players down. We did good with a new coach and some new players,” said Derek Needham ’13.

There were several obsta-cles the Stags had to overcome to end up with the successful season they had. It was Head Coach Sydney Johnson’s first year in charge of the team, af-ter joining the coaching staff from Princeton University.

Also, right before the MAAC Tournament was set to begin, Needham, who was poised to be one of the best players in the tournament, broke his foot and was out for the rest of the year.

After the loss in the MAAC Tournament, the Stags accept-ed an invitation to the College Insider Tournament. Hosting all the games at Alumni Hall, the Stags took down Yale Uni-versity, Manhattan College, and Robert Morris University in succession.

Their postseason run was eventually put to an end by Mercer University, who defeated the Stags 59-64 in the semi-finals of the tour-nament. The run in the CIT gave Sydney Johnson and the 2012-2012 Stags the honor of longest postseason run in pro-gram history.

But the 2012-2013 Stags aren’t content with that.

“We have to win the con-ference championship to get to the NCAAs, and that’s what we want to do badly,” said coach Johnson.

The quest for the NCAA tournament berth begins with

the three seniors on the team: Needham, Colin Nickerson, and Desmond Wade.

“They’ve got to score points for us. They’ve got to control the team offensively and defensively, and they’ve got to give us experience in big nervous moments. They’ve got to be the ones who are able to show some poise,” said coach Johnson.

Needham, a guard for the team, has already been named to the Preseason All-MAAC First Team after ending his 2011-2012 campaign with 342 points and 100 assists.

In the first preseason game of the year, against University of Bridgeport, Needham led the team in scoring with 15 points and hit several crucial three-point shots, including one to give the Stags their first lead of the game at 49-48. The Stags went on to win the game 54-52.

Wade, also a guard, is being favored to have a big season for the Stags after com-ing off of his first season play-ing with the Stags, where he averaged 6.3 points per game.

“I feel like my role is go-ing to be different this year. I’m gonna have to score a bit more, and be more of a leader because we got a lot of young players,” said Wade.

In Friday’s preseason game, Wade hit the game-winning three with 1.9 sec-onds left.

Nickerson, another guard, comes off of a second half of the season, where he started

the final 13 games of the year. During those starts, Nickerson averaged 8.1 points per game with 105 points and led the team with a .524 FG percent-age.

Coach Johnson also notes that Keith Matthews ’14 and Maurice Barrow ’14 will both be important factors in the upcoming season.

Barrow had an impres-sive sophomore season with

9.3 points per game and 223 rebounds. He was also the only current Stag to start all 37 games last season. Barrow looks to improve on his stats ahead of the new season.

“My goal is to average 15 or more points and eight to ten rebounds per game. And I just want to do the little things that will help the team over the hump” said Barrow.

Matthews comes off of an

exceptional postseason and transferred it over already to the first game of the season, where he scored eight points and went three for three on field goals.

“I feel early in the season there was a little struggle … but late in the season I came along well, and made some strides in the MAAC Tourna-ment and the CIT Tourna-ment,” Matthew said.

Matthews and Barrow are the only two Stags, other than the seniors, with collegiate experience, which could hurt the Stags in the season.

The Stags are arguably one of the most inexperienced teams in the league, with five players returning who have seen game time and five in-coming freshman, a red shirt freshman, a transfer and a walk-on.

“There are probably about seven teams who can win the league. It’s never been as strong as it is this coming year. So, it’s not a great year for us to be less experienced,” said coach Johnson.

Regular season cham-pions Iona College will be season after graduating Mike Glover and Scott Machado. Glover was the conference leader in field goal percentage and was second in the confer-ence in rebounding and scor-ing. Machado was first in the conference in assists.

It is also Loyola’s last year in the conference, and will be looking to get at least another tournament victory before

heading out of the MAAC.However, the players still

think that there are ways to still get to the top of the MAAC.

“We have to be consis-tent. We have to win early, and when we have bad times, we can’t let them get the best of us,” said Nickerson.

“We have to go out and play hard. We have to play like every game is our last,” Barrow said.

“We have to play good of-fense. We have to take good criticism from our coaches and other players. And we have to play together,” said Needham.

“We just have to take it one game at a time. Playing together and playing as a team is going to get us back to the championship,” said Wade.

“Everybody has to buy into what we’re doing. It’s a com-pletely different team, with five freshmen. So everybody has to buy into what coach wants us to do. Everybody has to come together as a whole,” said Matthews.

The Stags have a lot to prove going into this season. They want to prove that this is more than a rebuilding year. They want to take bring the MAAC regular season title to Fairfield. They want to avenge their loss in the MAAC Tour-nament final. They want the berth into the NCAA Tourna-ment.

If the Stags can make their wants into needs, then this could be a very interesting season indeed.

By Jennifer CalhounSports Editor

Jeannine Nocera/The Mirror

Senior Colin Nickerson drives toward the basket during the Stags’ first preseason game against. The Stags will need Nickerson to have a big year to hope to win the MAAC.

“We have to win the conference championship to get to the NCAAs, and that’s exactly what we want to do badly.”

- Head Coach Sydney Johnson


the inS and outS of Men’S baSketball

There are many things that should be known about Fairfield University’s men’s basketball program.

As the Stags embark on their 2012-2013 season, in or-der to know the ins and outs of men’s basketball, you must first know the…well ins and outs of Stags men’s basket-ball.

The “Ins”

Justin Jenkins

Freshman Justin Jenkins, joining the Stags in his first season from Wings Academy in the Bronx, helped his high school team post a 26-5 re-cord and a 16-0 mark in con-ference play during his senior season. In the same season, Jenkins averaged 18 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game.

The guard scored 468 points his senior year, shoot-ing 48% from the floor. After various offers, such as Florida Atlantic and Siena, Jenkins committed to Fairfield.

“I have a good relation-ship with the coaches,” said Jenkins, “I like the environ-ment that they play basketball in. And I like the teammates I have here.”

A fellow freshman Stag

also has connections to Jen-kins, before the came to Fair-field.

“Amadou Sidibe is a good friend of mine from back home, so he was coming here. We could play as freshman and the coaches also made us feel like family,” Said Jenkins.

In his first outing with the Stags, where the Stags defeat-ed Bridgeport 54-52 on Friday night, Jenkins was given ten minutes of playing time.

The Stags will look for Jenkins to show the skills that brought him to Fairfield as the season gets underway.

Fun Fact: His favorite ath-lete is LeBron James.

Josip Mikulic

Freshman Josip Mikulic, a forward and native of Croa-tia, came to the United States about two years ago when he enrolled at North Broward Prep in Florida. Mikulic, in his final season, averaged 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 as-sists per game.

Coach Sydney Johnson was anxious to have Mikulic become a Stag. His size, com-ing in at 7’0”, and his versatility is what initially drew Johnson to pursue Mikulic.

“He has a skill set that we like a lot. He’s very comfort-able on different areas of the court, and that works well with our offense.” Coach Johnson said.

His skills were put to use on Friday, where Mikulic was

the lone freshman to start the contest. By the end of the game, Mikulic had the most rebound on the team, with eight, and the most blocks on the team, with four.

While his stats for his first outing was impressive, Miku-lic, like all of his other team-mates, sees the team’s goals at as the most important.

“Win the MAAC,” said Mi-kulic. If his stats stay strong, Mikulic may just be able to help his team achieve that goal.

Fun Fact: His role model growing up was Dirk Nowit-zki.

Marcus Gilbert

Freshman Marcus Gilbert a forward joining the Stags from Academy of the New Church, averaged 17 points and 8 rebounds per game the 2011-2012 season. In his se-nior year, Gilbert shot 54% from the floor and 63% from inside the three-0point line.

Gilbert showed his im-pressive dunking skills at this year’s Red Sea Madness and the Stags are going to look for him to transfer that over to games.

In his first preseason game with the Stags, Gilbert was given 18 minutes of play-ing time against the University of Bridgeport.

In that 18 minutes, Gilbert scored six points, had four de-fensive rebounds and hit two big three-point shots to bring Fairfield back into the game.

As for how he feels the team has been his first month Gilbert said, “Pretty good. We’ve got great chemistry. I think the chemistry is there, we’re a very unified team.”

Fun Fact: His favorite song is “Wild Ones” By Flo Rida .

Amadou Sidibe

Freshman Amadou Sidibe, a forward coming from Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx, averaged 15 points and 12 re-bounds per game his senior season.

Here at Fairfield, Sidibe has been impressive. While he only played 13 minutes against the University of Bridgeport, he was one of the most effec-tive freshmen to hit the court.

Sidibe scored seven points and went three for three on field goal attempts. While the stats were impressive, it was mostly a second half effort from Sidibe.

“The second half he came back and was absolutely ter-rific,” said coach Johnson.

The Stags can now only wait and see the numbers Sidibe can post when he puts together two strong halves.

Fun Fact: His favorite TV show is Breaking Bad.

Coleman Johnson

Freshman Coleman John-son, a forward hailing from Oak Hill, VA comes to Fair-field after averaging 12 points and nine rebounds per game in his senior season

Johnson was recruited by other schools, such as North-eastern, Robert Morris, and MAAC foe Marist, but Johnson eventually committed to join the Stags, although he admits it was an easy choice.

“I just want to help the team out any way I can, whether that’s in practice, or in a game, just to help get wins and win the MAAC,” said Johnson.

Fun Fact: His favorite per-former is J.Cole

Steven Johnston

Sophomore Steven John-ston, the lone walk-on on the Fairfield roster, joins the Stags as a sophomore.

About the process of join-ing the Stags, Johnston said “it was quite a process.”

“When I first tried out...they said we can use you in practice ... so you can do that ... and slowly worked my way onto the team. “

Fun Fact: His favorite TV show is The Walking Dead.

Sean Grennan

Sophomores Sean Gren-nan joins the Stags as a soph-omore transfer from Seton Hall.

He made the transtion to Fairfield based mostly on bas-ketball.

“The style of play [Coach Johnson] runs suits me very well” said Grennan.

Grennan has also found a great bond with his new teammates saying “I like my teammates a lot, man: they’re great.”

The “Outs”

The Stags are coming off the loss of seven, yes, seven players.

Three Stags have left the program through graduation - Gary Martin, Ryan Olander, and arguably the biggest loss, Rakim Sanders.

Sanders ended last season with 615 points scored, 303 re-bounds and a staggering 1195 minutes played.

Coach Johnson isn’t over-ly concerned with the loss of some key players through graduation.

“The team is first going to look to our senior guards, Der-ek Needham, Colin Nickerson and Desmond Wade. They’re going to lead us because of their experience,” said Coach Johnson.

The Stags also lost four players through transfers in the off-season.

Redshirt Sean Crawford ‘14, Adam Jones ‘15, Jamel Fields ‘14, and Keegan Hyland ‘14 all packed their bags and left the Stags for other pro-grams.

Crawford and Fields were arguably the biggest losses for the Stags.

Crawford ended last sea-son with 139 points after play-ing in 32 games. Fields ended his sophomore campaign with 123 points in his 35 games played.

Coach Johnson is backing his incoming freshman class to fill the void left by those who transferred out.

“We’ve got a terrific fresh-man class ... I’d argue that they’re the best in the league,” said Coach Johnson.

While the losses take a big toll on the Stags, the strengths coming in from the new arriv-als will certainly help the Stags on their journey to a MAAC championship

By Jennifer CalhounSports Editor

By Vanessa SalvaggioContributing Writer


Marcus Gilbert in action for the Stags on Friday against Bridgeport.

Headshots courtesy of Thomas Shea and Jeannine Nocera/The Mirror


Wade and needhaM RetuRn fRoM injuRieS

The Fairfield Stags men’s basketball team is very grate-ful to welcome back two stars that fell plague to injury last season.

Seniors Derek Needham and Desmond Wade both were essential to the team’s success last year.

Needham suffered a bro-ken left foot right before the MAAC tournament began and Wade’s injury came before the Stags’ last game of the College Insider Tournament.

Both these injuries oc-curred at crucial points in the season.

The Stags were consid-ered to be one of the favorites to win the MAAC Tournament last season before Needham broke his foot.

When asked how Need-ham felt when he found out he was going to miss the post season he said, “It didn’t ac-tually hit me until I had to get surgery. But it hit me hard. It was hard to take, but my team really stepped up and did a great job.”

It was hard to replace Needham, who was not only a team leader, but was also averaging close to 12 points a game.

Wade’s injury did not hap-pen until before the last game of the season but was still a huge loss to the team.

The Stags were without

Wade’s average of 6 points and 3 assists per game for their fi-nal CIT game, and the Stags lost to the Mercer Bears in the semi-finals.

Fortunately just like Need-ham, Wade has made a suc-cessful recovery.

“It feels pretty good. I’m healthy; I’m 100 percent healthy. Everything’s good, my hand is good, my body feels real good,” said Wade.

When coach Sydney John-son found several positives amongst the disappointment of having two crucial players out with injury.

“Certain guys stepped up. I think certain guys who were either nervous or unsure of their abilities really under-stood ‘well you know we don’t have Derek and later on we didn’t have Des … somebody’s got to do it, so they stepped up.”

Both Needham and Wade have successfully bounced back from injury and are ready for a new season. But the inju-ry has given Needham a new view on his senior season, and gave him inspiration for how to approach the last year.

“It’s just about being pa-tient and knowing that this is my last year. I have my team supporting me to come back better,” said Needham

Coach Johnson believes that both these players are in very good physical shape and should be a huge part of the team this year.

“Des really had no issues.

Some weeks after he could have kept playing if our season had extended. And Derek’s in the best shape of his life, and physically it’s just been no is-sues whatsoever,” coach John-son said.

Fairfield opens the regu-

lar season on November 10 as part of the Connecticut 6 Clas-sic, hosted by the University of Hartford on November 10. The Stags face Central Connecticut State University at 8 pm, the fi-nal game of the tripleheader.

The Stags are going to look

to Needham and Wade to lead the team through the season, and hopefully they can stay away from injury for the year, so their talents can be utilized from start of the season to the end.

By Steven VissichelliContributing Writer


Desmond Wade dribbled down the court in the Stags’ frist preseason game of the year. Wade is coming back from a broken hand.


Desmond Wade dribbled down the court in the Stags’ frist preseason game of the year. Wade is coming back from a broken hand.


Meet the upperclassmen StagsSE N I

ORS

Desmond Wade -Guard-Started 30 games -905 minutes played-203 points scored -Averaged 6.3 ppg-97 assists-His pregame meal is pasta

Colin Nickerson -Guard-Started 14 games-669 minutes played-46 steals-168 points scored-.524 FG percentage-His favortie Disney char-acter is Mickey Mouse.

Derek Needham-Guard- Started 29 games-342 points scored -Averaged 11.8 ppg-100 assists-His favorite sport besides basketball is baseball

Keith Matthews -Forward-34 games played-127 points scored -Averaged 3.7 ppg.-.481 FG percentage-His pregame meal is green beans, steak, pasta, and chicken.

Maurice Barrow-Forward-Started all 37 games-223 rebounds-345 points scored -Averaged 9.3 ppg-His favorite movie is Bad Boys 2

Vince Van Nes-Forward/Center-Didn’t play the 2011/2012 season with a foot injury. -His favorite sports team is Arsenal F.C.

Sean Grennan-Guard-Transfer from Seton Hall University.-Played in 18 games-His favorite 90s song is “Santeria” or “What I Got” by Sublime.

Brittany MacFarlane-Forward-Played 32 games-169 points scored -Averaged 5.3 ppg-170 total rebounds-Her favorite food is Tim Horton’s

Katelyn Linney -Guard-Started 32 games. -65 three-pointers made-273 points scored -Averaged 8.3 ppg-Favorite TV show is “Say Yes to the Dress

”

Laura Vetra-Forward-27 games played-.320 FG percentage-44 points scored. -Her favorite food is sushi.

Christelle Akon-Akech-Forward-Played in 30 games-.524 FG percentage-.675 free throw percent-age-Niece of Chicago Bulls Foward Luol Deng

Alexys Vasquez-Guard-28 games started-.427 three-point FG percentage -233 points scored -Averaged 7.3 ppg-Her favorite athlete is LeBron James

Brittany Obi-Tabot-Forward-Played in 17 games-.417 FG percentage-20 rebounds-Went to the same high school as Eliza Dushku

Katie Cizynski-Forward-Started 26 games-186 points scored. -19 blocks-123 rebounds-Her dad threw a no-hit-ter for Fairfield in 1977

Casey Grace-Forward-Transfer from Dawson Community College, in Carrigaline, Ireland-Averaged 14 ppg. -Her favorite meal is mashed potatoes, carrots and roast chicken.

Felicia DaCruz-Guard-28 games played. -.333 FG percentage-Only sophomore on the team.

J U N I O R S

SOPH O M O R E S

Steven Johnston-Walk -on.-Joins the team after be-ing last season’s manager and practice player. - Favorite TV show is The Walking Dead

Men’s headshots courtesy of Thomas Shea and Jeannine Nocera/The MirrorWomen’s headshots are contributed photos


Men’s Basketball Home Schedule

Women’s Basketball Home Schedule

DateNov 2nd

Dec 7th

Dec 12th

Dec 16th

Jan 13th

Jan 21st

Jan 24th

Feb 1st

Feb 7th

Feb 9th

Feb 14th

Feb 18th

OpponentUniverstiy of Bridge-

port

Canisius College*

UW- Milwaukee

Drexel University

Niagara University*

Loyola University*

Marist College*

Rider University*

Saint Peter’s*

Manhattan College*

Siena College*

Iona College*

Time7 pm

7 pm

7 pm

4 pm

1 pm

7 pm

7 pm

7 pm

7 pm

1 pm

8:30 pm

7 pm

* denotes MAAC game

DateNov 13th

Nov 20th

Nov 27th

Dec 1st

Dec 22nd

Jan 4th

Jan 12th

Jan 20th

Jan 25th

Jan 27th

Feb 3rd

Feb 16th

Mar 3rd

OpponentBrown University

St. Bonaventure

Vermont

St Francis (NY)

LaSalle

Loyola University*

Niagara University*

Manhattan College*

Siena College*

Rider University*

Iona College*

Saint Peter’s*

Marist College*

Time7 pm

7 pm

7 pm

2 pm

2 pm

7 pm

2 pm

2 pm

7 pm

2 pm

2 pm

2 pm

2 pm


Photo by Nicholas DiFazio/The MirrorDesign by Artin Ghokasiyan


Sports 3x5 Your 2012-2013 3x5 Columnists: Jen Calhoun, Tom Shea and Michael O'Keeffe.

Because they like to talk ... basketball.

Jennifer Calhoun

Sports Editor

Michael O'Keeffe

The Mate

Tom Shea

Assistant Sports Editor

Lets get some predic-tions! What’s the season look like for the Stags?

Who is your favorite basketball player of all time?

What players are you looking to to have a big season?

As this issue is Aveng-ers themed, who’s your favorite Avenger?

With such great athletes on the teams, how do you think you’d fare if you were on the team?

It’s going to be tough after losing Taryn Johnson and Rakim Sanders, but you have to have faith that the Stags can pull it out and take the titles back to FU

One of the hardest they’ve encountered for a long time. But the finals expe-rience from last year will be invaluable. Both teams to do one better this year!

Women bounce back from a tough start, and get to 20 wins. Men overcome early season struggles, go 13-5 in con-ference en route to the MAAC tourney title.

I’m going to say the kid in “Luck of the Irish”. I mean he never missed a shot ever.....is it because he was a half-leprechaun? Maybe. But can’t argue with thoses stats.

I was in Springfield last year and saw a particular someone drop bombs from behind the arc for fun. His name, John I-now-work-at-ESPN Tessitore

Gotta be Scalabrine, at least when he was a Celtic. Who didn’t love that guy?

Honestly, I’d probably av-erage 20 and 10. Twenty times being dunked on per game, and 10 broken ankles from Needham/Nickerson/Wade’s moves.

Back in my glory days they used to call me the point guard. What an easy position, all you do is sit on the sideline yelling and pointing, “guard! guard!”

Hand-eye coordination is not exactly my specialty. It’s quite embarrassnig actually. It’s only good when I play Mario Kart...and only when I’m Yoshi.

Thor. We have like the ex-act same physique, right? And Chis Hemsworth is almost as much of a bad a** as yours truly.

Captain America! USA! USA! USA! Stars and stripes baby! Land of the free and home of the brave! ‘merica! Golden Arches!

I’m going to go with Hawkeye. When he shoots the arrow while falling off the building...............hear that sound? Yeah that’s me dying inside because it’s so sexy.

Needham has to come back better than ever, and two of the best 3-point snipers in the country (Linney and Vazquez) should light it up.+

That’s easy. Vince Van Nes and Josip Mikulic for the men and Laura Vetra and Katie Cyzinski for the women. They’re the biggest players on their team.

I’m looking at some of the men’s freshman to really have big seasons, with Mikulic big on blocks and rebounds. And Vasquez will have a big season for the women

hoW the MaaC StaCkS upCanisius College

Men: -Finished 10th in the MAAC last season.

Women: -Finished 8th in the MAAC last season. -Junior forward Jamie Ruttle named to Preseason All-MAAC 1st team.

Iona CollegeMen:

-Regular season champions. -Were number one in scoring of fense.

Women: -Finished 7th in the MAAC last season. -Had leading scorer in the MAAC, Damika Martinez ‘15, with 497 points.

Loyola UniversityMen:

-MAAC Tournament Champions -First in MAAC in rebounding defense

Women: -Finished 4th in the MAAC last season. -Senior guard Katie Sheahin named to Preseason All-MAAC 1st team.

Siena CollegeMen:

-Finished 6th in the MAAC last season.

Women: -Finished 5th in the MAAC last season. -Had second leading scorer in the MAAC, Lily Grenci ‘13.

Niagara UniversityMen:

-Finished 7th in the MAAC last season. -Had leader of steal in the MAAC, Juan’ya Green ‘15, with 63.

Women: -Finished 6th in the MAAC last season.

Marist CollegeMen:


Women: -Won the regular season and the MAAC tournament last seaon. -First in scoring offense in the MAAC

Rider UniversityMen:

-Finished 5th in the MAAC last season. -Had leader in 3-point FG percent-age, Jonathon Thompson ‘13, at .470

Women: -Finished 10th in the MAAC last season.

Manhattan CollegeMen:

-Finished 3rd in the MAAC last season. -Had leading scorer in MAAC, George Beamon ‘13, with 626 points.

Women: -Finished 3rd in the MAAC last season and were first in steals.

Saint Peter’s CollegeMen:


Women: -Finished 9th in the MAAC last season and were first in rebound ing offense

Contributed Photos


the Men behind the MaaC avengeRS

After taking over as the men’s basketball Head Coach just last year, Sydney Johnson has already had tremendous success here in Stag Country. Johnson helped the team to a 22-win season and guided the squad through the deepest post-season run in program history.

But last season was not his first run-in with success.

Johnson attended Princeton University and earned top acco-lades as a player. He was the Ivy league’s player of the year (1997) and the only three-time captain in school history. He achieved first-team All Ivy League selec-tion in 1996 and 1997.

Holding the record for most steals (169), Johnson went on to hold the record for most con-secutive three-point shots. By the end of his playing years at Princeton, Johnson had finished second in school history for most three-pointer shots made (162), and was the 21st player in program history to score 1,000 points in his career, finishing

with 1,044.After graduating, Johnson

went on to play for seven sea-sons for six different teams in Europe where he won three championships. His interna-tional career began with Gori-zia Pallacanestro in Italy. There he was able to help the team capture the Italian Second divi-sion championship. After being traded Johnson went to Reggio Calabria, won another title, and finished his playing career in 2004 with a championship win for Montepaschi Siena.

After returning to the Unit-ed States, Sydney Johnson was hired by Georgetown University as an assistant head coach. He spent three successful seasons with the Hoyas, helping them reach the postseason three times and capturing a Big East title.

Johnson returned to his alma mater, Princeton, and led the team to an Ivy League title and two postseason appear-ances.

Leaving Princeton at the end of the 2010-2011 season, Johnson was announced as the new Head Coach here at Fair-

field. On his transition to the Fairfield community he stated “The University made me and my family feel very welcomed, to such a level that I’ve never seen before.”

Following his welcome, there was still a season to be played.

Reflecting on the success of the season he said, “I would say highly successful, but a twinge of bittersweet. We won 22 games, we played in the post season for the third year in a row, and we had the greatest postseason run in school history, just the MAAC conference championship that eluded us once again.”

Johsnon went on to say: “We had the lead at halftime, and then they didn’t play that well in the second half. That was a tough blow to take, but the guys matured and developed and re-ally made a fine season when it was all said and done.”

While the Stags are up against some tough competition in the MAAC this season, with Coach Johnson at the head of the Stags, it can be anticipated that the Stags will have relative-ly new, yet reliable guidance.

As Head Coach Joe Frager briskly left practice one day, which lasted over a half hour longer than scheduled, he looked like he was a ticking-time bomb.

“Patience has never been my strong-suit,” said Frager in an interview shortly after. “If anything, my assistants have a job on their hands, and it’s to keep me patient, because sometimes that wears thin - quickly.”

If that’s the case, then per-haps coach Frager may want to invest in a stress ball or a foot massage, or maybe even pick up yoga, because he has a great deal of inexperience on his team, and with inexperi-enced, young players, comes a lot of headaches.

“We almost play like our hair is on fire sometimes … Right now, one or two mis-takes becomes five or six,” said Frager. “We bleed a little bit, and soon it’s a full blown hemorrhage. And that’s a young team.”

“I think because they’re going so fast, it means they want to do well, they just don’t

know how to control that emo-tion at this point, and calm themselves down.”

Frager is heading into his sixth season with Fairfield, and for the first time in a long time (if not ever) there is no dominant player on his roster, rather a group of very skilled and evenly talented girls who want nothing more than to get him his fourth 20 win season, and more importantly, his first NCAA Tournament ap-pearance.

Talk of an NCAA Tourna-ment game may be premature however, as Frager is barely set on his starting five so far. “We’ve been a little inconsis-tent, where certain players have had a couple good prac-tices in a row, and then the next two days, they’re a dif-ferent player … It just seems like every other day, we could have a different starting five,” said Frager.

Katelyn Linney ‘13, Alex-ys Vazquez, ‘14 and Brittany MacFarlane’13, when healthy, appear to have three of the starting jobs, according to Frager, with the other two as up in the air. Most coaches would be uneasy without hav-ing a certain starting lineup so close to the start of the year,

but Frager seems to like what it causes in the players.

“To me, competition is a good thing. People don’t get comfortable and kind of take their foot off the gas,” said Frager, who comes into the year with a 101-56 record at Fairfield.

And with the very tough non-conference schedule that the Stags have this season, it isn’t right to judge this team against the team from last year, as this team’s win-loss record may suffer from play-ing quality opponents.

“Each year is unique. I can say that I don’t think this team, unless I’m really wrong, is going to equal or exceed 24 wins,” said Frager, meaning that this team may not reach the same win total from last year. “But that doesn’t mean with this particular team that would be an unsuccessful season. I think that this team needs to get through a very tough non-conference sched-ule and … get a better idea of their own identity as a team.”

“I just want to see this team peak over the final third,” Frager continued, “…what that’s going to amount to by the end, is the record is not going to be as glossy, but

I think that this team, by the end of the year, could be a really good basketball team, and a real pain in the neck to have to face in the postseason. That’s got to be the goal.”

Frager thinks that this team could be a pain to a few teams later on, which would make all the pains he is going through now with his young players even more worth it.

By Leland Bergen Contributing Writer

By Thomas SheaAssistant Sports Editor

Sydney Johnson: New season, same successful coach


Coach Johnson calling out instructions to the Stags on Friday night.

Joe Frager: Learning patience with his players

Contributed Photo

Coach Joe Frager stands in anger in a game in a previous season for the Stags.


thRee- point ShaRp ShooteRS

As a new season is set to start it is easy for one to get carried away with the hopes and expectations that come with dreaming about the pos-sible achievements for a new season.

Traditionally this sort of thinking leads to overconfi-dence and eventual failure. But given the past success by players Alexys Vazquez ‘14 and Katelyn Linney ‘13, why shouldn’t we be excited?

The pair consistently put up big numbers, especially three-pointers, on the court come game day.

By the end of last season, now guard Vazquez had set the single season record for three-point field goal percent-age, with .427.

Speaking on her three-point success, Vazquez said,

“I wouldn’t get the shots off if my teammates didn’t get me open. The screens that they set allow me to get my shots off, so it’s just dependent on me whether I make it or not. I’m in the gym shooting extra to make sure I do make the shot when I get the chance.”

Given her mentality and humility, it’s no surprise Vazquez was the national leader in three-point field goal percentage for nearly the entire month of February and the beginning of March.

But Vazquez isn’t the only one making her mark beyond the arc.

Senior guard Linney is one of the preeminent three-point threats in the MAAC and has at least one three-pointer in 86 total games for her career.

She has started 96 of 97 games that the Stags have played during her tenure and has made 208 career three-pointers.

Linney is currently ranked second in program history for career three-pointers.

On the possibility of be-coming the first, Linney said, “It would mean a lot. I went into looking at schools as wanting to leave a mark on the program that I’ve been with. I think that would be a great success that I’ve had and I can leave my mark on a pro-gram that I love so much and … they’ve given me so much here.”

Linney, like Vasquez is humble about her successes.

“I’m not remotely athlet-ic at all,” says Linney. “If you were to look at me. Everything I’ve built upon is just working hard, and I’m a person who is just dedicated to working hard.”

No matter what happens this season, plan on one thing: The team won’t be discounted due to a lack of effort.

By Leland BergenContributing Writer Quick Stats for Linney

and Vazquez

-Vazquez was ranked second in the

MAAC for three-point FG percent-

age

-Her percentage was .427

-Linney was ranked second in the

MAAC for three-point FG made

-She made 65

Aryanne Pereira/The Mirror

Alexys Vazquez sinks one of her 13 three-pointers at Red Sea Madness. Vazquez made 13 of 15 shots at the event

Contributed Photo

Katelyn Linney shoots a three-pointer in a game from a previous season


gRaCe aSSiMilateS to aMeRiCa and the StagS

If there is one thing Fair-field University does well, it is

recruiting international ath-letes. Men’s soccer is the most prolific, with eight players hailing from overseas.

Women’s basketball has a new international in the

lineup, adding Casey Grace ’14 from Carrigaline, Ireland.

Grace comes to Fair-field after averaging 14 points and seven rebounds per game with Dawson Community College in Carrigaline in her sophomore year.

Grace, it already appears, is going to be a wel-comed member of Head Coach Jim Frager’s squad.

“If you watch her play, she’s very uncomfortable with her back to the basket. She desperately wants to get out and face up and handle the ball and shoot some threes. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing for us, because we really want to post up Cyzin-ski and Obi-Tabot,” said coach Frager.

Grace believes that the adjustment from playing in Ireland to playing in America is going to take some time.

“Not only do I have to step up physically, I have to be stronger, I also have to be

smarter, and learn a lot more offense too” said Grace.

While the technical changes are a big step for Grace, the actual act of moving

to America has led to the need for major adjusting. While one might assume that a tran-sition from Ireland to America wouldn’t be as difficult as say, Spain or China, Grace still saw many differences in culture.

“People don’t understand when I say this, but everything is just, bigger. Your cars are bigger, food is bigger, stores are bigger” Grace said.

She continued on to de-scribe what she misses most about home, saying “besides my family? Definitely, defi-nitely the food. It’s way dif-ferent … I’ve already had two packages sent from my mom and grandmother with like Irish chocolate, stuff like that.”

As Grace is adjusting to America, her play has been changing, and improving as well.

“I’ve been playing the post since I came here which is new to me. The coaches have been giving me all this time, help-ing me learn. I’ve had a lot of one on one in preseason,” said Grace.

The Stags will have to wait to see how Grace will perform in game situations, but for the time being it appears as though the more comfortable she is, the more her inherent talents will shine.


fReShMan ClaSS Ready to fill voidS

Lizzie Ball

Favorite basketball player is LeBron

James

Christa Scognamiglio

Favorite ice cream is mint chocolate chip

Kristin Schatzlein

Favorite singer is Carrie Underwood

Contributed Photos

From left to right: Freshmen Lizzie Ball, Christa Scognamiglio, and Kristin Schatzlein, will be important to the Stags as they try to avenge their MAAC Tournament Final loss.

One of the overwhelm-ing themes of the election season that just ended has been change, with politicians on both sides using it as way to plead voters to join their cause.

Apparently, it was a cause that coach Frager took to heart, as there are seemingly more changes on the Fairfield women’s basketball team than there are in the Senate.

With three freshmen join-ing this year’s squad, in addi-tion to junior college transfer Casey Grace, there is a differ-ent look to this year’s team overall, but according to Coach Frager, that isn’t neces-sarily a bad thing.

“With this group, I don’t think you can look at a kid and say ‘Yes, you are the replace-ment for one of the pieces.’ The sum of our parts is going to be

the most important thing,” said Frager. “We have players that are good at one or two points in the game, and may-be a little weak in other areas … One through 12, we have a lot of kids who are similar ability wise, we don’t have two or three kids who light years ahead of other players. And that’s going to take a while to develop.”

While coach Frager may not admit it, there are simi-larities between this group of freshmen and players who have come and gone through Fairfield.

Take Lizzy Ball ‘16, for ex-ample. The 5’7 freshman was described by Frager as a “bull-dog point guard.” She is un-dersized (the second smallest player on the team), but still averaged almost 13 points per game her senior season at the New Hampton School, after averaging 18.7 points per game at Manchester-Essex Regional High School for three years.

She “throws her body around without any regard for life or limb, and is just a competitive kid,” according to Frager.

All that being said, one can’t help but being reminded of Desiree Pina ‘16, who grad-uated last season with 1343 points to her name, again was an undersized point guard as well.

Then there’s Christa Scognamiglio ‘16, whose three-point prowess helped her average 16.7 points per game in high school. She has the ability from beyond the arc that is reminiscent of Katelyn Linney ‘13 her freshman year, and it’s something that Frager liked when he saw her, calling her a “hard-nosed scorer”.

Freshman Kristin Schat-zlein is a 6’0 guard, who may not be taking over for some-one directly, but perhaps carving a spot out for herself. “We wanted to get longer and more athletic at the guard po-

sition … and she has really good instincts for the game,” said Frager, “She could be someone who could play that two or that three and score in a variety of different ways.” The reigning Connecticut Ga-torade Girl’s Basketball Player of the Year averaged over 18 points per game, and tallied over 1700 points in her time at Tolland High School.

All three players agreed that the main reason why they chose Fairfield was for the coaching staff. “The coaching staff really made my decision definite,” said Ball.

All three also agreed that the main goal is just to help in any way they can. “As a player, I just want to make my team better, put anything on the floor that I can give,” said Ball.

The players, who were also considering rival schools like Hofstra, Manhattan, Quin-nipiac, Sacred Heart, and oth-ers, are looking to gain some valuable minutes this season,

mostly by “doing the little things.”

“Getting the rebounds, [playing] defense, the things that aren’t really noticed, play-ing hard,” said Scognamiglio.

The freshmen are going to see some important min-utes, especially early in the season, as there are many in-terchangeable parts with this team, so much of their learn-ing will have to come by do-ing, rather than sitting on the bench.

Coach Frager said that despite their obvious skill on the court, the reason why they went after them comes down to a personal level.

“The bottom line that I saw in a four of those kids [includ-ing Casey Grace ‘14, the trans-fer], is personally we really, really liked them,” said Frager. “We thought they would fit our philosophy as a program, and all four of them will have success here at this school.”

By Jennifer Calhoun Sports Editor

Contributed Photo

Casey Grace ‘14 in action for her old team Dawson Community College.

“The coaches have been giving me all this time, helping me learn.”

-Casey Grace ‘14


SenioRS vital foR Stag SuCCeSS

The three seniors on the women’s basketball team have had tremendous success while here at Fairfield with a 61-36 mark over the past three seasons, including two 20 win seasons and a trip to the WNIT last year - the second ever in Fairfield history.

This year they will look to add onto that impressive re-sume, with one added caveat: All eyes will be on them.

Flash back to 2009: the beginning of the collegiate basketball careers for Laura Vetra ‘13, Brittany MacFarlane ‘13, and Katelyn Linney ‘13. Both Vetra and MacFarlane were competing for minutes as Stephanie Geehan ‘10 and Desiree Pina ‘12 led the Stags to a 20-win season, while the sharp-shooting freshman Lin-ney burst onto the scene un-expectedly, averaging over 10 points per game.

In both 2010 and 2011, the team had a backup plan, knowing the dynamic duo of Pina and Taryn Johnson ‘12 had the ability to carry them at a moment’s notice.

This year, however, the safety net of having two 1000-point scorers on the court is gone, and while Brit-tany MacFarlane ’13, Linney and Vetra have played impor-tant roles in the last two years, all three realize that their roles have changed.

Seniors embrace new roles

Linney, for one, has seen her role change from a fea-tured third option on offense, to a depended-on scorer and coach on the floor.

“I’ve come to a role where other people are looking at me now on my team, and not just looking at the other dominant players that we’ve had,” said Linney. “I think I have to take

that in stride.”Linney also noted her

progression over her years at Fairfield.

“Freshman year I was just kind of out there, trying to fig-ure it out … I needed to play more consistent as a sopho-more,” she said. “Last year, I struggled but I think I learned … to broaden my horizons, that I can bring more to the game than just shooting. I can also pass and play defense, and now this year, I’m try-ing to incorporate all of those things.”

Head Coach Joe Frager sees the experience of Linney as something that the team will depend on this season.

“[Linney] has been through the wars for two years. In two of her three years, we’ve gotten to a MAAC championship game, and got into postseason beyond that,” said Frager.

He continued, saying “you can see the maturation in someone like her. The leader-ship previously … came from Desiree Pina and Taryn John-son, so there’s a huge void. You can actively see Katelyn try and step up.”

MacFarlane believes that her strength will come from believing in her play, and translating that into points. “I’ve come into my role on the team. I became a leader, and I’m more confident in the way I play,” said MacFarlane. “[I’ll] be more depended on scoring, and not just be doing the little things. I have to score.”

For Vetra, the difference may not show up on the score-board as much, but rather in how she directs the younger and more inexperienced play-ers while on the court.

“I’ve become more vocal on the court. Like freshman and sophomore year I was a younger player, I was quiet, scared to say something.,” said Vetra. “Junior and senior year that’s changed.”

The value of expe-rience

Frager values the knowl-edge of the other veteran play-ers will help the younger play-ers acclimate better and learn from the experience of the up-perclassmen.

“It’s one thing for a coach to say it, but if you’ve got play-ers on the team who can tell the younger players ‘Guys, this is what it takes. These are the mistakes we made as a team the year before, we were able to make the corrections, and look at what we were able to do,’” said Frager.

“That’s hopefully what [the upperclassmen] take away from it, and it comes down to how well can our juniors and seniors convey to the young kids.”

Despite losing their top two scorers from last season, the senior Stags aren’t so much nervous as they are in-trigued by the situation that is in front of them.

“ … I think this year - even though we’re a very young team - I think we have more consistency. It’s almost a fresh new look,” said Linney. “We’ve always come into seasons knowing we have two domi-nant players, and I think it’s giving people opportunities they’ve never had before. It gives a fresh start for us.”

Vetra agreed that this year the players will have much more interchangeable roles to play each game.

“Previous years, there have been six or seven players that are the core players, who always dominate the court. This year, I think it’s going to be more than just seven play-ers. More people are going to see court time,” Vetra said.

Stags look for revenge

With the influx of young and new players, the expe-rience that the three share

will be invaluable in leading the team back to the MAAC Championship and possibly beyond.

“Last year … the tough-est games we played, there would be five players on the court, but we wouldn’t play together,” said Vetra. “When it got tough, we would be five in-dividuals on the court, instead of all coming together and being like ‘Listen, let’s calm down, pull it together.’

“We have to do better this year with that we have to play together. Not every game is going to be easy, it’s going to be a challenging season,” add-ed Vetra.

MacFarlane stressed the importance of working hard in both in the preseason, and throughout the regular sea-son.

“We have to come to play every day, we don’t have the luxury of taking days off, [say-ing] ‘Oh, these two players will do it,’” said Macfarlane. “I think we came so close, two of the three years. A little bit more effort and a little more hard work, I think we can get there,” MacFarlane said.

It is possible that that is all that stopped the Stags from taking the MAAC Tournament title a year ago. After rolling in the quarter and semi-finals, Fairfield ran into a wall against Marist with no Stags getting into double digits scoring.

“I think that sometimes, unfortunately, to take that next step, you have to kind of get your wind taken away a couple of times. I think that two years ago, we played ex-

tremely well in the finals, and just got beat by a better team,” said Frager.

“Last year, again, we got beat by a better team, but I don’t think we played well. Sometimes there’s such a thing as wanting something too much … You just hope that after being through a few times, if we’re fortunate to put ourselves in a similar situa-tion, that players who have been through that can set the tone leadership-wise.”

The only team that has stood in the way of a MAAC championship for the Stags is Marist, who have won seven straight MAAC Tournament titles, including last year’s 61-35 drubbing against Fairfield in the finals.

“The goal is always to make the NCAA Tournament, short of that you’re never com-pletely happy … The first two weeks after the season ended, no I was not happy at all,” said Frager. “But it took some time to gain some perspective on it, and look back, and really ap-preciate the strides they had made.”

The quest to bring a MAAC title to Fairfield is one that could take some ups and downs this season, given the incredibly difficult non-conference schedule that the Stags have ahead of them, beginning with Florida on Fri-day.

But one thing is certain: the leadership of Linney, Mac-Farlane, and Vetra will be the keys to getting them the title that has eluded them the past three years.


Contributed Photo

Senior Laura Vetra holds the ball for the Stags in a game. Vetra is going to be a crucial part of the team this season.

Mirror File Photos

Katelyn Linney dribbles the ball down the court in a game in a previous season.

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Fairfield Mirror 11-7-12 Sports B-Section