Sports Blog: Back from Maryland

After a late night/early morning journey from Maryland back to Fairfield, here are a few thoughts on the game:

• The inside play by the Stags was not as strong as many expected against a much smaller, but athletic Maryland squad. Terps coach Gary Williams made it difficult for the Stags to get the ball inside to Anthony Johnson and even when Fairfield took the lead in the first half, it was because of missed shots by the Terps and penetration by the Stags guards, not the inside play of Johnson or Ryan Olander. Olander promptly earned a spot on the bench and the Stags went smaller and took over for a brief period of time. Johnson ended up finishing the game with 14 rebounds, but scored just two points. Olander did not score and despite being the tallest player in the game, only pulled down one rebound.
• Derek Needham is a true MAAC point guard already. With double digits in each of his first three collegiate games and an attitude/poise that is rarely seen in a freshman, Needham is clearly ready to lead the Stags. He could wind up being the MAAC Rookie of the Year, as well as the Stags MVP and leading scorer. He was named Rookie of the Week for the first week of the season and after his performance against Maryland he could win his second award in as many weeks. While he made a few freshman mistakes and had seven turnovers, he showed composure at the free throw line, going 8-for-8 in the second half with the “whirly things” from the Maryland crowd and hundreds of screaming students in his face. That’s composure in my book.
• Shimeek Johnson and Colin Nickerson played like freshman, while Olander was non-existstant and Mike Evanovich did not show enough tenacity on the boards. But all four are going to be key players this season, even if Evanovich has yet to really show it. His leadership will be key.
• Cooley was disappointed in the amount of turnovers. The Stags turned the ball over 25 times and Maryland scored 21 points off those turnovers.

Here are a few quotes from Ed Cooley:

• “To start both  halves I thought we turned the ball over the first three, four possessions. Inexperience showed all over the place, I thought physicality showed all over the place.”
• “We are going to play hard, when you have three freshmen going against all that experience, it is good experience for them. It is a wake up call in the sense that our guys have to move the ball, play physical, I mean 25 turnovers that’s the game.”
• On what was taken away from the game – “I thought we had good spurts. We couldn’t sustain that energy, they [the three freshmen] don’t have the game experience to sustain that. Any team in the country that starts three freshmen are going to go through in games spurts where guys get worn out mentally or emotionally, let alone physically. We left them out there for a reason to get that game experience. We don’t have to beat Maryland in our league. I think we’ve got a bitch of a league, but they are not in our league. We came here to compete and get better. I thought we succeeded for about 16 minutes.”
• On Derek Needham – “I don’t think he showed the composure we need from him. Was he out there, yeah, but you or I could go out there and turn the ball over seven times and put up 13 shots. Am I excited about what he can do? Yeah, but he has to use this as a learning experience and that is why we put him out there for so many minutes. He’s definitely our point guard of the future and he is going to be a hell of a player.”
• On Maryland – “We will play these guys when we are experienced. I want to come back here and play them when I have a more veteran group.”
• On inside play – “You have to give them credit, they really crowded the box. But it was more that they didn’t really get any touches. Anthony took five shots, Ryan took three shots, that is eight shots from our starting and backup center spot. When you look at the shot selections that we got, we really didn’t have many shots. We had 49 possessions and had 25 turnovers. We didn’t have enough possessions to get them enough touches. And you have to credit Maryland. They had a lot of run outs and made a lot of threes. They made timely threes is what it was. They had a lot of second shots, they had 16 offensive rebounds.
• “Offensive rebounds, turnovers, on the road, inexperienced team equals blowout.”

From Gary Williams, who had a lot of positive words for Fairfield:

• “I was pleased with our defense, it kept us in the game. We held them to only 28 percent shooting. To out rebound a team with that size is good.”
• On Fairfield’s defense – “They did a good job of confusing us and taking us out of our sets early on. It was surprising, but good defense.”
• “No. 30 (Shimeek Johnson) has the skills to be a guard, they played well and did a good job against us, I think they’ll be right there in their league. They did a good job. They matchup up very well, they know what they are doing. Anytime they have a quick point guard like that [Needham] you have a chance.

The Stags return to the Mid-Atlantic with games against American on Nov. 23 and Howard on Nov. 25.