As he accepted the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Coach of the Year award at Thursday evening’s post-season awards banquet at the Times-Union Center in Albany, Siena head coach Fran McCaffrey could only think of one thing.
‘ ‘This really is a team award,’ McCaffrey said. ‘Last season when (Niagara head coach) Joe Mihalich got this award, Kenny Hasbrouck turned to me and said, ‘We’ve got this for you next year, coach.”
‘It’s all about leadership, and it starts with our seniors,’ he added.
Somewhere in the room stood Fairfield head coach Ed Cooley, whose senior captain and All-MAAC honoree walked out on the Stags in the team’s darkest hour. One can only imagine the thoughts that raced through his head as McCaffrey gushed about Hasbrouck.
Siena and Fairfield: postseason opponents and perfect contrasts.
Siena’s season has gone just as planned. Fairfield, despite countless adversity, managed to secure a winning record.
‘Truthfully, this has been one of the most brutal six-week stretches in my young head coaching career,’ Cooley said. ‘It’s helped all us grow not only as players, but also as people. They’ve proved if you stick together, great things can happen.’
Siena stormed into the tournament as the conference’s preeminent program. The Saints won a record 16 conference games. Fairfield, on the other hand, limped into the tournament following a season-finale loss to Rider. With its point guard nothing more than an afterthought and three starters sidelined to injuries, the Stags regular-season was a long, strange journey scarred by disappointment and bad luck.
Siena is the MAAC’s perennial postseason thug. Not only did the Saints win last season’s tournament in their own backyard, but they also boast a league-high 20 wins in postseason play since the conference expanded to ten teams in 1997.
Fairfield? Today’s 68-61 win over Manhattan was the team’s first tournament win in Cooley’s tenure as head coach. Collectively, the Stags have five wins in the MAAC Tournament this decade. Siena has done that and more in 366 days.
The Saints are the winningest team in conference history, winners of five conference titles in the last ten years. We haven’t qualified a postseason tournament since 2003’s NIT bid, and haven’t won the conference championship since 1997.
They have been there, done that and looking to climb the mountain once more. The Stags are in uncharted waters, and obviously chomping at the bit for March success of their own.
They are a team laden with veterans. Their roster is a combination of power and speed, scoring prowess and athleticism. We boast a makeshift roster tinged with inexperience and youth. The talent is obvious, but it is still very much a work-in-progress.
They push the ball up-court quickly and love to dictate tempo. As does Fairfield, but we prefer a more methodical offense and love sound, physical defense. The lower the final score, the better.
They live and die by skill. We rely on resiliency and grit.
Their point guard is a four-year starter and one of the most established players in program history. Our point guard has started ten games.
Their sixth man of the year, Clarence Jackson, averages 8.3 points per game and was honored as the conference’s top bench player. Our top man off the bench, junior forward Greg Nero, is Fairfield’s white knight, who, despite an ailing back injury, is returning to the court and reviving the team’s hope for postseason success.
‘I’m very proud of (Nero) being able to play through agony. We really got on he and Herbie’s back,’ Cooley said. ‘(And) Greg hasn’t felt well in six weeks. As long as he is on the floor, he is going to touch the ball.’
They consistently sell out the Times-Union Center, as the 9,656 fans clad in green and yellow shirts on hand to see Siena’s 77-52 win against Canisius can attest. We dream of a day when the Arena at Harbor Yard has the same type of buzz and home court advantage.
‘I’ll feel just like I’m home,’ Cooley joked when asked of Siena’s home-court advantage.
Their head coach garners national attention for his ability to do more than just build a competitive basketball team; he has energized an entire region and proved that winning on the grandest of stages, even at a mid-major level, is very possible. Our head coach is aspiring for that level.
Despite the contrasts, McCaffrey would be the first to say that Fairfield is a very real threat to the team’s aim at a repeat. In fact, the Stags have beaten Siena at the Times-Union Center twice in the past three seasons.
Nero’s return, coupled with the continued maturation of sophomore point guard Lyndon Jordan and the emergence of senior Herbie Allen as the team’s top scoring option, has turned the Stags into a legitimate sleeper. And while Siena is a clear-cut favorite to win, Fairfield’s recent strides and the nature of a basketball tournament bodes well for Fairfield. In a year that has deviated far from the script, nothing is farfetched anymore.
After all, it only takes one game.
Still, the two teams that were named as the conference’s top teams this preseason could not have had a more different journey to tomorrow night’s matchup.
‘Right now, we just want to play,’ Cooley said. ‘We’re just happy that we’re here.’
Fairfield and Siena: the ultimate ‘David versus Goliath’.
The perfect ‘them versus us’.
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