Cooley as a cucumber

On this particular night, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of anger in Head Coach Ed Cooley’s voice.

Following a game marked by turnovers, sloppy plays and a myriad of player rotations involving everyone on the Stags’ roster, Cooley remained as composed and optimistic as ever.

On Friday night, during the first game played this season at Harbor Yard, the Stags defeated nearby Bridgeport University, 72-61, thanks to an impressive second-half surge.

The Purple Knights challenged Fairfield for a majority of the game, leading by as many as four points with 4:59 remaining in the first.

If not for a Devin Johnson ’10 lay-in as time expired in the first half, which gave Fairfield a two-point advantage, the Stags may have been losing to a Division II program heading into the half.

“We’ll go back home tonight and watch some film. It’ll only get better from here,” said Cooley. “We had our Halloween costumes tonight.”

Still, Cooley maintained that the shoddy play did not concern him.

“I think it is [the nature of scrimmages],” said Cooley. “We played really well for four minutes. So, for 36 minutes, it was guys learning out there.”

Cooley added that he specifically made an effort to a variety of different groupings that may or may not be indicative of the team’s thoughts on personnel heading into the season.

“I think any time you try to play 14 guys – we had a set amount of minutes that we wanted to try to make sure guys got on the floor,” said Cooley. “I think the most anybody played was probably 26 minutes.”

Perhaps the most promising sign of the evening was the strong showing by junior guard Jon Han, who many consider this season’s heir to the leadership role Michael Van Schaick ’07 vacated.

Han recorded a double-double on the evening, finishing with 12 points and 10 assists. He was one of four Stags who finished in double-digits, led by sophomore forward Greg Nero with 14.

“I expect him to raise intensity. Jon will probably be one of our leading minutes guys because of his experience and his ball-handling ability,” said Cooley.

After the game, Cooley stressed the fact that the scrimmage was a chance for Fairfield to work on offensive cohesion and it was nothing more than a glorified practice.

“We tried to keep the playbook relatively short,” said Cooley. “We wanted to see how we look in transition.”

“We really just wanted to get our guys out here,” said Cooley. “At the end of the day, we aren’t competing with Bridgeport; we’re competing with Loyola and Siena and the best teams in this [conference].”

With the preseason concluding, the Stags now turn their attention to the journey ahead.

The outset of the out-of-conference schedule takes the Stags on a trip down “Tobacco Road,” as the Stags open the season against Wake Forest on Friday, Nov. 9.