Peter Caty/The Mirror
If the look in Fairfield forward Greg Nero’s eyes didn’t tell the story, his words most certainly did.
‘This can either kill us or make men of us,’ Nero said of the Stags’ embarrassing effort in the team’s 78-62 loss to top-ranked Siena, which improved to 8-0 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play and essentially sealed a regular-season championship.
The Saints opened up a 22-4 lead in the game’s first eight minutes, making the Stags look more like the team that had just traveled from the snowy Adirondacks and were playing on the road.
As the press conference continued, though, blatant traces of anger and resentment in head coach Ed Cooley’s voice tapered into resentment and defense when the third-year coach was asked ‘- check that, told ‘- that his team was a complete disappointment today.
‘We still have a damn good ball club,’ Cooley said, taken aback by the assertion. ‘I believe in our guys.’
Cooley was being more than generous with his response. I would have gone more along the lines of, ‘Really? The season is over in nineteen games in? Pah-lease.’
Sure, the presence of preseason MAAC Player of the Year Kenny Hasbrouck, a veteran starting lineup and the Saints’ postseason experience make thoughts of anyone other than Siena claiming the regular season MAAC title seem a bit outlandish right now. But just ask Bobby Cox, Jim Kelly and Donovan McNabb just how valuable a regular season title is.
Closer to home, ask Sacramento Kings’ forward Jason Thompson and last season’s Rider Broncs how gratifying it was to cut down the nets following a 87-59 win against Fairfield on March 1 in the season-finale, only to be blown out of the gym by Siena eight days later in the MAAC championship game.
Perhaps the best case in point came a year earlier, Cooley’s first season as coach. Preseason MAAC Player of the Year Jared Jordan and Marist were not just hands down the consensus front-runner to win the regular-season conference championship, they were expected to waltz right through the MAAC tournament and scare a team in the Big Dance.’
That season, the Red Foxes opened to a 6-1 start, and finished the season with an impressive 14-4 record in MAAC play.
As the adage says, ‘Big tree fall hard’.
In the end, Siena knocked out Marist, and then fell to Niagara at the Arena at Harbor Yard in the conference championship, the same Niagara that began the season with a 4-4 conference record through eight games.
Marist was left to as the bridesmaid, vanquished to the NIT Tournament. And while that is an awfully appealing runner-up prize, Jordan or anyone on that Marist roster probably would not hesitate a second if asked about their feelings on the season’s premature ending.
Despite its rightful place as a motivational ploy and a lofty team goal, the regular season championship is far from the be all, end all. As long as MAAC basketball extends its arms into March, then games in January and February render meaningless once a three-day tournament begins in Albany.
Fairfield, of all places, should know this by now. Arguably the most memorable team in program history was head coach Paul Cormier’s team in the 1997-98 season, the last Fairfield team to reach the NCAA tournament. The Stags lost nine of the team’s first 10 conference games that season and limped into the conference tournament with an 8-18 record.
A week later, senior captain Greg Francis was snipping the net in Buffalo. Two weeks later, the Stags nearly edged Dean Smith and top-seeded North Carolina in the Tar Heels’ backyard.
Regardless of these examples, everyone knows that the Stags have room for improvement. Downright awful efforts in recent games, including this past Sunday’s game against Siena and a Jan. 4 loss to Iona, need to transition from commonplace to out of place.
A good starting point is this Friday night against Rider at Alumni Hall, a game that certainly has postseason implications and can go a long way towards healing the wounds of Sunday’s loss and garnering team confidence in front of the Red Sea.
‘We’ll right the ship,’ Cooley said. ‘There are days when you’re not going to make the right plays but we’ll make enough good plays to make this thing pretty interesting when it’s all said and done.’
‘Said and done’ is still a month and a half away.
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