Two-time defending MAAC Champion Iona Gaels open the Stags’ conference schedule tonight at the Arena at Harbor Yard, after sweeping Fairfield in the teams’ two meetings last year.
Both teams are winless this season after rocky starts within their non-conference schedules. The Stags are 0-3 and have shown their youth and inexperience the first three games of the season, committing costly turnovers and lacking the ability to execute timely shooting. Iona has gotten off to the worst start in its school history after hitting dry-spells offensively down the stretch in each of its last two games, dropping the team to an 0-5 to start the season.
Tonight’s game resembles the Stags’ encounter with the Gaels two years ago. At the time, the Stags were 0-4 and were desperately seeking a victory. Fairfield won the game 97-81 and went on to win 11 conference games that season, before succumbing to Iona in the MAAC Tournament semifinals. Will this be the game that ignites Fairfield this year?
“It’s going to be huge. The two teams are starving for a win,” said head coach Tim O’Toole. “It’s a much bigger game for us, without question. We have to come out like we’re shot out of cannons. Like kamikazes and play hard as heck. ”
Despite Iona’s poor out of conference start to its season, the Gaels have won the MAAC Championship two straight years and are favored to three-peat this season under fourth year head coach Jeff Ruland.
Ruland is a former NBA All-Star for the Washington Bullets, who was drafted 25th overall by the Golden State Warriors in 1980 after being recognized as a two-time All-American while playing for Iona. Ruland retired from the NBA in 1993 with the Detroit Pistons after averaging 17.4 points and 10.2 rebounds in his 332-game career.
Ruland returned to his alma mater in 1998 and has solidified Iona as the MAAC’s most dominant team with tremendous size, depth and overall athletic ability that’s difficult to be matched by conference opponents.
According to O’Toole, Fairfield will need to control the intangibles against Iona, something the Stags haven’t done so far this season. Fairfield must dominate defensively, while getting to the majority of loose balls and rebounds.
“We have to get the ball inside and cut down on our turnovers,” said senior forward Sam Spann. “We can’t afford to get off to a slow start. We have to come out with intensity and not let them be the aggressor.”
The Stags will need a big game from Spann, who has averaged 16 points and eight rebounds in just over 33 minutes per game this year. Freshman point-guard Tyquawn Goode will also need to help lead the Stags’ offense while also cutting down on his turnovers, after turning the ball over a team-high four times against Rhode Island.
“We need to come out and play hard and play good defense together,” Goode said. “If we do what we need to do, we’ll get the job done.”
“Tyquawn has the heart of a lion. He’s a tough little rascal and a tough competitor,” O’Toole said. “One of Fairfield’s problems has been that we haven’t had a point guard. He’s a point guard that can lead this team.”
Fairfield has also recently bolstered its lineup for next year, signing DeWitt Maxwell from Science High School in Newark, New Jersey. Maxwell is a 6-foot-4 swingman who averaged just over 17 points per game last year for Science High and has also been a member of the New Jersey Roadrunners, a top AAU program in the Northeast.
“He brings solid intangibles to our team next year,” O’Toole said. “If we didn’t get him early, he would have gone to the Big East. He will probably have a big senior season that teams like Seton Hall and Rutgers would have be interested in.”
The Stags return to the court at 8:00 at Harbor Yard after a nine-day layoff since Fairfield’s frustrating two-point loss to Rhode Island in front of 3,572 students and community members.
“The students were great last week,” O’Toole said. “They were phenomenal. We need them badly, especially here [tonight].”
Leave a Reply