Freshman point guard Derek Needham leads the Stags in scoring and has won three Rookie of the Week awards in the MAAC. (Photo Credit Peter Caty/The Mirror)
Derek Needham has played just eight games in his Fairfield career, but according to his head coach Ed Cooley, that is enough to call his freshman season to a close. In the minds of Cooley and Needham’s teammates, the point guard is already a veteran, and one of the team’s main leaders.
“His freshman year is over,” Cooley said. “He’s played a lot of minutes. This may be his freshman year but he is playing veteran minutes.”
See a full profile of Needham by Keith Connors here.
Fairfield is off to its best start, 6-2, in the first eight games of the season under Cooley, whose career record is now approaching .500 at 50-52. The Stags fourth year head coach was rewarded with a multi-year contract extension on Friday.
The Stags opened the MAAC season with two wins, defeating Marist on Friday, 70-61, and winning on the road at Saint Peter’s on Sunday, 61-48.
Needham led the way for Fairfield, scoring 20 points against St. Peter’s and 14 against Marist, while averaging 5.8 assists. Against the Peacocks on Sunday Needham scored 18 points in the second half, including five three-pointers to help the Stags pull away for the victory. Fairfield also received a double-double, 12 points and 11 rebounds, from senior Anthony Johnson in that game. He also scored 15 points and pulled down seven rebounds against the Red Foxes.
He has won three out of four MAAC Rookie of the Week awards this season and his statistics lead both the Stags and the conference.
Through his first eight games, Needham leads the Stags in scoring with 16.8 points per game and in minutes, playing 33.9 per game.
That scoring average also ranks him third among all MAAC players, not just freshmen, trailing two Canisius players, Julius Coles (17.3 p.p.g.) and Frank Turner (17 p.p.g.). In addition to his scoring ability, Needham has averaged 4.8 assists per game and 2.3 steals per game, both in the top five in the league.
Not only has Needham appeared on the leaderboards of the MAAC, he also ranks highly among fellow freshmen in the NCAA. Needham scoring average is behind only Kentucky’s John Wall (18.1 p.p.g.) and Kansas guard Xavier Henry (16.9 p.p.g.), both future NBA first round picks.
But according to his teammate Yorel Hawkins, it is the leadership aspect of Needham’s game that has been so important to the Stags success
“He leads the team vocally. We follow his lead. He’s the captain of our team,” said Hawkins, who just returned from an appendicitis and has averaged 15.6 points in five games. “We do what he says. He can go out there and score. He has a lot of energy and we feed off of it. Just to have him on our team. He’s a scoring threat as well.”
Cooley said that it is the hard work that Needham puts in consistently that has led to his success.
“The one thing I really want you to know about what Derek does,” Cooole said. “Derek was in the gym at eight o’clock this morning and shot for about an hour. He’s in the office watching film. To be a great player, that’s what you have to do. You have to spend time when time is not being asked of you to work on you’re game. The more guys do that, the better they become, and the more coaches trust you.”
While Needham has shown his ability to lead, he has still had his freshmen moments. In both games this past weekend the Illinois native was slow from the start. After the Marist victory Cooley called him “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” because he could not be seen for the first 35 minutes of the game. That disappearing act led to a benching that helped motivate Needham to score seven points in the final two minutes, including an emphatic dunk after breaking free of the Marist press.
“One of my teammates pulled me to the end of the bench and told me to calm down,” Needham said. “Then Coach called me back towards him and asked me if I was ready to play and I said, ‘I’m ready’.”
Now it is important for Needham to prepare for what is shaping up to be a grueling MAAC season.
“He has to understand that teams are going to scout him … that people are going to come at your leading scorers. You’re not a secret anymore,” Cooley said glancing at Needham during the post-game press conference. “He’s got to prepare for that. I’m happy with the win. I’m taking a win.
“But if we are going to be the team we want to be we can’t show up and play like this because when you’re playing a veteran group that is going to kill you,” Cooley added.
The Stags now take a break from MAAC play until the new year, but have four non-conference games remaining in December, including two this week. Fairfield faces off against old rival Holy Cross on Wednesday night at Alumni Hall.
The Stags then face a new rival, cross-town Sacred Heart, on Sunday night as part of a doubleheader with the women against the Pioneers.
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