Hoops and Hardballs

This week’s chat with Fairfield men’s basketball coach Sydney Johnson includes the Stags’ final two regular-season games, positioning for the postseason, why the Stags are so good on defense, Dez Wade’s status (I bet he plays Friday) and Linsanity.

With the final week of the regular season ahead of them, the Fairfield men and the Sacred Heart women are fighting for postseason positioning, with the top seed in the MAAC and NEC, respectively, still a possibility.

FAIRFIELD MEN: The Stags (17-11, 12-4 NEC) have two road games left at first-place Iona (22-6, 13-3) on Friday and Rider on Sunday, and need to win them both in order to have a shot at the No. 1 seed (which could come down to a coin flip with Iona). No matter what happens this weekend, the Stags can be no lower than the fourth seed in the MAAC tourney.

SHU MEN: Dave Bike’s gang (13-16, 7-9 NEC) is just trying to make the postseason, but the Pios control their fate with home games against Robert Morris and Saint Francis, Pa. on Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Win one and they are in. Win them both and the Pios could even move up to the fifth or sixth seed. But, a pair of loses and SHU could be out of luck for the third straight season without some serious help.

FAIRFIELD WOMEN: The only team (20-7, 13-3 maac) that already know its postseason seed, having locked up the second spot in the MAAC. The Stags will play the No. 7/10 winner at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals in Springfield, Mass.

SHU WOMEN: The Pioneers (20-7, 13-3) had a one-game lead over rival Quinnipiac (21-6, 13-3), but lost to LIU Brooklyn on Monday night to fall into a tie at the top.
Each team has two games remaining, and in an event of a tie, read below (tie-breaker info courtesy of the NEC website):

In the event of a two-way tie in the standings, the following tiebreaker system shall be used – in order – until the tie is broken:

1. Winning percentage of each team in head-to-head competition.

2. Winning percentage of each team vs. the first-place team, or their composite winning percentage against any teams tying for first place.

3. Winning percentage of each team vs. the second-place team, or their composite winning percentage against any teams tying for second place.

4. This process continues with winning percentage vs. the third-place team, fourth-place team, etc., as necessary, until the tie is broken and seeding is complete.

5. If a tie still exists after exhausting steps 1-4, the rankings by collegerpi.com at the conclusion of the NEC regular season will be utilized to determine the higher seed.

This week’s conversation with Fairfield men’s basketball coach Sydney Johnson covers the win over Loyola, closing out the MAAC regular season and positioning for the tournament, Saturday’s BracketBuster game with UW-Milwaukee and Desmond Wade’s healthy. (Pardon my voice in the interview as I try to recover from a cold now after a bout with the flu. Should have taken that flu shot!).

ODDS AND ENDS: Fairfield closes out its home portion of the regular season Wednesday night against defending MAAC champion Saint Peter’s. It will be Senior Night for Ryan Olander, Rakim Sanders, Gary Martin and Sean Crawford, who technically has one more season left with the Stags.

The Stags got off to a good start on a critical week by beating Manhattan at home 60-54. However, they can’t enjoy the win very long with a rematch against Loyola, Md. set for Sunday on the road – especially if the Stags lose guard Dez Wade (hamstring) for an extended period of time.

HE’S NOT HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER: Senior Ryan Olander might be in a funk offensively – a combined 10 points the past four games – but his teammates are not giving up on the 7-footer.

“We still talk to him in a positive way because everyone has their slumps,” Rakim Sanders said. “We just try to keep him positive. Ryan is a personthat wants to listen and get better, so when things are going down he’s still talking to us like he’s having his best game and he’s still trying to be his best. He’s being a positive person around us and he’s a good person at heart as far as basketball and wanting to get better.

“As far as him being in a slump, (he’s not) changing (his attitude).”

Even though he scored only three points, Olander finished with six rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 29 minutes. He also stayed out of foul trouble with just two.

PAGING DR. BARROW: In the postgame interview, Sydney Johnson said he wasn’t sure if Dez Wade hurt his left or right hamstring, but Maurice Barrow picked up an assist by teaching his coach it was the left hammy.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Four of the five regular-season games left for Fairfield are on the road. However, the Stags depart with some good feelings after a 4-1 homestand.

“It’s not going to change,” Sanders said. “We are still going to practice hard and still do everything the same.Wake up the same. Practice the same. We just have to focus on what we have to do.”

Manhattan coach Steve Masiello on Sanders, who had 22 points and nine rebounds:
“He looks like he’s still playing in the ACC.”

This week’s chat with Fairfield coach Sydney Johnson includes improvements on offense, what’s going on with Ryan Olander, how quickly the season has gone and just how awesome Rakim Sanders can be at times.

The Stags extended their win streak to three games with a 64-56 victory over Siena on Sunday at the Webster Bank Arena. Next up for Fairfield (13-10, 8-4 MAAC) is a rematch with Manhattan at 7:30 Thursday night at the WBA.

Here are some notes and quotes from Sunday’s game:

REMAIN CALM, ALL IS WELL: When junior Derek Needham went down hard after missing a breakaway layup with 12:26 to go in the game, coach Sydney Johnson was not worried. Needham had stolen the ball from Brandon Walters, but was fouled by Evan Hymes trying for a left-handed layup and landed hard on his left foot. Maurice Barrow ended up taking both his foul shots and made them.

“He wears body armor underneath his jersey,” Johnson said. “He’s a man, he plays like a man.”

Needham briefly left the court under his own power and went into the locker room with the trainer before coming back into the game.

“I got bumped on the way up and I rolled (my left ankle) because I couldn’t find my other foot when I came down, so I just fell on it,” Needham said.

FORTY-MINUTE EFFORT: The reason why the Stags have won the past couple games – they’ve been more aggressive according to the players.

“It’s being aggressive,” Needham said. “Everyone being aggressive for forty minutes on offense and defense. I think the last two games we’ve picked it up a little bit.”

Rakim Sanders, who was one rebound (23 points, nine rebounds) shy of his eight double-double added to that thought”

“It’s about being aggressive, but it doesn’t happen without your teammates confidence in you,” he said. “Trusting in you to know you hit a shot and then they have confidence to go back to you.”

Even though the Stags have won three straight to climb back into the thick of the MAAC race, they are resting on their laurels.

“We are happy but we are not comfortable,” Sanders said. “We have to keep on playing together.”

FLASHBACK: When the Saints made their second-half run, Johnson did have some thoughts back to a previous MAAC team’s rally at the WBA. Down double digits against the Stags, Loyola rallied to win 66-63 on Jan. 13.

This time, though, the Stags learned from their past mistakes.

“I was thinking about that game during this game,” Johnson said. “Just trying to make sure we’re managing the things that we needed to do. We watched film and we talked about it pretty openly as a team. Smart shots when you have a lead, use timeouts when you get caught or stuck, make sure you are quick to make the extra pass and then any kind of turnovers that you might have or tough shot (you miss) you have to sprint back and defend. It doesn’t mean it has to lead to run outs and scores, so I thought in that sense today there were times we didn’t come up with a layup or three-point shot, but we sprinted our tails back, defended and made Siena work. I think that was a big part of it.”

More from Sydney:

“The game is much easier when the shots are going in – there’s no getting around that. We talked about it the other night. We want to grind it out defensively and I thought our defensive effort the last two games has been very good, but on offense we want to flow and put the ball in the basket. We want to give the guys some freedom and so when they are loose and playing unselfishly it certainly makes the game easier and we’ve been doing it the last couple games.”

On improved offensive play the last few games:

“That’s what we weren’t seeing in the being of the year and it was for a million reasons under the sun. I’m new, Rakim and Dez are new, stiff competition, expectations just name any reason and we just didn’t have our flow. And these guys are really trusting each other and they’ve really settled in to their roles and now you are seeing the team benefit from it. When you have Rakim or Derek on the same time we are a pretty good team.”

Siena coach Mitch Buonaguro

On his team, which has yet to win a MAAC road game (0-5):

“We get it to a certain point but we just can’t get over the hump on the road. We can’t get that stop or we have an inopportune turnover and we just can’t get that lead down to two or four (points).”

On the difference in Fairfield from a couple weeks ago:

“Shooting the ball. The difference I see if they are shooting it better. Obviously Sanders and Needham are playing like one would expect them to play – like all-league players. They had big games today.

“I thought we did a good job on the other guys. We did a good job on (Ryan) Olander and Wade, who killed us in the first game (with 27 points).”

On if the Stags look more comfortable playing for Johnson:

“They looked a lot more comfortable. They are playing; it looks like the offensive flow is better. They are playing with a better flow. Sanders and Needham look in sync and those are two really good players who can take over a game.”

On defending Sanders, who had 17 of his 23 points in the first half:

“We went to a little bit of a three-quarter-court trap and we were getting the ball out of his hands, trying to get it out of his hands and have other guys handle it.”