Well, after over an hour in traffic to get there (from the Stamford area) and about an hour home because of hellacious traffic conditions and construction, here are my thoughts:

- I have a bad feeling that Warren Edney is pretty much done. The poor guy was in horrible pain and could barely even walk around after just playing for a few minutes. I would be surprised to see him gut out many more game minutes this season.

- Shimeek Johnson is a VERY good player.

- Needham is a VERY good player and should clearly play the point for all 40 minutes, if possible.

- Jordan was solid but seems to lack a bit of the "WOW" x-factor and intensity that I see in Shimeek

and Needham.

- Olander needs some confidence and needs to be more aggressive or I think he should just remain on the bench. He looked very weak and lost out there most of the time. It's just so funny to me because he is the biggest, tallest guy on the court, but he looks so scared all of the time.

- Why did Grezck not play? Give the guy a chance!!

- Turner still has no game on offense - much like Olander and A. Johnson.

I could go over the rest of the individual players, but instead I will just say that I think it is going

to be a very long season and a losing one at that. It's s shame, because with Nero and Edney

at 100%, this team could have been very strong. I think we are going to get eaten up in the paint.

I do think players like S. Johnson and Needham will shine though, so we'll still have some

entertaining games to watch.

GoFairfield wrote:

 

- I have a bad feeling that Warren Edney is pretty much done. The poor guy was in horrible pain and could barely even walk around after just playing for a few minutes. I would be surprised to see him gut out many more game minutes this season.

wepdoc, just wondering if Warren's injury could be surgically repaired?  What a shame if this is a permanent problem for Warren.

After allowing appropriate time to cool-off after just a horrible display of basketball, I agree with a lot of these thoughts and add some of my own:

- Needham and Shimeek are very good players.  I was really impressed with the way Needham took the ball to the hole in the second half.  He is big and physical and shows a good ability to control himself most of the time when he goes to the rim.  He needs to work on his outside shooting and free throw shooting if he is going to play 30+ minutes a night.  Shimeek was very effective on a variety of shots and has a beautiful pull-up jumper from 10-15 feet and the size to elevate over most defenders.  He also had the defensive play of the night trailing a play where he flew in out of nowhere and delivered a clean block of the ball out of bounds.  Had to be one of the more impressive defensive plays I have seen any Stag make the last several years.

- Olander and Evanovich need to toughen up.  Playing against a Division II Bridgeport team both of them were pushed around inside at will.  Evanovich's matador defense was back and I remarked to my friend that he looked tired running back on defense.  This is inexcusable for someone who did not play many minutes tonight.  Olander shows glimpses but needs to look in the mirror and realize he is 6' 11".  When he gets the ball inside, he slumps his body to prepare for contact which negates his size and makes him much easier to guard.  When he rebounds he has a habit of bringing the ball low where it can be swiped away by guards.  He needs to watch some video of the good rebounders who always hold the ball up high to prevent it from being slapped away.

- Crawford and Edney are both clearly playing in pain.  Edney was wincing immediately after coming into the game which led to a couple ill advised three pointers.  He did have some inside moves for points which showed just the player we need him to be.  Crawford looked quick in spurts but you could see him grimacing in pain and then holding his foot when he went to the bench.  I'm worried about these injuries because foot/ankle injuries and aggressive basketball do not mix.

- We really missed Hawkins inside and I think he is the key to the season if Nero cannot play.  We need consistent scoring and rebounding in the paint and I believe he can give it to us based on what I saw at the end of last year.  Good to see him cheering on the team and standing up a lot in the second half.

- I think Nickerson is going to be a good player.  He is long and lanky and showed some glimpses on both offense and defense.  His shot was off and looked to have kind of a funny spin on it, but I was still somewhat encouraged by his play.  He also played a little bit of point to spell Needham and did ok.

- My main gripe with Cooley and this coaching staff is the lack of offensive flow.  Regardless of who has been on the roster, this has been an ongoing problem.  Watching the good MAAC teams and just good college basketball teams overall, there is a sense of spacing on the court that creates offense.  Too many times over the past four years I have watched this Fairfield team in the half court and said to myself they have no idea what to do.  Against a lesser opponent tonight, I would not expect us to have several shot clock violations and reverting back to our run the shot clock down and chuck up a three offense.

- There should be some sense of accountability for bad shots, especially three point shots.  Its still my belief that this team takes too many three point shots and/or the wrong players take them.  Needham took several ill-advised three's early in the shot clock, Edney chucked up a couple just for the heck of it, and Jordan threw up one where his feet were not even close to being set.  We have some players this year who can drive to the basket, I would like to see more foul line and baseline jump shots.  This is where no Nero really hurts.

- We seemed overly aggressive on defense in the half court set.  We would try a trap or just overpursue an offensive player who was not threatening to drive and create an opportunity for him.  Its one thing to be aggressive, but its not necessary for the whole game and not when someone is in no position to score.  We got beat time and time again on this and there was often no help down low.

- Give credit to the Bridgeport fans who showed up in pretty good numbers for an exhibition game, were generally loud, and clearly helped their team play harder.

- I'm not ready to press the panic button yet, but if we put up another effort like this against Stonehill on Monday it could be a long season.

Townhouse31 wrote:

 

- Give credit to the Bridgeport fans who showed up in pretty good numbers for an exhibition game, were generally loud, and clearly helped their team play harder.

 

They were very loud, it felt like a UB home game.  At least our band made it to the game, they were the only sign of life in the Stag crowd.

Who would have thought our frontline would be a problem.

Nero, Edney and Hawkins are the best players on the team.

Without at least two of them, we are in big trouble.

Peanut just looked out of sorts last night, understandable.

Olander is not nearly ready to play with his back to the basket. What a tough night for him.

Hawkins speedy return will make a huge difference but without Nero we will have trouble scoring consistently inside.

Have to hope Stags were just playing it safe with Edney's limited time.

Shimeek can fill in at three. Needham is going to be a star. Lyndon had a tough night too, I expect him to step up.

Good reports. Just a question on the general quickness of our team. I know that Needham, Jordan, Nickerson and Shimeek have some quickness. But do we have the quickness in the frontcourt to overpursue agressively. I keep on hearing that we had little inside defense except for Shimeek's great play, and got beat by a "Smaller" Bridgeport team. Did Evanovich, Olander and AJ continually get beat to the ball or the defensive spot? How did Shimeek defend, not counting his great play???

JS,

Most of the overpursuit was by the guards.  For example, Needham, Nickerson, or Jordan would defend their man immediately after he crossed half court or received a pass and play the right or left hand which allowed the Bridgeport player a clear lane with a little quickness (which they all had) and a dribble of the opposite hand.  This typically resulted in one of two things -- the guard driving by the defender for a layup or the guard driving by the defender, another defender helping out, and then a quick pass to one of Bridgeport's forwards for a layup.  I don't think that Needham, Nickerson, and Jordan lack quickness; I just thought they were trying too hard to show Cooley that they can play tough defense.  Its hard to stick to your man for 35 seconds and there is no real need to do it 25 feet from the basket.  I think they can work this out and were probably surprised by the quickness of Bridgeport -- not that things will get much better for them in the MAAC.

As for the frontcourt, Olander and Evanovich consistently got pushed too low under the basket to play effective defense.  The Bridgeport center would receive the pass down low and they were helpless to defend because they were under the basket.  Evanovich flat out gave up on a couple of defensive plays and Cooley was furious as he should be.  For someone who plays 10-15 minutes a game, Evanovich shows a startling lack of energy.  If he could learn to be a super sub and give consistent effort for his 10 minutes, it would really help us.

AJ, in my opinion, was and has been misused on defense.  He was asked to defend one of their perimeter players and really did not play much post defense.  I don't understand this -- he is our best post defender and should be guarding the opposing team's center.  I know he is quick and has long arms but I think pressing and playing man-to-man 20 feet from the basket effects his stamina and leads to sloppy offensive play.  He looked good on offense at the beginning of the game although still struggles to put the ball in the net despite doing everything else right --- its almost like the ball spins off his fingers wrong.  If he could consistently hit his point blank shots he would be in double digits every game.  He looked healthy though with no signs of last year's injury so I take that as a major positive.

JS,

Olander and Evanovich looked really bad on defense. And Olander, like Peanut, cannot

seem to make incredibly short shots. Olander slouches out there and looks scared most

of the time.

Also, I cannot stress enough just how bad Edney's ankle situation is. He looked like he needed

cruches at the end of the night just to walk off of the court. The look of pain and frustration on his

face after he played for just a few minutes really said it all - I think he realized that he might not be

able to play this year. I would say red shirt him, but I fear that his ankle may never be the same.

I really hate to say this, but he might be done.

It will be up to Shimeek, Derrick and Yorel to make something happen this year.

Its a real bummer if Edney can't play...... we would have to go with Shimeek or a 3rd guard. I would agree that we need AJ to be underneath, especially without Nero and Hawkins playing. The other 3 forwards/centers.... Evanovich, Olander and Shimeek lack the toughness needed to defend inside by themselves.

Paxson had a lot of Quotes from Cooley in CT Post, and even call-out Shimeek for lack of "D"
"Shimeek will get a pink pillow," Cooley said. "He's nowhere like I'd like him to be. He's a confident offensive player, but you can't play on one end of the floor."
Looks like if Shimeek steps up the "D" he will be starting..... probably at the 3.

www.connpost.com/sports/ci_13725287

Stagophile -- I doubt very much that Warren Edney has any condition present that could be surgically repaired. Repeated ligamentous laxity in the ankle heals with unwanted scarring, and eventally in life may lead to stiffness, partial immobility and perhaps to an arthitic condition.

I am worried about his ability as a ball player. I wonder if Cooley will red shirt him this year. I have all my confidence in Drs. Stanton, Backe, etc. to continue the evaluation of his condition. A second opinion from a national expert on Bone and Joint Disease could be warranted.

I am not an orthopedic surgeon by training, but have had considrable experience in trauma in the past, and any feelings expressed are personal.

I am worried about Warren Edney's status as a basketball player for the future.

Townhouse31 wrote:

 

Needham, Nickerson, or Jordan would defend their man immediately ...which allowed the Bridgeport player a clear lane with a little quickness (which they all had) and a dribble of the opposite hand.  This typically resulted in one of two things -- the guard driving by the defender for a layup or the guard driving by the defender, another defender helping out, and then a quick pass to one of Bridgeport's forwards for a layup.

Bingo.  Most of the damage Bridgeport did inside was actually done by their guards and forwards, not their big men.  Their guards were so quick, they blew down the lane and ran right past AJ, Olander and Evanovich. Our big men were good in post up defense against their big men, but struggled trying to stop their guards who drove right by them all night for layups.

A.J. and Olander were in the game at the same time quite a lot, and this is a Big Mistake. Besides getting in the way of each other on offense,  the overall quickness of the team suffers tremendously on the defensive end. As far as defensive scheems, Cooley would be well advised to stop asking his centers (A.J. particularly) to stop trying to come out 30 feet away from the basket to trap a guard from the other team, (other than once in a while as a "surprise"). This becomes rather predictable to the opposition, and (IMO) leads to many more bad things than good, such as a cheap foul on A.J., or rotation passes that lead to wide open looks by good shooters (see Boynkins last night) or drives to the basket. Therefore IMO (and I have been expressing this for the last three years), a lot of the defensive deficiency can be attributed as much to a "system failure" as much as the players having individual breakdowns. That said, the players have to pick up their defensive intensity, and indeed if they are asked to trap they must do a better job at deflecting the ball and throwing the other team off their rythym. If the defense doesn't improve from what happened last night, it could be a long year!

I'm hardpressed to say much about this game, having missed it my comments are limited to what I was able to gleen from the box score and the radio broadcast.  There have been a lot of negative comments surrounding Evanovich - how much credit do we want to give a guy who only played 9 minutes for this loss?  Meanwhile he was 3-4 shooting and scored 8 points.   And his team outscored the opponent during the 9 minutes he played.   I'm not his biggest supporter, but lets face it there is a lot of blame to be shared for this loss but Evanowich is pretty far down the list.

And in looking at the box score its hard to give Nickerson and Needham the same rave reviews I read from those in attendence.   They were a combined 6-20.  30% shooting isn't going to make either one of these guys first team all-Maac.  Regarding turner, the guy played 22 minutes and had zero points from the field.  No need to defend him.   I'm not ready to jump off a bridge yet, but I can't share everyone else's enthusiasm about our guard play after that game.   Meanwhile UB's guards frazier and boykin combined to shoot  67% (13-19) from the field.  Hmmm.  Could that possibly mean that defensively maybe our guards didn't handle UB's?

How tall is Demetrious Phillips that he is able to bang 11 rebounds against us when we have A. Johnson and Olander banging against him.   Oh and Phillips also shot 66% from the floor from the center position.  Lets face it, when three of your opponents starters shoot better than 66% you can't count on winning many games.  So our soft defense had to be a key to this loss, but our guards and centers may need to examine themselves more than S. Johnson does.  

Its too early to get down on this team, they need time to develop.  And they are missing key player at this point in the season.  But this team needs either Nero or  Hawkins if they are going to win many games.   I think we are a decent team with them and pretty weak without them.   A Johnson and Olander are going to have to step it up as well.