After two seasons at Fairfield, head coach Sydney Johnson’s program has been evolving from when he took over on April 4, 2011.
With senior Mo Barrow being the only remaining player left from the Ed Cooley era, Johnson will be fully equipped with a team ready to fully commit to his style of basketball. Johnson said they like the group they have coming in, with two scholarships still available to use.
“We like the group of guys that we have coming in the freshmen and the returning guys,” Johnson said. “I just feel like we’re getting longer, we’re trying to improve the athleticism with recruiting and new strength and conditioning program.”
Fairfield finished the first of their summer sessions on June 28th and Johnson said he’s excited about the new strength and conditioning program so far.
“We’ve seen dividends pay off already,” Johnson said. “Guys are moving faster, quicker. They’re getting stronger and basketball wise we’re able to do things, play faster, play quicker and they’ve looked good so far.”
One of the goals for the 2013-14 Stags will be to play at a faster pace, for a team that ranked ninth in confernece play in tempo last season, while keeping their defense near the top of the league.
“We want to play quick and fast and we want to be first to the ball,” Johnson said. “I think we defend well. I think we’re one of the best defensive teams in our league and that transition from getting a rebound a loose ball or a steal to get down the court and make it an offensive play that comes from coaching, which is something we’re certainly emphasizing, but it also comes from physically being able to transition quickly to get your body moving. From grabbing that steal to all of the sudden flying down the court and trying to create offense and what I see from our strength and conditioning program is that our guys are able to do that at a better pace.”
Johnson acknowledged that the offense was the problem last season, an issue that reached its low point in a 34-31 loss at Manhattan in which the Stags scored 12 second-half points.
“We want to score a lot more points to be honest,” Johnson said. “[Even] the best defense in the world, you’re still going to give up lets say on average 55 points or something like that, if you had a great defense maybe you could hold a team to 50 but you got to score points I think to give yourself a lot more breathing room.”
“I just wasn’t pleased with our inability to make shots. We’re looking to play much faster, but we have to shoot better. I think that we’re really really stressing just shooting better and playing faster and just scoring more points because defensively we feel like we’re really good. I mean we’re well above average, but offensively we’ve got to be better so that we can get more wins.”
Fairfield returns a core of five freshmen after the departure of Josip Mikulic who will pursue playing overseas. Sophomore Amadou Sidibe was named captain of the team in the spring while Marcus Gilbert will be joined by his brother Pitt transfer Malcolm Gilbert.
“He’s got size and he’s got some shot blocking ability,” Johnson said of Malcolm Gilbert, who he recruited out of high school while he was at Princeton. “He’s an incredibly unselfish player. I think he’s raw offensively and so we’re working on his skill set.”
Gilbert transferred to the team in January and the Stags will pursue a waiver for him to play to start the season.
“We are hoping to have him earlier, but it’s kind of out of hour hands,” Johnson said. “We’re working on his waiver and the NCAA will give us the read on that. I think there’s a compelling case, but you never know how those things will go, but at worst we’ll get him mid-year.”
Seton Hall transfer Sean Grennan will be eligible to compete at the start of the season after sitting out the 2012-13 season. He adds to a group of freshmen guards K.J. Rose, Lincoln Davis, Doug Chappell and forward Steve Smith. Johnson said Smith will give the offense another dimension with a forward who can stretch out the defense with his shooting to go with the guards that can come in and score.
“We have Steve Smith who’s coming in, he’s a lights out shooter with great size, he gives us shooting which I think we definitely need we want to continue to add shooting in other spots, but if you play him as a forward I think he’d be able to stretch the defense a little bit.”
Rose comes in as one of the few point guards on the roster, but Johnson said he might be more of a scoring guard to add to Davis and Chappell.
“He’s a bit of a point, but I think he can score a little bit,” Johnson said. “We just have to see what his natural position will be at our level, but he’s a great kid and we’re looking for him to add some depth to the team. [Chappell and Davis] have a bit of athleticism, a bit of shooting, a bit of playmaking ability and I think they’ll add some depth as well.”
One part of the roster that remains unclear is who will step in and be the Stags next point guard.
“I think that’s up in the air to be honest, I think there’s no one definitive guy,” Johnson said. “I think we’ll go through the summer, we’ll go into the fall and I think that will be a little more clear when we’re all in the gym together and playing a bit more.”
Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.
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