As Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson heads into his third year as head coach of the Stags, his main concern appears to be fixing an offense that took a sharp turn for the worse at the end of last season.
Those woes showed up at the worst time for a team that appeared better than their record in conference play for most of last season. The offense reached a historic low on March 1, scoring just 31 points at Manhattan, tying the record low for the Stags set in 1977. Johnson attributed the struggles to the lack of quality offensive options on the floor opposite Derek Needham in their motion sets and hybrid Princeton offense.
The likely strength of the roster will be the forwards with Amadou Sidibe, Malcolm Gilbert and Mo Barrow providing quality options in the front court. While the guard spots are unproven, Johnson said he is excited about what they offer while saying that the point guard spot is “wide open.” One spot that appears to be set is sophomore Marcus Gilbert, who has emerged for the small forward/combo guard spot.
“I think Marcus has his foot in the small forward/combo guy,” Johnson said. “We continue to see great things from him: work ethic wise, ability to make shots, he’s an above the rim player. We feel great about him and then we have the collection of players that still need to be seen.”
One player that has yet to be seen for the Stags is Seton Hall transfer Sean Grennan. After sitting out last season and practicing with the team, the redshirt sophomore will have an opportunity to have an impact.
“There’s a style that we like to play, we want our guys to be able to score as well with the ball and without it and he gets that,” Johnson said of Grennan. “He’s been playing that style for a lot of his high school years. He helps us play the way we want to it’s just a matter of being consistent and kind of taking the reins of the team.”
Johnson said he is confident that the offense will be able to shoot better than last season’s percentages, which included a league-worst 31.2% from behind the arc in conference play.
“I think we’re going to be able to shoot the ball better and there may be a chance we’ll be shooting it significantly better,” Johnson said. “A lot of guys have embraced working on the technique and getting a ton of reps so that it will transfer over into games. Hopefully, if we can get those same shots teams were giving us, we’ll be able to knock them down.”
Fairfield ranked fourth among MAAC teams in two-point field goal percentage at 47.8%, but even a slight difference in their three-point percentage will help their team inside and bring the offense to a level as good as last season’s conference-best defense.
“It’s shooting percentage, it’s taking care of the ball, it’s rebounding, and I think the shooting percentage we struggled mightily and that’s something we want to correct,” Johnson said. “We feel like we did that. A few more players, whether it’s recruited players or guys within the program who have improved, can help us make some more shots.”
Another entrenched piece of the lineup will likely be sophomore captain Sidibe, who finished last season on the All-Rookie team. Sidibe was named captain of the team in April after the season was over and Johnson said he has embraced the role.
“I like what I see,” Johnson said. “On some levels, when he was named the captain, you don’t want your captain to change too much. It’s almost like you named someone captain because what he’s already proven and shown. I like the fact that Amadou is the same guy. He’s not doing anything weird or trying too hard or anything like that.”
“He’s one of the best students on the team, he’s one of the hardest workers, he’s one of the fiercest competitors. I think it’s harder to see guys who just naturally are vocal and that’s something that he’s comfortable with, so it’s just pushing him to do that more and not feeling like he has to hold back for anybody and we’re starting to see signs of that too.”
The concern heading into this season for Johnson is the non-conference schedule which sees the Stags play six games away from home. The games on the road will not be easy either as they include games against the University of Louisville, Providence, Belmont and Bucknell.
“Our biggest challenge is our schedule,” Johnson said. “There’s not a lot of room for error especially with some guys who these will be their first games, but we’ll get through that. The main thing is we want to win those games, but we want to be in our best condition going into the conference so weathering that storm I think is definitely the main challenge for me, our staff and our players.”
Ryan Restivo covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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