Fairfield University does not appear to be the team that will blemish the undefeated Georgetown basketball team’s early record when the two teams square off in D.C. Saturday in a rematch of last year’s 73-60 Hoyas victory in Bridgeport.
The 2-4 Stags have little to brag about on their recent résumé, despite the best efforts of former Boston College assistant Ed Cooley, who coached Fairfield to a strong 10-4 finish to close out the 2006-2007 season. The team had one of the least productive offenses in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) last season, scoring only 62.4 points per game and lost last season’s top-scorer to graduation. This year’s offensive lineup is led by sophomore forward Greg Nero (11 ppg), a member of last season’s MAAC All-Rookie Team, and junior guard Jonathan Han (12.6 ppg). Fairfield converted 39 percent from the floor in its first five games and is shooting just under 37 percent from behind the arc. Both of these numbers are likely to drop against the extended, high-pressure Hoya defense.
The lone bright spot for Cooley and the Stags this season was a respectable 69-64 loss to Cincinnati on November 24. Although the Bearcats have struggled in the early part of the season, the result shows that Fairfield has the ability to stay in the game against Big East competition. Fairfield’s opponents are averaging just below 70 points per game. Cooley was with the team on Wednesday against Saint Francis (Pa.) and was unavailable for comment.
The Hoyas’ surprisingly close 57-48 victory over Ball State on November 21 is a good indicator of what smaller, less athletic teams—like Fairfield—will do against the fifth-ranked Hoyas. The Cardinals played a tight zone in an attempt to bottle up senior center Roy Hibbert. Hibbert, who stood 10 inches taller than the tallest Ball State player, scored 16 points on efficient 7-10 shooting, but his touches were limited by the zone. Such a defense is necessary for smaller teams to handle the Hoyas’ star big man, but it also concedes the outside shot to the Georgetown backcourt. The Ball State game was close because the Hoyas made only seven of their 25 3-point attempts, an abysmal 28 percent.
“I think we have a good shooting team,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said after the Ball State game. “When [opponents] want to surround Roy, I think we’ll make more shots than we did today.”
There is no question that Fairfield will need to focus their defensive attention on Hibbert to stay in the game, but if the Hoyas can revert back to the solid outside shooting they exhibited in the first two games, it will be a long afternoon for the Stags.
Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Verizon Center.
