Flash forward to this past Monday night. The Stags were back in Winston-Salem, this time facing the local boys from Wake Forest. Playing on their home court, the Demon Deacons were the nominal favorites to win this one despite drawing a less than impressive fan turnout, to put it kindly. Other than transportation costs, the Stags had very little to lose, but rather, something to prove in hopes of shedding a more favorable light on their fifth-place Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preseason ranking, voted on by the league’s coaches.
The visitors ultimately lost by a score of 71-59 that was much closer than the scoreboard would suggest. While Fairfield lacked any real kind of consistency throughout, the Stags missed a chance to tie the game at 52 when a straightaway 3-pointer from sophomore sharpshooter TJ Long rimmed out. From there, the Demon Deacons closed the game out on a 19-10 run that eventually put the Stags out of their shooting miseries.
“We just could not make a big basket or get a big stop to shift the momentum,” head coach Jay Young said.
Between some unfortunate plays, like Long’s in-and-out three, as well as having 29 fouls called on them which resulted in 39 free throw attempts for Wake Forest, it just wasn’t meant to be for the Stags. At times, Young admitted it was hard to watch.
“There wasn’t much flow at all from either side, it was just so choppy,” he said. “Obviously, we fouled too much, which is the understatement of the century.”
After hitting 40 percent of their 3-point attempts at Rutgers in last week’s exhibition game, Fairfield dropped down to 27 percent (8-of-29) in this contest with many of them not even close. Meanwhile, Long attempted a career-high 10 threes and made three of them, with the last two coming midway through the second half that cut the Wake Forest lead to five both times.
“TJ is going to get them off and get them off quickly,” Young said of the Long Island native. “That's what he does, and you know, I like the fact that he's aggressive offensively.
Jake Wojcik, who was Fairfield’s top 3-point shooter last season by number of makes, was 0-for-3 from deep and only made one field goal. Ironically, after scoring an efficient 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting at Rutgers, Makai Willis symbolically set the tone for the team’s shooting struggles with an airball from beyond the arc to open the game.
Wake Forest forward Andrew Carr got off to a fast start in this game. He scored the first seven points for the Demon Deacons and finished with 14 on the night. Three other Demon Deacons players joined him in double figures.
While Carr went to work early in the paint, Fairfield struggled to find their shot. The Stags went over five minutes without a field goal before preseason first team all-MAAC selection Supreme Cook woke up in a big way. The 6-foot-9' big man scored on back to back possessions, which included an emphatic dunk on the second trip down, that cut the Wake Forest lead to one before a three from Providence transfer Brycen Goodine handed the Stags a 9-7 lead at the second TV timeout.
Much like the entire game itself, the first half continued to be a slog as the Stags went up 21-15 with seven minutes left in the first half. That was, until Wake Forest went on a 17-4 run to close out the half and never again relinquished the lead.
If there was one eye-opening thing about the second half it was the improved play of Caleb Fields. The veteran point guard scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half, while showing off his ability to score from the mid-range and 3-point lane. Especially for an offense that was lacking any real flow, Fields brought some fire and shot-making ability down the stretch that will only serve this team well moving forward.
Fields’ backcourt mate, Goodine, only registered 17 minutes, but made his presence felt on a couple plays. Goodine arguably had the play of the game for the Stags when he swatted a Daivien Williamson layup attempt while running back on defense in the final minute of the first half. Now that Goodine is playing in the MAAC instead of the Big East, he won’t have to worry about being on what Young described as a “short leash” and can instead play past his mistakes in real time.
Neither Goodine nor Fields have played much basketball recently, with the former playing sparingly at Providence and the latter not playing last season at Bowling Green due to injury. Young is confident that increased reps will show more consistency on both ends of the court.
“I thought Caleb struggled in the first half, and had a very good second half for us, and then probably a little bit of vice versa for Brycen,” Young said. “I think it’s just a matter of rhythm for those guys and getting back into it.”
The Fairfield brass and personnel had a 4:30 a.m. flight home from Greensboro and made their way back to campus for another day of the grind of the college basketball season. Settled back in his office, Young said all the depth they have is a “good problem,” even though it may be hard to wrap his head around one game into the 2022-23 campaign.
On Thursday, the Stags will make the trip to Lundholm Gymnasium to face the University of New Hampshire for a Friday afternoon tipoff in Durham scheduled for 1 p.m. As for Cook’s status on Friday? Fairfield fans should expect to see him play more than the 17 minutes he got on Monday night. Young had plans to play him more, which “got thrown out the window” once Cook got into foul trouble.
“I’m trying to get him in better game shape,” Young said.
This time next week, the Stags will be in Cincinnati battling Xavier as part of their nine-game road trip to start the season. All eyes remain on the December 3 home opener against Saint Peter’s that will unveil the brand new Leo D. Mahoney Arena on campus. Until then, Young is looking forward to more team bonding on the road.
“It’s good for my Marriott Bonvoy account,” Young joked. “We do have some depth, so I’m hoping that will get us through this month.”
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