Saint Peter’s retools, but remains undaunted and unfazed in MAAC upswing

Shaheen Holloway loses KC Ndefo this season, but still has veteran roster as Saint Peter’s seeks third consecutive finish in MAAC’s top tier. (Photo by NJ Advance Media)

Looking back at last year’s Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference season, it would be easy for the casual fan to lose Saint Peter’s in the shuffle considering how Iona and Rick Pitino stole headlines in March on a postseason run following a 51-day pause.

However, the well-informed MAAC aficionado would know the Peacocks were perhaps the most consistent and stable program in the conference, the only one among the 11 league institutions to emerge from a tumultuous season without experiencing a single positive COVID-19 test. But while the good medical fortune kept Saint Peter’s in the mix, head coach Shaheen Holloway and his players were still victims of circumstance, having to shut down three times due to contact tracing and positive tests incurred by their opponents, adding to an unprecedented period of strife that affected the mental health of everyone in the locker room. Nevertheless, they pushed forward.

“I give everybody a lot of credit,” a candid Holloway, never one to mince words, reflected with regard to how his team traversed the pandemic-ravaged court of both sport and life through a season that saw the Peacocks finish 14-11 and tied for third in conference wins. “It was a life-changing thing for our kids. I didn’t let them do anything. Didn’t let them go to the barbershop, couldn’t see their family, they couldn’t do anything. So I give our kids a lot of credit, because that’s a hard thing for anyone to do.”

“As far as the basketball side, I was disappointed, but at the same time, happy. I’m disappointed because we could have — should have — had a better year. I was also happy because I didn’t know what kind of team I was going to have going into the season, losing two key players (Zarique Nutter and Dallas Watson). You just don’t know, and those guys were young. Everybody keeps thinking I had an old team. I had a bunch of sophomores and KC (Ndefo).”

Ndefo has since entered the transfer portal, rendering Saint Peter’s into a transitional unit without its leading scorer, rebounder, and defensive backbone. In his absence, though, his supporting cast — headlined by guards Daryl Banks III, Doug Edert and Matthew Lee, as well as twin forwards Fousseyni and Hassan Drame — is poised to become a more integral piece of the puzzle while Marty Silvera, Oumar Diahame and five incoming freshmen continue to learn the ropes in a program looking for a third straight finish among the MAAC’s top three.

“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t tell you we were going to miss him,” Holloway said of Ndefo. “He was the heart and soul of our team the last couple of years, he had a big presence for us and his personality fit my personality a lot, but it’s going to give other guys a chance to step up. It’s going to give the twins a chance to step up, it’s going to give Matt, Doug and Daryl a chance, it’s going to give Oumar a chance, it’s going to give Marty a chance, it’s going to give the new guys chances.”

“I’m expecting good things. We’ve got a good core coming back, five guys that played a lot as freshmen and sophomores, and it’s time for them to take a big jump. I thought this summer was really good for some of those guys, being able to get in the gym and work on their games, their bodies. But here’s the thing: I know what to expect from those five. I don’t know what to expect from everybody else. That’s kind of where we are right now. I went from being very small to very big. Now I’ve got 6’11, 6’10, 6’9, 6’8. We’re huge now.”

In Banks, a third team all-MAAC selection who could very easily have pushed for higher recognition, and perhaps the steadiest backcourt hand in the conference in Lee, the Peacocks remain forwardly positioned as Edert recovers from a bout with turf toe that hindered his sophomore season. Still, the loss of Ndefo has caused critics to wonder if Saint Peter’s can sustain its momentum, and while Holloway remained noncommittal, he did assure that one characteristic that has defined his program would be unaffected.

“You know me, I don’t say anything,” he said of potential naysayers. “We’re just going to come in, we’re going to scrap, we’re going to fight, and you’re going to be in for a war. I don’t know where we’re going to finish, I don’t know anything. But the one thing I do know is, when you come in to play Saint Peter’s, you’re going to be in for a war. Period. That’s what I can tell you.”

Rigoni, Marfo team up again to hopefully spark resurgence at Quinnipiac

Jacob Rigoni’s return for fifth season leads a cadre of experienced Quinnipiac returnees into pivotal season for Bobcats. (Photo by the Quinnipiac Chronicle)

After an inconsistent season last year, Quinnipiac was in need of stability.

The Bobcats received it when Jacob Rigoni, a recruit who upheld his commitment between the dismissal of Tom Moore and arrival of head coach Baker Dunleavy, decided to use the extra year granted to him in light of the pandemic to build on a senior campaign in Hamden that saw the Australian become the most prolific 3-point shooter in program history. On top of that, Kevin Marfo — who transferred to Texas A&M after leading the nation in rebounding during the 2018-19 season — saw the grass of the Southeastern Conference was not greener, returning to Quinnipiac to headline a formidable, experienced duo that aims to vault the Bobcats back into the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference’s upper echelon.

“Having Jacob back is a testament to our program,” Dunleavy said of Rigoni, who collected second team all-MAAC honors last season while leading Quinnipiac in scoring. “We’re really proud that he made the decision to come back. He’s a guy who’s played well enough now for us that he could have gone home to Australia to play pro ball, but we’re excited to have him back. I think having veterans gives everybody confidence.”

Kevin Marfo’s return gives Quinnipiac a rebounding and physicality boost Bobcats missed last season. (Photo by Rob Rasmussen/Quinnipiac University Athletics)

“We immediately become a wiser team, a more mature team, an elite rebounding team,” he added with regard to Marfo, whom he praised effusively as a smart basketball player. “I think that helps us right off the bat, but what gets me excited is us just being able to regain his mentality. He’s just a warrior, a guy that’s going to go into battle every game looking forward to being physical and competing, not only in games, but in practice. His competitive level is going to help our younger group hopefully take that next step.”

The Bobcats have a veteran backcourt trio in senior Tyrese Williams and juniors Matt Balanc and Savion Lewis to rely on, providing the fuel to a versatile and potent arsenal that also includes a pair of sophomores in Tymu Chenery on the wing and Luis Kortright dictating offense from the point guard position, forming one of the MAAC’s deepest guard stables to accentuate the Villanova influence Dunleavy brought with him after serving as Jay Wright’s apprentice for the bulk of the 2010s before skippering his own ship.

“Our backcourt dynamic changed a lot last year,” Dunleavy assessed. “One thing I was really impressed with, especially with Tyrese and Savion, was their ability to defend. We were one of the best defensive field goal percentage teams in the country last year and they were a big part of it, just physical, athletic, hard-playing guards. If we use that as our base this year, we’ve just got to be better offensively, but for us, it starts with the defensive end and I think there’s a lot to build on.”

“I think it’s important that Tymu and Luis not settle. Both of them had terrific freshman years, helped us win some games, and I think the sky’s the limit for both of those guys. I think there’s great opportunities in front of them, but like any other player, what you did last year doesn’t always translate into opportunity for the next year. You’ve got to go back and earn it again, and I think those guys understand that.”

Up front, Brendan McGuire and JJ Riggins return as well to complement Marfo, but the biggest buzz has been generated by Elias King, the 6-foot-9 sophomore whose rookie season was limited to just four games due to complications from contracting COVID-19.

“He was, arguably, our MVP through those four games,” said Dunleavy. “He was coming off the bench and he gave us exactly what we needed. We really missed him the rest of the way, but he’s full go and we’re excited to have him providing incredible frontcourt depth for us.”

Dunleavy admired the fact that each member of his 10-man rotation from top to bottom makes an immediate impact on every game, further lending to a consistency that was lacking last season amid a younger roster that is now hardened and forged by much-needed experience that should serve the Bobcats well in a season much closer to normal than last year’s aberration proved to be.

“It’s everything,” he concurred. “It’s one of those things when you go into a season knowing you’re going to play a couple of freshmen and sophomores in your top six, when you commit to that, you’ve got to have the courage to do it knowing that those guys are going to take their lumps, but are also going to be better for it down the road. When we made the choice to do that as opposed to bringing in a couple of transfers, we made a calculated decision.”

“We took a hard look in the mirror at ourselves and said, ‘Where did we leave some on the table?’ We were going to be youthful, maybe not as savvy in close games, but we were going to throw some of these younger guys to the fire and get them some experience quickly. I feel like we did that, and hopefully we’ll get some of the benefits of that this year.”

After MAAC title game appearance, Fairfield primed for greater jump on year three under Jay Young

Despite reaching MAAC championship game last March, Jay Young insists his Fairfield team still has room to grow. (Photo by the Hartford Courant)

One of the more unorthodox seasons in recent college basketball memory may have reaffirmed the recent status quo of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference when Iona defended its postseason crown and completed Rick Pitino’s fairytale comeback to the Division I ranks, but the team the Gaels upended to reach the NCAA Tournament was a somewhat unexpected opponent.

Very few would have expected Fairfield to make a late-season run to position itself as the potential Cinderella in the MAAC last year, but the timely surge and commitment to head coach Jay Young’s suffocating defense brought the Stags to the brink of the program’s first conference title in nearly a quarter-century. Five months later, as he returns nearly the entire group from last year’s COVID-riddled campaign, Young admits that while he and his team are proud of the growth displayed in trying circumstances, no one is truly satisfied with how it ended in Atlantic City.

“I think we were satisfied to a point where we got to the championship game, but the outcome was certainly not what we wanted,” the former Steve Pikiell assistant recollected as Fairfield brings heightened expectations into a year where the MAAC as a whole is projected to be on the rise, with the Iona team that denied the Stags a taste of March Madness the presumptive league favorite. “We wanted to go down there, and we talked about bringing a trophy back to Fairfield, and we fell short. So from that aspect, it was disappointing, but I thought we were talented enough and playing well enough at that point in the season to go down there and win the tournament. We felt we were good enough to win that game.”

“I think it was huge. We proved that we belonged and we could play with anybody, and we also have some confidence because we do have everybody back this year. The consistency of our roster, it’s the first year that I’ve had a consistent roster since I’ve been here, and you can even see it in the offseason with guys just hopping into drills and knowing what the drills are. I think we’re all confident that we can have a really good basketball team here, but we also know how much work is ahead of us.”

Coming off a 10-17 season in which Young pulled no punches about the Stags’ record not being where he and his staff want it to be, the third-year head coach is hopeful that his veteran leadership will guide Fairfield through the peaks and valleys in the early part of the schedule. Returning Taj Benning and Jesus Cruz to a rotation that also sees Caleb Green and Jake Wojcik — the latter for a full season — return to the backcourt was a shot in the arm for the program when both Benning and Cruz elected to use the extra years of eligibility afforded to them by the NCAA in light of the pandemic, and do so in familiar confines.

“We’re blessed to have good leaders with our upperclassmen,” Young gushed. “We’ve said this a bunch of times: Caleb’s probably — with a combination of student and leadership — one of the best I’ve ever had. He’s like having a coach on the floor, and I can say the same thing about Taj, Jesus and Jake. They make my job easier. They’re a player-coached team, and when you get to that point, that’s where you want to be as a program. It just shows our younger guys the level of work and culture of our program we need to have, so to answer your question, it’s a big advantage to have guys like that come back and be your leaders.”

In addition to his senior quartet, Young hopes to have Jalen Leach back at 100 percent for the season opener at Providence on November 9, targeting the end of September as an anticipated return to full participation in practice. Leach fractured his foot in the second of two games against Marist last year, and underwent surgery shortly thereafter, prematurely ending his freshman season.

“He’s got a skill that we need, he can score the basketball,” Young said of Leach. “He’s still not back, he’s missed the whole summer, but he was a guy who came in not knowing a whole lot about college basketball and gave us some really good minutes. I think he’s going to be a really important part of what we’re doing, but we’ve just got to get him healthy.”

Going into last season, Young lamented the inability to get his underclassmen into the gym for a full offseason of strength and conditioning, and has cited younger players such as Jason Edokpayi, Chris Maidoh and Allan Jeanne-Rose as some of the biggest beneficiaries this summer of having more time and more reps to further impact the Stags on and off the floor.

“Chris has put on a little extra weight,” Young said. “He got to 210 pounds and we threw a big party for him. He’s feeling more confident. Supreme (Cook) was playing his best basketball at the end of the year, and he’s continued to that into the offseason. Zach (Crisler) has a good IQ, he helps us in so many areas that don’t show up on the box score, and you saw the development of Jason. He had a brutal year with all the COVID issues, just a crazy freshman year. He really kind of helped us with that run we had at the end of the year, and then Shef (Tshiefu Ngalakulondi) has been more consistent, doing a better job in his role. I feel really confident that we’ve got some depth and some quality at the four and five spots.”

Fairfield also welcomes three freshmen to its ranks, as guards Christian Cevis and T.J. Long join the program alongside 6-foot-9 forward Makai Willis of Florida, who could eventually blossom into an all-MAAC forward with his size and burgeoning skill set.

“He’s been a really pleasant surprise,” Young revealed with regard to Willis. “We do have some frontcourt depth, so we’ll see how that’ll play out, but he’s skilled, he’s bouncy. He’s got a body that can play out on the perimeter a little bit, too, so I like what I’ve seen from him so far.”

“T.J.’s a tough kid who can stretch defenses. He’s been a little more scorer than shooter, which I like, and Christian’s a good physical guard to play along Caleb or back him up at the point position. We’ve got 14 scholarship players, so I’m sure we’ll be talking about redshirting a couple of guys at some point.”

Fairfield’s depth and growth will be tested in a non-conference schedule that features a pair of high-major opponents immediately in the opener at Providence and also at Boston College (November 14) to anchor a slate of winnable games that could vault the Stags right into the heart of a competitive MAAC gauntlet.

“I just want us to play good basketball,” a candid Young admitted. “We weren’t good at anything our first 13 games of the season, but we ended up playing the kind of defense I want to play late in the year, especially in the tournament. I just want us to pick up from there and think about how good we’re going to play on November 9 vs. Providence, and certainly do a better job than we did last year.”

With Alumni Hall having been demolished to make way for a new convocation center that will open in 2022, the Stags will once again be playing their home games at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport this coming year, perhaps affording the opportunity to create an uptick in fan support to supplement the buzz already created by the new building literally in the middle of the Fairfield campus.

“I think it’s a game-changer for us and for the campus, quite honestly,” said Young. “It’s going to be a centerpiece and it gives us a brand-new place where students can roll out of bed and create a real home-court advantage. I’m down there all the time yelling at the construction workers to keep going when they’re on their 15-minute break. The sooner we get in there, the better.”

Before the ribbon is cut on the future home of Fairfield basketball, however, the present remains in a season of upside, and Young is confident that the growth at the end of February and beginning of March will only manifest itself further and in greater detail over a full season.

“Guys enjoy playing here,” he said. “For us, I think it’s important that we build and get guys better. Sustained success for us is to develop guys and get them better. I like this group, and we’ve got a long way to go — I realize that — but I like where we’re at as a program. We’ve got to win more games, make that move now in year three, where we’ve got a winning record, competing again for another championship and playing in the upper half of our league. Those are my expectations for this year’s team.”

“We have a picture in our locker room of the final score of that game last year, and I don’t want our guys to forget that feeling. We want to get back there and win that game.”