2024 Hercules Tires MAAC Basketball Championships Digital Program

2023–24 FAIRFIELD MEN’S & WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

MEN’S ROSTER

WOMEN’S ROSTER No. Name Cl.

QUICK FACTS LOCATION FAIRFIELD, CT NICKNAME STAGS COLORS RED YEAR FOUNDED 1942 PRESIDENT MARK R. NEMEC, PhD ATHLETIC DIRECTOR PAUL SCHLICKMANN HOME ARENA LEO D. MAHONEY ARENA (3,500)

No.

Name

Cl. Gr.

Pos.

Ht.

Wt.

Hometown/High School/Previous School

Pos. Ht.

Hometown/High School/Previous School

0

Caleb Fields

G 6-2 195 Cape May Court House, N.J./Wildwood Catholic/Bowling Green

1 2 3 4 5

Kendall McGruder

Jr.

G 5-9 Grand Prairie, Texas/South Grand Prairie/North Texas G 5-7 Pequannock, N.J./Morris Catholic G 5-6 Middle Island, N.Y./Longwood G 5-6 Endwell, N.Y./Maine Endwell RR 6-1 Wantagh, N.Y./Our Lady of Mercy Academy G 5-10 Americana Sao Paulo, Brazil/Neuse Christian Academy/Florida St.

Mimi Rubino

Sr. Sr. Fr. Fr.

1 2 3 4 5

Birima Seck

Jr.

F

6-11 200 Dakar, Senegal/Dream City Christian/University of New Mexico

Janelle Brown

Brycen Goodine

R-Sr.

G 6-4 180 New Bedford, Mass./St. Andrew’s School (R.I.)/Providence

Kaety L’Amoreaux Meghan Andersen

Jalen Leach Jasper Floyd

Sr.

G 6-4 200 Nyack, N.Y./Tilton School (N.H.)

Jr.

G 6-3 195 Tampa, Fla./Wharton/Hillsborough Community College G 6-4 190 Ellington, Conn./Northwest Catholic/Avon Old Farms

PLAYER TO WATCH Freshman Road Runner Meghan Andersen has had one of the best rookie campaigns in the country, becoming just the third player in conference history to win double-digit MAAC Rookie of the Week honors. The top scorer of the team, Andersen became just the second rookie in school history to net over 400 points in a season. She became the first freshman ever to be named a Mid-Major Player of the Year Semifinalist and was also one of 40 players in the country to earn a spot in the USBWA National Player of the Year Watchlist. NOTABLE ALUMNI Lou Lopez-Senechal was a three-time All-MAAC First Team selection with the Stags after amassing 1,598 career points in four seasons with the Stags. She led the Stags to the 2022 MAAC Championship while also being named the MAAC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP. In her senior season, she finished in the top-25 in the country in scoring while becoming just the second Stag ever to eclipse 600 points in a season. She played her graduate season at UConn, leading the Huskies to the Sweet 16 after finishing second on the team with 15.5 points per game and a team-best .440 3-point shooting percentage. She was named an All American Honorable Mention with the Huskies. She became the fifth pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft being selected by the Dallas Wings. She currently competes for Hozono Global Jairis in the Spain-LF Endesa League.

10 11 12 15 21 22 23 25 33 34

Izabela Nicoletti Leite R-Jr.

Matt Curtis

Fr.

Karly Fischer

Fr.

RR 6-2 Tappan, N.Y./Albertus Magnus

10 12 13 14 15 20 22 23 24 25 33

Alexis Yetna

Gr.

F

6-8 230 Paris, France/Putnam Science Academy (Conn.)/Seton Hall University

Kate Peek

So.

G 5-9 Poughkeepsie, N.Y./The Millbrook School

Louis Bleechmore Sr.

G/F 6-6 205 Sydney, Australia/Scotland Campus/Saint Joseph’s University

Lauren Beach

Jr.

RR 6-1 Medway, Mass./Medway

Anthony Davis Jr.

R-Fr.

G 6-5 180 Stephens City, Va./Miller School

Nicole Gallagher

Gr.

G 5-8 Foxboro, Mass./Tabor Academy/Bryant

James Johns Jr.

So.

G 6-6 185 Claymont, Del./Long Island (N.Y.) Lutheran

Casey Prior

Fr.

G 5-7 Sea Girt, N.J./Red Bank Catholic

Jack Brown

Sr.

F

6-6 200 Greenville, Del./Brewster Academy

Emina Selimovic

Jr.

RR 5-10 Erie, Pa./McDowell/Siena

Ryan McPartlan So.

G 6-4 190 Bronx, N.Y./Fordham Prep

MacKenzie Daleba

Sr.

RR 5-11 Dorchester, Mass./Cathedral

Luke Davidson

So.

G 6-0 185 Fayetteville, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius

PLAYER TO WATCH After an injury-shortened 2022-23 campaign in which he played just four games, Brycen Goodine has emerged as one of the top shooters in the nation this season. Leading the country in three-point percentage at times during the year, Goodine made national headlines with a 40-point performance in Fairfield’s win at Siena on Jan. 5. He is just the fourth Stag in program history to reach the 40-point mark in a game, needing only 18 field goal attempts to hit the plateau due in large part to his 8-for-12 showing from three-point range. The Fairfield sixth man for much of the 2023-24 campaign, Goodine is one of only 10 players to score 40 points in a reserve role in the last 15 seasons of Division I basketball. NOTABLE ALUMNI At the time of his graduation, the late Dr. Wayne Gibbons was one of only 11 1,000-point scorers in Fairfield history. Despite playing only three seasons, Gibbons amassed 1,016 points for an average of 13.2 points per game. He racked up many of his points from the free throw line, graduating as the all-time leader in free throws made (360) and attempted (480) for a .750 shooting percentage. He still ranks in the top 10 in free throws made and attempted more than 50 years later and still holds the Fairfield single-game record with a 15-for-15 performance at the line in a win over Vermont in 1969. After graduation, Gibbons earned a degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1979. He practiced medicine for nearly 40 years. Gibbons passed away on July 24, 2019 at the age of 70.

Brooke Tatarian

Jr.

G 5-10 Yonkers, N.Y./The Master’s School

Marouf Moumine Fr.

G/F 6-6 185 Yaoundé, Cameroon/NBA Academy/First Love Christian (Pa.)

Dayna Tirado

Sr.

RR 6-1 Closter, N.J./Northern Valley Demarest

Joe Ganton

Fr.

G 6-4 190 North Caldwell, N.J./West Essex

Michael Rogan

R-Fr.

G/F 6-7 195 Saratoga Springs, N.Y./Saratoga Springs/South Kent (Conn.)

Head Coach: Carly Thibault-DuDonis (Monmouth, '13) – Second Season Assistant Coaches: Erik Johnson (California San Diego, '94) – Second Season , Erika Brown (Delaware, '17) – Second Season at Fairfield, Blake DuDonis (Gardner Webb, '11) – Second Season Director of Operations/Assistant Coach: Alex McKinnon (Montclair State, '20) – Second Season Graduate Assistant: Aislinn Flynn (LIU, '22) – First Season

Peyton Smith

Fr.

F

6-10 250 Hudson Falls, N.Y./Hudson Falls

Interim Head Coach: Chris Casey (Western Connecticut State ’86) – First Season Assistant Coaches: Glenn Braica (Queens ’89) – First Season , Taj Benning (Fairfield ’21) – First Season

Staff Assistant: Mike Jarvis II (Boston University ’92) – First Season Director of Operations: Matt Knezovic (Hartwick ’18) – First Season Graduate Assistant: Chuck Asetta (Fairfield ’23) – First Season

HEAD COACH CHRIS CASEY College basketball veteran Chris Casey was named the interim head coach of Fairfield University Men’s Basketball prior to the 2023-24 season. Casey most recently served as an assistant with the Stags for the last four campaigns. As a head coach, Casey was a part of the MAAC for six years at Niagara from 2013-19. His tenure included a 19-win campaign in 2017-18 that saw the Purple Eagles finish 12-6, good for third place in the MAAC. He joined Niagara after a three-year stretch at LIU Post highlighted by back-to-back ECC Championships and NCAA postseason appearances. Casey’s first head-coaching stop was at Division III Rutgers-Newark. Following his stint as head coach at Rutgers-Newark, Casey joined the staff at CCSU, where he was a part of the Blue Devils’ 2002 NEC Championship. In 2006, he moved on to Norm Roberts’ staff at St. John’s for a four-year tenure that included a trip to the 2010 NIT. Casey graduated from Western Connecticut State in 1986 with a degree in Business Administration. He earned a Master’s in Education Administration from CCSU in 1993.

HEAD COACH CARLY THIBAULT-DUDONIS In just two seasons, Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis has brought the Fairfield Women’s Basketball team to new historic levels. This season, she became one of just 10 head coaches named to the inaugural Kathy Delaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Watch List. She led a Stags squad who received votes in both the USA Today Coaches and AP Top-25 polls while also placing in the top-10 in the College Insider Mid-Major poll. Thibault-DuDonis has seen success in every step of her coaching journey including helping Mississippi State to back-to-back National Championship appearances after snapping UConn’s 111-game win streak in the 2017 Final Four. One of the best recruiters in the country, Thibault-DuDonis has helped sign five nationally-ranked recruiting classes, including two five-star recruits as the Associate Head Coach at Minnesota. She was also the recruiting coordinator that secured the top two classes in Mississippi State history. Thibault-DuDonis married her husband Blake DuDonis in the summer of 2017. Her father Mike Thibault is the all-time winningest coach in WNBA history after coaching the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun and winning the WNBA Coach of the Year award three times. Her brother Eric, is the current Head Coach of the Washington Mystics.

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2024 | HERCULES TIRES MAAC MEN’S & WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS 41