Fairleigh Dickinson Basketball

June is normally a very quiet time for college basketball. It has been two months since the Final Four. No sports are taking place and most of the students are at their homes. Recruiting for the upcoming 2009-10 is just about complete.

It was announced today by Fairleigh Dickinson University Athletic Director, David Langford, that men's head basketball coach Tom Green has been fired from the university.

This is an absolute stunner to anyone who has followed FDU basketball or any fan of the Northeast Conference. Tom Green was not only the head coach of Fairleigh Dickinson basketball, he is Fairleigh Dickinson basketball.

But after 26 seasons, 400 wins, four trips to the NCAA tournament, 17 winning seasons, and the most tenured basketball coach in the state of New Jersey (New Jersey has seven Division I schools), Green was let go. 

You can read more about this on an article I wrote about the history of Fairleigh Dickinson basketball about a month ago.

Coach Green was reached for comment and said the following:

"I had lunch with my boss (Langford) three weeks ago. We spoke about the '09-10 season, and the recruits we have coming in...All my conversations since then with David Langford have either been about academics or about next year."

"Our last game was the last week of February. If this had happened in the beginning of March, or the middle of March, or even the beginning of April...as a Division 1 college basketball coach who has been around, I've got to understand that.

"But to do it in the last half-hour on the last working day in May shows a lack of respect for me as a person, a coach, and a loyal employee for 26 years."

I have a feeling there is something more behind this than just Green's last three under-performing seasons at FDU. The Knights were a combined 29-59 over the last three seasons, after two straight seasons making it to the Northeast Conference Championship game.

I know a couple of the student-athletes had academic difficulties, including starting guard Cameron Tyler, who returned to the team in the 2008-09 season after sitting out a year on academic probation.

I do not know if this was just Langford's decision or if the University's President, J. Michael Adams wanted to see the program go in a new direction. Fairleigh Dickinson is a private institution and Green's salary is not released. I do not know if this was done as a cost-cutting procedure.

You would have to believe that if this was based on the team's performance, Green should have been let go a few months ago. To see this firing done now, makes me think either Green had done something wrong, the basketball program is being cut, or some other coach is coming.

I am not sure what the FDU Athletic Director has up his sleeve for Green's replacement, but it better be something huge.

The foundation of the program has been removed.

The University's Athletic Director, David Langford released this statement to the media:

“We are so grateful to Coach Green for all that he has been able to do in his time at Fairleigh Dickinson, he has given a great deal to this University and department and we look forward to building on the legacy that he founded.”

Yes, David Langford, he founded the legacy here and he should be the one to decide how to see it come to an end. I am not sure if this was Langford's decision, so I do not want to put too much blame on the messenger just yet.

I would rather have 10 more losing seasons and have Coach Green retire than see the team make it to the Final Four. Coach Green meant that much to this program.

Tom Green, based on his stellar performance, had chances to move to schools with a bigger name, better conference, and better facilities. But he chose to stay where his heart was and that was in a place called Hackensack, at a school named Fairleigh Dickinson.

A class act was fired today in what seems like a crass move by an AD who acted like a snake in the grass.

Thank you for all of the great memories, Coach Green. You are the Knight that put the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on the national scene in college basketball.

It's June, and usually I am thinking that the college basketball season cannot start soon enough. Today, I wish that the season would not start for another 10 years.

The 2008-09 edition of Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) Knights’ basketball was a trying year to say the least. The Knights would finish the season with seven wins and 23 losses. It was worse than the prior year when FDU was 8-22. They would fail to qualify for the Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament for the second straight season.  

The Northeast Conference only has 8 of its 11 schools participate in the postseason tournament. The other time would be in the Knights 2001-02 season. Both of those teams are similar in that they were young squads that really needed to learn to play together, before they could learn to win together. The 2008-09 Knights did not have one senior on the roster. 

The Knights began the 08-09 season with six straight defeats, two of them were to NCAA Tournament bound teams, Pitt and Mississippi State. The high point for the team would be sweeping the New Jersey rivalry with fellow NEC member, Monmouth.

The low point came when losing by 13 to new Division I Independent, Bryant University.  Bryant made college basketball headlines for losing to NJIT, which broke NJIT’s NCAA record 51 game losing streak. 

Bryant will join the NEC in the 2011-12 season. 

The bright spots for FDU came more within the players than in the games.   Junior guard Sean Baptiste was the Knights’ leading scorer and rebounder averaging 16 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game. 

Baptiste was named to the All-NEC’s second team. Junior guard Cameron Tyler returned to the Knights after a year absence and was second in scoring with 13 points per game, and led the team with 5.3 assists per game. 

New transfer to FDU, junior forward Alvin Mofunaya had a nice debut season, he had nine points per game mixed in with 5.5 rebounds per game. A University of Rhode Island transfer; sophomore guard Terence Grier had nearly eight points per game. Other Knight contributors were Eric Moore, John Galvin and Kamil Svrdik. All should be back next season.

A Little Fairleigh Dickinson Basketball History

Most of FDU’s college basketball history can be traced to its current head coach. FDU’s head coach, Tom Green, has been the Knights’ leader since 1983. His career record at FDU is 407-351. In his tenure, FDU has had seven 20-win seasons and the Knights have captured the Northeast Conference Tournament four times to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Green’s career record in the “Big Dance” is 0-4, but do not let that record fool you.

Tom Green is a very capable coach.  Three of those appearances had the Knights as the 16^th seed and in 1998 the Knights were the #No. 5 seed. FDU has never played like a huge underdog expected to roll over in any of those games. 

In 1985, FDU was one of the first No. 16 seeds as this was the year that the tournament expanded to 64 teams. FDU gave the No. 1 seed Michigan Wolverines all it could handle in a 59-55 defeat. FDU fans take a little piece of the credit in Villanova’s magical run to the 1985 NCAA Championship. Villanova’s next game was against Michigan, who would defeat Michigan by the same 59-55 score. 

In 1988, FDU lost by 15 to top-seeded Purdue, 94-79. Ten years later, FDU went up against No. 2 Connecticut and lost 93-85.  This game was tied with just four minutes to play. FDU’s Elijah Allen would score a Tournament high 43 points in that game. 

FDU’s most recent trip to the dance was in 2005, when the Knights squared off with No. 1 seed and eventual National Finalist, Illinois. Illinois won the game 67-55, but it was not without a scare from the Knights. The Knights only trailed by one point at halftime.

For a FDU fan, the biggest hope for the program would be to be the first ever sixteen seed to knock off a number one seed. It has yet to happen in 100 tries, but FDU has been one of the closest. 

Currently, the Knights have not posted any news on any new recruits to the program for the upcoming season. The University’s basketball home page is found here. When you are low level mid-major like FDU, sometimes the Knights will wait until some of the players who have signed with larger schools to drop their commitment to that school and then sign them to the Knights’ roster. 

It appears that things can only get better in 2009-10 for the Knights. I will keep you posted during the off season as we wait until Midnight Madness in October.

The Washington State Cougars used their tenacious defense to improve on this young season to 2-0 Tuesday night in Pullman. Their opponent in the Legends Classic Tournament match up was the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson.

Coach Tony Bennett's Cougs dominated from the opening tipoff, won by Aron Baynes. Final score was once again definitive Bennett Ball, 55-33.

Former WSU Coach Dick Bennett was on hand to see the Coug Babes up close and personal.  He certainly was proud of the play by the Cougars.

There was a nice crowd of 6,159 in attendance.  They were strong in their spirited support of the Cougs. Yes, even the fans need some non-conference games to fine tune their game!

The first half wasn't pretty for the WSU offense.  Klay Thompson couldn't find the range, missing his first three attempts.  Remember, three shots in a half is a lot for any player on a Bennett Ball team.

Since the Cougs were having trouble with their offense, Coach Tom Green had his team running a zone defense almost the entire first half.  It was a smart call by Coach Green and helped his Knights keep the game within reach.

Despite playing stifling defense in the opening 20 minutes, halftime score was 26-15 in favor of Washington State.

Whatever Coach Bennett said during the intermission, it seemed to fire up WSU scoring.

Thompson had seven points in the first three minutes of the second half, finishing the game with nine.

Baynes and Nic Koprivica led the Cougs in scoring with 10 each.

Taylor Rochestie had another solid performance running the team on the floor.  He dished out six assists, matching his output in the game Saturday night.

Washington State was so dominant on defense that the Knights didn't manage a run of 5 points until there was just eight minutes left in the game.  At that point in the game, Coach Bennett called timeout to slow things down. It worked.  The Cougs put together a 7-0 run of their own, running the margin out to 54-26.  Game over.

With WSU up by 28 points, Coach Bennett sat Baynes, Rochestie and Daven Harmeling down to watch the kids play.

The final three minutes was a learning experience for DeAngelo Casto, Abe Lodwick, Marcus Capers and Charlie Enquist. They were outscored 7-1 by Coach Green's Knights.

If there is anything the Cougs need to work on coming out of this game, it's rebounding. They didn't follow up their domination of the boards Saturday night with another solid effort.  

Fairleigh Dickinson used their size to full advantage.  Also, the Knights were forced into so many bad shots, there were plenty of opportunities for rebounds.  But where FD shined was grabbing the rock after all missed 3-point shots by the Cougs.

Enough with the criticism.

Washington State is 2-0 and has an 18 game non-conference game winning streak.  The school record is 21 consecutive non-conference wins over two seasons.

It looks like that record is in danger.

Next up for the Cougs is an early evening game Friday night against Sacramento State.

Coach Bennett's Cougars are off to a terrific start.  If they keep this up, the talk of a rebuilding year will be silenced.

Seriously.