The regular season is headed toward the finish line for Fordham Men’s Basketball. Before the Rams’ Saturday night matchup with the Saint Joe’s Hawks, Mack Rosenberg and I sat down with Head Coach Tom Pecora .
Despite the fact that Richmond defeated Fordham on Saturday afternoon, a good crowd was on hand to watch Fordham senior Chris Gaston play one of his final games at Rose Hill. Part of that crowd were a few notable Fordham athletics alumni who came back to their old stomping ground.
It was Senior Day at the Rose Hill Gym Saturday. Along with senior team managers, there was one player who walked out to celebrate his Fordham career: Chris Gaston. Gaston has had a prolific career at Fordham and he received a huge ovation in front of the Fordham fans. Unfortunately, there was not much to celebrate after the opening tip, as the Richmond Spiders dominated Fordham, winning 72-55.
“I haven’t seen a young team win an NBA title in the last 10, 15 years,” Knick head coach Mike Woodson said in July. “If you can tell me one, then so be it, but I haven’t seen one. It’s veteran guys that are winning NBA titles.”
This summer when trying to construct the Knicks roster, General Manager Glen Gruwald built a team to Woodson’s liking, adding antiques Jason Kidd, Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace, and Kurt Thomas, who at 40 is the oldest active player in the league.
Fordham is peaking at the right time, and a chance at a first round bye will be at stake as Fordham closes its conference season with a pair of contests this week. With a chance to become the "Super Rams" (against Rhode Island) and to prove their legitimacy on their home court (Saint Joseph’s), last week was a telling one for Fordham’s chances come tournament time.
The Fordham Rams have lost 23 consecutive games on the road, and haven't won a road game in conference play since 2009. All of this the result of last night's 68-60 loss at George Washington, a game in which the Rams played down to their opponent and make mistake.
The Knicks got off to their best start in nearly two decades, but fell back to Earth in recent weeks and headed into the All-Star break losers of three of their last four, and with seemingly more questions than answers.
Joe Johnson hit a 15-footer from the free-throw as time expired, and the Nets squeaked by the visiting Bucks Tuesday in OT 113-111. He's now 8-for-9 shooting in the final 30 seconds of one-possession games. His 8th attempt in those same scenarios? A trifecta with 1.3 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to an extra session. He showed the 17,334 faithful fans on-hand at the Barclays Center just how clutch he was.
It would be easy for a team to be content with securing an A10 berth with four games remaining in the conference slate. Of course the Fordham Women’s Basketball team isn’t nearly done completing one of the most drastic turnarounds in the nation just yet.
The atmosphere at the Rose Hill Gym Saturday evening was the way it should be every game, and Fordham gave the sell-out crowd many reasons to cheer. But they couldn't finish off the upset of #11 Butler at home, losing 68-63. Fordham has now lost six straight contests, and this once certainly bites.
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