Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas everyone and happy holidays. I hope you all enjoyed the last few days with family and friends. I had a great Christmas yesterday and have been enjoying my time off from school. I've been practically doing nothing and resting up after a busy first semester.

As for the team I hope they are enjoying there few days off at home before it's back to work for them, practicing and resuming their schedule. They sure did give themelves a nice Christmas gift a few days early with a nice victory over Albany on the 22nd. This was a very nice win for the Red Foxes as well. It was on the road against a non-conference opponent and it was good for them to get back to their winning ways. However Albany did come into the game with a 1-10 recrod. And while your probably asking yourself, why didn't Marist blow this team out? Lets not worry about that, we know a win is a win.

There were also some standout performances in this one as well. Fitz had a remarkable game, tieing her career high with 28 points to go along with 11 rebounds. The backcourt shined as well with Flores having 16 points and 5 rebounds and Viani posting 21 points going 8-9 from the stripe. In fact the Red Foxes shot an impressive 28-32 from the free throw line and practically won the game from that spot. Talk about execution from the free throw line. Albany practically forced the Red Foxes to beat them from the stripe putting them their 32 times. When I see a number like that, it shows me that Albany just couldn't gaurd the Lady Red Foxes. So this game was a nice early Christmas gift for the team, and sent everyone into the holidays with happy spirits.

There it Goes

Well there is some good news and bad news following Marist's loss to Hartford Wednesday. The bad news consists of two different winning streaks coming to an end for the Red Foxes. Their loss to Hartford ended their 1o game winning streak they had rolling this season, and also their 26 game winning streak they were sporting that dated back to the 2005-2006 season. That having been said you can see Wednesday night probably wasn't a very good night and is one the team will want to forget quickly. Not only did they lose, they lost at home by seventeen points. They scored a season low 14 points in the first half and a season low 32 points in the game. Rachele Fitz was held scoreless in the first half and ended up finishing with 12 points. If you weren't at the game the best way to sum it all up would to say it was an offensive struggle. Niether team scored for the first 3:05 of the game and Marist didn't register its first points until the 14:32 mark of the first half. In fact most of Marist's possessions were just down right ugly and Hartford's swarming defense did not make the Red Foxes look like one of the nation's top 30 teams. They missed open jumpers, threw the ball out of bounds, and struggled to beat the shot clock on many possessions. But you have to give credit to Hartford, they played Marist extremely well and did what they needed to do to knock off Marist. Now to the good news. Brian Giorgis will have a week and a half between the loss and their next against Albany to get the girls back on their game and ready to start a new streak. Also since Hartford is non a conference opponent, Marist's 26 game home winning streak in the MAAC still stands strong. The game against Albany is December 22nd at 2pm in the New York state capital.

Double Digit Wins

Right now we're eleven games in the 2007-2008 season and Marist is already in double digits for victories. Marist is posting a 10-1 record coming into their game against Hartford tonight. And tonight is defintely not a game where we can gaurantee the Red Foxes to their 11th straight and overall victory. Hartford comes into the game with an 8-2 record. They were the preseason favorites in the America East Conference and have not yet dissapointed.
Marist has been as hot as a you can be lately as they are riding the nation's biggest winning streak of ten. Not only are they one of the nation's top thirty teams, with their last win they entered an elite group in NCAA Women's basketball. With their win on Sunday over Fairfiled, Marist joined Maryland and North Carolina as one of three teams to have double digit wins this year. MAAC play has begun and Marist is off to a 2-0 start there. It is going to be incredibly difficult for a MAAC team to hand them any conference losses and almost impossible for any team to beat them at McCann. Their remaining home schedule is all MAAC opponents and it will be a nice challenge for them to see if they can improve upon their home winning streak. Lets not forget that currently Marist is sporting a 26 game home winning streak both overall and also in MAAC play. You try and find me a much better home team in the nation. You want to talk about home court advantage....there it is right there.

Game: Hartford @ Marist
When: Tonight at 7:30pm
Where: McCann Center, Poughkeepsie New York
Listen: WMAR Marist Radio 1630. Listen to the webcast at www.maristradio.net

Final Four Possibility

I know it is way too early in the season to be discussing the Final Four. However a comment was posted asking me my thoughts on the possibility of this team going to the final four so heres my opinion. I think the only thing that would make me question the possibility of this team going to the final four would be if they met Pat Summit's Tennessee Lady Vols. I think the number one team in the nation has really separated itself from the rest of the field. I'm not saying that this team can't beat Tennesse because trust me, if they played their best game and caught Tennessee not playing theirs, it could happen. But if Marist played Tennessee 10 times, they would probably take 1 or 2 of those games. Brian Giorgis is an amazing coach and after playing Tennessee last year Marist would not nearly be as intimidated a second time around. That isn't the answer you want, but it is the answer to what would happen next time Marist met Tennessee. When this team is at its best it can beat anyone else in the country. We saw it last year and we can definitely see it again this year. They are even more talented this season and are seasoned now when it comes to tournament time, so I feel the girls would have loads of confidence their second time around. Like last year, I definitely think this team could make a strong run at the Final Four. Tennessee would be a real difficult obstacle, but if they are not in the way, I think Marist has a strong chance at being one of the last 4 teams standing in April.

Dominating at Home

I finally got a chance to watch the Lady Red Foxes in action at the McCann Center. They played their home opener Thursday night against Yale and then another home game Saturday against Bucknell. Let me tell you it was quite special to be able to see them in action and see how good they really are. Offensively you can see in the stat books that they dominate, but it's not until you see them play in person when you really discover how good they are. They're fast, agressive, smart, and my favorite is how unselfish they are on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Offensively this team goes deep. In the starting backcourt Viani and Flores seem to be sharing the point gaurd position. Both of these girls look better than they ever have. They look faster, smarter, and offensively they're ability to attack the basket and finish is what impresses me most. But both are also doing a good job setting up the offense and getting others involved as well. The starting frontcourt is equally as scary. Fitz, Dahlman and Johnson are all capable of scoring double digits on any given night. Their versatility and finishing capabilites are what makes life so difficult on opposing forwards and centers. Then we can look that the deep, talented bench Brain Giorgis can turn to. Off the bench Brittany Engle brings her defensive affressiveness along with Sarah Smrdel who showed me how dangerouse she is on the low block and also outside the three point line. This girl shoots threes just like a gaurd. Then you also have the two freshman coming off the bench which show the future is also bright for Marist. Elise Caron is developing into a nice college point gaurd while Erica Allenspach (shooting gaurd) showed me she can do more than shoot the rock as she attacked the basket nicely with her penetration against Bucknell. The most important thing however for a team that has at least seven girls that can score in double digits every night is the fact they understand basketball is a team game. This team understands that to be successful, they have to be unselfish and share the basketball and what I have come to notice is that it doesn't matter to this team who is scoring, as long as someone is scoring. Giorgis' squad really understands the meaning of the word "team."

This carries over to the defensive side of the ball as well. They play excellent team defense and can really cause a headache for opposing players. One thing about Marist is the fact that they are excellent at rebounding the basketball. Their key is that on every shot, all five players on the floor are boxing out. This is obvious because on most defensive rebounds there are no opponents anywhere close. Marist really plays a well rounded game and showed that against both Yale and Bucknell. These aspects will continue to grow over the season, but they were apparent over the last two games at McCann.

Thursday: Marist 77 Yale 62
Saturday : Marist 68 Bucknell 56