Last Saturday Fairfield beat Quinnipiac 76-53 in the MAAC women’s tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Stags did not make a single NCAA tourney appearance from 2002-2021 but have now claimed the school’s 3rd bid in the past 4 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Fairfield SO “Road Runner” Meghan Andersen about being a good 3-PT shooter and making the NCAA tourney for the 2nd year in a row.
You were born/raised in New York: what made you choose Fairfield? What I loved most about Fairfield and what inevitably made me choose the school was how the coaching staff spoke about the culture they wanted to build. I had not met any of the players at the time I committed, but what I got from my visit was how important having a family atmosphere was to this team. Having been here two years now, I can say that my coaches are the most genuine people who care so much about this team and make me feel like this really is my second family. Being close to home also made my decision easier because my family has come to every single game I have played, which means everything to me to be able to have that support.
You play for Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis: what makes her such a good coach, and what is the most important thing that you have learned from her so far? Coach Carly is the type of person that makes you want to play for her. She is not in it for her own personal gain: she truly wants the best for this team and this program in all aspects, both on and off the court. I think what makes her such a good coach is her ability to be so personable with each member of this team. Coach Carly makes it so easy to come to her off the court and speak to her about literally anything, which I believe translates to her ability to coach us on the court. She has built such a strong foundation of trust that I know members of this team, including myself, would run through a wall for her. She loves us like we are her kids, and one of the biggest things I have learned from her is not taking for granted the relationships we have been given through this team because they are truly our biggest strengths on and off the court.
The roster on your school website lists your position as “Road Runner”: what the heck is that?! Coach Blake DuDonis came up with that term in reference to the Looney Tunes character the “Road Runner.” Essentially, our “post” players are not the traditional ones that you find on most teams. We use this label to emphasize our ability to spread the court beyond the paint. It showcases our ability to run the floor as well as our versatility.
You are majoring in Sports Business: have you learned anything juicy this year about college athletics? I have not had a lot of classes tailored to my major just yet. I am in a sports analytics class right now that I find interesting. I have never been one to find interest in the analytics side of sports. I do not really pay much attention to college sports other than basketball or sports at Fairfield, so being able to see how different analytical methods I see used in basketball translate to other sports has really opened my eyes to different career paths I may want to pursue.
In 2024 you were named conference ROY: how were you able to make such a smooth transition from high school to college? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really believe that my transition into college was “smooth” because of my team. I would not say it was necessarily easy, but knowing I had the support system that I did, it built my confidence in areas I was not entirely confident in at the time. Being on a team of such hard-working individuals made me want to work just as hard because they deserved to have that from me as well as from everyone else. My favorite thing about my team is that we do not play for ourselves: we play for each other, and that is what really made my transition from high school to college smooth.
You also led the conference with 35.9 3P%: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? Confidence: having confidence is one of the most important parts of making shots from anywhere on the court. Putting in the work is also one of the most important aspects behind it, but at the end of the day, if you are not confident in your shot and the work you put in, then it does not matter how many shots you take each day. I know from experience: there were times where I lost that confidence, but my team/coaches helped me build it back up.
You entered the 2024 NCAA tourney with a 31-1 record and scored 10 PTS in a loss to Indiana: what did you learn from that loss that you think will help you this year? The biggest thing I learned from that loss was the attention to detail. All season long we have been pushing ourselves to remain disciplined and really focus the game plan because a higher-level team such as Indiana will exploit those vulnerabilities.
Last Saturday in the MAAC tourney title game you scored 27 PTS vs. Quinnipiac en route to being named tourney MVP: how were you able to play your best when it mattered the most, and how does title #2 compare to title #1? Both this year’s/last year’s MAAC title mean so much to me for different reasons. Being able to win with this team is everything. Before the game started, our captain Izabella Nicoletti Leite said something along the lines of “This could be the last time our seniors get to play, so if you are going to play for someone then play for them.” I think that is the beauty of our team: we truly do play for one another, and I think that is one of the reasons why we were able to accomplish so much during the past two seasons. To address the first question, I believe I was able to play my best because of my team. On the court, our offense flowed because of how locked in we were on the defensive end. We got the shots and found the energy off our defense. Our bench was also a critical factor for me: I could hear them throughout the entirety of the game. Just knowing I have that continuous/unconditional support makes it so much easier for me to go out there and play my game.
Your mother Denise won a pair of conference basketball titles and is in the Fordham Hall of Fame, and your brother Tom played college baseball: who is the best athlete in the family? I will say myself because I am not trying to boost any of their egos. My dad would choose himself…but he cannot even catch a ball, so I do not know about that!
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? No matter what seed we get, I know we are going to continue to play Fairfield basketball and play within ourselves because that is where we excel the most. I am not ready to be done playing with this team, and I can say on behalf of my teammates that we are going to give it our all no matter who our matchup is.
The Hoops HD Selection Committee – Saturday, March 15th
Tonight was our third night of meetings for our panel’s Selection Committee – the stakes continue to get higher as we get closer and closer to Selection Sunday. When we left off yesterday, we had a couple of potential contingency spots to fill on our at-large board. Colorado State was the first team to steal a bid by winning the Mountain West, but Memphis advancing to the American conference championship assures us of a potential contingency spot to open up tomorrow should the Tigers win the American conference championship. Another spot opened up with UC-San Diego winning the Big West; they will not need an at-large bid to get into the field.
Our first major order of business was to discuss in detail each of the teams remaining on the Under Consideration board; nobody was voted off the board individually. After the discussion, each member of the Committee sent a list of 4 teams to Chad for our first round of voting. The teams nominated for the first two spots were San Diego State and Vanderbilt (who joined holdovers Boise State and Xavier from the previous round of voting). Each member ranked the four teams 1 through 4; Vanderbilt and San Diego State were added to the at-large board and Xavier/Boise State both returned to the Under Consideration board since they could not carry over for 2 consecutive rounds of voting.
For our final round of voting in terms of at-large tournament teams, each committee member nominated six teams from Under Consideration and the top four teams would again be ranked 1 through 4. This time, the top four vote-getters were Indiana, Xavier, Boise State and VCU (should they not win the A-10 Championship tomorrow). In the last round of voting, Indiana was the top vote getter and received the last solid at-large bid. Xavier was the last team added to the board; they are the American contingency team and will make the field IF Memphis wins tomorrow. If UAB wins the American, the Blazers will steal the automatic bid and Xavier would be the first team out of the NCAA Tournament field. As it is right now, our top 6 teams out would be: 1) VCU, 2) Boise State, 3) North Carolina, 4) UC-Irvine (who now would need an at-large bid), 5) Texas and 6) Ohio State.
Our next task was to seed the remainder of the auto bid winners, at-large teams as well as teams that are still eligible to win their respective auto bid (i.e. George Mason, Cornell). Each member would nominate 12 teams to Chad; the top 8 vote-getters would join the previous 4 holdover teams and would then be ranked 1 through 12 as we voted on the 9-line and the 10-line. We repeated the process until we filled out the seed list with 72 teams. This is because the WAC Championship was in progress as we finished filling out the master seed list.
Here is our current selection board:
For tomorrow, our first task will likely be to do a scrub of the seed list to account for any changes in terms of seed list rankings that committee members could entertain motions on. We will also fill out two contingency brackets – the first bracket will be if Memphis wins the American (where Xavier is the last team in and VCU is the first team out should they lose in the A-10 Championship). The second bracket will be if UAB wins the American (where Indiana is the last team in and Xavier is the first team out). Stay tuned tomorrow for our final result!