On Monday, November 3 at 7:00 P.M. inside the Bryce Jordan Center, the Penn State men’s basketball team opens up their regular season against the Fairfield Stags.
Fairfield University, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). The Stags overall record last season was 12-20 with a conference record of 8-12.
This past Thursday I asked Head Coach Mike Rhoades during his weekly presser his thoughts on this year’s Fairfield squad. He responded, “Yeah, look, they’re a very good team, well coached. They play a very aggressive style, which is what we need to play against in this non-conference with a young team to prepare us for Big 10 play. But, also, you got to be worried because those guys are pretty good…enough to come in here and beat us. They’re very physical. They really crash the glass.”
You can watch the whole presser here.
The Stags played in one exhibition game this preseason. The travelled to Richmond, Va. to play the reigning Atlantic 10 Champions, VCU, and lost the contest 82-64. Fairfield, though, closed a 13-point halftime deficit to just five points in the second half before the Rams pulled away.
The Nittany Lions have played in two exhibition games. They first played against Dayton on the Flyers’ home court and dropped the contest 78-62 and then played Shippensburg at the BJC and won 86-67. Redshirt junior, Freddie Dilione, led Penn State in scoring in both games with 16 points and 21 points, respectively. Freshman point guard, Kayden Mingo, 7′-0″ freshman center, Ivan Juric and redshirt sophomore, Eli Rice, also shined in both contests.
You can watch Monday night’s regular season opener on B1G+ and of course stay tuned to Nittany Sports Now for all of the coverage and updates.
