Last Friday, the Fordham Rams evened their record at 1-1 with a monstrous win over the Division III Mount Saint Mary Knights. The Rams dominated throughout the 106-37 victory, holding Mount Saint Mary scoreless through stretches as long as 7 minutes. On the glass, Fordham used their significant size advantage to outrebound the Knights 62-15, including 25-4 on the offensive end for 28 second chance points. Defensively, Fordham picked MSM apart to score 36 points off 23 Knights turnovers. In short, Fordham dominated a D-III opponent exactly how they should have. While this win certainly won’t provide much of a boost to their KenPom or NCAA Net Ratings, the Rams showed progress in several key areas that will no doubt give them a boost in their remaining non-conference slate and beyond.
Cohesion
Following last Tuesday’s loss to NJIT, Coach Mike Magpayo pointed out a lack of communication as a key struggle for the Rams. In the days leading up to Friday’s game, building those communications was a key focus. In practice, the coaches pumped music and crowd noise through the gym’s PA to encourage loud communication. Following what Magpayo described as a “hearty” film session, upperclassmen such as Akira Jacobs and Rikus Schulte led a players-only meeting, where they discussed what went wrong. Schulte gave his own thoughts to Magpayo as well over a late-night phone call on Tuesday.
“He said [that] ‘everyone was trying out there, coach. We were just all on different pages,’” Magpayo recounted. “So again, it was just all kind of the same theme that came out of Tuesday night that we just had to correct ASAP.”
These moments of self-reflection clearly worked for the Rams, as they recorded 27 assists on 44 made baskets against the Knights on Friday, Fordham’s highest single-game total since last year’s win over D-II Georgian Court. Jacobs and Schulte, who accompanied Magpayo in the postgame presser on Friday, elaborated on their own efforts to improve this team’s cohesiveness on the court. For Jacobs, a forward, he focused mainly on improving his communication during ball screens, ensuring that his guards knew when he was giving them a lane to attack the basket. For Schulte, his focus was on making sure he and his teammates could maintain a high intensity of play for 40 minutes. As for off-the-court chemistry, Schulte emphasized that that required little improvements.
“We’re just really close to each other,” Schulte said. “We’re good friends with each other. We talk off the court a lot, but we’ve also got to get better [at] talking on the court now and communicate better.”
Schulte finished the game with 10 points, 6 rebounds, an assist, and a steal, while Jacobs finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds, a block, and three steals.
Depth
As expected when blowing out a D-III school, Coach Magpayo reached into his bench early to spread out minutes, test out different lineups, and give some players more time on the court than usual. Roor Akhuar, a freshman forward from Australia, made his season debut against the Knights, earning 17 minutes of court time. From picking off opponents’ passes on the arc, to driving in transition for dunks, to catching and shooting threes from the corner, Akhuar proved to be quite the dynamic threat off the bench for the Rams. After not playing against NJIT, Coach Magpayo talked to Roor about his potential season outlook, where the young forward expressed how hungry he was to hit the court.
“He was just so in, and then. . .he honestly had the best practice the day after [NJIT],” Magpayo said. “For a guy that didn’t get to play to show up like that on Wednesday, it just said a lot about his character and his talent level. [I’m] glad you guys got to see it today.”
Akhuar finished the evening with 14 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and 1 steal.
With Fordham up 94-30 in the final 7 minutes of play, Coach Magpayo also gave several returning Rams reserves from last year some time to earn their first collegiate buckets. Redshirt
freshman Kingston priced scored his first career points on layup assisted by Zarique Nutter, while sophomore Aidan Crotty recorded his first make to put the Rams up 102-31.
Looking Ahead
The foundation for cohesive team play was there for Fordham on Friday night, but the Rams must build on their strengths on Tuesday when they host Wagner. For Magpayo, he emphasized on Friday that he’ll be looking at guys like Akira Jacobs to continue stepping up as leaders of this program.
“On Tuesday night before the game, I will be challenging his manhood to make sure that he brings all of that purpose and fight that we need from him, and that aggressiveness, because he’s one of the smartest guys on the team.”
Fordham and Wagner tip off at 7 PM at the Rose Hill Gym.
