The 2008-09 edition of Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) Knights’ basketball was a trying year to say the least. The Knights would finish the season with seven wins and 23 losses. It was worse than the prior year when FDU was 8-22. They would fail to qualify for the Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament for the second straight season.
The Northeast Conference only has 8 of its 11 schools participate in the postseason tournament. The other time would be in the Knights 2001-02 season. Both of those teams are similar in that they were young squads that really needed to learn to play together, before they could learn to win together. The 2008-09 Knights did not have one senior on the roster.
The Knights began the 08-09 season with six straight defeats, two of them were to NCAA Tournament bound teams, Pitt and Mississippi State. The high point for the team would be sweeping the New Jersey rivalry with fellow NEC member, Monmouth.
The low point came when losing by 13 to new Division I Independent, Bryant University. Bryant made college basketball headlines for losing to NJIT, which broke NJIT’s NCAA record 51 game losing streak.
Bryant will join the NEC in the 2011-12 season.
The bright spots for FDU came more within the players than in the games. Junior guard Sean Baptiste was the Knights’ leading scorer and rebounder averaging 16 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per game.
Baptiste was named to the All-NEC’s second team. Junior guard Cameron Tyler returned to the Knights after a year absence and was second in scoring with 13 points per game, and led the team with 5.3 assists per game.
New transfer to FDU, junior forward Alvin Mofunaya had a nice debut season, he had nine points per game mixed in with 5.5 rebounds per game. A University of Rhode Island transfer; sophomore guard Terence Grier had nearly eight points per game. Other Knight contributors were Eric Moore, John Galvin and Kamil Svrdik. All should be back next season.
A Little Fairleigh Dickinson Basketball History
Most of FDU’s college basketball history can be traced to its current head coach. FDU’s head coach, Tom Green, has been the Knights’ leader since 1983. His career record at FDU is 407-351. In his tenure, FDU has had seven 20-win seasons and the Knights have captured the Northeast Conference Tournament four times to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Green’s career record in the “Big Dance” is 0-4, but do not let that record fool you.
Tom Green is a very capable coach. Three of those appearances had the Knights as the 16th
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