Fordham Rams

Cincinnati (OH) – Fordham Rams

Previous Record (Conf)
2-25 (0-15)

Key Non-Conference Games
at Lehigh (4 Dec), St Johns (11 Dec), at Georgia Tech (27 Dec)

Conference Home-and-Home Partners
Rhode Island, St Bonaventure, Temple

OVERVIEW
Fordham has had only one winning season since 1991-92 and since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995, has put together a depressing 134-292 record. New head coach Tom Pecora will need to find some help for all-everything forward Chris Gaston if he wants to turn things around. If the Rams had held on to talented guard Jio Fontan, they would have had as potent an inside-outside combination as anyone in the league. As it stands, Pecora has to upgrade the overall talent and instill a desire to defend, two things previous coach Derek Whittenburg failed to accomplish. While Whit was able to bring in all-Conference talent (Fontan, Gaston, Bryant Dunston), he was unable to surround them with A-10 caliber talent. Pecora was hired for his recruiting connections in NYC as much as for his coaching acumen. If Pecora can consistently recruit his home turf, Fordham should be able to bounce back quickly.

SPOTLIGHT ON
Sophomore forward Chris Gaston averaged 17.9 points and 11.1 rebounds and was named to the All-Rookie Team and was a pre-season Second Team selection this year. Gaston accounted for a third of Fordham’s rebounds and had almost 200 more boards than the second-leading rebounder on the team. Gaston is relentless on the glass and a potent scorer when facing the basket. He’ll need to improve his decision-making and learn to recognize double-teams sooner. Gaston is a much better passer than he showed last season, but will have to learn to trust his teammates to knock down open shots.

OUTLOOK
Fordham lacked any semblance of a consistent outside game, making only 27% of their 3FGA. Pecora will have to find some shooters to create space for Gaston or he’ll continue to face double-teams all year. The Rams allowed opponents to shoot 45.4% from the field, but thanks largely to Gaston they were only -2.2 in rebounding margin. Fordham had the worst A:TO ratio in the league (273:437) and all of the returning players had more turnovers than assists last season. Pecora has to get Fordham to value the ball more.

Fordham should have more size this year with 6-foot-7 freshman forward Marvin Dominique and 6-foot-10 JUCO transfer Kervin Bristol. With Gaston cleaning the glass, any additional contributions on the backboards would make the Rams a potent rebounding team.

Pecora has to change the culture and show consistent improvement in all facets of the game. After winning just one conference game the last two years, any improvement should produce better results. The Rams loaded up on winnable home games in the non-conference and have an outside chance of hitting double-digits in the win column overall.

“Got a whole new team, got a whole new set of guys coming in to produce, got a new coach with a whole new mindset of winning,” Gaston said. “That’s all I’m thinking about.”