APRIL 1, 2010
Andruzzi Awarded Atlantic 10 Comeback Coach of the Year
By ARYU QUIDDING
STAFF CONTRACTOR
Last week, women’s basketball
head coach Cathy Andruzzi was
awarded the Atlantic 10 comeback
coach of the year and a new con-
tract from Fordham.
“This is a very proud day for the
Fordham community,” president
of the University Rev. Joseph M.
McShane, S.J., said. “We have made
strides with our women’s basket-
ball team and this award recognizes
that.”
Despite suffering injuries to ju-
nior forward Katie Vican and se-
nior forward Randall Hurst late in
the season, Andruzzi led the Lady
Rams to eight wins this season and
a berth in the A-10 tournament for
the first time since 2005-2006.
“This award reflects the effort of
the players,” Andruzzi said. “I was
excited with the progress we made
this year. We are continuing to get
better and expect to improve again
next year.”
Fordham is only two years re-
moved from a winless season. Even
though the Lady Rams have not
achieved great things, they have
come a long way in the past few
Fordham Athletics Looking to Make Big Move to Big East
McLaughlin is “Confident” that the Big East Will Want to Accept the “High-Caliber Program” that Fordham Has to Offer
Fordham hopes to join other Jesuit schools already in the Big East, such as Georgetown and Notre Dame. Of course, we’ll still get the crap kicked out of us every game.
By JEA WRIGHT
STAFF DISBELIEVER
Coming off of Fordham’s first-
ever Atlantic 10 postseason cham-
pionship, the University recently
announced it has begun preparations
to leave the conference and join the
Big East.
“Right now, we’re in the process of
forming a committee that will look
into the possibility of moving up into
the Big East,” Executive Director of
Athletics Frank McLaughlin said.
“We’re very confident that we’ll be
accepted in,” he added. “I think that
the Big East would like to expand
with more high-caliber programs in
the New York City market, and we’re
a perfect fit.”
Just over a month ago, on Feb. 20
in Buffalo, N.Y., the women’s swim-
ming and diving team captured the
A-10 crown, a first for any women’s
team at Fordham. Soon after, the
athletic department began its push
to gain Big East membership.
“I think the time is ripe,” Julio Diaz,
associate athletic director for market-
ing and promotions, said. “We really
seasons.
After receiving the honor, Ford-
ham awarded Andruzzi with a con-
tract extension through the 2014-
2015 season.
“We are very happy with the di-
rection of the women’s basketball
program,” Executive Director or
Athletics Frank McLaughlin said.
“We were pretty terrible a few years
ago and Cathy has gotten us to the
point where we’re just bad.”
Andruzzi also expressed a lot of
promise for the future.
“I’m excited with the opportunity
Fordham is providing me,” Andru-
zzi said. “We have made significant
strides and we look to continue im-
proving and hopefully we can even-
tually be an average team.”
Fordham will most likely strug-
gle next year losing Hurst to gradu-
ation; however, the team does not
expect to take too far a fall, as it was
only able to win two conference
games anyway.
“It will be a struggle without
Hurst but we will continue to
schedule weak out-of-conference
games so we can rack up some more
easy wins,” McLaughlin said. “After
all, only two of our wins came in the
A-10. We should be able to achieve
feel as though Fordham has what it
takes to become the 17th member of
a league that’s indisputably the best
in the country.”
The Big East received eight bids
to this year’s NCAA men’s basket-
ball tournament, though four of the
teams – Notre Dame, Louisville,
Marquette and Georgetown – failed
to make it out of the first round.
“If you look at it, we won just as
many tournament games as 75 per-
cent of that league,” Jared Grasso, in-
terim head coach of men’s basketball,
said. “I think this move puts us in a
good spot to compete.”
Like 12 of the 16 teams in the Big
East this season, the Rams came
up short in their quest for a NCAA
tournament win. In fact, they came
up short in each and every of their
16 conference games this season, the
only team in all of Division I to have
a “perfect” conference record. Ford-
ham’s last trip to the Big Dance was
in 1992.
“It’s that kind of consistency that
the Big East is interested in when
they are looking at adding teams, I
think,” McLaughlin said. “Two years
the same level of mediocrity again.”
Outside of Hurst, the rest of the
Lady Rams are expected to return.
The team is excited for the future.
“Hopefully next season we’ll
be able to compete against some
the A-10’s best,” sophomore guard
Becky Peters said. “This year we
were able to scare Xavier and Saint.
Joseph’s, hopefully we can do it
again next year.”
Andruzzi said she sees one area
Fordham has to improve specifi-
cally.
“We have to make our shots,” An-
druzzi said.
Andruzzi began her head coach-
ing career at Fordham in 2006 and
has a career record of 19-97 and
4-52 in the A-10.
“Fordham is excited to have
coach Andruzzi here for the long
haul,” McShane said. “She exem-
plifies what we look for from our
coaches on and off the court.”
Andruzzi previously served as
an assistant at Seton Hall in 2004-
2005 and at Rutgers in 2003-2004.
Andruzzi was also the head coach at
Wagner College, as well as East Car-
olina University, where she took the
team to its first-ever NCAA tourna-
ment appearance.
in a row, we’ve been dead last in the
league in terms of men’s basketball.
The Big East knows exactly what
they’ll be getting out of this pro-
gram.”
McLaughlin’s audacity in his think-
ing that Fordham deserves a spot in a
better-known conference has raised
some eyebrows around the Rose Hill
campus, to say the least.
“I mean, if we think we’re good
enough for the Big East, why not
call up [NBA Commissioner] David
Stern and see if we can be the newest
entry in the Eastern Conference?,”
prominent booster Mark Hopeless
said. “God knows the Nets aren’t cut-
ting it for this city.”
McLaughlin and the rest of his de-
partment think they have put togeth-
er a pretty enticing package in mar-
keting themselves to the Big East.
Among the women’s swimming
championship, a couple of votes
each week in the national polls for
women’s softball and Chris Gaston’s
A-10 Rookie of the Year award in
men’s basketball, McLaughlin thinks
his program has reached its “peak” in
productivity.
PHOTO BY SOME CREEPER WITH A CRUSH
Women’s basketball Head Coach Cathy Andruzzi was awarded the Atlantic 10
comeback coach of the year last week.
PHOTO BY
“We’re at a point where we’ve done
everything we set out to accomplish
in this league,” McLaughlin said.
“Look, not many schools can say that
they’ve placed a player on the con-
ference’s All-Rookie team two years
running. It’s time we moved on to
greener pastures.”
In 15 years in the Atlantic 10, nei-
ther the men’s nor women’s basket-
ball programs have qualified for the
NCAA tournament. Still, McLaugh-
lin said he feels the bright future for a
program stocked with talented fresh-
man will outweigh concerns about
previous productivity.
Even the University’s academic
administrators are getting behind the
effort. Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J.,
president of Fordham University,
said that he thinks the Big East will
welcome his school with open arms.
“The A-10 has already got plenty
of Jesuit schools,” he said. “You’ve got
Xavier, you’ve got Saint Louis, you’ve
got Saint Joe’s. They’re set with that.
“Now you look at the Big East, …
well, okay, they’ve got Georgetown
and Marquette, … but still, you get
my point. They need three of us, too.
PAGE 17
We’ll make it kind of like a Holy Trin-
ity, if you will.”
While McShane’s logic might not
be completely sound, McLaughlin
knows his campaign will be a suc-
cess. Though the Big East is already
the largest Division I conference in
the country with 16 teams, no one at
Fordham sees this as a barrier.
“What kind of conference
wouldn’t want to have this pro-
gram?” McLaughlin asked. “We’ve
got New York City, Chris Gaston,
a stellar swimming program – and
heck, John Skelton might get drafted.
What more could you ask for?”
Indeed, what more could the Big
East want out of its newest mem-
ber? Diaz said he thinks he has the
answer.
“What we’re thinking is that we
propose that the Big East Tourna-
ment be held at the Rose Hill Gym
every year,” he said. “I think it would
really sweeten the deal.”
This would be quite a switch from
the tournament’s current home,
Madison Square Garden in Manhat-
tan.
“It’s one thing for fans from Lou-
isville and South Florida and Notre
Dame to go to Manhattan for the
tournament, but I think the confer-
ence would really like to see its fans
exploring all of the boroughs when
they come to town for the tourna-
ment,” Diaz said. “Bring ‘em to the
Bronx, I think that’s a great idea.
We’ll be a little short on seating, of
course, but the history of our build-
ing easily tops MSG, and I think the
Big East knows that.”
The Rose Hill Gym allegedly has
a capacity of 3,470. Madison Square
Garden, home of the Big Eat Tourna-
ment since 1983, seats 19,763.
Big East Commissioner John
Marinatto refused to comment on
this story.