SEASON UPDATE Carly Thibault-Dudonis Named Fairfield Head Coach



FAIRFIELD, Conn – Fairfield University Women's Basketball Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis will be officially introduced to the campus community this Tuesday, April 19 at 11 a.m. on the lower level of the Barone Campus Center. The event is open to the public and will be broadcast live on the Stags Sports Network
 

I didn't read that post as anything other than wondering whether the SAs might want to leave if they felt most bonded with the assistant rather than the head coach. You introduced the idea of "getting out" of the scholarship. Regardless, if they want to leave, they can leave without any repercussions.
You can't free transfer after signing your National Letter of Intent without cause. If that were the case, there would be utter chaos. Players would be literally leaving every day after signing period for 'greener pastures.' Commitments are already not worth anything. The National Letter of Intent is meant to protect both player and school.

The first year players would have to be released from their NLI for cause. They can't just say that they want to go to another school instead because an assistant coach leaves. They can if the head coach leaves.
 



Bye-Bye River Falls

Blake DuDonis has stepped down as UW-River Falls head women's basketball coach, as announced Friday, April 15 by athletic director Crystal Lanning.

DuDonis will pursue another coaching opportunity. His wife, Carly Thibault-DuDonis, was recently named head coach at Division I Fairfield, in Connecticut. She had been an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, not far from the River Falls campus.
 


Bye-Bye River Falls
figured, probably not good to hire a spouse of a division 1 assistant coach, since they are likely to move on whether or not the team is good or bad.
 
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Curious to see if her husband becomes an assistant coach.
 


Some tidbits from Carly's presser:

Blake DuDonis and Carly met while scouting players at an Ohio gym in 2014, while Blake was an assistant at Buffalo and Carly an assistant at Eastern Michigan. They married in 2017. Most recently head coach at Wisconsin-River Falls, he is expected to join the Fairfield staff as an assistant.

[...]

Several Fairfield players are in the transfer portal, including Lou Lopez-Senechal, who averaged 19.6 points last season as a senior and has indicated she would like to use her final season of eligibility elsewhere. Lopez-Senechal is being recruited by UConn and is scheduled to visit the Storrs campus in the coming days.

“She’s earned the right to go look at some of these cool schools,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “But she’s definitely open to seeing what we’re going to do here.”
 


Additional tidbits:

After living nine years away from her family, Thibault-DuDonis was looking to come back to the East Coast. But it had to be the right fit.

“This is the first time in nine years I’ve been in driving distance to anybody in the family,” she said. “I was ready for that when the right opportunity came along.”

It was difficult for her to leave Minnesota. She’s known Whalen since Whalen was drafted by the Sun in 2004. Thibault-DuDonis remembers rebounding for Whalen at Sun practices and when Whalen had surgery one year, she stayed in Connecticut in the offseason and spent a lot of time at the Thibaults’ home.

“That was the hardest part [leaving Minnesota],” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I always joked that she was my dad’s favorite daughter.”
[...]
“When I went to Monmouth [as a player], I got the same gut feeling when I stepped onto campus as I did when I stepped on Fairfield’s campus a few weeks ago,” she said. “I knew this is where I was meant to be.”
 












To be fair, she did not cast a wide net.
Most coaches don’t when creating their staffs. Most have backtracked before they are hired and have a couple already lined up. Whalen hasn’t found a new one in a month. I doubt She was unaware of Carly’s HC aspirations
 

What’s worse is that she had time to have things like this lined up while Carly was interviewing. Final four was in her backyard this year to even help her more.
final four was in Minneapolis but Whalen was in New Orleans that weekend because of the hall of fame stuff. Also is the timeline really that crazy? Nebraska has had an opening since midway thru the season and its still unfilled. Michigan had a coach leave about a week before MN and they announced their coach last week. NW around the same time just announced their new assistant. Its been around a month and while we'd all like to see it quicker it seems like a pretty normal timeline.
 

Most coaches don’t when creating their staffs. Most have backtracked before they are hired and have a couple already lined up. Whalen hasn’t found a new one in a month. I doubt She was unaware of Carly’s HC aspirations
Carly was named one to watch regarding HC jobs. I kept wondering for the past couple of years when she would move on.
 

final four was in Minneapolis but Whalen was in New Orleans that weekend because of the hall of fame stuff. Also is the timeline really that crazy? Nebraska has had an opening since midway thru the season and its still unfilled. Michigan had a coach leave about a week before MN and they announced their coach last week. NW around the same time just announced their new assistant. Its been around a month and while we'd all like to see it quicker it seems like a pretty normal timeline.
I know where she was during the final four. Curry or others could’ve been backchanneling. I understand the announcement can take a couple weeks after the choice is made to go through our compliance. This has more of the feel that nobody believes she’ll be here after next year so she’s getting told no. Is anyone even hearing any steam on anyone?
 

I know where she was during the final four. Curry or others could’ve been backchanneling. I understand the announcement can take a couple weeks after the choice is made to go through our compliance. This has more of the feel that nobody believes she’ll be here after next year so she’s getting told no. Is anyone even hearing any steam on anyone?
Your feel could be right but last year there was no steam on the Shimmy hiring last year either, it just happened one day. There was alot of names thrown out on here and I dont think her name ever came up til the day she was announced.
 

Your feel could be right but last year there was no steam on the Shimmy hiring last year either, it just happened one day. There was alot of names thrown out on here and I dont think her name ever came up til the day she was announced.
I hope that’s the case and you bring some good data to prove it. Hope we hear something soon.
 






Carly's Thibault-DuDonis' team is cruising so far


FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Janelle Brown and the Fairfield University Women's Basketball team gave the nearly 1,800 school kids plenty to cheer about. Brown tallied her first double-double of the season with 15 points and a game-high 10 assists in leading the Stags to a 76-49 win against Marist in the annual Kids Day Out contest. The victory is Fairfield's 20th of the year and their 18th-straight, the second longest active streak in the nation.

"I'm excited for what we've done until this point," Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. "The thing we've talked about as a team is we haven't come this far just to come this far. While 20 wins and 18-straight is great there's a lot of season left and we have a lot of goals to accomplish. It's an ability to enjoy where you're at while still wanting more."

The Stags' (20-1; 12-0 MAAC) defense once-again shined as they forced a season-high 29 turnovers while scoring 35 points off those miscues. Brown's tenacious defense was responsible for six of the team's 19 steals, crushing their previous season-best.

Brown, who entered the game with the highest field goal percentage among any guard in the nation, continued her hot shooting by connecting on all three of her 3-point attempts in the second quarter to tally a team-best nine points in the first half.

The Stags out-scored Marist in every quarter while netting at least 20 points in the final three periods.

Kendall McGruder also had an efficient game for the Stags, hitting four of her five attempts from behind the arc, tying her career-high for 3-pointers in a game. She went a perfect 3-for-3 from long-range in the third quarter in helping the Stags out-score 21-11 in the period.

Marist had cut the deficit to nine at the 5:45 mark of the third before the Stags finished the quarter on an 13-2 run to extend the lead to 20 at 56-36.

Brown's double-double was the third of her career and her 10 assists marked a new career-high. She also tied a personal-best with six steals while also grabbing six boards.

"She's got that look in her eyes sometimes and you know she's ready to go," Coach Carly said. "She's an unbelievable competitor. When she comes out and hits three 3s to start the game it opens up the driving lanes to not only get in the paint but to dish out to teammates. Her fingerprints are all over the game and the stat sheet because she can defend, go off the bounce, and shoot. There's a lot of elements in her game."

Meghan Andersen tallied double-figures scoring for her 15th-straight contest while also blocking three shots and recording two steals.

Kaety L'Amoreaux and Izabela Nicoletti-Leite each dished out six assists with the team dishing out a season-best 24 helpers.

The Stags, who entered the game with the fourth best scoring defense in the country, lowered that average to 53.2. It is also the ninth time this season, and the fourth-straight game, they have held an opponent to under 50 points.

Fairfield will look to keep the momentum going when they host Saint Peter's in the program's Black Excellence game on Saturday at 2pm
 




When Carly Thibault-DuDonis took the helm of the Fairfield basketball program in 2022, it wasn’t hard to imagine her enhancing the success of the program, given her coaching lineage.

But no one necessarily expected the incredible season that the team has had this year.

After losing their third game by just 3 points, the 24-1 Stags have won 22 straight, breaking a 50-year-old program record and standing behind only No. 1 South Carolina with the longest winning streak in Division I. One more win will tie Fairfield for the most wins in program history.

Last weekend they clinched the MAAC regular-season championship, with a perfect 16-0 record. They’ve beaten opponents from seven different conferences, including two Power 5 teams, by an average of 19.1 points per game. They have been on the verge of being ranked in the AP top 25 poll for weeks.

Thibault-DuDonis’ former boss Lindsay Whalen, for whom she served as associate head coach at the University of Minnesota, said the elevation of the Stags program was all in the cards.
 




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