6 2012-13
Stags Women’s Basketball
CoachingStaff
T
he 2012-13 campaign marks the sixth season that Joe Frager has been at
the helm of the Fairfield University women’s basketball program. Under
his tutelage the Stags have won 101 games, earned 13 All-MAAC and five
All-Met Team recognitions, advanced to the MAAC Championship Final in two of
the last three seasons, appeared in the WNIT in 2012, and won the program’s
first-ever national postseason tournament game in 2011.
All told, Frager has been a head coach at the collegiate level for a dozen
years, with nine seasons at Southern Connecticut State University, and boasts
a career record of 290-141, including a 101-58 mark at Fairfield. His resume
includes the 2007 NCAA Division II National Championships and six Coach of
the Year awards. Outside of being honored for an individual season’s accom-
plishments, Frager has also been honored for the breadth of his achievements.
In 2008 he was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of
Fame and in October 2009 was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall
of Fame.
Frager’s first five seasons at the helm have rekindled the spirit and tradition
of Fairfield University women’s basketball. The Stags have won 63.5 percent of
their games during that time, with three 20-win seasons in the books. Along the
way, the Stags have appeared in three MAAC Championship semifinal games,
two MAAC Championship finals, a berth in the WNIT, and finished in the top-half
of the conference standings each season.
The 2011-12 campaign was one of the best in program history. The Stags
went 24-9 overall and 16-2 in the MAAC to secure its first berth in the WNIT in
more than a decade. Fairfield hosted their first-ever WNIT game at Alumni Hall
where they were tipped by the Dragons, 57-41, to end the season. The Stags
finished the year ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense, allowing 52.0 points
per game, and 18th in the nation in turnovers per game, committing just 13.9
per contest. In addition, three Stags recorded their 1,000th career points dur-
ing the campaign.
Individual accomplishments have also followed Fairfield since Frager’s
arrival. A Stag has earned First-Team All-MAAC honors in each of Frager’s sea-
sons with the program and Fairfield has received a total of 13 All-MAAC selec-
tions in that time. The Stags have also received one MAAC Defensive Player of
the Year, one MAAC Sixth Player of the Year, and 13 All-MAAC Academic Team
selections.
Additionally, in all five seasons with Frager at the helm, a player has been
honored by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association with All-Met acco-
lades. In 2012, Taryn Johnson, a two-time First-Team All-MAAC honoree, was
honored for the second consecutive year by the Met Writers and became the
first Stag to repeat as an All-Met selection since Gail Strumpf. Baendu
Lownethal earned All-Met honors in 2009 as did Sabra Wrice in 2008.
The 2010-11 season saw the Stags place three players on the All-MAAC First
and Second Team for the first time in program history. Fairfield posted 17 vic-
tories during the year on the strength of an impressive defense, which finished
the campaign fourth in the country by allowing just 51.2 points per game.
Frager led the Stags to their second 20-win season in three-years during the
2009-10
campaign, culminating in a nine-game win streak that placed Fairfield
into its first MAAC title game since 2001. After a hard-fought loss to Marist
College, the Stags received a bid to the inaugural Women’s Basketball
Joe Frager
Head Coach – Sixth Season
