The Fordham women’s basketball team wasn’t quite at rock bottom, but it wasn’t far removed.
It was 2011, and the program had made little progress since a winless 2007-08 season. The school decided to make a coaching change, not retaining Cathy Andruzzi for the 2011-12 season.
To replace Andruzzi, Fordham turned to Stephanie Gaitley, who was coming off a 23-win campaign at Monmouth and had won everywhere she went. In 25 years on the sidelines, she had posted a 464-270 (.630) record.
“[The] year before I took the job, our Monmouth team had come up and beaten Fordham, and they started four seniors,” Gaitley said while sitting in her office before a recent late afternoon practice. “I knew when I took the job that I was inheriting a team that was losing a lot. I thought they had a pretty athletic team. It was a situation in which I was going from Monmouth, in which I think we were going to be picked to win the conference the next two years — we had everybody back — to going into what a lot of people would say would be a coach’s risk.”
Gaitley was well aware of Fordham’s history when she took the job.
“I didn’t quite understand why they didn’t win,” she said. “I thought they were in a great location, great academic reputation. I thought the university was beautiful. From the outside looking in, you never understood, ‘Why don’t they win?’”
Just three years into her time at Fordham, it’s safe to say that Gaitley has turned the program around.
The Rams defeated Dayton last Sunday to win the Atlantic 10 tournament. When they take on California on Saturday afternoon in Waco, Texas, No. 7 seed Fordham will appear in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years.
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In Gaitley’s first year on the job, 2011-12, the team got off to an 8-4 start — its best start in nine seasons. However, once conference play began, the Rams struggled, going just 3-13 to finish 12-18. A third of those losses came in gut-wrenching fashion: four by one point and two more in overtime.
“After Year 1, I felt that team was a terrific group of kids,” Gaitley said. “I thought they did everything and more that I felt we could do in that first year. I thought we really maximized that first year.”
Reinforcements were on the horizon, and they played a huge role in the shocking revival of Year 2.
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When Gaitley came to Fordham, one of her Monmouth players followed her by transferring: Point guard Erin Rooney, a native of New Zealand who was talented enough to have been selected to the New Zealand Senior National Team.
Due to NCAA rules, Rooney was ineligible to play in 2011-12, and was not allowed to travel with the team to road games. All she could do was practice, and she made the most of her limited opportunity.
“One thing I found very impressive is that Erin came in as a transfer and was voted one of the captains,” Gaitley said. “A kid that wasn’t even going to be on the court, and this was [voted] by the team. Here’s a kid that comes in, and automatically, kids believe in her. That’s a huge statement.”
The Rams began 2012-13 with a 4-0 record and finished 10-5 in non-conference play. The conference opener was on a Sunday in mid-January against Charlotte — one of the Atlantic 10’s top teams — in a game that was nationally televised.
In a performance that served as a springboard to the second half of the season, Fordham pulled out a 59-57 victory. Gaitley now calls it one of the most significant games in her time at Fordham.
“I think that win at Charlotte was the catapult win that really got the kids believing,” she said.
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With a newfound confidence, the Rams went 12-2 in conference play and reached the Atlantic 10 title game against St. Joseph’s, played right in their “backyard” at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
They came up just short in a gut-wrenching 47-46 loss and were denied an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The feeling of disappointment over the missed opportunity lingered. Gaitley and the team used that near-miss as motivation to finish the job this season.
“It was always there,” Gaitley said. “When we went and played St. Joe’s [this year], I didn’t really talk about last year at all. I knew it was already there, I knew it was sitting there. I remember at the end of the year, bringing Erin in, [she] couldn’t even talk about the game without getting emotional.
“We wouldn’t have gotten where we are this year, I don’t think, if we [hadn’t] gone through the pain of last year.”
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For the first time in a long time, there were serious expectations heading into the 2013-14 season. After a 1-2 start, the Rams hit their stride, reeling off 12 consecutive wins and heading into conference play with a head of steam.
They went 11-5 in conference and were seeded third at the conference tournament. The Rams squeaked past Duquesne before rolling past St. Bonaventure to set up a championship clash with top-seeded Dayton.
With an automatic NCAA bid on the line for the second straight year, the Rams knew what to do. They subdued the Flyers, 63-51, to punch their Dance ticket.
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Fordham women’s basketball is back, but this season is only the first step. There is a buzz around the team — a buzz that comes with winning, a buzz that took root when the team played in the Women’s NIT last season.
“Last year, we got a lot of support during our WNIT games,” senior guard Abigail Corning said. “We didn’t get a ton of regular-season support, but then once [the] postseason came along, people started talking about us, because they knew we were doing something special.”
The team’s recent success has boosted the school’s profile.
“It’s great for the team and it’s great for the school as a whole,” Rooney said. “I’ve heard a few people say in the city, ‘Ah, Fordham!’ They see it on [our shirts] and [they say], ‘Heard you won. Well done.’ So nice for us to have that talk as a program and then just for the school as a whole.”