Fairfield Stags Tickets

Fairfield Stags
Based in the city of Badalona in Catalonia, Club Joventut Badalona is a Spanish basketball team. Known to their fans as La Penya, The Club, it is one of the only three teams never downgraded from the top division of the Spanish League. The other two are Real Madrid and CB Estudiantes. In 1994 they were champions of Europe.

History
It was founded on March 30th 1930, as Penya Spirit of Badalona. Apart from basketball, the club initially had teams involved in several sports including cycling, table tennis and football. In 1932 the club changed its name to Centre Esportiu Badalon?. In 1939, it became Club Joventut Badalona. By 1940 basketball was established as the main sport and green and black were adopted as the club colors. The club has regularly included the name of a sponsor in its name. Today, the club's sponsored name is DKV Joventut, after the Spanish insurance company DKV Saguaros.

Along with CB Estudiantes and Real Madrid, its one of the only three teams, to have played every year in the top Spanish league.Joventut is considered to have one of the best youth teams in Europe. Players like Ra?l L?pez, Jordi Villacampa, Rudy Fern?ndez and Ricky Rubio were developed in Joventut's youth teams.

The Dawn of Stags Basketball
Through the efforts of Rev. Victor Leeber, S.J., Fairfield University introduced men's basketball in 1948 and has since played 57 continuous seasons of hoops through the 2005-06 seasons. Fairfield played its first-ever game against Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, NY, losing 46-78, and won its first-ever game that season against Hillyer College, now the University of Hartford, 47-37, in Bridgeport, CT at the Bridgeport Armory, Fairfield's original home court. During the 1950-1951 seasons, under new Head Coach James Hanrahan, the still fledgling program experienced its first winning season with a 16-11 overall record and received the school's first ever postseason berth in the 1951 NAIA National Men's Basketball Championship Tournament.

O'Toole Time
In 2002, Stags basketball moved from the comfy margins of the on-campus Alumni Hall to the new state-of-the-art 10,000 seat Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, CT. During that same season, Head Coach Tim O'Toole '87 led the Stags to a 19-12 overall record, an appearance to the MAAC tournament championship game, and the program's fifth berth in the NIT. In the opening round of the NIT, Nick Delfico led the Stags with 14 points in a 90-78 losing effort to the Boston College Eagles before 6,500 fans at the Arena at Harbor Yard. During 2004-2005 seasons, Deng Gai '05 led the nation in shots blocked with 5.5 blocks per game and graduated as number eight on the NCAA's all-time blocked shots list.

Cooley in Control
On April 11, 2006, Ed Cooley, former Boston College Eagles assistant coach, was announced as the program's 11th Head Coach ushering in a new era of Stags basketball. With a renewed commitment of reestablishing the winning basketball tradition at Fairfield, Coach Cooley quickly signed a talented recruiting class to join veteran leaders Michael van Schiack, Danny Ogelsby, Marty O'Sullivan, All-MAAC Rookie Herbie Allen and MTV Nike Battlegrounds fame?s Jon Han.

The new Stags include 6'7 Roi Bookbinder, Tel Aviv, Israel, 6'8 Iowa State transfer Mike Evanovich, Storrs, CT, 6'8 Anthony Johnson, Lake Wales, FL, 6'4 Devin Johnson, Richmond, VA, 6'7 Richard Fleming, Chester, PA and 6'6 Greg Nero, Red Hook, NY. Nero was the only one of these recruits to be signed by O'Toole, and he also led his high school squad to a berth in the New York State regional final and was the Most Valuable Player of the Mid-Hudson Athletic League. Devin Johnson was the Richmond Metro Player of the Year.