UNCASVILLE, CT – NOVEMBER 24: Fairfield Stags head coach Chris Casey reacts during the 2024 college Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off game between Vermont Catamounts vs Fairfield Stags on November 24, 2024, at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. (Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Fairfield University sophomore wing Declan Wucherpfennig was voted the Metro Conference Preseason Player of the Year for the 2026-27 season.
INDI DELROCCO/Fairfield Athletics
Fairfield sophomore guard Tony Williams was named to the All-Metro preseason team for the 2026-27 season.
INDI DELROCCO/Fairfield Athletics
FAIRFIELD — It’s been 40 years since the Fairfield men’s college basketball team won its conference championship and had the league player of the year, but the league coaches view the Stags as the favorites to win both this season.
Player retention is one of the major factors in forecasting success for Fairfield. The Stags return three players who started at least 23 games, another who started seven games and one more who started 22 games during the 2023-24 season and 25 games in 2024-25 before sitting out last season with an injury.
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Declan Wucherpfennig, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound sophomore forward, is the lynchpin of the returning players. After averaging 12.1 points and 8.5 rebounds while starting all 34 games last season as a freshman, the conference coaches voted him the preseason player of the year.
“His motor is unbelievable, because he is a tireless worker,” coach Chris Casey said. “He is extremely hard working in practice, so he sets a great example there. He spends a lot of time in the gym at night either by himself or with our coaches to get extra work.”
Casey said that although Wucherpfennig is only a sophomore, he has already emerged as a leader, because the rest of the team respects his work ethic and communication skills. He is also a very talented, all-around player.
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“He does a lot of things for us,” Casey said. “On the offensive end he can shoot the ball, he can drive the ball, and he can post you up. He also offensive rebounds and becomes a fourth guy on the floor amongst the perimeter guys who can handle the ball, pass the ball and shoot the ball.
“Then on the defensive end, he is extremely intelligent. He knows our coverages. He knows when to switch and what we are doing, so he is always in the right spot.”
He also has some quality players around him. Including Wucherpfennig, the Stags returned three of their four players with 50 or more assists and three of their four with 25 or more steals last year.
Sophomore guard Tony Williams averaged 6.5 points per game and was second on the team in assists (57) and third in both steals (31) and made 3-pointers (39).
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“We are going to need Tony to continue to run the team but also score the ball, make open shots and just be a pest defensively,” Casey said. “He is extremely fast and quick, and he has to use that to his advantage as much as possible, especially on the defensive end.”
Wucherpfennig and Williams are part of a talented group of second-year players that Casey expects to make a significant jump this season. The others include 6-6 wing Halon Rawlins, 6-3 guard Eric Mejia, 6-4 guard Nasir Rodriguez. Mejia is a junior because he spent one year in junior college, but he’s in his second season at Fairfield.
Casey has also seen solid improvement in 6-10 junior forward Isaac Munkadi, and he’s very excited to see what Peyton Smith brings to the team. Smith is a 6-10, 245-pound senior who started two years before missing last season with an injury, and he is reportedly in his best shape ever.
“I love the group,” Casey said. “We didn’t retain everybody, but we retained a good core. We are working extremely hard. We are beating the hell out of each other, which shows our intensity, our effort and how hard we are playing. The group wants to please. They are listening and trying as much as they can to do what you are asking them to do.”
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One thing he has asked them is not to let the respect the league coaches afforded them by picking them No. 1 affect how hard they work, how well they carry themselves, what great teammates they are and how they maintain the program’s winning culture.
The Stags have won 20 or more games in two of the last three seasons since Casey was named head coach. Last season they were 21-13.
In program history, however, they have only won three regular season titles, with the last coming in 2011, and they have also won the Metro Tournament three times but not since 1997.
The only season they won both – as well as the only time they won a league title and had the conference player of the year – was 40 years ago during the 1985-86 season when Tony George was voted the best player.
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Fairfield has finished as the runner-up in the Metro Tournament three times in the last nine years, most recently in 2024.
“Does our team have enough talent to win (the league)? Yes we do,” Casey said. “I believe very strongly in our team and that we can be very, very good. But there is a lot to that. You have to stay healthy and keep getting better.
“I like our team a lot. I like our depth. I like our ability to score, our athleticism and our physicality. And in practice, I like the way we are going at it with a consistent effort and intensity level on both ends of the floor. Guys are really competing. We are in a good spot right now and hopefully we can maintain that.”
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