Fairfield University head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis during women’s college basketball action against Quinnipiac in Fairfield, Conn., on Thursday January 30, 2025.
Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media
COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 21: Guard Kaety L’amoreaux (4) of the Fairfield Stags drives to the basket as guard Cassandre Prosper (8) of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defend during a first round game of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
FAIRFIELD — Blake DuDonis begins most mornings by popping over to the Basketball Travelers scheduling board, a website styled like a Y2K message forum that remains a premier resource for college basketball programs filling out their non-conference slates.
One Big Ten program writes a message outlining interest in a home-and-home series. Another Big 12 school invites teams to “escape the cold” for an early-season buy-game.
Article continues below this ad
“It really is funny, it’s like a dating profile — I’m looking for a tall brunette,” DuDonis, an assistant coach for the Fairfield women’s basketball team, jokes to CT Insider. “But this is the daily routine. You look at the standings, you look at the NET, and you get a package.”
And like most dating apps, DuDonis has plenty of whiffs on his track record. He’s already had scheduling inquiries rejected by 38 high-major schools ahead of next season, as a Fairfield program looking to ascend in the college basketball landscape and NCAA Tournament seed line struggles to find anyone willing to take on the Stags.
Fairfield reached a third-consecutive NCAA Tournament this season before slamming into yet another brick wall in March, bowing out against Notre Dame 79-60 in the first round — the Stags’ coaching staff questioned Notre Dame’s status as a No. 6 seed and were ultimately vindicated as the Fighting Irish made a surprising surge to the Elite Eight. These grievances aside, Fairfield’s chances at winning its first NCAA Tournament game in program history would be greatly improved by a higher seed, which requires more victories, and by extension more matchups, against high-major opponents in non-conference play.
Article continues below this ad
Make CT Insider a preferred source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.
Add Preferred Source
“We’ve got more information than ever that shows us these are good games, for all parties involved,” DuDonis said. “So let’s catch up with the times a little bit. It feels like we’re a little stuck in the anecdotal, ‘We don’t want to play school in the MAAC.’ Don’t look at us as that — we’re a top 50 program. I think people are trailing what the math is telling us.”
COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 21: guard KK Bransford (14) of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish dribbles the ball as guard Alli Campbell (21) of the Fairfield Stags defends during a first round game of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Jay LaPrete/NCAA Photos/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
After taking a season to establish their new culture in Fairfield, DuDonis and the Stags staff cultivated a very precise approach to schedule-making ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. DuDonis examined the highest-seeded mid-major entrants in the previous year’s NCAA Tournament and determined the average opponent NET ranking for a non-conference win (182.32) and non-conference loss (33.68), working to recreate these schedules in the aggregate — it’s all very “Moneyball,” down to the average NET rankings scrawled on a faded whiteboard in DuDonis’ office.
Article continues below this ad
The 36-year-old coach quickly observed that winning these high-end non-conference games wasn’t that significant, with No. 12 seed South Dakota State losing all five games against top-150 opponents in the 2022-23 season, while Florida Gulf Coast only managed to take down a 12-19 Kentucky squad.
If anything, as the Stags started picking off power-conference opponents — Fairfield downed Villanova in consecutive seasons while taking out Arkansas and Wake Forest last year — DuDonis’ struggles in scheduling these all-important games have compounded
Much like triple-option programs in college football, Fairfield’s unique, five-out style of play has been an additional barrier in scheduling these contests. Fairfield is taking and making more 3-point shots than any team in recent women’s college basketball history, even tasking its front-court players with burning teams from the perimeter, which creates a difficult matchup for many taller, larger centers on power conference rosters.
“We’ve had power four opponents say to us, ‘Man, we do not play against that ever,’ ” DuDonis said. “‘We don’t really want to try to figure it out. And it doesn’t help us, because we’re not going to see it again.'”
Article continues below this ad
Another ACC coach gave a curt email reply after DuDonis inquired about a potential home-and-home series: “Absolutely not, my friend. Thanks for asking, and best of luck finding a game. LOL.”
College basketball programs can add two additional games to their non-conference schedules by participating in multi-team events, or MTEs, with popular examples being the Maui Invitational and the Battle 4 Atlantis. These tournaments generally provide excellent neutral-site opportunities for DuDonis and Fairfield to score quality wins, but their collective nature often leads to even more prejudice against the Stags.
Last month, DuDonis and a promoter for a quality MTE expressed mutual interest in adding Fairfield to the Thanksgiving-weekend event. These negotiations crumbled when the promoter ran Fairfield’s inclusion past the power-conference programs already scheduled into the tournament, who all flatly refused a potential matchup with the Stags.
Just got denied entry into a Thanksgiving tournament because non of the P4 teams already signed up were willing to play us 🤷🏽♂️
We were a Q2 win for the 4 regular season losses we had this season, so don’t want to hear about it not being a useful game.
We’ll keep trying!
— Blake DuDonis (@BlakeDuDonis) March 22, 2026
Fairfield ultimately constructed the No. 8-ranked non-conference strength of schedule this season, including matchups against eventual top-4 seeds North Carolina and Iowa, which helped the Stags earn their highest NCAA Tournament seed since the competition’s expansion to 64 teams. DuDonis is still hunting for a multi-team event and a marquee non-conference opponent for this upcoming season, but he expects to achieve a similar ranking in 2026-27 as Fairfield prepares for its first regular-season trip to the West Coast in two decades.
Article continues below this ad
As Fairfield continues to ascend in the college basketball ranks, DuDonis ultimately aims to fill at least half of his schedule with Quadrant 1 and 2 opponents, an ambitious goal for which the Stags assistant is work-shopping a few outside-the-box solutions. DuDonis hopes to someday arrange a high-profile non-conference matchup in February during Fairfield’s gap in MAAC play, and he’s even looked into scheduling a game during the week-long break between the Stags’ conference tournament final and the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, a chance for the committee to take one more look at his squad.
“I’m hopeful moving forward,” DuDonis said. “I’m not frustrated — well, some days I am. For the most part, I’m just antsy. Let’s all get on sync. Let’s all be operating on the same conversation field.”
For now, DuDonis finally got to break out his summer-wear on a trip to Phoenix for the 2026 WBCA Convention this past weekend, where opposing coaches had to be on high-alert, as the Fairfield staff looked to pounce on a potential non-conference opponent.
Article continues below this ad