EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR

“I’m tired of losing,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said.

In three seasons at Rose Hill, Pecora has a combined record of 24-61 and has never won more than 10 games. Last season, his Rams compiled a 7-21 record.

This year, he is hoping to finally turn the corner. The goal for the season, he said, is “to have a winning record.”

In previous years, Pecora has made qualifying for the Atlantic 10 Tournament his team’s goal, but since the conference has only 13 members this year (down from 16 last season), all teams will play in the postseason tournament at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Butler, Xavier, Charlotte and Temple, four of the league’s top programs, all left for other conferences. The addition of George Mason brings the A-10’s membership to 13 teams for this season. George Mason is traditionally a strong program, but Fordham’s conference schedule, while challenging, should be less daunting, nonetheless. The Rams play each team at least once, and face George Washington, VCU, Richmond and Rhode Island twice. Fordham was predicted to finish 11th  in the conference in the preseason poll.

Pecora believes the retooled conference will be somewhere between the sixth- and eighth-best in the country this season.

“I think that Saint Louis and VCU can be exceptional teams,” he said. “La Salle is a Sweet 16 team coming back. St. Joe’s and UMass are very talented. I think, after that, things kind of get a little muddled, and that’s where a team like ourselves is going to try and make a move.”

Fordham’s non-conference slate is also less difficult than it was a year ago. Fordham played 12 of its 15 non-league games away from the Rose Hill Gym last season. This year, of the Rams’ 13 out-of-conference games, seven are in the Bronx, where Fordham enjoys a tremendous home court advantage.

“Last year’s schedule was suicide,” Pecora said. “To have 20 of 31 games on the road, with a young team — with any team, even with a veteran team — that’s crazy.”

At its strongest, Fordham’s backcourt could be as good as any in the A-10. Senior Branden Frazier, junior Bryan Smith and sophomore Mandell Thomas are the Rams’ top returning scorers. Together with highly touted freshman Jon Severe, they will be expected to produce the bulk of the offense.

“I think the talent level is higher than it’s ever been, and obviously it should be, in year four,” Pecora said. “Everyone on this team now are guys we’ve recruited. I think the team chemistry is better than it’s ever been, and that’s a good thing. It’s all about talent. This is about putting a product on the floor of talented players, so our depth is greater than it’s ever been.”

One glaring hole for Fordham is a dearth of size on the interior. Freshman forward Manny Suarez’s eligibility issue leaves the Rams with only three true big men on the roster: sophomores Ryan Rhoomes and Travion Leonard and junior Ryan Canty. To make matters worse, Leonard and Canty are both nursing back injuries, though Leonard did not seem hampered in Friday’s exhibition against Northwood. The lack of forward depth means 6-foot-6-inch freshman Jake Fay, naturally a 2-guard, will see time in the frontcourt.

But Pecora will also employ a four-guard lineup at times — something Pecora had done while at Hofstra — with Frazier, Thomas, Severe and Smith all on the floor together. More famously, Jay Wright, with whom Pecora coached at Hofstra, has had tremendous success at Villanova with a four-guard lineup.

“If we team rebound, we’re OK [with playing four guards],” Pecora said. “The upside of it is you don’t have to worry about pressure, you don’t turn the ball over as much.”

Pecora went with a four-guard look for most of the game against Northwood, with Rhoomes playing the majority of the time as the lone forward.

With four skilled ball handlers and passers on the floor, Fordham’s offense was fluid, especially in transition. Pecora called the offense “seamless.”

Frazier and Thomas both looked like better scorers and passers than last year. Smith was solid on defense and rebounded the ball well. Despite having a cold night shooting the ball, Severe showed flashes of what he can be, handling the ball well, rebounding well and playing good on-ball defense.

“I think he’s going to have his ups and downs,” Pecora said of Severe. “Consistency is the last thing that comes to a great player, so he’s going to be inconsistent as a freshman. He’s going to score in spurts. He’s going to have nights when he’s shooting well and he’s going to have nights when he struggles a little bit. But he’s going to be fun to watch and he’s going to be exciting, there’s no doubt about that.”

Severe’s teammates also look to him to be a key contributor.

“We don’t look at him as a freshman, we look at him as a guy who can do [everything] to help this team win,” Frazier said.

As the only senior likely to see much playing time, Frazier will be counted on to be the team’s main leader, a role Pecora says Frazier can improve on.

“He just has to understand that when you’re a senior, these are the things that are expected of you,” Pecora said. “It’s not just a once in a while thing, it’s an everyday thing. I’m tough on seniors, and especially on senior guards.”

Frazier was named to the preseason All-Atlantic 10 Third Team, the only Fordham player to be named to one of the preseason all-conference teams. Together with Thomas (who was the second-leading scorer among A-10 freshmen last season), Smith and Severe, Frazier has the opportunity to lead Fordham to its best season of the Pecora era, something the coach acknowledges.

“Despite what our record was last year, I went through the summer knowing we were going to have great improvements,” Pecora said.