Iona Wins Yet Another MAAC Championship To Get Back to NCAA Tournament
Iona was supposed to be here – at least that was the expectation coming into the year. But, Iona came into the MAAC Tournament as the 4 seed and then caught a break. The top two seeds were knocked out in the quarterfinals which gave Iona the opening it needed. That said, it doesn’t matter who you beat in the conference tournament, it just matters that you win.
That’s what Iona did and now its back to the NCAA Tournament. Iona defeated Fairfield 83-71 behind 29 points and 8 rebounds from Roland Griffin off the bench. That’s one way to provide instant offense and energy off the bench that coaches tend to talk all about. Iona did what it tends to do though. It got up and down the court and looked for quick hitters.
So who is Iona? Well, besides the team to constantly win the MAAC, the Gaels are 20-13 that want to beat you playing offense. They aren’t going to slow many teams down and prefer to beat you shooting the ball, but as we saw tonight, they’ll beat you by running and getting the ball up the court to the open man instead. Notable noncfonerence games ended up in losses, but they were close games. Iona lost to Syracuse by 9, NKU by 13, St. John’s by 10 and Rhode Island by 6. Iona has five guys in double figures, led by Rickey McGill’s 13.7 per game.
Six teams in, 62 to go.
NCAA Tournament bids:
Iona (MAAC) – projected 15/16 seed
Michigan (Big 10) – projected 3/4 seed
Murray State (OVC) – projected 13 seed
Loyola (MVC) – projected 12 seed
Radford (Big South) – projected 15/16 seed
Lipscomb (A-Sun) – projected 15/16 seed