(Update: Iona survived 74-71 on Siena’s home floor and advances to tomorrow’s MAAC semi-finals versus either Monmouth or Canisius)
If I seem scattered today, please forgive me. My alma mater, the 24-7 Iona Gaels, play in first round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament this afternoon. They own the #1 seed and face the #8 seed Siena Saints on Siena’s home floor.
The game is crucial for the Gaels (it’s an Irish warrior – think Fighting Irish). Iona, despite winning more almost 80 percent of its games, isn’t a bubble team. They will need to win three games in three days, and even then a trip to the tourney is likely to net them a lowly #13 seed, and a date versus a top 25 team.
You see, for mid-major teams like Iona, the conference tournament is everything. The MAAC conference has only received two at large bids in its history (Iona snagged one three seasons ago). You don’t remember the tourney game in 1998 when they took Syracuse to the final buzzer. You don’t remember Fairfield coming within minutes of being the first 16 seed to beat a number 1 (North Carolina). The day Iona did beat #22 North Carolina in Madison Square Garden years ago was an out-of-conference game in December, surely balanced by a “bad loss” in conference (as if a bus ride to Trenton, NJ would inspire anyone to play his best).
Early this year, Iona pushed a very good (and ranked) Arkansas team to the final minutes before the Razorbacks pulled away on their home floor.
Horseshoes and hand grenades.
The truth is strong mid-major programs such as Iona can’t get games against top teams, and if they do (such as Arkansas) it’s always in the spirited confines of the major conference team. When Iona received its at-large bid (in recognition for its out-of-conference schedule dominated by as-strong-as-they-could-get-opponents), their prize was a 14 seed and a play-in game versus BYU. (They lost, blowing an NCAA tourney record 24-point-lead along the way. The NCAA admitted they were better than a 14 seed but the play-in game was necessary so that BYU would not have to play on a Sunday. Seems fair, right?)
The Gaels have won at least 20 games in each of Head Coach Tim Cluess’s first five seasons. In that time they’ve been among the top scoring teams in the nation. Iona has sent a player to the NBA (Scott Machado) for a brief time. They were perfect on their own home floor this season and have lost but 10 games in that home gym in Cluess’s five seasons. It’s a very good program, but you may have never heard of them.
That is why the MAAC Tournament is everything to Iona, and the other 10 teams in the conference. Three days in a mid-sized city like Albany or Buffalo or Trenton is what thousands of hours of practice, countless recruiting visits, hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds come down to. This is real tension, and this is the heart of college basketball. Sipping a beer and wearing your maroon and gold against a sea of Siena green hoping to escape what should otherwise be a routine game is really what college basketball is about. Or at least it should be.
So although there is largely ceremonial drama associated with Kentucky’s journey to perfection, the real tension occurs today in Albany, NY. NBA scouts will be on hand, as they have all season, to watch Iona guard A.J. English; Iona big man and conference player of the year David Laury will try to atone for his missed 3-pointer at the buzzer in last year’s MAAC finals; Iona guard Schadrac Casimir has sunk more 3 pointers than any NCAA freshman this year.
If they have a bad day in front of 6,000 loyalists of the eight seed, their season is for naught.
If they had beaten Manhattan in that MAAC final last season, they’d be looking at their fourth straight NCAA trip.
If they’d have beaten Arkansas, they’d have that “quality win” the conference desires. A road win at a weak Wake Forest team is not enough.
If they’d beaten lowly St. Peter’s on the road Sunday, senior night for six (six!!!) St. Peter’s seniors, a week after wrapping up the regular season conference title and #1 seed, they’d perhaps have a case for an at-large as a 27-win team that lost in its conference tourney finals.
There are a lot of ifs in mid-major land. And if even one of them works out the wrong way, everyone in the program has a seat on a chartered bus travelling south on the Taconic State Parkway back to campus on a Saturday afternoon in March, visions of Madness drown by genuine Sadness, with a capital S.
I’ll drink to that drama. Hoist a hoppy beverage for the mid-majors today. And go Gaels!
Photo courtesy of Getty Images