Miscellaneous Thoughts on Iona/Manhattan, Siena, Wichita State, Duquesne and Fordham

If you're a college basketball fan and you didn't watch Iona/Manhattan on ESPN2 last night, you missed an absolutely terrific game between two long time MAAC rivals.  The Jaspers won in overtime 80-77.  It was exciting, action packed, end to end, three point drilling (on Iona's side), small gym, capacity, loud crowd fun.  You could hear the crowd loud and clear on your TV.

Having been at Draddy for Iona vs. Manhattan previously for a SRO crowd between these two rivals, I can tell you how intense the Gaels-Jaspers rivalry is from a spectator's standpoint. And if you don't think this is a hot ticket, two years ago, tickets for the Iona- Manhattan game were going for $100, which is usually unheard of in NYC mid major basketball.  Jaden Daly of Daly Dose of Hoops was there last night and here's his writeup.

It's quite possible that Iona and Manhattan will face each other again in the MAAC Tournament.  Despite the loss, Iona has clinched the MAAC regular season championship and the #1 seed for the MAAC Tournament.   Manhattan is tied for second with both Quinnipiac and Canisius.  The Jaspers host the Golden Griffiths on Sunday for at least third place. 

Oh, one last thing.  If Iona wins at home over Rider on Sunday, it will be the fourth time in the four seasons Tim Cluess has coached in New Rochelle that the Gaels have won twenty games.  Four years ago, I gave a New York metro college advice on who to take as their head coach.  Iona took the advice instead and two NCAA Tournament later, with a possible third on the horizon, the Gaels must be quite happy with the decision.

Speaking of MAAC coaches, how about the job Jimmy Patsos is doing with Siena.  The Saints are now over .500 in the MAAC at 10-9 and with a win over Monmouth, will be the fifth seed in the MAAC Tournament.   Siena has already won six more games than all of last season and six more games in conference from last season as well.  Not surprising, given Patsos' history of success with Loyola Maryland.

One last MAAC note.  With Cluess, Steve Masiello, Patsos and Jimmy Baron, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has become a premier coaching conference.  MAACTION!

Wichita State has been getting a lot of flack lately on whether they are a #1 seed for the NCAA Tournament .  Several basketball "pundits" have questioned their non conference schedule (Yes, Jeff Goodman of ESPN, I am talking about you in particular).   Mark Adams, ESPN analyst, put this into excellent perspective on Twitter by stating that the eight power conference teams ranked in the top ten played eighty six percent of their non-conference games at either neutral site or home.   As I pointed out to Mark in a reply, I noted Wichita State only played seven of its twelve non-conference games at home (two were neutral site).  Saint Louis, the other non power conference team in the top ten played only six of its eleven games at home (two were also neutral site).

Furthermore, compare Wichita State's team to the last Missouri Valley team that went so far into the season undefeated, the 1978-79 Indiana State team.  That team of course was led by Larry Bird and went to the NCAA Championship game undefeated vs. Michigan State before losing to Magic Johnson and the Spartans.  

That 78-79 Sycamores team only played one NCAA Tournament team during the regular season, New Mexico State, which Indiana State beat twice in that season in conference.  In fact, the Sycamores had to have a 50 foot shot by Bob Heaton to force overtime on the road vs. the Aggies.  New Mexico State ended up getting an at large bid, losing to Weber State in a first round game.  At that time, only forty teams made the NCAA Tournament.  

Despite their lack of a signature non-conference win, Indiana State received a #1 seed.   Perhaps having Bird helped their chances of getting a #1 seed.  Still, Indiana State justified their seeding by making the NCAA Championship game.

This season, Wichita State has played two definite NCAA Tournament teams in their non conference; BYU and currently #10 Saint Louis.  The neutral site win over the Cougars was the championship game of the CBE classic and the win over SLU came on the Billikens home court.  Until their loss at home to Duquesne this week, Saint Louis had been undefeated in Atlantic-10 play, which is quite impressive considering there is a very good chance that there will be five A-10 teams in the NCAA Tournament (SLU, VCU, UMass, George Washington and St Joseph's).

Wichita State has also won over bubble team Tennessee, along with wins over Davidson, the Southern Conference regular season champion, who knocked off the current #2 team in the SEC, Georgia and NC Central, who won at North Carolina State and who at 22-5 and 13-1 in the MEAC, is the likely MEAC regular season champion (the Eagles have a two game lead over Hampton).  Throw in the fact that with basically the same team from last year's Final Four team, if the Shockers can make it through the rest of the Valley regular season and the MVC Tournament undefeated, they should definitely be a #1 seed and have serious consideration as the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Gregg Marshall is my coach of the year (and Jaden Daly, I knew about Marshall for years even before his Winthrop team knocked off Notre Dame).

On Thursday night, I watched on TV two bottom A-10 teams play, Fordham and Duquesne.  Both teams played good first halves against their respective opponents, VCU and St Louis, as I noted, two definite NCAA Tournament teams.    In their respective second halves, only one team maintained their composure and heart.  The road team Dukes withstood the Billikens and gave St Louis their first loss in A-10 play.

Duquesne at one time was tied with Fordham in the A-10 standings.  Yet, Jim Ferry's 12-15 team has not given up and won two of its last four games.   Of their four conference wins, three of those are on the road, including a win over the Rams.  The Dukes have lost fifteen games on the season, nine of those fifteen losses have been by nine points or less, including six A-10 conference games.  Duquesne's scoring margin on the season is - 0.3.  You can certainly say the Dukes have been competitive for the most part this season.

I'm not surprised by Ferry's Dukes playing so hard.  His successful LIU teams were high scoring, yet very gutty.  I was there when the Blackbirds won over Wagner at a hostile, sold out Spiro Center two years ago in what was quite possibly, given the game was on ESPNU on a Saturday night, the biggest regular season game in the history of the NEC (see picture of the game on the left).

Ferry's LIU teams made the NCAA Tournament two years in a row before he took the Duquesne job. Already the Dukes have a four win improvement from last season.   Given his ability to recruit nationally (several of his LIU players came from Texas), Duquesne is in good hands.

Meanwhile, VCU went on an early second half run and Fordham looked like they got run over by a truck.  They looked clueless on defense, showed no fundamentals on boxing out as VCU got offensive rebound after offensive rebound (in fact VCU had twenty four offensive rebounds) and basically showed no heart the last twenty minutes of the game.  VCU scored FIFTY ONE second half points beating Fordham 85-66.   One team looked Ram Tough and another looked Rammed.

Then to top it, Fordham Coach Tom Pecora just torched his team's effort after the loss, as per another great Jaden Daly writeup.   Yet not anywhere in the post game press conference notes does Pecora accept any blame for his team's failures that night.  He even notes that "Teams that win find ways to win, teams that lose, they know how to lose".

Well who's responsibility is for that demeanor and play?  It's the coach. 

I have already written about Fordham's struggles this season, in fact, it's been my most read article of the season, and taken Pecora to task.  So yes, it's like beating a dead horse.  But after his VCU post game press conference comments, the dead horse needs to beaten some more.

Fordham has lost five straight games, all by double digit margins.  In their last nine A-10 conference losses on the season , the Rams have lost each game by double digits and by an average margin of NINETEEN POINTS.  In fact, in Fordham's seventeen losses on the season, thirteen have now come by double digit margins.    

Think about that.  In only four of their seventeen losses was Fordham even close to winning.  

And even the defensive intensity that Pecora's Hofstra teams used to have is now gone.  He now goes with a four guard lineup, yet laments that "You can't let them beat you up on the offensive glass".  The Rams are DEAD LAST in the A-10 in scoring defense, allowing seventy nine points per game.  They are also dead last in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot forty six percent from the field.  The Rams also allow teams to score fifty two percent of their two point field goal attempts.

I think this last quote about Pecora when there is a question about his team's effort sums it up best  

"Oh, without a doubt, and I think that's been an issue for us throughout the season. There's been two major issues in my mind: One is getting that kind of team effort for 40 minutes consistently..." 

That comes down to one person and one person only.  The coach.

This Isn't Your Father's NEC (Recap of LIU vs Wagner)

The Northeast Conference, otherwise known as the NEC, started as the ECAC - Metro conference in 1981.  As the NEC website notes, originally the conference's goal was "to create a competitive NCAA Division I men’s basketball conference for unaffiliated schools on the Eastern seaboard."  It started as just a men's basketball conference, but it grew to twelve schools and twenty three sports.   There are still six original members;  Wagner, LIU Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson, Robert Morris, St. Francis (NY) and St. Francis (PA).  Joining them later were Monmouth, Mount St Mary's, Central Connecticut State (CCSU), Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart and this season, Bryant.

Still, the main focus of the NEC is founded on its original goal, men's basketball.  There is great history in some of the conference's teams. Legendary coach Clair Bee, inventor of the 1-3-1 zone and the three second rule, coached his LIU team to two NIT championships in 1939 and 1941.  Jim Phelan, the legendary former coach of Mount St Mary's, won 830 games as coach of the Mountaineers and currently is seventh on the all time wins list.  Both Bee and Phelan are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  And in a recent article, I talked about my second hand knowledge of one the NEC's greatest all time players, Desi Wilson of Fairleigh Dickinson.

However, for years the NEC has been considered one of the doormat conferences of the NCAA Tournament. In its thirty year existence, the Northeast conference has won only two games in the NCAA Tournament, both play in games. In 1983, Robert Morris defeated Georgia Southern 68-54 before losing to Purdue by two points, 55-53, in the first round.  In 2008, Mount St Mary's defeated Coppin State 69-60 before losing to North Carolina in the round of 64, 113-74.  I was at the Mountaineers game vs. the Tar Heels in the Raleigh Regional.  Mount St Mary's played hard the entire forty minutes, unlike a certain team from Bloomington vs. Arkansas in the evening session.

But in the last few years, the NEC has proven itself worthy on the court, especially in the NCAA Tournament.  In the 2010 NCAA Tournament in front of a national audience, #15 Robert Morris had #2 Villanova on the ropes, up by eight points with a little more than four minutes left before the Wildcats rallied and won in overtime 73-70. In the 2011 NCAA Tournament, #15 LIU was actually tied with #2 North Carolina with five minutes left in the first half before losing by a respectable fifteen points, 102-87.

This season, NEC teams have several big wins.  Wagner won at then nationally ranked Pittsburgh, then also won the Cable Car Classic Tournament, defeating Air Force and Santa Clara.   Robert Morris defeated LaSalle at a neutral site (currently the Explorers are 14-6 and 3-2 in the A-10) and won at Ohio (currently the Bobcats are 15-4 and 3-2 in the MAC).  LIU has a neutral site win at Vermont.  The combined record of those three NEC teams going into Saturday night's Wagner-LIU game was 43-15.

That brings us to Saturday night, where Wagner hosted LIU at Spiro Athletic Center for first place in the NEC.  The game was a hot ticket because it was being shown nationally on ESPNU.  It is the first time that I can ever remember a a regular season Northeast Conference game being televised on ESPN.  The NEC truly decided to hype the ESPNU broadcast with this video.

Part of the reason I believe ESPNU was televising the game was that Wagner not only had their big wins, but they also have Team Hurley - head coach Danny Hurley, formerly a point guard at Seton Hall and assistant coach Bobby Hurley, former star point guard at Duke.  Of course, their dad is Bob Hurley Sr., the legendary coach of St. Anthony's in Jersey City.   At 15-3 overall, Team Hurley has done a terrific job of turning around a team that two seasons ago was 5-26.

But going into Saturday night's game, defending champion LIU Brooklyn had been the best team in the NEC so far this season.  Jim Ferry's Blackbirds had won eight games in a row, including a 78-73 win at home over the Seahawks.   LIU was looking to sweep the season series and have a two game lead in conference.

Due to the icy conditions by yesterday's snow/ice storm, my good friend Tieff picked me up at my house two and half hours before game time.  That's due to the fact that you never know what the Belt Parkway will be like in bad weather, even on a Saturday.  As we drove towards the Verrazano bridge, I was listening to the Hofstra-James Madison game on WRHU's IPhone App, which works quite well by the way.   The lack of traffic and the basketball game over the IPhone made for an unusually quick trip to Staten Island.

When we got to the Spiro Sports Center, it was ninety minutes before game time.  So we each grabbed a pretzel with cheese and sat on a green bench listening to the end of the Hofstra game.  Thanks to Steve Mejia's three point play, the Pride finally had their first win in conference.  As a result, two happy Hofstra fans entered the gym.

The Spiro Sports Center Arena is your classic small conference gym.  It seats about 2,400 and is strictly bleacher seating.  Just about all the seating is general admission, so it was first come first serve.  There is an administrative office above with a great view of the court.  That's where the main ESPNU cameras were filming and there seemed to be an alumni reception there as well watching the game.

In our case, amazingly we were sitting three rows up, near center court, right between the LIU bench and the scorers table.  I called my wife and told her that she should see us on the telecast.  Sure enough, when I got home later, she told me that her and my older son Matthew saw us several times.

Spiro is a very cozy environment.  Also when it's packed, it's a LOUD environment.  The Wagner student section behind the LIU basket was already filled with students wearing white.  It was "whiteout night" as everyone in attendance got free white Wagner T-shirts.  Several Wagner dance team members went through the crowd before the game encouraging those who hadn't put their T-shirts on to do so in support of the team..

LIU had their fans, apparently made up of many members of their dance team behind the Wagner basket. In a funny moment, they grabbed one of the T-shirts, tore it up, then threw it up in the air.  It ended up with the Wagner fans next to them, who threw it back at them.

The only bad thing about Spiro was the PA system. The volume was turned up way too high, as the music, even the PA announcer sounded distorted.  Also, unfortunately it kept Tieff and I from hearing some of the student chants before the game.   Wagner is not the only one that does this as far as unbearably loud PA systems; Hofstra and Iona are guilty of this too.  But in a smaller Spiro Sports Center gym, it's much more noticeable.

Memo to the Wagner Athletic Department - Please turn down the volume on your system.  Also, please get a pep band.  With a packed student section that's already quite loud, the pep band works much better than canned music. Trust me, it works well for the Hynes Center with the Iona Pep band.  Thanks.


Once the game got started and the PA music was turned off, it was the perfect college basketball atmosphere; a sold out gym, a large, loud student section complete with a giant Danny Hurley head and two very good teams squaring off in a meaningful conference game.  This was as close to hoops heaven as a fan could get.

LIU seemed unfazed by the television cameras and the mostly partisan Seahawks crowd.  The Blackbirds jumped out to a 13-4 lead after just two and a half minutes, in large part due to their big three; Julian Boyd, Jamal Olasewere and Jason Brickman.  Boyd hit two baskets and assisted on another, a three pointer by Brickman. Olasewere also had two baskets in that span.  That would be a common theme for the Blackbirds on the evening.

But Wagner came back and outscored LIU 19-9 over the next several minutes due in large part to Latif Rivers who scored nine of those points during the span.  A Josh Thompson layup gave the Seahawks their first lead, 23-22.  The crowd roared in approval.  The game would see five ties in the first half alone.

When there is such an intensive atmosphere and first place in conference riding on the game, it's normal to have players' tempers flare up. During that Wagner run, a  foul was called on C.J Garner which led to an altercation between Boyd and Jonathon Williams.  The referees went over to the scorers table to review the play, which eventually led to double technical fouls for Boyd and Williams.

While the referees reviewed the play, I took this picture of them at the scorers table.  A woman behind me stated "Look, he's taking a picture of them."

I turned around and said "I write for two college basketball sites and I am going to talk about this in my article.  It's the only reason I would take a picture of this."

She replied "I guess you heard me".  I responded "Yes, I did."  Even with a raucous atmosphere, my ears can still pick up a smarmy comment.

With Wagner up 31-29,  LIU scored seven straight points, including a three pointer by Brickman that put the Blackbirds up 36-31 before Mario Moody's dunk cut the lead to three, 36-33 at the half.  Brickman, who looks like Joey Rodriguez' younger brother, also shoots like him.  He was three of three from beyond the arc in the first half.

There were also warning signs for the Seahawks. Several of their front court players would get in foul trouble in the first half.  Thompson, Williams, Naofall Folohan and Tyler Murray each picked up two fouls.  Danny Hurley was not happy with the officiating and actually stayed on the court a few seconds after the first half ended to voice his displeasure.

The second half started with Wagner coming out strong.  Williams, Murray and Kenny Ortiz hit layups which put the Seahawks up one, 39-38 with a little less than seventeen minutes left in the game. The Seahawks' student section was now in full force.

But the Blackbirds responded with a 13-2 run due to their big three.  Olasewere started it with a three point play. He would add two more baskets.   Brickman, Boyd and Olasewere would all add foul shots to put LIU up 51-41 with 11:43 left.

By that time, Wagner was in serious foul trouble. Both Williams and Thompson  picked up their third and fourth fouls. Ortiz picked up two quick fouls to give him three total.  With most of his big in serious foul trouble, Hurley was down to the last forward in his rotation, the aforementioned Moody.

One intrepid Wagner student held a sign during the game "I'm feeling MOODY".  And Mario was feeling it too as he kept the Seahawks in the game with his inside play.  Over the span of five minutes, Moody had eight points, the last of which cut the Blackbirds lead to 56-52 with six and half minutes remaining.

The noise from the Wagner student section was now at its crescendo.  Facing an incredibly loud chant of "DE-FENSE", LIU was now at a critical moment of the game.  This is where they either rose to the occasion or wilted in the face of adversity.

Once again, the Blackbirds' big three responded.  Over the remaining six and a half minutes of the game, Brickman, Boyd and Olasewere combined would score the last seventeen points LIU scored.  Boyd's emphatic dunk with a little less than two minutes remaining put the Blackbirds up seven on their way to a convincing 73-66 win over the Seahawks.

Wagner had no answer for Boyd, who scored nineteen points and added fifteen rebounds.  Olasewere had eighteen points and Brickman had seventeen points and eight assists.   Moody had a double double for the Seahawks with twelve points and ten rebounds. Rivers led Wagner with seventeen points.  Williams added fourteen and Murray had eleven points for the Seahawks. Murray was honored before the game for scoring his 1000th career point in a previous game.

With the win, LIU is now firmly in first place in the NEC at 8-0, with a two game lead over three teams.  One of those teams is Wagner, who now has to battle out for second place with Robert Morris and CCSU. The Seahawks dreams of finishing first are likely dashed as the Blackbirds have the tiebreaker, since they swept the season series.

The NEC is one of the very few conferences that have their championship game on the highest remaining seed's home court.  Last season, Tieff and I were at LIU's Wellness Center for the NEC championship game.  After the Blackbirds' win Saturday night, there's a good chance we'll be back there in March.

The Paul Westhead Invitational

Yesterday was an exasperating day.  I can't get into details, but I was agitated when I got home.  Thankfully, salvation was only ninety minutes away, for I had this game between LIU and Iona circled on my calendar.  I knew I was going to see a game that "The Guru of Go" would truly love.

Westhead is the creator of "The System".  It's based on simple math - More Possessions + More Shot Attempts = More Points.  And there are no two better examples of  "The System" than LIU and Iona, led by their proponents, Blackbirds' coach Jim Ferry and Gaels' coach Tim Cluess.. Last season, LIU was fourth in the nation in scoring at 82.7 points per game and fifth in the country in possessions per game at 70.6.  Meanwhile, Iona is currently first in the country averaging 94 points per game and second in assists at 21.3.  

"The System" has worked for both teams.  LIU made the NCAA Tournament after winning the NEC championship.  Meanwhile Iona made the MAAC Conference Tournament finals, then the CIT finals and are the heavy favorites to win the MAAC this season.  This was going to be the basketball version of the Penn Relays (Google it).  I had the over/under for points scored for last night's game at 180.

I was hoping to bring my basketball buddy, my older son Matthew to the game last night, knowing he would love this fast pace, high scoring game.  But he had homework to do, so daddy went off by himself to New Rochelle.  As I got there, there was another good crowd on hand at the Hynes Center.  Not as good as the game vs. St Joseph's last Wednesday, but the one side of bleachers was basically full.

As expected, the game got off to a rip roaring, albeit sloppy start.  The Gaels went out to an 11-2 lead.  But the Blackbirds came back and cut the deficit to four, 23-19.  By this time, both teams had a combined nine turnovers, but of course forty two points.  After Jermel Jenkins hit a three pointer to make it 26-19, the Gaels had eight possessions where they used 10 seconds or less of the shot clock.

The game was still close, 33-29 with a little less than six minutes left when Iona when on a 21-9 run to end the half.  It was led by their two best players, Michael Glover and Scott Machado, who combined for twelve of the twenty one half ending points.  The Gaels were up 54-38 at the half.

The halftime entertainment consisted of two of my favorite things.  One, a local catholic school boys team played at the half.  And they emulated the two college teams by playing end to end action.  The other was hearing the always terrific Iona Pep Band playing songs like "Peg", "Brickhouse" and some Stevie Wonder and KC and the Sunshine Band tunes.   While all this was going on, I honestly thought I might see more points scored in the second twenty minutes than the first twenty minutes.

And at the start of the second half, Iona came out with the intention of doing exactly that. Within barely the first eight minutes, the Gaels outscored the Blackbirds 33-17.  During this time, Iona forced eight LIU turnovers.  Meanwhile, Glover was terrorizing the Blackbirds, scoring at will inside while Jermel Jenkins scored at will from the outside with three point bombs.  With twelve minutes left, Iona was up 87-55.  The  game for all intensive purposes was over and the question was, when would the Gaels score one hundred points?

Someone though forgot to tell the Blackbirds the game was over.  LIU outscored Iona 19-3 over the next nearly eight minutes.  The Gaels actually went scoreless for about four and a half minutes during that stretch. The score was 90-74.  But a layup by who else, Glover, made sure the score didn't get any closer.

Iona finally scored one hundred points on a layup by Machado 2:19 left. At that point, the crowd started to file out.  The Gaels would not score again, but they already had done enough damage.  LIU managed to score their season average from last season, eighty two, but lose by eighteen, 100-82.   Had Iona not had that scoring drought in the second half, the teams would have easily eclipsed the point total for the first half.  But ninety points in the second half certainly wasn't bad.

Glover had another double double with twenty eight points and fourteen rebounds. Machado had another double double as well with fourteen points and ten assists.  Jamal Olasewere led LIU with twenty points.  The two teams combined for forty two assists and forty turnovers.  Iona now heads out on the road for the entire month of December. Meanwhile, LIU already has to start defending its NEC conference championship on Thursday against an improved Wagner team.  No rest for the weary.

As I left the Hynes Center and headed to my car, I thought of one thing.  Someone should send Paul Westhead a plane ticket to New York.  He should catch a couple of Iona and LIU games.  He would be so proud.