MAAC Conference Basketball

As Rick Pitino prepares for his return to college basketball as head coach at Iona, one thing that may have factored into his decision to leave Greek team Panathinaikos was the difference between college and professional players.

Per CBS Sports' Matt Norlander, one source said Pitino "hated coaching pros" and "complained about it every day."

Iona announced Pitino's hiring Saturday, along with a statement from the Hall of Fame coach:

"My passion in basketball started in New York and will end there at Iona College. Tim Cluess has done a spectacular job creating success and a winning spirit. I wish Tim a speedy recovery and Iona will always cherish his accomplishments. At Iona, I will work with the same passion, hunger and drive that I've had for over forty years. There is a real professionalism in how things are run here and this is a very tight, strong community. The priority in New Rochelle right now is helping students continue their education online in light of the coronavirus and I very much look forward to the day when the community is back on campus and to get to work on further elevating this strong program."

Norlander noted Pitino recently informed Panathinaikos players he would be returning to coach college basketball at the conclusion of the Euroleague season.

The Euroleague suspended its season on Thursday because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Iona's head coaching job opened up Friday when Tim Cluess, who has been with the program since 2010-11, announced he was stepping down to focus on recovering from recent health concerns.

Panathinaikos was Pitino's first job after Louisville fired him in October 2017 amid the fraud and corruption scandal throughout college basketball. The Greek team hired him in December 2018, and he has led the team to a 24-23 record in Euroleague play.

Pitino has spent a total of 32 seasons coaching in college with five different schools. His time with Panathinaikos was just his third time coaching professional players. He previously spent two seasons with the New York Knicks (1987-89) and three-plus seasons with the Boston Celtics from 1997 to 2001.

Quinnipiac guard Cameron Young set the mark for the most points scored by a Division I men's basketball player in one game this decade when he dropped 55 at Siena in a 107-100 victory on Sunday, per ESPN.com.

Young went 15-of-24 from the field, 9-of-13 from three-point range and 16-of-20 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed 10 boards to help Quinnipiac tie Canisius atop the MAAC standings.

The graduate transfer scored 36 of his 55 points in regulation, including 21 in the first half. Entering Sunday, Young led the Bobcats with 21.4 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting.

Siena freshman guard Jalen Pickett had 46 points and dished 13 assists.

The last time any D-I men's player crossed 55 points in a game was when North Dakota State guard Ben Woodside did so against Stephen F. Austin in 2008 with 60.

Per STATS, former Arizona State guard Eddie House holds the record for most points by a D-I men's player this century with 61, set against Cal in January 2000.

Senior forward Roland Griffin was dismissed from the Iona basketball program Wednesday after allegedly getting into a physical altercation with assistant coach Ricky Johns.

According to Stadium's Jeff Goodman, Griffin said he punched Johns in self-defense after the coach grabbed him in the locker room:

"We got in each other's face. It was really heated. He eventually grabbed me by the jacket and tried to throw me down on the ground physically. We were against the locker, wrestling against the locker. He was grabbing me and holding me.

"He tried to wrestle me down, and I ended up on top. I'm not going to let another man physically do that to me. I punched him four or five times, then I stopped."

Griffin said the altercation happened Monday after Johns told him to go to study hall and began yelling at him even though he wasn't scheduled for study hall that day.

Griffin told Goodman he was temporarily suspended Monday before a hearing Tuesday. On Wednesday, he was suspended from the school through May 31, 2020, and he is not eligible to return to the basketball team when his suspension ends.

Johns reportedly spent eight hours in the hospital following the altercation and was treated for a head injury. Johns said Griffin started the altercation, according to Goodman.

Iona has not taken any action against Johns.

Last season was Griffin's first at Iona after he played at Illinois State and Midland College, and he made a significant impact by averaging 11.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.

The 6'7", 215-pound Aurora, Illinois, native helped lead the Gaels to the NCAA tournament. They lost 89-67 to the Duke Blue Devils in the first round.

Griffin was Iona's third-leading scorer last season, and he was expected to be a significant contributor for a team looking to win its fourth consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

After hearing that her favorite player, Monmouth Hawks senior Justin Robinson, may wind up playing overseas once his college career is over, 11-year-old fan Erica Schaeffer took action.

She wrote to all 30 NBA teams and asked them to take a look at Robinson.

It all started when her dad gave her a heads-up about the reality of the situation.

"I talked to her about Deon Jones and other players who are playing overseas," Eric Schaeffer said, per Stephen Edelson of the Asbury Park Press. ‘"And I told her, 'You know, that's a distinct possibility for Justin, coming from a smaller school,' and that it's just a reality. It might happen."

Wanting her favorite player to get an opportunity to play at the next level in the United States, Erica made a case for Robinson to NBA teams, according to Edelson:

My dad was telling me that Justin may go overseas, so that made me think that I would try to help Justin stay here because I want to see him play again. And just meeting him and how he’s so nice, I wanted to see him play here and become an NBA player. I just wanted to tell the teams how nice he is as a person and how good he is as a player and how he can change their team.

Hey, it never hurts to try.

Teams probably get requests (through letters, emails, tweets, etc.) like this from fans frequently. They can be fun and heartwarming requests, but rarely do they factor into an organization's decisions. However, the Detroit Pistons did let Erica know that Robinson is on their radar:

For now, Erica must wait to see if Robinson will get a shot with an NBA team this summer. If he doesn't, it won't be due to a lack of effort on her part.

[Asbury Park Press, Twitter, h/t Sports Illustrated]

Erin Tobin had quite a night Thursday.

For starters, her Siena Saints defeated the Manhattan Jaspers, 94-71, at home. During halftime, Tobin banked home a one-handed fling from half court and won $500.

Then her boyfriend, who was hiding inside a giant Dunkin' Donuts costume, dropped down to a knee and proposed.

She said yes.

[Facebook, h/t ABC Action News]

The Monmouth Hawks are not about to plateau with their bench celebrations.

The bench broke out some new moves on Monday night against the Iona Gaels at Times Union Center, celebrating the Hawks' 19-5 run to end the first half with an impressive full-bench shuffle.

They upped the stakes later, staging a full rodeo routine:

[Vine]

Iona’s basketball team—players and coaches—are restless. Some are standing up, some are stretching and some are changing their seats. It was like trying to keep the shook soda bottle from exploding.

The 2013 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions were watching Selection Sunday from the Hynes Center at Iona College, and they just saw three regions worth of matchups announced without their name being called.

Until, finally, the cap on the soda exploded.

The No. 15-seed Iona College Gaels (20-13) were called, drawing the No. 2-seed Ohio State (26-7) in Dayton, Ohio this Friday.

Iona head coach Tim Cluess said of the suspense, “It felt like the end of the game waiting for the clock to run out.”

To say that Iona College will be an underdog against Ohio State is an understatement. But junior guard and the MAAC’s seventh-leading scorer Sean Armand was confident the Gaels will pull out the upset win.

“I’m not worried about nothin’,” Armand said. “I’m just ready to play.”

The Gaels had a tough stretch in Feb., losing six of seven games between Jan. 31 and Feb. 23, but the Gaels rebounded in March, winning all five games.

Cluess said that must-win atmosphere Iona played with in March will help them in Dayton on Friday.

“We’ve been in a situation where you have to win to keep playing, and I think that’s been great that we have those kind of games.” said Cluess. “They were all close games, and that will get them ready for [the tournament].”

All year long, Iona has been an offensive team, averaging a conference-leading 80 points per game, but recently its defense has stepped up. It has held opponents to under 70 points in four of the last seven games, including the MAAC championship game, where it held Manhattan to 57.

Cluess said the improvement on defense was a direct result of his team getting healthy, and it’s the defense that separates this year’s team from last year’s team, which lost to BYU 78-72 in the first round of the tournament after leading by 25.

“Last year’s team was more talented, but this year’s team finds a way and has a will on the defensive end,” Cluess said. “We’re a better overall defensive team.”

All quotes, information and multimedia were obtained firsthand.

Tonight's 60-57 win by the Iona Gaels over the Manhattan Jaspers in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game symbolized the journey the program has traveled over the last year.

After being suffocated by Manhattan's defense during the first half along with getting in foul trouble, the Gaels used a 17-2 run over a 5:51 stretch in the second half to win their first MAAC Championship in seven years.

They also used one of their best defensive efforts of the season to contain the Jaspers. Manhattan made 17 field goals and was held to 40.5 percent shooting on the night.

Furthermore, the 57 points Iona allowed are the fewest conceded by the Gaels this season.

Leading the Gaels in the win was junior Tre Bowman, who had 20 points off the bench to give a spark that was needed with leading scorers senior Lamont "Momo" Jones and junior Sean Armand held to a combined 21 points.

Jones and Armand were with the program in their trip to the NCAA tournament last March that was prematurely cut short after holding a 25-point first-half lead against Brigham Young.

They experienced the loss of transfer Michael Haynes, who was murdered last August shortly before he was supposed to join the Gaels. 

Tonight's win may not erase the memory of loss to BYU or of Haynes. Both are serving as motivation for the team this season.

However, winning the MAAC will serve as another memory of a season that has propelled the Gaels and their program forward. 

Following tonight's result, the Gaels have won their eighth MAAC championship, the most of any school in the conference's 31-year history.

It also brings Iona to consecutive NCAA tournaments for the first time since the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons.

Iona, who have won 20 games in four consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1980s, are now in a position to be considered to be a mid-major power.

Under Tim Cluess, the Gaels have won 70 games in which the former C.W. Post coach has been in charge of the Maroon and Gold.

Using Cluess' free-flowing offensive style, the Gaels averaged 83.3 points per game, finishing first in the country in the category during the 2011-12 campaign.

This season, Iona has averaged 81.3 points per game, the second-highest total in the nation.

Cluess' style has convinced several players from programs in major conferences to come to the New Rochelle-based school, including Bowman (Penn State), Jones (Arizona) and Tavon Sledge (Iowa State).

The Gaels have also produced several professional basketball players who have graduated since Cluess became coach in 2010. This includes Scott Machado, the first Iona basketball player to play in the NBA since Sean Green in 1994.

With these new players, the Gaels have defeated notable nonconference programs like Maryland, Saint Joseph's, Richmond, Nevada, Wake Forest, Georgia and St. Bonaventure during the last two seasons.

The combination of Cluess and his players allowed the Gaels to reach the final of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in 2011 before earning an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament last year.

By winning the MAAC, Cluess has made himself a more appealing coach to future recruits in the New York City area.

He also puts the Gaels into a position on the national stage where they will likely have to play stronger opponents.

Although Jones, Ridley, Nyandigisi "Diggs" Moikobu and Curtis Dennis will see their Iona careers end in the coming weeks, they will leave Iona as players who will have helped to lay the foundation for a mid-major power.

Considering the adversity they had to deal with this season, a spot as one of the 68 teams in the NCAA tournament is a fitting way for them to finish their collegiate careers and for the program to continue to advance.

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Ugly does not even begin to describe what occurred in Draddy Gymnasium on Friday night.

In what was the lowest-scoring MAAC game of all time and the second-lowest result in all of college basketball since the introduction of the three-point line in 1986, Manhattan defeated Fairfield, 34-31. The Jaspers finished the game on a 5-0 run. (And yes, five points does count as a “run” in a game like this.)

“I’m as happy as can be about it,” said Manhattan head coach Steve Masiello. “Our kids fought hard. There was no quit in them.”

He went on to say, “Tonight, I’m more proud of this win because our offense was not good. We didn’t shoot the ball well, but you couldn’t tell that on the defensive end…There was no letdown from an effort standpoint because of the lack of offense.”

In the first meeting between these two teams, Fairfield had another brutal game offensively as the Jaspers triumphed, 62-40. They were doomed by a terrible start from the field, but initially things seemed quite different on Friday.

Fairfield (17-13, 9-8 MAAC) opened up on a 12-2 run in the first five minutes thanks to hot shooting from beyond the arc. Freshman Josip Mikulic opened the night with a three-pointer out of the right corner.

Then fellow frosh Marcus Gilbert knocked down a pair of long balls. Senior point guard Derek Needham finished the run with one more from deep.

Unfortunately, the Stags would go on to score only 19 points over the final 35 minutes while making eight field goals and only two more treys.

Manhattan (12-16, 9-8 MAAC) climbed back into the game with strong play from freshman Shane Richards and junior Rhamel Brown. The Jaspers went on a 13-0 run, which included a pair of three-pointers from Richards, two layups from Brown and a trey from senior forward Roberto Colonette, to take a 15-12 lead.

The rest of the first half went back and forth, and Fairfield wound up taking a 19-18 lead into halftime thanks to another three-pointer from Gilbert.

Fairfield and Manhattan exchanged a few buckets to begin the second half, and the Stags took a 31-29 lead on a back-door layup by Keith Matthews. The Stags were still clinging to that lead inside of two minutes to play, and, with the way the offense had been going, a two-point lead seemed like a 10-point lead.

The Jaspers had a chance to tie it with RaShawn Stores heading to the line for a one-and-one, but Stores missed the front end. One possession later, though, he shook off the miss at the charity stripe and drilled a go-ahead triple from the left corner that would prove to be the game-winning shot.

“I’m so proud of RaShawn,” Brown said. “He missed a free throw, and he came back and focused on defense. Then on the next possession on offense, he hit a three.”

After a Needham turnover, Manhattan sophomore Donovan Kates gave the ball back to Fairfield after he lost control on a drive to the basket. Just like Stores, Kates would get his shot at redemption.

The Stags failed to score on offense and Kates rebounded Amadou Sidibe’s miss. Fairfield was forced to foul to extend the game. Junior Maurice Barrow fouled Kates, an 83.5 percent free-throw shooter who has not missed from the stripe since Feb. 3.

After rattling the first one in, Kates swished the second, and Manhattan took a comforting three-point lead into its final defensive possession.

“He turned it over (on the previous possession),” Masiello said. “He didn’t hang his head…He got the rebound and made the two winning free throws.”

Fairfield collapsed Manhattan’s defense as the Stags looked for a three-pointer to force overtime. Barrow was left wide open on the perimeter, but his shot missed as the buzzer sounded. As it turned out, Barrow had a foot on the three-point line, so even if he made it, Fairfield would have lost, 34-33.

Here is Masiello’s take on that final play: “We made a big mistake. We were supposed to switch all pick and rolls. I said, ‘If it was a three-point game, whatever you do, run them off the line. Give them the two and don’t foul…Emmy (Andujar) left (Barrow open in the corner). I have no idea why. I think he just wanted to see me have a heart attack.”

Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson saw the game as within their reach, but the shots simply weren’t falling. “I definitely liked our offensive execution,” he said. “The offensive conversion just wasn’t there.”

For Manhattan, Brown did not have a fantastic offensive game with six points on 3-of-10 shooting. But as always, he was a major factor on the defensive end. The reigning MAAC Player of the Year blocked five shots, setting a new Manhattan single-season record with 87 swats, and he also altered numerous others.

“I try to know my opponent’s tendencies,” Brown said. “Despite the fact that sometimes I can’t get the block, I just try to do my best to make them change their shot...There are so many shots that I didn’t block, but they threw up floaters and shots they’re not accustomed to taking, and it led to a lot of misses.”

Masiello said, “You see [the opponents] get into the lane, and it’s almost like they downshift, slow down, and they’re looking for Rhamel.” He continued, “I really think teams go to sleep at night like, ‘Where’s Rhamel Brown?’ because he is such a bother, even when he’s not blocking shots...You know he’s going to come get you.”

Manhattan was picked to finish second in the MAAC back in November. But with an injury to reigning MAAC scoring champion George Beamon, which wound up being season-ending, the Jaspers struggled in non-conference play and early on in league play. But since Jan. 27, they are 6-2 in the MAAC, and they also have a non-conference win at Buffalo.

“I did a bad job because I didn’t change (when Beamon got injured),” Masiello said. “I just kept everything the same, thinking George was coming back. I was putting Shane and Donovan and Emmy in bad positions with the basketball. Then we had two first-year point guards who weren’t really used to it. So I did a bad job coaching this team early on.

"I personally think in early January, we got our feet and realized George wasn’t coming back…The identity of our team had to change. We’re not Iona and Niagara. We can’t go score 95. What we can do is guard you pretty good and make it tough for you.”

The Jaspers control their own destiny for a top-six finish in the MAAC, which means they would avoid the play-in game and only need to win three games in Springfield to make the NCAA tournament.

With a win over Loyola (Md.) on Sunday, Manhattan would guarantee itself at least the No. 6 seed. If the Jaspers beat Loyola, Fairfield beats Marist and Iona loses to Siena, then Manhattan would be the No. 5 seed.

However, if Manhattan loses to Loyola and Fairfield beats Marist, the Jaspers would drop back to seventh place and be forced to face the last-place team in the play-in round.

Others notes from Friday night:

—The lowest-scoring game in college basketball since the introduction of the three-point line was on Dec. 14, 2005, between Princeton and Monmouth. Princeton won that game, 41-21.

—Manhattan honored seniors Roberto Colonette and Mohamed Koita prior to Friday night’s game. “I’m just really, really proud of our guys gutting it out and send Roberto and Mo out of here the way they should be,” Masiello said.

—Here is Masiello’s slightly humorous take on the MAAC tournament. Masiello was asked Manhattan now controlling its own destiny to avoid the play-in round and go straight to the quarterfinals. “We don’t care if we’re the 10 seed. Whatever seed we are, we’ve just got to go play. You guys worry about [the seeding]. We don’t care where the game is, what time we play, who we play. We know what we believe in. We know what we’re about. We know we can beat anyone. We know we can get beaten on any night. Seeding is irrelevant. I mean, it’s not the NCAA tournament where it’s a 1 and a 16. It’s the MAAC. We’ll play whatever seed you want. Make us an 11 seed. There’s 10 teams. We’ll be the 11. It doesn’t matter to us.”

—One more fun scoring stat for Friday night: Iona’s Momo Jones scored 35 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field. As a team, Manhattan scored 34 points on 12-of-47 shooting, and Fairfield scored 31 points on 12-of-45 shooting.

Jesse Kramer is the founder of The Catch and Shoot, a blog dedicated to college basketball news, observations and insights on nationwide topics. You can follow Jesse on Twitter at Jesse_Kramer, and you can follow The Catch and Shoot at Catch_N_Shoot.

All quotes were obtained in person.