MAAC Conference Basketball

BYU outscores Iona 38-17 in the second half to win 78-72 after Iona led by 25 points in the first half.   The Cougars advance in the NCAA West Regional to play Marquette from the Big East on Thursday in Louisville. 

BYU slowed the game down in the second half and forced Iona to deal with their zone defense. Noah Hartsock ended the game with 23 points and five rebounds.  Brandon Davies had 18 points and 15 rebounds as the Cougars won the rebounding battle 39-32.

For Iona, Scott Machado played well in his last game as Gael with 15 points, and ten assists.  Jermel Jenkins who really did not play that much in his senior season had 13 points and four assists.   Mike Glover in his last game for Iona had 12 points and nine rebounds, a collision near the end of the first half  may have limited his mobility in the second half.

BYU showed patience and resiliency waiting for Iona to slow down the fast pace the Gaels maintained through the first half racing to a 49-24 lead. BYU closed out the first half with a 16-6 run.

The Iona Gaels ran BYU all over the University of Dayton court in the first half of the their NCAA "First Four" game on Tuesday night, shooting 58 percent from the field en route to a 55-40 lead at the break.

Iona leaped out to a 22-10 lead in this game on hot shooting from forward Randy Dezouvre. Sophomore forward Sean Armand lit up the Dayton Arena with two three-point shots to help the Gaels extend the lead to 26-10. 

After a defensive play, Lamont "Momo" Jones held the Iona name on his jersey for the crowd to see as he dribbled the ball—before drilling a jumper to advance Iona's lead to 28-10, capping a 15-0 run. 

Machado, the nation's leader in assists per game (9.9), dished nine assists in the first frame, often battling through a smaller BYU lineup. At one point the Gaels' lead swelled to 53-29, but the Cougars ended the half on an 11-2 run to draw within 15 points.

Glover and Armand both posted 10 points for the Gales in the half, with Dezouvre adding nine and Jermel Jenkins eight. Brandon Davies led BYU with 12 points and five rebounds. Anson Windsor and Damarcus Harrison notched eight apiece.

In the second half, the Gaels opened well, Scott Machado led Mike Glover on a two on one down the lane for two to take a 62-46 lead.  Then Glover picked up his third foul and looked slowed by the shot he took on his knee in the first half.

BYU noticeably slowed the tempo, and the Gaels let up on their full court pressure.  Brandon Davies makes a short jumper to bring BYU back with in ten at 62-52.  Glover is double teamed and Jenkins allows a steal by BYU. 

Noah Hartsock hits three straight jumpers to make it a one point game.  BYU has gone on a 17 point run, shutting the Gaels down for nine minutes till Jermel Jenkins hits a three with 7:60 left. With Glover double teamed, BYU steals the ball from Jenkins. Damarcus Harrison hits a three for BYU, then trail by one 65-64. 

Jermel Jenkins hits a short jumper but on the Gaels next possession Machado is called out of bounds on the sideline which the replay showed was incorrect.  Jenkins and Harrison exchange misses with 5:30 left.

Machado hits a short jumper, is fouled and coverts the three point play, Iona leads 70-64. 

Noah Hartsock hits a jumpers over Randy Dezouvre, then hits from the foul line, and BYU trails by one.  Dezouvre picks up his fifth foul. 

This half Iona is just not making shots, Mike Glover misses connecting on an pass to the basket. BYU comes back and Hartsock makes a three to give BYU a 71-70 lead with 2:11 left.  Iona is being outscored in the half 31-15.

The Gaels try to mount a comeback but Glover picks up his fourth and fifth fouls.  Davies makes two three throws for a three point lead.  Brock Zylstra ices the game with a three point play to make it 76-70 with 23 seconds left.  The final was 78-72 BYU.

A memorable win for BYU, a devastating loss for Iona.  Nothing hurts more than a game lost when you had a big lead.

The end of an era for the Gaels, Iona fans will remember the excitement of the two years Mike Glover and Scott Machado played together.  Then this year with addition of Momo Jones making the NCAA tournament with a strong cast.    

Credit also senior Jermel Jenkins who sacrificed playing time when Jones joined the team but played well in his only NCAA game.  Randy Dezouvre made many contributions to the team in his two years with his sure handed play and clutch shooting.  Credit also senior Trinity Fields who played more in his first two years than the last two but was a spiritual leader of the team, one of those players who comes back as a coach someday.

Next year will be the year that Momo Jones and Sean Armand will have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and hopefully have another shot in the NCAAs. 

Would not be surprised if we see Scott Machado and Mike Glover continuing to play professionally.  That will be fun to see.

Ken Kraetzer covers Iona Basketball for WVOX 1460 AM in New Rochelle, NY and Sons of the American Legion Radio. 

Although many question Iona even reaching the NCAA Tournament, the team will be this year's version of VCU.

A year ago, the VCU Rams were one of the last at-large teams selected into the NCAA Tournament field. They were forced to play in the first ever at-large opening round, giving the team an extra obstacle towards a successful postseason.

The team stuck together and rattled off five straight wins to reach the school's first ever Final Four.

While this was an unlikely occurrence, do not be surprised when Iona recreates this feat a year later as a No. 14 seed.

The Gaels open their tournament on Tuesday night against BYU. If they are successful, they go on to face a tough, veteran team in Marquette.

Fortunately, Iona is exactly the type of team that can give opponents fits, especially without extra time for scouting.

Iona runs a very fast-paced game and tries to shoot as quickly as possible. This pace helped the team become the nation's best offense at 83.3 points per game, but they are also second in the nation at converting 50.4 percent of their field goals. 

Individually, point guard Scott Machado leads the country in assists and Mike Glover is a legitimate force up front. 

As much talent as Marquette has, the Golden Eagles struggled in the Big East Tournament when Louisville controlled the pace, leading to 26 turnovers and a loss.

If the Iona shooters can get hot over the course of the next couple of weeks, the Gaels have the talent to shock a few teams on the way to at least the Sweet 16, maybe more.

The Iona Gaels will help open up the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio, culminating  a five-year building process by possibly playing before the President and his guest: the Prime Minster of England.

This is the end of a building cycle that started a year after the Jeff Ruland coaching era at Iona back in 2007.  The Gaels made the NCAA tournament in 2006 then had a disastrous season the next year.  Kevin Willard came in to rebuild the program, and brought in Rashon Dwight and Alejo Rodriquez who graduated last year and Scott Machado, Jermel Jenkins and Trinty Fields; this year’s four-year seniors.

Last year Mike Glover came in from junior college and was an immediate force in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.  The sure-handed forward Randy Desouvre transferred in as well from Monroe College and Kyle Smyth matured into a solid defensive forward who could also shoot the three.

Then this past year Lamont “Momo” Jones transferred in from Arizona and was given a waiver from the NCAA to play right away.  He has been the teams second-leading scorer averaging 16 points per game.  

For a mid-major like Iona, it can take a five-year building cycle to put together a team with experience and cohesiveness necessary to make the NCAAs.   Teams like Fairfield going through a similar development process may not even make it when they get to a year with a strong senior class.

But this year the Iona Gaels made the NCAA Tournament and will try to win their first game in the event since Jim Valvano coached the team in the early 1980s.

Sunday night after the announcement, senior point guard Scott Machado was very excited about making the NCAA Tournament with one of the last bids.   Just such a thrill to see college athletes achieve a huge goal for themselves.

About making the NCAA Tournament, the NCAA leader in assists per game said,

 “Very thankful we got it, very excited”.

Just having 48 hours to practice, learn about an opponent, travel and test out a new arena is quite a challenge. I asked Scott Machado how he and his teammates will  approach the game with just a day to prepare, would they just focus on playing your game?

“Just focusing on what we have to do, found out as much as possible about them, it is more of a game about us, learning what we do, and what we are capable of doing and run our offense,” Machado said.

Machado was asked about who he would contact about BYU and playing in the NCAA event and he looked over at his teammate, Lamont Jones, saying,

”I have my own teammate “Momo” who has been there, that helps a lot.”

Machado and Jones are both mature young men who do well in school.  Basketball has enabled them to travel and have both positive and challenging experiences.  Machado played basketball in Brazil last summer where his family is from and Jones played in the Elite Eight for Arizona last year.

Momo Jones was asked Sunday night about how he sees the second team he has gone to the NCAAs with Iona doing in this opportunity and the perspective he can offer teammates:  

“Yes we see ourselves making a run, it is all about believing in each other, taking it one game at a time, and just grinding it out winning games. The advice and experience I can just give my team is to play together, just play together, and come together as one. We just have to play hard, and play together."

Jones said that some questioned his decision to transfer to Iona but he commented he was always confident that his decision would be the right one and that Iona could be successful.

“I was 100 percent sure when I made my decision to come here that we would make the NCAA tournament.  It was kind of weird how it all went down, but we made it,” Jones said.

There is no doubt that “Momo” Jones, a thoughtful and outgoing young man is a good quote. He commented about playing BYU, who he faced at Arizona,

“It is going to be a grind-it-out game, we just have to play Iona basketball”.

It took a while this year for “Momo” Jones to get used to moving from the point guard position he played at Arizona, to becoming a shooting guard as he was in high school.  But then he seemed to blossom in midseason when he hit one three after another on a 43 point night.  I asked him how he felt the season has progressed.

“At the beginning of the season, I was kind of uncomfortable playing the two spot, even though I played that a lot in high school and I love to score, But coming from a system with Sean Miller, having to pass the ball a lot and not really doing much  scoring.  Towards the middle of the season I started to get comfortable with the offense.  What my teammates were asking me to do, what my coaching staff wanted me to do, what they brought me here to do. Working and working, and it pays off, the 43 point game, it just took off from there. Right now I am at the peak of where I need to be. That is thanks to my team, my teammates and my coaching staff.  It is March, everyone has to be at their peak, everyone has to bring their A-Game.  So this is what we live for: March Madness."

Sophomore Sean Armand is an ambitious individual often looking for opportunities to demonstrate leadership on a team with many upperclassmen.  He impressed me last May by attending the press conference when the new Iona Athletic Director Eugene Morison was introduced.  Armand is the best three-point shooter on the team making 47 percent of his attempts.

In January against Siena at Madison Square Garden he had a 32 point performance. In the Fairfield home game late in the season when Iona was trailing, Armand asked coach Cluess for the ball and hit consecutive threes that pointed Iona towards a win.

“I worked extremely hard, I expanded my game, just believed in myself,” Armand said.

On the call Sunday night, Coach Tim Cluess concluded his remarks by described the team BYU will face.

 “It is a blue collar team that works really, really hard out on the floor, love to share the ball in the offensive end. We are a gritty group on the defensive end.  Think you we will find we are a hard-working group of kids who are going to give it all they have."

Should be a very interesting game at Dayton on Tuesday at 9 p.m.  President Barack Obama is expected to attend with the British Prime Minister David Cameron.  If you are going to the game, get there an hour early, I know from the Army-Navy game that when the President attends, you need to allow extra time to get through security, even for the media.

My key to look for is if Iona can stay even on rebounding, they are already one of the best teams in the country at scoring and playmaking. The Gaels need forwards Taaj Ridley, Randy Dezouvre and Kyle Smyth to step up and help Mike Glover on the boards.

Ken Kraetzer covers Iona basketball and West Point football for WVOX 1460 AM in New Rochelle, NY and Sons of the American Legion Radio.   

His Twitter address is @SAL50NYRadio,  or reach him at KGK914@aol.com

Following their elimination from the semifinals of the MAAC tournament against Fairfield on March 4, it appeared that the Iona Gaels were not going to play in the NCAA tournament.

Iona was one of the top mid-majors in the country throughout the season, but they had two bad losses at Hofstra and at Siena. Both schools had an RPI beyond 200, yet were able to get the best of the Gaels in each of those games.

Due to their loss, Iona suffered through an entire week not knowing if they were going to reach the NCAA tournament. They were not projected to be in the field of 68 by Joe Lunardi and needed many breaks to go their way if they were to be considered a tournament team.

But those breaks continued to happen. Long Island won the NEC. Vermont won the American East Championship. Northwestern fell out of their conference tournament early, as did Seton Hall. Drexel lost their title game to VCU.

However, the Gaels status in the tournament appeared to be over when St. Bonaventure won the A-10 over Xavier. With a small school of just over 2,000 students reaching the tournament over Xavier, it meant one less spot for a school and Iona looked like they weren't going dancing because of this.

Iona ended up being one of Lunardi's first four teams out once the Selection Show came on.

In a surprising twist to some, Iona was given a tournament play-in game against Brigham Young that will be played tomorrow night in Dayton, Ohio.

Almost immediately, many people in the college hoops community questioned if Iona’s spot in the tournament was warranted.  Now something like this should be expected considering Iona is a small school in a weak conference (ranked 16th by Statsheet,com), but the Gaels were one of the most under-appreciated sides in the country throughout this season.

Iona are first in the country with 83.3 points per game, first with 19.3 assists per game and are second in the country in field-goal percentage, making 50.4 percent of their shots.

The Gaels offense has been spectacular with their own "Big Three" that very few schools can match.

Scott Machado is one of the best point guards in the country, averaging 13.3 points per game with 9.9 assists per game. Machado has also been nominated for the Bob Cousy Award and the John R. Wooden Award and was named the MAAC Player of the Year for his performance this season.

Michael Glover was shortlisted before the season to win the Wooden Award, and was also nominated as the Preseason Player of the Year in the MAAC. And Lamont "Momo" Jones was a star at Arizona who scored 43 points in a game this year and has brought an added dynamic value to the Iona offense.

Iona posses key role players like Sean Armand, who scored 32 points off the bench against Siena at Madison Square Garden in January, along with Randy Dezouvre, who scored 17 against Nevada in what is the biggest win for Iona to date this season.

These players faced plenty of adversity this season by playing all of their games away from the Hynes Athletic Center during a five-week stretch during December and the beginning of January.

That stretch saw the Gaels play away games at schools like Denver, Marshall, Richmond and Vermont.

Iona did lose two games during this stretch, but this tough road stretch helped to prepare the Gaels for the rest of their season.

The NCAA did admit that Iona's tough non-conference road schedule was a key factor for choosing Iona to make the tournament. Iona has a strength of schedule ranking of 43 according to CBS Sports, and recorded an RPI ranking of 18 due to their efforts.

Playing on the road was a major benefit for Iona this season. Out of their 25 wins, Iona recorded 15 of them playing away from New Rochelle. Only Harvard and Murray State were able to win more away games this season.

Iona also received a lack of respect from their lack of a signature win throughout the season. Yet were able to prove some of the critics wrong with a good home win against Nevada in their bracketbuster game. Iona won the game 90-84, yet were dominant offensively. Scott Machado recorded 15 assists and Iona was able to win with a strong team effort.

That team effort is a major key to Iona's success. The Gaels know how to pass the ball efficiently and look to find the open man. It is a key that allowed Iona to record 100 points on four different occasions this season.

When the NCAA committee make their final decision over who makes the tournament, they do not succumb to media pressure and make "the popular choice" for the bubble schools that are in the tournament.

Instead, they judge everything that these schools do and make their field based on who are the best of the best.

Iona do not play in a power conference—they play in the MAAC, a conference that only once had a team get rewarded with an at-large spot in the final field before Iona's appearance in this tournament.

The committee did make the right decision by agreeing with Tim Cluess to not overly populate the tournament with power conference teams and instead give the smaller teams a chance.

Last year, VCU got that chance to shine when the committee stunned everyone and put them in, going against the wishes of many. VCU went on to stun everyone and reach the Final Four.

From a quick glance, Iona do resemble VCU's story from last year. Now only time will tell if the Gaels can replicate that run this year.

Follow me on Twitter @Andrew_Jordan

With what had to be one of the last "At-Large" bids available to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, the Iona College Gaels from New Rochelle, were selected and will play Brigham Young University in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday evening at 9PM.

Iona and BYU will play for the opportunity to advance and play Marquette in Louisville on Thursday.  

BYU is 25-8 on the year and was 12-4 in the West Coast Conference.  This compares closely with Iona's 25-7 record and 15-3 record in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.  The only common opponent during the season was Nevada which both teams defeated.

The Iona team had practice Sunday afternoon then the players went off to one restaurant to eat and the coaches to another.  There was not a big team gathering to hear the news, everyone was afraid of being disappointed.  I said hello to Coach Cluess at about 7 p.m. and he seemed low-key.  Athletic Director Gene Morrison seemed a bit more anxious about what the news might be.  AD's have a lot of responsibilities for logistics and budgets once the news comes out.

The players and coaches heard the news at their respective New Rochelle restaurants and were cheered by followed patrons.  The players and coaches called each other and met back at the school.

Then started the mad scramble by different groups of coaches and staffers to make travel plans and to look up information and find video about BYU’s basketball team.

I participated in a conference call Sunday night with Iona Head Coach Tim Cluess and several of the Iona players who gave their reactions about being selected.  We will have the Iona player comments tomorrow.

Iona Head Coach Tim Cluess' opening statement: "Thrilled that Iona College and our basketball team has been selected to go into the NCAA Tournament.  We are unbelievably happy.  Our players are thrilled and deserving of this and we are looking forward to playing BYU on Tuesday." 

Q.  I asked Coach Cluess if he was surprised that Iona was selected:

A.  "We were hopeful going in, I knew we’d be on the bubble situation. So we weren’t sitting there thinking we were in. We were probably saying, with all the teams out there, it is going to be a tough decision for the selection committee but we remained hopeful and we got in.  We are just extremely excited, I wouldn’t say surprised, just more thrilled."

Q. How kind of shocked were you, what percentage of you going into today thought this would happen?

A.  "I honestly didn’t know the criteria of what they would be looking for.  I knew that our out-of-conference strength of schedule, our out-of-conference RPI, our overall RPI, the fact we had played so many road games.  We had a lot of things going in our favor that would give us a chance.  I also knew they were some tremendous teams they were looking at.  So you are  hopeful, you are not thinking that you are in, just hopeful that you have an outside chance.  When they announced us, it was beyond words, we are so excited for our school."

Q. What does getting in the tournament this mean to your team?

A. "When I saw the excitement in my players' eyes, and in their faces, I could not be happier. I was able to say to them, this is why you worked so hard over the last two years, for this opportunity, all your hard work has paid off, you can be proud of yourselves.  They are going to have this memory for the rest of their lives.  So now we are going to start getting ready for BYU."

Q.  What are your thoughts about BYU?

A. "I don’t know a lot about them, I know they are a very good basketball team. So we will take one game at a time.  We are going to get as much information as we can on them, my assistant coaches are hard at work on that.   Looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity.  I am really thrilled about it."

Q.  How satisfying is this for your conference? 

A.  "It is great for our conference.  It shows how much better our conference is becoming.  Last year I believe four teams were in the postseason as well. Have that again, and two of us in the NCAAs. Think that has only happened once before.   It is a phenomenal statement for our conference. People are recognizing that we are getting better. If you go out and play a tough schedule, you have a chance to be rewarded, that message is being sent to all the mid-majors."

Q.  What a great road record you had.  You had a stretch of nine straight games on the road in December. That must have been a factor.

A.  "Our guys did a phenomenal job during that stretch which easily could have been the end of your season if you do not handle it the right way against some very tough teams on their home floors. All the non-conference games we played were in conferences ranked above us I am really thankful that we were rewarded for it."  

Q.  How does this feel as a coach to take your team to the NCAAs?

A.  "One of the best feelings, I can't even put it into words.  I know when I came here, Pat Lyons brought me in for this opportunity, thinking we had a chance we could do something special here. He gave me a chance  when others might not have.  I can not thank him or the ex-president (enough). The new President, new AD giving us every opportunity to continue to build from where we were. I am very lucky to be here with great fans, great alums and a group of kids willing to work really, really hard.  It s a thrill for any coach, as a player you want to be a part of the NCAA Tournament, as a coach you want to be part of it.  We are blessed to be part of it."

So the Gaels are in, the five seniors will have a chance to showcase their talents against BYU, a huge name in college athletics.  Watch to see if Iona can play like they did against Nevada another tall West Coast team.  What ever happens, players, coaches, fans remember these games for a long time.

Ken Kraetzer covers Iona basketball for WVOX 1460 AM in New Rochelle, NY  His Twitter address is SAL50NYRadio or Kgk914@aol.com

It is nice when one of the bigger names of college basketball in (analyst and announcer) Dick Vitale sticks up for two of the smaller schools in college basketball saying Thursday on Twitter @DickieV: 

"Drexel & Iona belong in NCAA tourney"

We will see in just a few hours if Iona—the regular season Metro Atlantic Athletic Champion with a record of 25-7—will get a shot at the "Big Dance" of the NCAA, or the somewhat smaller dance of the NIT.

Last year Iona did well in the post season College Insider Tournament, winning two games on the road against Valparaiso and East Tennessee State, as well as a home game against Buffalo, before losing the championship game to Santa Clara. 

The Gaels might be a favorite to win the NIT this year, and play again at Madison Square Garden if that is there fate.

What we know is that for college basketball players, the NCAA tournament appearance has become the Holy Grail of their careers, perhaps too much so. 

Players look to the NCAA as a defining moment of their basketball careers. How many times have we seen dreams crushed in mid-major conference tournament finals, realizing their NCAA dream is over, crying on the court.

It matters that much.

When Iona lost in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal to Fairfield, the NCAA dream appeared over for the team and its five seniors. But at the Post Game press conference, Head Coach Tim Cluess made the point that the MAAC should not be considered a "One-Bid League," that Iona should be considered a better team than people give them credit for, that has also easily beaten teams in the Big East, along with those in other power conferences.

The Gaels have a lot to be proud of this year, having finished the conference regular season as conference champions, with a 25-7 record after the MAAC Tournament. 

The Gaels regular season was highlighted by wins in the Puerto Rico tournament over Maryland, home wins over St. Joseph's and LIU and the huge "Bracketbuster" win over visiting Nevada. 

Then there was the odyssey of their month-long December road trip, when they won both halves of the Niagara-Canisius weekend and then games at Denver, Vermont and Richmond. The overtime shot by Randy Dezouvre against the Pioneers in their big arena was a highlight of the season. 

In December the Gaels won six of seven road games, including victories at Niagara, Canisius, Denver, Vermont, Richmond and William & Mary. The only loss in that stretch was to Marshall, currently an RPI 51 days after the Denver win and a complicated travel itinerary just to get there.

Most of their competition for an NCAA bid play in much bigger arenas, which allow them to schedule mostly home non-conference opponents. 

The Gaels have gone on the road, and mostly won at many hot beds of college basketball.

So far the automatic qualifiers include two teams Iona has beaten in Long Island and Vermont. 

Iona offers three very exciting players to the NCAA Tournament in power forward Mike Glover, point guard Scott Machado and off guard Lamont "Momo" Jones. 

Mike Glover playing out of position at center (instead of his natural power forward position), averages 18.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. He has great hands for the basketball, and is used to the defenses collapsing on him. Glover at 64.4 percent has one of the best shooting averages in the NCAA.

Then there is MAAC Player of the year—Scott Machado at the point guard position.

Machado learned a lot from the CIT tournament last year, and a summer trip playing in Brazil.  He leads the country with an average of 9.9 assists per game.

"Momo" Jones has increased his scoring as the season went along, now averaging 16.0 per game. He had a highlight game against Canisius, scoring 43 when he was hot with his three-point shooting. In other games he has gone straight or around defenders to the hoop, and has also been able to pull up and scored with short jumpers all season long. He is an exciting player to watch.  

MAAC Commissioner stood up for the Gaels when I contacted him on Thursday saying:

I think the selection in reviewing Iona’s body of work will find a compelling case for their selection as an at-large team for the NCAA’s...The Gaels went on the road and beat good teams, and at home beat highly regarded St. Joe’s and Nevada. When you match them up with any of the possible at-large teams under consideration I firmly believe that they would be the better selection.

So we will find out very soon if it will be the NCAA for Iona or the NIT.

Iona, in any case, will be an exciting team to watch in the post season. 

Ken Kraetzer covers Iona basketball and West Point football for WVOX 1460 AM and heard nationally on WVOX.com. 

His Twitter address is SAL50NYRadio 

It’s been over 24 hours, and I’m still in a state of disbelief. The Loyola Greyhounds—my Loyola Greyhounds—are going to the NCAA Tournament.

This is something I never thought I would ever see. Jimmy Patsos had the unenviable task of inheriting a program in disarray. Patsos arrived on the scene in 2004, one season after the Greyhound program finished an embarrassing 1-27.

The basketball team had been so bad that from 1999 to 2005 they only managed to win 29 game, which is only five more than this year’s club has won so far.

As fate would have it, 2004 was my freshman year at Loyola University Maryland College, and I had heard all the horror stories about the basketball team and overall lack of enthusiasm for the program. Believe me when I tell you, there was something lacking in those early days.

Patsos would try mightily to instill enthusiasm in a stagnant fan base that was apathetic at best. Hell, most time any of us went to a game during that 2004 season was because we had some time to kill on a Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps the biggest attempt was when Patsos had former Notre Dame head coach and current ESPN college basketball analyst Digger Phelps address the fan base early in his first season as head coach. Phelps did his best to get a rise out of us, going so far as to proclaim Loyola as the future “Gonzaga of the East.” Sure, we were all excited—we were freshman, we didn’t know any better.

The first season was tough, no doubt, but there was a certain grittiness about the team under Patsos. The team only won six games that first season, but Charlie Bell lead a much more spirited and focused group on the court.

The program took a gigantic step forward during the 2005 – 2006 season thanks to the diminutive sparkplug, Andre Collins. Collins was a Maryland transfer and immediately became one of the most successful players in school history. He finished his one year at Loyola as the nation’s third leading scorer as well as leading Loyola to its first winning record in years.

Gerald Brown would become another high-profile transfer to become the man for the Greyhounds. Easily one of the most well rounded players on the team, Brown teamed with Mo Sullivan and led the team to two hugely successful seasons, including a dramatic and heartbreaking run in the MAAC Tournament in 2008, which ended with a loss to eventual champ and NCAA Tournament darling Sienna.

Many thought that the 2007-2008 season would be a building block for future Loyola teams, yet it never happened. Three ho-hum seasons with early exits in the MAAC Tournament lead to speculation that Patsos might be on the hot seat.

Fortunately, the team got off to a quick start and never looked back this season. Shane Howard, Erik Etherly and Dylon Cormier led a well balance squad that took the MAAC by storm this season. Loyola finished with the most wins in the school’s history since they transitioned to a Division I school, and were able to breeze through the MAAC Tournament until they played Fairfield in the finals.

Sure, the game was sloppy, and it wasn’t what one would call fundamentally sound. But just as Patsos’s team proved back in 2004, they would not be afraid to get down and dirty to get a win.

Everything came full circle on Monday night, when years of effort and sacrifice finally paid off. All the hard work of Charlie Bell, Andre Collins and Gerald Brown was rewarded when Loyola did the unthinkable and won the MAAC.

Gonzaga of the East?

Nah. I prefer Loyola of the East.

Ever heard of Loyola University Maryland or Jimmy Patsos before Monday night?

I would not be surprised if you had not—the only reason I had is because I have religiously followed the MAAC for many seasons.

Patsos, the head coach at Loyola, took over the men's basketball program in 2004 after the Greyhounds went 1-27 under Coach Scott Hicks in 2003-04. Patsos had previously been an assistant under Gary Williams at the University of Maryland from 1991-2004.

Patsos' first season at Loyola was rough, as his squad finished 6-22. Since then, there has been steady improvement. He reeled off three straight winning seasons, and then this year, he finally put together a team of which the Loyola program can truly be proud.

On Monday night, Loyola defeated Fairfield in the MAAC championship game, 48-44, to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

This is just the second time that the Greyhounds will play in the Big Dance. (The only other time they went was in 1994, when they upset No. 2 seed Manhattan in the MAAC championship. But Loyola ultimately could not do any damage in the NCAA Tournament, losing to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 81-55.)

On Monday, the Greyhounds relinquished an early 16-9 lead and went into halftime trailing, 30-26. They quickly surged ahead of the Stags in the second half, but, after Desmond Wade's three-pointer, Fairfield trailed by just three in the final two minutes.

Down the stretch, Loyola made multiple defensive stops before senior Shane Walker's free throw with 2.8 seconds left iced the game by giving the Greyhounds a 48-44 lead.

This win adds one more accomplishment to a Loyola season that has been full of success.

A few weeks ago, the Greyhounds defeated Boston University in a BracketBuster game to mark its first 20-win season since 1948. Then, with a win at Manhattan in the final game of the regular season, they finished in second place in the MAAC, the Greyhounds' best finish since the 1996-97 season.

Maybe Loyola can add one more accomplishment to its list with a monster upset next week. The Greyhounds will most likely be either a No. 14 or No. 15 seed.

Also, make sure you are in front of your television when Loyola plays next week. Regardless of whether or not the Greyhounds can put up a fight, Patsos' sideline antics are guaranteed to give a good show.

The Fairfield Stags (19-13) went on a 16-1 second-half run to defeat the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season champion Iona Gaels (25-7) by a score of 85-75 in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

The Stags advance to the Metro Atlantic Conference final Monday night and will play Loyola a 70-60 victor over Siena in the doubleheader second game for the coveted NCAA bid. 

Rakim Sanders led Fairfield with 26 points including a momentum-changing move to the basket between two Iona defenders with 9:42 left in the game.  This followed a Jamel Fields three that ignited the rally.  Sanders contributed seven straight points on a layup, jumper and three to advance Fairfield to a 70-61 lead.

Both Colin Nickerson and Keith Mathews had 14 points, and Ryan Olander had 11 points for Fairfield.  

Sanders added 12 rebounds as Fairfield out-rebounded Iona 32-20.  The Stags also had a big edge in assists 27-15.

Fairfield was playing without Derek Needham who broke a bone in his foot against Iona in New Rochelle last week. 

Iona Coach Tim Cluess credited the Fairfield bench led by Matthews outscoring Iona's bench 19-12.

Fairfield got a second wind in the second half when Iona did not.

Iona was led by the 24 points and seven assists of MAAC Player of the Year Scott Machado, including four first-half threes.  Mike Glover had 19 points and eight rebounds.  Momo Jones had a number of moves to the basket but only took one three, which he missed—finishing with 16 points.

After shooting 59 percent in the first half, Iona was held to 41 percent shooting in the second.  Fairfield shot well throughout—59.6 percent on the day. 

Early on hot three-point shooting for both teams picked up the pace of game and Scott Machado hit four threes in first half and had 14 points. Colin Nickerson hit consecutive threes and then a two to give Stags a 29-27 lead. After a Machado three, Keith Mathews hit a layup to give Fairfield a 31-30 lead with 4:54 left in the first half.

Not a lot of defense late in the first half as both teams ran the court and started to hit threes.  Fairifeild's Colin Nickerson hit consecutive threes then a two-pointer to give Fairfield a 29-27 lead.  Then Machado hit one of his four first-half threes. 

Back in for up and down the court.  A Keith Mathews layup gives Fairfeld a 31-30 lead.  Rakim Sanders hits for two, then Mike Glover dunked for two, followed by Nickerson hitting another three.  Ra'Shad James comes in for Iona and hits a jumper and a three for five quick Iona points—they trail by one 38-37.

Gaels Sean Armand comes in and hits a three, Fairfield comes back and ties, then Scott Machado hits a two to give Gaels 42-40 lead at the half.

Machado had quite a first half with 16 points and five assists.  Mike Glover had eight points and Momo Jones six.  Stags out-rebounded Iona 15-8 in half but had seven turnovers compared with Gaels two.

For Fairfield, Colin Nickerson had 13 points and Rakim Sanders had 11. 

Both teams shot well, Iona 61 percent and Fairfield 58 percent in the first half.

In the second half, a Mike Glover dunk followed by a Scott Machado layup gave the Gaels a 56-50 lead with 13:15 left.

Rakim Sanders beat an Iona double-team under the basket to get the Stags back with in one at 61-60.  Colin Nickerson hits a jumper with 8:15 left to give Stags the lead at 61-60. 

Fairfield goes on a 10-point run punctuated by a Rakim Sanders three-point jumper. Stags go up 70-61 with 5:47 left. Sanders had 21 points at this point. Gaels were ice cold.

After an injury time out, Momo Jones gets Iona back into game with two layups. Iona trails 72-66 with 3:44 left.

Machado gets his fourth foul on an inbound play with just over two minutes to go.  Fairfield leads 76-67.

Mike Glover misses two free throws.  Fairfield leads on rebounds 28-16. Fairfield is now shooting 59 percent on the game.

Momo Jones gets another layup, Gaels trail by seven at 76-69 with 1:37 left. Jones has 16 points.

But it was not enough, Iona could not beat Fairfield three times in a season—the Stags hold on to the win 85-75.

For the Gaels who had one of their best regular seasons ever, it's a wait-and-see if the NCAA considers them for an at large bid, rarely given to a mid-major program.  Coach Clues thought afterwards that the tough nine-game road trip they played through December (winning seven including games at Denver, Richmond and Vermont) should be a factor.

Otherwise, the Gaels are looking at an opportunity in the NIT.  The success Iona had in reaching the CIT championship game suggests they have a shot to make it through three rounds to Madison Square Garden.

Nothing right now will make the Iona seniors (especially Scott Machado and Mike Glover) feel better. Making the NCAA tournament is every college basketball player's ultimate dream, and that is unlikely to happen for them. 

Ken Kraetzer covers Iona basketball for WVOX 1460 AM in New Rochelle, NY and Sons of the American Legion radio.  His Twitter address is @SAL50NYRadio.