[RiderRaver]

With the MAAC season officially over, I thought I would give a couple thoughts on this year and a look to next. First, I think this was the best the MAAC has looked in a while. Iona had two great OOC road wins and looked great in the MAAC tourney (and the first 25 minutes against LSU), Manhattan played a tough schedule, made a nice run in the NIT, got to 20 wins, and won the regular season, Marist made great strides and look like they will be a force next year, and Siena's improvement was one of the best in the nation and Fran's new K gives their program stability and a return to good days. Congrats to Keekee for getting his 3,000- a well deserved honor and the cupboard in Jersey City is not as bare as I thought it would be. Patsos has turned Loyola around and, if you believe MacDog, the transfers coming in are all pretty good. Fairfield and Canisius had tough years and get to start over with new staffs and Niagara struggled having lost Mendez et al but should be a factor next year.

I think the MAAC needs to keep scheduling quality OOC teams and beating the low majors that are on the schedule. Manhattan should enter as the favorite next year especially if Bobby returns with Marist, Siena, and Niagara definite factors as well. Hopefully Iona gets good quickly and doesn't have a crapy OOC season before turning it on with all their young talent. Should be an interesting off season.

I agree. In relative terms it was a surprisingly good season for the MAAC.

 

[RiderRaver]

I agree w/ most of what you said above...The difference between the majors and the mids is about 2 or 3 inches in height of the forwards...When Manhattan beat Oklahoma, they had some legit big guys in there (Marshall, Hoover)...Even when they beat Florida in '04, Holmes and Benton were good enough despite giving up size...Though they got lucky in terms of matchups there, whereas Iona this year got a brutal draw...This the same ODU team that nearly beat Michigan State last year in the 1st round, they have 3 legit big guys, none of them are from this country, so Blaine Taylor obviously did his homework and has been rewarded handsomely...If you can find a good one, like O'Bryant on Bradley, or Lewis on George Mason, or Miller of Wichita State, you can do some things...Can't answer the ? on the Albany incoming center, except to say in theory a 3 star center should dominate that conference...

As for the facilities, I don't think much of that will ever change...Basketball is huge in the smaller mid-west cities and they have the fan bases to support 10 k seat arenas...Most of the MAAC school show a desire to win (Iona locking up Ruland and Manhattan locking up Gonzo, etc...), it's just that Siena is really the only one (maybe Buffalo schools?) where an 8-12 k seat arena is financially feasible...There are enough people who are interested to fill it...The advantage that most of the MAAC schools have is they're close to big cities w/ big talent bases...

Well said, but the problem is that probably 200 DI schools routinely recruit in the northeast. The competition is intense. Rider has made strides stealing talent from the A10 and to a lesser extent the BE.