Bozzella prepares for emotional return to Iona on heels of valiant effort against UConn

Tony Bozzella returns to Iona Sunday for first time since leaving Gaels for Seton Hall in 2013. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

When you spend eleven years turning a program that was virtually nonexistent when you arrived into a contender, recruiting multiple all-league talents and perhaps the greatest player in the history of your conference before ultimately leaving for a well-deserved step up, the first trip back to the site of some of your greatest memories can be a whirlwind of emotions.

Doing so less than 72 hours removed from nearly upsetting the most historically dominant team in the sport? That only ramps up the adrenaline just a little bit.

Just ask Tony Bozzella, whose Seton Hall Pirates — three days after taking UConn to the limit in front of a raucous home crowd — visit Iona Sunday afternoon, the school at which Bozzella coached and became a household name before returning to his alma mater in 2013.

“It’ll be a really emotional day for us,” Bozzella admitted as his Seton Hall team — with a pair of his former players in Lauren DeFalco and Marissa Flagg on his staff, as well as senior guard Alexis Lewis, who won a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship with the Gaels in 2016 before transferring last year — makes the short trek to New Rochelle. “I’m concerned, because (Thursday) was an emotional day for us too. But this is a really important game for us to have any chance of getting an at-large bid. We can’t just go into that game. They’re a well-coached team, but if you don’t guard them, they can make shots.”

Already a proven winner before taking over at Iona, Bozzella burnished his resume by proving himself as an equal to Marist head coach Brian Giorgis at the height of the Red Foxes’ MAAC dynasty, becoming the winningest coach in Iona history before his departure. The list of players the charismatic Bozzella developed both on and off the floor in maroon and gold reads like a Who’s Who of Iona greats, with Martina Weber, Damika Martinez and Joy Adams supplemented by supporting cast members the likes of Thazina Cook, Suzi Fregosi, Diana Hubbard, DeFalco, Flagg, Haley D’Angelo, Sabrina Jeridore, Aaliyah Robinson, Cassidee Ranger and Aleesha Powell. So when he was asked by his successor, Billi Chambers, if he would be interested in a home-and-home series, there was no question what the answer would be.

“Billi had called me and said, ‘We’re looking for a home-and-home, would you like to come back here? Obviously, you had a lot of great memories,’” Bozzella recalled. “And I’m like, ‘absolutely.’ I have a lot of respect for Billi and the success she’s had at Iona, so it was great. I’m excited to go back there, I really am, and about 20 of our former players will be there. I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody.”

Amid all the fanfare and emotions comes the matter of business, the basketball game at hand. Coming in off a 92-78 loss to UConn, an affair whose final score was in no way indicative of how the contest actually played out, Seton Hall proved — more than anything — that it could play at a high level, something Bozzella was satisfied with, perhaps most of all.

“As an alum, I’m really proud of where the program is,” he gushed. “I think this is the best in the seven years I’ve been here, not record-wise, but people-wise. We really have good people in our program right now, and that’s a tribute to our staff, to get these kids and coach them and teach them. That’s what we’re trying to do.”