Iona refocused, galvanized entering AC in search of 6th straight MAAC title

Still consensus favorite to win MAAC, Rick Pitino believes Iona’s loss to Manhattan could ultimately help Gaels in MAAC tournament. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Thursday’s loss to Manhattan may have shut the door on a potential at-large bid for Iona into the impending NCAA Tournament, but the Gaels remain the prohibitive favorites as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament — an event Iona has won each of the last five times it was completed — tips off in Atlantic City Tuesday.

And according to Rick Pitino, who knows a thing or two about college basketball, the 74-72 loss to the Jaspers on March 3 could prove to be a blessing in disguise.

“I look at the Manhattan loss as a very, very good thing,” Iona’s head coach said as his team begins its latest MAAC title defense in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round against either the same Manhattan team that upended the Gaels five days ago, or Rider, whom Iona swept in the regular season. “They realize they’re coming to play, and Iona’s got an X on everybody’s back. They learned a valuable lesson from that.”

“We usually like to learn our lessons from wins instead of losses,” point guard Elijah Joiner echoed. “I feel like losing that game put an extra chip on our shoulder because us being the seniors, we didn’t play the way we were supposed to play. We came into practice with a different mindset, and we came into the game with a different mindset. We just wanted to set the tone before we head to AC.”

The tone of which Joiner speaks included a players-only meeting called by fellow senior Tyson Jolly on Friday, one day before Iona defeated Quinnipiac to conclude the regular season 25-6. The message in that gathering? Determining what Iona wanted to glean from its seven-month journey, said Joiner.

“Tyson called a meeting and he said, ‘What are we going to do?’” Joiner recalled. “Coach is going to have his thing, but it’s about us and figuring out what we want as a team. When you’ve got a team that’s special like that off the court, it only builds your confidence and gels you together on the court. That’s just been the journey for us. When we took our losses, we came together closer as a team and we always had the mindset that we were going to get better to prepare for the next one.”

Iona’s coach prepared just the same, and even realized that this group is different from those he led at bigger programs, thus prompting the Hall of Fame mentor to dial back the intensity somewhat.

“I came to the conclusion that this team is not Louisville,” he quipped, later paraphrasing a classic line from his Boston Celtics days. “I thought about it for 36 hours, and Russ Smith and Peyton Siva are not walking through that door. I want to get there someday with the suffocating pressure, but I’ve gotta back it off a little bit. We’re going to wait until we get the type of athletes that can play that way, and mix it up.”

“I think we’re ready for the tournament, but I also don’t think we’re any better than anybody. Now, we had a fabulous season and the guys deserve a lot of credit, because we upgraded the schedule and next year, we’re upgrading it even more. We had a really tough schedule and we’re going to keep scheduling that way, but I think if we had beaten Manhattan and gotten to the finals, we would have had a chance at an at-large bid. Now, we’re either going to win it or we’re going to go home. It’s really difficult to beat a team three times unless you’re significantly better. But we’ll be ready for them, whoever it may be.”

And for his players, most of whom having come to New Rochelle to learn and grow under him, three games remain in a quest to lead Iona back to where most feel it belongs, under a spotlight the Gaels’ all-MAAC guard would not have any other way.

“We’re very hungry,” Jolly said. “We tried to fight hard to get an at-large bid, but now that we don’t have that chance, it’s even more special to go in with our backs against the wall knowing our season could end, and go win three games. Teams think they can play with us now because we’ve been beat, so now all the pressure is on us. But pressure’s what we’re made of. We’re built for it, and I feel like going into the tournament, we’re going to start rising up to the level we can. We have a lot to prove individually.”