Iona draws UConn in highly anticipated NCAA Tournament showdown

Iona players and coaches await their NCAA Tournament fate before Gaels were announced as UConn’s opponent in first round. (Photo by Jennifer Williams/WNYW New York)

By Pete Janny (@pete_janny)

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — About five hours after returning from their championship experience in Atlantic City, the Iona Gaels took in the NCAA Tournament selection show on their tight-knit New Rochelle campus on Sunday evening. 

As the program got underway, the familiar voices emanating from the big screens in each corner of the Hynes Center were busy doing the talking. Here, all eyes were on the Gaels, seated in two full rows of chairs situated in the corner of the court closest to the locker room. At one end of the first row sat Rick Pitino, waiting for the inevitable moment his team’s name would be called for the second time in an eventful three years for him in New Rochelle. 

 

The excitement in the room became increasingly palpable with each passing 13 seed, which had already become a popular placement for the Gaels among bracket prognosticators. Soon came the West Regional bracket and its notable promise of hosting games in Albany. 

The Gaels were called, but the nod was for Saint Mary’s first, and unsurprisingly as the No. 5 seed. Greg Gumbel’s tease drew some laughter from the crowd. Those Gaels drew VCU.

What happened next was almost too epic to be true. The Connecticut Huskies heard their name called for the No. 4 seed, and immediately following that, Gumbel tabbed Pitino’s confident Gaels as the 13 seed in the West, setting up a date for the ages in Albany between two northeast programs. 

The irony in all this was real too.

It’s no secret Pitino has been linked with the St. John’s job among others, but before he makes a decision on that, he will have to deal with another Big East opponent on the court. Pitino’s battles with the Huskies date back to his years coaching Louisville in the Big East from 2001 to 2013. Moreover, assistant coach Taliek Brown, a former national champion guard under Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun, left his alma mater last offseason to join Pitino’s staff. The matchup also pits two former MAAC head coaches who are now assistants elsewhere against each other, as Iona director of operations Steve Masiello — who joined the Gaels’ staff shortly after his dismissal by Manhattan — battles Tom Moore, the former Quinnipiac head coach now on Dan Hurley’s staff at UConn.

Gumbel jumped on the opportunity to expound on those rumors too while a reserved Pitino sat with his players and his grandson, Luke, on his lap. Still, deep down is a coach locked in, having mastered the task of staying in the moment through his 40-plus years as a head coach in both the college and professional ranks.

“It’s Internet and TV hirings, not reality,” Pitino told reporters on the court at the Hynes Center. “I’ve been through all my life. (In 1996) I had five NBA teams that were supposedly going to hire me. What you do is pay no attention to it, but it’s obviously bigger here given that it’s a local school they're mentioning.” 

What is a reality is the matchup with UConn, which is slated for a 4:30 p.m. tipoff on Friday in Albany. This one is no picnic, says Pitino, but instead a showdown with a team that was ranked as high as second in the country this season after a 14-0 start.

“Many people were picking them to win the national championship,” Pitino said of the Huskies. “We know we have a tough matchup, but I think we’re ready for the task.” 

That is where Brown enters the picture. The only UConn player ever to score 1,000 points and dish out over 700 assists at the basketball-rich school, Brown was on the Huskies’ staff as recently as last season, serving as the director of player development. Pitino revealed that Brown will get the scout for this game, and with good reason. 

“It’s Taliek’s scout and he’s been hot of late,” Pitino said. “They’re very athletic and we’ll have to do a great job on the backboard.” 

It’s not every day a team possesses two bigs as elite as Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan are for UConn. Pitino says he will have to rely on freshman Silas Sunday to help counteract the potency of the Huskies’ frontcourt. UConn poses the biggest threat yet in virtually every aspect, and it starts with the bigs.

“They’re going to have their hands full with Connecticut’s bigs,” Pitino said, in reference to Iona’s starting frontcourt of Nelly Junior Joseph and Osborn Shema. 

Iona and its fans are hoping its first official NCAA Tournament win is on the horizon. The Gaels led in the second halves of each of their last two appearances in the field of 68, but were unable to hold the advantages against North Carolina (2019) and Alabama (2021). The Gaels believe they have the pieces to do it, and hold great pride for the school they represent. 

“Coach P came here and that’s why I came,” Walter Clayton, Jr. told reporters after the selection show. “They already had a name before with the guys that were here who won a bunch of MAAC Championships. I feel like they were already on the map.”

Pitino loves the culture in place at Iona and being just eight minutes away from home, as well as the fact that the administration is fully invested in building a big-time program at Iona, which Pitino described as a “Catholic university with great pride.”

“They allowed me to make a non-conference schedule for wherever we want to go,” Pitino said. “We went to Las Vegas, Hawaii, New Mexico and they said, ‘have at it.’”

“Everything changes come tournament time. We’re not getting an advantage by winning 14 straight and they're not getting an advantage from a loss.”