Iona may be underdog at MSG Saturday, but Gaels enter showdown with Johnnies with nothing to lose

CJ Anthony (11) leads Iona into battle with St. John’s Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Gaels insist matchup with ranked Red Storm will be just another game. (Photo by Iona Athletics)

NEW YORK — Iona may be outnumbered in the stands and dismissed in the minds of fans and the media against St. John’s, but don’t tell the Gaels they cannot beat the Red Storm at Madison Square Garden.

Saturday’s clash between Iona (8-3) and the 22nd-ranked Johnnies is the first among the two schools since December 17, 2017, when a Chris Mullin-led St. John’s team beat Tim Cluess’ Gaels in the Holiday Festival. It also marks Iona’s first trip to the Garden since 2018, a losing effort against Columbia. But while the significance of the backdrop is not lost on Iona’s players, the mindset remains the same: It’s just another game.

“We’ll treat it like a regular game,” point guard CJ Anthony said after conceding that playing at the home of the New York Knicks was special. “We all know how fortunate we are to play at the Garden and live out one of our dreams. I feel like a kid even though I’m just here to play basketball at a high level versus a really good team. It’ll be fun to watch.”

Toby Harris, who transferred to Iona from Division III Brandeis University in Massachusetts, far away from the marquee of midtown Manhattan, echoed that sentiment. The forward also welcomed the opportunity to face both St. John’s and its rabid fan base, indicating that environment is likely to bring out the best in his own team.

“For myself, it’s a little bit surreal coming from a D3 school,” Harris said. “You dream about this is a kid, so it’s definitely a good experience. But like (Anthony) said, we’ll treat it like another game, ready to go. To be honest, I feel like we like playing on the road (with a) hostile crowd. It brings out energy. It’s hard to win on the road, but we’d like to do our thing.”

Iona head coach Dan Geriot, unlike the players on his roster, has memories of a juiced-up Garden atmosphere. As a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant, Geriot was in the building in 2023 when the Cavs faced the Knicks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, with the Knicks winning Game 3 on their home floor by 20 points en route to their first postseason series win in a decade.

“It’s the loudest I’ve been in, when I was (with the) Cavs (against the) Knicks in Game 3,” he reminisced. “When the national anthem happened, I was like, ‘oh boy, this place is energized!’ It’s a great opportunity for us, and one of the best venues in sports, especially for basketball.”

St. John’s presents a challenge with its size, physicality and tremendous ball pressure on defense. The latter characteristic will make the backcourt of Anthony and Denver Anglin all the more integral if Iona is to post the upset on Saturday, as the Gaels’ dual playmakers will need to make sound decisions while also attacking the lane and neutralizing the all-Big East interior of Bryce Hopkins and Zuby Ejiofor.

“I think we’ve gotta find out who can handle, who can get to space and who can get us in our rhythm on offense as best we can,” Geriot assessed. “And if we do have some hiccups along the way, I think it’s the bigger process of ‘okay, now let’s find solutions faster.’”

“That was the point of the first eleven games. It’s the same idea when we play against an opponent like that with so much size and physicality. For us, though, it’s trying to find what handlers and what combos make sense for where we’re going, and then go off their rotations as well and see what we’ve got in that opportunity.”

Geriot hinted at potentially doubling the post against Hopkins and Ejiofor if necessary, but also emphasized the need to keep St. John’s off balance and limit second shot opportunities. In the end, the preparation — while different given the caliber of team Iona faces — is simultaneously no different from the competition it has already faced. If anything, Wednesday’s win over Bryant showed that the Gaels can turn the page from Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponents back to non-conference foes with little to no adjustment.

“I think our preparation stays the same,” Harris reiterated. “We pride ourselves on our preparation, we think it’s probably the best — if not, one of the best — in the country, so it doesn’t really change for us. Obviously, people think MAAC games have more standing, but to us, every game means the same right now.”

“We’re trying to attack every day, go 1-0 every day. That’s what we preach, so I would say our preparation stays the same and it’ll be the same on Saturday.”