Iona -8.5 over Marist ****
Foxes coach Dunne is now just 31-51 at Marist after being head coach at St Peters. He is a no nonsense defensive coach and was successful at Peter because he instilled fundamental defensive basketball. But the difference is in my opinion is at Peter he had more athletic players. Foxes have all 5 starters back and ended up 3rd in the MAAC with 10-8 record. It was there 1st winning season in 10-12 years. And although he has Wright and Sullivan at gds Foxes have limited inside players. They are not big and when you lose to Army by 5 and 19 to Princeton you still have offensive problems. Scoring,FG%,3 pt%,ranks in the 200's and 300's. And FT % ranks almost worst in the country at 341th. Yes Shaq shot better ..
Iona always had talent .Always recruited the best players in the metro area that didn't want to go to St Johns I have been to so many games at McCann where Marist-Iona were playing. A few years back I watched Iona come out onto the court ,laid back, joking around and shooting 3's in warmups from beyond the NBA line. it was a joke No discipline dunking and reverse dunking on the lay up line. Laughing it up. I was so upset about their display of pre-game warm ups but you know what. They kicked the daylights out of Marist and hit some NBA 3's ,reverse dunking etc.. But Cluess was fired and in comes Pitino. Wow day and night change. You can say what you want about Pitino and his recruiting at Louie and his restaurant table top escapade but he can coach.
Iona last year made the NCAA's and lost to Bama in the 1st round. A few weeks ago Iona played Bama who was ranked 10th and beat them. The MAAC was 0-119 vs Top 10 teams, Now are 1-119.
Iona has some inside presence with Joseph at 6'9 avg 15 pts and 8 bds. Jolly transferred from SMU and joiner from Tulsa. This team has 5 guys that avg over 1 assist a game . Van Eyke and Slazinski and Joseph are all 6'8 and 6'9. Foxes will have a tough time stopping the paint area and Iona has quick gds . Think Iona wins this up in poughkeepsie which is an hour bus ride north from New Rochelle I can see a double digit win with Iona pressuring the Foxes gds the entire game. Not sure what the pre-game warm ups look like tonite but maybe they should show boat and dunk and shoot from row 3. It worked for them in the past
Kansas St -17.5 over Albany ***
KSU has good gds and much bigger and more athletic front line. Albany is in trouble from the jump ball. They already can't shoot or rebound. and firing their coach Will Brown last year was a mistake KSU avgs over 72 pts a game. Albany gives up almost 70 pts on defense.. blowout..
Hofstra -3.5 over Princeton. ***
Ray and company are to much for the Tigers to handle.
St Joes -11 over binghamton **
Joes isn't that good but there is a reason why the Bearcats were pre-season predicted 11th in the America East. Think maybe there are only 10 teams in the American East conf.
Foxes coach Dunne is now just 31-51 at Marist after being head coach at St Peters. He is a no nonsense defensive coach and was successful at Peter because he instilled fundamental defensive basketball. But the difference is in my opinion is at Peter he had more athletic players. Foxes have all 5 starters back and ended up 3rd in the MAAC with 10-8 record. It was there 1st winning season in 10-12 years. And although he has Wright and Sullivan at gds Foxes have limited inside players. They are not big and when you lose to Army by 5 and 19 to Princeton you still have offensive problems. Scoring,FG%,3 pt%,ranks in the 200's and 300's. And FT % ranks almost worst in the country at 341th. Yes Shaq shot better ..
Iona always had talent .Always recruited the best players in the metro area that didn't want to go to St Johns I have been to so many games at McCann where Marist-Iona were playing. A few years back I watched Iona come out onto the court ,laid back, joking around and shooting 3's in warmups from beyond the NBA line. it was a joke No discipline dunking and reverse dunking on the lay up line. Laughing it up. I was so upset about their display of pre-game warm ups but you know what. They kicked the daylights out of Marist and hit some NBA 3's ,reverse dunking etc.. But Cluess was fired and in comes Pitino. Wow day and night change. You can say what you want about Pitino and his recruiting at Louie and his restaurant table top escapade but he can coach.
Iona last year made the NCAA's and lost to Bama in the 1st round. A few weeks ago Iona played Bama who was ranked 10th and beat them. The MAAC was 0-119 vs Top 10 teams, Now are 1-119.
Iona has some inside presence with Joseph at 6'9 avg 15 pts and 8 bds. Jolly transferred from SMU and joiner from Tulsa. This team has 5 guys that avg over 1 assist a game . Van Eyke and Slazinski and Joseph are all 6'8 and 6'9. Foxes will have a tough time stopping the paint area and Iona has quick gds . Think Iona wins this up in poughkeepsie which is an hour bus ride north from New Rochelle I can see a double digit win with Iona pressuring the Foxes gds the entire game. Not sure what the pre-game warm ups look like tonite but maybe they should show boat and dunk and shoot from row 3. It worked for them in the past
Kansas St -17.5 over Albany ***
KSU has good gds and much bigger and more athletic front line. Albany is in trouble from the jump ball. They already can't shoot or rebound. and firing their coach Will Brown last year was a mistake KSU avgs over 72 pts a game. Albany gives up almost 70 pts on defense.. blowout..
Hofstra -3.5 over Princeton. ***
Ray and company are to much for the Tigers to handle.
St Joes -11 over binghamton **
Joes isn't that good but there is a reason why the Bearcats were pre-season predicted 11th in the America East. Think maybe there are only 10 teams in the American East conf.
