With the MAAC basketball tournament tipping off on Tuesday, here’s our breakdown and predictions for this week’s event in Atlantic City
MAAC basketball is consistently one of the most interesting mid-major contests in the men’s game. The regular seasons are never predictable, standings never stable, and despite the complete chaos that’s come to define MAAC hoops, Iona has the longest-running conference tournament winning streak in the country. This week they’ll be vying for an unprecedented fifth-straight MAAC basketball championship.
But the landscape of the conference changed in a big way this year; new coaches, like Carmen Maciariello and Greg Paulus greatly exceeded expectations in their first year on their respective campuses. Maciariello managed to lead Siena to its first regular-season title in ten years. Iona finished with its lowest league standing since 2009, and for the first time since their run began will have to compete in the MAAC tournament without a first-round bye.
Some familiar faces returned to dominate MAAC hoops, like Jalen Pickett, Ray Salnave and Tajuan Agee, while others, like Dimencio Vaughn, Deion Hammond and Rich Kelly emerged as major contributors and go-to scorers. Newcomers like Elijah Burns and Isaiah Washington joined the league and became immediate contributors. A core of mostly freshmen came within a game of winning the regular-season title for St. Peter’s.
But the hard truth for mid-major conferences like the MAAC is that nothing really matters before the conference tournament. No team in the conference has even an outside shot at earning an at-large bid to the tournament, and even the worst-performing teams over the regular season can win the league’s ultimate prize.