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MAAC Basketball: 2020 conference tournament preview and predictions

By Pan Karalis

BRIDGEPORT, CT - MARCH 07: (L-R) Ryan Bacon #4, Jeron Belin #5, Wesley Jenkins #15 and Nick Leon #22 of the St. Peter's Peacocks celebrate with the conference championship trophy after they won 62-57 against the Iona Gaels during the final of the MAAC men's conference basketball tournment at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard on March 7, 2011 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images)
BRIDGEPORT, CT - MARCH 07: (L-R) Ryan Bacon #4, Jeron Belin #5, Wesley Jenkins #15 and Nick Leon #22 of the St. Peter's Peacocks celebrate with the conference championship trophy after they won 62-57 against the Iona Gaels during the final of the MAAC men's conference basketball tournment at Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard on March 7, 2011 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (Photo by Chris Chambers/Getty Images) /
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WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 08: The Siena Saints logo (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 08: The Siena Saints logo (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

Teams to watch

Siena

The Saints are the favorites heading into the week’s action, winning the league’s regular season with a 15-5 conference record. Siena, under first-year coach Carmen Maciariello, is riding a 9-game win streak into the tourney after sitting around .500 11 games into the MAAC schedule. Siena’s led by reigning league rookie of the year Jalen Pickett, who ranks top ten in the conference in most major offensive categories, including scoring, field goal percentage, assists.

But Siena is more than their star sophomore this year; four players averaged in double digits, including Notre Dame transfer Elijah Burns, and breakout junior Manny Camper who averaged about ten more minutes a game this season (up to more than 35 a game) after staying through the coaching transition.

St. Peter’s

Shaheen Holloway has been described as a “runaway candidate” for MAAC Coach of the Year after bringing St. Peter’s to second place in the Metro-Atlantic standings with a team built around youth and incredible depth; seniors provide only peripheral scoring (there are no juniors on the roster), no single player averages in double digits, and Holloway’s rotation is twelve deep. KC Ndefo leads the team in both scoring (8.5 ppg) and rebounds, but defenses can’t plan around limiting a single player on this Peacocks team that finished ninth in the previous two seasons.

Rider

Another up-and-down season did land the Broncs the third seed in the MAAC tournament, but Kevin Baggett needs a lot more out of this season than a 12-8 league record and another one-and-done in the conference’s playoff. The Broncs haven’t won a postseason game since 2017, and haven’t played more than two games in the MAAC tournament in 12 years.

The Broncs still have the core of the group that tore through the MAAC with a 15-3 record and won the league in 2018 and certainly have the talent to take a run at the title this week, but they’ll have to buck a trend that’s seen them regress over the last few years and have virtually no postseason success during Baggett’s tenure.

Monmouth

King Rice’s team fell to the fourth seed after losing to Siena at home on the final day of the regular season, with Rider owning the tiebreaker between the schools that both finished 12-8. Monmouth’s deadly backcourt of juniors Deion Hammond and Ray Salnave will likely carry any success they could have this week, and their well-traveling fans will likely be a factor in Atlantic City, with their campus being the closest to the tournament’s new site at Boardwalk Hall.

The Hawks haven’t beaten anyone that finished ahead of them in the MAAC standings in over a month (they finished a combined 1-5 against Rider, Saint Peter’s and Siena), and will likely need to bring the major home-court advantage they had this season (the Hawks finished 11-2 at home, their first loss at OceanFirst Bank Center not coming until mid-February) down the Parkway in AC to punch their first ticket to the NCAA tournament as MAAC members.

Iona

The MAAC tournament is a difficult one to win for any team that finishes outside of the top five and doesn’t earn a first-round bye, but as we’ve learned over the last four years, Iona can never be counted out of this tournament. The Gaels are the four-time defending MAAC champs and only took the title after winning the regular season and playing with the top seed once during this run. Senior-led Iona has plenty of dangerous weapons, including one of the best frontcourt players in the league in Tajuan Agee and former top-100 recruit Isaiah Washington.