MAAC Basketball: 2022 conference tournament preview and predictions
By Jon Surratt
Key Teams in the MAAC Tournament
The Favorite – Iona
Five straight MAAC championships won six of the last eight and made it to every single MAAC Championship game, it would be a discredit to not have Iona as the obvious favorite going into the tournament. Also, when you have a hall-of-fame head coach in Rick Pitino who has two national championships and has brought every single university he has coached to the NCAA Tournament while having two of the best players in the conference with other key contributors in Dylan Van Eyck and Elijah Joiner having been there done that, it’s tough to argue who the favorite is.
Many people thought the team could go undefeated in conference play, especially after early upset victories over Alabama and Hofstra, the team looked like it could be in line for an at-large. Now after three conference losses to Niagara, Manhattan, and Siena, the team has shown some flaws down the stretch. However, this same group was the main cast that won the tournament as a No.9 seed last year, and have just gotten even better this season, so doubting Iona and Rick Pitino in the MAAC tournament is something you should never do.
Contender – Saint Peter’s
Saint Peter’s has been very good these last few years in the MAAC regular season but just can’t get it done when it comes to the tournament time. However, the combination of preseason player of the year K.C. Ndefo, the Drama twins, Daryl Banks III and Doug Edert provide a scoring punch not really seen since Aaron Estrada helped lead the team back in 2019-20 as the MAAC rookie of the year before he transferred to Oregon and now winning CAA player of the year for Hofstra.
Nonetheless, Saint Peter’s has been able to be better this year offensively than in years past which could pay dividends into winning the MAAC championship.
Team to Keep an Eye on – Niagara
The Purple Eagles are hitting their stride at the right time. At one point the team was at or near the bottom of the conference. Now the Purple Eagles are playing a lot better. Now, the team did lose to Saint Peter’s 63-36, yeah 36 points in a game, not good. However, the team followed it up with 22 and 31 point victory against Siena and Marist, respectively.
The team is very up and down but if it has the potential player of the year in Marcus Hammond, it can win games in the tournament especially if the team beats Monmouth.