MBB March Madness Thread: Iona- UConn

[le]

Big splash in the Post today.

"Rick Pitino sees ‘superstar’ in St. John’s prez as Iona has NCAA Tournament date with UConn"

Rick Pitino loves his 13-seed Iona team that goes Dancing on Friday in the West Region against Dan Hurley and the 4-seed UConn Huskies, loves the culture he has built with the MAAC champions at the school that gave him another chance … at a golden time in his life when a Gael force Red Storm howls louder with each Maddening March day.

“I know the president [Rev. Brian Shanley] very well, he’s a superstar,” Pitino told The Post by phone. “I know him from Providence College, we’re both Friars at heart. The whole campus at Providence, he built all the facilities.

“But I haven’t been on St. John’s campus in probably 20 years. I know very little about St. John’s other than Looie Carnesecca. We’re gonna just get through this tournament.

“If I have interest and they have interest, I need to get to that campus and see it.

“Iona’s a place I’m very comfortable at, very happy at, so I’m not sure what my future holds.”

Pitino of course will not let the elephant in the Iona room, not right now.

“When I was at Kentucky there were rumors of me going to six NBA jobs,” Pitino said. “The players don’t pay attention to it at all. We don’t even address it. The internet doesn’t pick coaches, so we don’t even address it.”

Not right now, when Hurley will be looking to carry Jim Calhoun’s old UConn torch back to glory.

FULL STORY:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk ... r-AA18xv54

[purpleeagle5]

The NCAA certainly shafted the A10 with no NCAA at-large bids or NIT invites. It's a travesty not to include both Dayton and Fordham in post-season play. Ten B12 invites is thoroughly sickening.

[MICKEY]

During its glory days Fordham was one of five NYC area schools that owned the NIT.

[purpleeagle5]

Dayton Hoops ——The Dayton Flyers have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 27 times. Their combined record is 41–25. They are three time NIT champions (1962, 1968, 2010).

[le]

Related:

This is clearly an endorsement of mediocre performance at a mid-major level. Good guy, but....

Witherspoon is 94-111 in seven seasons at Canisius. This season, the Griffs were 10-20, 8-12 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and lost to Mount St. Mary’s 67-66 in overtime in a first-round game of the MAAC Tournament on Tuesday in Atlantic City,

Witherspoon to return to coach CC for the 2023-24 season

https://buffalonews.com/sports/college/ ... 20contract.

[Truthful]

Witherspoon is being kept for no other reason than finances . The difference between state funded schools and small Catholic institutions was on full display with UB paying $500,000 to replace an underachieving coach , while Canisius rewards an undeserving coach with another year when he clearly needed to be replaced .

[le]

More "splash" in the NY Post and Connecticut media re Iona :

https://nypost.com/2023/03/15/walter-cl ... ournament/

https://nypost.com/2023/03/15/at-iona-s ... ck-pitino/

https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn- ... 838115.php

https://www.courant.com/2023/03/12/no-4 ... rst-round/

https://www.ctpost.com/sports/uconn-men ... 838115.php

[le]

It would great to see CGate, Furman and College of C pull off upsets today.

[le]

Bye bye UVA! Furman wins!

[le]

From the MVP Arena today: Iona and UConn .

NY POST:

https://nypost.com/2023/03/17/iona-know ... rfect/amp/