SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — After a one-day break, the MAAC Tournament — at the MassMutual Center — resumes with quarterfinal action on Saturday, featuring four teams (Iona, Manhattan, Quinnipiac and Canisius) that have separated themselves from the rest of the league.
Following Manhattan’s overtime win over Iona last week, Jaspers coach Steve Masiello questioned why the top-heavy conference is almost guaranteed to have only one team in the NCAA Tournament:
“This is not a one-bid league. A seventh-place team in a BCS conference is better than these [teams]? I don’t buy it,” Masiello said. “These four teams at the top of the MAAC, you put them in a 13-4 game, that 4 seed’s in trouble.
“I think because you get labeled, ‘They’re in the MAAC.’ I haven’t seen the top this good in a while.”
The teams at the top haven’t been this good in a while, but their résumés won’t be good enough to justify the league’s second-at large berth since 1995.
Only one team will go dancing. The next three days will decide who gets to go.
No. 1 Iona (20-9, 17-3) vs. No. 8 Rider (14-16, 9-11) (Noon, ESPN3): Coming off their second regular-season title in three years, the Gaels are looking for their second straight tournament title and third straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Iona, led by senior swingman Sean Armand, features the fourth-highest scoring team in the nation, which suffered its only conference losses to top-four teams.
Prior to a first-round win over No. 9 Monmouth on Thursday, the Broncs had lost seven of their past eight games. Rider lost both meetings with Iona this season, including a 16-point affair last week.
No. 2 Manhattan (22-7, 15-5) vs. No. 7 St. Peter’s (14-16, 9-11) (6:30 p.m., ESPN3): After reaching the championship game last season, the Jaspers are co-favorites to win the title — having won eight of their past nine games — and reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004. Manhattan is the top defensive team in the league, featuring a celebrated senior-laden squad of George Beamon, Rhamel Brown and Michael Alvarado, who is expected to return from an ankle injury that sidelined him in the regular-season finale.
The Peacocks defeated No. 10 Fairfield on Thursday, 65-62, and have won five straight games. St. Peter’s lost both meetings to Manhattan this season by double-digits and has issues on offense, but features the second-ranked defense in the conference.
No. 4 Canisius (20-11, 14-6) vs. No. 5 Siena (15-16, 11-9) (2:30 p.m., ESPN3): Siena’s first-year coach, Jimmy Patsos, immediately transformed a team predicted to finish at the bottom of the conference, but the Saints were unable to defeat Canisius in two meetings this season. The Golden Griffins’ most recent win over Siena took three overtimes, in which senior Billy Baron — the third-leading scorer in the nation (24.4 points) and MAAC Player of the Year — scored 40 points.
No. 3 Quinnipiac (19-10, 14-6) vs. No. 11 Niagara (7-25, 3-17) (9 p.m., ESPN3): Quinnipiac enters its first MAAC Tournament with back-to-back losses for the first time since December. The Bobcats — the top-rebounding team in the nation — won both games against the Purple Eagles, but the most recent win required a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by senior guard Umar Shannon, now out with a meniscus injury.
Niagara, last year’s No. 1 seed, fell to the basement after the departure of longtime coach Joe Mihalich and the transfers who followed him to Hofstra (Juan’ya Green, Ameen Tanksley), but the team still has Antoine Mason, the second-leading scorer in the nation (25.6 points), who tallied 38 points in an upset of No. 6 Marist on Thursday.