News and Notes From the MAAC Tournament
by Ray Floriani
ALBANY, N.Y. – The MAAC Tournament at Pepsi Arena tipped off on Friday. Following are some notes on the activity that day.
Scores:
Women
Iona 72, Niagara 57
Canisius 60, Fairfield 55
Loyola 66, Manhattan 57
Men
St. Peter’s 80, Rider 51
Niagara 84, Fairfield 77
Canisius 74, Loyola 72
In a late-morning women’s contest, No. 2 Canisius was struggling with the No. 8 Fairfield club. Canisius, the defending MAAC champions, trailed by nine just past the midway point of the second half. They took advantage of some Fairfield mistakes and slowly got back in it before deciding the contest in the final two minutes. Following the 60-55 victory, Canisius coach Terry Zeh reminded his club of a famous coach and his saying.
“I told my kids you may not have heard of the late Jim Valvano, but he was a great coach with the classic saying ‘survive and advance.’ I wanted our team to know even though we did not play particularly well, we won and are in the semifinals so it’s time to move on.”
Zeh was an assistant to Mike MacDonald in the men’s program before accepting the head coaching job with the women prior to last season. “It (the move) has been great,” Zeh said. “I always wanted to run my own program and these kids have been such a pleasure to coach.”
A familiar face was spotted in the hallways of Pepsi Arena. Ron Ritz, an Iona alumnus and former assistant SID, was taking in the games with added interest. His daughter Jen is a sopmohore on the Iona women’s team. Ritz spoke about the job Tony Bozzella has done at Iona. Bozzella turned LIU around and led them into the NCAA tournament before coming to Iona. He had a few tough years in New Rochelle but things improved with a 16-game regular season win total this year. “It was important for him (Bozzella) to do well this year,” Ron Ritz said. “This was his fourth year here and he came through with a good season. I’m happy because he’s a great guy as well as a good coach.”
The minute I had entered the press area at Pepsi Arena, Ronnie from Manhattan spotted me. Ronnie is a special needs adult and a die hard Manhattan fan. He is courtside for every Jasper game home and away and is known by virtually all MAAC media. After giving me his “official” stats and promising interviews with a few of the Lady Jaspers we headed out to the floor. Following the Loyola-Manhattan women’s game the interviews were to be held not in the general area but in a small room near the locker rooms. I entered and here is Ronnie introducing me to the Loyola coach Joe Logan and noting he is in his first year and most recently was on the staff at St. Joe’s. Loyola media representative Sara Day and Logan could only smile and nod their heads. Ronnie was on the money with his bio.
Logan noted a big key was senior guard Krystle Harrington, who was very impressive with her ability to get in the lane. The 5’5″ Harrington scored a game-high 16 points and effectively broke Manhattan’s defense down. “We just needed a few better decisions from her (Harrington) late in the game,” Logan added,” she took a jump shot or two when she didn’t have to but she was a big factor in our win.”
Bobby Gonzalez will be at Keydren Clark’s graduation. The Manhattan coach was telling the story courtside during a break in MAAC tournament action. “We were facing St. Peter’s and Clark naturally is giving us fits,” Gonzalez said. “During the game at one moment I said to him ‘Kiki, I will be so glad to see you graduate I’m coming to your commencement.'”
Clark is holding Gonzalez to his word. “Everytime he sees me he reminds me,” the Manhattan coach laughs. “I hope St. Peter’s graduation is not the same days as Manhattan’s. Then I have to figure how to make both.”
Don Harnum was courtside for the Rider-St. Peter’s game. Harnum coached Rider through last season and is currently in the school’s athletic department as interim athletic director. He admitted it was a strange feeling not having a team to coach, especially in the tournament.
“I had to get directions to get to Albany,” Harnum admitted. “I even had to get directions where to park and what entrance to use to get in the arena. “I was so used to traveling with the team, not worrying about parking and going through the team entrance every year.” One of the game’s good guys, it doesn’t seem the same with Don Harnum not on a sideline these days.
Rider swept Manhattan and was coming of a season-ending overtime loss to St. Peter’s. The Broncs, however, saw their season end at the hands of St. Peter’s in a lopsided 80-51 loss. “We had a good practice leading up to today,” Rider coach Tommy Dempsey said following the rout. “I thought we were ready and would play well. We started slow but thought we would bounce back, but we never did.”
St. Peter’s coach Bob Leckie used the women’s team as motivation before the Rider contest. “I reminded our guys our women were a No. 5 seed but were upset by a No. 10 seed (Niagara) in the opening round. I wanted them aware that things can happen and you have to be ready to play in tournament action.”
Leckie’s club had a shot at finishing fourth but fell to seventh late in the season. “We had control of our destiny,” Leckie said. “Now we can regain control of it in the tournament.” The one-sided game allowed Leckie to give his starters some valuable minutes of rest in the stretch. “We want to win the tournament,” he said, “getting rest is important considering we would have to play four games in four nights to win it all.”
St. Peter’s Keydren Clark was named MAAC Player of the Year. It’s a well-deserved honor for a talented player who is also a modest individual and fan favorite. “(Luis) Flores and (Juan) Mendez got it the last two years,” Clark said, “but the hard work paid off. They were great players and deserved the award, but I knew with hard work my time would come.”
It was not the greatest crowd on this second day of action, but all of the schools brought cheerleaders and most brought dance teams and a band. Rider cheerleaders all had a number stenciled on their face. “That is the number of our favorite player,” one member of the squad said. A quick unofficial count revealed No. 20 Edwin Muniz a favorite of the Rider cheer squad with No. 1 Jason Thompson a close second.
Of all the cheer squads, Niagara had the best-prepared (stretching 45 minutes before game time) and naturally the best performing squad on this day.
Mitch Buonaguro was courtside scouting during the St. Peter’s-Rider contest. Buonaguro was a head coach at Fairfield and won two MAAC titles at the school in the eighties. These days he is an assistant on Fran McCaffery’s Siena staff. “The big difference between the MAAC when I first was in and now is the membership,” Buonoguro said. “When I coached, La Salle and Fordham were in the league. Now you have different teams and different rivalries. Marist and Siena, for example, is a great rivalry and they weren’t in the MAAC in the Eighties.”
Some of the members have changed but the MAAC is still a great league. Especially during their conference tournament.
