Monmouth has stolen the headlines and the highlights, becoming the story of the MAAC behind an unpredictably popular bench and unlikely upsets over UCLA, Notre Dame and Georgetown.
Thus far, Monmouth unquestionably has been the league’s best team, but the first meeting of the season between Manhattan and Iona is a reminder that the longtime rivals still might determine who ends up atop the conference, having met in three straight conference championship games.
“No disrespect to anyone else, it’s been us and Iona at the top of the league the last three years, and in the back of everyone’s mind, whether they say this or don’t say it, I think everybody kind of waits to see what happens with Manhattan-Iona and what’s going on there,” Jaspers coach Steve Masiello said. “As much as we talk about that, it’s only one game, and as much as we try to downplay it, it’s a different feel. It’s there. You can’t ignore it. It’s right in front of you.”
New York’s best basketball rivalry resumes Friday night (7 p.m., ESPNU) at a sold-out Hynes Athletic Center in New Rochelle, reigniting a matchup in which six of their past nine games have been decided by four points or less.
Back-to-back conference champion Manhattan (8-10, 5-4) — coming off a win over Monmouth — is looking for its eighth win in the past 11 games, following a slew of injuries and role adjustments responsible for a 1-7 start to the season.
“On the other teams it was veterans, but now it’s younger guys we’re depending on and we needed them to get confident,” Jaspers captain RaShawn Stores said. “Once they figured out their roles everything started to fall into place.”
Iona (10-9, 7-3), which entered the season as a heavy league favorite after back-to-back regular season titles, similarly has suffered with its health, and enters Friday having lost three of its past four games.
Even with A.J. English (23.7 points) on pace to finish among the top 10 players in the nation in scoring, Iona’s three conference losses already match its total in each of the past two seasons.
“The couple of guys who were here are very frustrated with the way things are going and they’re trying to get everybody to work harder,” Gaels coach Tim Cluess said. “The new players don’t know what it takes and they’re trying to learn and unfortunately they’re learning by fire. We’ll get better as the season progresses.”
Manhattan and Iona usually do.