I'm not a fan of NCAA tournament expansion or of the first round being now called the second round, but this new First Four (the new "first round") in Dayton is pretty nice. Unlike the old play-in game that pitted the two worst automatic qualifiers against each other for the right to get destroyed by the number one overall seed was never worth watching. Now though there are eight teams vying for four spots, at large teams as well as AQs. Brigham Young (25-8) and Iona (25-7), both at large 14 seeds, will fight for their season's lives today in Dayton, Ohio. This game will most certainly be worth watching.
The Iona Gaels are this year's VCU. I am not predicting a final four run from them, but like the Rams last year they came out of left field on Selection Sunday and landed a First Four spot. While they have been the team getting picked on for stealing a bid, they are pretty darned impressive. To be honest, I have them picked to beat BYU in my bracket. While the age of metrics has made the basic stats less important, one can't help but be amazed when noticing that Iona leads the nation in points and assists per game. They aren't just chucking up shots though, they're second in the nation in field goal percentage at 50.4%. BYU isn't far behind, they're 13th in points, 6th in assists and hit 46.8% of their shots. Those numbers don't have the pop that the Gaels' do though.
The key match up here will be at the point guard position. Matt Carlino (4.7 assists per game) has been a key player for the Cougars this season since becoming eligible. Iona's Scott Machado is projected by draftexpress.com as the 10th pick in the 2nd round of the NBA draft. Machado leads the nation in assists, just like his team, with 9.9 a game. He's also a great ball handler with assists to turnover ratio of 3.1. Machado is joined in the back court by Lamont "MoMo" Jones who adds another 3 assists per game but is more of a shooter than Machado, with 16 points per game. These guards are aggressive and love to run. Jones was on the Arizona Wildcats squad last season that ran to the Elite Eight with lottery pick Derrick Williams. Charles Abouo will be key for BYU if they want to contain Iona's back court. His injured hand has had 10 days to heal but he is listed as day to day.
The back court is Iona's strength, but all their assists have to go somewhere. 6'7'' 215lbs senior forward Mike Glover is on the receiving end of many of Machado's brilliant passes. Glover leads the team in scoring at 18.5ppg (last year he had 18.4) and has been held to single digits only once this year (only 6 times last year), at Canisius back on December 2nd. Glover only had 6 points but the Gaels still managed to put up 69 points and escape with a victory. Glover is an extremely consistent offensive player and will be tough to handle, especially if Noah Hartsock isn't at 100%. Glover has 13 double-doubles on the year.
Both these teams are offensive machines. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Iona is a more well oiled machine. The Cougars aren't known for their defense either, so that bodes well for the Gaels. Speaking of the Gaels, the Cougars are 0-2 against teams named "Gaels" this season, the two losses, of course, coming against Saint Mary's.
About the only thing going for the Cougars is that Dayton isn't close to Iona, which is located in Suburban New Rochelle, NY. However, Dayton is about twice as close to New Rochelle as it is to Provo. Luckily Iona only has 4,800 students compared to BYU's 34,000. There are far more BYU fans available to attend this game.
I've got Iona winning in my rational bracket. My other bracket though, my hopeful but not extreme bracket, I've got the Cougars winning here and again against Marquette. It's possible, just as it is possible that Gonzaga will play Syracuse in the Elite Eight. (Even I don't think it's possible for Gonzaga to beat Syracuse though.)
Iona is from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), where they stand in first place at 15-3. The top seeded Gaels fell in the MAAC tournament semifinals to the fourth seeded Stags of Fairfield (19-14). This is the Gaels first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2006 (BYU's 6th straight). The MAAC hasn't had an at large selection since Manhattan back in 1995. Last season the Gaels finished at 25-12. They lost to Santa Clara (the Broncos were a much different team last year than the squad that went win-less in WCC play this year) in the finals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
TV: Approx 6:00pm Pacific TruTV (after conclusion of first First Four game)
Radio: KSL 1160 AM, 102.7 FM (Utah).
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