Khalil Dukes is one of the hottest names in the recruiting circles around New York City. He just finished his sophomore season, but now that coaches are officially allowed to contact recruits in the 2013 class he got a number of phone calls on June 15, including from a number of New York schools.
Category: Iona
Mid-Majors to watch shows difficulty of the label
Yahoo!’s Jason King recently posted about the top mid-major teams to watch for the 2011-12 college basketball season. It’s an interesting list and certainly worth checking out, but I have a few issues with it. One is that Iona isn’t on the list – in fact not a single MAAC team is. The other is that some of the teams on the list really don’t seem like mid-majors at all.
Continue reading “Mid-Majors to watch shows difficulty of the label”
Jones’ transfer helps, but doesn’t transform, Iona
Now that Lamont “Momo” Jones has agreed to come to Iona and possibly even play during the 2011-12 season, the Gaels are being talked about as not only the MAAC’s (and NYC’s) top team, but a sleeper to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.
It really seems like people are getting ahead of themselves and I’d like to dig back into the value add well to explain why.
Continue reading “Jones’ transfer helps, but doesn’t transform, Iona”
Momo Jones coming to Iona
Well, it’s official. Arizona transfer Lamont “Momo” Jones is heading to Iona. He has two seasons of eligibility and with the Gaels ready to win now it looks like Tim Cluess and his staff are going to try and have Jones eligible to play for the 2011-12 season.
There’s a good possibility that it will happen too. Jones’ grandmother is ailing currently and returning to New York to be with her could certainly qualify Jones for a hardship waiver from the NCAA. It’s a delicate process, but one that compliance departments live for and I’m sure the Gaels are already working on the paperwork.
Value Added in the MAAC
Next season is shaping up to be a really interesting one in the MAAC. Out of the 10 teams in the conference six will be legitimate postseason candidates and at least three could do damage in the NCAA Tournament if they make it that far.
The first step in evaluating who might come out on top of that logjam is taking a look at returning players. Most observers think that since Iona is returning Michael Glover and Scott Machado the Gaels are the team to beat, but looking at the value added for returning players gives a different result.
Jones and Gomez highlight big day in college basketball
Two big pieces of news broke late on Monday night and both could certainly impact the 2011-12 basketball season. First, Arizona’s Lamont “MoMo” Jones is transferring from Arizona. He averaged 9.7 points and 2.4 assists in 26.7 minutes per game last season for the Wildcats. (Adam Zagoria has a bit more.)
Jones is looking to transfer back to the east coast. The early rumors are that he might find a home at St. John’s, but if he’s looking to drop down a level might Manhattan and new head coach Steve Masiello be able to offer him a comfortable landing spot that can guarantee a lot of playing time? (I think it’s a longshot, but new head coaches due tend to bring roster turnover with them.)
Continue reading “Jones and Gomez highlight big day in college basketball”
Who’s the man? Machado vs. Glover
If you look at Iona’s tempo-free profile one thing immediately stands out: The impact that juniors Scott Machado and Michael Glover had on the Gaels’ offense. The two of them used 24.4% and 26.3% of Iona’s possessions respectively when they were on the court. For the season their shot percentages were nearly identical at 22.9% and 22.0%.
But there was a big difference in how the team played when one of them got more shots than the other.
Iona featured in ESPN’s offseason coverage
Iona is getting some love in ESPN’s offseason coverage right now. The Gaels weren’t given a long write up in Fran Fraschilla’s post about breakthrough teams, but they were mentioned along with a few other teams as one that could “enjoy postseason success next season.”
Other the other hand, Iona is listed as the MAAC champion in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket. St. Peter’s isn’t in the bracket, but interestingly it is one of the bubble teams in Lunardi’s “Also considered” list.
Iona could win Puerto Rico Tip-Off this fall
The field for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off has officially been set and it includes five teams that played in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last season. Iona isn’t one of them, but the Gaels will still have a good shot at taking home the tournament title on November 20.
Many of the other teams in the tournament have to replace key pieces. Purdue will be without both E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson next season and those two players used over 50% of Purdue’s possessions last season. Colorado’s Alec Burks, who used a whopping 32.2% of the Buffaloes’ possessions last season when he was on the court, looks to be headed to the NBA.
Continue reading “Iona could win Puerto Rico Tip-Off this fall”
Charles Jenkins wins another award
Congrats to Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins. He picked up another today with the announcement of the Haggerty Award, which goes to the player of the year in the New York metropolitan area. (Which means it includes the major conference guys as well.)
It was Jenkins’ third straight season winning the award. I guess he’ll have to give it up to someone else next season. (Since he’s graduating at all.)
NYC Buckets Archive 