2018 MAAC Tournament Primer – Niagara

Niagara finished the regular season 19-12 overall with a 12-6 league record and enters the MAAC tournament as the #3 overall seed. The Purple Eagles will begin tournament play against #6 seed Fairfield in the quarterfinals Saturday night at 7:00. Continue reading “2018 MAAC Tournament Primer – Niagara”

Powerful First Half Close Pushes Manhattan Past Niagara

A 17-4 run over the final five minutes of the first half helped Manhattan fend off Niagara and pull even at 8-8 in conference play. The Jaspers maintained a double-digit advantage through most of the second half en route to an 82-72 victory. Continue reading “Powerful First Half Close Pushes Manhattan Past Niagara”

MAAC Weekly Recap & Power Rankings – January 31

It was an eventful week in the MAAC, and one full of rivalry games. The Battle of the Bridge was renewed in Buffalo, the New Jersey trio squared off against one another in the Hourglass rivalry, Fairfield and Quinnipiac met for the first time this season, along with Iona and Manhattan, and I’m pretty sure Siena and Saint Peter’s don’t want to see each other again for a long time. Continue reading “MAAC Weekly Recap & Power Rankings – January 31”

MAAC Weekly Recap & Power Rankings – January 24

Another week gone in the MAAC, and we’re finally starting to see some separation between the league’s 11 squads. Canisius put its stamp on first place with a season sweep of Iona while Rider strung together three victories to join the Golden Griffins at seven league wins despite continued struggles at the free throw line. Continue reading “MAAC Weekly Recap & Power Rankings – January 24”

MAAC Weekly Recap – December 6

Wednesday means MAAC Recap, and this week brought some solid wins and a few close calls. Manhattan represented the league in the inaugural Belfast Classic, while Monmouth traded blows with UConn, and Marist picked up its first win of the year. Continue reading “MAAC Weekly Recap – December 6”

MAAC Weekly Recap – November 29

Welcome to another weekly MAAC recap, and the debut of our league power rankings! Previous recaps were done in geographical and alphabetical order, but from now on teams will be listed in order of their standing in the (un)official NYC Buckets power rankings. Continue reading “MAAC Weekly Recap – November 29”

Revolving Door Shut, Niagara Might Be MAAC Contender

As a freshman or sophomore, Matt Scott could have chalked up Niagara’s 101-76 blowout loss to UMass Sunday afternoon to growing pains for a young team. But the revolving door that had plagued Chris Casey’s first few seasons in greater Buffalo has been closed for the time being.

(The extensive list here is only partial, believe it or not.)

If you count Kahlil Dukes’ transfer year from USC, everyone that started for Niagara Sunday has been with the program for at least three seasons. The time of Joe Mihalich winning the MAAC regular season and then taking Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley with him to Hofstra was five years ago. Since then, Casey – playing with a different hand every year – has gone 33-97 at Niagara. Even with sympathy points for starting in a tough spot and having seemingly everyone transfer his first two seasons, there is some pressure to succeed.

Continue reading “Revolving Door Shut, Niagara Might Be MAAC Contender”

NEC and MAAC Preseason Mailbag

In both the MAAC and NEC, there are plenty of question marks going into the season given the amount of turnover each league has experienced this past offseason. With plenty of questions looming, Vincent Simone and I decided to tackle a few Twitter questions. Continue reading “NEC and MAAC Preseason Mailbag”