Ray Floriani of College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the MAAC and NEC Conferences.
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ – There are no undefeated teams anymore in the MAAC. Last Saturday , in a rematch of last year’s MAAC championship, host Rider knocked off Siena 90-88 to hand the Saints their first conference loss of the season. The victory secured the two outstanding player of the week awards for Rider.
Sophomore guard Justin Robinson earned Player of the Week honors. Robinson scored a career high 25 points and had three rebounds in that win over Siena. Novar Gadson, a freshman swingman, earned Rookie of the Week accolades with his 17 point, 4 rebound , 4 assist performance in the same contest.
The standings as of Friday February 13, 2009:
- Siena 14-1
- Niagara 11-3
- Rider 9-4
- Manhattan 8-7
- Fairfield 8-7
- Iona 6-8
- Loyola 6-8
- St. Peter’s 4-10
- Marist 4-11
- Canisius 2-13
On a roll. Niagara has won 5 straight in conference and six overall. The Purple Eagles’ average margin of victory is 16 points. One of the main reasons for the Niagara surge is defense. The Purple Eagles had double figures in steals in five of those six games. In a 75-50 win over Fairfield, Niagara forced 21 turnovers. Fairfield had entered the game with 23 turnovers in their three previous games combined.
Speaking of turnovers. Our tempo free presentation is on offensive turnover rate. That is arrived by dividing possessions by turnover. A rate under 20% shows good care of the ball while over that mark is an offensive detriment. The TO rate for conference games:
- Siena 16.7
- Fairfield 17.0
- Niagara 17.1
- Loyola 19.0
- Rider 19.6
- Manhattan 20.4
- Marist 21
- St. Peter’s 22.1
- Canisius 22.7
- Iona 23
MAAC News & Notes
- Manhattan had a two of three game win streak that included road wins over Marist and Loyola. Sophomore guard Chris Smith had a solid week averaging 15.5 points per game and 8.5 rebounds an outing.
- Loyola has improved its perimeter defense. Through the first dozen games, opponents shot 41.2 % from beyond the arc. The last 13 games the opposition mark is 24%. Senior guard Marquis Sullivan recently appeared in his 112th game in a Greyhound uniform, good for fifth on the school’s all-time list.
- Ryan Schneider has logged the full forty minutes in 7 of Marist’s last dozen games. Schneider has been a solid consistent scorer all season for the Red Foxes. In his four games as a starter sophomore forward Korey Bauer has shown some promise. The Marist trio of Schneider, RJ Hall and Dejuan Goodwin are all among the top ten in conference three point shooting.
- Scott Machado continues to excel for Iona but coach Kevin Willard received a few solid performances from Gary Springer and Milan Prodanovic. The latter leads Iona with 45 three point field goals this season.
- The Jesuit battle in Buffalo was settled as Ryan Bacon of St. Peter’s converted a tip in at the buzzer for a 59-58 win over Canisius. The Peacocks rallied from nine down late in the game. Speaking of Canisius, the Griffs recent loss to Fairfield saw four Stag players register their career high in points. Yorel Hawkins (18 pts), Ryan Olander (11 pts) and Sean Crawford (9 pts) enjoyed career bests while Lyndon Jordan (14 pts) equaled his career best.
- The MAAC office reports Siena leading the conference in scoring and field goal percentage, a major reason behind their success. The tempo free curiosity decided to look at their offensive efficiency. In MAAC games, Fran McCaffery’s group has a whopping and league leading 108 mark. The top five…
- Siena 108
- Niagara 105
- Rider 103
- Fairfield 99
- Loyola 97
Three weeks to Albany!!!