Thursday, January 17, 2013
Gaels a potential Cinderella candidate?
By Luke Lapinski
Iona has only made the NCAA Tournament once in the last six years. It happened just last season though, and Tim Cluess has his squad back atop the MAAC standings at the moment. If the Gaels are allowed to go dancing again, they could be dangerous.
This isn't a prediction that Iona is going to catch fire and suddenly make a deep run this March, but it is a team that could cause problems for bigger opponents -- especially if they take the program from New Rochelle lightly. Generally speaking, the smaller schools that pull the upsets when the tournament rolls around have a strong shooter who's a threat to get hot and start burying shots from beyond the arc. Sean Armand certainly fills that role, having hit 68 three-pointers already this season, 17 in just his last four games and over 200 for his college career. On top of that, the Gaels have Momo Jones to lean on as well. The senior guard leads the club in scoring (22.0 ppg to Armand's 18.9) and has plenty of postseason experience on his resume, having played four NCAA Tournament games while with Arizona in 2010-11, and another with Iona a year ago.
