MAAC is back

After losing a humbling game to No. 15 Memphis, Marist returns home Friday night to take on conference rival Iona. The game marks the first MAAC contest for both teams. Marist and Iona each have two wins on the season. Iona was selected to finish seventh in the conference while Marist was chosen to finish 10th in the 10 team league. Friday is opening night for six MAAC teams. Siena outlasted Loyola, 75-68, in the conference season-opener.
The Red Foxes and Gaels look to be in for a low-scoring contest. Iona averages 63.4 ppg while Marist scores 65.7 ppg. The teams are ranked eighth and fifth, respectively. Each team ranks highly in scoring defense as well. Iona boasts a stout defense, surrendering 59 ppg. Marist's statistics are somewhat skewed because of the team's 100-61 loss to Memphis on Dec. 2. Currently, Marist is ninth in the MAAC due to allowing 74 ppg. Prior to the Memphis game, Marist yielded 68.8 ppg. The stats are also inflated due to Marist's overtime loss to the Delaware Blue Hens. Marist allowed 72 points in regulation but finished the game losing, 88-83. Those two games make Marist's defense look more suspect than it actually is.
Iona is somewhat hard to figure out. Iona took nationally-ranked Wisconsin into overtime before eventually falling, 60-58. The Gaels then followed that up with a 70-62 home loss to the Robert Morris Colonials. Marist handled Robert Morris, 72-55, and emptied its bench in the waning minutes of the game. Robert Morris is the only common opponent between the two teams.
Marist will have its hands full trying to defend Iona's Gary Springer. The 6-foot-9 senior ranks fifth in the MAAC in scoring with 14.6 ppg. He is one spot behind the MAAC's preseason player of the year, Kenny Hasbrouck. Springer also leads the Gaels in rebounding and is second in the conference in field-goal percentage. Springer shoots the ball at a 64.1 percent clip. Springer also led the team in double-doubles last season with five.
Marist has struggled at times thi year against larger opponents. Rutgers' big men Hamady Ndiaye and Greg Echenique contributed to a Rutgers' program-record 16 blocked shots in the Scarlet Knights' 63-61 win over the Red Foxes.
After Springer, Iona does not boast many scoring threats. Milan Prodanovich ranks second on the team in scoring with 7.6 ppg. Iona is a team that relies on its defense to win games, something that could give Marist trouble since the Red Foxes maintain the worst turnover-ratio in the MAAC with -6. One thing Chuck Martin has mentioned frequently with regards to the Red Foxes ability to run the dribble-drive is the length of the other teams' guards. Sophomore Rashon Dwight will pose the biggest threat to David Devezin. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard averages the same amount of apg as Devezin with 3.8. The Red Foxes will no doubt have a good scouting report on Dwight though. Dwight hails from Bloomfield Tech in New Jersey, the same high school Marist freshman guard R.J. Hall attended.
Iona has rotated players throughout the starting lineup through each of the first five games, but the projected starting lineup for Iona is as follows:
G Rashon Dwight
G Jermel Jenkins
F Milan Prodanovich
F Jonathan Huffman
C Gary Springer