RICK OF TIME
McGill latest in Cluess’ line of strong Iona guards
When Tim Cluess arrived at Iona in 2010, his former high school point guard, Scott Machado, was waiting, soon to lead the nation in assists.
When Machado went to the NBA, he handed the reins of the explosive offense to backcourt mate Momo Jones, who would become the thirdleading scorer in the nation.
The next season, A.J. English elevated from a reserve role, and began carving out a place as one of the school’s all-time greats, eventually closing out his senior season among the nation’s top 10 scorers, ranking among the top 20 players in assists.
It is how Iona has never failed to win at least 20 games in Cluess’ first seven seasons, and how the Gaels have made the NCAA Tournament four times in the past six years. The success continues because the torch never extinguishes. The star guards overlap, never leaving a gap.
Cluess didn’t know Rickey McGill was next in line, until the Rockland County native broke out as a sophomore last season. This year, the coach entered knowing his lead guard would likely determine if the program’s uninterrupted stretch of dominance carries on.
“He’s the heart and soul of the group,” Cluess said of McGill. “He’s got that personality, that bulldog-tough, I’ll-fight-you-at-anytime personality, where losing’s not OK, you knock me down and I’m getting right back up.
“His personality may be similar to Momo’s, with toughness — like they both really believed in themselves, that tough, physical type of point guard. A.J had a killer instinct about him, so he’s probably got a little bit of A.J. in him, too, and overall mental toughness like both of those guys. ... You love to have that mentality on your team and you love it when it’s your point guard.”
You love it even more when it’s unexpected.
Originally a Manhattan commit coming out of Spring Valley, McGill averaged just 2.8 points and 10.8 minutes as a freshman. The next season, he was the only Iona player to start every game, leading the team in minutes (32.1), while averaging 10.5 points, finishing second in the MAAC in assists (5.1) and leading the conference in steals (1.8).
With McGill the only returning player to average double-digit points from an NCAA Tournament team that lost its top three scorers, the junior has assumed even more offensive responsibility, ranking among the top 50 players in the country in minutes (35.8) — which he prepared for with 10-mile runs this summer — and leading the Gaels in scoring (14.1), assists (5.7) and steals (2.0), while shooting 41.2 percent on 3-pointers. He had 11 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists and no turnovers in Saturday’s 82-75 win over Fairleigh Dickinson.
His output is no longer a surprise. No longer does it need to be.
“The hard part when you lose the other guys is you don’t know if they can do that ... and Rickey’s faced more attention than he had l ast year when he kind of snuck up on a lot of people,” Cluess said. “Him doing what he’s doing right now speaks volumes to how much he’s progressed again from last year.”
After last season, the team’s “heart and soul” was never more obvious.
In the first half of the MAAC title game against Siena, McGill dislocated two fingers and fractured a bone in his left hand. He left the floor, then returned to play 35 minutes in the overtime win. When Iona traveled to then play in the NCAA Tournament against Oregon, McGill insisted on being out there, though the injury limited him to just one point and two assists, while playing 17 minutes.
“I couldn’t even use it. It’s like my hand wasn’t even there,” McGill said. “The doctor said, ‘If you think you can go, go.’ I didn’t even think about sitting out. I just wanted to get a win with my team.” And his coach didn’t want to take away that opportunity.
“He couldn’t even bounce the ball with that hand, but that wasn’t going to take away his grit and determination and everything he had earned up to that point on the court,” Cluess said. “He deserved to be out there. We knew he was tough, but that just took it to a whole other level.
“His hand was the size of a baseball mitt and the kid played with it. 99.9 percent of the people, their hand is the shape that it was in, they would’ve said, ‘Sorry coach, I can’t go anymore.’ Not Rickey. That was all I needed to know about him and his character.”
It’s far more than anyone knew when McGill was a freshman spending most of the season on the bench, watching English take Iona to the NCAA Tournament, learning how he could lead the team one day, too.
“I learned from him to just be patient and humble and work hard on your game,” McGill said. “I try and lead my team to being every better day, and getting back to the NCAA’s like last year.
“This team this year, I feel like we can go far again.”