Rider heads to Albany looking to buck trend of flailing No. 1 seeds

LAWRENCEVILLE » History made to be rewritten.

In Rider’s case that means bucking the trend of the No. 1 seed at the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament failing to secure to league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s what the Broncs are up against:

• The top seed hasn’t won the MAAC Tournament since 2010 when Siena did it in Albany. That’s the longest active streak of any conference in the country.

• The top seed has only won 14 times in the 36 years the MAAC has held a tournament. That’s a 38.8 percent rate.

• Rider hasn’t got out of the quarterfinals in any of the last six seasons and Kevin Baggett is 3-5 all-time at the MAAC Tournament.

• According to KenPom, second-seeded Canisius is the favorite with a 31.1 percent chance to win. Rider is second at 21.9 percent and fourth-seeded Iona has a 20.4 percent.

“One of our accomplishments was to win the league, which is what we did, and the next one will be to see what we get done at the tournament,” Baggett said. “History is made to be rewritten and I’m hoping we can change that so people can stop saying that same comment about the one seed.”

The Broncs (22-8) won’t know their quarterfinal opponent until Thursday night. They get the winner of eighth-seeded Monmouth is (11-19) and ninth-seeded Saint Peter’s (12-17).

Rider split with the Hawks and swept the Peacocks.

“We know what they do and they (both) know what we do,” Baggett said. “At this point, it’s a matter of us cleaning up some of the mistakes we made at Monmouth and executing a little better against Saint Peter’s, which has done a good job defending us for the most part.”

The Broncs bring a young group to Albany. The team’s top three scorers are all redshirt freshmen — First Team All-MAAC selection Dimecnio Vaughn, Jordan Allen and Frederick Scott — while sophomore point guard Stevie Jordan is the guy who makes it all go. Rider ranks 24th nationally at 82.6 points per game and plays at an adjusted tempo that is 13th fastest in the country, according to KenPom.

“Everybody is feeling great,” Jordan said. “We got the music going on during practice and everything is good.”

Rider, though, has a rugged path to the final despite being the top seed. Monmouth won the meeting last Thursday in West Long Branch comfortably and the two victories over SPU are by a combined seven points. A semifinal would be against either twotime defending champion Iona or Manhattan.

Yet Baggett believes this team is different than the previous ones that flamed out in the quarterfinals.

And why wouldn’t he think that? The Broncs have spent all season proving doubters wrong.

“They’re a group that blocks all that other stuff out,” the coach said. “They block history out . ... They’re like coach, ‘this is a different team.’ I trust them and we’re going to go up there and take our chances.”