Rider opens MAAC play against Pitino’s Iona
When Rider coach Kevin Baggett set up the schedule the way he did, his goal was to prepare his team for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference season.
Ultimately, you are judged by what you do in the league and not what you do in the non-conference.
The first of those 20 critical MAAC contests takes place on Friday night when the Broncs (3-6, 0-0) travel to preseason favorite Iona (7-2, 1-0).
“We just need to win,” Baggett said. “You get to league play and it’s important to win your home games and steal some on the road. We play a tough one at Iona.”
Rider has dropped two straight — both against SEC opposition — and five of the last six. Friday night’s game is the last of a seven-game road trip that has taken the Broncs to four different states and two countries.
“We’ve played a tough-ass schedule, so until we start playing the teams in our league that are comparable to us … we’ve played above our heads most of the time now, so I’m hoping it will prepare us for the league,” Baggett said.
The biggest knock against Rider has been its inability to put the ball in the basket. The issue isn’t creating scoring opportunities, it’s the lid that has been on the basket. The Broncs’ effective field goal percentage of 41.3% ranks 343rd out of 358 Division I teams, according to KenPom.
Additionally, Rider’s connect rate of 27.2% from 3 is 326th nationally. The Broncs are yet to make more 3s in a game than the opposition (twice they hit the same amount) and are being outscored
from the 3-point arc, 246-141. That averages out to nearly 12 points per game.
“I don’t know what it is,” forward Dimencio Vaughn said. “I can’t think for everybody. We’re trying our best to stay in it as a whole. Guys are trying to do their best to put up as many shots as they can. We’re small, so we got to put up shots. We just got to make them. Can’t really get mad about it.”
Vaughn also understands better than most that MAAC play in grueling 20-game slate, and it’s what you do in those games that defines your season.
“We’re ready to take on the challenge of whatever it is,” he said. “It’s another day in the MAAC. Non-conference is about trying to find our way as a whole, as a team and prepare us for the MAAC games. I know we lost, but I have faith in my teammates and myself as well that we are going to be in the top ranks in the MAAC.”
They get their first crack against a Hall of Fame coach and a team that has dominated the season series in recent years. Iona, which opened its MAAC slate by rallying past Marist on Wednesday, has won six straight in the series and 16 of the last 19.