No. 15 Seed Iona to Play No. 2 Seed Alabama in First Round of NCAA Tournament
EDISON, NJ (March 14, 2021) – The 2021 MAAC Champions, Iona College (12-5), will face the No. 2 seed in the East Region, University of Alabama (24-6), in the First Round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The 15th-seeded Gaels will take on the No. 2 seeded Crimson Tide on Saturday, March 20 at 4:00 p.m. airing on TBS at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN.
Alabama won its first SEC Tournament Title since 1991 to get the No. 2 seed in the East Region. The No. 2 Seed Crimson Tide secured its first conference tournament title in 30 years on Sunday when it beat No. 3 seed LSU, 80-79, in the championship game.
The Gael’s have won its league-leading 13th MAAC Tournament Championship. They are the second champion ever to be crowned having gone 4-0 in the tournament. The previous team was Siena in 2002. It is the 14th time in program history that Iona is playing in the NCAA Tournament.
Iona’s captured its league leading 13
th title and in doing so became the first ever No. 9 seed to win the MAAC Men’s Tournament. The Gaels topped No.8 Quinnipiac University, No. 1 Siena College, No 5. Niagara University and No. 7 Fairfield University on their way to the MAAC Championship.
The Gael’s Head Coach Rick Pitino is the fifth coach in MAAC history to win the tournament championship in his first year in the league. He joins Mitch Bonoguoro (Fairfield, 1986), Fran Fraschilla (Manhattan, 1993), Skip Prosser (Loyola, 1994) and Rob Lanier (Siena, 2002). Pitino is now the third coach in NCAA men's basketball history to reach the NCAA Tournament with five separate programs. He joins Tubby Smith and Lon Kruger.
Leading the way for the Gaels is Asante Gist, who was named the 2021 MAAC Championship Most Outstanding Performer. Gist averaged 16.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists over four games at the MAAC Championship. Gist was joined on the All-Championship Team by Senior Isaiah Ross and Junior Berrick JeanLouis.
About Time Out for Black Lives
Time Out for Black Lives aims to inspire and educate youth, athletes, families and fans. The initiative has an interactive website where coaches and student-athletes from MAAC basketball programs contribute their time and resources to read children’s books in entertaining videos, all focusing on Black culture, history, music and myths. The program comes as part of the MAAC’s
United for Justice campaign that was announced over the summer. For more information, visit
timeoutforblacklives.com.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) celebrates its 40th year of competition during the 2020-21 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.