Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference NCAA Tournament Betting

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference NCAA Tournament Betting

The Iona Gaels have been the darlings of the MAAC for a long time. Iona has brought a bigger spotlight to the conference too since making Rick Pitino their head coach last year. Pitino has kept the Gaels winning, and that could lead to the MAAC being a two-bid league for the first time in a decade if Iona falls up short in the MAAC Tournament. The Gaels failed to win the MAAC Tournament in 2012, but they grabbed one of the last at-large bids to give this conference two bids alongside Loyola.

Iona is 24-5 entering the last weekend of the regular season. The Gaels are 16-2 in conference play, and they have a neutral site win over Alabama to their credit. Their three non-conference losses to Belmont, Kansas, and St. Louis are all respectable, especially since none of them were at home and the loss to the Billikens was by a single point. However, back-to-back losses to Niagara and Siena really sting Nelly Junior Joseph has been dominant in the low post with 12.8 PPG and 8.1 RPG. He is making 53.8% of his field goals while averaging two blocks a game. Tyson Jolly is the leading scorer on Iona with 14.7 PPG while making 39.8% of his threes.

The two biggest threats to Iona winning a sixth straight conference tournament are St. Peter’s and Siena. The Peacocks went 13-6 in MAAC play, and they have one of the top defenses in the country. They rank 21st in effective field goal percentage on defense, but the offense has been bad and turns the ball over a lot. The Siena Saints were the conference champions two years ago before COVID led to the cancellation of March Madness, and they are looking to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a dozen years.

Metro Atlantic Athletic Tournament Format

The 2022 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament will be held from March 8-12, 2022, from Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Iona is locked into the No. 1 seed and Monmouth is locked into the No. 4 seed, but St. Peter’s and Siena are duking it out for who will be the No. 2 seed.

This is a tricky conference tournament to schedule since there are 11 teams in the MAAC. The bottom six seeds will play in the first round on March 8, 2022, and the winners of those games will face the top three seeds in the quarterfinals. The No. 1 seed and No. 2 seed will play on Wednesday, March 9, while the other two quarterfinal games are played on Thursday, March 10, to give the top teams a rest advantage. The semifinals will be broadcast on ESPN News on Friday, March 11, starting at 6 p.m. ET, while the MAAC Championship Game will be shown on ESPNU  on Saturday, March 12, at 4 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Most Wins All-Time in MAAC Tournament

The MAAC has undergone a few changes over the years, but there are still a handful of teams that have never won this conference tournament. Quinnipiac, which played in the NEC for years and years, has come to the MAAC hoping to get its first NCAA Tournament bid in school history at some point. Unfortunately, those hopes have yet to be realized.

Monmouth has danced plenty of times before, but never as the MAAC champ despite making two trips to the MAAC Championship Game. Rider and Marist have yet to win this conference since joining the MAAC from the NEC too.

Iona has dominated this conference, and the Gaels have won five straight titles. They have more than twice as many MAAC Tournament championships as the next closest team, so they are a consistent title contender. That’s especially the case with Rick Pitino on the sidelines. The former Louisville and Kentucky coach was brought in for the 2020-21 season after three years out of college basketball, and he brings immediate prestige.

Canisius has only been to the dance once as a MAAC school, and that came back in 1996. However, the Golden Griffins are also the only team in this conference to ever get to the Elite Eight (1956). They beat North Carolina State in quadruple overtime and Dartmouth in the next round before falling to Temple 60-58 with a trip to the Final Four on the line.

Siena was the last team to win an NCAA Tournament game for the MAAC. The Saints knocked off Ohio State in an overtime thriller during the 2009 NCAA Tournament, but they fell to Pitino’s Louisville team in the next round.

MAAC Tournament Championship Games

NCAA Basketball Conferences

• America East
• American Athletic
• Atlantic 10
• Atlantic Coast
• Atlantic Sun
• Big 12
• Big East
• Big Sky
• Big South
• Big Ten
• Big West
• Colonial Athletic Association
• Conference USA
• Horizon League
• Ivy League
• Metro Atlantic Athletic
• Mid-American
• Mid-Eastern Athletic
• Missouri Valley
• Mountain West
• Northeast
• Ohio Valley
• Pac-12
• Patriot League
• Southeastern
• Southern
• Southland
• Southwestern Athletic
• Summit League
• Sun Belt
• West Coast
• Western Athletic

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