Monmouth is headed out of the MAAC, and the league’s most high-profile men’s basketball coaches would like to see the league add high-quality replacements if the conference opts to expand.
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After NJ Advance Media and other outlets reported Tuesday that Monmouth was leaving the MAAC (and the Big South) for the Colonial Athletic Association ahead of the 2022-23 school year, Iona’s Rick Pitino and Manhattan’s Steve Masiello said they’re sad to see the Hawks go and would prefer replacements that pump up the league’s credibility and competitiveness.
“We’re losing an outstanding program in Monmouth, outstanding,” Pitino, who led Iona to the MAAC Tournament championship and the NCAA Tournament in his first season at the school, said Wednesday on a conference call in response to a question from NJ Advance Media.
“Great arena, terrific coach [King Rice], he’s done a fabulous job all those years. They bring a lot to the table, so losing a program like Monmouth is difficult for us so we have to replace them with somebody as good as Monmouth.”
With the departure of Monmouth, which has been to three NCAA Tournaments and two NITs since 2001, the MAAC will go from 11 to 10 schools, including Rider and Saint Peter’s from New Jersey. Schools like Fordham of the Atlantic-10, Hofstra of the Colonial and Wagner and Bryant of the Northeast Conference have been linked to the MAAC, but everything remains fluid. Although some think Fordham would be a perfect fit basketball-wise, it seems unlikely the school would shift down from the A-10 to the MAAC. Fordham also hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 1992.
“I don’t care if it’s 11, 12, 14 [teams], whatever the number is, as long as you’re taking a quality team in there, or teams,” said Pitino. “If you’re not taking quality, quantity is only going to hurt the MAAC.”
Masiello, Pitino’s former ball boy with the Knicks and former assistant at Louisville, echoed similar sentiments.
“I think if you’re going to go with 11 teams, it’s really important who you bring in,” Masiello said. “At the end of the day, I have no feeling towards what we do, I care about what it leads to. And what I mean by that is how do we get multiple teams in [the NCAA Tournament], how do we raise the profile of our league and play on national TV? That’s what’s important, and those are the things we should be worrying about.”
Asked specifically about potentially adding teams with New York ties, Masiello said it’s more important to add teams with a tradition of winning.
“I’d like to see a team brought in that raises your profile ... a perennial winner maybe in another league or has been to multiple NCAAs or has national attention,” he said. “I don’t think bringing someone in just to fill a spot necessarily might be best for the league.”
MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor said Wednesday he’s personally in favor of a 12-team league so that every team can play on the same night without having one team off, but said he thinks the coaches prefer an 11-team league with a 20-game balanced schedule.
“I think our immediate plans are still to get to 12 and see what happens with membership,” he said. “We want to maintain a fairly high number both for competitive reasons but also for membership reasons within the NCAA structure.”
The advantage of having fewer teams -- like 10 -- would be an 18-game league schedule, allowing for more opportunities for high-profile non-conference games. Already this season under the 20-game schedule, Iona has victories over then-No. 10 Alabama, Harvard, Yale and Hofstra, while Manhattan has a neutral-court win over Liberty and Monmouth owns victories over Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Joe’s and Yale.
“The more you have those situations, the better off you can be and raise the profile of your league,” Masiello said. “I think it’s really hard to raise the profile of your league amongst each other.”
For his part, Monmouth’s Rice says he has not yet been informed that the school is leaving for the Colonial, and hopes to continue coaching in whatever league the Hawks play.
“President [Patrick F.] Leahy will tell me when we’re moving,” Rice said. “I’ve seen all the reports, I know there’s meetings going on here right now, but I have not heard from my bosses that that is what’s happening ...
“The future looks bright at Monmouth and I’m hopeful they want me to be the coach here for a long time in whatever league. We were in the NEC and now we’re in the MAAC and the MAAC has been good to me, so I’m just going to wait until my bosses tell me that we’re going to be in a different position.”
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Adam Zagoria is a freelance reporter who covers Seton Hall and NJ college basketball for NJ Advance Media.
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