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Sorry guys - tough loss to end season. I know we didn't see anywhere near your best.
Hopefully, we'll see you guys down the road in the near future.
Come back and take the Horizon next season!

vu72, though I haven't confirmed your stats, they do seem reasonable - overall, a pretty good feel for our team.
As to our high assists, that is primarily due to our junior PG, Scott Machado who has, at times, been referred to as an assist machine.
Our starting lineup fluctuates between the one you cite and 2 seniors, 2 juniors and 1 soph. The one soph is Kyle Smyth who has been hurt during both of our last 2 games - he is our most proficient 3 pt shooter - however, not our only one.
If he is not available Wednesday, that will mean more playing time for a freshman who I think has the most beautiful pure shot on the team. His shot reminds me of a Ray Allen shot - now watch him look horrible, just to make me wrong.
We started off the season with a very short rotation - as the season has gone on that has grown to the point that we can now
go 9 or 10 deep with most being legitimate scoring threats.

A brief rundown on the Gaels.
We came off a 21 win season last year. 3 years earlier we won 2 games all year resulting in hiring Rick Pitino
asssistant coach Kevin Willard as our HC. In 3 years he returned us to a 20 win team. After last season he moved
to the Big East taking HC job at Seton Hall.
At that point our administration took what many considered a gamble, by hiring a HC who had no prior D1 coaching
experience. We hired C.W. Post (D2) HC Tim Cluess. He had a great reputation in the N.Y. City metro area as a pure
winner on the high school, junior college and D2 level; however, no D1 coaching experience. He also brought an entirely
new style of ball. Willard was a very defensive oriented coach. Cluess loves to run.
With new coaches, an entirely new system and several new players (including a Junior College All-America - Mike Glover)
we opened the season in a 3 game tourney in Cleveland by losing to Kent State, Cleveland State and Bryant. There
were already screams being heard in New Rochelle, N.Y. (Iona's home) about the impending disaster. Our next game was
against Richmond and most wondered how bad that would be. This turned out to be a great game which Iona won in double
OT 81 - 77. The turnaround had started. Our next game was against Albany - we won that also by shooting 18 for 30 from
3 point with starter Kyle Smyth 8 for 13 from 3.
We were on a 7 game win streak until we visited the undefeated Orange at the Dome in Syracuse. We played a great game
though ultimately losing by 6. Mike Glover scored 25 shooting 9 for 11 from the field  with 16 rebounds.
We had ups and downs the rest of the way - we were on a 9 game win streak before losing our conference championship game.
Up front we start 6'7" and 6'8" with 6'10" soph coming off the bench.
Mike Glover can be a beast up front. Our PG Scott Machado is our 2nd leading scorer and has been at or near the top in NCAA
assists all year - he finished 3rd in the nation.
We shoot 3s .370 as a team; however, our top 3 point shooter, Kyle Smyth, is our one significant injury problem. He went down in the
first half of championship game and did not come back. I have serious doubts that you will see him.
We do like to play an up tempo game and will run the court with anyone. Our D has been a work in progress; however, it has picked up
recently.

Hello Valpo Fans!
I am an alum/fan of the Iona Gaels.
I can see we are both somewhat disappointed that we ended here rather than in one
of the higher profile tourneys.
Coming from a 1 bid conference, we knew that we were not dancing when we stumbled
in our conference (MAAC) championship game a week ago. We did however have hopes
for the NIT.
It looks like both of our teams got caught in the perfect storm of season conference champs
falling in conference tourneys - our conference was one of them with our season champ (Fairfield)
losing in our tourney semis.
Since the new auto bid rule was adopted for the NIT, the highest number of autos had been 8 -
this year, I believe that jumped to 14.
Anyway, we are now here. I just wanted to stop by and say HI. Let's have a great game and show
everyone why we both deserved higher consideration.
Good luck to you guys and let's both have some fun!