It happened so fast.
One day, Rider was strutting atop the MAAC, doing their thing, not losing. Heck, about a month ago, they were the most likely NIT team in the whole darn country, according to our computer.
Then, they lost at Quinnipiac last Tuesday. On Friday, they lost at home to Iona. And while they straightened themselves out Sunday, winning at Marist, their NIT hopes have quickly turned from health to the plague.
To be clear, losing at Quinnipiac is understandable. And to be clear about another thing, Rider’s still in this thing. The Broncs are far from dead, and are probably the best team in the MAAC, but they’ve got to do a lot to win the regular season title, and even doing that doesn’t assure them of milk and honey come March—they could end up wailing and gnashing their teeth if they don’t lose up in Albany at MAAC on Ice™, the very much not-named-that-and-not-on-ice conference tournament for this particular coalition of Northeastern teams.
Speaking of the MAAC, a few observations:
- Oratorically, the MAAC is great. Not only do you get to make a sheep noise every time you say the league’s name, but you also get to say things like “Quinnipiac” and “Poughkeepsie” and “Canisius” which I think rhymes with “missy-us” based on two minutes of research a few weeks ago. A coach in the league is named Baker Dunleavy, which is rich. Teams are named the Broncs, the Stags, the Jaspers, the Peacocks, the Purple Eagles, the Red Foxes, the Golden Griffins, the Gaels, the Bobcats, the Saints…really only Monmouth has a boring name (the Hawks), and that’s not that boring because Hawks are cool and I get why someone in New Jersey would default to that.
- Why are there so many small-school conferences in the Northeast? How do schools choose between them? I get the Ivy League, but beyond them you’ve got the MAAC, Patriot League, NEC, America East…you’ve even got a few playing in the CAA, which—what should we make of those guys? And that’s just the low-majors. You’ve got the mid’s, too: the A-10, the A-10, and even the A-10. Wild stuff.
- Rider’s great because it doesn’t sound like it’s a real school. It is the most not-like-a-real-school-sounding school in Division I Men’s Basketball. One time when I lived in Minnesota I got a beer with this guy I’d gone to high school with, and he said his girlfriend was a student at Rider, and I was shocked because I didn’t think anyone really went there, and he was shocked because he didn’t think anyone knew what Rider was besides his girlfriend, and the weird dude a booth over was shocked because he didn’t believe Rider was a real school and assumed we were speaking in code and frankly, he hadn’t really expected that.
- Quinnipiac is atop the standings, and has a two-loss lead on any other real contenders (come at me, Manhattan), and while that doesn’t mean they’re going to the NIT (more unlikely than likely for everyone at this stage, remember) it puts them on our radar, especially because they’re at least as good as everyone not named Rider and they already beat Rider.
There you go, MAAC faans. Rider’s alive. Quinnipiac’s in the lead. This conference is a joy to speak aloud about.
