You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness.
It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The MAAC is not particularly spread out as far as conferences go, with 13 member schools located across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut at its center, as well as one school each in Massachusetts and Maryland. The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference formed just before women’s basketball became a Division I sport that had NCAA representation, and added basketball for both men’s and women’s ball at the earliest opportunity, the 1981-1982 season.
Four of the original six charter members remain — Fairfield, Iona, Saint Peter’s and Manhattan — and two new schools were introduced for the 2024-2025 season, in Sacred Heart University and Merrimack, with plenty of others leaving and joining in between. Its teams are fighting to get into a conference tournament where just the top 10 programs make it, leaving three out in the northeastern cold. In addition, the first six teams in the standings receive a bye to the quarterfinals, leaving the other four to play their way into the round, with the top seed facing the winner of 8 vs. 9 and the second seed getting whichever comes out of 7 vs. 10.
Those little edges in competition matter, as the conference tournament is likely to be the only way for a MAAC team to get to March Madness. That’s how things have worked out the last three years, and while there are some solid basketball teams in the conference — even one , the lack of depth makes the overall quality and depth of the MAAC a problem when it comes to handing out at-large bids.
Leaders:
- Points Per Game: Kevair Kennedy, Merrimack, 18.3
- Rebounds Per Game: Brandon Benjamin, Fairfield, 10.3 (10th in D-I)
- Assists Per Game: Mekhi Conner, Sacred Heart, 6.2
- Steals Per Game: Jaden Winston, Manhattan, 2.5 (9th in D-I)
- Blocks Per Game: KC Ugwuakazi, Merrimack, 2.1
We should not have to guess at which group would be the prime seed within the MAAC males’s event in March, as Merrimack secured outright possession of the regular-season title with a double-overtime win towards Iona that moved the Warriors to 16-2 on the season. That is Merrimack’s first time as the highest seed within the MAAC, as beforehand it was a member of the NEC, and solely made the swap to Division I in 2019-2020. In contrast to in 2022-2023, when Merrimack received the NEC convention championship, the Warriors might be eligible for March Insanity ought to they win the MAAC convention event, as their transition interval from Division II is over.
That’s removed from automated, regardless of having the convention’s main scorer in freshman guard Kevair Kennedy. Siena and Saint Peter’s are 12-6, with Marist half-a-game again of that pair. Quinnipiac is 11-7 and Fairfield and Mount St. Mary’s each 10-8. Iona and Manhattan are 8-10, whereas Sacred Coronary heart is 8-11 — the remaining groups, Niagara, Canisius and Rider, received’t have sufficient wins to qualify for the MAAC event even when they have been to all win out, as every has simply two video games left and are at minimal 3.5 again of Sacred Coronary heart.
MAAC main scorer and freshman Kevair Kennedy has supplied Merrimack with a severe increase. (Photograph by Mitchell Layton/Getty Photographs)
Marist is first within the convention within the NCAA Analysis Instrument regardless of sitting in fourth within the standings, at 169th. Merrimack is subsequent up at 180, with Sienna at 188 to wrap up the top-200 MAAC groups. Merrimack has the one constructive Internet Ranking per KenPom within the convention, at 0.10. It’s tops within the MAAC in Wins Above Bubble, as nicely, however at -5.37 — to reiterate, no within the MAAC is making it to March Insanity with out that automated bid.
So, not a ton of depth right here — the MAAC is ranked twenty fifth out of 31 conferences in general NET ranking — however there have been Quad 3 prospects for everybody, and the complete convention save Marist scheduled Quad 1 non-conference matchups earlier within the season. That bit of additional effort may be sufficient to keep away from a play-in recreation within the NCAA Males’s Basketball Match: on Feb. 20, FOX Sports activities’ Mike Decourcy projected Merrimack to face top-seed Duke as a 16-seed within the East Area bracket after weeks of matching the Warriors up towards SWAC’s Bethune-Cookman in a play-in, first. It’s early but on that observe, although, particularly with convention tourney upsets a definite risk all around the map.
Leaders:
- Points Per Game: Kaety L’Amoreaux, Fairfield, 18.6
- Rebounds Per Game: Madison Roman, Merrimack, 10.6
- Assists Per Game: Kaety L’Amoreaux, Fairfield, 4.5
- Steals Per Game: Paloma Garcia, Merrimack, 2.4
- Blocks Per Game: Oralye Keifer, Merrimack, 2.4 (9th in D-I)
Whereas selecting a favourite within the males’s MAAC is a bit of powerful given the depth that’s there, the ladies’s is, in some methods, a a lot shorter dialog. Fairfield is 18-1 in convention play, 24-4 general and forty ninth in NET powered by a 2-2 document in Quad 1 matchups. The Stags are forty seventh in Wins Above Bubble. They picked up 18 votes within the Feb. 23 Related Press prime 25 ballot, making them the de facto No. 27 group within the nation. Fairfield leads the complete nation in 3-pointers and is seventh within the nation in 3-point share, at 37.7%. The Stags have the Forty sixth-best Offensive Ranking (105.71 factors per 100 possessions) in the complete league and the 63rd-best adjusted Internet Ranking — sure, even after adjusting for power of schedule, Fairfield nonetheless has a tournament-caliber distance between its factors scored and allowed.
Nobody else is shut, although, Quinnipiac — second within the MAAC at 17-1, is 77th in NET however 91st in WAB. Right here is the place issues get a bit of tough, nonetheless: the lone convention loss for each groups got here towards one another. Quinnipiac briefly solved for Fairfield’s 3-point reliance by enjoying a bodily protection towards the Stags that stored its star junior shooters Katy L’Amoreaux and Meghan Anderson from thriving like standard, and the end result was a shock 72-58 W. Within the rematch, although, L’Amoreaux — the highest participant within the convention by Participant Effectivity Ranking — was prepared for the method and shot 10-for-17 general and 4-for-8 from 3 for 30 factors, powering the Stags to a 75-63 win. Anderson, by the way in which, ranks third in PER, and Fairfield sophomore Cyanne Coe is fifth. Quinnipiac has the opposite two of the highest 5, in junior heart Anna Foley senior ahead Ella O’Donnell.
Kaety L’Amoreaux is a double risk for Fairfield, because the convention’s main scorer and one in all its prime defenders. (Photograph by Dan Squicciarini/NurPhoto through Getty Photographs).
There are different groups within the convention, in fact. Merrimack is 13-5, Iona is 11-8, Sacred Coronary heart 10-8. Siena and Manhattan are each 9-9, rounding out the positive issues within the MAAC event. Two of Marist (7-11), Saint Peter’s (6-12) and Rider (5-13) will possible spherical out the event pool, with Canisius (3-15) and Niagara (1-17) seemingly nicely within the again at this late stage. The issue is that Merrimack, pretty much as good as it’s towards these groups, can be next-up within the convention in NET at 222, and it’s 187th in WAB. A win towards Fairfield or Quinnipiac isn’t unimaginable, however it will take an ideal storm of constructive builders for the Warriors and damaging ones for its opponent — and Merrimack is the next-best shot within the MAAC to make it to March Insanity, as each different group is nicely inside the bottom-100 within the league by NET.
That’s the fantastic thing about these convention tournaments, nonetheless: Merrimack or Iona or or Sacred Coronary heart may have a type of days the place the whole lot goes proper. The place Madison Roman goes 20-20 for Merrimack, or Isabellah Middleton leads Iona in scoring and shuts down the shooter she’s assigned to, or Amelia Wooden has a type of video games the place she’s all over the place, hitting 3s and grabbing rebounds and stealing the ball and rejecting opponents, powering Sacred Coronary heart to an upset. It’s all doable! However within the realm of chance, nicely. Fairfield or Quinnipiac are proper there.
