The MAAC is back: Mixed results for Rider’s new lineup in loss
Adding Zion Cruz and Flash Burton to the starting five appeared to make a difference for Rider.
LAWRENCEVILLE – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference occupies a unique place in the East Coast basketball landscape.
It’s a true mid-major league – low-major and non-Division I players transfer in, while the MAAC’s best frequently wind up with a power-conference team the next year. It isn’t flooded with the biggest or most skilled athletes, but everyone knows how to ball, and the collection of coaches leads to a variety of styles.
That’s all good information for newcomers, but that’s not what makes the MAAC unique. I talked with almost every head coach in the league this offseason while writing my conference preview for Lindy’s. And upon learning that I had to come up with a preseason ranking, more than a few of them told me some form of, “Good luck with that.”
Famed for its parity and narrow margins of victory, the full MAAC experience was on display Friday as most teams opened their league schedule. Apart from one rather surprising blowout – welcome to the conference, Sacred Heart, and revel in your 83-59 pasting of Iona – the games were decided by one, three, three, five and eight points.
With the conference still at an odd number of members (now 13, with the additions of Sacred Heart and Merrimack), one program has already played two games this week. That would be Rider, which opened with a three-point loss at Fairfield Wednesday before welcoming league favorite Quinnipiac to Alumni Gymnasium on Friday night.
A close battle ended in a 72-67 loss to the Bobcats, putting Rider on a four-game losing streak and making it the only 0-2 group in the MAAC. The good news is that the fine details keeping Rider out of the win column are fairly diagnosable.
“50-50 balls and being able to keep the ball in front,” coach Kevin Baggett said. “And then over-helping (on defense) and leaving guys open. And just bad turnovers at times.”
“We’re panicking a lot,” added Tariq Ingraham, who had his third straight double-double (11 points, 10 rebounds). “In late-game situations you can’t panic. I feel like we have to follow through. We got into the middle a lot in the beginning of the first half and then got open shots. And we didn’t keep doing that.”
Baggett did make some big personnel changes that appeared to pay off.
Transfer guard Zion Cruz and freshman Flash Burton were tapped for their first starts, replacing Ife West-Ingram and Ruben Rodriguez. Burton has had some nice games as Rider’s backup point guard, often looking more effective on offense than Rodriguez. And Cruz needed time to work his way into the rotation after missing the start of the season with an ankle injury.
Cruz answered the call by scoring a team-high 15 points, a career best for him at the Division I level, with 13 coming in the second half.
“It felt great,” Cruz said. “My coach trusted me to come in and start and try to give this team some spark, so it felt good.”
Burton scored 10 points and was credited with three assists and four steals. But in the second half, it was Cruz who brought the ball up the court on every possession and initiated the Rider offense.
“I just thought (Cruz) was more aggressive than the other guards,” Baggett said. “And then Flash is still a freshman. He dribbles too much and he’s still trying to figure some things out at this level.”
Burton did contribute to a crucial sequence late in the game that saw Rider erase a seven-point deficit in about 45 seconds. After West-Ingram tore away an offensive rebound and fed Jay Alvarez for the Broncs’ third and final 3-pointer of the night, Burton stole Quinnipiac’s inbounds pass and laid it in. Rider got a stop at the other end and Burton got to the foul line, sinking his free throws to tie the game at 65.
“We trust in Flash,” Baggett said. “He’s just got to grow up and stop making mistakes and overdribbling. But we trust in Flash. He’s stepped up and made big free throws already throughout the first 10 games.”
It’s fair to assume Baggett will stick with this starting five next Saturday in a nonconference game against Stony Brook. And if detractors say Rider lost by more with the new lineup than on Wednesday, remember that the Broncs had to rally from down 14 at Fairfield – and the four guys who scored down the stretch that night were Ingraham, T.J. Weeks Jr., Cruz and Burton.
Speaking of Weeks, Rider’s leading scorer picked up an injury to his right (non-shooting) shoulder during the second half Friday. It’s too early to say how much of a concern that will be, and Baggett had no additional information to share after the game.
Rider started 0-3 in conference play last season and went on to finish 12-8. Again, the MAAC is a funny league.
“Practice. That’s all I know,” Baggett said. “Get to practice. Get better. Everybody show up. That’s it. It’s a long year. It’s a long year, so we just got to get better. We’re not far off.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s a frustrated locker room, but we definitely have some work to do,” Cruz added. “Everybody knows that we can be good, so we’re just going to come in and practice and get better.”
………
I’ll spend a minute on Saint Peter’s here as well, as the Peacocks are the team I get to cover the least frequently. Playing at home against Manhattan, Saint Peter’s spent most of the game in the lead but slipped behind late and fell 70-67, ending a four-game win streak.
First of all, we can’t talk about this game without admiring this backboard-shaking dunk by Manhattan’s Will Sydnor:
Armoni Zeigler led the Peacocks in scoring (18) and rebounding (eight), but the name to know, once again, is freshman Bryce Eaton. A transfer from Central Michigan who sat out last year, Eaton is the player who made the coast-to-coast, buzzer-beating layup to beat FDU the other week, and he won MAAC Rookie of the Week for his efforts.
On Friday, the Peacocks took a 57-54 lead with 7:51 and only scored 10 points the rest of the game. They made just two field goals – a jumper from Eaton with 14 seconds to go to cut the deficit to three, and after Manhattan made one of two free throws, a hurry-up 3-pointer by none other than Eaton to trim it to 66-65.
That’s as close as the Peacocks would get, and they’re sure to rue their missed opportunities, but having Eaton begin to rise into a clutch shot-making role would help them in the long run this season. He’s taken the second-most shots of anyone on the team while also leading them with 2.5 assists per game. For an offense known to struggle at times, his contributions could be game-changers in MAAC play.
………
That’s all for this morning! No cleaning the glass – go enjoy your weekend. I’ll be back Tuesday as I settle back into a Tuesday-Thursday-Sunday publishing schedule from now until March.