College Basketball: Is Iona turning a corner under first-year coach Tobin Anderson?

NEW ROCHELLE - Iona is starting to get back in the New York groove.

The Gaels might've taken a bit longer than they would have liked to get there. With a new head coach taking over for Hall of Famer Rick Pitino and roster reconstruction that began in April -- resulting in the addition of 13 new players -- growing pains were to be expected.

They had an up-and-down start to the 2023-24 season, as they worked to reestablish themselves, but they have been heating up with the second half of conference play approaching.

"We know it's an important time of the year," Iona guard Wheza Panzo said. "It's February. It's a time where some teams either excel, or they just crash and give up. We knew we didn't want to give up, even though we started off slow. We knew we could pick it up. We're one of the best teams in the conference, we just have to play like it."

With a big weekend home stand that included an 91-82 win over Fairfield to complete the season series sweep over the Stags, followed by a 94-93 win over Rider on Sunday, the Gaels have won five of their last six games.

Rider certainly gave the Gaels a scare, with a furious comeback after being down by as much as 24 points, but Iona held on to continue its best stretch of the season.

With Sunday's win, they climbed over the .500 mark for the first time under first-year coach Tobin Anderson.

"It's been long, but it's always been fun," said Anderson of the road to reach this point after a rocky start. "People are always like, 'How do you compare it to FDU and other places?' I've always had a lot of new jobs and we've always done well, but everyone's different. At FDU, I brought my three guys (from St. Thomas Aquinas) with me, so it was like I had a cheat code. I knew I had three really good players.

"These guys are all new to me, all new to Iona and all new to the conference. I've enjoyed the process. It makes you a better coach, because you have to be creative sometimes. Not just how you play, but how you teach and handle the team. Was I too hard on them for a while? Maybe, but maybe being too hard helped us get to the point we're at now."

The Gaels improved to 11-10 overall and 6-4 in MAAC play. While those might not be eye-popping numbers, there's no doubt they're trending in the right direction. There's still plenty more room for growth, too.

"It's improvement and there's still another ceiling to tap into, and then another one beyond that," said Iona junior Greg Gordon, who enjoyed a birthday weekend that included game-high performances against Fairfield (35 points) and Rider (28 points). "I just want to keep telling my teammates to not get comfortable with what we have going on right now, because there's way more to come. Way more trials and tribulations to be faced."

During this six-game stretch, the Gaels have scored 85 or more points on four separate occasions.

In the 15 games before that, they only reached the 85-point mark three times.

"You're supposed to get better as the year goes on, that's the idea," Anderson said. "If you look back at our teams at STAC, FDU, we always got better at the end of the year. It's part of the process. We're grinding, we're working, we're getting to know each other a lot better, and the team's playing together. There's progress, and there better be progress."

The continued emergence of the Gaels' freshmen class, combined with their experienced veterans, has led to more positive results as they play with more cohesion on both ends of the court than earlier in the year.

Most of their wins during this recent stretch came at home, but they did get a road win against a struggling Siena team.

They also played well for a majority of its Jan. 21 road game against MAAC-leading Quinnipiac, before a late-game collapse resulted in the Bobcats using a 16-1 run to snatch a 91-87 win.

The win against Rider was one that almost got away, too, but they hope to turn a corner there. Half of their losses this season were a result of coming up short in closing time or losing in heartbreaking fashion.

"We understand that closing out games has been a bit of a problem this year," Gordon said. "We definitely are targeting and trying to pinpoint what's going on, and focusing on closing out games."

They'll get another gauge to see how far they've come next week, as they head on the road to play second-place Niagara on Friday, followed by Quinnipiac on Sunday.

The Purple Eagles spoiled Jim Valvano night at the Hynes Center on Jan. 7, when Braxton Bayless hit the game-winning three-pointer with 0.8 seconds left to give Niagara a 75-73 win.

"It's been hard, we've been fighting every day, but it's a part of the process," Anderson said. "I told them a while ago, don't judge the result, judge the process. If you take care of the process, the result will take care of itself. Now, we're getting better results. We won at home, but if we're going to be good, we have to go on the road and win some games.

"We lost some games we shouldn't have. You don't get those games back. We have to go forward now. It's a matter of us getting better and making strides. We have a lot of older guys, but they're also new. I think we've gotten better, we've improved, they work hard and there's still room to grow."

Follow Eugene Rapay on Twitter at @erapay5 and on Instagram at @byeugenerapay.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Iona men's basketball improving under first-year coach Tobin Anderson