Which Team Has Best Record in the Country? : Why, It’s Iona, Which Is 17-1 but Unranked--Except in Its Coach’s Mind

The problem is simple.

To be ranked, it helps to be seen--and to be seen, it helps to be ranked.

And Iona is neither--for now.

The Gaels, at 17-1, have the best record of any NCAA Division I team in the country. Better than top-ranked St. John’s, better than twice-beaten, second-ranked Georgetown, the defending national champion. Better than everyone.

But beyond the borders of New Rochelle and the surrounding communities of Westchester County, a commuter’s ride north of New York, Iona is merely four letters that spell anonymity.

The Gaels play, after all, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which is to say they play Army, Fairfield, Fordham, Holy Cross, LaSalle, Manhattan and St. Peter’s. Not exactly a killer schedule.

Which seems to be one reason the Gaels, while not greeted with gales of laughter, also are not greeted with the awe befitting a major team with a .944 winning percentage.

Following Tuesday night’s 53-47 victory over Fordham at the Meadowlands, Iona Coach Pat Kennedy observed: “After watching ESPN (the cable television network) and watching teams ranked 12th to 20th, I have no doubt we can play with those teams.”

Perhaps. But most of those teams have never even seen, much less played, Iona. So most coaches could offer no affirmation or rebuttal of Kennedy’s belief.

Most, but not all.

Rollie Massimino of 18th-ranked, 14-4 Villanova, offered some very pungent thoughts about the strength of Iona’s schedule and Kennedy’s feeling that the Gaels could compete with the lower ranked teams.

“I’ve known him since he was a kid. He’s gone wacky. He’s gone off the high board,” the 50-year-old Massimino said of the 33-year-old Kennedy. “He’s saying he can beat Tulsa? No shot! DePaul? No shot! Oregon State? No shot! Louisiana Tech? No way! Maryland? Forget it! Villanova? Maybe, ‘cause we stink. Kansas? No way! Alabama-Birmingham? Tell Pat to get another job!” And Massimino laughed the laugh of someone having a good joke at the expense of a close friend.

“No, look,” Massimino said, turning serious, “they’re a very good team. After you get past the first three, four, five, there are 30, maybe 35 good teams, all close to comparable. I have my own rankings on my radio show and I call Iona my sleeper team.

“But let’s look at the level of competition. Let’s compare schedules. That’s where the NCAA’s line of decision-making (on entry to the national championship tournament) comes in,” Massimino went on. “We’re playing the 1-2 teams and 5-6 in half a dozen of our games. Can you compare that to a team that doesn’t play anyone in the top 20? There’s half a dozen teams with two losses or less. Should they all be in the rankings?”

Kennedy, who called Massimino “like a second father; he’s my guru. I respect him,” disagreed to a point. “Sure, we don’t play the same schedule as the Big East, the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). But we’ve got a couple of direct correlations to go by.

“We played LaSalle twice. Beat ‘em by 30 and 16 points. Villanova beat ‘em by 12. We beat Connecticut without (senior forwards) Arnie Russell and Troy Truesdale. Connecticut beat Syracuse. We beat Fordham by six and Fordham lost to St. John’s by one.

“After last night (the victory over Fordham), a lot of people were asking me why I thought we should be ranked. What I want to know is, why not?”

Because nobody knows who they are--yet.

“I don’t know anything about them, but I was looking at their record this morning and I was surprised they’re not in the top twenty,” Nolan Richardson, coach of 12th-ranked Tulsa, said.

“I haven’t seen them, but their record proves that they probably can play with almost anybody,” said Ralph Miller, coach of 14th-ranked Oregon State.