Men's basketball Iona University has been competing in men's basketball since the inception of the school in 1940. Iona is an original member of the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which began play in men's basketball with the 1981–82 season. The Gaels have compiled the most victories of any MAAC team since the founding of the conference and have won a league record seven MAAC titles. During their history, the Gaels have participated in 15
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships compiling a record of 1–15. The lone win for the Gaels came in 1980 against
Holy Cross, 84–78, which was later vacated due to NCAA violations. The Gaels were the
2011 CollegeInsider.com Tournament runners up.
Victories against ranked opponents: • February 21, 1980: Iona 77,
Louisville 60 (
Madison Square Garden) • December 27, 2002: Iona 65,
North Carolina 56 (
Madison Square Garden) • November 26, 2005: Iona 89,
Iowa State 72 (
Ames, Iowa) • November 25, 2021: Iona 72,
Alabama 68 (
Lake Buena Vista, Florida) '''Notable Men's Basketball Coaches at Iona:''' •
Jim McDermott •
Jim Valvano •
Pat Kennedy •
Tim Welsh •
Jeff Ruland •
Kevin Willard •
Tim Cluess •
Rick Pitino On April 9, 2010,
Tim Cluess was named the 12th head coach in the history of Iona men's basketball. Cluess is a graduate of Hofstra University and formerly the head coach of the C.W. Post men's basketball team. He has won 20 games and a postseason berth in each of his first eight seasons as the head coach of Iona, the only coach in the history of the program to accomplish the feat. As of January 30, 2019, Cluess is No. 2 on Iona's all-time wins list. The Gaels finished as the runner up at consecutive championships in 2007 and 2008. The program finished third overall in 2006, and fourth overall in 2003 and 2005. The Gaels have finished in the top three at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship in 24 of the last 26 years dating back to 1997, including titles in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2023.
Leonard Korir became the Gaels' first NCAA Championship winner when he won the 2011 NCAA Indoor 5000m title. Later that year he won the NCAA Outdoor 10000m championship. The women's cross country program also claimed their first NCAA Northeast Regional Title in the 2014 season, qualifying for their second NCAA National Appearance, the first being in 2006. Iona earned its first individual Cross Country title in 2014 when Kate Avery won the NCAA National title, becoming only the second National Champion in Iona history and the first Female student-athlete from Iona to claim an NCAA title. At the
2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro, the program gained its first Olympians. The Gaels had three representatives in Track and Field. Leonard Korir competed in the 10,000m for the
United States where he finished 14th in a time of 27:35.65. The Women's program had two alumni compete at the games. Maya Rehberg represented Germany in the 3000m Steeplechase where she finished 15th in the third heat. Her time of 9:51.73 ranked Rehberg 44th overall. Anna Baumeister competed for
Denmark in the Women's Marathon. Baumeister finished in a time of 2:29.49 which earned her 55th place. Joseph Pienta is the current head coach of both the men's and women's cross country and track and field programs. Pienta took over the head coaching position in 2018 after being an assistant coach for just under a decade. Ricardo Santos is the previous head coach of both the men's and women's programs. Santos is a graduate of Iona and received All-American Honors for cross-country in 1998 whilst representing the Gaels. Santos had been head coach of the cross country and track and field programs since 2008 before leaving the Gaels to coach the performance team at BAA (Boston Athletic Association). Santos is now on the coaching staff for men's cross country and track and field for the Stanford Cardinals. Iona hosts their Meet of Champions cross country invitational annually at the start of each cross country season. Their home course is the cross country trails at
Van Cortlandt Park, in the
Bronx, New York.
Discontinued sports Football Iona's football program ran from 1965 to 2008. The program was ended in part due to the dissolution of the MAAC Football League in 2007.
Ice Hockey The Iona Gaels Ice Hockey program began as an
NCAA Division III program in 1967 under coach Harry Nixon, under whom they enjoyed their first season unbeaten. Playing as an Independent program since the program's conception, the Gaels joined the Division III tier of the
ECAC Ice Hockey Conference in 1977, before the
MAAC introduced Ice Hockey as a sport within the conference in 1998. Their best finish in the MAAC tournament came in the 2000 season, where they placed second. The program ran until the end of the 2002–03 NCAA Ice Hockey season, after the board of trustees decided to remove the program from the Gaels' varsity sports teams. ==Facilities==