By PAUL GOTHAM
The last time Iona reached the NCAA Tournament, A.J. English watched from the sideline. The freshman made 17 appearances including six starts before a wrist injury ended his season in late January. Iona fell to Ohio State, 95-70. It was the Gaels second straight trip to the Dance.
Three years later, English will get his first opportunity on the sport’s biggest stage when No. 13-seed Iona (22-10) takes on the No. 4-seed Iowa State Cyclones (21-11) in the first round of the Midwest region.
“I’m so happy for him because of the work he’s put in,” head coach Tim Cluess said during Wednesday’s press conference. “He’s been so dedicated since that freshman year to get us back to the NCAA tournament, so he could taste it. Not just him, that his teammates could taste being a part of it. I don’t know that anyone that has been more driven than him for this opportunity.”
English is one of only two NCAA Division I players (Davidson’s Jack Gibbs is the other) to score 40 or more points in a game this season. He ranks 10th in the nation scoring 22.9 points a game. At the same time, he hands out 6.2 assists (19th in the nation).
“You’re going to see a player who is very unselfish, who competes as well as anybody out there,” Cluess added. “He can shoot the ball, handle the ball, pass the ball, rebound the ball, defending much better this year. He’s just an all-around player, and he’s the leader of our team.”
English set a school and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference record when he connected on 13 3-pointers in Iona’s win over Fairfield earlier this season. The 6-4 guard also handed out 14 assists against Canisius – one of his three double-digit assist performances.
Over Iona’s last seven games, English is shooting 46.5 percent from the floor (up from his season average of 42.9) and scoring 25.5 a game. But he is still handing out 5.5 assists over that span.
“He’s so good right now that you don’t have to bring it up to him,” Cluess said about his guard’s decision to pass up shots from time to time. “He does it automatically. He looks for his teammates. He knows what schemes are of different teams defensively and studies it. He knows where guys are going to be open on court, tries to get them involved, tries to get their confidence up right away.”
“If somebody gets it going, it’s like we don’t just look to get them the ball right away,” English explained. “We might run a set, run three, four passes, then get them the ball. Try to speed teams up defensively.”
“He’s a really good teammate,” Isaiah Williams said. “He looks to get his teammates first before he get going. Sometimes me personally, I don’t like that, I like to see him get going first. Our team follows behind him.”
English is third all-time on the Iona scoring list with 1,976 points. His 311 3-pointers puts him second behind former teammate Sean Armand.
“I would have to put A.J. in my book as the best player I’ve coached there because of the fact that I think he’s got ice in his blood late in the game,” said Cluess in his sixth year as Iona’s head coach. “He makes more game-winning shots and plays and leads teams late in the game better than anyone we’ve had.”
English is the son of A.J. English II an All-American at Virginia Union University who played two years in the NBA with the Washington Bullets.
No. 13-seed Iona and No. 4-seed Iowa State will tip off at 2 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.
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