A little breakdown on Iona's roster:
There happens to be a misconception in the New York area regarding the construction of the roster. Too often Cluess' efforts in building the roster are pushed aside and attributed to Willard. In the last several months, I've heard far too often that Cluess is "simply winning with a stocked cupboard given to him by Willard." Let's dive into the data to see if that is true...
Iona's 2010-2011 25-win season culminated in a run to the CIT championship game. Again too often was Willard given too much credit for this. In fact on this CIT run, Iona was starting just ONE Willard recruit (Machado). Cluess had 2 (Glover and Armand) while the remaining 2? Players that Willard inherited from Ruland (Dwight and Rodriguez).
On the current team Willard recruited just 3 players (Machado, backup guard Jermel Jenkins and swingman Kyle Smyth). The rest are all Cluess' guys, making 6 of the 9 rotation guys, Cluess' recruits.
One can also note that 2 of the 3 Willard recruits have experienced productivity under Cluess' offensive system that couldn't have been predicted by their time under Willard. While some improvement from one's sophomore year to senior year is expected as a result of experience, to glance at Machado's growth from his sophomore year to his junior and senior year is amazing. His assist totals have risen from 3.9 to 7.6 to 10.3 assists. His points per game, his FG%, his 3FG% and his rebounding have all increased as well.
To say that Glover was handed to the staff on a silver platter is a gross overstatement. The kid was all but wearing Hofstra's blue and gold in July until Cluess and Grasso swooped in and pitched the idea of coming to play in Cluess' fast-paced system.
While Willard's recruiting has certainly contributed to Iona's current success, people overestimating his efforts takes away from the wonderful job a former Johnny in Cluess has done in a year and a half at Iona.