Iati Quietly Enjoys the Game, Freshman Year
Will Brown says Jon Iati is a man of few words, and he’s not kidding.
“He doesn’t say more than two words,” the third-year head coach at Albany says. “Talking to him can be like pulling teeth to get something out of him.”
Indeed, Iati is a very quiet freshman guard who has let his game do plenty of talking this season. The 5’8″ point guard has had to be Albany’s primary scoring option due to injuries, but he’s responded well to this point and is the favorite for the America East Rookie of the Year award, having been named the conference’s Rookie of the Week seven times this season. But the story of Iati’s success runs deeper than just his emergence from the small York Catholic High School in Pennsylvania. In fact, this season almost didn’t happen.
In August, Iati had reconstructive surgery on his shoulder. His recovery kept him out of practice until three days before their first game, but he wasted no time showing what he can do.
He has been the leader of a team without any seniors, meaning he has had to learn on the job and play through mistakes. The frontcourt has had a good development in junior forward Aquawasi St. Hillaire, one of the top rebounders in the conference, and Chris Wyatt has remained healthy long enough to help up front. That has allowed sophomore and leading scorer Levi Levine to play his more natural wing position after having to play inside as a freshman last season, which helps Iati.
He says his shoulder has held up well, and there’s no question it has been well-tested: he has played at least 40 minutes in 20 games this season on the thin Great Danes, who dress just seven players. He leads the nation in minutes played, averaging 40.1 per contest, while placing ninth in America East in scoring and sixth in assists. In the first half of the year, Iati was worried about the shoulder, especially anytime an opponent set a screen on him. He wasn’t sure what he could or could not do with the state his shoulder was in. It added to what has already been a big transition for him.
“It’s been a major transition for a few reasons,” Brown says. “One is playing small school basketball in Pennsylvania, another is the physical style at the college level, which is a major adjustment, and another is his size.”
Perhaps the biggest reason Iati, who is listed at 5’9″ but is clearly not that tall, has made the successful transition is his intense love for the game. He had the keys to the gym at York Catholic and was often there late in the day practicing. Brown says that he “lives, eats, sleeps basketball,” and responds to teaching well, and if he had to mention hobbies, you guessed it – basketball comes out first.
“If you had 10-12 kids like Jon Iati, it would be a great pleasure to coach that team,” Brown says.
Iati comes from a great family and is very likeable; his teammates all like him and Brown describes him as personable despite being reserved. He’s liked the school thus far, a school he committed to very early before signing in November of his senior year. He felt it was a good opportunity for him to play right away with the team having a senior point guard last year. He describes the coaching staff as being “like a second family” to him, and the first thing he says about what he would like to do when basketball is done is coach. He hasn’t decided on a major yet.
Right now he is doing well on the basketball court, but things are looking up for both Iati and the Great Danes. If Iati wins the Rookie of the Year award, as he is favored to, it will be the second consecutive season the award went to a Great Dane (Jamar Wilson, out this season with a knee injury, won it last year). With that, as well as no seniors and four key transfers that include proven scorer Lucious Jordan and former Boston College big man Kirsten Zoellner, there is a lot of positive energy around the program.
“We’re excited,” Brown says of the future. “I joke with my staff that I don’t want another Rookie of the Year for a while. I’d like my freshmen to get a chance to develop at a pace and learn the game.”
“We’ll be immediately good next year,” Iati says.
Iati will certainly have a part in that success. He will have more help around him, and Brown figures that he will be even better when defenses aren’t keying on him like they have this year.
“I think his best basketball is ahead,” Brown says. “He’s a special little player, determined to be a big-time player.”
With the improvement he has made over the course of this season, Brown may be proven right. The man of few words will continue to let his basketball do all the talking he needs.
