Iona announced Monday that it is firing men’s basketball coach Tobin Anderson after just two seasons, leaving Anderson’s inner-circle stunned. The former FDU coach, who famously orchestrated a historic upset of No. 1 seed Purdue in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, posted a 33-33 mark with Iona as Rick Pitino’s successor.
The Gaels reached the MAAC title game this season, falling to Mount St. Mary’s to finish the season at 17-17 (12-8 MAAC) and just one win shy of an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Sources told CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander that Iona is expected to hire New Orleans Pelicans assistant Dan Geriot to fill the vacancy. The move is expected to be announced on Thursday.
“We appreciate Tobin and everything he has done for our program,” Iona athletic director Matthew Glovaski said. “He has been a valuable member of our Iona community. With the impact of NIL changing college basketball in ways no one could have imagined, Iona feels the need to shift the direction of our men’s basketball program. This requires an overhaul of our entire business model and program structure.”
Anderson was tasked with overhauling Iona’s entire roster when he arrived from FDU following the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Iona finished 16-17 in his first season before another overhaul that left Iona ranking No. 357 in minutes continuity at KenPom this season.
After a 5-12 start, Iona won 12 of its next 16 games to reach the championship game of the MAAC Tournament, where it fell 63-49 to Mount St. Mary’s.
“We came a long ways,” Anderson told reporters after the MAAC title game. “I’m sure it’s not up to what some people would like and probably not up to what I would like. But, man, we got a whole lot better. They’re good kids, they worked hard. We improved about as much as any team in the country. I’m proud of that, and I’m hoping to keep a lot of these guys and build out for next year.”
Iona leading scorer Dejour Reaves had already announced his intention to return to the Gaels in 2025-26 after earning all-MAAC honors.
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Now the task of building a competitive 2025-26 roster will fall to Geriot, a longtime NBA assistant and former Richmond player who last worked in college basketball as an assistant at Campbell from 2013-15.
Iona has historically been among the MAAC’s top programs. Pitino guided the Gaels to two NCAA Tournament appearances in three seasons before leaving for St. John’s. The Gaels also made six NCAA Tournament appearances in an eight-year span under Tim Cluess between 2012 and 2019.
Anderson’s takedown of top-seeded Purdue with FDU in the first round of the 2023 Big Dance stands out as one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history. FDU had the smallest lineup in the country but found a way vs. the Boilermakers and 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey.
FDU went just 4-22 in the season before Anderson’s arrival but finished 21-16 in his lone season with the program. Anderson previously spent nine seasons as the head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas, building the Spartans into one of the nation’s top Division II programs.
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