Siena is ready to go to work. There are expected to be a lot of Ohio State fans but also many Louisville fans who might stick around and root for the Saints. Joe Lunardi likes the Saints to advance, John Gasaway doesn’t think so.

If anyone remembers, Kenny Hasbrouck was in a scoring slump early in the season and struggled at Pitt. After that game he had a heart to heart talk with Coach Fran McCaffery:

“He took me in his office and we talked about it, and then everything then came together… I figured out that I had to have fun. It’s a game and I couldn’t stress over it. I had to do what I do best and be aggressive.”

Siena knows they won’t be in a hometown environment but they will have to play through it. And one of the definite key players to this game is Alex Franklin and the other big men and how they’ll match up against Ohio State’s tall players. Franklin insists he is 6’6″, even with that though, he plays like he is 6’9″ and will have to be against projectable big men like B.J. Mullens. We will see if Siena will play any zone which could concern the Buckeyes, the Cleveland Plain Dealer says:

…expect the Saints to put pressure on the OSU ballhandlers. With Jeremie Simmons proving again in the Big Ten Tournament title game against Purdue that he’s not a point guard who’s comfortable dribbling under pressure, P.J. Hill’s minutes could increase… The Buckeyes can’t afford to make leading scorer Evan Turner serve as the primary ballhandler the entire game.

Siena fans know him but one player to watch out for is Clarence Jackson. If Jackson gets going early hitting a few shots, the Saints are much much deeper and tougher to defend.

The New York Times is looking for fan photos and Coke Zero is looking for fan videos. Minor story on Fran is he turned down a scholarship to North Carolina and Wake Forest as a player.