Former Siena Men’s Basketball player and now Student Assistant Cory Magee comes back from Christmas break looking forward to Siena’s Winter Break schedule.

• Griffin bound to see plenty of action during Saints’ busy week (Daily Gazette)

Kyle Griffin has rehabbed and worked hard since transferring from LaSalle and looks forward to more playing time as he looks to become a continuing part of the Saints rotation.

• St. Joe’s brings out the best in Jackson (Troy Record)

Clarence Jackson had his first double digit game as a freshman against the Hawks. Jackson had his first 20+ shot game in his sophomore year, scoring a career high 28 in last year’s 75-74 road victory. Jackson has had games scoring over 20 points this year.

• Home is where Siena’s wins are (Times Union)

Siena’s Home Win Streak is at 25 games and among the best in the nation. Kansas (49) and Pitt (29) are the only two teams ahead of the Saints. Their last loss? A February 16, 2008 Overtime loss to Loyola (MD).

• Franklin named MAAC co-Player of the Week (Siena Saints Blog)

Our story: Alex Franklin shared the MAAC Co-Player of the Week award with Loyola (MD) guard Brett Harvey.

• Siena readies for busy post-holiday stretch (Times Union)

Siena starts a four game in seven day stretch, Coach Fran McCaffery sat down with the media to talk before this busy week.

• Disappointment? Not For Siena’s 7-4 Start (Keepin’ Track of the MAAC)

The MAAC’s humble blogger takes issue with ESPN’s Andy Katz calling Siena’s start a “disappointment.” To Katz’s point, he labels Siena disappointing because they were unable to rack up any marquee wins in the non-conference schedule when it appeared the Saints had a chance to.

Magee will stay on with the team as a student assistant coach. Glad to see Siena was able to keep him in the program as a student assistant.

I’m just trying to stay positive,” Magee said. “I do feel fine for the whole day, which is miles away from where I was before. I’m just hoping at the end, when I’m 40, I’ll have a wife and kids and be able to play sports with him.

Wow, that doesn’t sound too promising for next season, but if he does come back, it can be as a red shirt junior. We wish Cory all the best, and are hoping for successful results from the surgery.

Josh Duell dressed for the Iona game yesterday, but was not available to play. Coach McCaffery still believes he is a few weeks away.

If a player plays in less than 30% of a team’s 1st half schedule, he can request a retroactive medical redshirt. Cory has yet to record a minute this season, so this wont be a problem for him.

Update 12:30pm…
There have been rumors that this could be a career ending injury for Magee, however these rumors are not confirmed. When we have more information, we will be sure to post.

It was good for us, because we need to keep working on our motion game… It’s good for us.”
– Kenny Hasbrouck

Cory Magee still has yet to see his concussion symptoms surmise. He sat out of practice and will not play against Buffalo on Tuesday.

It’s no secret, this team is physical. They only take good (mostly inside) shots, they out rebound their opponents on both ends of the floor, and they play unbelievable defense. On average, they have held their opponents to 57 points per game, just 39% shooting, and have yet to win a game by less than 13 points. Jamie Dixon, Panthers head coach and Pittsburgh native, is a defensive mastermind, and his players respect and buy into his system.

Pittsburgh is comfortable with rotating 11 guys in the game at any time– ten players have logged over 110 minutes already this season. To put that in perspective, Siena has 5.

While literally anybody could step up for Pittsburgh and hit shots, I’d keep close tabs on every one of these players, especially on the defensive end of the floor–

As Dicky V says “get it inside-kick it out, it always works”. That’s what makes me nervous, we can’t let Pitt gain confidence by running an efficient offense. Easier said than done. No team in their (light OOC) schedule has stopped them yet.

To me, offensively this game comes down to two things. First, staying fresh while still running faster than the Panthers– making them play our up-tempo transition game. This is a great time for Josh to step up and be smart; take charges where he can, maybe even sink a three. It’s also timely to get Cory Magee back for tonight. Fran probably wont give him a lot of minutes, but anything to keep Rossiter fresh– he’s in for the most physical game of his life. Secondly, we’ve got to hit perimeter shots. Think about the Stanford win, the Vandy win, what did we do– knocked down the three ball. No more Tay, no Downey on the road, Kenny and Josh don’t seem to be hitting them– Clarence, maybe tonight’s the night?

Defensively, the Saints may find some success with a zone if they can get going early– it hasn’t been their best defense so far this season, but if they can execute by forcing tough shot and denying the basketball inside, it will keep them fresh to run on the Panthers.

Regardless of the outcome, this game will be a good experience for the players. I think its important that Siena (at a minimum) plays with Pitt the entire game– This team could really use a confidence boost and staying with the #3 team in the country will do that.

The early betting line is Siena +18. Doug Gottlieb and former Vermont coach (who recruited Josh Duell) Tom Brennan will be on hand to call the action on ESPN2. The action starts at 9:30PM,– so take a nap in the afternoon if necessary.

Links

…Update 9:42am…

Half of the Big East conference is ranked in the Top 25, including three teams in the Top 10. Only 4 of the teams have 3 or more losses. In the early goings, Joe Lunardi has 9 teams from the Big East going to the NCAA tournament.

Tennessee really played poorly and Temple controlled the tempo for all forty minutes. The Volunteers were beaten of the dribble, made lackluster passes and did not get out and defend Dionte Christmas. Christmas finished up with 7 3-pointers and 35 points on the afternoon. After the loss, Bruce Pearl talked about how young his team is and that they’re not forcing enough turnovers. They forced 13 on Saturday. Last year at this time they were averaging 22 forced turnovers per contest. That is Pearl’s system, he’s got the guys to do it, they just need some time together. I still think this team will be playing very late into March.

Kansas vs. UMass was really an awesome game. It’s too bad it had to compete with Memphis @ Georgetown– hard to pass that up, but we’ve got to watch the Jayhawks when we can. It was back and forth pretty much the whole game, with the Jayhawks constantly trying to catch up to the Minutemen. UMass had a plethora of three point shooters who picked the team up with a 3 every time they needed to stop a Kansas run. This is what we don’t have– established three point threats. This is why I don’t see us beating Kansas. Chris Lowe, their PG has 533 career assists, and can shoot from beyond the arc. He’s chasing the all time record in assists at UMass 633. Tony Gaffney is also a treat to watch. He may be 6’8″, but he was beating Kansas defenders to the bucket on Saturday afternoon. Oh yeah, he finished up with 13 boards and 6 blocks too.

To upset a major (ranked) team, you need to have (at least) one athlete who is just phenomenal. Temple has Dionte Christmas, UMass has Tony Gaffney who is an extremely tough assignment, and of course, Davidson has Stephen Curry. Siena is the complete opposite, we’ve got a team of role players. Edwin Ubiles might be that guy, but I sincerely doubt he will break out and have that kind of night against that caliber of an opponent. Let’s face it; if the aforementioned guys are on Earth, Edwin is on Neptune.

FYI– Xavier is still unbeaten.

Congratulations to Sam Bradford who won the Heisman Trophy Saturday night. Sam, this national championship better come quick because lots of people are starting to focus on how Oklahoma hoops looks unreal.

Magee said he grew so frustrated that he considered lying to this doctors in hopes they’d clear him to play. Only after reading about New York Mets outfielder Ryan Church, who missed much of this past season with concussion issues, did he decide to be more patient.

Any Mets fan knows how painful this was to watch– Hey at least Cory didn’t go down leading the team in points, rebounds, and assists– (Church was leading the team in batting average, RBI and HR).

It will be interesting to see how Fran manages Cory’s return. He still has to be careful, and it’s definitely not like Fran to just insert a player in for a large number of minutes right away– ask Josh. Rossiter seems to be eating most of the minutes Cory had last year anyway.