The Saints scrimmaged last year against Rutgers where they turned the ball over 24 times. Siena played Adelphi at the Times Union Center last year in an exhibition, winning 67-59 in front of 1,744 fans.

* – Mass Mutal Center
** – MSG

November 13, vs. Vermont at 7:00pm
November 23, vs. Butler at 7:00pm
December 4, vs. UAlbany at 7:00pm
December 10, vs. Fairfield at 7:00pm
December 13, vs. Florida Atlantic at 7:30pm
December 22, vs. Georgia Tech at 7:00pm
January 17, vs. Canisius at 7:00pm
January 30, vs. Niagara at 7:00pm
February 16, vs. Saint Peter’s at 7:00pm
February 27, vs. Marist at 7:00pm

Add those to the national/regional tv games

November 14, at Minnesota at 9:00pm (ESPNU)
January 21, at St. Peter’s at 9:00pm (ESPNU)
January 24, vs. Rider at 7:00pm (MSG)
February 11, at Iona at 7:00pm (ESPNU)
February 25, at Fairfield at 7:00pm (TBD)

10 out of 15 of Siena’s home games will be on TV and 15 of Siena’s 28 games on TV.

Siena All Access
Tomorrow’s game will be streamed online FREE for your previewing pleasure. Also, you can watch the game on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

http://www.sienaallaccess.com

Uhm, wow, that’s AWESOME. I’m shocked that Siena is one of the first schools to offer this feature, but I’m completely psyched to try it out tomorrow.

The Siena All Access package costs $80 for the year. If you don’t feel like paying, you can always listen to the games online. Last year, if you missed a game, you could log on to SienaAllAccess.com and download the full audio broadcast of a game. This was such an awesome and under promoted feature by Siena. I don’t see anything about it in their Press Release, but we’ll keep our eyes open.

Single Game Tickets
Individual game tickets go on sale Monday at 10am. Tickets can be purchased online at SienaSaints.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000. Season tickets are still available at $110 per seat by calling 518-487-2281.

The Saints will put their 43 game home winning streak on the line against Vermont on Saturday November 13th at 7pm. They will then travel to Minnesota for a contest slated to be aired on ESPNU. Besides the impending BracketBuster game, this is the only time the Saints are scheduled to be televised nationally this season. Two notable home games are Butler, Tuesday 11/23 and Georgia Tech, Wesnesday 12/22.

Siena’s longest road trip is just three games this season; the western New York Canisius and Niagara split, followed by a short trip down to Marist that following Friday. The Saints will close out the season on February 27th against Marist, which we anticipate will be Senior day.

Who is Siena? Haven’t I seen this name the past two years in my bracket? This name is so familiar I should just pick them right? Yes, and yes.

It’s a great day in sports; it’s the day that you spend penciling in teams in your bracket, until you can’t even read through the erase marks. Many of you are here now doing your due diligence on the 2010 Siena Saints.

If your team is in, congratulations, and good luck, unless of course you’re a Purdue fan, in which case we wish bad things upon you, well, that was a little dramatic– we wish your team plays extremely poorly on Friday night. We mean like first half Purdue poorly.

Recent History

The 2008 Siena Saints dominated Vanderbilt in the first round as a #13 seed. Their 21-point win over Vanderbilt was the most lopsided #13 over #4 seed win since 1985. They would go on to lose to Villanova in the second round.

Last year, #9 Siena took #8 Ohio State to double overtime in the first round. This is where PG Ronald Moore got his name on the map, knocking down two crucial threes in the closing seconds of each OT. In the second round, they were right with Louisville with about five to go, but the #1 seed proved too much for Siena to handle.

This Season

Siena has since lost one starter and one bench player in each year, but this has not stopped them. The Saints attempted to schedule up again this season, but nobody wanted to play them. Siena had their chances for quality wins against 4 NCAA Tournament teams; they lost a close one against Temple, lost at Georgia Tech (without Ubiles), competed closely with Northern Iowa, and got smoked by Butler.

Siena simply dominated the MAAC conference this season. Including the conference tournament, the Saints were 20-1 this season. In their last three games, they have trailed by 6+ points at half and have come back to win, including an overtime victory the Championship game. Siena trailed by as much as 15 points in the first half. One thing is for sure, if you let this team hang around, they will come back– they are resilient.

The Starters

PG Ronald Moore
Moore leads the nation in assists, but more importantly, is the most clutch player perhaps in Siena’s history. Ronald may only be shooting 23% from three this season, but two of those three pointers have come in the closing minutes of the Saints’ past two games.

SG Clarence Jackson
Clarence is the three point specialist for Siena, but has proven that he has the ability to drive the ball to the hoop with authority.

SF Edwin Ubiles
Ubiles marks the top of Siena’s 1-2-2 press. He has great length, anticipation, and the most NBA potential on this team. Edwin appears to be finishing off his Siena career strong, shooting 47.8% from the field in his last five games. Ubiles can simply do it all.

PF Alex Franklin
Conference Player of the year, MAAC Tournament MVP, there is not much else you really need to say about Franklin, who has greatly improved his ability to put the ball on the deck and go one on one. Alex’s strength is not found anywhere else in the league, and he has proven he can match up with bigger Div. I talent.

C Ryan Rossiter
Ryan Rossiter is sometimes overlooked, but it is hard to overlook his presence coming into this game. He is 5th in the country, averaging over a double-double per game, 21 this season. Rossiter is the smartest player on this team, and fights for every rebound.

Quick Facts

• Location: Albany, NY
• Enrollment: 3,000
• 6th NCAA Tournament Appearance
• Siena has the second longest home court winning streak (38) in Division I

Catch the 2009-10 Siena Saints video highlights and more HD video at our video page.

Friday night’s games will be broadcast on MAACSports.com. Saturday’s and Sunday’s games will be broadcast on the MSG family of networks, and the MAAC title game will be on ESPN2. The winner of Monday’s night game will go to the 2010 NCAA Tournament.

Tickets–

Ticket packages for all 9 games can be purchased online, buy now.

Schedule–

• Monday March 8th
• 7:00: Final
• Sunday March 7th
• 4:00: Semifinal I
• 6:30: Semifinal II
• Saturday March 6th
• 2:30: #5 Rider v #4 St. Peter’s
• 4:30: #1 Siena v TBD
• 7:30 #2 Fairfield v TBD
• 10:00: #3 Iona v #6 Niagara
• Friday March 5th
• 7:30: #9 Manhattan v #8 Loyola
• 9:30: #10 Marist v #7 Canisius

Download the 2010 MAAC Championship Bracket as a word document. DOC

The Siena Saints (12-4, 5-0) host the Canisius Golden Griffins (8-8, 3-2) at the Times Union Center, 7pm Monday night.  The game will be broadcast on Time Warner Cable channel 3.  The Saints are tied for the third longest home court winning streak in the country at 29 with Dayton and Pittsburgh, behind Kansas (51) and Missouri (30), and will also try to extend their unbeaten streak against Canisius to nine in a row.   This isn’t quite the same Griffs team the Saints have faced in recent memory, though.

Canisius was picked to finish seventh in the MAAC conference by the coaches in the preseason men’s basketball poll, but the team has responded well early in the season.  Their non-conference wins may not be flashy, but a win at home against an improving Iona team served notice to other conference foes that the Griffs are here to compete this year– tied for third in the MAAC.

The Griffs are led by versitile 5’10″ senior guard Frank Turner.  A true stat stuffer, Turner leads the league in scoring with 17 points per game, averages 5.1 assists per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, and 2.3 steals per game.  Turner is the cornerstone of the team, and while names like Ubiles, Franklin, Thompson, Lewis, Harvey, and Benn may be thrown in to the hat for Player of the Year consideration, Frank Turner has to be at or near the top of the list.  He is a consistent and dynamic performer, and a huge reason why the Golden Griffins are working their way up the conference ladder for the first time in a long time.

Turner is followed in scoring by 6’4″ junior guard Julius Coles, who is averaging 15.1 points per game, and 6’7″ junior forward Greg Loggins who is averaging 10.9 points per game.  One of the key things to watch in this matchup though is going to be the battle of the boards – while Siena outrebounds it’s opponents 39-35.6 each game the Griffs also have a positive advantage in team rebounding, edging their opponents 37.8-35.6 per game.  The X-Factor for the Saints in this game may be the balanced scoring of its team, and if the Griffs can’t fully scheme for it and keep them off the glass then it may be a difficult night for them.

Siena’s scoring race has been as fun to watch as a Saratoga race card – Edwin Ubiles and Alex Franklin are now tied for the lead with 15.3 per game.  While Clarence Jackson is as explosive as anyone on the team, he is sometimes an anomaly – he has led or tied for the lead in scoring in six games this year, but also threw in a few head scratchers.  As impressive as his defense has been at times this year, his defensive intensity and rare carelessness with decision making on the court has found him in coach McCaffery’s dog house on a couple of occasions.  Meanwhile, junior Ryan Rossiter is the stalwart down low, averaging almost a double-double with 12.6ppg and 9.8rpg.  No one man is called upon to shoulder the load night in and night out.  What is most likely going to be the linchpin for this team down the stretch is the now evident emergence of its bench players.

Sophomore guard Kyle Downey seems to have completely returned from a back injury during the offseason and looks like a completely different player – while he is not shooting prolifically from three-point range he is hitting crucial field goals, and his defense and rebounding has stepped up in the minutes he gets to spell the starters.  Freshman forward OD Anosike had the best game of his early career on Saturday against Niagara, scoring 6 points, and grabbing 9 rebounds and 3 blocks in 22 minutes of play.  If Coach McCaffery can continue to get production from these two and set a solid 7-man rotation, then any other quality minutes he can get from reserves Kyle Griffin, Davis Martens, and Jonathan Breeden will be icing on the cake.  It looks like the depth issue that hindered the Saint’s chances to get an ‘up’ non-conference win early in the season may be behind them as the squad looks to make a strong run through the MAAC schedule.

KEYS TO THE GAME

• Let’s Get Physical?: The Saints continue to rank high in the nation in fewest fouls committed, 5th currently with 14.4 per game – that stat is going to be tested by the strong and physical Golden Griffins.  If the Saints can absorb the contact and not get in to foul trouble while maintaining an edge in rebounding then they should have a great shot at getting the win.
• How Much Can You Bench?: The Saints almost got themselves in to uncharacteristic foul trouble against Niagara, but the reserves did a fine job logging minutes and producing quality play.  Downey and Anosike will continue to be the first two off the bench, but in this game the play of sophomore forward Owen Wignot and freshman forward Davis Martens could prove to be even more valuable if coach McCaffery finds a way to extend the bench even more.  The size and athleticism of Wignot and Martens could give different looks for the Saints against the physicality and post prowess of the Griffs.
• More Cowbell?  How About More Free Throws?: The Saints still average a paltry free throw shooting percentage of 65.4% halfway through the season, but they have averaged better than 70% in their last few games.  For a team that gets to the line as much as they do, and as much as they should on Monday night, the improved free throw shooting is a welcome sight.

NOTES

• The Saints are outscoring their opponents 79.2-61.8 in the friendly confines of the Times Union Center.  Who doesn’t long for someone to put up some big bucks and re-name it the Knickerbocker Arena again?
• Siena has a +17 scoring advantage in MAAC games, winning each MAAC contest by double digits, and the team leads the league in scoring, margin of victory, field goal percentage, rebounding, assists, and steals.
• While the Saints went 16-2 in conference last year, and are certainly trying to at least reach that mark again this year, the record for consecutive victories belongs to the 1988-99 squad who won 14 in a row.