Without Stephen Curry, Davidson lost [convincingly] to Citadel tonight, continuing to lower their resume for an NCAA At Large bid. Butler lost its second straight; 63-60 at the hands of Milwaukee, and will likely drop out of the Top 25 come Monday.

Kansas and Oklahoma State won tonight and Pittsburgh won Monday night against #1 UConn– bettering Siena’s RPI.

It’s safe to say Siena is within the top 5 best Mid Major teams in the country. (Butler, Utah State, Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, Siena– probably in any order). Saturday will be a true test, but with these top mid majors losing now, expect the national media to start looking other directions, and perking their ears up when they hear the name Siena.

Oh yeah, and Siena is guaranteed at least the NIT. Overall, a pretty good night.

^ – they’re moving up tomorrow.

Butler smoked second place Wisconsin-Milwaukee yesterday taking control of the Horizon Conference.

Tomorrow at 9PM on ESPN, Oklahoma State will face Oklahoma in what should be a great game. Big Monday = money. Oklahoma and Pitt are by far the two best teams I have watched this year, Duke not far behind– should be interesting to see how Keiton Page [, his threes] and the Cowboys play against one of the best teams in the nation.

Take Siena, a tournament team that knocked off Vanderbilt last year and returned all its starters. The Saints couldn’t snag a win against Tennessee nor Oklahoma State nor even Wichita State at the Old Spice Classic. They also lost at Pittsburgh and Kansas. Now their best RPI win is against Boise State (RPI 50) and they will face just two RPI 100 teams for the rest of the season — conference foes Niagara (RPI 82) and Fairfield (90) — which means Siena’s tournament hopes will be pinned to an automatic bid.

OK, nothing we didn’t already know, but this will at least keep Siena on people’s minds nationally. What is obviously not mentioned in an article like this is that we were in three of those five games late and we didn’t play any of those tough games at home.

Another round of 32 squad that has underachieved is the Saints, who have lived under the mid-major microscope after their crushing 13-over-4 victory over Vanderbilt (in the same Tampa pod that produced the San Diego shocker). A virtually intact team simply hasn’t been up to a murderous schedule, going 6-4 with wide losses to Pitt, Tennessee and Oklahoma State. Fran McCaffery’s bunch hasn’t been able to find compensation for the size disadvantage, something that was overcome with hot shooting and ball control last season. Neither has arrived yet.

Now look, I think honestly the best this team could be right now is 7-3. I don’t think it’s as drastic a disappointment as he makes it out to be– but that is how they’re going to view us on a national media level, and we just have to accept it.

To his second point, yes we do miss three point shooting dearly.

The first ten minutes of the game was very back and forth with quick baskets being scored by both teams. However, the last ten minutes were dominated by the Cowboys who went into the half up 14. For the third straight game Siena dominated the beginning of the second half and cut the lead to 1 halfway through the second half. Every time the saints cut the lead below five it seemed Keaton Paige was there to bury another three to swing the momentum. The other trend of the game was the Saints missing free throws. Siena missed a total of 17 free throws, which you can believe the coaching staff was not to happy about.

Following the game we had planned on going to Magic Kingdom, but thunderstorms delayed that for over two hours. Finally the skies cleared enough for us to make our way over to “the most magical place in the world.” First on the list of rides to go on was Space Mountain. This trip was the first time some of the players had been to Disney World and were not pleased with how close things were to their heads while on the roller coaster. We also went on Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and Thunder Mountain. A few times we experienced light showers, but the wait for each ride was no more than 20 minutes so nobody was complaining. Kyle Downey described the trip to the Magic Kingdom as a “spectacular time.”

Our last meal in Orlando was at Carrera’s, which is where we ate the first night. The food was just as good as it was on Tuesday and provided a nice meal to end the trip. Lights out at 11:00 due to our early wake up call for breakfast before we fly to Maryland tomorrow.

Rossiter looked great again, finishing up with a career high 22 points and 7 rebounds. CJ showed signs of breaking out but missed two big free throws late. But who didn’t I guess…

The Saints committed 14 turnovers and were lucky the deficit wasn’t greater than 13 at the half. OSU helped Siena by getting three of their starters in foul trouble and turning the ball over 11 times. Siena could not get anything going offensively in the first half– 43% from the field, 1-8 from beyond the arc and 7-14 from the charity stripe. Keiton Page was a Saint killer, knocking down two threes in transition to extend the lead to 17 with about 3 minutes to go in the half. The largest deficit Siena faced was 18, but the Saints got going late by running in transition– catching up with a CJ 3 and a quick lay in by Franklin which trimmed the lead to 13. Ubiles had a chance to cut the lead even more but missed two free throws.

Aside from the free throws, the second half was a completely different story, a back and forth exciting (but a bit sloppy) contest. The Saints came out running. Rossiter hustling down the floor early in the second half should not be overlooked– he got a big look from Moore to cut the lead to 7 and force an OSU timeout. Saints jumped into full court press and gave OSU some trouble, but they got a second chance three point shot to extend their lead and slow the Siena run– leading by 8 going into the first media timeout. Rossiter with a beautiful move up to the basket and the Saints had all of the momentum, cutting the lead to 4 on a Ubiles free throw. Franklin’s tough lay-up and Moore’s pull up from 19 and cut the lead to 1. However, on the ensuing possession Keiton Page hit another 3 to push the cushion to 4. Again an OSU 3 made it a 7 point advantage. Next possession Kenny Hasbrouck takes an off balance three (he did this again later too). OSU, another 3, Moore another bucket, Saints trading buckets but OSU hitting 3s. Rossiter finally capitalized from the line on a three point play, cutting the lead to 65-62. OSU turnover turns into Kenny Hasbrouck hitting just one of two from the chairty stripe where Siena’s woes continued. Saints trail by 2, 65-63 at the final media timeout. But the turning point, Saint killer Keiton Page pulls up from 21 and sticks in the dagger with 2:49 to go. Eaton’s miss off a tough shot sends Ubiles coast to coast to cut the lead to 3 again, 70-67. But OSU capitalized where Siena could not, at the free throw stripe– pulling off a 9 point victory over the Saints.

MAAC play begins Wednesday and it’s not time to jump ship yet. Yes, the Top 25 talk is over, but it just goes to show how inflated this team’s ratings got in the off-season. For me, it was never about a Top 25 ranking, although it would have been cool for a week or two, it would have put an even bigger bulls-eye on the team’s back. What does disappoint me is that this game would have likely helped the MAAC conference get a higher bid in the NCAA Tournament. I truly believe that these games will have big seeding implications come March. Even with another big win against Pitt or Kansas, going 0-3 in this tournament, I don’t see the committee giving a MAAC team anything higher than a 13 seed again.

These teams in Orlando were all tough defensive teams; maybe that’s why the Saints committed an ungodly amount of turnovers. Let’s hope this team can correct it’s turnover and free throw problems. The Saints seemed to miss all of the key FTs throughout this tournament– finishing up 23-46 from the free throw line in the final two games of the Old Spice. No doubt it was the difference in today’s contest.

• 2007-08 record: 17-16 (7-9 in the Big 12)
• 2007-08 tempo-free strength: Creating turnovers; the Cowboys ranked 32nd in the nation in defensive TO% at 24.0%
• 2007-08 tempo-free weakness: Giving up points at the line; Oklahoma State’s opponents put up a free throw rate of 44.1 (308th in the nation for OSU defensively)
• 2007-08 tempo: 66.9 possessions/game
• Returning players (based on minutes played): Seven of top nine players return; leading rebounder Marcus Dove graduated
• 2008-09 results to date: 4-0, with wins over University of Texas-San Antonio, North Texas, Tulsa, and Grambling State
• Key returning player: 6’6″ sophomore guard James Anderson, who led the Cowboys in scoring last season at 13.3 points/game on 37.9% three-point shooting
• Key newcomer: 5’10″ freshman guard Keaton Page, who has made 8 of 20 three-point attempts this season

The game will be broadcast Sunday morning on ESPNU at 10:30 am. Get to your local establishment before all of the local football fans. The Saints can’t sleep on OSU, they look to be a tough match-up for us too.

Siena committed turnover after turnover, while Wichita State missed shot after shot. Finally, the Saints got into rhythm behind Edwin Ubiles and looked like they had control of the game. With seven minutes left the Saints were up nine. However, by the next media timeout the lead had diminished to one. Clutch three pointers and forced turnovers resulted in the Shockers up one with four seconds left. Alex Franklin inbounded the ball to Kenny Hasbrouck who darted through a couple of defenders to get a shot off. The shot was a typical Kenny runner in the lane, but unfortunately it fell short, as did the Saints.

After the game the team returned to the hotel so the coaches could begin planning for Sunday’s game, and the team could get some much needed rest. Jimmy Halley and I however stayed to watch #16 Georgetown Hoyas take on the #12 Tennessee Vols. The game was one of the most competitive games I have seen in a while. It was like a Final Four match-up– with lots of lead changes. The twelve point win for Tennessee did not reflect how the game actually played out.

Afterwards, we met the team over at Carrabba’s for another nice Italian dinner. Following dinner, the team watched the Michigan State/Oklahoma State game to see who we would be playing on Sunday. Oklahoma State lost the game by seventeen– therefore it will be Siena vs. Oklahoma State on Sunday at 10:30am.

The team will go to Magic Kingdom Sunday instead of Saturday, so they can get some more rest.