To think about how difficult a time Siena has to schedule think of these scenarios:

[Chaskin] hopes to finish the schedule by mid-June, but that’s not a strict deadline. He didn’t complete the 2008-09 schedule until July because the Pittsburgh game was moved to accommodate ESPN, forcing him to shuffle the dates of some other games. One year, he didn’t schedule the last game until September.

Road trips to Kansas and Pittsburgh helped the Saints to budget a trip to Europe. By the end of April the Saints had this scheduled out:

The Saints have scheduled home games with Albany and Saint Joseph’s for next season… Chaskin still would like to add at least two more non-conference home games and wants at least one of them to come against an “upper-tier opponent.”

On the other hand, some teams aren’t welcome to playing the Saints as Chaskin told Rivals.com:

“A lot of mid-majors don’t want to play us. The upper-level schools now want to play us, but they don’t want to play here. Some schools are offering us guarantees to come play at their place.”

Siena has said they weren’t interested in any “two for ones”, two road games in exchange for one home game series. By June, both other schools featured (Morehead State and Tennessee) finished their schedules but the Saints added a total of 0 games. However, there are some signs that the patience is paying off:

Siena already has set up a potential home game that will be finalized once ESPN agrees to televise it; Chaskin hopes that approval will come by the end of the week. He also has made some headway on finding another potential home opponent.

Siena is still looking for four more games. So far Rivals speculates Siena’s schedule looks like this:

• Albany (home)
• St. Joseph’s (home)
• A road game in Philadelphia
• Two games at the Palestra for the Philly Hoop Group Classic
• Northern Iowa (road)
• Tennessee State (road)
• Rivals says is a road Guarantee game
• Unknown road game

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 training room had a line longer than the line at Space Mountain. Players were waiting to get taped up by Greg “The Hammer” Dashnaw, the Head Athletic Trainer, and stretched out by Dan Taylor, the Strength and Conditioning Coach. At 11am, the court became available to the players and the balls were put out allow the teams time to warm up. Tennessee ran through a series of drills and stretching routines while Siena did their usual pre-game work out. The guys looked loose and as game time approached they seemed poised and ready for action.

After tip-off, we built a quick 4 point lead to open the game. Tennessee, however, was able to respond and the game was close for much of the first half. Towards the end of the half, Tennessee had a long streak that gave them a 20 point lead by half time. Coming out in the second half, Siena was able to cut the lead to just nine points. A couple quick Tennessee turnovers and a big “and-one” shot and free throw by Alex Franklin had the Saints right on the Vols’ tails. As the half progressed, Tennessee was able to pull away and by the four minute mark, they had a comfortable lead. Although the score may not reflect it, Siena played a tough game. Tennessee is a tremendous team.

We stayed and watched the Wichita State/Georgetown game knowing that whoever lost would be our opponent on Friday. This game was nail-biter, however, Georgetown was able to come away with the victory. We left the Milk House following that game and returned to the hotel where many of us made it a point to catch up on some much-needed sleep. We went to the Lone Star Steakhouse in Orlando for dinner which was great. To no one’s dismay lights out was at 11 by David Matturro, the director of basketball operations. You could tell the guys were taking Wichita State very seriously and were excited to get back on the court tomorrow.

ESPN: Recap | Boxscore

Siena just looked like a team that was over matched by size and athleticism in the first half, and couldn’t handle Tennessee’s man defense.

Siena could not knock a shot down from three; 1-15 on the day.

It’s looking like it’s going to be Wichita State tomorrow morning against the Saints, but let me say this; Georgetown would have been a much better matchup for Siena. Georgetown is a team that likes to slow it down (which is always a good matchup for Siena), and they look very flat right now.

Siena will play the winner of Georgetown / Wichita State tomorrow at 10:30am on ESPNU. Hopefully they can finish out with two wins, but the bottom of this bracket is tough too.

We departed Albany around 3:00 Tuesday and arrived in Orlando at about 5:45. The plane wasn’t too crowded so it was a pretty comfortable ride. Once we got our bags we took a bus directly to Oak Ridge High School for a Tennessee practice session.

After practice we went to an Italian restaurant recommended by Coach McCaffery called Cariera’s. The food was excellent, most notably the lasagna. If you’re here in Orlando, it’s definitly worth checking out.

We arrived at the Coronado Springs around 10:30pm. The hotel is pretty nice, and pretty big. What threw most of the team off was how spread out everything was– we’re all used to staying in hotels where we’re within a ten-second walk of each other.

Lights was at 11:00, we were up at 7:30am today.

Tennessee has been caught playing selfishly and also been caught playing lazy defense in their first three contests. The Volunteers felt that being on the road and facing a veteran team were two things that worked to their disadvantage in their recent (close win) over Middle Tennessee State.

Sounds good for the Saints.

No doubt Tennessee will be thinking, “stop Kenny Hasbrouck.” Adam Chaskin (Siena Assistant Coach) is going to look at Tennessee tape and see that 6′ 7″ freshman guard (former McDonald’s All-American) Scotty Hopson has been nothing short of dominant. This will force Kenny to spend most of his day playing stout defense against Hopson, opening up the gates for the other Saints to get their points. Ubiles will guard freshman forward Renaldo Woolridge, 6′ 8″ 205. Despite Woolridge having a slight size advantage, this is a good matchup for Siena. Look for Ubiles to isolate and take Woolridge one on one. Franklin will cover Tyler Smith, the team’s leading scorer who is averaging 19 points per game and 6 rebounds. At 6′7″ 215, Franklin maintains a slight strength advantage, but Smith has proven he can hurt you from three (14-37 last season).

Offensively, Siena needs to continue it’s well rounded offensive scoring. Tennessee’s biggest knock is their age– they are a young team, starting two freshmen and three juniors. Siena is an experienced team, a team that has shown they know how to play phenomenal defense, and force you to turn the ball over. Whether or not that will come to fruition against a team as fast and big as Tennessee, we will find out.

In my opinion, here is where you look for a bench player like Clarence Jackson to step up. It is well known he has the ablilty, he just hasen’t had his breakout game yet. Here is where you look for Ronald to utilize his speed to take his man (Bobby Maze) to the hoop, or Edwin to have a day where he doesn’t miss; his defensive matchup calls for it. If Ryan and Alex can provide steady defense, solid rebounding, and a few buckets, I think Siena will be in good shape.

Tennessee’s bench players have turned the ball over very frequently this season. Look for this to be a primary focus once the Volunteer starters hit the bench. Their Center Wayne Chism, Small Forward Renaldo Woodridge, and Point Guard Bobby Maze rarely turn the ball over (in less than 15% of their possessions). It will be interesting to see if Siena can swarm the ball as well as they did in their first two games, given that the speed advantage will have tapered off.

Here’s what we need from the Saints; balanced offense, continued swarming defense, and composure. Siena will need to dictate the tempo throughout most of this game– force Tennessee to play our game. I believe that Tennessee’s inexperience plays into the Saints’ hands and that the Saints have a good shot at winning this game. For those heading down to Florida, including the team, have a safe flight, and Go Saints!

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The game will air on ESPN2 at Noon on Thanksgiving.

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