• Siena Saints Blog catches up with David Woods of the Indianapolis Star to talk about the Butler Bulldogs in advance of their matchup on February 20th. Go buy his book! The Butler Way: The Best of Butler Basketball which came out at the end of last year and is available on amazon.com.
• We got into some more reading on Tuesday. RushTheCourt, The Indianapolis Star and the Times Union all reacted to the Siena-Butler matchup and Yahoo!’s The Dagger talked to Ryan Rossiter.
• The night of the announcement we scooped up all the important links from Andy Katz, Joe Lunardi and a great New York Times story on Siena’s Senior class.
• Just past 6:30, we found out Siena’s BracketBusters opponent, and will be traveling to Butler to play in the first game Saturday at 11am on ESPN2HD and ESPN360.com.
• Our pre previews covered the array of options while sorting out Siena’s most likely opponents, to Matt’s opinion piece calling for Butler, to a potential Utah State matchup.

• 11:35am interview on First Take (ESPN2) there’s no replay of First Take today because the Big XII Tournament will be on ESPN2 at 12:30 so this will be the time to catch it.
• 11:45am interview on ESPN Rise website.
• 1pm SportsNation Chat.
• 1:40pm appearance on the Tirico and Van Pelt Show.
• 2:10pm appearance on ESPNews.

Niagara, who depended on the three point ball to keep them tied with Siena at halftime by sinking 6 of 19, went 3 of 18 from behind the arc in the second half and could not cool down the Saints hot shooting. Kenny Hasbrouck scored 17 of his team high 19 points in the second half. Ryan Rossiter posted a double double with 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Ronald Moore turned in a good performance even though he was given a disputed technical foul in the first half. Moore was barely short of a triple double with 7 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

Siena is now 4-3 in MAAC Championship games, 4-2 against Niagara in the tournament, 9-2 as the #1 seed in the MAAC Tournament and 8-2 under Fran McCaffery.

We will have updates throughout the week on not only the fallout of the MAACs, but Bracketology as well as the Saints go marching to their fifth Big Dance.

Niagara defended the three point line really well these past two days, letting their opponents only shoot 11 of 45 (24.4%) from behind the arc. Siena hasn’t thoroughly used the three but has done well the last two days going 14 of 38 (36.8%).

Kenny Hasbrouck’s status is still a question to be answered before tipoff, I’m sure we will have more information as the story is ongoing. Edwin Ubiles has been in early foul trouble in each of the first two games and Siena will probably need Ubiles to keep his hot streak against Niagara. Ubiles, in his career, has put up games of at least 19 points per game in 5 of his 7 career games against the Purple Eagles.

One red flag that Siena fans worry about is Free Throw shooting. Before worrying about it too much, understand that Niagara left 16 points at the free throw line last night and shot 28 of 44 from the line.

Bracket Worries
If Siena can’t pull it off tonight, there is still an at-large chance. Siena will have to become fans of conference favorites such as Memphis, any of the Big East top 7, LSU-Tennessee-South Carolina in the SEC and BYU or Utah in the MWC to win their conference tournaments. They would probably have some help by wins by Butler and Gonzaga tonight. It’s that or have teams on the bubble play themselves out as Creighton likely did this past weekend.

Bracketology updates start today and go through the week every day on ESPN.com.

Yesterday, during the begining of the Niagara game, Fran and his wife sat with Sean McDonough and spoke for at least twenty minutes. I can only project that it’s going to be Jay Bilas, Bill Raftery and Sean doing tonight’s call on ESPN2.

I would much prefer Dan Shulman, but he is locked in to Dicky V– and no matter how many MAAC radio commercials he does [over the phone], he wouldn’t be slated for this game.

Tim Wilkin at the Times Union writes a nice piece on who will be singing tonight’s National Anthem.

Also if people want to know where MSG2 is in their area, I have the information so comment after the article with your area and service provider and I should be able to tell you where to find it (if you have it).

Friday March 6th
7:30pm #8 Loyola vs. #9 Canisius
9:30pm #7 Iona vs. #10 Marist

Saturday March 7th
MSG 9:30am Women’s Semifinal #1
MSG2 approx. 11am Women’s Semifinal #2
MSG2 2:30pm #4 Manhattan vs. #5 Fairfield
MSG approx. 5:00pm #1 Siena vs. Loy/Can winner
MSG Plus 7:30pm #2 Niagara vs. Iona/Mar winner
MSG2 10:00pm #3 Rider vs. #6 St. Peter’s

Sunday March 8th
MSG Noon Women’s Final
MSG2 6pm Men’s Semifinal #1
MSG Plus approx. 8pm Men’s Semifinal #2

Monday March 9th
ESPN2 9pm Men’s Final

Northern Iowa (18-9) vs. Siena (21-6)
ESPN2, 3:00 PM ET, Saturday
For five weeks Northern Iowa was a huge surprise in the Missouri Valley-maybe even “the Drake of 2009.” Since then, however, the Panthers have lost three of their last four, as coach Ben Jacobson’s formerly efficient offense has begun to sputter. On Wednesday night UNI scored just 46 points in 59 possessions and lost by one at home to instate rival Drake. The Panthers might be struggling, but 7′1″ big man Jordan Eglseder still poses a formidable challenge to opponents at both ends of the court. Eglseder makes 60 percent of his twos and is one of the top defensive rebounders in the nation. Meanwhile Fran McCaffery’s Saints have clinched the MAAC regular season title with a speed that matches the accelerated tempo they show on the court, averaging 72 trips per 40 minutes. With 6′3″ senior Kenny Hansbrouck and 6′6″ junior Edwin Ubiles leading the charge, Siena scores the old-fashioned way, taking care of the ball and making their twos. Also keep an eye on 6-3 sophomore Clarence Jackson, averaging just 15 minutes a game but not at all shy about shooting.

Andy Katz got time to talk to Siena Head Coach Fran McCaffery going into this weekend:

Siena is No. 29 in the latest RPI, with a strength of schedule at 67.

“We’ve put ourselves in position to have a discussion,” McCaffrey said of the Saints. “We did what the committee tells you to do, to play the best teams in conferences and beat a number of them and then we took care of business in our league. We’ve put ourselves in position to be discussed as one of the best teams for the NCAA tournament. We’re right there.”

Raphielle Johnson offers his analysis of all the MAAC Bracket Busters. Did you know Canisius had one of their assistant coaches arrested? Interesting.

Jeff Goodman of FOXSports.com says:

The Saints (No. 29, RPI) played a difficult non-league schedule that resulted in losses to Tennessee, Wichita State and Oklahoma State down in Orlando and also a road loss at Pittsburgh. The team’s résumé win came against a probable NIT team in Saint Joseph’s. A slip-up against Northern Iowa in the BracketBusters could result in an NIT bid for Siena.

As of tonight there were still available tickets. And here’s an in-depth RPI look at the Saints from CBS Sportsline.

There are a lot of other articles out there. Most of them do say though that a loss would siginificantly damage the Saints chances at an at-large bid.

Siena is now officially the number 1 seed in the MAAC Tournament, and will have it’s first game Saturday March 7th at 5pm The MAAC Tournament will be televised on MSG through Sunday and ESPN2 on Monday night.

This is Siena’s 6th regular season title all-time. Siena has been in the MAAC since 1990.

The team practiced today at 3:30, will practice tomorrow at 5:30 and Friday at 3:30. Tip against Northern Iowa is scheduled for 3pm on Saturday.

The same crew that called the game tonight in Columbus, MO will travel to Albany, NY on Feburary 21st to call the bracketbuster game. Ron Franklin and Fran Fraschilla will call the action courtside for ESPN2.

Northern Iowa was defeated by Creighton at home yesterday, 77-71.

Tay Fisher will be in attendance tonight at the Times Union Center, signing commemorative magazines highlighting last year’s magical season.