When Rider faced Siena this earlier this season, the Saints’ dominant performance began Siena’s record 15 game winning streak. Siena has clinched the #1 seed in the MAAC Tournament, while Rider is still in the hunt with Niagara and St. Peter’s for the #4 seed.

Friday night will feature the two leading candidates for MAAC Player of the Year on each side of the court. After a slow start to the season, the preseason MAAC POY, Ryan Thompson, has been on fire of late. Over the last 8 games, Thompson is averaging 23.8 PPG and 3.8 APG, yielding 5 Rider wins and 2 close overtime losses, one to their Bracket Buster opponent, Hofstra. Alex Franklin has scored 20+ points in six out of his last ten games, and is averaging 16 PPG – 7.7 RPG – 1.5 APG on the year. Contrast that with Thompson’s season numbers; 17.1 PPG – 5.1 RPG – 2.7 APG, and this game could be the final judgement call for MAAC POY.

The Saints physically dominated their previous meeting, with Franklin and Rossiter both posting double-doubles. The Broncs didn’t help their cause, shooting 0-15 from beyond the arc and ultimately losing by more than 20. Siena held Ryan Thompson assist-less, and to just 4 total points that night. In what could be Ryan’s last game against the Saints, it would be a tall order to expect that same result. With all of Siena’s losses coming on the road this year, look for this game to be much more competitive.

This game, as it always does with Niagara is going to come down to offense, offense and more offense. Edwin Ubiles seems to have found the Gallagher Center to be a home away from home…

The game will be broadcast on ESPNU at 7pm.

Matt mentioned the 7-1 against Niagara, the last time Siena lost was in the ‘07 MAAC Championship Game so you could say Siena is undefated against Niagara in the regular season under Fran. So that’s 0-1 at a neutral site; good for Siena that the Tournament is at home this year. – Ryan

Much has changed since their first meeting.

Siena now stands at 12-0 in the conference and is trying to run the table. Rider is 3rd in the MAAC at 7-4 with losses at Canisius, at Niagara and at home against Loyola.

Rider has arguably the most talented player in the MAAC in Ryan Thompson, who is averaging 17.2 points per game. The Broncs also feature balanced scoring as they have four players who all average double digits in points per game in Harris Mansell, Mike Ringold, and Novar Gadson.

While they don’t have a true center, Ringold is dangerous in the paint. Mansell gives the team senior leadership and production while Novar Gadson is developing in to one of the best freshman in the MAAC.

Expect the Saints to keep running their up-tempo motion offense, while trying to pressing and creating turnovers. Ryan Rossiter and Alex Franklin should be able to be effective against Rider’s forwards, but the Saints will have to guard multiple scoring threats. Kenny Hasbrouck has been taking over as of late, so look for another big game from him.

Nonetheless, it will take a complete effort to get past the Broncs in Lawrenceville and stay perfect on the season.

It’s not really national TV, but it is available in any [decent] sports bar around the nation. According to a source at ESPN, the Saints are likely headed for an ESPN2 matchup on Bracketbuster weekend.

Saturday’s game will be available on ESPN Full Court, and ESPN360.com.

• 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.

Notes:

• Hasbrouck still couldn’t seem to get it going– teams are prepared for him. Give him credit for a few clutch baskets and free throws, but the last miss will haunt him.
• Ronald Moore is playing the point well, but seems like he’s been over matched trying to take his defender one on one in this entire tournament.
• Ubiles was today’s best player, dropping 20 points and snagging 9 rebounds.
• Alex Franklin played well, but had a few turnovers that hurt Siena down the stretch. He seems to have started to find some trouble from the charity stripe since halftime yesterday.

First off, how funny is it that this team is nicknamed the Shockers? The coverage on ESPNU gave Disney World some nice PR (for those who don’t know ESPN is a owned by Disney).

Len Elmore kept talking about this game being a must win for a team trying to put together an at-large bid, and I totally agree. Siena fans keep playing the respect card, well, if you want respect, you’ve got to go out and beat this Wichita State team convincingly. Are we just another MAAC team? It’s going to take a lot (a win over Kansas or Pitt) to convince the coaches, Associated Press, and me that we aren’t. I don’t think we’ll be seeing any lingering Top 25 votes anymore.

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.

The Shockers put up a real fight against Georgetown on ESPN2. They played a good game, interesting for a team that hasn’t put together consistent play this year. After beating up on Florida A&M to open, they dropped to UMKC a team that has managed to beat Missouri Valley teams Bradley and Wichita State.

Wichita State endured a tough year last year going 11-20 and 4-14 in conference. This team has a lot of junior college transfers, 4 total on the roster and two transfers from division I schools. Toure’ Murry has been tough to stop this year, scoring double digit points in the first three games this year, however the Hoyas shut him down to 2 points. Only two players for Wichita State were able to reach double digits today.

Wichita State takes 32.7% of its shots from behind the three point arc, slightly below the average in D-I. Picked to finish 9th in the Missouri Valley, but with only 6 returning players from last year this team looks a lot different than a team that took 36% of its shot from outside the arc. Freshman Center Garret Stultz picked up his game early in the season going 10 of 13 inside for 22 points over Cententary early this season. This 7 foot 235 inside presence should be a formidable challenge for the Saints to test their depth.

Siena needs to control the three point shooting. After going 1 for 15 from beyond the arc on Thursday, that number will have to improve to pick up at least one win in Florida. 30% of Siena’s shots this year have come from three so the one 3 pointer is an obvious problem. Expect that number to go down if Siena keeps shooting 28% from behind the arc, the national average is 33.8%. Though when healthy, this team should be better. Kenny Hasbrouck needs to step up from his 6 point output against Tennessee after scoring over 20 points in the first two games.

Have some good Turkey sandwiches and enjoy some good basketball.

Lineups

More Info

The game will air on ESPNU at 10:30am on Friday. You should also be able to catch it on ESPN360. After this, Siena will take a day off in Florida followed by a game Sunday, either at 10:30am or 12:30pm on ESPNU.

Fun Facts

Earlier This Week: The Purple Eagles got a verbal commitment from (what is so far) the MAAC’s best recruit of the year. PF Andre Gillette from Neumann-Goretti H.S. in Philadelphia. He was ranked the 38th best Power Forward in the country by Scouts Inc.

Tonight: Manhattan and Niagara look to remain undefeated tonight as Manhattan hosts Morgan State, and Niagara travels to #23 Villanova. St Peter’s is looking for its first win tonight, crossing the Bayonne bridge into Staten Island to face Wagner. All of tonight’s games are at 7pm– Niagara @ Villanova can be seen on ESPNU.