It features writings from some of our favorite writers! Including Ken Pomeroy, who already told us his MAAC breakdown, friend of SienaSaintsBlog.com John Gasaway and Mid-majority proprietor now also Basketball Prospectus-ite Kyle Whelliston.

The post on Basketball Prospectus: Unfiltered says it best:

Want to know what I think? You should buy this book.

• Saints win convincingly at Loyola– recap »
  

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• Siena crushes Loyola
  

  Siena improved to 4-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with a 76-56 rout of Loyola on Monday at Reitz Arena.
  The Saints won their fifth in a row behind 24 points from Clarence Jackson and 22 from Edwin Ubiles.
  Siena led by as many as 30 points. The Saints blew open the game [...]

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• Road Report: Greetings from… Albany!
  

  Albany is one of Hoops Nation’s most vital strongholds. Last year, it hosted the tourneys for both the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and America East. The University at Albany won the AE in 2006 and 2007, and in the former year came about as close as any team to pulling off the first 16-over-1 upset in NCAA history. The Great Danes were up by as many as 12 points in the second half before UConn came roaring back for the win. And then there’s Siena.

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• Rossiter named MAAC Player of the Week
  

  Hello from Reitz Arena, where Siena is warming up in preparation for tonight’s game against Loyola at Reitz Arena.
  A few hours before the game, the Saints learned that Ryan Rossiter has been named MAAC Player of the Week. The 6-foot-9 junior averaged 16.7 points and 12.3 rebounds while shooting 56 percent in [...]

Sneak previews of mid-major conference play continues tonight in the Metro Atlantic when Iona hosts Siena. Yes folks, the same Iona Gaels that just three seasons ago finished with a record of 2-28…and the same Siena Saints that finished last season 27-8 and made the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 for a second consecutive season. How could this possibly be worth dubbing as the Game! Of! The! Night!, you ask? Keep reading, and then you’ll know.

Siena has been wearing the MAAC’s proverbial target on their back for a couple years now. That’s what NCAA Tournament success will, and should, do…ya know? But for a team being discussed prior to the season as one of the best mid-majors in all of Hoops Nation, the Saints have been slightly underwhelming to this point. Allowing Temple to score 73 points, when they only average about 61 per game, is a bit of a concern. Losing to St. John’s couldn’t have gone over very well with the fans upstate, and surely the faithful were hoping for a better effort against Georgia Tech. So what’s the best way to remedy these concerns about team defense, turnovers, and poor 3-point shooting? With MAAC games, of course…where the Saints are 29-7 over the past two seasons.

Kyle Whelliston continues to break down Iona, read on »

Recently, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi participated in a mock draft in which the final bid came down to Siena and Notre Dame. ESPN Analyst Doug Gottlieb said they had discussed Siena “ad nauseum” in this recent mock draft. Ten days ago, friend of the blog Kyle Whelliston participated in a mock draft that came down to Siena and Minnesota. With Davidson’s At Large chances now minimal, no clear cut favorite in the MVC or CAA, there’s no doubt that Siena is now one of the top mid major teams deserving of an At Large bid.

Siena needs teams like Providence*, Notre Dame*, Maryland*, Michigan* to start playing their way out of the NCAA tournament. Teams winning in the middle of the major conferences take away bids from mid-major conference teams.

The warning signs are clear; it seems like whether Siena is considered for an At Large is out of Siena’s hands (assuming we win out of course). All we need is 4-0 in March.

This week, Siena is ranked #3 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid Major Poll.

* – Hover over the teams to see their recent activity.

If you haven’t already, head on over to midmajority.com and read his post on the day. It gives phenomenal insight as to what the day is really like for the actual committee and explains how they made their decisions on At Large teams and others. Here are some cool things I learned,

• The most prominent two stats (the first ones committee members see) are Average RPI Win and Average RPI Loss
• It takes just as long to make it as it does to play it.
• [On] L12, or RPI, or strength of schedule–
  

  Slive said that it’s a personal preference from one committee member to the next. Given that each of the 10 is human, each has spent individual basketball lifetimes building a different set of personal preferences as to what’s important. This process a collective and subjective decision, he said, based on consensus. “No single category qualifies or disqualifies a team.”

Now, in this simulation, Fairfield was computer calculated to win the MAAC (I think we can all agree that’s ridiculous, but give it a break– it’s a computer) and Siena was simulated to lose in the conference championship.

Siena was the last team in, receiving a 12 seed and slated to face UCLA in Boise, ID. Yikes that trip again! For what it’s worth, the last team to win the conference two consecutive years [Manhattan 03-04] was rewarded a 12 seed in their second-go-round.

Download: PDF

Siena didn’t know it, but its fate hung on the Big Ten game between Michigan State and Minnesota. If Michigan State (an at-large team) won, Siena was in. If Minnesota, not in the at-large pool, emerged victorious, the Gophers would jump up out of the abyss and take the last spot, leaving the Saints in the NIT.

So it was us or a Big Ten team– that sounds like people give Siena respect.

I myself have said that I think it’s highly unlikely that Siena gets an At Large bid in March, but hey– it can happen. That being said I still don’t trust leaving it up to the committee on the final day– and I think this mock proves that my fear is valid. There is no doubt Siena has built a legitmate On The Bubble resume, whether or not it will hold up, appears to be dependent on how other teams preform. There is one easy solution, Siena goes 4-0 from March 1st – March 9th.

Kyle Whelliston: Matt, it’s a real pleasure, thanks for having me on your fine site. Thanks to my readers, travel is a lot more stable and predictable this year. And honestly, I don’t know what kind of book I have until the season’s over. But there are some stories, like Bally’s wild night at the Gold Club in Atlanta last month, that will remain under wraps forever.

SSB: You can read Kyle’s thoughts on the Bracketbuster here.

SSB: Siena is 12-0, do you think this team runs the table?

Kyle: I think they can afford a loss or two… I mean, come on, it’s not like there’s an at-large bid at stake here. As long as any drops happen soon, things will be fine. You and I know they’ve always had a tough time at Rider, and that’s coming up next weekend. If they do run the table, it’ll be because of the Iona game. They had that under control, almost whizzed it away, and came back and throttled Canisius with a new found sense of urgency. Sometimes it’s better to stand on the cliff’s edge and peek over than actually fall in. It’s a team that doesn’t want to feel the pain of losing now.

SSB: Do you see any other conferences that consistently hold their tourney in a place that gives one team a significant advantage? If so, how has it played out the past couple of seasons?

Kyle: First, you have to have a good team. Look at two years ago, when the tourney was in Bridgeport… Fairfield was horrible that year, and the home-court advantage didn’t do a thing for them. The year before, the KeeKee Show upset Siena on your own court and made it to the finals against Manhattan. And you could have done 2005 in Outer Mongolia and Niagara still would have won, they were just the best team in the MAAC by a longshot. This year, Siena is obviously head and shoulders over everybody, so it doesn’t matter where you play this tourney. It’s just going to look nice on TV when they win.

I’ve been going to the MAAC tourney for almost a decade now, and I’ve always been impressed how well this league’s fans travel. There’s always going to be good fan support for everyone, even when Siena packs its own place three-quarters full. The WAC and WCC are other conferences that move it around every year, but the travel distances are much greater out west… so it becomes more of a natural advantage for the home team.

SSB: Lets assume the CAA and A10 are the next level of upgrades compared to the MAAC, How do you think Siena would fare in either conference? Who [from around the nation] can you compare Siena with?

Kyle: Basketball-wise, they’d be fine, and the TUC is better than a lot of the arenas in either of those conferences. But wins and losses aren’t what rule college athletics, it’s money. Siena’s budget is around $8 million– there’s no football (undefeated since 2003), and the travel would kill the program financially. A-14 teams spend twice as much on hoops as Siena does.

There really isn’t a good parallel to Siena out there, other than maybe Creighton. I don’t think there are other teams at this level that have big-time arenas at their disposal (dude, Genesis played the TUC!), or are are capable of filling them because of unique relationships with the towns. Albany is a mid-size city, but Siena Basketball gets a lot of local press coverage because its primary competition for sports headlines is the River Rats. (Sorry, UA, not quite there yet.)

SSB: Why is storming the court the best feeling in college basketball? At what age do you recommend for others to stop storming the court?

Kyle: I’m not going to lie to you, storming the court is a sex ritual. Pure sex in all of its infinite beauty. Seriously, you don’t think that people rushing towards the center-court logo doesn’t look exactly like sperm rushing towards an egg? It’s primal, it’s passion, it’s the essence of life.

Storming the court is Darwinism at its finest. It requires peak physical condition, the kind that young folks take for granted but keeps getting more difficult to maintain as one spends more and more time at a desk.

So I’ve been preparing for this all season so as to be in the best floor-storming shape possible. I’m running 20 miles a week, eating right, watching my weight… I’m thin like Jimmy Patsos now. No McDonald’s for me, except for the Fruit & Walnut salad, which is very healthy. When it’s time to jump over the railing in March, you can bet I’ll be ready.

SSB: You can bet I’ll again be right there with you. Thanks for taking the time Kyle, we wish you the best of luck with your travel and we’ll see you in March.

Siena is the top team in the MAAC, and undefeated at this juncture. The Saints played a great schedule, even though they didn’t win any of the games in Orlando at the Old Spice Classic or against Kansas or Pitt. Northern Iowa is leading the Missouri Valley with a 10-1 record. But the Panthers beat NO ONE in the nonconference that will be in the NCAA tournament. Even the teams from supposedly higher-rated conferences like the Big East (Marquette), the Big 12 (Iowa State), the Big Ten (Iowa) — and if you want to throw in the Mountain West (Wyoming) — were all losses. The only win against a team from a higher-rated conference was Auburn from the SEC. Auburn is 2-4 in the SEC, 13-8 overall.
- Andy Katz

But the top-line game RPI-wise is Northern Iowa-Siena, which is simply a masterstroke of scheduling. These are two teams that are iffy for March play, but both were given the only chance to work on their respective weaknesses, a truer battle than they’ll get in their respective down leagues. It’s swift (Siena) against deliberate (UNI); each team will test the others’ defense in the way the other needs to be tested.
- Kyle Whelliston

The Saints’ five-game win streak was snapped at Kansas last night, but there’s little shame in losing to the national champs by seven… especially in the face of warm, yummy Cracker Barrel-style home cooking from local refs (nine fewer fouls on the Jayhawks). The key is that Siena has recovered from its November televised disasters and is shooting the ball well and finding ways to get rebounds. An home ESPNU date with Rider gets the MAAC action going again on Friday.

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.