• 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.

JE: Siena suffered some tough losses early in the season, but now you guys are rolling. Is the level of competition more manageable in the MAAC or are you guys a better team now?

RR: I think we’re a better team than we were early in the season. I don’t think we were all on the same page then and we had some tough losses as a result. Our core group knew what we were doing together, but we did add six or seven new faces to the team this year. That slowed things down while we introduced everything to everyone again. That got us a little sideways early in the season, but everyone’s on the same page and clicking now.

More BracketBusters coverage, check out my BracketBuster piece on RushTheCourt.net.

The BracketBuster matchups are out, and as promised, RTC is here with some analysis of some of the top games!  Five Colonial Athletic Association teams lead the pack into these February weekend matchups. The Western Athletic Conference drew four bids and the Missouri Valley drew three.  One problem with the BracketBusters? Five of the television games will be on ESPNU, which of course means they’re not available on ESPN360.  However I’d say there are five games where you must, to quote another piece here, “quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live.”

The Indy Star has it covered with Siena-Butler on February 20th and had an interesting note:

On his radio show Monday night, Butler coach Brad Stevens said he has often “picked the brain” of Siena coach Fran McCaffery, 50, a former Notre Dame assistant. McCaffery has led three programs — Siena, North Carolina-Greensboro and Lehigh — to the NCAA Tournament.

The Times Union says Siena is just trying to win and Coach Fran McCaffery scoffed at the notion that Siena is anything like Gonzaga ‘East’:

“It makes me laugh when people want to compare us to Gonzaga, who charters planes,” he said. “They spend more money on one plane flight than my recruiting budget. Yet we’re supposed to be Gonzaga.  “I don’t look at anybody else. I take what they give me here, try to maximize that and try to beat everybody on our schedule. That’s it.”

One of my favorites and on the lighter side: If you Google “Siena Butler” there is a person on facebook with the same name. You wonder how conflicted they must be for this game, if they follow college basketball.

• Big Game: Siena Could Take Control and Big Game: Fairfield Looks to Upset Siena
  

  Friend of the site, MAAC Official Blogger Steve Amedio points out that the Saints are first in the MAAC in points per game, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, rebounding offense, rebounding margin, assists per game and steals. Oh and Siena’s last in the MAAC in three point field goals per game. He has quotes featured in our media luncheon video and previews the Fairfield side of the story as well.

  ---

• Thoughts on Fairfield
  

  Times Union’s Pete Iorizzo delivers a six-pack (must be 21 or older) of thoughts on the Fairfield Stags. To summarize the six-pack: Cooley did a great job last year without a lot of players, the Stags have played a very weak schedule, Derek Needham is the Rookie of the Year, Anthony Johnson has come back from life-threatening injuries to being a top scorer, the Stags are good offensively and have a chance for first place with a win.

• Anosike goes overtime to improve his free-throw shooting
  

  LOUDONVILLE – Earlier this week Siena freshman O.D. Anosike spent about half an hour shooting free throws before practice, which isn’t an uncommon sight.
  Anosike is shooting just 38.7 percent from the free-throw line, a number he is well aware needs to improve given the volume of fouls he draws.
  “It’s something I have to get better [...]

• A closer look at Niagara
  

  Here’s the six-pack of thoughts on Niagara, the team Siena faces Saturday at Times Union Center:
  1. Niagara, under 12th-year coach Joe Mihalich, entered the season expecting to be Siena’s primary challenger in the MAAC. The Purple Eagles returned four starters from last year’s team, which lost to the Saints in the title game. The only…

• More than 6,300 tickets sold for Saturday
  

  Siena could sell all of its alloted tickets for the first time this season Saturday against Niagara.
  As of Thursday afternoon, Siena had sold 6,316 tickets. As usual, capacity will be capped at 8,065.

• Mihalich: Moore is Player of the Year
  

  Niagara coach Joe Mihalich, whose team faces Siena this coming Saturday at Times Union Center, said Saints point guard Ronald Moore should be the MAAC’s Player of the Year.
  “Who else would it be?” Mihalich said Thursday.
  “Who makes their team win? That’s what I’m talking about. Not the leading scorer, the leading rebounder…

• Yard not yet close to returning for Siena
  

  LOUDONVILLE – Siena freshman guard Denzel Yard, who is suspended indefinitely for academic reasons, will be out “a while,” Siena coach Fran McCaffery said Wednesday.
  Yard is finishing an incomplete course between semesters. He then needs to show academic progress next semester before he can begin playing again, McCaffery said.
  “He has to completely refocus his concentration [...]

Former Siena Men’s Basketball player and now Student Assistant Cory Magee comes back from Christmas break looking forward to Siena’s Winter Break schedule.

• Griffin bound to see plenty of action during Saints’ busy week (Daily Gazette)

Kyle Griffin has rehabbed and worked hard since transferring from LaSalle and looks forward to more playing time as he looks to become a continuing part of the Saints rotation.

• St. Joe’s brings out the best in Jackson (Troy Record)

Clarence Jackson had his first double digit game as a freshman against the Hawks. Jackson had his first 20+ shot game in his sophomore year, scoring a career high 28 in last year’s 75-74 road victory. Jackson has had games scoring over 20 points this year.

• Home is where Siena’s wins are (Times Union)

Siena’s Home Win Streak is at 25 games and among the best in the nation. Kansas (49) and Pitt (29) are the only two teams ahead of the Saints. Their last loss? A February 16, 2008 Overtime loss to Loyola (MD).

• Franklin named MAAC co-Player of the Week (Siena Saints Blog)

Our story: Alex Franklin shared the MAAC Co-Player of the Week award with Loyola (MD) guard Brett Harvey.

• Siena readies for busy post-holiday stretch (Times Union)

Siena starts a four game in seven day stretch, Coach Fran McCaffery sat down with the media to talk before this busy week.

• Disappointment? Not For Siena’s 7-4 Start (Keepin’ Track of the MAAC)

The MAAC’s humble blogger takes issue with ESPN’s Andy Katz calling Siena’s start a “disappointment.” To Katz’s point, he labels Siena disappointing because they were unable to rack up any marquee wins in the non-conference schedule when it appeared the Saints had a chance to.