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Jay Wright's Wildcats didn't look their best on Saturday afternoon, falling behind big early on their way to a 103-90 loss at Georgetown. But something changed between that loss at Monday night, with youngsters playing with poise and the Wildcats taking better care of the basketball, and the end result was an 82-75 win over West Virginia to move into a tie for first place in the Big East. In the first half nine different players scored for Villanova with senior Scottie Reynolds being limited by the defense of Devin Ebanks.

 

Watching the Connecticut/Georgetown game should have been enough of a clue that some interesting things were likely to happen on Saturday. In what was essentially two games for the price of one the Hoyas came back to win 72-69 at the Verizon Center, their fourth consecutive win over the Huskies. The first twenty minutes went about as well as the Huskies could have hoped, shooting 50% from both the field and from three (4-8) on their way to a seemingly commanding 40-25 lead. Georgetown shot just 29.6% from the field and had eight turnovers to just four assists.

The MAAC race should be quite exciting with Niagara, Rider, and Siena all legitimately pushing for the conference title. Expect all three to consistently appear in mid-major rankings.

Fairfield

Niagara

Rider

Siena

Other (Iona, Manhattan, SPC, etc)

Overall Rank: #34

Conference Rank: #1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Recent history led many to believe that Friday would supply the crazy happenings that college basketball fans look for every March. It began with a Byron Eaton three-point play with seven seconds remaining to advance Oklahoma State and ended with Siena’s Ronald Moore knocking down a three to knock off Ohio State. But neither of those matched the magnitude of thirteen-seed Cleveland State dominating Wake Forest from start to finish in the final game from Miami.

 

Collegehoops.net's Jon Teitel  is in Philadelphia all week bringing you live coverage and interviews from one of the opening weekend's most intriguing venues.

 

Kenny Hasbrouck, Sr, G, Siena

Siena Saints

Metro Atlantic

 

Last NCAA Appearance: 2008, Second Round loss to Villanova