Siena

As part of his 2010 NCAA Tournament Q&A series, Jon Teitel spoke with Ronald Moore, the #1 assist man in the country. The Siena Saints All-conference point guard talks about past Tourney success amongst other things:
 

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Being the best player on a Top 15 team is a recipe for earning CollegeHoops.net's Mid-Major Player of the Year honors. Gordon Hayward averaged 15.4 ppg, 8.5 rpg, and 1.8 apg in leading Butler to a 28-4 record. He's joined on the Mid-Major First Team by CAA Player of the Year Charles Jenkins, Cornell leader Ryan Wittman, and big men Keith Benson of Oakland and Art Parakouski of Radford.

 

 

Siena Saints

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (27-6, 17-1)

 

All the talk leading up to the West Coast Conference final between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's focused on how much the Gaels would need this victory. Anywhere from "they're fine without it" to "they're in trouble with a loss" depending on which bracketologist you happened to be listening to at that particular moment. But at the end of the game at Orleans Arena there was a rather emphatic message from Randy Bennett's team: 

Save that bubble talk for someone else. 

Yes (40th in RPI, 24-6 record, 17-1 in MAAC the 15th ranked league)

No (0-4 against Top 50 teams, no wins against a tourney-quality team)

Going into Saturday's game at Butler it would have been fair to assume that Siena's "big three" of Alex Franklin, Ronald Moore and Edwin Ubiles would play well in their biggest game of the season. But on a day that saw Clarence Jackson come out hot on his way to 24 points none of them got going as Butler used a second-half push to win going away in impressive fashion 70-53. Shelvin Mack led the Bulldogs with 23 points while Gordon Hayward added 15 points and 12 rebounds, but it was the cold shooting of Siena's three stars that played a major role in the outcome.

FRIDAY RECAP
Northern Iowa 71, Old Dominion 62
The Panthers won their second straight without center Jordan Egleseder, knocking off the Monarch in Cedar Falls behind a 23-point night from Ali Farokhmanesh. Farokhmanesh hit five of nine shots from behind the arc and Kwadzo Ahelegbe added ten points. Gerald Lee led the Monarchs with 19 points but it wasn't enough to prevent ODU's first loss in the BracketBusters event.

Iona 69, William & Mary 53

Butler (24-4, 17-0)

Cornell (21-4, 7-1)

Northern Iowa (23-3, 14-2)

Old Dominion (21-7, 13-3)

Siena (22-5, 15-1)

Utah St (21-6, 11-2)

Other (Louisiana Tech, Murray St, Northeastern, Wichita St, William & Mary, etc)

It's BracketBusters weekend and with all ten MAAC teams taking part it's one last respite from the rigors of conference play. Seeing a relatively unfamiliar face allows teams the opportunity to fine-tune things in advance of the upcoming MAAC Tournament. And the teams in the marquee matchups have an opportunity to bulk up their resume in regards to seeding or getting into the NCAA Tournament should they be an at-large possibility.