Joe Lunardi, ESPN's resident bracketologist has come out of hiding as we are underway with the college hoops season.

Lunardi has Siena as a No. 9 against No. 8 Pitt, with No. 1 Michigan State looming in the second round.

Siena senior point guard Ronald Moore is again a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation's top point guard.

Moore, who was a second team All-MAAC selection last year, is a first team preseason selection this season.

Nice story in our sister paper The Daily Freeman today about former Siena guard Tay Fisher and his life with the Harlem Globetrotters

Here's the link.

Siena senior Edwin Ubiles will be playing with more pressure this season.

Not only is the 6-foot-6 forward one of the "Big 3" and a new father of twin girls, but he will be playing all year under the scrutiny of NBA scouts.

Fran McCaffery said Monday at his weekly media luncheon that representative from the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs were at practice last week and he thinks that will continue throughout the year.

"He's slotted to be a second round pick and then he can determine, based on his play, does he move into the first round or does he move out of the second round," McCaffery said. "So, there's a lot of pressure on him and I addressed that with him and he's handled it really well."

McCaffery says Ubiles has been playing much better lately after shaking off an early shoulder injury that gave him trouble in the preseason and carried over to a lackluster performance in the scrimmage against Princeton.

"Since then, he's been spectacular," McCaffery said. "He's great in practice every day, which is the key for him, every day and he played really well against Rutgers."

Kenny Hasbrouck went thought some similar treatment last year as a senior and McCaffery said he thought Kenny was the best at blocking out that type of pressure as any player he's ever seen, but thinks Ubiles can do it too.

"I think Eddie has the personality that can handle it," McCaffery said. "We're going to help him through it. The thing he does is, he really understands how to play. He never forces anything."

McCaffery said he expects a good consistency from Ubiles throughout the year.

"I think what you'll see is a consistent Edwin Ubiles in terms of his numbers," McCaffery said. "I think the beauty of his game is not necessarily that he's going to score 25, but he's going to score 17 and rebounds and pass and not turn it over and make his free throws at the end of the game and defend and help you win."

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Here's Coach McCaffery's assessment on his rotation at this point.

"You look at the last scrimmage and the starters played extremely well and then (Owen) Wignot and (Kyle) Downey looked really, really solid coming off the bench. O.D. Anosike played great against Princeton and had a phenomenal week of practice, he did not play against Rutgers, but he looks like he's really moved into that position. Steven Priestley, I think, has established himself as a guy that's going to play and deservedly so. So the next question becomes, who is the next guard to come in, whether it's Denzel Yard or Jon Breeden and do I try to work both of them in. That puts us at 10 and then Davis Martens becomes eligible and then Kyle Griffin, so that's 12 and the reality is you can't play 12. I don't care how many guys try to do it, you can't play 12.

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Anosike broke his nose, but McCaffery said he is expecting the 6-foot-7 freshman to play Friday night at Tennessee State.

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While players and coaches aren't allowed to talk about scrimmages, McCaffery dropped this nugget when asked about the play of junior center Ryan Rossiter, saying he scored 19 points against Rutgers in the first 15-minute segment.

"He can score," McCaffery said. He was making post moves, he was getting fouled, he was running the floor."

So UAlbany didn't play well tonight and it showed as Syracuse hammered them 75-43.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim picked up win No. 800 and as the clock was running out, he said Derrick Coleman was ringing his cell phone.

“He probably figured that I was going to answer it,” Boeheim joked after the game.

That was about the only joke from this game as UAlbany coach Will Brown said his team must take the day off tomorrow (well, I guess technically today) because of NCAA rules, but vowed they would play better on Friday against Morgan State.

“I’m very disappointed,” Brown said. “I’ve got a very disappointed team in that locker room.”

The Great Danes had a tough time getting inside the Orange's 2-3 zone.

“They stretch it out so far it basically becomes like a 2-2-1,” Brown said. “It really bothered us. We don’t have the personnel to consistently score at the rim against them.”

In fact, Brown said he got a chuckle from this exchange with his freshman point guard.

"I said to Mike Black, 'Mike, you have to get the ball to the high post,' and he said, 'Coach, I can't see the high post," said Brown.

The good news is UAlbany won't see a team this big for quite a while, if ever this season.

The bad news is they have to take some positives out of this game and get better before playing Morgan State, a team that made the NCAA Tournament last year.

"We know what we have to work on in practice and we know what we have to do to get better," said senior center Brett Gifford. "We have to be tougher with the ball and mentally tougher."

Now that baseball season is over, ESPN obviously gave some people some time off and deservedly so.

Both Tim Kurkjian and Jayson Stark are in attendance tonight at the Carrier Dome with their daughters, who I'm told are enrolled at Syracuse.

There are a few rows behind the Syracuse bench if you are watching at home.

15:42 to go: Syracuse 9-4. Will Brown has already lost his jacket. It may have been after one of the I think four UAlbany turnovers in the first two minutes. Nerves are clearly a factor.

The Orange are controlling the inside with Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku. Fran Urli's first career basket comes on a nice rebound and put back.

11:21 to go: Syracuse 18-10. The Orange are exploiting the fast break points, but making a few errors trying to run out. Some very athletic slams from Onuaku and Kris Joseph.

Tim Ambrose hits a big three to stop a 9-0 Syracuse run.

9:59 to go. Syracuse 22-10. UAlbany already has 10 turnovers due to the pressure and Syracuse is shooting 61.5 percent (8-13) from the field.

7:57 to go. Syracuse 24-14. The Dome was the loudest it's been when Onuaku hit both of his free throws, after airballing his first free throw of the night.

Ambrose keeping his team in it with a couple of 3-pointers, but I'm not sure how much longer UAlbany can rely on that.

3:38 to go. Syracuse 34-16. The Orange really starting to take command. UAlbany doesn't look confident with the ball against the 2-3 zone. When Syracuse showed full court press on one inbounds, the Great Danes didn't look good either.

UAlbany will need to drastically limit their turnovers for the rest of the game because Syracuse is killing them with steals that lead to lay-ins.

Halftime. Syracuse 38-20. The Great Danes looked a little bit better in the last two minutes. Mike Black got his first two points of his career, with two free throws.

The bigger story though is the sloppy play. I know it's the first night, but UAlbany has 20 turnovers and Syracuse is not much further behind with 14.

Ambrose and Onuaku both have 10 points to lead all scorers.

The problem for UAlbany is that no one else has more than three points.

Stat of Halftime. UAlbany 20 points. UAlbany 20 turnovers. Also saw former UAlbany player Lucious Jordan during intermission.

The Capital District college hoops season starts in about 90 minutes.

I just made it to the Carrier Dome and am waiting to kick things off between UAlbany and Syracuse.

If you haven't heard, Orange men coach Jim Boeheim is going for win No. 800.

Stay tuned to my blog for updates throughout the game and if you can stay up late enough, a recap afterward.

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For you Siena fans, stopped by there before practice and I'll give you just a tidbit from junior center Ryan Rossiter about practices being closed to fans and to the media (a rarity for Siena).

"The focus has been much better. I think in the scrimmages we didn't play too well and it was a real wake up call for us. We're much more focused in practice and it's really showed."

There will be plenty more on the Saints in Thursday's paper as they kick things off Friday at Tennessee State.