I couldn't begin to possibly describe what took place after the Loyola/Siena game on Saturday, but I'll try.

The game itself had plenty of storylines before we got back into the media room.

In today's game story, I mentioned how Siena coach Fran McCaffery's wife, Margaret, interjected during the press conference after Fran declined to comment on the timeout that was granted to Loyola which set up their game-tying possession.

Before Fran even took his spot, Mrs. McCaffery made other comments about the officials, one in particular, and how the Saints got "hosed."

That was only part of the uniqueness.

Before that charade, Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos talked about how he took his team to see where the New York Giants practiced at the University at Albany.

(Patsos also played against Albany State when he was at Catholic in Washington D.C. and was friends with New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman and Vermont coach Mike Lonergan)

First, let me say Patsos seems like a very dedicated coach, even McCaffery called Patsos' shtick "genuine," which he said before Siena's trip Baltimore and that's why it works, I still was surprised that the Greyhounds head man was almost brought to tears describing how he is trying to show his team how to become winners.

"No one thought the Giants (in the Super Bowl) could win and no one thought we could win either," said Patsos to the media.

While Patsos gets credit for again being very genuine and wearing his heart on sleeve, his team has now beat Siena four consecutive times, so not believeing they could win is a little too much.

His team certainly plays hard for him though.

Some other things that I wished I could have mentioned in today's story were how the Saints did a great job on Greyhounds star Gerald Brown. The senior who averaged 19.1 points coming in to the game only scored nine.

Also, while Loyola has beaten Siena four straight times, they are also the only team Siena didn't beat last year and hasn't beaten this season either, prompting sophomore Edwin Ubiles to say this.

"If we see this team in the playoffs, I think we all would want that," Ubiles said. "I know I would want it. They've beaten us four times in a row, I would love to play them again in the playoffs. No matter when it is, I would definitely love to get a chance to play them again."

Ubiles' 37 points were also something that I didn't get to mention as much as I would have liked to in Sunday's story.

They were the most points for a Siena player since 1994 when Doremus Bennerman dropped 51 in the NIT, also in a loss.

Ubiles scored 16 of the Saints' 32 first half points and all 10 of Siena's points in overtime, but here's what he had to say about that.

"37 doesn't mean anything if we don't get the 'W'," Ubiles said. "The win is definitely more important. I'd rather have no scoring and a win than have high scoring in a loss."

Here's what Patsos said about Ubiles.

"He's 6-7 and can drive it right handed and looks like guys that play in the ACC," Patsos said.

Here's what Loyola's head man said about beating Siena.

"It's a real honor to beat the best team in the league," Patsos said. "I've said all along while we're trying to build our program that the program you go after to emulate is Siena. Just like at Maryland, I thought Duke was the program, I think here Siena is. They're classy, great fans, great players, they play an exciting style and right now they're one game out of first (which wasn't true because as we would learn later Rider also lost)."

Patsos said that he still thinks Siena is the best team in the league, but that this is the best team he's ever coached.

"I still think Siena's the best team in the league overall," Patsos said. "I think (Rider's) Jason Thompson's the best player and (Niagara's) Charron Fisher scares me to death because he had 76 points in two games (against us), but we have a good team."

The Saints got bailed out by Fairfield who defeated Rider on Saturday to keep those two teams tied atop the league standings with 11-4 records, but with Loyola and Niagara both winning and now at 10-5, Siena needs to defeat Manhattan on Monday.

Luckily for Siena, the Jaspers just defeated Marist on Friday night by 21, so they shouldn't be taking them lightly. It will be a similar situation to when Siena killed Canisius the first time around and were set to play them one week later in a possible trap game, but the Golden Griffins defeated Niagara only days earlier and Siena stayed focused and won big.

Let's see if that will happen again. The game will be on SNY (channel 66 on Time Warner Cable) for those of you not making the Presidents Day trip to Riverdale.

Again, I hate to end on a sour note, but here's reaction from both sides on the game-changing three by Greg Manning at the end of regulation.

"We talked about it in the timeout, we wanted to guard the three-point line," Ubiles said. "They get a lay-up, they get a lay-up. We're still up one and we've got the ball. The guy drove and everybody's tendencies when somebody drives wide open to the basket is to help."

"Greg makes those all the time at the end of practice," Patsos said.

This was much bigger than practice Jimmy.