Monday, February 9, 2009

Saints hound Loyola

I'll start off by saying that this will probably be the only time betting is discussed on this blog and it's because sports are so unpredictable.

Hopefully you didn't bet on tonight's game and if you did bet on Siena, my condolences.

Jamal Barney's swipe and slam with 2.7 seconds to go was the last play in what was a very interesting 73-60 Siena victory.

Here's what Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos had to say about Barney's play.

“He’s in tears, he’s upset back in the locker room,” Patsos said. “He didn’t know if there was 20 seconds or two seconds. He’s just a competitive kid from Baltimore. He was frustrated we lost and I told him never to do that again.”

Patsos said he is probably the gold medal winner for mistakes and that Barney will not do something like that again.

“I don’t think he’ll ever do that again and as teachers, that’s all we can do,” Patsos said.

While Siena coach Fran McCaffery said the play was just a mistake made by a kid, senior co-captain Kenny Hasbrouck (who is from near Barney's hometown in Maryland) and who was the one who had the ball stolen from him called the play "real ignorant."

"He just made Loyola look bad," said Hasbrouck, who added that he didn't shake hands with Barney following the game.

Hasbrouck played all right on this night, but it was the duo of Alex Franklin and Ryan Rossiter that really guided Siena to victory.

“They got every rebound over them," Hasbrouck said.

Rossiter, whose father Steve played for Loyola, killed the Greyhounds inside, scoring 14 points and grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds.

“Rossiter’s a funny guy,” Patsos said. “He’s one of those guys who just works.”

Rossiter said he wasn't recruited by Loyola and is happy with his decision to come to Siena.

“The kid’s just been unbelievable,” McCaffery said.

Rossiter's reward for having such a good night - well McCaffery got into him about blowing a rotation near the end of the game when Loyola sunk a 3-pointer.

“I appreciate that he’s getting on me because it’s when he stops yelling at you that you have to be worried,” Rossiter said.
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Patsos also had some comments about keeping the MAAC Tournament in Albany, something that has been up for debate this year.

“I’m the guy in the league that says the tournament should be here every year,” Patsos said. “I’m going to stick to my guns. If some people don’t like that, I’m sorry. I think this is the best arena, I think you have the best fans.”

He continued on about Albany and Siena's home arena when asked about Rossiter.

“Rossiter’s father went to Loyola,” Patsos said. “Isn’t that nice? We don’t have 6,000 season ticket holders and a video board. The video board goes off and I’m like wow, I would have come here too.”
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Siena honored Hasbrouck, Franklin and Edwin Ubiles before the game - Hasbrouck for reaching, 1,500 career points and both Franklin and Ubiles for surpassing the 1,000-point mark for their careers, all this season.

It's only the second time in 68 years that three players have played together after having scored more than 1,000 points in their Siena careers.

(Tom Killips - The Record)
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Siena alum Tay Fisher was at the game signing autographs and it was nice to catch up with him for a while.

I talked to him about Senior Night and also for a Five Questions segment that will probably run sometime next week in our print edition.

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