The Siena men's basketball team dropped its first game of the 2011-12 season, on Monday evening, against St. Bonaventure.
There wasn't much time to spend thinking about the loss, as the Saints jumped on a charter flight to Atlanta, to take on the only high-major school the team will face during the regular season.
Siena takes on Georgia Tech tonight, at the Arena at Gwinnett, just outside the city of Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets will likely be out for some sort of revenge, following last year's game, which the Saints won, 62-57.
Here is a link to the game advance that ran in Wednesday's editon of The Record.
ALBANY - It's simply coincidence that Clarence Jackson has missed two of the last three games Siena has played against BCS schools.
Jackson missed the Saints' first round NCAA Tournament game against Purdue last season because of a right ankle sprain.
Jackson hurt his ankle during Monday's practice and told Siena coach Mitch Buonaguro that he couldn't go.
"I was honest with myself and with the coaching staff," Jackson said. "I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize myself and jeopardize the team. Obviously, I wanted to be out there. It's a big game and we showed tremendous fight."
To be fair, the one time he did play, he lit up Minnesota for a career-high 29 points.
Jackson went through the walk through and actually felt all right.
"I thought I would be able to go today," he said.
After warmups the ankle was sore and swelled up a little and even pain mediciene couldn't relieve the pain.
The Saints still were able to defeat Georgia Tech, 62-57. Kyle Downey, who started for Jackson, finished with 12 points, six rebounds and one steal.
"We need more bench play and more guys to step up and we're going to be a very good team," Jackson said.
Jackson is still just eight points shy of 1,000 for his career and with five days before the next game, at St. Bonaventure, he should be back in the fold by then.
ALBANY - The Siena Saints picked up one of the biggest and more gutsy wins in recent memory, dowing Georgia Tech 62-57 on Wednesday night.
Ryan Rossiter scored a game-high 19 points for the Saints (4-6).
The Saints defeated former coach Paul Hewitt and are now 2-0 all-time against the Yellow Jackets in Albany. They also won in 1994, in the NIT Tournament.
Clarence Jackson didn't play because of an ankle injury.
ALBANY - Clarence Jackson hasn't stepped on the court, Ryan Rossiter got knocked off of it and still the Saints are hanging tough with Georgia Tech at halftime.
Jackson suited up and went through warmups, but was replaced in the starting lineup by Kyle Downey.
Rossiter played 14 minutes, but took an elbow from Mfon Udofia with 1:13 to go and had to be helped off the floor by trainer Greg Dashnaw.
O.D. Anosike has played well (he should be playing better as he missed a few bunnies). Anosike has five points and seven rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets' bench scored 21 points in the first half, led by Glen Rice Jr.' s nine points and Jason Morris, who scored eight.
It wasn't long after Georgia Tech wrapped up their 67-54 victory over Richmond on Saturday that coach Paul Hewitt was instructing his players to keep their focus in front of them.
That's because he knows all about the Siena program, which he was at the head of from 1997-2000.
“You really learn how to run a basketball program being at Siena,” Hewitt said. “Because you deal with so many entities that are really important to your success. It’s a great program.”
Hewitt told his players that Siena wouldn't be in awe of a bigger school coming into town and that the crowd will be raucous at what he still calls the Knickerbocker Arena.
He remembered a game in particular that he credited the win to the huge crowd Siena routinely draws.
The team was playing in the last MAAC Tournament game of the night, in Albany and down five to Canisius.
They rallied to send the game to overtime and then advance to the championship game, against Iona.
"We don't do that unless the crowd is behind us," Hewitt said.
Hewitt said he was usually the last one to leave the arena and he remembers the feelings after big victories.
When I talked to Hewitt on Monday, he didn't have to be reminded about Siena's personnel.
He said he watched the Minnesota game where Clarence Jackson scored a game-high 29 points.
"If we don't do a good enough job on him, he'll make you pay," Hewitt said.
Hewitt also said that after last year's game, he told Siena Athletic Director John D'Argenio that he thought Ryan Rossiter could play at any level of college ball, which is also the same way he felt about Ronald Moore.
"I don't know if (Rossiter) could do it when he first stepped on campus, but certainly he's developed into one of the elite players in college basketball."
Note: Both Rossiter and Jackson are questionable for Wednesday's game. Rossiter is dealing with a sinus infection and Jackson tweaked his ankle during Monday's practice.
UAlbany lost to a very motivated Georgia Tech team, 78-51, on Wednesday night.
The Yellow Jackets were coming off a loss to city foe Kennesaw State, a game they lost 80-63.
Here is a link from the Atlanta paper on last night's game.
The America East went 0-5 last night.
Vermont looked good before falling to UConn 89-73 (it was closer than that).
Boston University lost to Villanova 82-66.
UMBC lost to Loyola (Md.) of the MAAC 83-72.
Binghamton didn't look good, losing to Bucknell 66-38 (Greer Wright scored 21 of the 38 points).
The MAAC posted a 3-2 night, highlighted by Rider leading wire-to-wire on the road in a 77-57 victory over USC (that's USC, as in Trojans) and Manhattan's victory over Penn.
The Broncs got a career-high 28 points from Justin Robinson.
Incredibly, the Jaspers ended their game on a 17-2 run to win 59-54 and are still the only unbeaten team in the MAAC at 2-0.
Niagara lost to UW-Milwaukee 90-73, Loyola (Md.) beat UMBC (as noted above) and Marist lost 79-59 to George Washington.
I included a quote from Atlanta Journal Constitution columnist Mark Bradley, when he referred to Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt (who coached Siena from 1997-2000), as the "worst coach in the country."
Bradley went on to rip even more into Hewitt. The Yellow Jackets play UAlbany tonight at 7:30 p.m.
In a sign of the times, University at Albany men's basketball coach Will Brown has taken to using his twitter account to reach Great Danes basketball fans.
Brown is tweeting one game of the upcoming 2010-11 season every day for his followers on twitter.
So far, this is what it looked like.
Nov. 12 Cornell (Season Opener/Home Opener) Nov. 15 American Nov. 17 at GTech
The Great Danes will be opening the season with two home games. Then, UAlbany will travel to Atlanta to take on former Siena coach Paul Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets.
While there may not be a Kansas or Pittsburgh on the schedule this season, the Siena men's basketball team should be put to the test by the likes of Temple, St. John's and Georgia Tech.
Fran McCaffery's club is coming off two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament and expectations couldn't be higher, especially since the school gave him a new eight-year extension back in April.
The team kicks off the season in Nashville, Tenn. against Tennessee State on Nov. 13 before opening up against Northeastern in what is rumored to be a nationally televised game on Tuesday, Nov. 17.
Two major highlights will be the trip to Atlanta to face former Siena coach Paul Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets on Dec. 2 and the annual game against crosstown rival UAlbany on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Here are the particulars.
Day Date Opponent Location Time Fri. Nov. 13 at Tennessee State Nashville, Tenn. TBA Tue. Nov. 17 NORTHEASTERN HOME TBA Sat. Nov. 21 at Temple! Philadelphia, Pa. TBA Tue. Nov. 24 DELAWARE! HOME 7 p.m. Fri. Nov. 27 vs. St. John’s! Philadelphia, Pa. TBA Sat. Nov. 28 vs. Brown! Philadelphia, Pa. TBA Wed. Dec. 2 at Georgia Tech Atlanta, Ga. TBA Sat. Dec. 5 UALBANY+ HOME 8 p.m. Sat. Dec. 12 at Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, Iowa 8:05 p.m. Tue. Dec. 29 SAINT JOSEPH’S HOME 7 p.m. Sat. Jan. 2 MOUNT ST. MARY’S HOME 8 p.m. Fri./Sat Feb. 19/20 at ESPNU BracketBusters TBA TBA
All times are Eastern All home games in BOLD CAPS and played at Times Union Center, Albany, N.Y. + Doubleheader with Siena women ! Philly Hoop Group Classic (Games in Philadelphia played at The Palestra)
Andrew Santillo is a sports reporter at The Record in Troy, New York. Originally from Niskayuna, Andrew graduated from Ithaca College in 2005 with a degree in journalism. He currently resides in Albany.
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