Siena (MAAC - 17/32)
RPI - 78
10-6 Road/neutral
Only real noteworthy win is vs Stanford - albeit, that's a pretty good win for anybody.
Over half their wins are vs teams ranked 200+, which is to be expected from a lower tier conference I suppose.
Won't go into much about their actual players, i'd be doing a bad job of it and insulting their biggest fan here (allen, wanna help me out with a quick overview for the people?)
This team protects the ball as well as anybody in the country, 4th in turnovers.. They don't shoot a ton of 3's, but they make a high percentage of the ones they take...
on the other end of that, they cause a lot of turnovers defensively.
Their defense however, is not all that impressive overall - they give up a TON of offensive rebounds, and don't defend the 3 ball well at all. They don't foul much though, so that's another positive for them.. just seems teams shoot really well against them in general.
Height-wise - this is one of the smaller teams in the country.
Fill in the gaps there Allen
I don't know what Boise State is with RPI or anything, but they went out there and smacked them during the Bracket Buster...beginning thenthey've hit their stride....and they are fully healthy now
Edwin Ubiles, only a sophomore has NBA potential, maybe I say that being biased, but I truly think so. 6'7 with a full offensive game.
Alex Franklin is their undersized post player...he battles and has some big time games. He can put the ball on the floor and create some match up problems.
Josh Duell, experienced...was on the UVM team that beat Cuse...skilled for his size, what he lacks in ability and athleticism he makes up for in smarts.
Ronald Moore...probably the X factor at PG...when he takes care of the ball and doesn't force things, they're great. An odd looking jumper but gets okresults
Kenny Hasbrouck....the go to guy...you're prototypical 6'4 scoring 2 guard.
Tay Fisher....like I said, when he gets open looks...count it.
IF they want to knock someone off, the matchup will have to be favorable in the frontcourt. As you said the rebounding and defense can be atrocious at times
On the perimeter and in the open court, they'll hang with a high seed. Hasbrouck and Ubiles are Big East caliber players;
Fran is a pretty good coach, it's a group that only has one senior but after some big games this year and making the MAAC final last year has someseasoning.
I've been sayin they'll pull an upset all year, so no reason to back off that....just yet, unless the matchup is not a good one
........................
And I think Vandy ended up being a good match up...away from home, they are quite different. Only won at Georgia and SC on the road in conference play. Sienawent out to Boise State in the bracket buster and won, a good sign.
The game will be high scoring, and should be close.
i'm not a big bracket nerd, i watch the tourney for the games and hope for all upsets. i don't care about my bracket, i don't needto win my pool to validate anything.
