Matt made the war top as bleak as the news for Siena fans.

I think we all had to figure this was going to happen. As much as I’ve heard Fran on every single phoner say that he is very happy in the capital region and with Siena, there were just so many opportunities that (apparently) loved him.

I think, Matt agrees that this is more a testament to how badly the Seton Hall and St. John’s jobs aren’t wanted. The upside there is being 8th in the Big East, maybe. While the upside in the Big Ten, presumably, is competing for a league title.

However it happened, I’m happy for him and wish him the best at Iowa. Now onto Siena’s search for a new head coach, oh an Iona’s too since Kevin Willard left for the Seton Hall job.

Expert Bracketology
The ‘What If’ Game
Q&A Hammer & Rails
Andy Glockner
Michael Ospioff Gary Post Tribune
John Gasaway Basketball Prospectus
Kenny Hasbrouck signed by Heat
Predictions

MAAC/Arena Square off over fans. Siena fans rushed the court Monday night when they won and the MAAC, trying everything to stop them, is very mad at the Times Union Center. So the TUC General Manager and MAAC Commissioner square off. Next time this happens at a MAAC tournament, they should just have a duel.

Siena: Expert Bracketology. I reached out to a countless number of Bracketologists and got a ton of quotes on Siena’s chances on who they’ll play and what seed they’ll be. It’s a lot tougher and more of a news piece than just looking up the seeds on the internet every day plus I think it turned out to be a piece that I’m proud of.

The What if Game. Since Siena was so close to the brink of losing the championship game Monday, I decided to play a what if scenario with the experts on if Siena could have made it if Colin Nickerson’s shot fell. Farifield had a great year by the way, probably will play in a postseason tournament and could be the favorite next year when the tournament goes to Bridgeport. Only reason I say could be is because they lose Seniors Anthony Johnson and Mike Evanovich which is a little bit of a loss.

Selection Sunday will be fun for me. I’ll be on a train heading home from work when, in all likelihood, Siena’s seed and pairing will be announced. From there I will head home, search for the other team’s writers/bloggers out there and try to get answers on their team. Meanwhile someone will write a profile of the Saints on our site and we’ll have big traffic numbers Monday!

Meanwhile the site was being mentioned at ESPN.com of all places on their College Basketball Nation Blog:

Siena Saints Blog has video of McCaffery explaining the move and getting testy when the media tried to question him about it.

Then follows that up by quoting our article on the matter. Not the Times Union, not the Troy Record but our article on it! This is why you pair video and stories, for things like this!

Meanwhile I am working on my HTML skills again in Albany this weekend at the MAAC Tournament..

Some quick quotes from the article:

[One seed Old Dominion] will have a lot tougher path to the championship than ever because of a potential re-match with Virginia Commonwealth. The Monarchs escaped last Saturday with a three-point win at home and were beaten by VCU by 12 on the road earlier in February. There’s a chance the Monarchs’ semifinal game will be their toughest yet.

While this tournament has been bound to have upsets in the past, I’m not sure that VCU over George Mason would be a huge upset this weekend. Couple that with the top six teams really are close to equals, Drexel can make a run. Oh and Hofstra has quietly won nine of their last ten entering the tournament.

Ryan Restivo is the RTC correspondent for the CAA and an occasional contributor.

That’s the line I like. I also have a piece on RotoSavants for today which is now part of the YardBarker network! Troy Patterson, who doesn’t need my personal compliments, does a great job running the site as it will start to see the steady increase of pre-draft day hits and he writes as great stuff at The Hardball Times too.