In an interesting move, Siena coach Fran McCaffery moved on Sunday from Albany to Iowa, taking the Iowa Hawkeyes job (ESPN).

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.

RushTheCourt and CollegeHoopsJournal highlight my coaching candidates piece for St. John’s and Seton Hall.

Now that the Saints season is over, time to take a look at everything I just wrote over the last week or so.

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

So this is what I did at work Thursday… don’t get too jealous.

The MLB.com Fantasy 411 will be on MLB Network! Check out the release here.

Not only the Draft Preview show on March 21 but also five days a week at 5pm on MLB Network!

MLB NETWORK & MLB.COM TO PARTNER ON FANTASY PROGRAMMING THROUGHOUT THE 2010 REGULAR SEASON

MLB.com Fantasy 411 Draft Preview to Air March 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET

MLB.com’s Fantasy 411 to Air Daily on MLB Network and MLB.com Starting April 6

March 15, 2010, New York & Secaucus – With 2010 fantasy baseball drafts underway, MLB Network today announced it will air the MLB.com Fantasy 411 Draft Preview on Sunday, March 21 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Hosted by MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger and Harold Reynolds along with MLB.com’s Cory Schwartz and Mike Siano, the two-hour show will provide detailed analysis and insight on the topics fantasy baseball enthusiasts will be focusing on as fantasy draft days continue before Opening Day, including:

· Position-by-position analysis and player rankings

· Discussion of strategy for draft day and in-season transactions

· “Breakout, bargain and bust” picks for the 2010 season

· Top picks for prospects expected to be called up during the 2010 season

Continuing with the fantasy programming, throughout the 2010 regular season MLB Network will simulcast MLB.com’s Fantasy 411, the site’s longest-running hosted program, on weekdays at 5:00 p.m. ET, beginning Tuesday, April 6. The program, hosted by MLB.com’s Jeremy Brisiel, will provide key insights from analysts Schwartz and Siano to help further fans’ enjoyment and knowledge in their respective fantasy leagues.

Schwartz, the Director of Stats for MLB.com and a regular contributor to MLB.com’s fantasy baseball section, has been competing in fantasy baseball since 1989, including expert competitions such as the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) and Tout Wars. Siano, the Director of Multimedia Production for MLB.com, has been competing in fantasy baseball for more than 10 years, including the highly-competitive Tout Wars league. The MLB.com Fantasy 411 can be found on its blog at http://fantasy411.mlblogs.com and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/fantasy411.

As Selection Sunday approaches, that means I should recap what I’ve been writing about over at SienaSaintsBlog.com.

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!

While the controversial pulling the team from handshakes and yelling at a reporter started the weekend for the Saints, I had a bunch of other favorite videos but this one from the last weekend at the MAAC Tournament was probably the best.

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!

I did a few player reels on SienaSaintsBlog this week. Now that it’s been a few days, and SienaSaintsBlog got the traffic, check them out here!

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

Over at Rush The Court I put in my CAA Tournament preview. It was when writing this article I found out that it is National Procrastination Week and I finished this just around 10pm Wednesday night.

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.