March 15, 2010

SIENA CAN BEAT PURDUE IN NCAA TOURNAMENT

     Spokane-Siena has a slim shot at beating Purdue, the #4 seed Purdue Boilermakers will face the #13 seed Siena Saints at 11:30 am est on Friday. Purdue lost Lewis Jackson with a injury last game. The Big Ten is not what it use to be when it comes to hoop but Purdue still has a tremendous advantage with size and strength. Siena led by Alex Franklin and Edwin Ubiles have tournament experience and with Ron Moore the national leader in assists should play tough for most of the game but Siena’s size will come into play. Ryan Rossiter is the only big man and is not a rebounder. It will be one and done this year for Siena. To much size and power for Purdue. It will be a bigger upset then last years team when they beat Ohio State in overtime. The MAAC is one of the weaker conferences in division 1. Siena did not beat any ranked opponents this year, they had Butler on the ropes for 10 minutes but Butler proved to be to good. Robie Hummel was lost for the year with a knee injury on Feb 24th, Purdue was ranked #3 until his injury but Purdue is still much better then Siena. Many picked the Saints to make the sweet sixteen, we can’t see them getting past the 1st round. They barely beat Fairfield in the MAAC conference final game. Fran McCaffery was Named NABC District 1 Coach of the Year and is one of the finest in the game. A product of Digger Phelps his coaching style is very similiar, stay in the game until the end and then make a run. Though we give credit where credit is due, Siena is a good team for the MAAC but nit enough strength and size to compete. This is a case where whoever wins the conference gets a automatic bid, to many teams that are much better then Siena deserve to get in the tournament. Purdue should win this matchup.

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