The Saints are Back

The long dreary time that is the Siena Men's Basketball off-season has finally ended and the team is back playing on the court. While Siena has plenty of great sports teams, there is none that has as much fan support throughout the community as our men's basketball team, and not without justification. Over the past two years the team has won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship and made it to the NCAA Tournament, winning in the first round both times (upsetting Vanderbilt in the first round two seasons ago, and beating Ohio State in the first round last season). The team played its first home game this past Tuesday against Northeastern, which was broadcast live by ESPN. While the game was during the middle of the day, there was still a good turnout, including yours truly. You see, tickets are distributed to students on campus. Although the team plays off campus in Albany, bus transportation is made available for a quick ten minute ride to the Times Union Center.

Expectations are high this year given that almost the same group of starters has been together for a while now. So, when Siena students rolled into the Times Union Center in Albany, where the team plays its home games, there was no doubt our team would win. I have to say though, it was somewhat unexpected to see them start off down 20-6 after the first several minutes. Fortunately, the team regained its focus and ended up winning 59-53.

So far so good, as the Siena Saints, as they are affectionately named, start off right!

"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team. ~George Raveling