Good Game Coach!!

We beat a good well coached team. Great job Boy's! Great job Coach! It has been a long time. Big game tomorrow. I know the team has flaws but I am going to enjoy the ride. I am also not returning my diploma. 

Hell yeah.

It was nice to see the team fight back from the early 10 point deficit in the first half.  And then again in the second half I think we were down by 9 as well.

All around team effort...it seems we stepped up the D in the 2nd half and really pushed the ball and got a lot of our points in transition.

Nice to hear Lawrence and Stith contributing too.  Lawrence 7 rebounds in 9 minutes and it sounded like everyone of them led to transition points. 

Great game all around. The rotation was deep but the substitutions were much more strategic and within reason.

Stith came in and pushed the break very nicely. We got the board outlet and skipped the pass for easy buckets.

Omari came in got boards and pushed the break. He is always so poised with the ball and he is fearless driving to the lane.

Hardy didn't stoke the ball that well from the outside but he can in traffic. He is so good at driving to the lane, stopping, squaring up in the lane and getting a good look at the basket.

Brownlee played some good minutes defensively. He hit a clutch 3 in the corner(despite gettign a little over zealous and taking the same shot next possession). I think if he develops better shot selection he can be very dangerous.

Sean Evans and Paris Horne both started off slow but played quality minutes down the stretch. Came up with big baskets when we needed them most. Paris had 2 quality highlight jams on the break by himself and Sean Evans had 2 monster put back jams(1 in each half).

Dele Coker had one of the best blocks I've ever seen. After that no one even stepped foot into lane. Seriously. He also had a very good bucket off a rebound.

Justin Burrell probably played better than the boxscore indicates(actually haven't looked at a box yet). He boxed out very well and if he didn't get the board himself he allowed his teammate to grab it. Offensively he didn't do much. He had a couple of good outlet passes but had one which sailed into the 10th row which made me a little uneasy.

Malik Boothe didn't do anything bad but didn't do anything too well either. He played within himself which I'm cool with. He missed a wide open 3 in the first half and a front end of a 1 and 1 in the 2nd half too.

DJ Kennedy everytime he checked back into the game he scored within 30 seconds on an easy layup. He easily won the Ubilles matchup which I thought was the key to the game prior to the game. He also hit a dagger 3 pointer late in the 2nd half which I felt was the nail in the coffin.

lets hope DJ continues doing what he s doing. He has been agressive and other teams cant do anything about it

It felt damn good rocking red and white in the Palestra tonight.

Great 2nd half by Stith, he got the ball up the court in a hurry. Boothe makes me nervous. Norm owned Mccaffrey, Clarence Jackson and Edwin Ubiles were shutdown,only Rossitter got off.

Who covered Ubiles?  I'm guessing DJ?  Was Brownlee on Franklin?   Excellent job by whoever guarded them--according to the box score at least.

Very refreshing that we out-ran a running team.  It seems like Brownlee is awesome in transition.  We are really set up as a team to run this year, man. 

How did Boothe look in transition?  Sounds like Stith could be exactly what we need for the running offense.  Omari too.  Seven rebounds in nine minutes is fantastic.

Was DJ getting to the basket in the half-court sets?  That would be huge.  Omari?

It really seems like the extra offense provided by Brownlee and Hardy will end our scoring woes.   With that said, have to win against Temple tomorrow.  Siena is certainly not the same team they were last year.  Splitting the weekend would be a big step back.  Go for the kill, fellas.

Hard to believe the Brown game was closer.
Kennedy has been off to a great start.

I love his game. It feels like he's ready to be a star.

Just got back from Philly.  Nice environment in The Palestra tonight!

The thing that really stuck out, as a few people have said, was our transition game tonight.  Outstanding job, and our boys were poised with the ball down the stretch. 

A GREAT win that we need to validate with a strong effort and a win tomorrow.  Let's keep this good momentum going.

We got rebounds and we were off to the races. Who ever grabbed the board either outletted or pushed the ball themselves. We got a lot of 3 on 2 conversions.

We mixed up the defense. We showed a little man and zone at times. We kept them off balance the whole game. We actually used strategy. It was great.

Who covered Ubiles?  I'm guessing DJ?  Was Brownlee on Franklin?   Excellent job by whoever guarded them--according to the box score at least.

Very refreshing that we out-ran a running team.  It seems like Brownlee is awesome in transition.  We are really set up as a team to run this year, man. 

How did Boothe look in transition?  Sounds like Stith could be exactly what we need for the running offense.  Omari too.  Seven rebounds in nine minutes is fantastic.

Was DJ getting to the basket in the half-court sets?  That would be huge.  Omari?

It really seems like the extra offense provided by Brownlee and Hardy will end our scoring woes.   With that said, have to win against Temple tomorrow.  Siena is certainly not the same team they were last year.  Splitting the weekend would be a big step back.  Go for the kill, fellas.

Stith had some bad turnovers in the 1st half but settled down and was good in transition. We made our run with HArdy,Stith and Brownlee on the court. Kennedy is a stud,got to the basket at will and owned Ubiles. Burrell is tentative when he gets the ball,shuffled his feet a few times and traveled. Coker is HUGE! Evans still dribbles a bit too much and what the hell is he doing taking the ball up the court?

Hornes tomahawk dunk at the end was ridiculous. He was way up there

Temple beat Va Tech tonight.

Hornes tomahawk dunk at the end was ridiculous. He was way up there

Part of me said please do something ridiculous and the other part of me said just get 2 points damnit. His dunk was somewhere in between that.

Evans and Horne got 3 monster dunks in last 3 min of the game.

Temple beat Va Tech tonight.

Looks like Temple will be the tougher game.

http://twitter.com/ESPNAndyKatz/status/6131654439

St. John's win over Siena means two things: Red Storm have an NCAA shot and Siena's at-large chances are O-V-E-R unless win at Ga Tech.

Couple of articles in Albany newspapers


Saratogian...
-Dwight Hardy stole the ball with 1:23 remaining and proceeded to throw it up to Paris Horne, who slammed it home, without a Siena defender in the neighborhood. It was just one play with not much time remaining, but it captured the night in a snapshot for the Saints.


-“They have some big, athletic guys from the starting five to the bench,” Ubiles said. “Whoever came in was long and athletic and I think it bothered our shots a little bit.”

-The Saints were even shocked with how good the Red Storm were getting out on the fast break.  “We’re usually a team that’s running on other teams like that,” said Ubiles.

Read more: http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2009/11/27/sports/doc4b10a4ddeb37b626052037.txt


Albany Times...

-If Friday's game against St. John's were a 100-yard dash, the Siena men's basketball team would have finished a distant second.
   
-The Saints described their play with words like "sluggish" and "stagnant," which runs counter to everything that's made them a back-to-back NCAA Tournament team.

-Kennedy and shooting guard Paris Horne also locked up Jackson and Ubiles, though Siena's offensive problems were deeper. The Saints shot only 40 percent from the field, 22 percent from 3-point range and 63 percent from the free-throw line. "They were on us the whole game," Jackson said. "We can't let them dictate like that."

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=871145&category=SPORTS#ixzz0YAK7juJ5

Gotta love that quote from Ubiles about the Saints usually being the team that runs on people! 

It's amazing what a few athletic bodies like Hardy and Brownlee can do for a team.  It is going to be so important for us to get those fast break and secondary break points--especially when the alternative is going up against a Big East defense (Temple for that matter) in a halfcourt set. 

It seems like in the past we had some inconsistent personnel.  We have athletes that can run like  Mason or a Hill and guys that were built to slow it down and grind it out like Hamilton, Spear, and Lawrence.  Now we've got guys at every position that are built for the same thing.  18 assists last night!

Gotta love that quote from Ubiles about the Saints usually being the team that runs on people! 

It's amazing what a few athletic bodies like Hardy and Brownlee can do for a team.

Is it just me or does Brownlee run oddly?  He's either just got a weird gait or he's limping.