LOUDONVILLE -- The hangover of Saturday's abysmal performance still lingers for the Siena basketball team. That's how it should be.
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The Saints players and coaches don't want to forget about the 89-62 pasting they endured from the University of Pennsylvania at Pepsi Arena.
That shellacking should serve as a reminder that they don't want it to happen to them again.
With that in mind, Siena had precious little time to get ready for the next opportunity to get things right. It comes tonight when the Saints play Canisius at 6:15 in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at Pepsi Arena.
The game is the second of a MAAC doubleheader. Rider and Loyola play in the first game at 4 p.m.
Siena is a woeful 3-12 overall and 1-3 in the MAAC. The final 14 games of the regular season are against league opponents.
"Fourteen games in the conference, that's all that matters now," said senior co-captain Brent Sniezyk.
Against Penn, Siena played its worst game of the season. The Saints did not compete, did not give any resistance to a team that came into their gym winless in six games on the road.
Canisius (4-10, 2-3) has failed to win a road game in its six tries so far.
The Siena players seem perplexed as to why things have gone so horribly wrong this season.
In practice, Siena plays hard, competes and often looks very good. The trick has been carrying it over into the games. It hasn't worked.
"It's the players' fault," said junior center Michael Haddix, the Saints' leading scorer. "You can't blame the coaches. They aren't out there shooting the ball and rebounding the ball. Coaches can't coach you to go out there and play hard. We have to do that."
Yes, the Saints are young. Their most consistent player, outside of Haddix, has been freshman guard Jack McClinton.
Coach Rob Lanier's rotation also includes two other freshmen -- Tay Fisher and Albert Fisher. Tay Fisher led the Saints in scoring against Penn with 13 points and Albert Fisher had nine.
Tay Fisher (29 minutes), McClinton (28) and Albert Fisher (25) logged the most time against the Quakers.
Lanier was disappointed and frustrated Saturday because he saw a team that did not compete. He saw a team that appeared to accept the brutal beating in front of its home crowd.
"If there is apathy on their part, well, we are in trouble," Lanier said. "I thought we would be more competitive. Last year, we went through a 10-game losing streak, but they would fight and they had pride."
The players agree with that. Sniezyk shakes his head when talking about whether or not this team comes to work with the right mind-set.
"I want to do anything in my power to help them," he said. "I think I sometimes find myself thinking too hard on whether everyone is ready to play and then I'm not ready myself. The biggest question I ask myself is how come we can do it in practice? Believe me, this team wants to win so badly."
Canisius coach Mike MacDonald knows what the Saints are going through. The Griffs are 30-58 the past three years and are doing a slow burn this season although they have won three of their last four.
"Oh, it's difficult," he said. "It's no different now even though we have played a little better. When we lost to Howard (first game of the year), we had the mentality like, 'Here we go again.' We were down six with four minutes to go and you would have thought we were down 60 by looking at the body language. We don't have a problem with being overconfident, we have just been underconfident. You have to believe in yourselves."
