Siena v Alcorn State?

[superbook]

Any thoughts?

This is the final game for Alcorn State's 71-year old head coach Dave Whitney who is retiring after 31 years as a head coach and 550 wins.

Siena looked very good in the MAAC championship but all those games were played on their home court.

 

[checkraiser]

super,
just curious why do you think siena is playing alcorn st. opposed to winthrop in this game? Winthrop worse record, equal s.o.s., worse rpi? Doesn't really matter but I know that talks in the local papers here upstate had siena already preparing and watching game films of winthrop once they beat niagara.
As far as the game goes Alcorn had a nice year(keep in mind I've seen several siena games and zero alcorn st. games) won the conference as pre season faves, won thier tourney and played thier way into the big dance. Siena on the other hand, as you know underachieved all season long, not playing thier best ball till it mattered most. Gotta believe if siena plays as well as they did in the MAAC tourney they are superior to alcorn st. Although siena's rpi was worse than alcorn st. their strenght of schedule was stronger telling me that night in and night out the MAAC is better than the SWAC, which probably is not a big suprise but truthfull nonetheless. Again I say this without having seen Alcorn but I would be shocked if D Archbold isn't the best player on the court tomorrow night. P Karangwa has also become a very solid all around player for the saints as well. I was somewhat suprised at the line on this game as Alcorn st. has a nice 20-9 record w/ a better rpi rating is a 4-4.5 dog to siena 14-18. The line alone leads me to believe the saints are the play here but I caution that my opinion is rather biased in this situation.
Not that it has anything to do with this game but what person in this neck of the woods could ever forget siena beating stanford in round one 13 years ago.
sorry so long and without much strong handicapping facts
just my humble and hopeful opinions
checkraiser

 

[superbook]

I've decided to go with:

Siena -4

Checkraiser --

I think the RPI ratings are a little misleading given Alcorn State's weak schedule which is filled with games against non-division one teams. Against decent division 1 teams like Hawaii, UAB and New Mexico they got crushed.

They even lost to first year Division 1 team, Morris Brown, on the road.

I'm sure that their weak schedule and poor road performance influenced the committee's decision to take Winthrop over Alcorn State as #64.

If you take a look at Sagerin ratings, Siena should be favored by about six over Alcorn State. And Sagerin also has Winthrop as better than Alcorn State.

#216 Siena 71.01
#225 Winthrop 68.93
#234 Alcorn State 65.18
#321 Morris Brown 50.56 (out of 327 teams)

I wonder how the committee's decision to take Winthrop will affect Alcorn State? They thought they were in, now they're in the play-in game instead. Will they be pissed off or deflated?

Siena lost a little time spent reviewing film but not much else has changed for them. Gotta believe there will be more Siena fans in Dayton than Alcorn State fans.

 

[superbook]

Checkraiser --

Since you're old enough to remember Siena's victory over Stanford, then here's a little trivia for you:

Questions

One: What was the team name for Siena during the NCAA Tournament when they beat Stanford?

Two: Besides being a Cinderella team, what else was Siena remembered for during during that tourney?


Answers below, no looking until you've finished the quiz!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX











Answers

One: Siena had no team nickname, they had dropped the "Indians" earlier in the year and had not yet adopted "Saints"

Two: An outbreak of measles on campus had several players in quarrantine.

 

[checkraiser]

Superbook
it's funny you mention the measles epedemic, the games were all televised here locally and it was the first time I can ever remember watching a basketball game on any level with no one at all in the stands. You could literally here everythiing the coaches were saying and the bounce of the ball echoed in the building. As far as their name I could not remember exactly how long it was for them to come up with the Saints after deciding to become politicly correct but I trust your answer is right. Do you remember the matchup at the guard position in that game? The standout from stanford went on to have a breif career in the nba while the siena grad went to play overseas. I thought it was a mistake he was never given a chance to play in the nba.

 

[superbook]

The Stanford player was Todd Lichti. Quite honestly I don't remember who the Siena player was, just remember he had a great game. You got me on that one.

Lichti went on to play for the Nuggets and then I remember like 3 years ago he came out of retirement to play pro ball in Australia. Remember Lichti's claim to fame was that he was ambidexterous so he could move to the hoop with either hand?

The more I look at it the more I like Siena tonight. Mark Price is back for this game after missing the entire MAAC tourney with a bad tooth. IMO Price is their best natural point guard as I understand it he'll come off the bench tonight.

 

[checkraiser]

Super
yes Lichti was very good, but in that particular game Mark "shake and bake" Brown (siena's greatest player) got the best of him.
I see the line is now at 4.5 and will probably head up more as gametime approaches.
By the way, you probably know this but the game is tomorrow evening not tonight.
good luck with your play
checkraiser

 

[superbook]

Oh yeah...Mark Brown....I forgot all about him.

Yeah the game is tomorrow night. I keep wishing it were tonight so I'd have something to watch on TV.

I think Siena is the play, I wish I had gotten it at 3.5, it just moved up to 4 when I made my bet.

More tomorrow.

- Jon

 

[nyraider]

I LIKE SIENA, BY 6-10 PTS. TAKING SIENA SAINTS FOR 3 UNITS.
GOOD LUCK DAN.