Final thoughts on Fordham and other random thoughts

[Tony]

Have to chuckle at Fordham fan base, they truly are delusional. Why Fordham fans should ‘expect” to beat anyone blows my mind- they have one winning season last 20 years ( a 18-12 season) no post season let alone post season wins, hell half of those 20 years Fordham only managed single digit wins.


Fordham does have some talent- a bunch of 6 foot to 6”3 guards- no real ‘wings” and no big men to speak of. Severe is a really good player and will get better but kid is I’ll stretch it and say 6’1” might only be 6 foot - Siena was a much more balanced team. Rams really struggled guarding Poole with smaller guards and Robbie made life tough on Severe. Evan takes a lot of crap on this board- but played well last night. Marquis just keeps getting better and nothing rattles that kid. Lavon another rock solid kid—cool calm and collected- love how these freshmen have brass balls. Crowd really put Siena over the top last night- energized our kids and you could see by the body language they really rattled Fordham. Any ‘recruits” at the game- especially if they were down on the floor had to be impressed

I’ll take the 4-7 non-conference record. Program is headed in right direction- Jimmy started beating teams like Bonaventure and Fordham- sorry but programs we should beat 70% of time- Mitch lost to them like it was his job. Foundation has been laid, things will only get better over next year as we add Patrick Cole- freshmen make the sophomore jump and we add a recruit or two. Been sayn this for a while MAAC teams better get us this year because next year it wont be so "easy". Hang on Siena fans its going to be a fun ride

[psycholojets]

It seems as though Evan is starting to find his role on this team and find a comfort zone with in himself as well. That bodes well.

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[warden99]

I agree with Tony. The crowd was. A factor. Once we were on a roll,they helped rattle Fordham. Coach gave the fans lots of credit.

[CellarRat]

Dec 31, 2013 6:32:19 GMT -5 psycholojets said:

It seems as though Evan is starting to find his role on this team and find a comfort zone with in himself as well. That bodes well.

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Let's hope it keeps up. He passed the ball instead of his old crash and burn bit. Not his fault for this in the past as he was basically most of the offense. I'm am very excited for Evan because I think he is a great kid and I want him to leave Siena bb on a high note next year. It looks like that is very possible.

Great job Evan!

[glen]

I don't know Tony. We won. It was ugly. At this point W's - no matter how ugly are important. That said, the half court O really stunk and our D wasn't really that good either. Against a better team (Canisius?) we would've been down 30 by the time we made the run. Once the pace quickened we were right in it. The guys are still young. I am concerned though. There are times where we look decent but there are times we look awful. Maybe that's the young team thing. It's still better than the last 3 years as I have some hope that we'll make a run and win.

[Big papi]

I agree Glen,how often do you see a 22-0 run. In the first half Fordham was equally as bad and let Siena hang around. During the run Hymes was the biggest factor like he has been in all of the wins this year. It was nice to see the crowd into to it but it took a 22-0 before that the building was dead. Wins are good especially at home maybe they can build on that second half run.

[sienadan]

Calm, cool and COLLECTED not collective. Christ.

[bigsaintg]

Thank god for Marist grads who are Siena wannabes. Tony better edit your posts like they are ready for WSJ front page

[MTS]

Dec 31, 2013 8:32:43 GMT -5 Big papi said:

I agree Glen,how often do you see a 22-0 run. In the first half Fordham was equally as bad and let Siena hang around. During the run Hymes was the biggest factor like he has been in all of the wins this year. It was nice to see the crowd into to it but it took a 22-0 before that the building was dead. Wins are good especially at home maybe they can build on that second half run.

Kinda like when SU sucked when Nova built the big lead before going on their 18-0 run.

With a young team there is going to be up and down play even with a high talent level which our guys have. White didn't have it last night. JO is still coming off the injury. Poole single handedly kept us in the game until the rest of the team woke up.

I think any realistic Siena fan has to be happy with where we are right now. At 5-8 we have a chance to have a winning season. The question is can we go 11-7 the rest of the way in MAAC play to finish the regular season with a winning record? I say yes if we can improve on a few things and the frosh continue to play well.

[Tony]

Dec 31, 2013 7:55:28 GMT -5 glen said:

I don't know Tony. We won. It was ugly. At this point W's - no matter how ugly are important. That said, the half court O really stunk and our D wasn't really that good either. Against a better team (Canisius?) we would've been down 30 by the time we made the run. Once the pace quickened we were right in it. The guys are still young. I am concerned though. There are times where we look decent but there are times we look awful. Maybe that's the young team thing. It's still better than the last 3 years as I have some hope that we'll make a run and win.

I thought beginning of game was slow..Jimmy made some nice adjustments and rest is history. How can you complain about a 79 point performance with a 52 point 2nd half.

[siena77]

Dec 31, 2013 9:47:24 GMT -5 Tony said:

Dec 31, 2013 7:55:28 GMT -5 glen said:

I don't know Tony. We won. It was ugly. At this point W's - no matter how ugly are important. That said, the half court O really stunk and our D wasn't really that good either. Against a better team (Canisius?) we would've been down 30 by the time we made the run. Once the pace quickened we were right in it. The guys are still young. I am concerned though. There are times where we look decent but there are times we look awful. Maybe that's the young team thing. It's still better than the last 3 years as I have some hope that we'll make a run and win.

I thought beginning of game was slow..Jimmy made some nice adjustments and rest is history. How can you complain about a 79 point performance with a 52 point 2nd half.

Jeez, Glen, did you watch the 2nd half? I agree that the 1st half was brutal, but our guys turned it around and played very solid basketball for most of the 2nd half. Ball movement, cuts to the basket, driving and dishing--plus strong D, guys covering their spots, boxing out, etc. Definitely a win to build on and a preview of what's to come.

A nice win, lots of credit to share among the team. GO SAINTS!!

[Tony]

Dec 31, 2013 9:59:17 GMT -5 siena77 said:

Dec 31, 2013 9:47:24 GMT -5 Tony said:

I thought beginning of game was slow..Jimmy made some nice adjustments and rest is history. How can you complain about a 79 point performance with a 52 point 2nd half.

Jeez, Glen, did you watch the 2nd half? I agree that the 1st half was brutal, but our guys turned it around and played very solid basketball for most of the 2nd half. Ball movement, cuts to the basket, driving and dishing--plus strong D, guys covering their spots, boxing out, etc. Definitely a win to build on and a preview of what's to come.

A nice win, lots of credit to share among the team. GO SAINTS!!

Yep I'd say that was most fun I've had at a Siena game since Fran was here. That 22 point run was magical team playing well, crowd into game. Rams came into game scoring 80ppg we held them to 69- 11 under their avg

[hoopjunkie]

Last night DID prove a point that was in question all day yesterday. WE NEED SHOOTERS!!! We don't have any! Poole is doing a great job INSIDE making things happen and getting to the line, but to be honest, I don't any confidence in him, or any kid we have making a 3. Poole and Evan have the best chance but I've never seen any real good shooters throw up airballs or graze the im when getting great looks.

ps-Wolfe might have the best stroke of any guy on the team, but we'll never see it enough. The foul shooting has improved greatly! Definitely a positive.

[glen]

I watched the whole game. We only played for 10 minutes. We spotted Fordham 30 minutes. Yes we won but in the same type of game v. Canisius we were lucky to lose by 15. All I'm saying is that we played poorly for the majority of the game. The W is a great thing for a young team learning to win but don't delude yourself - we stunk up the place last night. Fortunately Fordham collapsed.

I'll note that as the pace quickened we did WAY better. That 22-0 run, IMO, was mostly due to pressing the tempo. Even when we were in a half-court O during that time the pace was notably quicker and players were WAY more active. The first 30 minutes the movement was much less. We'd passs the ball around the perimeter then someone would drive the lane into 3 trees when the shot clock got to 10.

I know I sound negative - I am a little...maybe just cautious. I still have faith in Jimmy and I expect we'll see great things but wow was that bad hoops for the first half or so of the game. Also, while I'm being negative...can anyone explain to me why Jimmy burns a TO when the next dead ball is a media TO? I don't get it.

[billmurray]

I don't get it Glen, yes the first half was horrendous, but 52 pts in the second half, playing inspired D and being resilient enough to come from 22 down and to win by 10 certainly diminished my first half negativism. But you just can't seem to shake it. Also with a come from behind win like this one, to second guess the timing of the TOs seems unjustified given that it seemed to be have a positive effect on the players, but if it make you feel better go for it.
As for expecting to see great things, I think last nights second half was one of them, too bad you seemed to have missed it.