Sunday, December 6, 2009

Early Look: Siena Still The Standard

Here's the fifth in the series of early looks at conference teams. Up now ...

SIENA (0-0, 5-3)

The Saints, who play their first conference game Monday at Iona, have only lost non-conference games against higher-level opponents Temple, Saint John's and Georgia Tech, and all of those losses have come away from home.

Siena has done nothing to indicate it is anything but the best team in the conference. All five of its starters have turned in all-MAAC caliber performances thus far. Senior point guard Ronald Moore leads the entire country in assists per game (8.6). Moore has 20 assists against just three turnovers in his last two games.

The starting five of Moore, sophomore guard Clarence Jackson, forwards Edwin Ubiles and Alex Franklin and center Ryan Rossiter is as strong a starting five these eyes have seen since the Lionel Simmons-led La Salle teams of two decades ago.

Cracks in the armor? Minor ones. Ubiles is battling tendinitis in a knee, has missed a game and hasn't been at his best yet. Depth is lacking, although sophomores guard Kyle Downey and forward Owen Wignot are improving. And, help is coming in the form of transfer guard Kyle Griffin (eligible Dec. 23) and Germany native forward Daves Martens (eligible Dec. 31).

Insight: Barring injuries, Siena is en route to another conference championship.

1 comment:

Mulldog said...

Listened to the Siena-Iona audio feed tonight. Announcers said at the half "Siena missed a plethora of wide open bunnies in the 1st half." Sounds like they were a little sloppy in the 1st half but just much the best as they pulled away. Rodriguez sounded pretty effective but had 4 fouls pretty early in the second half and maybe fouled out (audio kept cutting in and out). Machado seemed pretty quiet..and Ubiles just caught absolute fire. Announcers said he was knocking down difficult shots and they got it down to him in the post against some smaller players. Overall, it sounds like Jackson has really started to take off and with Moore, Ubiles, Franklin, Jackson and Rossiter all going well...when the transfers become eligible and this team gets a little deeper, look out.