Not a big surprise that the MAAC’s top seed went down early

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – When a top seed goes down before the championship game in a conference tournament, there is often a lot of buzz. There was probably some when Iona beat Niagara 79-73 in the MAAC Tournament semifinals on Sunday. But in all reality, not only is the MAAC notoriously competitive, but this Niagara team is not one many thought would have won the regular season title, and that wasn’t lost on Joe Mihalich, who had a mix of feelings after the loss.

“I don’t know if we had any business winning 13 games in that league this year, but we did,” said Mihalich. “We got one in the playoffs, won a regular season championship.”

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Early turnaround at Canisius doesn’t mean much right this moment

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Billy Baron was hurting. You could see it from the facial expression, then in his voice as he spoke. Usually full of life and energy, he wasn’t quite that after Canisius’ season ended with a tough 89-85 loss to Iona in the MAAC quarterfinals on Saturday. He was more than a little subdued.

“This is really painful right now,” said the junior guard.

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Turnovers hurt Siena right to the end

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – When Siena looks back on this season, one possible theme could be “if only we took better care of the ball.” Although turnovers were a season-long problem for the Saints, and far from their only one, it was particularly acute on Saturday in their season-ending 74-62 loss to Niagara in the MAAC Tournament.

Siena turned the ball over nearly 15 times a game this season, while forcing less than 11 per game. In Saturday’s loss, they gave it away 20 times to Niagara, a team that thrives on forcing turnovers, with ten each half. Niagara turned them into 32 points, but that was only half the story. The other half is what the lost possessions meant on Siena’s end.

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A look around the country – March 10, 2013

Saturday was a big day as conference tournaments get ready to take over. Many have already started, and a few championship games are ahead on Sunday. Noteworthy among the regular season games were a few teams not finishing well down the stretch, which might make their NCAA Tournament candidacy a little more interesting than it should be.

With that in mind, here are some thoughts coming out of Saturday’s games.

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2013 MAAC quarterfinal notes

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The MAAC quarterfinals are in the books. The afternoon games saw the seeds hold to form, while the evening started off with an upset that was also a game for the history books, but not in a good way. The last game followed its predecessor with the lower seed pulling off the upset.

With that, some leftover thoughts from the MAAC quarterfinals played on Saturday:

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Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith have grown and shared a lot together

Northeastern’s first CAA regular season title has been driven by an unlikely senior backcourt. Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith come from different parts of the country and different worlds, and they have decidedly different games and personalities. But teams that win do so with togetherness even with differences, and when you look at the success of the Huskies, one place to start is with what Lee and Smith share together.

They share more than meets the eye, especially since they came to Huntington Ave. They have shared playing time, roles and work ethic, and have done much of it together with a bond they forged almost as soon as they arrived in a different world than the one they grew up in.

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Needham, Fairfield seniors live another day

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Derek Needham didn’t want his career to end on Friday night. A classmate felt the same way and a teammate at the opposite end of the experience spectrum helped him out, and in turn they helped Fairfield move on with a 54-47 win over St. Peter’s.

Needham isn’t the only senior on Fairfield, as fellow guards Colin Nickerson and Desmond Wade are also coming up on the end of their college careers. But he’s the big name on the team, the program’s third all-time leading scorer, the guy who has been an impact player from the minute he arrived on campus and scored in double figures in all but one game of his freshman campaign. He’s the charismatic young man who is well-known around the campus and not just because he’s a basketball player. He’s the star guard who didn’t play in the conference tournament last year due to a broken foot.

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Siena shows some toughness in advancing to the MAAC quarterfinals

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Oftentimes, when a team has the lead for much of the game and loses it without much time left, it’s a big psychological blow. For a team like Siena, where wins have been hard to come by and especially of late, that is the case even more so. That makes Siena’s 70-64 win over Marist in the first round of the MAAC Tournament a positive development, and one they’ll need heading into Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup with regular season champion Niagara.

In a back-and-forth first half, Siena held the lead throughout largely from inside play as O.D. Anosike was determined not to end his career on Friday night and Davis Martens gave them a nice boost off the bench. That opened up the outside game for Rob Poole, and the Saints were shooting 52 percent in the first half to overcome nine turnovers.

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Butler bounces back from blowout loss, look more like themselves

AMHERST, Mass. – Butler was much more like themselves on Thursday night, a game after a decidedly un-Butler-like performance at VCU. In between, there was some reflection and focused practices, and the end result was a 73-62 win at UMass where the Bulldogs were solid all around and for most of the game.

The 84-52 loss at VCU caught everyone by surprise. Butler may lose games, and they have been blown out before, but it is very rare. Games like that just don’t happen. So it’s not surprising that after the game, it was a little unusual.

“You question yourself a little bit when you get beat in the way we got beat on Saturday, and these guys deserve to enjoy this one,” said head coach Brad Stevens.

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2013 CAA Awards: How one person voted

The Colonial Athletic Association will hand out postseason awards on Friday night, the eve of the conference tournament as is tradition. The awards are voted on by the conference’s head coaches, SIDs and select media members. As I am one of the voters, sharing how I voted provides a worthwhile look back on the regular season.

This time around, it was a tough call for one major award and an easy call for two of them. For the all-conference teams, it wasn’t as difficult, and easier than that was the All-Rookie team as it wasn’t a big year for instant impact freshmen in the conference. With the All-Defensive team, it was difficult simply because defense is so often a team operation and with no real statistics or metrics for individual players it’s very difficult to evaluate without seeing everyone play more than once or twice. (Steals and blocked shots only tell us so much because it’s easy for players to get into foul trouble attempting both.)

With that in mind, here is a look at how I voted and what went into each vote. On each of the teams, the players are listed alphabetically.

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