Live: Northeastern at Siena

Getting back to the television for a little bit and prior to the tip, I was actually quite excited about the Siena-Northeastern game. Then I saw the score and the time on the Internet. I quickly debated even watching the game. 20-10 at 5:38 left in the first half. Nevertheless…let’s pick it up from there.

12:35 p.m. Goodness gracious. Can anyone play well today?

12:36 p.m. Siena students take school much more serious than Liberty. Smaller crowd at Siena. Liberty was pretty full.

12:37 p.m. Edwin Ubiles vs. Northeastern right now.

12:40 p.m. Get the feeling in the short time I've been watching that Siena is about to come out with a big second half and the win. Ubiles is doing all he can do and is proving he's one of the elite mid-major players. Maybe even the best mid-major player in the country.

12:45 p.m . Bill Raferty nailed it with Ubiles when he said he knows where he fits. Had a similar conversation with Ubiles when he was in high school. Kids that understand their value and pick a school that allows them to shine always have success. Self-awareness is the cornerstone to success as a player.

12:47 p.m. A lot of my fellow basketball scribes like Matt Janning of Northeastern as the CAA Preseason Player of the Year. He's good, no doubt about it. But I don't think he's the guy for that. First team all-conference, no doubt. But he's not the MVP of the conference.

12:50 p.m. ESPN noted that the first points in the Saint Peters-Monmouth game was scored by a kid named Bacon. If there was a kid with the last name of Benedict, Bill Raferty would have most certainly called him "Eggs."

12:51 p.m. Northeastern up 26-20 at the half thanks to a Janning shot to end the half.

1:18 p.m. The laptop secretly compensated by my wife for the last 20 minutes. We are now new owners of an over-sized Christmas wreath.

1:52 p.m. Wanted to find a good time to write this but never really found the moment. Now seems good. Northeastern head coach Bill Coen is one of the best talent evaluators in the business. He was the magic behind the Boston College steals (Craig Smith, Jared Dudley, Tyrese Rice, etc.) and now he’s finding players and developing them into producers at the mid-level. He’s the king of the follow-up. If he ever received a tip on a player, he immediately chased the lead, did his homework and went hard after a player if he was sold.

1:58 p.m. This has nothing to do with this game but certainly worth space on this site. A good friend of mine called the 24 hour marathon “basketball Viagra."