Is Ray Floriani a jinx?

Ray Floriani is quickly becoming our resident tempo-free expert.

It just occurred that some of the strange goings on lately can be attributed to a jinx. Namely with yours truly and Rush the Court. Oh, don’t read this wrong. I love my association with RTC and never would have been introduced to this fine address without them.

It simply is what I have written this season.

Every other week a recap is submitted on the Northeast Conference and MAAC. Besides that is an occasional article of general interest. In November, at Coaches Vs. Cancer, one of my features was on the North Carolina cheerleaders. Well, you can see what has transpired in Chapel Hill these past few weeks.

Over thanksgiving another one of my articles was a profile on the UCONN cheer/spirit program. Watching the Huskies effort against Cincinnati on Saturday all I could think is NIT. How about UNC-UCONN at the Garden in an NIT semi. Coula happen.

Friday morning I sent my MAAC wrap-up across several time zones (with no Rick Majerus-like complaints of the cyberspace road trip). At the beginning I noted how the MAAC tournament in March will be 'Siena's to lose'. The reasoning was the undefeated Saints have the experience, talent, coaching and location. That evening Siena went out and lost at Niagara. On seeing the score I thought blame me.

On second thought I did not officiate their game nor did I drive the team bus to Niagara Falls Ontario and not NY by mistake. Neither of those things happened, in other words the game had a great crew and I’m sure Fran McCaffery’s club arrived well rested and prepared to play.

So what happened? Here's quick tempo free look:

Siena: 71 possessions; Off. Efficiency 104; eFG: 45%; OReb: 55%; T/O rate: 21%
Niagara: 68 possessions; Off. Efficiency 128; eFG: 60%; OReb: 50%; T/O rate: 18%

The purple Eagles scored their 87-74 victory because they were almost unconscious from the floor, battled the Saints gamely on the ball and cared for the ball with a great TO RATE. Niagara also moved the ball extremely well with 22 assists on 33 field goals and shot 26 of 40(65%) from two point range. Joe Mihalich’s club all appeared to follow the lead of sophomore forward Kalief Edwards , a 7 PPG scorer, who shot 9 of 14 from the floor for a 20 point night.

So forget the jinx, for Siena as well as UNC and UConn. I did promise the S;ton Hall cheer coach, Jackie, an RTC profile for her squad. Things are busy and that’s on the back burner. Still whenever I cover the Hall at the Rock she never reminds me. Guess she doesn't want to jeopardize the Pirates' post season aspirations.