Under the Radar Game of the Day – Wednesday, December 9 – Hofstra at Siena

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Hofstra at Siena, 7:00 PM Eastern, Time Warner Sports-New York/espn3

The UTR Game of the Day heads up the New York State Thruway to the great city of Albany, New York tonight (hey, I was born there!) as the Hofstra Pride travel to take on the Siena Saints in a matchup between potential contenders in the CAA and MAAC.  Hofstra enters tonight’s game with a record of 6-2, including a win at the Paradise Jam tournament over Florida State.  Their two losses both occurred in the same event, falling to South Carolina and Indiana State.  They were able to bounce back after those losses, however, and claim a pair of road victories over Atlantic Ten teams, St. Bonaventure and La Salle, before knocking off Appalachian State over the weekend in a game played at Madison Square Garden.  The Pride feature a balanced scoring attack, and have had as many as six players in double figures in scoring in a single game so far this season.  Tonight’s game, and next weekend’s trip to their neighbors at Stony Brook, are the toughest remaining non-conference games on their slate, and there is very little margin for error if the Pride want to make a case for an at-large bid at the end of the season — but the talent and potential to be in the hunt for such a bid is certainly present on this team.

The Siena Saints are currently sitting at 5-4 on the season, having dropped 2 of their last 3 to teams that they probably should have beaten (at Cornell and at St. Peter’s).  Their other two losses were at Duke and at Wisconsin, and the Saints should certainly not be penalized for those.  They also have picked up wins away from home against Bucknell and Radford, a pair of teams that should contend for their conference’s championships.  Siena will look for a big game tonight from Brett Bisping.  Bisping put up an amazing stat line of 16 points at 18 rebounds in the Cornell loss.  He also registered 16 points and 16 rebounds in the Bucknell win.  If he is able to be anywhere close to that dominant down low against the Pride tonight, the Saints could be poised for the home victory.