Vanderbilt Stunned by Siena in
NCAA Tournament - Ogilvy 18 Points
www.vucommodores.com
22 Mar 2008
TAMPA, Florida - Privately, some Siena players wondered in recent days if their counterparts on the Vanderbilt roster knew any of their names.
If the Commodores didn't, they surely do now.
Kenny Hasbrouck and Tay Fisher personally saw to that, and the Saints have another colossal upset to add to their tiny school's NCAA tournament legacy.
Hasbrouck scored 30 points, Fisher added 19 on 6-for-6 shooting from 3-point range, and 13th-seeded Siena stunned No. 4 Vanderbilt 83-62 Friday night in the first round of the Midwest Regional. The Saints (23-10) never trailed and became the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team to reach the second round since Manhattan in 2004, and will play either Villanova or Clemson on Sunday.
"I really don't consider it an upset," Fisher said. "I have confidence in my team and I knew we could hang with anybody in the country."
Until now, Siena's program was best-known for a first-round upset of Stanford in 1989 -- a 14 seed over a 3. This one might have been just as shocking, considering it came against an SEC team in Vanderbilt that reached the round of 16 last year and had aspirations of doing at least that much this year.
But this might not have been a surprise.
After all, it was in Tampa, which might now have a reputation as a bracket-busting sort of town. Earlier Friday, two other unheralded underdogs pulled off upsets on the same floor where Siena won: No. 12 Western Kentucky beat fifth-seeded Drake and No. 13 San Diego ousted fourth-seeded Connecticut.
Turns out, everything did not go according to the Saints' plan.
"Actually, we wanted to be the first upset of the day," Hasbrouck said.
They'll gladly settle for this.
"It's been a long journey to get here," Siena coach Fran McCaffery said.
A.J. Ogilvy scored 18 points for Vanderbilt (26-8), which got 13 from SEC player of the year Shan Foster -- who became the 22nd player in SEC history to eclipse 2,000 points -- and 10 from Ross Neltner. The Commodores came into the tournament more than a little miffed that they were widely picked to be a first-round upset victim and insisted they wouldn't look past Siena.
"All season long, I didn't get this team to play defensively the way it had to play on a consistent basis for us to win, the way we wanted to win," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "Again, 26-8 is not a terrible year. But we just never were consistent defensively and again, that's my responsibility. Completely my responsibility. I just wasn't able to push the right buttons."
The Commodores got two straight baskets from Keegan Bell and drew within 50-43 with 13:20 to play, but never got any closer the rest of the way. Vanderbilt never got its perimeter game going, shooting 4-for-20 from 3-point range, and didn't exploit its size advantage inside. Full Story
