A tale of two teams on a collision course

 Siena opened its men's basketball schedule Monday, downing Holy Cross, 75-68, in Worcester. Andrew Platek (Guilderland/North Carolina) scored 13 points in 24 minutes to back up leading scorer Javian McCollum, who had 20, while newcomer Eduardo Lane added 13 of his own.

The Saints' home opener is the Albany Cup vs. UAlbany on Saturday night. It's also Homecoming weekend at Siena, so they're expecting a big crowd.

For the record, Siena has a new radio home for men's basketball at ALT 104.9 after WGDJ (1300 AM) ended their partnership earlier this year. While many games will be streaming on ESPN+ or ESPN3, there will be some games on basic cable:

December 7 at Georgetown (FS2, Spectrum Cable channel 401).

February 24 at Rider (ESPNU, Spectrum Cable channel 370).

Also, the Saints will be participating in the ESPN Events Invitational at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Thanksgiving weekend. To wit:

Thanksgiving Day vs. Florida State, 11 am (ESPN2).

Black Friday, Nov. 25, vs. Stanford or Mississippi (ESPN or ESPNews).

November 27 TBA.

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One wonders if UAlbany may have been looking too far ahead to Siena, as the Great Danes lost on the road at Towson on Monday, 67-62. The Danes were down by as many as 10 at one point. Gerald Drumgoole, Jr. led Albany with 15 points, while Aaron Reddish and Da'Kquan Davis added 12 each. Dwayne Killings will return Saturday for the Albany Cup, then finish his suspension next Monday vs. Union College.

UAlbany continues a 3 game road trip at Immaculata today at 5. 

Considering UAlbany is playing other area schools, having played pre-season games with Skidmore and the College of St. Rose, and with Siena & Union coming up, the school is dissing not only Hudson Valley Community College, which is hosting the Danes this year, but also RPI, by not scheduling games with either Troy school. And, yeah, we'll throw Russell Sage, which has campuses in both Albany and Troy, in there, too.

The way ye scribe sees it, as Union, Skidmore, & St. Rose are getting the rub from having UAlbany on their schedules, what's wrong with the Sage, RPI, & HVCC? Maybe next year, but I wouldn't hold my breath.