The good news for the MAAC is that if Siena beats Ohio State and advances to the Round of 32 for the second straight year, THAT is what a whole lot of people will remember about the league's postseason showing.

The bad news is the conference went 0-for-2 last night, with Niagara falling to Rhode Island in the first round of the NIT and Rider getting manhandled by Liberty in the CIT.

As Chris Lang of the Lynchburg News & Advance writes in today's Trentonian, Rider trailed by 22 in the first half and was never in it after that.

The Broncs finished 19-13. The Trentonian's web site has a poll up asking what grade fans would give their season. For what it's worth, I'd probably give it a B+ (which isn't an option on the poll, so I settled for B). Regardless of Ryan Thompson's health status, last night wasn't a good way to go out, and no team wants its conference season to end in the league tournament semifinals.

But the body of work was pretty good. You can talk about the lackluster non-conference strength of schedule, but plenty of MAAC teams would sign up for 19 wins and a postseason appearance, regardless of who they beat to get some of those wins and regardless of what postseason tournament they played in.

And next year should be interesting for a number of reasons. Rider's schedule will include a game at Kentucky and an appearance in a preseason tournament in Cancun, so there will be non-conference tests and opportunities to get their RPI into the top 100.

The Broncs return every contributor except for Harris Mansell and will be picked no lower than third in the MAAC behind Siena and Niagara.

As for Niagara, winning at least one game in the NIT would have been fitting given the year the Purple Eagles had, which included 26 wins, an RPI in the 50s, a signature BracketBuster win and a trip to the MAAC final.

The Eagles, though, couldn't hang on to a first-half lead and couldn't overcome sixth-seeded URI, which got 10 second-half points from Keheim Seawright and will play second-seeded Penn State in the second round.

Losing Benson Egemonye will hurt. He had the biggest impact this year of any big guy, and that kind of play is tough to find in the MAAC. But everyone else is back, and that gives Joe Mihalich a lot to work with.

That leaves us with Siena.

It's hard to quantify what an NCAA win means compared to a win in any postseason tournament, but I think the average college hoops fan can tell you Siena won a game in the Dance last year and has no idea who won the NIT (coincidently, it was Ohio State, the Saints' first-round opponent).

Let's get some chatter going. How would you grade Rider's and Niagara's seasons? And who ya got in the Siena-Ohio State game and why?