Gesundheit....

What do you say when someone says "Canisius?"

The Bracketbuster winds its was back into Anderson Arena Saturday, with the Golden Griffins of Canisius coming to town. When I first heard about Gonzaga, I had to look THAT one up, too. The guy below is Canisius...Petrus Canisius.



He was the first Dutchman to join the Jesuits. Really.

Anyway, the modern incarnation of this fine man is the Golden Griffins of Canisius, and they are 8-18 this season with an RPI of 229. While that indicates that they are having a tough year, they are ranked about 90 spots ahead of Eastern....sorry. Did I say that?

They are also 0-2 in the MAC East, losing to Buffalo and Akron to start the season. They have lost 7 of their last 8.

But, having said that, they play in a very strong conference. Niagara and Siena and Fairfield will all be favorites to win the MAC, probably.

They have won four times on the road this year. They have only one senior, and he doesn't play much.

Based on style, they are a team that has a hard time scoring. They are 305th in FG%, 335th in 3FG% and 337th in FT%. The stingy Falcons have to be licking their chops at this prospect. They seem to rebound well, but when they play, there are all kinds of missed shots bouncing around.

On defense, they are also much like us, in that they do not allow teams to shoot against them very well either...meaning that they must be licking their chops at playing the Falcons. Actually, for really good marginal numbers on shooting, they have still allowed 67 points per game, which is a lot higher than it would appear it should be.

Their best player is Frank Taylor, who averages around 15 PPG. Julius Coles and Greg Logins both average 11, and Logins also gets 6.9 boards a game. Their Chris Gadley gets 7 boards a game, and is 6'9" and 320 pounds, giving him an Otis Polk-like girth.

After a bad loss to EMU and a good win against Buffalo, fans might be excused if we were a little confused. Let's hope the Falcons can get it back together and give the home fans a victory.