Gerry McNamara and his Siena Saints nearly became the third No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in an NCAA Tournament first-round match-up. Alas, Siena came up six points short on Thursday to No. 1 seed Duke in Greenville, S.C.
The end result, a 71-65 setback for Siena, candidly, didn't really matter. GMac, the Saints' charismatic second-year head coach, put on one heck of a performance - an audition, perhaps - and now has to be considered the front-runner to become the next Syracuse basketball head coach, which new SU athletics director Bryan Blair said could be announced "relatively soon.