Byline: DAN HOWLEY Staff writer
They had played all year without a nickname. They had played their previous nine games in front of empty seats because a measles epidemic at the school forced public health officials to bar fans from attending.
But in an empty Hartford Civic Center, where the only noise was the thump of a basketball and the squeak of sneakers, they beat Boston University for their first North Atlantic Conference title and first entry into the NCAA Tournament.
The volume was about to be turned way up for the 1988-89 edition of the Siena men's basketball team.
The fan ban was lifted and their old politically incorrect nickname of Indians was changed to Saints just in time for their first-round game against the Stanford Cardinal in Greensboro, N.C.
The measles story already had become a national curiosity, so when Marc Brown made two free throws with three seconds left to topple Stanford 80-78, the little Loudonville college of 2,700 students had earned a permanent place among the tournament's fabled underdog success …
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