Greetings from cold, rainy Albany, where six hours from now, Siena and Niagara will tip off on ESPN2, with fans across the country tuned in and a guaranteed trip to the Big Dance on the line.

If you’re the MAAC, ESPN, or a casual basketball fan somewhere in the country who happened to catch the Saints and Purples Eagles’ BracketBuster wins, this is the matchup you wanted when the tournament began on Friday.

If you’re a Rider fan, you’re mourning today after a gut-wrenching double-overtime loss that would have been a win had it not been for Tyrone Lewis’ miracle 3 off the glass in the final seconds of regulation.

If you’re a Niagara fan, you’re giddy today, knowing that your team gets another shot at Siena and a chance to win its second MAAC title in three years.

If you’re a Siena fan, you’re surely excited that this day has finally come, even if Kenny Hasbrouck will be far from 100 percent if he’s in the lineup.

No matter who you are, it’s tough to disagree with the opening statement from Joe Mihalich’s press conference late, late last night.

“A game for the ages,” Mihalich said. “Two teams going toe to toe. I’m not surprised it was that competitive and that close. But clearly that were a lot of heroes there.”

There were heroes on both sides.

There was Lewis, who, even though he admitted “I didn’t call glass,” hit one of the most memorable shots in MAAC tournament history.

There was Bilal Benn, who played 48 of a possible 50 minutes and had 20 points and 19 rebounds.

There was Benson Egemonye, who had 22 and 11 and showed why he’s the best big man in the MAAC with room to spare.

There was Ryan Thompson, who turned in a performance for the ages in a losing effort, playing all 50 minutes and carrying the Broncs with 27 points and 13 rebounds.

There was Mike Ringgold, who had 20 points, 12 rebounds and – very quietly – a game-high five assists.

There was enough suspense and drama, and there were enough jaw-dropping plays, momentum swings and clutch performances to make it one of the best tournament games in history.

There’s no denying it was the most riveting tournament game in at least five years.

The last time there was a tournament game like it was six years ago to this day, when Luis Flores (30 points) and Manhattan outlasted Juan Mendez (31 points, 16 rebounds) and Niagara in the semifinals at Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton.

“Manhattan got us that time,” Mihalich said, “so we had one coming to us.”

…

Had Harris Mansell fouled Lewis, it’s likely none of this would have happened.

Dempsey acknowledged leading by three points with less than five seconds left was “the perfect situation” to foul, and Mihalich said the situation would have been “really desperate” if Lewis had gone to the line needing to make the first free throw and intentionally miss the second.

But Mansell appeared to miss Lewis, and the first-team all-MAACer, who had been 2-for-18 from the floor, had his prayer answered when the ball bounced off the glass and in.

“If he fouls on the catch, it’s really desperate, because you have to make the first foul shot, then miss the second one on purpose and get a rebound,” Mihalich said. “So Bilal, because he has such a good basketball IQ said it in the huddle: they’re going to take a foul, so the idea was to run something where we could get a shot off right away before they had a chance to take a foul. In the huddle we said when you catch the ball, be in shooting motion because they’re going to take the foul.”

“In that situation, I think if there’s under five seconds left I’ll consider it,” Dempsey said of fouling. “I figured once he caught it, some time had to elapse and it would probably be under four. I thought that was probably the perfect scenario to foul. That’s something that’s always debated, but I thought that was really the perfect situation to foul. Both Harris and Justin (Robinson) took a swipe at him, I guess we didn’t foul him, but I know they both tried to, and he got the shot off.”

…

Thanks to Soup for pointing this out on the live chat last night: Jay Bilas, usually part of the crew that does the MAAC title game, won’t be here tonight. But Sean McDonough will still have the play by play, with Bill Raftery doing color.

McDonough, once the youngest TV broadcaster to do play-by-play for the World Series, was in town last night and sat with Fran McCaffery watching the Rider-Niagara game. Raftery arrived today.

Should be a great broadcast.

Hopefully it’ll be a great game, too.