Now, eight weeks later, the Fairfield Stags (5-3) look up from fourth place while the Iona Gaels, which blew an 18-point lead at Siena last weekend, cling to their share of the conference lead. At 7-2, Iona is in a three-way tug-of-war for first place with Loyola Maryland and Manhattan, both of whom visit the Koessler Athletic Center this weekend.

Griffs, meet 1C and 1D.

A meeting with the unlikely league-leaders (Loyola was a distant third in the MAAC’s preseason poll; Manhattan was eighth) is the last thing Canisius needs. The team is sliding worse than a freshman driver in a snowstorm and shows no signs of regaining control.

One year removed from celebrating its first season in a decade without a losing record, Canisius is now 11 games below .500 before the end of January and needs to win out the remainder of its schedule to break even in-conference.

The Griffs (4-15, 1-9 MAAC) were thoroughly embarrassed on their home court last Thursday by the Purple Eagles, whose lineup of freshmen and sophomores showed the sellout crowd of 2,196 what a group of promising recruits looks like.

Gaby Belardo started the game red hot. It looked like it could be the beginning of one of those Canisius-Niagara rivalry performances where one player takes his game to another level and steals the show. Three minutes and 13 seconds in, he already had 10 points and the Griffs led 12-4.

Then they forgot to play the rest of the half.

Marvin Jordan came off the bench for Niagara and turned the tide with 12 straight points – four consecutive 3-pointers – during a 12-minute stretch of basketball when Niagara tripled Canisius, 33-11.

The Griffs made things interesting in the second half, as they tend to, cutting it to a two-possession game at 58-53 with 5:45 to go. But after spending themselves to close the gap, Canisius – whose bench played only 18 minutes and was outscored by Niagara’s, 25-0 – ran out of gas.

Alshwan Hymes, usually stoic, was visibly upset on the court and spoke at length about one of his team’s overarching problems in the press conference.

“I think that’s something that shows up in a lot of our games: We get down early by a lot of points and we end up coming back, getting it to single digits, and then it comes down to a string of plays [where] we just can’t convert on the offensive end and can’t get stops on the defensive end and it goes right back,” he said. “By that time it’s too late. Those strings where we get the score down to single digits and we start coming back, people can see how good of a team we can be. Once we can put 40 minutes of that together, we’ll be at the top of this league.”

Parrotta said that his team has “some holes to fill, obviously” and “until we figure out ways to score points from the guys who need to score points, we’re going to find ourselves in this type of position.”

He may not have expected that position to come again so soon, just three days later when the Griffs traveled to Rider.

Canisius was held scoreless for the first five minutes while Rider built a 10-0 lead. A 3-pointer from Belardo with 7:44 left in the first half brought the Blue and Gold back within one possession at 19-16, but the Broncs then ripped off a 15-0 run that the Griffs would never recover from.

Canisius was nearly doubled at halftime, 43-22, and the 21-point deficit matched its largest at the break this season. The Broncs literally were twice as good as Canisius in the first half, making double the amount of field goals (12 to six) and missing only half as many (13 to 26).

A 12-0 run in the second half put Rider up 30 points, 79-49, before it coasted to a 24-point win. Harold Washington hit 9 of 15 shots to finish with 22 points and five assists while Belardo hit 7 of 15 for 19 points. Hymes finished with 10 points but made only two of his 14 3-point attempts.

Rider came into the game ahead of Canisius in the MAAC standings but both teams had had their share of struggles this season, losing 14 games apiece. Yet, even on a three-game losing streak, it was Tommy Dempsey’s squad that came out ready to play and improved to 4-5 in the MAAC and 7-14 overall.

How far have the Griffs fallen? The Relative Performance Index (RPI), one of the few measures that effectively compares all of the country’s 344 Division I teams against each other, ranks Canisius 329^th overall – 15^th last. The teams Canisius beat this year are no great shakes, either: First was Longwood (6-13, RPI 301), then South Dakota (4-12, 279), then Binghmaton (0-20, 343) and finally Marist (7-12, 278). It’s not even that the Griffs have played tough competition – their strength of schedule ranks 327^th.

Think of the RPI in another way: Imagine that each team in the country represents one mile (the distance from the KAC to Lyons Hall and back). If the Griffs stood on their court, the nation’s Number One team in the RPI (Syracuse) would have its feet planted in the Atlantic Ocean near Atlantic City, N.J., while the worst-ranked team in the country (UC Davis) would be so close that it wouldn’t even reach Niagara’s campus.

The Rider Broncs dominated Canisius start to finish in Lawrenceville, N.J., pushing their lead to as many as 30 in the second half before downing the Griffs 89-65. The loss dropped Tom Parrotta’s team to 1-9 in MAAC play and 4-15 overall, matching their loss total from all of last season.

Brandon Penn had 25 points and Novar Gadson had 22 as the Broncs knocked down half of their field goals (29 for 58) while holding Canisius to 34.9 percent from the floor and 29.4 percent from behind the arc.

The Griffs were held scoreless for the first five minutes while Rider built a 10-0 lead. A 3-pointer from Gaby Belardo with 7:44 left in the first half brought Canisius back within one possession at 19-16, but the Broncs then ripped off a 15-0 run that the Griffs would never recover from.

Canisius was nearly doubled at halftime, 43-22, and the 21-point deficit matched its largest at the break this season. The Broncs literally were twice as good as Canisius in the first half, making double the amount of field goals (12 to six) and missing only half as many (13 to 26).

A 12-0 run in the second half put Rider up 30 points, 79-49, before it coasted to a 24-point win. Harold Washington hit 9 of 15 shots to finish with 22 points and five assists while Gaby Belardo hit 7 of 15 for 19 points. Alshwan Hymes finished with 10 points but made only two of his 14 3-point attempts.

The Broncs came into the game ahead of Canisius in the MAAC standings but both teams had had their share of struggles this season, losing 14 games apiece. Yet, even on a three-game losing streak, it was Tommy Dempsey’s squad that came out ready to play and improved to 4-5 in the MAAC and 7-14 overall. Tom Parrotta’s Griffs fell 11 games below .500 (4-15) and need to win out to match their conference record from last season (9-9).

Those of us without teams left to root for are hoping San Francisco and Baltimore win to set up a meeting of their coaches — brothers Jim and John Harbaugh — in the Super Bowl.

I’m not so sure that’s going to happen. Home teams are cruising in this year’s playoffs (7-1) while Baltimore has struggled on the road this season (4-4), with losses to San Diego, Seattle, Jacksonville and Tennessee.

The Ravens’ only two touchdowns last week came off turnovers when Joe Flacco had great field position: an interception that started Baltimore 34 yards out and a fumbled punt that put Flacco on the Houston 2-yard line. Playing the Patriots in New England is a much more daunting task than playing against T.J. Yates at home.

New York-San Francisco should be a closer game. Alex Smith, least elite of all remaining quarterbacks, is coming off a game in which he rallied his team twice in the fourth quarter to take down the Drew Brees and the mighty Saints.

The Giants, meanwhile, are rolling. Eli Manning and his receiving corps needed a Week 17 win over Dallas to get into the playoffs but are peaking at the right time, similar to the Giants’ last Super Bowl run. I’m sure Eli wouldn’t mind using Peyton’s off-year to pass his older brother in the ring category.

Baltimore at New England (-7)
Patriots

Giants at San Francisco (-3)
Giants

Playoff picks: 5-3

Gaby Belardo had the hot hand early on.

Out-played. Out-hustled. Out-teamworked. Out-coached.

Tom Parrotta and the Canisius basketball team were out-everythinged Thursday night in an embarrassing 75-56 loss on their home court to none other than rival Niagara, dropping Parrotta to 3-8 all-time versus the Purple Eagles.

Antoine Mason scored 22 points and Juan’ya Green captained the floor with 11 assists as Niagara’s young guns showed a sellout crowd of 2,196 Blue and Gold basketball fans what a promising group of recruits looks like.

Canisius led early but limped to the finish line.

“Gaby [Belardo] came out and started on fire, then we kind of leveled off and then we just labored,” Parrotta said. “We labored to score. We’re trying to have our defense keep us in games but until we figure out ways to score points from the guys who need to score points, we’re going to find ourselves in this type of position.

“We have some holes to fill, obviously.”

Canisius junior guard Gaby Belardo started the game emotionally charged, dedicating his performance to his late grandfather, who passed away earlier this week. Belardo opened the scoring with a layup and followed it with a 3-pointer that was deep from NBA standards.

He assisted Chris Manhertz’s jumper on the next possession and then came back with another bucket from 3-point range. After a Niagara timeout, he cut through the lane and put up an acrobatic reverse layup, which circled the rim and fell in.

It looked like this could be the start of one of those Canisius-Niagara rivalry performances where one player takes his game to another level and steals the show. Three minutes and 13 seconds into the game, Belardo already 10 points and the Griffs led 12-4.

Then they forgot to play the rest of the half.

Marvin Jordan came off the bench for Niagara and turned the tide with 12 straight points – four consecutive 3-pointers – during a 12-minute stretch of basketball when Niagara tripled Canisius, 33-11.

A small burst at the end of the half brought the Griffs back within 10 at the break, 37-27, but catch-up is not a good game for a team to play when it came into the contest 0-10 this year when trailing at the break or for a coach who came in 6-52 in his career when losing at halftime of conference games.

Canisius made things interesting in the second half, as it tends to, cutting it to a two-possession game at 58-53 with 5:45 to go. But after spending themselves to close the gap, the Griffs – whose bench played only 18 minutes and was outscored by Niagara’s, 25-0 – ran out of gas.

Junior guard Alshwan Hymes led Canisius on offense with 20 points and could be found instructing younger players during breaks in the action. He usually remains stoic at press conferences, but Thursday night he spoke out at length about one of his team’s overarching problems.

“I think that’s something that shows up in a lot of our games: We get down early by a lot of points and we end up coming back, getting it to single digits, and then it comes down to a string of plays [where] we just can’t convert on the offensive end and can’t get stops on the defensive end and it goes right back,” he said. “By that time it’s too late. Those strings where we get the score down to single digits and we start coming back, people can see how good of a team we can be. Once we can put 40 minutes of that together, we’ll be at the top of this league.”

The Griffs don’t even have the inexperience excuse to use after this game. They got beat by a group of underclassmen. Niagara started one junior, one sophomore and three freshmen. Jordan, a sophomore, came off the bench for his big night. Seniors played only three minutes in the entire game, with Canisius’ Marial Dhal logging all 180 seconds. The Griffs’ first-year players, including transfers, were 3-for-19 from the field for 10 points. Niagara’s freshmen went 18-of-38 for 48.

Parrotta is now 3-8 in his career vs. Niagara.

Junior transfer Harold Washington, the Griffs’ leading scorer who was recruited by Mihalich long before he heard of Canisius College, had another night to forget. He was shut out for the first three-quarters of the game and finished with six points on 2-of-10 shooting. Outside of Hymes, Manhertz had the only other respectable night for Canisius, finishing with a double-double of 13 points and 15 rebounds, including nine of the offensive end.

Belardo started the game red hot, going 4-for-4 for 10 points in the first 200 seconds of the game, but went 0-for-12 with three free throws in the 2,220 seconds that followed.

“This game was probably one of the most important games of my life,” Belardo said. “It was really emotional and it was really important to me. I really wanted to get this win but unfortunately it didn’t go that way.”

Belardo closed by saying that his Griffs will return the favor on Niagara’s home court later in the year. They’ll have their work cut out for them – the teams meet again in the Gallagher Center in 26 days, a building Canisius hasn’t won in since 2002.

…

Bench production has been a struggle for Canisius all season, but the climb got even steeper Thursday when redshirt sophomore Reggie Groves was unable to play. He has been limited all season long by an arthritic knee that has been through three surgeries, but Parrotta said after the game Groves tweaked it further in the week leading up to the game.

Groves switched between a hard brace and a soft brace earlier in the season but settled on the soft brace for comfort. He participated in warm-ups Thursday but Parrotta used freshman Franklin Milian in his place.

The Sabres-Blackhawks game Wednesday night was on NBC Sports (formerly Versus), not MSG. For Time Warner customers, that meant they were able to watch their team play, though they may have been better off investing their time elsewhere.

But my television is hooked up with Verizon and I’ve watched almost every game since I broke my leg six weeks ago. Buffalo has looked mostly awful since then, but I’ve found one bright spot in the Sabres organization that I can consistently count on for a good game.

Great shot from the NHL. At least Shaone Morrisonn was good at being tall.

His name is Rob Ray.

Buffalo fans are spoiled with Rick Jeanneret. Sure, we’re homers for our play-by-play man, but RJ really does call one of — if not the — best hockey games in the world. Flip on NHL Network sometime and listen to the calls on the other games. No contest.

But RJ’s brilliance is nothing new to us. He’s milk in the fridge, toilet paper on the roll. You turn on the game and expect him to be there, performing at his usual 110 percent. (Take notes, Ryan Miller.) I’m going to forget for a second that he’s cutting back his workload every year in preparation for retirement. We can only take so many losses at once.

But if Jeanneret is your milk that should always just be there, Rob Ray becoming one of the better guys between the benches is like opening the freezer to find Panda Paws ice cream — a beautiful, yet unexpected surprise that you are even more excited about because you weren’t planning on the treat.

Jim Lorentz left the dynamic duo before the 2007 season and left us with Harry Neale, who often finds a way to aggravate Sabres fans with obscure comments and guesses of how far out players shot from. I’ve stuck up for Harry in years past but the randomness of things he says is making me mad this year.

If you were grouping broadcasters by ability, Mike Emrick would be in the same class as Jeanneret. “Doc” is a legend and he’s the go-to guy for the Stanley Cup Finals. Even if you’re partial to RJ, Emrick is the reason you don’t pull your hair out before NBC games.

However, getting NBC games also means you’re stuck with Pierre McGuire, the sideline analyst who could challenge Bill Simmons for the title of Person On Earth Most Confident He Knows Everything Better Than You. He single-handedly makes games hard to watch (or at least listen to), almost as if he’s trying to undo the magic Emrick just spun the rest of the broadcast.

Spending Wednesday night with Pierre confirmed something for me that I’ve been thinking a lot this season: Rob Ray is getting really good as the sideline guy.

Having a reporter inside the glass (never really thought of Ray as a “reporter” until just now) is relatively new to hockey broadcasts. Basketball and football have used sideline reporters for longer, but they are free to move about the field collecting all types of information. It’s not the same when you’re closed inside of a box, with the only door leading to a large sheet of ice.

There’s no real standard of good or bad for inside-the-glass guys other than basic journalism principles — accuracy, accuracy, accuracy — but above all else, the sideline reporter should add something to the broadcast.

Pierre McGuire even knows better than you about what type of hair gel to use.

And not just because they have a better seat, either. Anyone with that seat would be able to see things that might be hard to see from the press box — that would only make the sideline reporter average at best. He should be able to offer both analysis and perspective on the game. He should also be entertaining.

Ray is impressing me this season with all of the above. He’ll tell you when someone was out of position and he’ll tell you when someone made a nice play that might not have been seen during the flow of the game. He’ll tackle a serious issue like concussions and then crack a joke all in a few minutes of game time. I don’t have any inside information to tell you if he’s been working super hard at getting better at this or if he’s just going with the flow, but whatever he’s doing, it’s working.

Some people had (have?) this impression that because Ray was a fighter, he doesn’t know anything about cerebral hockey. That just isn’t true. We all know he didn’t score much, but the guy played 900 NHL games. You could be the biggest tough guy in the world, but if you’re going to hurt your team defensively, no coach is going to let you near the ice. One of the first things serious hockey players learn — and third- and fourth-liners master — is how to be accountable in your own end. If Ray says a guy blew his coverage, I believe him.

One thing that drives people insane about Pierre McGuire is that he just never shuts up. Rob Ray seems to understand his place in the broadcast — a skill more valuable than you might think. He talks when he has something to say or when spoken to and certainly never cuts off Jeanneret unless it’s urgent. Pierre feels the need to comment on every single happening during the game, and it really gets annoying. Does he feel he has been wronged in some way, that he should be the one in the booth doing the play-by-play?

At times, McGuire is almost rude in the way he cuts in. He’s like the kid in the front of class who has to say something about everything and drives the teacher insane to the point where he breaks down a month before the exam and screams at the kid to not talk again the rest of the year. Emrick is a professional and wouldn’t say anything on the air, but it has to drive him nuts.

What makes Ray special is that he is going above and beyond as a commentator. It’s incredible how much his humor does for the broadcast, yet he doesn’t go out of his way to make jokes or do funny things. Nothing he says is going to make you laugh hysterically like a stand up from [insert your favorite comic here] — it’s all situational, one-time only humor — but it works.

Jeanneret, Neale and Ray had an exchange last month that I thought really put it into perspective (I checked, it was during the Ottawa game on Dec. 13). The refs were reviewing a goal and decided that, actually, it wasn’t.

RJ gave you the details first: “The washout sign means no goal!”

Then Harry came in with something a little off, but sort-of relating to the topic, letting us know that it could have also meant the runner was safe.

Then, without missing a beat, Ray comes in from the box at ice level with a classic: “Or my wife saying there’s no dinner.”

There was nothing analytical about it, and looking back, it’s kind of silly, but at the moment it was a perfectly unexpected joke that brought life into the broadcast and into our homes.

Ryan Miller says the team doesn’t need to make any trades and Terry Pegula says he doesn’t think the club needs a shakeup, but the farther the team gets from playoff contention, there will always be one move the Sabres can make that they will reap the benefits of for years to come: signing Rob Ray to a long-term deal.

Watching the #Sabres. Broadcast in a microcosm: RJ: The washout sign means no goal! Harry: Or safe. Ray: Or my wife saying there's no dinner—
Nick Veronica (@NickVeronica) December 14, 2011

Canisius trailed Saint Peter’s by 15 points with five minutes to play, just like the teams’ previous meeting ten days ago, but there were no heroics to bail out the Griffs Sunday afternoon on their home court.

Harold Washington said he needs more repetitions in the gym to get his scoring touch back.

Harold Washington did finish with 19 points but couldn’t duplicate the one-man comeback he led in Jersey City, N.J., scoring 13 points in 90 seconds to give the Griffs a chance to send the game to overtime at the buzzer.

Instead, Canisius got down and couldn’t recover, falling to the Peacocks 74-60 and dropping to 1-6 in conference play.

“I thought it was a tale of two games over the weekend,” Canisius coach Tom Parrotta said in light of his team’s victory over Marist on Friday. “I thought we took two steps in a positive direction Friday night and we took two back today, unfortunately.

“We were able to get a little bit of a lead, then we came out and they just … started making shots,” Parrotta said. “A lot of it was our defense, or lack thereof.”

The Griffs closed out the first half with a 12-0 run and went into the locker room up 31-25 but weren’t ready for what Saint Peter’s would throw at them in the second half.

A barrage of spot-on 3-pointers from Chris Prescott and Lamin Fulton gave the Peacocks the lead back just three minutes into the second half and were part of a 24-4 run that would put Saint Peter’s ahead comfortably for the rest of the game.

“I think [the game] was won in those first five minutes,” Saint Peter’s coach John Dunne said. “We were feeling really good after that. That’s what Chris Prescott and Lamin Fulton are capable of.”

Canisius started slow but went into halftime shooting 50 percent from the field (10-20) and 3-point range (2-4). The second half was another story: The Griffs made just seven of 30 field goals and finished the afternoon shooting 34 percent, 17 for 50.

Saint Peter’s was the opposite. After hitting just nine of 27 field goals in the first half, the Peacocks came out red hot in the second half, scoring on nine of their first ten possessions – and six of the nine scores were 3-pointers.

Washington had a tough day shooting – an ugly 3 of 18 from the field – but hurt the Peacocks from the free-throw line. Canisius couldn’t get to the line until the final seconds of the game Friday night against Marist but was able to create 31 free throw opportunities Sunday, with Washington hitting 12 of his 16 chances.

His shooting percentage has taken a hit since the New Year and Christmas break, and Washington says he needs more practice to get back on track.

“A lot of it is probably just me needing to get back into the gym,” Washington said. “That’s what it feels like. I’m getting open looks in space but I’m just not dropping them right now.”

Parrotta and the Griffs have four days to regroup before their matchup with rival Niagara Thursday night at the KAC, which is part of a double-header with the women’s teams. Niagara freshman Juan’ya Green, the MAAC’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per game, leads his team into the game on a two-game winning streak – which includes a 85-73 Purple Eagle victory over Saint Peter’s Friday night.