Siena Saints men's basketball

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Siena Saints
University	Siena College
Conference	MAAC
Location	Albany, New York
Head coach	Fran McCaffery (5th year)
Arena	Times Union Center (Capacity: 14,500)
Nickname	Saints
Colors	gold and green
Uniforms
Home Away
NCAA Tournament second round
1989, 2008, 2009
NCAA Tournament appearances
1989, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2009
Conference tournament champions
1989, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2009
Conference regular season champions
1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2009

The Siena Saints men's basketball team represents Siena College in Loudonville, New York. The Division I program competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Saints are currently coached by Fran McCaffery who is in his fifth year at the Loudonville school. Siena plays all of its home games at the 14,500 all-seater Times Union Center in downtown Albany. Since 1988, the team has appeared in five NCAA Tournaments (1989, 1999, 2002, 2008, and 2009) and five NIT Tournaments (1988, 1991, 1994, 2000, and 2003).

History

Pre-2005

In 1989, Siena star Marc Brown led the school to their greatest triumph an 80-78 victory over third seeded Stanford. The 1993-1994 Saints finished 25-8 making all the way to the NIT final four at Madison Square Garden defeating such teams as Georgia Tech, Tulane, Bradley, and Kansas State. Siena’s Doremus Bennerman capped his brilliant college career with a 51-point outburst against Kansas State, winning most outstanding player honors in the NIT.

Brown (2,284) and Bennerman (2,109) are the only two men to score 2,000 points or more while at Siena.

After coach Mike Deane (166-77 in 8 years at Siena) left to take the head coaching job at Marquette, Siena suffered through a terrible 22-59 three year tenure under Bob Beyer, who was fired. Siena then hired Villanova assistant Paul Hewitt to resurrect the program. Hewitt did so leading the Saints to a 66-27 record during his three years, winning the MAAC tournament championship in 1999 and taking regular season crown in 2000. Hewitt would leave after the 1999-2000 to take over at Georgia Tech.

Louis Orr coached the team for one season (20-11) before leaving for Seton Hall University. Siena then hired Rob Lanier, an assistant under Rick Barnes at University of Texas. In Lanier's first year Siena struggled through a brutal regular season going 12-18. However the team went on to win the MAAC championship on their home floor and become the first team since Bradley in 1955 to win an NCAA Tournament game with a losing record as they defeated Alcorn State 81-77 in the play in game. Siena would gain an NIT berth in 2003, going 21-11 and beating Big East member Providence along the way. They defeated Villanova and Western Michigan in the NIT before being eliminated by Alabama-Birmingham. Lanier's final two years brought much frustration among Siena fans. In 2003-2004, Siena started off 3-0 only to lose their next 10 games and finish the season a disappointing 14-16. Lanier's final year saw an injury-plagued Siena team finish with a program worst 24 losses and he was fired after that season.

McCaffery takes over

2005–2006

Fran McCaffery was hired to April 1, 2005 as the 14th coach in Siena history, the 8th at the division 1 level. McCaffery inherited a team with only a handful of scholarship athletes because several players loyal to coach Lanier transferred to other programs, including Jack McClinton, who went on to earn first team all-ACC honors at the University of Miami.McCaffery made his first recruit Kenny Hasbrouck who scored 1,918 points at Siena starting all of his 128 games as a Saint. He was only the second Siena player to have his jersery retired.

McCaffery guided Siena to a 15-13 record despite being picked to finish last in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Siena had memorable wins over cross-town rival Albany 82-74 in overtime, as well as an 82-76 triumph at eventual MAAC champion Iona. The Saints clinched a first round bye in the MAAC tournament with a thrilling 98-92 double overtime victory over Niagara on senior day. Siena's season ended with a heartbreaking 63-62 loss to St. Peter's in the MAAC quarterfinals.

2006–2007

The Saints started slowly at 11-10 before winning 9 of 10 games to reach the MAAC championship game losing to Niagara 83-79. Siena finished at 20-12, winning 20 or more games for the fifth time in nine seasons. Once again Siena defeated Albany in another instant classic game 76-75 in double overtime. Siena was one of the youngest teams in the conference as five of their top eight players were underclassmen.

Freshman Edwin Ubiles shared the Rookie of the Year award in the MAAC becoming the second player in as many years to win it for the Saints. Kenny Hasbrouck captured the honor in 2005-2006.

2007–2008

On November 17 McCaffery guided Siena to a 79-67 victory over #20 Stanford University in Albany, NY at the Times Union Center. After the game the Stanford fans listened to the Siena crowd chant Overrated and watched as they stormed the court. The win was Siena's first over a ranked opponent since the 1989 NCAA tournament first round also against Stanford. Siena once again defeated Albany 75-71 for their sixth win in seven tries against the Great Danes since the series resumed. Siena dominated their Bracketbuster game against Boise State, another quality mid-major school. The Saints defeated Manhattan, Loyola College (MD), and Rider to win the MAAC Tournament and clinch a bid in the NCAA Tournament.

During Selection Sunday, the Saints received a #13 seed in the Midwest Region of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Saints went on to upset the 4th seeded Vanderbilt Commodores in the first round of the tournament 83-62. The Saints were led by junior Kenny Hasbrouck who scored a team high 30 points. Senior guard Tay Fisher came off the bench to add 19 points on 6-for-6 shooting from 3-point range. The Saints never trailed in the contest and became the first MAAC team to advance since the 2004 tournament.^[1]

In the second round of the tournament, the Saints found themselves facing the #12 seed Villanova Wildcats on March 23, 2008. With 25 points from Scottie Reynolds and 20 points from Corey Stokes, the Wildcats cruised to an 84–72 victory over the Saints and Villanova advanced to the sweet sixteen but lost in the next round.^[2]

Siena was ranked 9th in the final mid-major poll on collegeinsider.com.

2008–2009

Siena finished the 2008–2009 season with a 26–7 regular season record. Quality wins from the Saints came in the opening game of the season against Boise State, who they beat by 30, an 18 point victory against Cornell (Ivy League Conference Champions and a #14 seed in this year's NCAA tournament), and a 6 point victory against Northern Iowa (the Missouri Valley Conference Champions and a #12 seed)after they led 40-19 at the half, in the Bracketbusters game that wasn't as close as the score indictated. Siena finished a perfect 17-0 at Times Union Center and have won 21 straight games at home.

Siena's very tough non-conference schedule included losses to Tennessee (a #9 seed) by 14, Oklahoma State (a #8 seed) by 9, Pittsburgh (#1 seed) by 13, and Kansas (#3 seed) by 7 all the games were close which earned Siena a well deserved #9 seed. The Saints cruised through the MAAC Tournament to receive the automatic bid into the 2009 NCAA Tournament, for the second straight year. Siena was awarded a #9 seed in the Midwest region, where they drew #8 Ohio State in Dayton, Ohio. Siena defeated Ohio State 74–72 in a double overtime thriller with Ronald Moore making two three point shots from the same spots at the buzzers, but lost to #1 seed Louisville 79-72 after leading them into the 7th minuite to end their season at 27-8.

Siena finished #2 in the final mid-major poll behind only national powerhouse Gonzaga.

Siena finished 28th in the final ESPN coaches poll the schools highest ever ranking. Siena also finished with an RPI of 19.

2009–2010

Siena will enter the 2009-2010 with the highest expectations in program history. Many national publications have already put the Saints in their preseason top 25. McCaffery returns a veteran laden team led by seniors Edwin Ubiles, Ronald Moore and Alex Franklin. Also in the starting line-up are juniors Ryan Rossiter and Clarence Jackson. McCaffery welcomes transfer Kyle Griffin into the rotation along with highly regarded freshmen OD Anosike, Davis Martens, Jonathan Breeden and Denzel Yard. Other returnees include Owen Wignot, Kyle Downey and Steven Priestley. Siena will open their season at Tennessee State on Friday, November 13th. The Saints will have non-conference home games against Northeastern, (Nov. 17 on ESPN) Delaware, (Nov. 24) UAlbany, (Dec. 5) St. Joe's, (Dec. 29) and Mount St. Mary's (Jan. 2). Road games include 2009 NCAA tournament participants Temple (Nov. 21) and Northern Iowa (Dec. 12). Siena will also face former coach Paul Hewitt and ACC member Georgia Tech on December 2nd in Atlanta. The Saints will play in the Philly Classic in the historic Palestra against St. John's on November 27th and against Brown the following day. Siena will travel to a Bracketbuster opponent to be determined on Saturday, February 20th.

Season-by-Season Results (Division I only)

• From NCAA.org^[3]

Current roster

References

http://www.collegeinsider.com/mmpoll/ http://sienasaints.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/040709aaa.html http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=294000048 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=294000049 http://blog.timesunion.com/collegesports/siena-cracks-katzs-top-25/4120/ http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11859618 http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9589000/Early-Preseason-Top-25:-Kentucky's-No.-1 http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=973026

External links

• SienaSaints.com