Siena reloads with new supporting cast in search of regular season MAAC three-peat

Carmen Maciariello overcame losses of Manny Camper and Jalen Pickett by finding depth in transfer portal as Siena defends its MAAC regular season championship. (Photo by the Albany Times Union)

The late-season surge of Iona this past March, coupled with the magnetism of head coach Rick Pitino as he has firmly positioned the Gaels to maintain their place at the head of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference table has shifted the majority of college basketball eyes to New Rochelle as the 2021-22 season commences in less than eight weeks.

But while Pitino commands the lion’s share of attention around the MAAC, Siena, the conference's regular season champion of the past two seasons is not resting on its laurels, welcoming a slew of newcomers to the Capital Region with the same goal firmly in place.

“I just see a hungry, motivated group, a bunch of guys who came to Siena for one reason, and that was to play meaningful games and win championships, regardless of what happens with preseason polls,” head coach Carmen Maciariello declared as the Saints begin a defense of an honor they hope to win for a third straight season, matching Fran McCaffery’s teams of 2007-2010. “My first year, we were picked sixth and we won it, last year, we were picked first and we won it. At the end of the day, the preseason polls mean nothing, and we’re kind of excited to continue to work in silence.”

“I thought the best thing, and we were the second-latest team to start, was we had a very resilient group. I didn’t try to run them into the ground, I made sure they were in a good mental space. I was just happy with the guys being able to have that resolve and still come together, and I didn’t have a full roster once, whether it was Aidan Carpenter, Nick Hopkins, Jordan King, Jalen Pickett. For me, it was a learning experience. It didn’t end the way we wanted, but when it’s all said and done, you have to play the cards you’re dealt and I thought our guys did a great job of just being resilient, enjoying playing Siena basketball, and a feather in their cap is they have something in the record books in their legacy. We had 16 straight wins, and they should be proud of that.”

With Pickett and King having transferred, and reigning MAAC Player of the Year Manny Camper taking his talents to the professional landscape, Siena will look largely different on the surface compared to what Saints fans had become acclimated to when Maciariello assumed the reins from Jamion Christian in 2019. But with the transfer portal affording the third-year coach the flexibility to adjust his roster, balance it and also offer immediate impact opportunities, the dropoff in Loudonville will be minimal, if that. In fact, Maciariello is banking on being able to push the tempo more than he did in his first campaign at the helm.

“I’m hoping we can play a little faster,” he said, with inflections of excitement audible in his intonation. “Year one, we led the league in scoring, year two was kind of a different style, we were a little more deliberate. But I want to play fast.”

“We have Aidan Carpenter, Nick Hopkins, Jackson Stormo all back, and they know how we want to play. And when you add to that a guy like Anthony Gaines from Northwestern, who should be a double-double guy for us like Manny was, you look to see who wants to fill those other starting roles. Jackson’s going to be the headliner, and I think he’s got a chance to be one of the best bigs, if not the best, in the league. And all those other guys with the experience they have, I think Nick and Aidan will definitely bring that to the table, knowing how we want to play and how we do things. I’m looking for both of them to have big years. Nick’s a very cerebral player, makes winning plays. He’s just a calming influence out there.”

Siena’s supporting cast has been an integral part of the recent success for one of the MAAC’s flagship programs, as Stormo, Hopkins and Kyle Young all supplemented Pickett, Camper and King the past two seasons. Now, the former trio becomes a unit of leadership for the likes of Gaines, Colby Rogers and Jayce Johnson, with several others also primed to bring new looks and high-level basketball to the Times Union Center floor.

“Those two guys, I personally knew, Colby from when I got the job and Jayce when I was an assistant,” Maciariello said. “You can also talk about Jordan Kellier, who came from Utah, and Mike Tertsea, who came from Gannon. I think all those guys will have a chance to play meaningful minutes. We’re hoping to be able to play nine or ten guys, and I haven’t even spoken about Michael Baer, who has been just awesome with his ability to pick up things and be a sponge. He wants to play, he wants to win. Coming from Iowa, he’s got some great basketball etched in his mind. He was guarding Luka Garza every day, so guarding Jackson isn’t as tough as you would think. I’ve got a great group of guys who are working hard, and great freshmen in Javian McCollum and Jared Billups, so hopefully it’s going to be a little faster pace than we played last year and in my first year.”

“Colby’s a guy who can handle the ball and create his own shot, can score, he wanted to come to winning program. Jayce is a Swiss Army knife, he can play one through four, he was a college-recruited quarterback, he was first committed to Wagner to play football. I mentioned Jordan Kellier, he’s probably a combo forward more than a three, a physical lefty who can make a mid-range jumper and put it on the floor a bit, bully you to the rim. And then Mike Tertsea and Michael Baer will play up front, so I’m really excited about the depth we were able to build through the portal, and also the class difference. Anthony Gaines will probably stay one year having already started working on his Masters at Northwestern. Jayce has two, Jordan has three, Colby has three, so we were able to kind of build it a little bit where we don’t have to worry about guys playing meaningful minutes one year and then bouncing.”

In McCollum and Billups, and also Taihland Owens as he continues to recover from a knee injury that has hampered him during the summer, Maciariello sees opportunities for each to step in and assert themselves as the latest iteration of incoming talent to don the green and gold of Siena while also expanding their respective skill sets.

“I think we’re looking for attitude, energy, effort, appreciation,” he said when asked how he and his staff assesses each prospective recruit. “We’re looking for these guys to be thankful for what they have here at Siena and that gratitude, and they all have it. Javian is a quick guard, can shoot it from anywhere on the floor, and he’s a point guard who can pass it, make great plays, and create his own offense as well. And then Jared Billups is probably our second-best athlete behind Anthony Gaines, and that’s really speaking volumes about him and Anthony. But Jared’s college-ready, probably one of our better defenders already.”

“What you look for in these freshmen is the ability to learn and be coachable, and I think those guys do a great job just listening and understanding what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Maciariello had the opportunity to have the entire team on campus for eight weeks this summer, a time period he heralded for his players and staff being able to build bonds with one another in a relatively short time period, which becomes even more important as mid-major recruiting has turned into a consistently evolving landscape with the transfer portal being used as a vehicle to attract higher-level talent while also poaching players looking to take a bigger jump.

“I think the reality of it is, you’re going to have teams for two years,” he admitted. “I think there’s going to be two-year builds or two-year seasons where you’re trying to build for that second year. But obviously every year at Siena, we want to win, and that’s the goal as well.”

Siena will begin that quest on November 9 at St. Bonaventure, opening a non-conference schedule with the Atlantic 10 favorite Bonnies, one of several attractive opponents also including the likes of Ivy League powers Harvard and Yale, as well as defending Big East tournament champion Georgetown.

“That was the goal,” Maciariello reiterated when discussing how the stakes have been raised in light of Siena’s resurgence. “I wanted to help restore that prestige and that allure of the uniform. We want to play meaningful games and we want to challenge ourselves in everything we do. The fact that we can start a series with Harvard is great, we’re playing a Big East team in Georgetown, next year we’re in the Orlando Invitational and we’re going to Italy. We always want to grow, we always want to challenge ourselves. Every time we play, I want to play a team that’s competing to win their league. It shows we’re going up against the best.”