New and Improved Saints
Things are a little different at Siena than they were last year – and that’s for the better, which seemed hard to imagine around September.
The Saints are fresh off a season where they lost a school-record 24 games. They looked to be headed for another rough season with the transfer of second-leading scorer Jack McClinton to Miami and the loss of All-MAAC forward Michael Haddix to a torn Achilles tendon during the summer. That left them with a very small and thin team returning after last season’s struggles, so it isn’t surprising that the Saints were picked last in the MAAC preseason poll.
But thus far, the Saints have bucked pretty much every preseason projection. With Wednesday’s 75-67 win over Youngstown, they close the calendar year with a 5-4 record. They won four games in a row earlier in the season and are 1-1 in early conference games, showing that this team is clearly making strides already.
That’s nothing new for new head coach Fran McCaffery, who engineered a turnaround at UNC-Greensboro before taking over at Siena in April. McCaffery first made UNC-Greensboro a winning team, as they improved to 15-13 in his first year, then he took them to the NCAA Tournament one year later. A year later, they won 20 games for the first time since they joined the Southern Conference, and received an NIT bid. Right now, a similar turnaround could be starting at his new job if the early returns are any indication.
“I think most sophisticated basketball people will see that we’re not deep and we’re not big, but that’s no excuse for not executing and not playing hard,” said McCaffery.
The Saints have certainly done that thus far, playing the game at a fast speed to accommodate their personnel. They are also a scrappy bunch and can out-hustle teams, and this year’s team is clearly playing like one on a mission. Still, the personnel isn’t exactly that of a team one would expect to be where they are – just one senior and a seven-man rotation with mostly small players. What’s different about this year’s team that the results look the way they do?
“It’s a whole different coaching style, a whole different type of team,” said sophomore guard Kojo Mensah, who has benefited from this change as much as any of the Saints. “We’re a smaller team this year, and we’re a much faster team, so we’re able to get up and down.”
Mensah has been the Saints’ leader this season, using his quickness and athleticism to get to the basket seemingly at will. He leads the team in scoring with 18.4 points per game and hands out nearly five assists from the point guard spot. Mensah considered transferring after a freshman season that was cut short by a stress fracture in his left leg, but felt comfortable when he met with McCaffery and decided to stay around. It looks like it’s paid off thus far for both him and the team.
“I told him I was going to give him the ball, and let him create and let him be the player that he can be,” said McCaffery. “You can’t put handcuffs on Kojo Mensah – you’ve got to let him play, he’s going to put up numbers for you and he’s going to fight for you. I trust him with the ball, I trust his decision-making, and he’s one of the best players in our league.”
The team leader has been senior Antoine Jordan, who has played just about every position thus far. He’s second on the team in scoring and leads in rebounding, and as one of the team’s taller players – at all of 6’4″ – they will need the rebounding to continue. More important than his stats has been his leadership for the younger players, who have followed him. One of the younger players of note is freshman guard Kenny Hasbrouck, who had a career-high 23 points against Youngstown. Hasbrouck was McCaffery’s first recruit, and he’s a good one, as he can play some of both guard spots and is a solid offensive player.
McCaffery said that managing the confidence of this team hasn’t been a major challenge, which isn’t always the case with a young team. They have been able to come back from losses, and the four-game winning streak certainly helped along the way and especially the win over cross-town rival Albany, the preseason favorite in a down America East. His players have done what he’s wanted them to, and they are seeing the results thus far.
Those results may continue to come, even though they have little margin for error with their thin lineup and small team, and it’s because of the conference they play in. It’s not that the MAAC is bad, but to say that it’s a guard-dominated conference would be putting it mildly. That suits the Saints well, since they can match up with most teams in the conference and they aren’t likely to be overpowered by a bigger team. They will also get back Al Fisher, an athletic guard who will give them another offensive boost, after he missed the first semester due to academics.
Even if they don’t win many more games this season, the Saints are certainly in a better position than they were a year ago. McCaffery has changed the scene, and the results are not only there on the court, they are showing up in recruiting. In the fall, they signed three players, among them a steal in 6’6″ scoring forward Edwin Ubiles, who was courted by some high-major programs and played AAU ball for the Albany City Rocks. They will also add frontcourt size and depth with 6’6″ forward Alex Franklin and 6’10” center James Carr.
The first year with a new head coach is often a transition year where expectations are lowered. The Saints are surpassing many of those expectations, and may be back to contender status sooner than first expected.
