Saints’ Carpenter saw plenty to build upon
Semester of practicing with the team gives guard leg up on most freshmen
Aidan Carpenter says he can play point guard through small forward for the Saints, and hopes his extra time has him ready for the season.
Siena men’s basketball guard Aidan Carpenter is a freshman. On the other hand, he really isn’t.
He enjoys an advantage most freshmen do not. Carpenter practiced with the Saints for a semester after enrolling last January. He arrived early from Lee Academy, a prep school in Maine, to benefit from working out with a college program.
Though NCAA rules prevented him from playing in games last season, Carpenter said his experi
ence in the practice gym should help him contribute right away when the Saints open this season, probably on Nov. 25. Siena begins full team practice on Monday.
“I feel very confident,” Carpenter said. “When I came in last year, I’d come into practice a little, not timid, but there was a lot of offense, defense to really get down. I feel like by when the season starts, I’m going to be more than ready.”
Though gyms were closed during the pandemic this summer, Carpenter went to the park every day near his home in Hamden, Conn., to improve his shooting and ballhandling. Then he drove to Rhode Island to spend three weeks with his AAU coach, Nick Light, who worked him out.
Siena junior point guard Jalen Pickett sees the results.
“Aidan’s phenomenal,” Pickett said.
Carpenter, who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 185 pounds, said he can play any position from point guard, backing up Pickett, to small forward. Though he acknowledged the Saints are “very guard-heavy,” there should be minutes available, especially after the transfer of Don Carey to Georgetown.
Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello said the half-year of practice should help Carpenter, but he’s still got much to learn.
Carpenter worked with the scout team running the opponent’s plays in practice last season.
“I think it’s helped him, obviously, just to get ingrained into a college, right,” Maciariello said. “Prep school is a little different than college and there’s probably more distractions than college. For that being said, he still has to learn plays and concepts because last year, he was the other team’s best player. So he may know Marist and Quinnipiac’s sets better than our sets at that time. He’s still got to get an understanding, but he’s doing a great job of picking it up.”
He’s following the path of former Siena point guard Roman Penn, who joined the
Saints from prep school in the middle of the 2016-17 season. He went on to have a strong first season at Siena, which had an otherwise awful year in 2017-18. Penn has since transferred to Drake.
On the other hand, Carpenter is playing for a team that won 20 games and a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regularseason title last season. In prep school, he averaged 24 points per game as a “quick, shifty, scoring guard,” in his words.
“I am just happy to have a season and be able to play this season,” Carpenter said. “I haven’t played a game since I was at Lee Academy, so I’m very excited.”