Maciariello faces fresh challenges in year two
What will head coach do for encore after 20 wins in first season at helm?
Carmen Maciariello’s first year as a college head coach was a rousing success by just about any measure.
The Clifton Park native led Siena, his alma mater, to its first Metro
Atlantic Athletic Conference regularseason title in a decade. He won 20 games, including the last 10, before the league tournament was canceled due to coronavirus.
“What makes this place so special is our fans, the passion they have and the expectations,” he said. “You want to work at a place where there are expectations and pressure, for lack of a better word. Pressure is a
privilege. It’s a privilege to be able to play at a program that expects to win, and I think that’s why last year was such a great year.”
Now comes year two, which brings not only pressure, but a continuing pandemic that is making the college basketball season sure to bring uncertainty all winter long.
He and his players have already had to quarantine once for two weeks because of two positive COVID -19 tests, including one belonging to star player Jalen Pickett. Back on the court, Maciariello is steadily getting them ready for the season while still trying to find at least one nonconference game before the MAAC schedule begins at Fairfield on Dec. 11.
That’s only part of the challenge for Maciariello in his second season.
“How are you going to keep your team fresh and what are you going to do to grow their mind?” Maciariello said. “It’s not like you can go see a movie together or go out to dinner as a team. So we’ll be doing fun things, have guys show up for practice and all of a sudden we’re
playing dodgeball or having Nerf gun wars. You’ve got to be creative.”
Siena athletic director John D’argenio said he sees Maciariello handling the challenge with the same preparedness he showed in his debut season. D’argenio promoted Maciariello from assistant with a four-year contract a year ago despite his lack of head-coaching experience.
“I think what surprised me (about Maciariello) is just the overall skill in running the entire program,” D’argenio said. “That’s one thing you really don’t know about somebody who’s never been a head coach … It’s not just about the inner core of the basketball team. It’s about the compliance people knowing, the facilities people knowing and the athletic director knowing. That’s why he’s done a great job throughout the pandemic.”
When the games finally do start, Maciariello will run a team that’s the preseason choice to win the MAAC for the first time since 2009.
Pickett said fans will see Maciariello’s up-tempo, attacking style of play in full gear in his second year.
“Coach Carm is definitely the same,” Pickett
said. “What I’m seeing now is how he really wants to play. Last year, we still had some of (previous coach Jamion) Christian’s recruits, so we weren’t able to play exactly how Carm wanted to play. But now with all the versatility we have, I kind of see what he sees and how he wants to play the game. I love it.”
Maciariello said the biggest lesson he learned from last season is he might not have been demanding enough from the start of the season about how he wanted things done — right down to the small details.
It’s been quite an evolution for Maciariello, who didn’t feel he was a good leader even when he was a junior captain as a player at New Hampshire. Then he transferred to finish his playing career at Siena, the program he’s trying to lead to a second straight title during a bizarre time.
“There’s going to be different challenges, there’s going to be different hurdles, but they ’re going to be able to grow us as a program and a staff,” he said. “I just think you take it day by day.”