Nice start, but coach sees room for growth
Senior Camper agrees improvement needed on both offense, defense
After almost 300 days without a game, the Siena men’s basketball team opened the season with impressive back-toback wins over Monmouth on Sunday and Monday.
For Saints head coach Carmen Maciariello, it’s not an accomplishment as much as a starting point for his team on its journey to a possible Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.
“We’re still growing, right?” Maciariello said after Monday’s game, Siena’s 12th straight win dating to last season. “We’re still growing as a ballclub.”
Despite playing with only eight available scholarship players, Maciariello wanted to see the Saints finish stronger. The Saints prevailed 76-62, though Monmouth had a few threepoint plays in the closing minutes.
“I would still love to be able to close out games and defend and not foul,” Maciariello said. “We did make more free throws (21) than they attempted (18). I thought we settled for some 3s. I might have messed these guys up, telling them we need to play at a slower pace early on. We want to get out and run. I don’t think we’re in enough shape and we have a deep-enough bench yet to do that.”
Siena could have freshmen Aidan Carpenter (muscle injury) and Colin Golson (COVID -19 protocols) available against
Canisius on Friday and Saturday.
Maciariello said his talking points after the game touched on the Saints being able to control their emotions. Late in the game, Siena’s Harrison Curry had an exchange with Monmouth’s Deion Hammond, with each being assessed a technical for their fifth and disqualifying foul.
“We’ve got to do a better job of handling our emotions and moving on to the next play, whether it’s good or bad, and be professional about it,” Maciariello said.
He was also displeased his players got beaten to too many loose balls by Monmouth’s George Papas and others.
He also expected his players to spend time in the pool for recovery and in the gym taking free throws Tuesday. The Saints were 21-of-34 from the foul line on Monday.
“These guys playing back-to-back, that was their first experience,” he said. “Let’s grow through this thing together and use this as a chance to get better, regardless of what happened in the game.”
“We were good enough to get the wins,” Siena senior guard/forward Manny Camper said. “There’s a lot of growing we need to do on the offensive end and the defensive end.”