Coach draws Fordham interest
Siena also working on a contract extension for successful Maciariello
Siena College worked on Thursday to try to sign head men’s basketball coach Carmen Maciariello to a contract extension, even as Maciariello reportedly emerged as a finalist for the coaching vacancy at Fordham of the Atlantic 10.
Maciariello, who has led the Saints to back-to-back Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season titles in his first two seasons, was among a group of Fordham candidates that also includes Yale head coach James
Jones, Bryant head coach Jared
Grasso and Villanova assistant
Kyle Neptune, according to Stadium college basketball analyst Jeff Goodman.
A source close to the situation confirmed Maciariello has been contacted by Fordham. The source also said Maciariello and Siena are in negotiations for a contract extension that would include a pay raise. Siena hoped to wrap up a deal as soon as Friday, but nothing was settled.
“That (an extension offer) was going to happen, anyway,” the source said. “That’s not happening because of the Fordham job. That’s happening because of the job that Carm has done.”
Later in the day, the New York Post reported Maciariello isn’t among the four candidates who are Fordham’s main focus: Jones, Grasso, Neptune and Saint Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway. The Post said Maciariello was in the final round of interviews. Fordham hopes to
have a coach in place by early next week.
Maciariello, a Siena graduate and Clifton Park native, and Siena athletic director John D’argenio didn’t immediately return text messages.
Maciariello, who is in the second year of a four-year contract, said last week he thought his advisor, Brad Konerman, was discussing a contract extension with Siena.
“I believe so,” Maciariello said. “I kind of let my agent handle all that. I try not to get involved. I got a nice email from John and (school president) Chris Gibson about how happy they are with how our players conducted themselves and how we dealt with all the adversity of the quarantines and pauses. It’s exciting. We’re just doing it day by day, right? You’ve got to make sure everyone’s on the same page. We’ll worry about that stuff when that stuff crosses my plate, but I don’t deal with any of that.”
Top-seeded Siena’s season ended with a loss to Iona in the MAAC quarterfinals on March 10. A year ago, Siena reached the MAAC semifinals as the No. 1 seed before the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Fordham is looking for a head coach after Jeff Neubauer left the program in January. He was replaced on an interim basis by Mike Depaoli, a Saint Rose graduate.
Fordham has been a very difficult place to win in the highly competitive A-10. The Rams have had only two winning seasons since making the jump from the Patriot League following the 1994-95 season.
However, Fordham could be in a position to pay Maciariello considerably more than he is making at Siena. The average A-10 coach makes roughly $1 million per year, according to the New York Post. Neubauer had a base salary of $563,520 in 2018-19, the season most recently available in Fordham’s Form 990 tax documents.
Maciariello’s base salary is not available, but his predecessor Jamion Christian had a base salary of $224,990 in 2018-19, according to Siena’s tax records.
Maciariello was promoted to head coach in 2019 to replace Christian, who left after one season to become head coach at George Washington, also an A-10 school. Jimmy Patsos resigned in 2018 with a settlement after accusations of misconduct. Siena later had to forfeit victories for NCAA violations under Patsos’ watch.