Saints fill 2 roster spots
Northwestern’s Gaines and Cal Poly’s Rogers sign on to join Maciariello, Siena
Former Northwestern guard Anthony Gaines goes way back with Siena men’s basketball coach Carmen Maciariello.
Former Cal Poly guard Colby Rogers doesn’t have as much history with Maciariello, though he did help beat the Saints in a game a couple of years ago.
Maciariello got commitments from Gaines and Rogers on Wednesday, bringing in a pair of transfers who will try to keep the Saints at the top of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Gaines and Rogers, who entered the NCAA transfer portal, announced about an hour apart on Twitter they are coming to Loudonville.
Gaines pointed out Maciariello recruited him out of high school when Maciariello was a George Washington assistant.
“I just thought it was the best fit for me, my career moving forward,” Gaines said. “Carm is a coach who has been with me since Day 1. He was the first one to recruit me, one of the first people to offer me with the George Washington program, so heading into the portal, he was one of those familiar faces and my trust in him, belief in our program and what they have set up for me ultimately made my decision.”
Gaines said he was contacted by mid-majors and Providence and Ohio State, but focused on Siena. He will be eligible immediately as a graduate transfer with two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Gaines, who is 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, is a Kingston native who was a two-time captain for the Wildcats of the Big Ten. He played for the AAU City Rocks, a program for which Maciariello once played and served as coach. Siena offered him a scholarship in 2014, when Jimmy Patsos was still the head
coach.
Rogers, who is 6-5 and 190 pounds, grew up in Covington, Ga., and went to Roselle Catholic in New Jersey as a high school senior because he had family in the area. He averaged 12.2 points per game this season for Cal Poly of the Big West, which went 4-20.
He scored 12 points on 5-for-5 shooting in a 70-66 victory over Siena in California on Dec. 7, 2019.
“Coach Carm mentioned it a little bit,” Rogers said. “He said he was really high on me because he’s seen me live. So that kind of helped my stock in his eyes, which made him that much more confident in me to recruit me heavily.”
Rogers said he was also offered by NJIT and Wagner.
Rogers said he wanted to get closer to home because it was hard being so far away during the pandemic.
“It made everything that much more tougher, along with COVID,” he said. “And I wanted to get somewhere where they have a track record of winning. I want to play in March Madness. I want to win a conference championship and all the personal accolades that I want, it’s hard to get those when you’re not winning.”
Rogers has three years of eligibility left and will also play immediately if the NCAA does as it’s expected and allows all transfers to play without sitting a year.
“(Maciariello) said he thinks I’m a good decision-maker with the ball in my hands, so he wants me playing on the wing and a little bit of combo guard and along with the other transfers, to kind of run a four-guard system,” Rogers said. “He wants to play fast, which is kind of how we played at Cal Poly.”
Siena has two open scholarships left for next season.