A 3-pronged plan for every game
Each assistant has hand in assembling scouting reports
Uncasville, Conn. The Siena men’s basketball team practiced on Saturday afternoon at a tribal community center on a hill with a scenic view overlooking the Thames River to the east and the Mohegan Sun Casino to the north.
The Saints (2-1) will head back to Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday morning to face Holy Cross (2-2) in the championship game of the Springfield bracket of the Air Force Reserve Tipoff Tournament.
First, they went over the scouting report on Holy Cross during a workout that lasted about 11/2 hours on Saturday. Except Siena’s method is different than the way most college basketball teams go about it.
Usually, one assistant is assigned to assemble a game plan to defeat the next opponent. The responsibility is rotated among the assistants on a game-by-game basis.
But new Siena head coach Jamion Christian leans on all three of his assistants to prepare every scouting report. Graham Bousley is the offensive coordinator, Carmen Maciariello is the defensive coordinator and Ryan Devlin coordinates the press and special situations, such as out-of-bounds plays.
All three and Christian went over Holy Cross’ tendencies with the players during Saturday’s practice.
“Not many do it that way,’’ Christian said. “Everything with me is about team effort and trying everything as a unit. I think when you create a system, when you’re able to do that, it’s really, really special.”
Christian, who used the same concept during six years at Mount St. Mary’s, said he was inspired by football programs and their use of coordinators for offense, defense and special teams.
“They’re able to gain such a personality on both ends of the floor because of it,’’ he said. “I’m fascinated with how football coaches do it in football. So when I got a chance to be a head coach, that’s how we’re going to do it. At the beginning, you didn’t really have a blueprint because there’s not many you can talk to do who do it that way.”
Christian said he’s bounced ideas off former Presbyterian football coach Harold Nichols, Penn State wide receivers coach David Corley and Wake Forest defensive assistant Ryan Crawford, who are all his friends.
“I just always felt when you did it (the traditional) way, you didn’t have a great buy-in from the entire staff and so now, every one of our staff members is locked into every game because they’ve got a key component of every game,’’ Christian said.
One drawback to Christian’s scouting system is that it means his assistants aren’t able to go on the road recruiting much during the season because all three are busy with game preparation. Christian said that makes recruiting from April through August that much more important.
“I think our product is better and our relationship with our players is better that way, more than it hurts in recruiting,’’ he said.
Fifth-year senior guard Kadeem Smithen, who began his career at Richmond, noticed the difference.
“It’s interesting how each coach has their own section,’’ he said. “Press, defense, offense, it makes it more diverse, more descriptive so we know exactly what to do in games. We’re more in depth with it now.”
“It really helps us have a better understanding going into the game,’’ senior forward Evan Fisher added.
Sunday’s championship game was set up Friday when Siena beat Norfolk State and Holy Cross knocked off Stony Brook.
This means the Saints and Crusaders will play twice this season. They were already scheduled to play a nonleague game on Dec. 22 in Worcester, Mass.
Because of that, Siena is already familiar with Holy Cross. Christian had his assistants prepare an advance scouting report in August on all the nonconference opponents.
“We look at the stuff they did a year ago and try to build our season gameplan off what we’re going to see in the early season,’’ Christian said.
Siena beat Holy Cross 71-65 at Times Union Center last season.
Holy Cross, coached by Union grad Bill Carmody, is led by 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Austin Butler (13.8 ppg) and 6-6 sophomore guard/forward Jacob Grandison (13.5 ppg).
msingelais@timesunion. com 518-454-5509 @ Marksingelais