Saints coach ready to face familiar foe
Robert Morris has much experience vs. Christian’s “Mayhem” style of play
Siena men’s basketball coach Jamion Christian will renew his personal rivalry with Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon.
He’ll just be leading a different team when the Saints (3-6) face the Colonials (4-5) in Moon Township, Pa., just outside of Pittsburgh.
Christian met Robert Morris every year when he was the head coach at Mount St. Mary’s the past six seasons. He was 9-6 against the Colonials, including a victory at Robert Morris in the 2014 Northeast Conference title game, the first of Christian’s two NEC championships.
His final game with Mount
St. Mary’s was ahomelossto Robert Morris in the NEC quarterfinals last season. Siena hired Christian in May to replace Jimmy Patsos.
“We had some great battles when I was at Mount St. Mary’s with Robert Morris,” Christian said. “When I got into the league, they were the premier team in the league going to the NCAA Tournament every year. The Mount and Robert Morris became a big-time rivalry in the league. And so it’ll be good to go back there and play against a familiar opponent.”
Only in a different gym. Robert Morris has torn down Sewall Center to make room for its new arena, UMPC Events Center, which is still under construction. The team’s temporary home is North Athletic Complex on campus, which has a seating capacity of 1,000. “Their new venue looks fantastic from the drawings I’ve seen and I’m disappointed we won’t be playing there,” Christian said.
This is a return game from Siena’s 76-74 win over Robert Morris at Times Union Center last season.
That was one of the Saints’ few high points on their way to an 8-24 season. Christian is still early in his rebuilding efforts, and Siena was badly exposed in an 82-40 drubbing at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night.
It was Siena’s most lopsided loss in almost 11 years since a 102-58 defeat to Memphis on Jan. 3, 2008.
Christian said his players should be able to bounce back, even following their second long bus trip this week.
“That’s all you can ask for, to be early in the year with an opportunity to learn and respond,” Christian said. “That’s a great opportunity for us to see where we are and see how much better we can get. I don’t think we have to pick them up. We’ve got competitors in there and we got beat pretty good, so they’re going to be ready to compete on Saturday.”
“Just work on our flaws,” redshirt freshman guard Jimmy Ratliff added. “Not stress on it much, but learn from it and then take it over to Robert Morris.”
The Saints weren’t able to use their “Mayhem” pressure against St. Bonaventure much, mainly because Siena couldn’t make any shots. Their 40 points tied the fewest in the program’s Division I history.
And while Christian has embraced the players he inherited, the fact remains he still doesn’t have all his own recruits to play his style.
“I don’t think we have our athleticism at the level I want it at just yet, so we have to be a little more selective with (pressing), but they’ve embraced it,” he said.
Unclear is whether Siena will have senior forward Evan Fisher back for the game. He missed the St. Bonaventure game with a lower right leg injury. Christian and a Siena basketball spokesperson didn’t respond to texts asking if Fisher was making the trip.
Robert Morris is coming off a 68-62 loss at Canisius on Wednesday. The Colonials are led in scoring by 6-2 senior guard Josh Williams, who averages 16.9 points per game and shoots 47 percent from 3-point range.
Robert Morris is second in the NEC in field goal percentage defense (.435) and leads the league by forcing 16.4 turnovers per game. On the other hand, the Colonials are second to last in rebounding margin at minus 5.8 per contest.
While Christian knows Robert Morris’ personnel well, he said it cuts both ways against the Colonials and head coach Andrew Toole.
“They know our offense well, so we’re probably going to see some things against them that maybe our guys haven’t seen yet,” Christian said. “We’ve just got to do a great job of being ready for them and just be ready to play tough defensively.”