Is this the dagger that changes Siena Basketball program

[ryan]

Nico bolting hurts no matter what Coach says

[CellarRat]

Can you recall a less talented team in Siena history? I can’t.

[hoopjunkie]

Beyers last year is right there, but it's def lacking any star power.

[Quackman]

Beyers last year had Freeny, Osinski, Faison, Cantamessa and Fields ... the core of Hewitt's teams.

[gorvy]

Espn:

www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22025763/siena-saints-leading-scorer-nico-clareth-decides-transfer

[greenblood]

Well we made it back to ESPN again...first time since the phantom handshake!

[hoopjunkie]

Jan 10, 2018 20:56:31 GMT -5 Quackman said:

Beyers last year had Freeny, Osinski, Faison, Cantamessa and Fields ... the core of Hewitt's teams.

. My bad. His 2nd to last year ('95-'96....5-22). Beyer did bring in a nice freshman class that won 9 games starring those freshman, but also getting him fired.

[hoopsforever]

Here's the announcement I DO NOT want to read on the Siena official website come early March:

"After careful consideration and understanding that Siena had a very young team this year, and then on top of that, they lost their captain and leading scorer midway through the season, we have decided this is certainly not a fault of Coach Patsos, so we are anticipating a much improved team under his leadership during the 2018-2019 school year"

If they make that announcement, they better move back to campus before the TUC kicks Siena out of there! Remember on Saturday Night Live, the line was "How convenient!" - Well, how convenient, the Siena admin has just given another excuse for the 17-18 season to the much beleaguered coach! "How Convenient!" - Thank you, Church Lady!

[bigfan]

I can't disagree with the assessment of the talent as it stands right now, in large part due to youth.

Prince can become a dominant player at this level if he learns how to make free throws. A Prince Oduro who makes FT's at a 66% clip would be borderline dominant already. That may be a pipe dream, however. His FT shooting is just utterly disastrous at this point.

Penn is solid right now, with an occasional flash of near brilliance, but I'm not sure what his ceiling is. He looks like he could be the best 3 point shooting PG in recent history for the Saints (yes, Marquis was sharp late in his career), but his ability to create for his teammates seems limited up to this point. That may be a byproduct of Jimmyball as much as it is his own limitations.

Bentley and Camper are good athletes, but no idea what they might be in the future.

Horn has perhaps the most upside other than Prince. He has very good moves getting to the rim, and can definitely shoot the three. If he improves his fitness and quickness, he will only get better and would also be a better perimeter defender. He and Shivers are now the natural Alphas on the team, and will likely be counted upon to score when it comes to crunch time.

For this season at least, I suspect we will see continued improvement from where we've been as the freshmen continue to gain experience, as Tom Jr. grows into his role of using his great length to defend and rebound and as Ahsante grows into his role as a leader on the team. Honestly, if Prince can sort out the FT's, this team could be one that can make some noise in the tournament. Like I said, though, probably a pipe dream.

Time will tell - we could end up with 3 MAAC wins and a subsequent flame out in the PIG - I believe Jimmy will be gone in that case.

If they make it to double figures in the W column (overall record), I fear that there is a good chance that a change is NOT made.

I doubt the administration views Nico's departure as a stinging indictment of Patsos, perhaps not more-so than any other players' departures.

I think we had a situation with the coach biting off more than he could chew with Nico, and this ultimately falls on Jimmy as another recruiting mistake. I'm not saying Nico is a bad kid, just that Jimmy and staff obviously didn't know how to properly handle/mentor him as he progressed through his time at Siena.

Hopefully the administration takes a good accounting of the body of work at the end of the season, and makes an appropriate decision WRT the future of the men's hoops program.

[MTS]

Jan 10, 2018 23:04:55 GMT -5 bigfan said:

I can't disagree with the assessment of the talent as it stands right now, in large part due to youth.

Prince can become a dominant player at this level if he learns how to make free throws. A Prince Oduro who makes FT's at a 66% clip would be borderline dominant already. That may be a pipe dream, however. His FT shooting is just utterly disastrous at this point.

Penn is solid right now, with an occasional flash of near brilliance, but I'm not sure what his ceiling is. He looks like he could be the best 3 point shooting PG in recent history for the Saints (yes, Marquis was sharp late in his career), but his ability to create for his teammates seems limited up to this point. That may be a byproduct of Jimmyball as much as it is his own limitations.

Bentley and Camper are good athletes, but no idea what they might be in the future.

Horn has perhaps the most upside other than Prince. He has very good moves getting to the rim, and can definitely shoot the three. If he improves his fitness and quickness, he will only get better and would also be a better perimeter defender. He and Shivers are now the natural Alphas on the team, and will likely be counted upon to score when it comes to crunch time.

For this season at least, I suspect we will see continued improvement from where we've been as the freshmen continue to gain experience, as Tom Jr. grows into his role of using his great length to defend and rebound and as Ahsante grows into his role as a leader on the team. Honestly, if Prince can sort out the FT's, this team could be one that can make some noise in the tournament. Like I said, though, probably a pipe dream.

Time will tell - we could end up with 3 MAAC wins and a subsequent flame out in the PIG - I believe Jimmy will be gone in that case.

If they make it to double figures in the W column (overall record), I fear that there is a good chance that a change is NOT made.

I doubt the administration views Nico's departure as a stinging indictment of Patsos, perhaps not more-so than any other players' departures.

I think we had a situation with the coach biting off more than he could chew with Nico, and this ultimately falls on Jimmy as another recruiting mistake. I'm not saying Nico is a bad kid, just that Jimmy and staff obviously didn't know how to properly handle/mentor him as he progressed through his time at Siena.

Hopefully the administration takes a good accounting of the body of work at the end of the season, and makes an appropriate decision WRT the future of the men's hoops program.

Whether Siena finishes with 7 wins or 12 wins I simply don’t think financially they can afford to bring him back. The damage done to the program would be immense. People already aren’t showing up. Next year will be ghost town with JP back. And corporate sponsorships are going to start to dry up. This is what ultimately gets a coach fired not a few extra wins and losses.

[bigfan]

Winning solves all the problems. If the admin thinks that winning could be around the corner with Jimmy at the helm, they may choose the cheaper short term solution.

I do believe that it would take an improbable resurgence for them to come to that conclusion, however.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2018 22:37:16 GMT -5 hoopsforever said:

Here's the announcement I DO NOT want to read on the Siena official website come early March:

"After careful consideration and understanding that Siena had a very young team this year, and then on top of that, they lost their captain and leading scorer midway through the season, we have decided this is certainly not a fault of Coach Patsos, so we are anticipating a much improved team under his leadership during the 2018-2019 school year"

If they make that announcement, they better move back to campus before the TUC kicks Siena out of there! Remember on Saturday Night Live, the line was "How convenient!" - Well, how convenient, the Siena admin has just given another excuse for the 17-18 season to the much beleaguered coach! "How Convenient!" - Thank you, Church Lady!

There won’t be any announcement, he’s still under contract, it’ll be business as usual next year.

[Tony]

Jan 11, 2018 4:25:27 GMT -5 @racersedge said:

Jan 10, 2018 22:37:16 GMT -5 hoopsforever said:

Here's the announcement I DO NOT want to read on the Siena official website come early March:

"After careful consideration and understanding that Siena had a very young team this year, and then on top of that, they lost their captain and leading scorer midway through the season, we have decided this is certainly not a fault of Coach Patsos, so we are anticipating a much improved team under his leadership during the 2018-2019 school year"

If they make that announcement, they better move back to campus before the TUC kicks Siena out of there! Remember on Saturday Night Live, the line was "How convenient!" - Well, how convenient, the Siena admin has just given another excuse for the 17-18 season to the much beleaguered coach! "How Convenient!" - Thank you, Church Lady!

There won’t be any announcement, he’s still under contract, it’ll be business as usual next year.

Agreed JP will scratch out 10 to 12 wins this year and be back next year

[SaintsFan]

There is a quote from the different news stories that really hits home for me

"Sometimes it's better just to cut the situation off and move toward your new journey," - Jimmy Patsos.

I think this applies to more than Clareth.

www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Nico-Clareth-will-not-return-to-Siena-Saints-12487832.php

[ryan]

This is a business. Not sure wins will be the determining factor.  Fans sponsors and enthusiasm will really be the decisions that the decision makers will face