A fun year- foundation has been laid

[Tony]

This year was a lot of fun, team was fun to watch, it was great to watch freshmen improve and gain confidence as year went on. Brett and Oliver improved tremendously. Now the real work begins. How much work and how hard the team works in off season will go a long way toward determining what type of year we have next year. The entire team needs to get stronger particularly the freshmen–way too many missed shots under the basket when freshmen had to fight through contact. They were often knocked off ball etc. An off season of hard work in weight room will do wonders for this team. Individually we need Wright to develop some sort of shot, so teams need to respect him. We need White to get stronger and work on his shot- it’s too much of a knuckleball. Lavon to expand his range and particularly to get a dependable mid-range jumper in traffic. JO and Wolfe to get stronger and expand their offense around hoop. Poole to get stronger, same for Brett. Silas to get a move or two around hoop. Evan to continue to “buy into” his role. All year long we were one dependable scorer away from being a “real” good team – hopefully Patrick Cole fills that void. Jimmy Paige and hopefully Brandawijk will be wild cards- we don’t need a lot from freshmen next year, but anything they bring will be a bonus.

In short next year we have a schedule that is much more “friendly” in fact downright easy by Siena standards- I’ll give Jimmy a one year pass on schedule as we learn to “win” next year. We bring everyone back, add Patrick Cole a few talented freshmen – but to have the type of year we all want the entire team needs to work very hard this off season – the potential is there. We should be picked top 3 in MAAC next year and have tournament on our home floor. Every single team that finished ahead of us in MAAC has massive graduation losses. Gals lose their best player and 3 of their top 6, Jaspers lose their best player and top 3 players, Quinny losses their best player and both Shannon’s. Griffs lose 4 starters and by far their best player. I like where program is sitting right now - Siena is back.

[mjs72]

What a fun year! Tony, I hope you are right. But I wonder if we have gotten all that we can expect from Brett, Ryan and Imoh? Cole should help a ton but we still lack that dagger in the back outside shooter who can make his shots and break zones. I agree the schedule is softer than usual, but it could be a 3-6 start as the away games, with the likely exception of Radford, are tough

[hooligan]

Mar 9, 2014 5:39:04 GMT -5 Tony said:

This year was a lot of fun, team was fun to watch, it was great to watch freshmen improve and gain confidence as year went on. Brett and Oliver improved tremendously. Now the real work begins. How much work and how hard the team works in off season will go a long way toward determining what type of year we have next year. The entire team needs to get stronger particularly the freshmen–way too many missed shots under the basket when freshmen had to fight through contact. They were often knocked off ball etc. An off season of hard work in weight room will do wonders for this team. Individually we need Wright to develop some sort of shot, so teams need to respect him. We need White to get stronger and work on his shot- it’s too much of a knuckleball. Lavon to expand his range and particularly to get a dependable mid-range jumper in traffic. JO and Wolfe to get stronger and expand their offense around hoop. Poole to get stronger, same for Brett. Silas to get a move or two around hoop. Evan to continue to “buy into” his role. All year long we were one dependable scorer away from being a “real” good team – hopefully Patrick Cole fills that void. Jimmy Paige and hopefully Brandawijk will be wild cards- we don’t need a lot from freshmen next year, but anything they bring will be a bonus.

In short next year we have a schedule that is much more “friendly” in fact downright easy by Siena standards- I’ll give Jimmy a one year pass on schedule as we learn to “win” next year. We bring everyone back, add Patrick Cole a few talented freshmen – but to have the type of year we all want the entire team needs to work very hard this off season – the potential is there. We should be picked top 3 in MAAC next year and have tournament on our home floor. Every single team that finished ahead of us in MAAC has massive graduation losses. Gals lose their best player and 3 of their top 6, Jaspers lose their best player and top 3 players, Quinny losses their best player and both Shannon’s. Griffs lose 4 starters and by far their best player. I like where program is sitting right now - Siena is back.

Wait until Iona takes in their transfers from the juco circuit and prison leagues!

[Deleted]

No setting the table for losses or excuses already. These guys are going out on an up note and it can carry right into next season. Did anyone else hear JP say Cole wouldn't start next year? For being touted as the best player on the team I thought it was an off the wall remark. Motivation for the offseason?

[Deleted]

Mar 9, 2014 7:15:26 GMT -5 hooligan said:

Mar 9, 2014 5:39:04 GMT -5 Tony said:

This year was a lot of fun, team was fun to watch, it was great to watch freshmen improve and gain confidence as year went on. Brett and Oliver improved tremendously. Now the real work begins. How much work and how hard the team works in off season will go a long way toward determining what type of year we have next year. The entire team needs to get stronger particularly the freshmen–way too many missed shots under the basket when freshmen had to fight through contact. They were often knocked off ball etc. An off season of hard work in weight room will do wonders for this team. Individually we need Wright to develop some sort of shot, so teams need to respect him. We need White to get stronger and work on his shot- it’s too much of a knuckleball. Lavon to expand his range and particularly to get a dependable mid-range jumper in traffic. JO and Wolfe to get stronger and expand their offense around hoop. Poole to get stronger, same for Brett. Silas to get a move or two around hoop. Evan to continue to “buy into” his role. All year long we were one dependable scorer away from being a “real” good team – hopefully Patrick Cole fills that void. Jimmy Paige and hopefully Brandawijk will be wild cards- we don’t need a lot from freshmen next year, but anything they bring will be a bonus.

In short next year we have a schedule that is much more “friendly” in fact downright easy by Siena standards- I’ll give Jimmy a one year pass on schedule as we learn to “win” next year. We bring everyone back, add Patrick Cole a few talented freshmen – but to have the type of year we all want the entire team needs to work very hard this off season – the potential is there. We should be picked top 3 in MAAC next year and have tournament on our home floor. Every single team that finished ahead of us in MAAC has massive graduation losses. Gals lose their best player and 3 of their top 6, Jaspers lose their best player and top 3 players, Quinny losses their best player and both Shannon’s. Griffs lose 4 starters and by far their best player. I like where program is sitting right now - Siena is back.

Wait until Iona takes in their transfers from the juco circuit and prison leagues!

Yes, but it looks like it works well for them.

[gorvy]

Mar 9, 2014 6:35:36 GMT -5 mjs72 said:

What a fun year! Tony, I hope you are right. But I wonder if we have gotten all that we can expect from Brett, Ryan and Imoh? Cole should help a ton but we still lack that dagger in the back outside shooter who can make his shots and break zones. I agree the schedule is softer than usual, but it could be a 3-6 start as the away games, with the likely exception of Radford, are tough

Even if those three don't improve which is a big if, the five or six other players tony mentioned could still give us the five or six ppoint swing that we need to be more competitive next season.

[th24]

Great post Tony! I totally agree!

[MTS]

I wish next years OOC schedule was for this season because we likely would have finished with an overall winning record. I think a one year toned down version is fine. Hopefully we can pile up a ton of wins.

The team showed great resiliency all year long especially losing those two crushing defeats Feb 14 and 16 to Marist and Canisius. Four game winning streak to finish over .500 in the league and finish 5th. Guys like Oliver, Bisping and Hymes came a long way. Long and Wright are both going to be stars the next 3 seasons. Poole should make a run at 1st tram all-MAAC in 2014-2015 and Pat Cole should be an impact transfer. We also add a solid recruiting class which hopefully will include Willem Brandwijk.

It's been a while since the future was this bright for the Siena program.

[Tony]

I dunno mjs72- I would be very disappointed with a 3-6 -I expect to beat Ualb, Vermont, Cornell and Bucknell at home. Sure we could get upset at home, but I expect us to win those games. And I expect at worse to win 2 games out of road games—I mean if we are going to be a top 3 MAAC team you have to beat Loyola and Radford on road- and win at least 1 of the away games vs A10—to tell you the truth only really tough game I see is Umass. We beat Fordham and Bonnies this year and both those teams suffer graduation losses ..Bonnies lose their top 2 scorers , Fordham loses their top scorer in Brandon Frazier and are IMHO not particularly well coached – so while it’s tough to win on road with a more veteran team next year we can win both of them – I would say I expect at least 6-3 vs that schedule and would be disappointed with anything less than 5-4.. We have a fairly easy non-conference schedule next year

As for improvement of players- I wouldn’t write anyone off from improving- I agree some players have a higher “upside” than others. But we have a lot of freshmen with “upside” and normally a players biggest jump is between freshmen and sophomore seasons. Patrick Cole is the additional scorer we need. In fact I’ll go further I expect us to win the MAAC title next year, if Patrick Cole is best player on team ( as Jimmy and Poole have said)– if he is a solid player- and everyone that has seen him play agree he is a very solid player then we should be in thick of MAAC race next year . Maybe I’m being too optimistic But I doubt it Some of you guys confidence has been shaken by program wrecker - keep the faith better days are ahead as soon as next season

[MTS]

Rebuilding is officially over. We are a contender starting now. That schedule (barring any changes to it) is pretty reasonable for a team that will be picked in the top 3 in the MAAC next fall. I think going 6-3 is the minimum expectation and hopefully better (7-2 or even 8-1). Fran watered down the schedule in his second year to build up the wins and Jimmy is doing the same thing. No problem with it for one year as long as you put up a big record. When Lavon, Marquis and company are juniors then it's time to load up the schedule with some big boys and an exempt tournament like Puerto Rico or the Diamond head classic.

[mjs72]

"... jucos and prison leagues..." +10. Maybe the best post ever.

[indian82]

Mar 9, 2014 7:15:29 GMT -5 @racersedge said:

No setting the table for losses or excuses already. These guys are going out on an up note and it can carry right into next season. Did anyone else hear JP say Cole wouldn't start next year? For being touted as the best player on the team I thought it was an off the wall remark. Motivation for the offseason?

Yup - I take almost everything he says with a grain of salt. Esp 8 months away from the next season.

[indian82]

Mar 9, 2014 7:19:17 GMT -5 gorvy said:

Mar 9, 2014 6:35:36 GMT -5 mjs72 said:

What a fun year! Tony, I hope you are right. But I wonder if we have gotten all that we can expect from Brett, Ryan and Imoh? Cole should help a ton but we still lack that dagger in the back outside shooter who can make his shots and break zones. I agree the schedule is softer than usual, but it could be a 3-6 start as the away games, with the likely exception of Radford, are tough

Even if those three don't improve which is a big if, the five or six other players tony mentioned could still give us the five or six ppoint swing that we need to be more competitive next season.

You won't see the jump we did this year, but they have not hit their ceiling.

[musicman]

Mar 9, 2014 7:28:12 GMT -5 Tony said:

I dunno mjs72- I would be very disappointed with a 3-6 -I expect to beat Ualb, Vermont, Cornell and Bucknell at home. Sure we could get upset at home, but I expect us to win those games. And I expect at worse to win 2 games out of road games—I mean if we are going to be a top 3 MAAC team you have to beat Loyola and Radford on road- and win at least 1 of the away games vs A10—to tell you the truth only really tough game I see is Umass. We beat Fordham and Bonnies this year and both those teams suffer graduation losses ..Bonnies lose their top 2 scorers , Fordham loses their top scorer in Brandon Frazier and are IMHO not particularly well coached – so while it’s tough to win on road with a more veteran team next year we can win both of them – I would say I expect at least 6-3 vs that schedule and would be disappointed with anything less than 5-4.. We have a fairly easy non-conference schedule next year

As for improvement of players- I wouldn’t write anyone off from improving- I agree some players have a higher “upside” than others. But we have a lot of freshmen with “upside” and normally a players biggest jump is between freshmen and sophomore seasons. Patrick Cole is the additional scorer we need. In fact I’ll go further I expect us to win the MAAC title next year, if Patrick Cole is best player on team ( as Jimmy and Poole have said)– if he is a solid player- and everyone that has seen him play agree he is a very solid player then we should be in thick of MAAC race next year . Maybe I’m being too optimistic But I doubt it Some of you guys confidence has been shaken by program wrecker - keep the faith better days are ahead as soon as next season

Definitely agree with 6-3. This team is going to start the season full throttle. Other than blending Cole into the chemistry of the team and minutes, this is going to be a "mature" young team next year. A team of seniors, juniors and sophomores that have all had extensive playing time. JP is typically being the diplomat saying the right thing about Cole. He will earn next fall his minutes and position on the rotation. Jimmy's no dummy, we all know that. I'm betting Cole will be getting his 25+ minutes. The competition is going to be fierce next fall. Remember, when you say that people like Bisping aren't going to improve that these guys are going to be working for even a spot in the rotation next year. Brett has two more years, he's going to get better just because of the physical maturity factor. I doubt that we will see our new seniors and juniors develop quite as far as they did this year but they will have to have some improvement just because of how young they are and the hard work they will be putting in. The competition is going to be fantastic.

[bagger]

we need an impact player, JP admitted it, need a goto player, we don't have that.