Siena Saints | ||||
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University | Siena College | |||
Head coach | Gerry McNamara (1st season) | |||
Conference | MAAC | |||
Location | Albany, New York | |||
Arena | MVP Arena (capacity: 15,229) | |||
Nickname | Saints | |||
Colors | Green and gold[1] | |||
Uniforms | ||||
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NCAA tournament round of 32 | ||||
1974*, 1989, 2008, 2009 | ||||
NCAA tournament appearances | ||||
1974*, 1989, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010 *at Division II level | ||||
Conference tournament champions | ||||
1999, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010 NAC: 1989 | ||||
Conference regular season champions | ||||
1988, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2020, 2021 |
The Siena Saints men's basketball team (formerly the Siena Indians) represents Siena College in Loudonville, New York, United States. The NCAA Division I program competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the annual Franciscan Cup. The Saints are currently coached by Gerry McNamara. He replaced Carmen Maciariello who was fired on March 20, 2024 after 5 seasons.
Siena plays its home games at the 14,500 all-seater MVP Arena in downtown Albany. Prior to joining a conference, Siena had success in the 1950s, winning the National Catholic Invitational Tournament in 1950 and finishing the 1950–51 season ranked 18th in the AP Poll. Since 1988, the team has appeared in six NCAA tournaments (1989, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2010) and five National Invitation Tournaments (1988, 1991, 1994, 2000, and 2003). Siena has advanced to the Round of 32 three times in program history. In 1989 they defeated 3rd-seeded Stanford 80–78. In 2008 Siena beat 4th seeded Vanderbilt 83–62 and the following year they edged 8th seeded Ohio State 74–72 in double overtime.
Siena has won six conference tournaments throughout program history. They won the 1989 title in the North Atlantic Conference, with a win over Boston University, famously played in front of no fans as a result of a measles outbreak. They have won five conference championships as a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Their most recent championship came in 2020, when they won the MAAC regular season title, they were then awarded the conference's bid to the NCAA tournament when the MAAC tournament was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2014 Siena competed in their first College Basketball Invitational tournament and won the championship defeating Stony Brook, Penn State, Illinois State and Fresno State two games to one in the best-of-three championship series. Siena's cumulative record in postseason play is 18–13 (4–6 NCAA, 9–5 NIT, 5–2 CBI). In 2020, the program was placed under a three-year probation by the NCAA over player benefit and coaching violations under head coach Jimmy Patsos.