Saturday, May 29, 2010

SIena's Poole at GymRat Challenge

I went over to Siena today to see 2011-12 recruit Rob Poole play with his AAU team Jersey Shore Warriors in the GymRat Challenge.

Poole scored 11 points and showed himself to be a pretty good talent.

At 6-foot-5 he's got size and showed athleticism.

The one thing I would say is that he has good defensive abilities, but didn't move his feet a couple times as players got around him.

He has a nice high-arcing shot and his coach Tony Sagora, who also coached current Siena player Ryan Rossiter, said he is a terrific shooter.

I think he could be a very good Siena player though.

Look for more on Poole in our story tomorrow.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Rossiter on SI's to watch list

Sports Illustrated's Andy Glockner has listed his non-BCS players to watch and it includes Siena's Ryan Rossiter.


Ryan Rossiter, Siena: After three straight MAAC titles and NCAA berths, the Saints lost the core of their program with the departures of Alex Franklin, Edwin Ubiles and Ronald Moore. Now the leading role falls to Rossiter, a skinny-but-effective scorer and rebounder who quietly averaged a double-double last season (13.8 ppg, 11.1 rpg) while shooting 57 percent from the floor.

Here is a link to the rest of the story.

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Monday, May 24, 2010

Colonie's Coles to Siena

Colonie native Tehresa Coles has signed on with Gina Castelli to play the 2011-12 season with the Siena women's basketball team.

Our high school reporter Will Montgomery has the news over on his blog.

Coles has one more year of high school left and was one of the top players in Section II, last year as a junior.

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Mineau shines in NCAAs

Hoosic Valley graduate Jen Mineau pitched Fordham University to the first two NCAA Tournament victories in school history this past weekend.

The Rams, who finished the year 49-12, were beaten in the regional final by Oklahoma on Sunday.

Mineau finished the season with 503 strikeouts and 34-9 in the circle.

The Schaghticoke native is just four strikeouts away from the school's career record of 780, set by Sara Kinney in 2007.

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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Iowa pays off Siena for McCaffery

According to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the University of Iowa paid Siena College $240,000 to buyout Fran McCaffery's contract.

Iowa also had to pay former coach Todd Lickliter $2.4 million to buy out the remaining four years left on his contract.

Here's a link to the story that does a good job of breaking down how their hiring process went.

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Siena bball ranks 66th in attendance

For the second straight year the Siena men's basketball program established a new program attendance record as an average 7,853 fans passed through the turnstiles for the team's 17 home games.

According to a press release from Siena and the NCAA attendance report released on Wednesday, Siena ranked 66th in the country, tying its highest ranking ever.

“I think it’s a testament to the success of the team,” said Siena Athletic Director John D’Argenio on Wednesday. “It’s a testament to the area that when you give them a product that’s good, that’s exciting, they’ll come out and support it and I think that’s what’s been shown that past three of four years.”

A total of 133,505 fans attended Siena home games this season (including the MAAC Tournament), almost a 5 percent increase from the 2008-09 season when 127,453 fans came out.

Siena's attendance has risen each of the last five years and increased over 40 percent over that time period.

The 2009-10 Siena average was higher than schools such as Arizona State, Baylor, Florida State, Oregon, Seton Hall and Georgia.

The figure was also sixth amongst so-called mid-major programs, trailing only Creighton, Dayton, Wichita State, Utah State and Bradley.

“Winning has 99.999 percent to do with that,” said D’Argenio.

The Saints have won 38 straight home games in downtown Albany.

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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Battle, Fredette return to school

Former Section II stars Talor Battle and Jimmer Fredette will return to their respective universities for their senior season after testing the NBA Draft waters.

Battle, a former Bishop Maginn star and The Record's 2006-07 Boys Basketball Player of the Year, announced Saturday that he will return for his senior season at Penn State University.

Battle was one of the top point guard in the Big 10 last season, averaging 18.5 points per game.

Battle's younger brother Taran Buie, also a former start at Bishop Maginn, will begin his collegiate career next season with the Nittany Lions.

Fredette will return to Brigham Young for his senior season.

The Glens Falls native injured his quad in a workout with the New York Knicks on Friday.

Fredette and the Cougars will play a regular season game against the University of Vermont at the Glens Falls Civic Center during the 2010-11 season.

Both players had until Saturday's 5 p.m. deadline to withdraw their names or remain eligible for the 2010 NBA Draft, which takes place June 24 at Madison Square Garden.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

New York City hoops suffering

ESPN.com has a story from Dana O'Neil about the changing times for college basketball in the New York Metropolitan area.

Once Hofstra hires a replacement for Tim Welsh, who resigned Monday because of a DWI, the New York City area will have had 12 new coaches this offseason.

Here's a link to the story.


The story mentions both Manhatthan coach Barry Rohrssen and Saint Peter's coach John Dunne, a former Siena assistant.

Here's a quote from the story, referring to Siena.

"When you start claiming Cornell and Siena as your New York City teams, it's bad," said Dick "Hoops" Weiss, the longtime basketball writer for the New York Daily News. "For a while we even adopted Connecticut. I think people finally realized that fans aren't going to be satisfied with mediocrity. Whether it's 65 or 68 teams, it becomes a pass/fail deal. New York was failing."

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Mineau receives national honor

Schaghticoke native Jen Mineau was been named Louisville Slugger/NFCA National Division I Player of the Week on Tuesday.

The Fordham University sophomore has helped her team post 42 consecutive scoreless innings and the Rams are 42-8 on the season.

Mineau has already been honored as a USA Softball Player of the Year Top 25 Finalist and earned five Atlantic 10 Pitcher/Co-Pitcher of the Week awards.

Mineau is 29-5 this season with an ERA of 0.65 and 420 strikeouts. She has also thrown two no-hitters and a perfect game.

Mineau was named The Record's Player of the Year in 2007 and 2008 and led Hoosic Valley High School to the 2007 Class C New York State championship.

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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Basabe to Iowa

Former Siena recruit Melsahn Basabe has just tweeted that he has signed on with former Siena coach Fran McCaffery at Iowa.

Here is the tweet: It's Official... Im an Iowa Hawkeye now

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