It seems like a daily occurrence at this point, but more Siena basketball news broke on Saturday.

Ryan Restivo, who writes for Big Apple Buckets, reported that Siena sophomore Evan Hymes will transfer, in an effort to get closer to his North Carolina home and his mother.

Hymes averaged 10.6 points this season and averaged 13.4 points per game as a freshman, in 2011-12. 

Hymes is just the latest Saints player to defect, following Davis Martens, who announced he will graduate and return to Germany.

Hymes' departure means new Siena coach Jimmy Patsos currently has three scholarships to work with.

Patsos was officially named the coach on Wednesday and Martens announced his intentions to not return on Thursday.

On Friday, the school confirmed it will open the 2013-14 season playing against the University at Albany, on Friday, Nov. 8.

J.S. Carras - The Record

Here are two links from Thursday's paper about Siena introducing new men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos.

Both stories are from staffer Andrew Champagne, who pinch hit while I'm on vacation. 

Siena introduces Jimmy Patsos as basketball coach

Press conference for new Siena men's basketball coach Patsos an interesting one

Another piece of Siena news happening on Thursday is that redshirt junior Davis Martens announced he has decided to not return for his seniors season. Martens will graduate in May and return to Germany.  

J.S. Carras - The Record

The NCAA did not change their stance regarding Siena freshmen Lionel Gomis and Imoh Silas.

Both Silas and Gomis will sit out this year and will be eligible for the 2012-13 season.

This is difficult news for the Saints and coach Mitch Buonguro who are thin up front, already with the loss of Davis Martens for the season.

It's the second MAAC-related NCAA decision in the past two days.

On Thrusday, the NCAA granted Lamont "MoMo" Jones a hardship wavier, allowing the Arizona transfer to play this season for Iona.

If you remember, University at Albany forward Will Harris received this type of wavier, when he transferred in from Virginia.

Siena is reporting that junior forward Davis Martens will miss the 2011-12 season following hip surgery to repair a labrum tear on Aug. 30.

Martens averaged 2.2 points and 1.8 rebounds last season and likely would have had a bigger impact this season with the graduation of Ryan Rossiter.

“I’m going to do what I can to be there for the team, and support my teammates,” Martens said. “It’s disappointing, but I’m going to hit my rehab hard and hopefully return better than before.”

According to Siena, the labrum tear resulted from a congenital condition called Femoral Acetabular Impingement Syndrome.

“We want Davis to have a full recovery, and rejoin the team at 100 percent,” head coach Mitch Buonaguro said. “The surgery was successful, which is obviously great news. He has such a promising future with our program, and we can’t wait to have him back on the floor next year.”

Siena has already received word that newcomers Imoh Silas and Lionel Gomis will be unable to play this year, due to an NCAA decision.

Siena is appealing that decision.

Siena hosts their annual Sneak Preview, tonight at 5 p.m., in downtown Albany.

I should have posted this Thursday when I saw Siena junior Kyle Downey before practice.

Downey landed on Davis Martens during practice last week and in his explanation, did a cartwheel trying to avoid landing on Martens, then didn't know where he was and when his foot planted, his knee bent to hit the floor.

"It wasn't even like a real injury," Downey said. "There was nothing I could do to prevent it."

It's a a partial tear of the MCL in his knee, which is expected to sideline him for three weeks.

"Hopefully I can cut it down," Downey said.

Downey said what's frustrating is he can run and jog with no pain, but he has to be cautious because it could tear if the MCL is stretched again.

"It sucks because I feel like I could be other there right now," Downey said. "My knee is just not stable."

It's another weird injury for Downey, who broke his foot in the middle of his sophomore season and deal with a back injury the summer after his freshman year.

"I don't think of myself as being injury prone," he said. "It's just a string of bad luck."

LOUDONVILLE - Edwin Ubiles came around the corner off the ARC at Siena wearing a heating pad over his left shoulder.

The 6-foot-6 senior has been dealing with a sore shoulder for a few weeks, but it is feeling quite better.

Friday was the third day in a row Ubiles has practiced after missing the first few days, but he has been limited a little.

"I'm just trying to take it easy so I won't re-injure it and be out for even longer," Ubiles said. "It feels pretty good when I'm playing. It doesn't really bother me when as much."

Ubiles is still getting treatment on the shoulder and easing his way back into play so he will be ready for the season opener, which is three weeks from today.

"It's a little frustrating," said Ubiles, who added shoulder gets a little sore after practicing. "Of course, I want to be able to go out there at full strength, but injuries happens sometimes, so right now I just have to deal with it, keep going in the training room and hopefully it will be 100 percent soon."

Ubiles is still psyched for this, his senior season to begin.

"I couldn't wait for this time all summer," Ubiles said. "I'm just happy that it's here and I'm just looking forward to that first game and looking forward to doing what we need to do during the season."

With the MAAC Media Day on Tuesday, Ubiles could be named preseason player of the year, but he's not too concerned about it.

"I'm pretty sure a lot of us want it, but that's something that comes along with being a team player and not really thinking about yourself and that happens on its own," said Ubiles

Some other observations from Friday's practice.

• Veteran assistant Mitch Buonaguro is running practice because Fran McCaffery is recovering from a minor surgery. "I'm gonna enjoy this," Buonaguro said to me about running practice. Buonguro was a coach at Fairfield from 1985-91 and has coached in more than 1,000 career games. McCaffery is expected back on Monday.


• Assistant coach Andrew Francis spent a lot of time before practice with freshman Davis Martens working on low post moves. Martens isn't allowed to play for the first 12 games, but once he's in, it looks like he'll be able to make an impact.

There was a nice turnout tonight at the Siena Sneak Preview.

While it's still about two months until games begin, it's nice to see that there is some thirsting for college hoops.

The men's and women's team were both introduced to the crowds on Wednesday night.

I was impressed that men's coach Fran McCaffery made it a point to single out Ronald Moore and say that this team is his this season.

I was then impressed with the maturity (not that I didn't expect it) from Moore in his answers about the subject.

“It’s definitely a great honor, but at the same time, I know that I’m not the only captain out there because I have other senior leadership out there with me,” Moore said.

Other things of note:

• Ryan Rossiter got the loudest cheers when McCaffery said he has bulked up to 235 pounds
• McCaffery said that Kyle Downey was recovering from an injury he sustained over the summer
• McCaffery said that Justin Smith, a walk-on from East Greenbush, who is 26 years old, could be the best defensive guard the team has

My favorite quote from McCaffery was "Our days of sneaking up on anyone are over and we know that."

McCaffery told the media he has been "very impressed" with the freshman class and thinks the addition of Davis Martens was a great final sign.

McCaffery told me that living up to the expectations will be hard, but they are good expectations to have.

“It is going to be hard to go (to the NCAA Tournament) every year because the other teams are so good,” McCaffery said. “I think what we have to come to expect is that we’re going to be challenging every year and we’re going to have a shot and then what we have to do is schedule appropriately so that if we stumble in the conference tournament, we’re still looking at an NIT bid."

Well it may be the offseason for college basketball, but Siena coach Fran McCaffery and his staff worked quickly and efficiently to fill the scholarship that they got when senior Cory Magee was ruled a medical exception for the 2009-10 campaign.

The Saints added Davis Martens, a 6-foot-9 forward from Germany on Tuesday.

Here's a report I found on Martens from when he went to school at The Patterson School (NC) in high school.

Davis Martens (Patterson) - Martens is a 6'9" PF, with a nice frame. He showed some versatility in this game, hitting a couple turn around jump shots in the post and stepping outside to knock down a three pointer. Martens has a nice release, with plenty of rotation on the ball. He needs to develop his post game, but did show progress from the last time I saw him; using his left hand (off hand) around the rim. He is not a dynamic athlete, but does run the floor well and is fluid in his movements, but he is not an explosive leaper.

He sounds like he will be able to play the up and down game that Siena likes to play, but to really be help the Saints he'll have to develop that inside game to give McCaffery another big body with Ryan Rossiter, Alex Franklin and O.D. Anosike

Martens will turn 20 this Saturday.