New men of the MAAC
Siena, Fairfield and Niagara hope to have finally found the fit
Did Siena finally find the guy post-McCaffery, and where does the offense go?
Steve Pikiell’s right hand man gets his shot
A Beilein again climbs the ranks in Western New York.
Siena hit their previous hire out the of the park. They hit it so well, Jamion Christian was gone within a year. Nearly a decade removed from Fran McCaffery, the Saints program is still looking for a stabilizing head coach at the job many consider the best in the MAAC. McCaffery hold over Mitch Buonaguro was a disaster. Programs that try to hold onto to magic they previously captured are just trying to hang on. Just ask this Georgetown fan. Buonaguro took the strongest program in the MAAC and decimated it. Loose-cannon Jimmy Patsos came in and brought some life back to it, but despite three winning seasons in five years in the MAAC, his act predictably wore thin. Jamion Christian is a rising star in the coaching ranks and while Siena had to assume it might only get three or four years out of him, nobody could have guessed it would have only lasted one season. This is a program with the resources and fan-base that should not go nine seasons without a MAAC title - regular season or tournament. In new coach, Carmen Maciariello, the Saints at least have a native who might stick around. Maciariello is a Shenendehowa HS product and a 2001 graduate of Siena, who worked as a director of ops on McCAffery’s first staff in 2005-2006. After assistant stops at Fairfield (Ed Cooley), Boston (Joe Jones) and George Washington (Mike Lonergan/Maurice Joseph), Christian brought Maciariello back home last season. After Christian departed for George Washington and his native DC area, the Siena administration decided to give Coach Carm a shot. Perhaps impacted by being blindsided by a one and done coach, Siena wanted someone they could envision hanging around a bit longer. Maciariello inherits a reasonably talented MAAC, and a stud in point guard Jalen Pickett. Pickett flirted with the idea of the NBA Draft but elected to return to school and will be flanked by fellow sophomore Don Carey and forwards Manny Camper and Notre Dame transfer, Elijah Burns. A player who may slide into the fifth starting spot that many around the program are high on is athletic freshman wing, Gary Harris JR. Maciariello hasn’t given up much information for a preferred style of play other than it will be faster than last season. Christian grounded things to a halt last year and deployed Pickett in ball screen after ball screen to control tempo. The Saints finished 352nd (2nd to last in D1) in Adjusted Tempo but Pickett’s ability to protect the ball allowed the Saints to churn clock and maximize the most of their talent. The Saints also pressed defensively 15% of the time - not quite the ‘Mayhem’ of Christian’s Mt. St. Mary’s teams, but not insignificant, either. Maciariello has shied away from the ‘Mayhem’ term, a sign that perhaps the pressure defense has left with Christian. As far as tempo, Maciariello had this to say, “We’re going to be able to play with pace,” Maciariello said. “I can’t tell you exactly what our adjusted tempo is going to be, but we’re definitely not going to be the slowest in the country or the second-slowest in the country behind Virginia.” He also commented on the direction of the offense in the half-court, “There's still going to be similar actions,'' he said. "We're still going to ball screen for Jalen Pickett and Don Carey because they're really good at it….Just trying to get guys in position where they can be successful on the floor,'' Maciariello said. "Whether it's set plays, or motion offense, or up-tempo fast break, I want to add some different things. That's kind of my flavor. When it's all said and done, I want the guys to be able to make plays." One hire worth noting is the addition of assistant coach, Bob Simon. Simon dates back to Maciariello’s days with Ed Cooley at Fairfield and Simon followed Cooley to Providence until 2015. The Siena program has also dubbed Simon to be the offensive coordinator of the staff on their official website. With nine years alongside Cooley, it will be curious to see how Simon constructs the offense under Maciariello. Here’s the common link: Flex offense. Cooley has run it for years and Maciariello spent his time at George Washington under Mike Lonergan who utilized the flex dating back to his days at Catholic University and also under Gary Williams at Maryland (Jimmy Pastos ironically also was part of Williams’ staff and also a flex guy). Here’s the thing, I hope Siena does not run it, at least not often. Pickett is too talented a lead guard to partake in a flex orientated system and the game has evolved away from it. Maciariello appears to be sharp and has other influences, but it is an interesting link and something to look for as his tenure at Siena begins.
Fairfield gave Syndey Johnson as long of a leash as possible. But after eight years and only three winning MAAC seasons, time had run out. Johnson had a mid-career identity crisis as he diverted from his slower paced Princeton offense to an uptempo attack - from 2015 to 2016 - Fairfield’s pace increased by 10 possessions in KenPom’s Adjusted Tempo. Never finding his way, Johnson was relieved this off-season and unfortunately can not see out star freshman point guard Neftali Alvarez’s career (Alvarez then transferred to Mercer). While Johnson struggled with identity after replacing the very-sure-of-himself Ed Cooley, new head coach Jay Young should face no such trouble. Jay Young is the former right hand man of Rutgers coach, Steve Pikiell. Pikiell has a clear identity and Young is likely to follow suit. The style is clear: defend, defend some more and rebound. Only once in fourteen years has Pikiell’s offense outperformed his defense via KenPom and Young has been his assistant during that entire run. “We got in the gym for an hour and it was almost all defense,” Young said after first meeting his team. “We were back there the next day, same thing, all defense.” Under Pikiell and Young the the core of their Rutgers and Stony Brook teams were to defend the paint and limit second chance opportunities. Turning Stony Brook into a Top 100 AdjD program and Rutgers into a Top 50 AdjD group is no small task and that occurred at both stops. Young decided to stay in the MAAC and to hire recently fired Niagara head coach, Chris Casey. Casey had fast paced Niagara teams and perhaps may take on more offensive duties on this staff. Also hired was former Stony Brook player, Bryan Dougher. Dougher was a four year starter at point guard under Pikiell and Young at Stony Brook and followed the pair into a director of operations role on the Rutgers staff. Young also used Pikiell’s old UCONN ties to hire Patrick Sellers, well regarded for his recruiting prowess around the northeast from his Huskies days under Jim Calhoun. While the talent will be upgraded, the cupboard wasn’t exactly left full. Young has signaled out guards Taj Benning and Landon Taliaferro to go with forward Jesus Cruz as core pieces in year one but hedged his bets in stating, “I think it’s going to be by committee, I don’t think there’s one guy that jumps out at you.” This will take a bit of time, a clear culture and style will be put in place and built from the ground up.
Replacing Joe Mihalich was a near impossible task for both Niagara and departed coach, Chris Casey. Mihalich, a MAAC legend, left a big pair of shoes to fill. New head coach Patrick Beilein is used to trying to fill a sizable pair himself. The son of John Beilein will be starting his Division 1 coaching career in Western New York the same way his father once did at Canisius. The younger Beilein (36) has spent the last four years at nearby D2 program, Le Moyne. Patrick doesn’t mind the comparisons to his father and in describing his style of play, he puts it bluntly: “Watch Michigan. There’s a little bit of Michigan’s two-guard offense. The way I was coached, following my dad at Michigan, what I run, it’s a version of what Michigan runs. The floor is spaced, and it uses guys who share the ball, who shoot it and who will win at all costs.” That DNA can be see on Synergy as well as ‘cut’ play types registered as the most frequent action for Le Moyne in both 2017 & 2019, while pick and roll ball-handler actions topped the mark in 2016 & 2019. Also like his father, it appears Patrick is well removed from any of use of zone defense. While he did zone 16.4% of the time in 2016 at Le Moyne, that numbers has dropped to 2.1%, 7.3% and 8% the following three seasons. Without much talent inherited, it’s likely Beilein will look to implement his culture and scheme above all else in season one, as there’s little need to cater to anyone’s particular strengths. Few stand out. However, there is some promising shooting ability in sophomore guards Raheem Solomon (50-131 from three) and Marcus Hammond (36-69). The front-court is very thin, with only one player weighing in at over 210lbs and only two measuring taller than 6’6. This will take some time, but the Beilein’s don’t shy from reclamation projects. While this is just a stepping stone job for a coach seemingly on his way to bigger and better, Niagara will take that. It’s a program that despite Mihalich’s success is a difficult place to win at. Consider it fell to the 10th spot in Jeff Goodman’s ‘Chain of Command’ series with a one MAAC assistant stating this, “Worst location, worst budget and worst facility in the league.” Niagara gambled correctly here, it’s a young coach with ties to the area who won the press conference and likely will win on the floor, and they’ll take however short that stay might be. You can take a visual look at Michigan’s ‘two guard’ offense here: