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Siena's Brendan Coyle makes a move to the basket against Rider during a basketball game at MVP Arena on Sunday, March 1, 2026 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union) (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - The Siena men's basketball team is a smarter bet heading into Atlantic City this weekend than the Saints were a year ago.
The Saints (20-11) are the No. 3 seed in this year's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament. They were the No. 9 seed last season in Gerry McNamara's first year as head coach.
They earned a first-round bye and will play No. 6 seed and defending champion Mount St. Mary's (15-16) in a quarterfinal at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Boardwalk Hall. A year ago, Siena had to play a first-round game and lost in the final second to Rider.
Senior guard Justice Shoats is one of three current Saints, including senior forward Brendan Coyle and sophomore guard Gavin Doty, who played in that 78-76 defeat.
"I mean, I'm definitely feeling confident," Shoats said. "I know we've got a great group of guys that's ready to go out there and play."
Shoats said the gauntlet Siena faced in the final month of the regular season helped prepare the Saints for the league tournament. Though Siena was 3-4 in its final seven games, five of those contests were against top-five seeds in the tournament: No. 1 Merrimack, No. 2 Saint Peter's, No. 4 Quinnipiac and No. 5 Marist.
"I think we're the most prepared team coming into this," Shoats said. "Especially with the schedule we had, the beginning of the season to our last game. I feel like we're very prepared, we've got the perfect group and we're just going to put it all together down there in AC."
For the MAAC Tournament, though, Siena will be without one of its usual starters. Forward Antonio Chandler, who sat out the final two regular-season games because of an "eligibility question," will not be able to play in Atlantic City, the school's athletic department announced Friday evening. That roster loss means Siena will need to win three games in four days with only eight scholarship players available. Tasman Goodrick, Reid Ducharme, Owen Schlager and Tajae Jones are already out with injuries.
Without Chandler, Siena lost a lopsided game at Fairfield last Friday and struggled in the first half before beating last-place Rider in the regular-season finale on Sunday.
"What you lose is a big, valuable piece, a veteran guy that's kind of an emotional leader for us," McNamara said earlier this week, before Chandler's status was known. "But at the same time, everybody that's available has played a big factor at some point in the season, made a big play, had a big game. If you're without him, you're without him, and we've got enough experience at that."
The Saints do have an excellent backcourt with Shoats, a second-team all-MAAC selection, and Doty, who made the first team. They can power the ball inside to MAAC All-Rookie selection Francis Folefac, working in tandem with 7-foot graduate center Riley Mulvey of Rotterdam.
Coyle, who struggled with his 3-point shot most of the season, made five 3-pointers and scored 20 points against Rider.
Siena hasn't won a MAAC Tournament game since a quarterfinal victory over Manhattan in 2020. The Saints haven't won the title on the court since 2010. They were awarded the MAAC trophy in 2020 when the remainder of the tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.
"I think the team that wants it the most is going to come home with it," Doty said. "I know we're very hungry, very hungry for this thing."
In the MAAC's unbalanced schedule, Siena played Mount St. Mary's just once this season, a 67-50 Saints win on Jan. 11 in Maryland.
Mountaineers guards Arlandus Keyes and Xavier Lipscomb shot a combined 1-for-21 from the field in that game. Two Siena freshmen, Isaiah Henderson and Christian Jones, sparked the Saints off the bench.
Mount St. Mary's has won seven of its last 10 games.
"I just think we're a little bit more mature (since the Siena game)," Mountaineers coach Donny Lind said. "We battled so many injuries and things earlier in the year, that at that time, we were still kind of settling into roles. I think now we're a lot more confidence in who we are as a team."
The winner will play either No. 2 Saint Peter's or No. 7 Fairfield in a semifinal Sunday at 8:30 p.m. The championship game is at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
McNamara, who played in four NCAA Tournaments and won a national title at Syracuse, would love to lead Siena to the Big Dance.
"This team has already been a great experience for me," he said. "But you get to this stage, you want them to experience something special for them. I want them to understand what it feels like to win a championship."
This article originally published at Siena men's basketball 'very hungry' for MAAC championship.
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