Siena Men's BKB: Saints to see new Red Foxes

The Marist Red Foxes play a profoundly different game than they did last year, but it’s not anything Siena didn’t see last year, either.

Marist (3-4), picked to finish last among the 10 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference teams, is coached for the first year by former Memphis assistant Chuck Martin.

Under Tom Brady, who left for the James Madison job, the Red Foxes were known for running set plays in the halfcourt, but now, their offense resembles the Tigers’ dribble-drive-and-kick, albeit not with the same level of talent that Memphis gets.

Siena head coach Fran McCaffery said he sees a similarity

between Marist and another team he’s familiar with — the Saints he coached for the first time four seasons ago, when Siena was picked to finish last in the MAAC.

“They’re playing phenomenally hard,” McCaffery said. “We saw that my first year when we were picked 10th. Everybody was saying, ‘We are not going to finish 10th.’ And they are determined not to finish 10th. And they will not, based on what I’ve seen. Everyone accepts their role. They have three wins, and they had Rutgers beat and lost to Delaware in overtime.”

Marist opened the season with a two-point loss to Rutgers, and has victories over Robert Morris, New Hampshire and Iona, in the Red Foxes’ MAAC opener last Friday. Marist beat the Gaels,

51-50, by scoring four points in the final 27 seconds, including Dejuan Goodwin’s game-winning jumper with 1.4 seconds left.

Siena (4-3) is coming off a hard-fought 71-64 win over UAlbany on Saturday night, and has won two straight after going 0-3 at the Old Spice Classic in Florida.

The Saints aren’t quite the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight yet, but they’ve been off at the free-throw line (58.9 percent) and from three-point range (28.4 percent).

Most notably, senior co-captain Kenny Hasbrouck, who was 1-for-8 against the Great Danes and scored five points in 24 minutes, has been off his game offensively, even as he continues to be a ball-hawking terror on defense.

He’s averaging 13.7 points per game while making 37.3 percent of his shots and 67.5 percent of his free throws.

His shooting trouble is reminiscent of a stretch he had last year, except this time, it’s coming at the beginning of the season.

“Yeah, slump talk and all that stuff, right?” he said after the UAlbany game. “I just need to get back in the gym. I missed a couple of shots. I had a decent game against Loyola. I wasn’t missing layups, at least, I was missing all my jumpers, like always now. I just need to get back in the gym, stop thinking about it and just shoot better. It’s not something I’m worried about.”

“In situations like this, the only thing is get an extra 200 shots up. Get an extra 250 free throws up,” McCaffery said. “That’s all he can do. Get back here, and go to work. Something’s not right, and you go to work.

“Some guys, you have to say, ‘You need to get in the gym.’ Not him. I guarantee he has been in there getting shots up on his own.”

Anyway, Siena doesn’t suffer for lack of scorers, even if Hasbrouck is struggling.

Junior forward Edwin Ubiles leads the team at 15.1 ppg, and Alex Franklin is averaging 13.0 ppg.

Ubiles had 23 against UAlbany, and was named the MAAC player of the week on Monday after also scoring 20 in the Loyola victory last Wednesday.

In the two games, he was 16-for-

25 (64 percent), and had 10 rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks.

“The guy I felt like we needed to get more shots for was Franklin,” McCaffery said. “It’s harder because he plays in the post. But Kenny has had these kind of stretches in the past. He started out with two great games. We went down [to the Old Spice], and he’s the marked man in Florida with really good defenders. That got him a little sideways, but he’ll bust out of this.”

In the offseason, Marist lost 2008 MAAC co-rookie of the year Jay Gavin, who transferred to Virginia Commonwealth.

They’re led in scoring by senior Ryan Schneider (13.1 ppg), a former roommate of Siena’s Josh Duell when they were at Vermont, and point guard David Devezin (12.7).

“He’s still makes them go,” McCaffery said. “He’s terrific, and Chuck’s given him the space he needs to really wreak havoc on your defense. And his decision-making is very good.

“Chuck might argue this, but it seems like they’ve gotten the offense pretty quickly. They understand it, they execute well. It’s the same offense that Memphis ran last year. It’s different, but it’s a very effective way to play, especially when you’re small and quick and you have drivers and you have athletes. And that’s what they have.”

The Saints’ front line continues to be banged up. Starting center Ryan Rossiter didn’t practice on Sunday after getting hit in the back of the head in the first half of the UAlbany game, and Cory Magee, out all season after getting a concussion from an inadvertant Rossiter elbow in the preseason, worked out on a stationary bike for the first time.

McCaffery said he isn’t sure if either will play against Marist. Duell continues to gradually work his way into game shape after missing most of the preseason with an Achilles’ tendon injury.