Loudonville Campus Heating Up for Their Siena Saints

It was hot in the UHY Center on the campus of Siena College in Loudonville, NY yesterday afternoon. I arrived a little early to set up for The Drive with Charlie & Dan from 3p to 7p. Dan is on vacation and my guest host was finishing coaching his team. Siena men's basketball coach Carm Maciariello was running the 2021-22 Saints through some 4 on 4 drills, all part of the summertime process, which Tuesday included being my co-host. The heat didn't deter any of the players, some in green, some in gold. They were going after it, happy to compete.

It was fun to get a sneak preview of this year's team. I have seen enough college basketball in my lifetime to tell you that they are going to be really good and no one should underestimate this team. They work hard and they respect their coaches, two solid building blocks for championships.

Being a Division I basketball coach isn't easy. Even during the summer you are pulled in different directions to do a million things, still Coach Carm found time to line up an All Star cast for the show. We caught up with the winningest men's basketball coach at Yale, my old friend and classmate at UAlbany, James Jones. James will be taking the Bulldogs to the Times Union on November 16th to take on Coach Carm and the Saints.

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The afternoon even got better with Siena President, Dr. Chris Gibson, retired United States Army Colonel and former U.S Congressman, not bad to add a little prestige to The Drive! Dr. Gibson was awesome. He talked about his belief in the importance of athletics on college campuses and his faith in the direction of the Saints basketball program. I got the feeling from Dr. Gibson that aspirations are high for this program and with good cause. He believes in the leadership of his relatively young coach. The President of Siena has been around a leader or two in his day. I would trust his judgement.

Two other Siena men's basketball coaches joined the show, Mike Deane, who led Siena to a first round victory in the NCAA tournament over Stanford in 1989 during his 8 seasons at the helm and Paul Hewitt, who led the Saints to the NCAA tournament and the NIT in his 3 years on the bench in Loundonville. Both told great stories and relayed some important observations on life through the eyes of a basketball coach. The Capital Region was lucky to have such great coaches.

I was lucky enough to have one of those great coaches co-host with me yesterday. Thanks to my friend Coach Carm Maciariello for taking the time to, not only hang out with me but to arrange for such an awesome group of guests. I appreciated the sneak preview of practice! That was fun and I look forward to doing it again.

A special thank you to Siena President, Dr. Chris Gibson for jumping on The Drive with Charlie & Dan and to my buddy Athletic Communications Assistant, Joe Mixie for making it all happen. I promised Dr. Gibson that I would remind all of you to go to sienasaints.com/tickets to buy your season tickets today. It will be a great year.