Siena Basketball Faces New York Knicks Legend

Tuesday Mark Singelais of the Times Union reported that the Siena Saints men's basketball team will travel to Washington, D.C. on November 20th to take on the Georgetown Hoyas. According to Singelais, the game will be played at Capital One Arena, which is very cool because it is an NBA and NHL arena, home to the Wizards and the Capitals respectively.

These are great experiences for student-athletes. Experiences like this are recruiting tools. Siena men's basketball coach Carm Maciariello knows how important these types of games are, on so many levels. First, the Saints will receive a nice check from Georgetown just for playing in the game. Mid-major programs need guarantee games to survive. Next, the mid-Atlantic states are a fertile recruiting area for Coach Carm. There are plenty of talented high school basketball student-athletes in the Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area that Maciariello would like to introduce to Siena College. Lastly, his players get to play against a team coached by a New York basketball legend.

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Patrick Ewing is the head coach of the Georgetown Hoyas, heading into his 5th season at the helm of this historic program. Ewing leads a team that he once starred on and carried to their only National Championship in 1984. He was also named the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player that year. The 7 foot center went on to win the 1986 NBA Rookie of the Year Award and play 17 NBA seasons, mostly for the New York Knicks. Ewing was named to 9 All Star teams. His professional accolades were many.

Patrick Ewing, the basketball coach, is trying to follow in the footsteps of his late mentor John Thompson. So far, he is doing more than a good job. The Hoyas won the Big East Tournament last year. The Siena Saints will have their work cut out for them. I don't think that is what this game is all about. The results will last a season but experience of facing a true New York legend will last a lifetime.

According to Mr. Singelais, these two teams haven't met since the 1973-'74 season. "Siena leads the all-time series 4-2. In their most recent meeting, Georgetown prevailed 70-56 in what was late Hall of Fame coach John Thompson's second year leading the Hoyas." Very cool game for the fans and the student-athletes.