Siena University sits in Loudonville, New York, about 10 minutes north of Albany, and the Saints have spent the last 16 years waiting to get back to this moment. Founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937 and named after the Franciscan friar Bernardino of Siena, the school changed its name from Siena College to Siena University in July 2025. Now the program faces top-seeded Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament today at 2:50 p.m. ET in Greenville, South Carolina.
The Saints earned their way here by defeating Merrimack 64-54 in the MAAC Tournament final on March 10. That title clinched the program’s first Big Dance appearance since 2010, ending the longest drought in Siena basketball history. Head coach Gerry McNamara took over a program that went 4-28 in 2023-24 and transformed it into a 23-win team in just two seasons.
Gerry McNamara Brings Championship Pedigree to Albany
McNamara knows what it takes to win in March. He helped lead Syracuse to the 2003 national title as a freshman point guard, scoring 18 points entirely on 3-pointers in the championship game victory over Kansas. He started all 135 games in his Syracuse career and holds program records for made 3-pointers, free throw percentage, and minutes played.
After playing professionally overseas and in the NBA G League, McNamara returned to Syracuse in 2009 as a graduate assistant and spent 15 years on the Orange coaching staff. He was promoted to associate head coach in 2023 when Adrian Autry took over the program. When Siena hired him in March 2024, he became a head coach for the first time.
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The timing makes this week complicated. Syracuse fired Autry after three seasons without an NCAA Tournament appearance, and McNamara’s name has emerged as a candidate to return to his alma mater. He addressed the speculation Wednesday in Greenville.
“My situation with that right now is I’m here at the NCAA tournament for the first time as a head coach, and I get an opportunity to coach Siena University, and the kids in that locker room deserve that opportunity,” McNamara told ESPN. “These kids have given me everything they’ve got every day this season, and they deserve my full attention, and they’ve got it.”
Siena Saints Roster and Key Players Against Duke
Sophomore guard Gavin Doty leads the Saints at 17.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. The Fulton, New York native has scored 608 points this season, the fourth-highest single-season total in program history and the most by a Siena player since Dwayne Archbold in 2001-02. Doty earned MAAC Tournament MVP after averaging 21.7 points over the three-game championship run.
Eye-opening stat: Duke is the FIRST-EVER 1-seed to trail a 16-seed by double-digits at halftime in NCAA tournament history, per ESPN Research.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 19, 2026
Senior guard Justice Shoats adds 13.2 points and 4.4 assists per game, giving Siena a backcourt that can compete with most mid-major opponents. Freshman Francis Folefac provides interior presence at 11.1 points per game, and senior forward Brendan Coyle grabs 10.3 rebounds per game.
Siena’s defense-first identity allows just 65.7 points per game. The Saints don’t shoot well from 3-point range, hitting only about 30% of their attempts from behind the arc, but they’ve found ways to win through mid-range efficiency and ball control. McNamara runs a tight rotation, with all five starters averaging at least 29.9 minutes over the last five games.
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The matchup against Duke is daunting. The Blue Devils are 28.5-point favorites and feature ACC Player of the Year Cameron Boozer, who averages 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game. Duke enters at 32-2, with both losses coming by a combined four points.
But Siena has March credibility that casual fans might not realize. The Saints have won four NCAA Tournament games in program history, including memorable upsets of Stanford in 1989, fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in 2008, and eighth-seeded Ohio State in 2009. That 2008-10 run under Fran McCaffery established Siena as a legitimate mid-major program before a long dry spell set in.
The school itself enrolls about 3,000 students on a 152-acre campus in the Capital Region. The Saints play their home games at MVP Arena, a 14,500-seat venue in downtown Albany. Siena competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference alongside schools like Iona, Marist, and Fairfield.
McNamara doesn’t need to pull off an upset to validate what he’s built. Getting Siena back to the tournament after inheriting a disaster was the accomplishment. Everything from here is about giving his players the experience they’ve earned. The Saints aren’t supposed to win, but they’ve been underestimated before.
