Siena men's basketball team enters McNamara era with high expectations

LOUDONVILLE, NY (NEWS10) -- The Gerry McNamara era has begun for the Siena men's basketball team. McNamara led his first official practice as the team's head coach Monday afternoon.

It was an energetic atmosphere during the media portion of practice. This is a team with a lot of new faces, looking to turn around the program after winning just four games last season.

This group has high expectations for themselves, and they aren't shy about that. "MAAC Championship," said junior transfer and Amsterdam native Marcus Jackson. "We say it every day in our group chat, every day in our huddles, 'MAAC chip, MAAC chip, MAAC chip.' So that's what we're going for. Short term goals, I would say just like any winning team does, just stack good days. We want to stack days in practice that are great, make practice harder than the games and that will lead to success."

"One of the things that I've talked about with this group is you should have expectations," said McNamara. "You know, I don't like the phrase 'manage expectations.' You should have expectations. I want them to talk like that, but I also need them to understand that there's a process to be one of those teams. That's where my job comes into play. I've got to make sure that these guys, day by day, which to their credit have done, buy into how hard and how difficult it is to be one of those teams that talks about championships. I've been lucky to play on some of those, to coach some of those and trust me, any coach that's in a position like mine, any player, that everyone understands that there's a process and price you have to pay to be one of those teams standing at the end. It's not easy."

The Saints open their season at home against Brown on November 4.