Three Saints Get All MAAC Honors

The Siena Saints first season under Coach Carmen Maciariello has been better than any of us could of hoped so far. The Saints have won the MAAC regular season title and will enter the MAAC tournament as the top seed. Now three Saints have been named All MAAC selections. Manny Camper and Jalen Pickett have both been named First Team All-MAAC selections, while Elijah Burns was selected to the Second Team.

According to the Siena Press Release:

As part of the six-member First Team, both Camper and Pickett are eligible to be named MAAC Player of the Year when the conference holds its postseason awards show to announce the league’s major award winners on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Adrian Phillips Theatre in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Pickett was one of three unanimous First Team All-MAAC selections along with Iona’s E.J. Crawford and Rider’s Dimencio Vaughn.

Siena boasts multiple First Team All-MAAC honorees for just the fifth time in 31 years in the conference, and first time since a program record three Saints were named to the First Team following the 2009-10 regular season in Alex Franklin (Player of the Year), Ronald Moore, and Ryan Rossiter.

Camper has enjoyed a breakout junior year where he has eclipsed his scoring, rebounding, assists, and blocks totals from his first two collegiate seasons combined. The Chestertown, Maryland standout ranks second in the MAAC in rebounding (10.4 -20^th nationally), offensive rebounding (2.8), and defensive rebounding (7.6 – 16^th nationally). Camper also stands fourth in the MAAC in minutes played (35.9), and 10^th in field goal percentage (.478), while adding 13.6 points to average a double-double on the season. The recently anointed Siena co-captain has registered his first fourteen collegiate double-doubles this season which ranks 25^th nationally, and which was highlighted by a career-high 22-point, 19-rebounds performance at Ivy League frontrunner Yale on Nov. 20 which marked the most rebounds by a Siena player in a game in nearly seven years.

The MAAC Preseason Player of the Year coming off a unanimous MAAC Rookie of the Year selection last season, Pickett earns First Team All-MAAC recognition for the second straight season to begin his brilliant collegiate career. The Rochester, New York native won a league-high three MAAC Player of the Week awards this season (Dec. 30, Jan. 27, Feb. 24), and was named to both the Lou Henson Preseason and Midseason Watch Lists (top Division I mid-major player). Pickett currently stands just 50 points away from potentially becoming the first player in program history to eclipse 1,000 career points in his first two seasons at Siena, and already ranks ninth all-time in school history with 389 career assists. He currently leads the MAAC and ranks seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.23) and 20^th in the country in assists (6.0). Pickett also stands third in the MAAC in minutes (36.9 – 24^th nationally), fourth in scoring (15.3), seventh in blocks (1.1), and 10^th in threes (57). Pickett has scored in double figures in 25 of his 28 games played, and posted four double-doubles.

Burns has made the most of his lone season donning the Green and Gold, and given the Saints everything they could have hoped for and more. The graduate transfer earned his second MAAC Player of the Week award yesterday, to go along with his first honor from Dec. 23. The local product from nearby Troy, New York leads the MAAC through the end of regular season action in field goal percentage (.626), and ranks third in free throw percentage (.859), seventh in scoring (14.6), and eighth in rebounding (5.9). The co-captain has posted three double-doubles and scored 19 points or more 10 times, highlighted by a season-high 28-point performance on 10-13 shooting in just 24 minutes in a victory over Bucknell on Dec. 21