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NCAA Basketball: 5 early potential Cinderellas for 2021 NCAA Tournament

By Trevor Sinodhinos

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: Led by committee chairman Mark Hollis (3rd from L), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: Led by committee chairman Mark Hollis (3rd from L), the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /
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15 Mar 2002: Siena fans cheer DIGITAL IMAGE Mandatory Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
15 Mar 2002: Siena fans cheer DIGITAL IMAGE Mandatory Credit: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images /

Potential NCAA Basketball 2021 Cinderella – Siena Saints

Last tournament appearance 2009-10 season

After going 15-5 in the MAAC with a first-place finish, predicting Siena to make it to the ‘big dance’ is not going out on a limb. To further the point, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Siena as a 15 seed in his projected 2021 NCAA Tournament Bracket.

The Saints will be returning three players who started 28 or more games last season; PG Jalen Pickett  (15.1 ppg, 6 apg), PF Manny Camper (13.7 ppg, 10.4 rpg) and SG Donald Carey (11.3 ppg, 2.4 apg). Small forward Gary Harris Jr (5.3 ppg, 3.7 apg ) who started 15 games in the second half of the season, will be one of two underclassmen to start. Fellow sophomore Kyle Young is the likely option to start at center.

The 6’9 Young will be pushed into a starter’s role, as the Saints will be losing 6’8 senior center Elijah Burns. Burns accounts for 14 of the 22 points per game that have graduated from Siena. However, the Saints can take comfort in the fact they did go 1-0 without the grad transfer.

As the 2019-20 season came to an end,  Lukas Harkins’ bracketology had Siena as a 16 seed in the Midwest versus Baylor, teamrankings.com also placed them on the 16 line. The KenPom 2020 rankings placed Siena at 145 while the NCAA Net Rankings placed then at 151.

Siena will cause some madness in March mostly off the strength of their three-point shooting, which finished as 59th in the nation at 35.5 percent, and will improve as Jordan King (37.4 3pt%) gets more minutes with the absence of Matt Hein.

Siena will be better than they were last season and while their seed may not improve drastically, I would not want to be Texas Tech or Ohio State playing a 13 seed Siena in Providence.

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