Now validated, Brendan Coyle returns to Siena as conduit to new era

Now, with his hometown career validated, he isn’t done yet. He’s coming back for year five to be the conduit to the next era of Saints’ basketball after McNamara left to take over at Syracuse. Siena basketball announced that he, along with Owen Schlager, Isaiah Henderson, and Reid Ducharme will return. But of those four, Coyle is the only one who played more than 30% of the minutes this season.

And just as he was the bridge from the Albany community — as a local kid — to the Saints starting lineup under McNamara, he’ll be the bridge from the champions to the new vision that head coach Nevada Smith has for the program.

Coyle told Mid-Major Madness in March that he would joke with a Siena manager about how the two were the only two holdovers from the 2022-23 team. Coyle remains the only player holdover from the Maciariello era, and will be the rare player in modern college basketball to stay in a program for five years. Even through three different coaches, Coyle remains a Saint.

And Smith’s vision should be a perfect fit for Coyle, looking for a major bounce-back in his three-point shooting percentage.

“It’s up and down mentally,” Coyle told Mid-Major Madness of his shooting struggles back in that interview before the MAAC Tournament. “But just trying to stay positive because you know eventually shots are going to fall. My teammates have faith in me, my coaches have faith in me, and we all try to lift each other up.”

Smith modernized Shaka Smart’s offense during his five years at Marquette. He helped turn Tyler Kolek into an NBA point guard, and was a key reason why the Golden Eagles ranked top 35 in offense for three consecutive years. But his offensive roots go deeper than that. He, like McNamara, is a shooter at heart. He made a program record 313 career three-pointers at Division III Bethany, and then when he went into coaching, implemented a fast-paced, three-point heavy style.

It’s one that should be perfect for creating threes for Coyle, as long as the Saints can nail the evaluation of the point guard position in the transfer portal.

His offenses were shooting nearly 30 threes per game in 2008, long before it was the norm around college basketball. And it was because of that three-point heavy style that he was an attractive candidate for basketball analytics pioneer Daryl Morey, who brought him to the Rockets organization in the G League.

But it was after that, when he went to the Miami Heat organization, that he became ingrained in the cultural side of building a program. It’s what has been so important for Shaka Smart’s teams, and why many of his assistants have been so successful. Smith’s path looks different from somebody like Donny Lind or Will Wade — other former Smart assistants — but he’s made it to this point regardless.

And he’ll have the greatest gift that a new coach can ask for in year one. A bastion of a successful previous culture, a face of the program in the local community, and a perfect fit for his scheme.

He’s got it all in one with Brendan Coyle.