Siena had a successful season in 2025-26, making the NCAA tournament after winning the MAAC tournament, but lost to Duke in the first round of the tournament 71-65. The success of the program led to Gerry McNamara getting the job at his alma mater, Syracuse.
With McNamara moving on, Siena needed to find a new head coach, and they did just that, hiring a Shaka Smart assistant from Marquette, per Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.
Siena has hired Marquette assistant Nevada Smith to lead their program. Smith played college basketball at Bethany College, a Division III Program, from 1998-2002. After his playing career ended, he joined Division III St. Lawrence as an assistant. In the 2004-05 season, Smith was the head coach of SUNY Canton, another Division III School.
His time there was short-lived, as he would spend the next seaons as an assistant at Allegheny before time as an assistant at Ithaca. The coach would then get his next head coaching job. He was the head coach of Keystone College, another Division III program, for two seasons, before coaching in the NBA G League from 2013-14 through 2018-19. He coached both the Rio Grande Valley Cipers and the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Smith would then move into administration with Texas in 2020. He followed Smart to Marquette, serving as a special assistant to the head coach for two seasons before being named a full-time assistant in 2023.
McNamara has turned the Siena program around. In 2023-24, the team went 4-28 under Carmen Maciariello, leading to his termination. McNamara went 14-18 in his first season, before going 23-12 this past year and making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.
