Savoring memories...

[IE]

Through the good and bad, Mitchell's passion a constant

ALBANY -- The moment is here. And, as it always does, the moment has sneaked up on Tommy Mitchell too quickly.

Mitchell and his two fellow senior classmates, Gary Holle and Brent Sniezyk, will be honored today at Pepsi Arena when the Saints play their final home game of the season, taking on Rider at 3 p.m.



As usual, it will be a fast ceremony. The seniors will be introduced along with family members. Siena coach Rob Lanier will be there.

The school will give each player a framed photo of himself and they will be thanked for the memories.

Then the game will be played and that will be that. Another home season will have ended. In this case, because the Saints have been so bad this year, it's probably not going to be a big deal.

Don't say that the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Mitchell.

Mitchell will remember the good times. His freshman year he can still see the snapshot of himself sitting atop the basket after the Saints won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament at Pepsi Arena and then went to the NCAA Tournament.

A year later, there would be another postseason visit, this time to the NIT.

This year, Mitchell went over 1,000 points for his career.

Where did all the time go?

"I still remember when I first came here for my visit," Mitchell said. "It seems like it was just yesterday. When you are younger, people will tell you to cherish this because it goes by so quick. When you are younger, it seems as though time doesn't go by fast enough. Now here it is. Man, it sure did go by fast."

Mitchell's best year statistically came during his sophomore year when he averaged 13.6 points per game, while playing opposite Prosper Karangwa. Last season, his average dipped to 10.4 points per game.

This year he is averaging 7.8 points and has had to battle through periods of inconsistency. He has done it with a smile on his face. This has been a horrible final season, but you won't find one day when Mitchell has whined or stopped playing.

"Tommy has had his ups and downs," Lanier said. "What I will remember most about him is the passion he had for the game. He always wanted to be good and he always wanted to do everything he could to be good. You remember players for things like that."

The final year of his career will not be one that Mitchell or any other senior will be offering up as a highlight reel. The Saints have not played well this year, will not win the MAAC Tournament and this will likely go down as one of the worst teams the school has ever produced.

"I am proud of everything I have done while I have been here," Mitchell said. "And I can tell anyone that I have always given everything I have had. That is important to me."

 

[IE]

Lanier prepared for worst


First published: Sunday, February 20, 2005

LOUDONVILLE -- He's beyond his capacity for exhaustion but above listening to the drum beat for his removal. He's outpacing worry and gaining on serenity. Rob Lanier sees the writing on the grease board, knows that today will probably be his last home game as Siena's coach. Seems nearly every local TV news station has reported at one time or another that Lanier will be dismissed.

Where there's this much smoke, there's fired.

Asked if there's a scenario in which he could envision returning to coach Siena next season, Lanier replied, "There's a part of me that holds out hope against a part of me that knows what's inevitable."

And he's at peace with that inevitability.

Remember when Mike Krzyzewski collapsed on the court after experiencing a dizzy spell? That's how Lanier said he felt on Jan. 17 when Siena played at Canisius, when he sat for the game's first 10 minutes. It's hard to stand up when you feel a noose choking your breath.

He's felt that for much of this season. He said it started on New Year's Eve when a local TV reporter whom Lanier considers credible called each of Siena's assistant coaches to try to confirm what a source had told the reporter: that Lanier was being fired. Which was news to the Siena assistants, each of whom drove to Lanier's house after they spoke on the phone, waiting to hear if it were true.

Lanier called athletic director John D'Argenio, with whom he has a good relationship, to ask if he still had a job.

Lanier said he was told that "nothing was going to happen at that moment."

Nobody at the Lanier household uncorked the champagne at midnight.

"I got nothing said that evening that reassured me," Lanier recalled.

Even after he boarded the team bus the next morning for Siena's road trip to Monmouth -- by this time players were in the fog of uncertainty too -- Lanier thought he'd be fired.

"I couldn't even get myself together," Lanier said. "I really felt that was my last trip. I really didn't think I was coming home with a job."

When Siena edged Monmouth, 60-59, to improve to 3-9, "I saved my job for the afternoon," Lanier said.

Lanier now says what that TV reporter discovered "was my future was being seriously discussed at that time, and the discussion to go in another direction was real. The only thing that may have been wrong was the timetable."

How could this young, hungry assistant who had known only success for the first time face the "F" word.

Fired.

He hadn't contemplated the possibility. He's made mistakes here, sure, but at other mid-majors a young head coach gets time to outgrow them. At Siena there's less margin for such wide defeat margins, even as the Saints play without their best player and starting point guard because they're injured.

Lanier said he felt self-pity and withdrew from his players, which affected the team.

"The kids aren't feeling the burden of my situation anymore, because I was carrying it on my sleeve, not doing as good a job connecting with my team," Lanier said. "I don't think that that should be the dynamic, that kids should be worried about my frame of mind.

"I understand leadership, and I wasn't exhibiting it at that point in time when all of this started to unfold."

You can and should blame Lanier for this season, but not for having feelings.

He'd taken Siena to the NCAA Tournament in his first season and the NIT in his second and the MAAC semifinals in his third. By Lanier's own admission, this fourth season has been horrid. Nobody can spin Siena's hideously misshapen 4-22 win-loss record into fine pottery. The empty seats at Pepsi Arena express how Siena fans feel about watching such a dull, noncompetitive team.

"The way we have played this year leaves very little reason for arguing that (I'm) the guy," Lanier said.

"Whether I agree or not," he added, "that is totally different."

It's true you never see Siena players on police blotters and rarely hear about any of them in trouble. Lanier thought he'd accumulated enough credit on the winning side of the ledger to weather a season of discontent.

"When the smoke clears and we look back on it I'm a coach who's been to two postseasons in four years," he said. "When the smoke clears, no matter how you slice it, that still says something about you."

He knows this scarlet F at a mid-major may keep him from becoming a Division I head coach again. He and his wife, Dayo, have talked a lot recently about their priorities and career goals. She's a part-time pediatrician who wants to settle somewhere where she can start a practice treating obese children. He wants to coach but wouldn't mind time off; he's taken one vacation -- the Laniers' honeymoon, in Jamaica -- in 15 years. They still like living in Albany, and the idea, if not the actuality, of his coaching at Siena.

"I want to come back and coach this thing next year but the reality is I'm exhausted right now," Lanier said. "I'm physically and mentally exhausted."

When Lanier was hired four years ago the smart money was on his leaving Siena to take a better job long before he'd be asked to vacate his. It didn't work out that way, and it's disappointing for everyone involved.

"At the end of the day I'm going to be forgotten soon," Lanier said. "I'm going to go on living with my family. The smoke is going to clear, there's going to come a time where people aren't talking about me anymore."

And he's accepted that that time has nearly come.

 

[no pepper]

Wow, line down to 5' from 6'... Your articles frighten me as Rider was set to be a big play today. These intangibles could certainly lend some motivation to the otherwise lowly Saints.

Rider has the standings on their side today -- battling for piece of division lead with Niagra's L yesterday; size -- 7 foot oaf Castleberry at C. Rider won at home by 20 on Jan. 20. Don't think Siena has enough getup to exact sweet, sweet revenge though. Will still ride Rider but only for a drumstick. GL with the billikens, they have been playing their younger bench guys a lot more lately.