Last Tuesday Siena beat Merrimack 64-54 in the MAAC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Saints made 3 NCAA tourney appearances in a row under Coach Fran McCaffery from 2008-2010 but had to wait 16 years to get back there this month. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Siena dancer Julianna Volk about being a captain and making the NCAA tourney.
You are from Rotterdam, NY: what made you choose Siena? It is a close-knit community. I own a dance studio, and a lot of the parents whose kids are enrolled went to Siena.
You are majoring in management with a track in sports management: how did you choose those subjects? The dance studio I grew up in was a family-run business. I played a few sports as a kid so I find sports management very interesting: my professor was also a big influence on that.
You are a SR: what is the post-graduation plan? I will be going for my masters’ in business administration.
You are captain of the dance team: what is the key to being a good leader? Listening to everyone else to see where they are coming from. Our coach makes sure we look good, so I just try to understand what everyone is going through.
You made the Dean’s List a couple of years ago: how do you balance your work on the dance team with your work in the classroom? Time management is the key. Practice is from 7-10 and school comes 1st: our coaches are very adamant about us getting our work done before we show up.
Last Tuesday in the MAAC tourney title game Siena had a 10-PT win over Merrimack to clinch the title: what was your reaction when the final buzzer sounded, and what has the reaction been like on campus this week? As a senior it feels like a great ending to my college career. People doubted this team, but they showed they could fight back and win. We are having a selection party on Sunday so there is a lot of hype/excitement on campus.
In 2024 the Saints only won 4 games: could you have ever believed back then that just 2 years later they would make it to the NCAA tourney? Yes…with a new coach in Gerry McNamara. He incorporates the fans/alumni, puts his best foot forward, and wants all of us to support the team.
How does your school decide who gets to attend the NCAA tourney, and what will it mean to you to see your group doing its thing in front of a national TV audience? We decide by seniority/skill so I will be going with my fellow seniors. We are excited to see some history go down!
Does your squad have anything extra-special planned for next week? Not yet: just waiting to see where we are going, but we will put on a very good performance.
Any predictions for next week? Everyone is just hoping we are going somewhere warm!
The 2026 Hoops HD Selection Committee – Thursday, March 12th
Tonight was our first night of deliberations with the Hoops HD Selection Committee. After a formality where most of the UTR regular season champions were scrubbed off our board (with the exception of Belmont, Yale and South Florida), we voted on our Centenary and Stallings Awards for 2026. The Stallings Award was a unanimous vote for Boston College, but the Centenary Award featured a non-UTR team for the first time as Air Force ended up winning the award on the strength of a 25-game losing streak to complete their season. Surprisingly, only one human and one puppet did not vote for Air Force (Western Ilinois was the runner-up).
We also made a motion to scrub West Virginia off of our Under Consideration board; we then began the process of debating teams to add to the at-large board. In the first round of voting, the top 8 vote getters were Georgia, Miami, Kentucky, BYU, Clemson, Saint Mary’s, Villanova and TCU (via tiebreaker against Ohio State). We then ranked these teams 1 through 8; the top four vote getters were added to the at-large board. The first four teams we voted in were BYU, Miami, Kentucky and Saint Mary’s. The remaining 4 teams carried over to the next round of voting; we then individually nominated 8 more teams to add to the board.
The next top 4 vote getters were NC State, Ohio State, Santa Clara and Iowa; they were ranked 1 through 8 along with the previous 4 carryover teams. The next 4 teams added to our field were Clemson, Georgia, TCU and Villanova. The remaining four teams carried over to the next round and were joined in the next round of voting by Mother Miami (who lost to UMass earlier today – this means that the Redhawks will have to get in the NCAAs via an at-large bid now), Texas A&M, UCLA and Utah State. After another round of ranking the teams 1 through 8, we added Ohio State, UCLA, NC State and Utah State to our field. Mother Miami and Texas A&M carry over to tomorrow’s next round of voting; Santa Clara and Iowa returned to Under Consideration since teams cannot carry over in consecutive rounds of voting.
As of the time this article was published; we are assured of bids opening up in the ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten since bid thieves are no longer possible in those 3 conferences. The SEC has potential bid thieves in Ole Miss and Oklahoma who are still alive, the Big East has Seton Hall (and maybe Georgetown) still alive, and there are also conferences like the Mountain West, Atlantic 10 and even the MAC where bids could be stolen. I mention the MAC because whoever wins the autobid could end up stealing the Redhawks’ bid.
Tomorrow night, we will begin the process of seeding the top 8 seed lines and we will vote more teams into the field as more results go final. Also pay attention to two different color markers on the Under Consideration board: Mother Miami and Texas A&M are highlighted in red since they are temporarily carryover teams for at-large voting. Teams highlighted in yellow have been eliminated from their conference tournaments and can no longer add anything else to their profiles. Stay tuned tomorrow when we post our next update!