Siena basketball's Jalen Pickett voted first-team all-MAAC

Pickett is averaging 15.7 points and a league-best 6.7 assists per game for Siena (16-15 overall, 11-7 MAAC), which finished in a tie for second after being picked to finish last in the preseason poll.

The fifth-seeded Saints will play No. 4 Rider in a MAAC quarterfinal on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. in Times Union Center.

Recruited by only a handful of schools, Pickett didn't commit to Siena until last May. He's certain to be named MAAC Rookie of the Year later this week. He won the league's Rookie of the Week a record-tying 10 times, with one more to be handed out later today.

Only two other MAAC freshmen have been honored on the first team: La Salle's Lionel Simmons in 1986-87 and Manhattan's Tim Cain in 1981-82, the MAAC's inaugural season.

Simmons became the MAAC career scoring leader with 3,217 points and was the seventh overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft. La Salle left the MAAC in 1992.