The following feature written by Michael Kelly and Adam Shinder appeared in the Daily Gazette on March 30, 2020 

On the court, the competition is fierce.

Away from it — and removed from the recruiting trail — that fades away for the women's basketball coaches of the MAAC.

It's a group that stays in regular contact, and one that Siena head coach Ali Jaques appreciates for how it looks out for its members.

"At the end of the day, we're on the same team. We're trying to create better women's basketball and push each other," Jaques said recently. "We all have the same problems, just under different roofs."

So when one of those problems popped up earlier this month, Jaques found help from an expected source within her conference's coaching ranks. Already working to help some of her team's international players make it back home amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Siena shifting to a distance learning model for the remainder of the spring semester, Jaques received a message in her group text chain from Manhattan head coach Heather Vulin wondering if anyone else was struggling to make travel arrangements for players heading out of the United States.

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