Penn @ Albany

[Clickclack]

On to Penn.....Second home game of the season, not to mention back to back Ivy League opponent; this could be a good one. At least this should be a great test for our Danes. Penn is a perennial power in the Ivy League and we can expect that they will challenge us. They were picked 2nd in the preseason media poll and currently have a record of 1-3 with the lone win coming against Monmouth (83-62). For purposes of establishing a point of reference....They’ve lost to North Carolina (71-86), Drexel (64-66) and Penn St. (73-85).

 

Scouting report on Penn looks like this (Based on my research FWIW)

- Injury Report - Apparently they are dealing with some injuries...based on the information I was able to find on the Penn message board, Tommy McMahon (6’7” senior forward…4ppg, 2rpg), Mike Howlett (6’9” freshmen forward…1rpg) and Justin Reilly (6’8” junior forward....5.1ppg, 2.2rpg) are injured based on what I could deduce, they are not expected to be available or their status is unknown. Andreas Schreiber (6’9” junior center) has also been injured but is expected to play.

 

- Defense – Based on the information pulled from the games they’ve played this season, they do not turn teams over at a high rate (slightly worse than we do) they do come up with a fair number of steals though, hopefully we’ll be able to take care of the ball. As far as team defense is concerned, they are a very good not great defensive team. They’ve limited the opposition to shooting 33% (156 ranked) from beyond the arc on the season and 48% (176 ranked) from inside the arc so they are a good defensive team. They are a terrible offensive rebounding team (313 ranked) and are about average defensive rebounding team. Significantly winning the rebounding battle would be a huge help, I expect we’ll continue to rebound at a high rate as we are one of the better rebounding teams in the country, both offensive and defensive rebounding.

 

- Offense – On the offensive end the two teams are very close in terms of percentages and numbers. It appears that they like to push the pace, even more so then we do. They like to run and thus in terms of possessions/tempo they are ranked 46th in the country (a measure of how many times they are on offense) compared to our tempo which is ranked 100th in the country. They have not shot a high percentage from long range (32.6% ranked 198th in the country) and they are about average from inside the arc at 49%....vs. our 30% and 48.5% respectively. They are led on offense by two guards….6’6” sophomore Tyler Bernardini (17.5 ppg, 3apg, 42% from beyond the arc) and a 6’3” senior Kevin Egee (14ppg)

 

- We must take care of the ball or they will run off our turnovers and kill us in transition.

- We must continue to play good defense that we’ve been playing and continue to rebound like we have been.

- We must shoot much better if we are really want to challenge their defense. This team is no Columbia and they will look to put some points on the board (a type of game we are much better equipped to play this season). They would rather play in the 70’s and 80’s rather than 50’s and 60’s.

 

Link to the Penn message board

[Dane Pound]

Interesting discussion on the Penn board about guard Harrison Gaines (#22.) They seem to be having the same debate we had last year regarding Ambrose and playing time (they want him on the floor more.) Bernardini, their leading scorer, usually starts at small forward - should be a fun matchup with Will Harris.

 

They probably won't bring them all tomorrow but Penn has us outnumber. 19 guys on their roster!

[UAalum72]

Brown waiting for real Great Danes to emerge - Gazette pregame story

UAlbany tries to learn Penn system - Times-Union

[GreatDanes06]

not bad first half. upenn went on a run near the end. turnovers were limited which is good. anyone know if danezone has improved? solid game from harris and ambrose so far. Need to improve the rebounding.

[DanesRGood]

not bad first half. upenn went on a run near the end. turnovers were limited which is good. anyone know if danezone has improved? solid game from harris and ambrose so far. Need to improve the rebounding.

 

Check the other thread. Dan Zone is down. At least now it says, "currently unavailable due to technical issues".

[I rock(ed) the Cape]

Good win tonight....team played solid D and Raffa was money in the 2nd half...

[danes05]

Just got back from the game. Very nice win. I was really unhappy with our inability to beat the Penn press. I have to think that the inbounds will be a part of the upcoming practices, because we looked lost out there. Otherwise, a good showing I thought.

[nysteve661]

nice solid win. looks like Raffa will get alot more minutes than Johnson after this showing. I mentioned about a week and a half ago that we could win 5 in a row before the Siena game and with only a home game against Bryant (lets

not mention trap game) we should be 5 and 2 . this team is looking better each game and the 4 games after Siena are

winable too. we could be rounding into shape by January 1st just like coach wants.

 

P.S. college hoops.net predicted Hartford would win the AE and head to the NCAA's in their bracketology. Hartford

was blown out by 40 against Niagara and now are 1 and 5 i believe

[GeogPlanner]

Good game despite the little hiccup in the first half. I was a little dissapointed that Raffa missed the two foul shots but was quite impressed by the end of the night with his performance. The occassional tight D from Penn seemed to throw us off here and there, but that's usually the case. As for Harris, I'm still on the fence about him. I think he'll be a solid player by mid season.

[I rock(ed) the Cape]

Speaking of free throws, anyone know whats up with Timmy from the line this year?? He shot 82 percent last year, and after tonight he'll probably be below 50 percent for this year. He is a fantastic player, and I am looking forward to phenomenal things from him the rest of the year, but I hope he figures out the FT situation soon...

[Dane Pound]

I was thinking the same thing about Ambrose' free throw shooting. He was practically automatic last year. Still he put on a heck of a show. I'll have to watch his one drive to the hoop where he went by three or four guys.

 

Great night for Raffa tonight. I like the four guys we put in double figures (Raffa, Ambrose, Connelly and Harris) with Gifford rebounding is a nice combination. I didn't think we made great decisions in a lot of situtations, the press at the end of the game was a prime example but there were many others.

 

I really like McRae but he's got to stop with the quick threes.

 

Jerel Hastings really showed his value to this team tonight. He seemed to know just what we needed when he went out on the floor and gave it to us. He and Allen gave some great minutes in the second half.

[OrangeDane]

Very impressive win for a young team this early on...Ambrose had a great game with some of his penetrations reminding me of Jamar...he really seems to be getting his feet under him and his on court demeanor/mentality seems more "take charge" as he gains confidence it seems game to game...Raffa was also outstanding I thought his 3 from deep in the corner early in the 2nd half was a real momentum turner..I thought the defense was generally excellent...with a couple of notable exceptions/breakdowns, one of which was a telegraphed back door play off an inbounds that I thougt poor Will was gonna have a stroke over because no one picked it up...as others said they need to work on how they manage the press but I think some of that can be attributed to team chemistry that is still evolving, guys still don' know where other guys are gonna be...but...over all the team is in real good spot right now...and...they sure are fun to watch!!!

[Clickclack]

First of all....I think the team is coming together very very nicely in the early going. I'm very encouraged....they seem to be making steps in the right direction and are better with each passing game. Today they were challenged especially down the stretch by a very fundamentally sound Penn team and they never lost their composure.

 

- Defense, I thought this game was our best defensive effort on the season. Yes, there were a few defensive breakdown especially when Penn kept running off screens and Giff was (I felt, even though he did get 2 blocks and 7 boards along with 2 assists) defensive sub par in the first half but overall I thought this was a GREAT defensive effort. We limited Penn to 37% from the field and 23% beyond the arc, what more could we have wished for? Even when our offense struggles, I feel very strongly after watching tonight game that our D will keep us in most games. This team seems to be getting IT....what it needs to do on the defensive end to be successful. That's awesome to see this early in the season.

 

- Offense, incredible game by Anthony, very strong showing by Timmy, Will and Brian. Jerel was aggressive, especially with the slam instead of laying it up. Overall a very good offensive effort. We shot 50% from the field even though I felt Penn played good D. Even though Will 'only' had 14 points, I feel like he played a great game as he was matched up most of the night on Penns best player (Bernardini) 9 of his 19 points came from the stripe and we limited him to 4-10 shooting from the field. Very strong game by Will on both ends...although he did get ripped by Coach Brown on that long inbound pass. Good thing the kid has the personality to take it and learn from it. Great character guy, you could hear him talking and yelling all game long.

 

Really allot to like with this team and where we are at.

 

- We did a good job limiting our TO's (12)

- We had a big rebounding edge (out rebounded them by 11) and we played great D

- And we shot 50% from the field which limited their breakout opportunities.

 

I gotta be honest, when I was reviewing the schedule and making my pre-season predictions. I had this one pegged as a loss. Up to this point I was 5 of 5 on the season. I'm glad to say that I am now 5 of 6. The coaching staff has done a great job with this group, they deserve a ton of credit.

 

- Why did Mike only play 5 minutes in this one? I know he lost his guy coming down the court and the PG (who is one heck of a freshmen) drained a 3, he then compounded that mistake by taking an ill advised shot on the offensive end. Is that the reason he sat or was there an injury or something? We really could have used another ball handler at the close of the game. And please.....we gotta be able to handle the press better, this has got to be a point of emphasis in practice IMO. We looked real shaky! As we know Siena is gonna press and trap the hell out of us.

 

 

On to Bryant!

[alum73]

Bosi,

We out rebounded them by 3 not 11 and IMO Gifford had a good defensive first half and a pretty good game in total. All the guys have a defensive mistake at times. Sometimes because of too much aggression, and other times by not communicating and helping. It does appear to be getting better each game though.

[Clickclack]

Bosi,

We out rebounded them by 3 not 11 and IMO Gifford had a good defensive first half and a pretty good game in total. All the guys have a defensive mistake at times. Sometimes because of too much aggression, and other times by not communicating and helping. It does appear to be getting better each game though.

 

alum,

 

Both Yahoo and ESPN boxscores show UA with 36 total rebounds rebounds and Penn with 25 rebounds.