Dane Pound

Congrats to the Hartford women's team on their first win of the season (1-28) over Stony Brook.

{not an excuse}

Healy, 41 points in 33 minutes in the first UML game.

Healy, 2 points in 27 minutes in this UML game. 

He didn't look that much different on the court but there's obviously something going on.

[end not an excuse]

UMBC loses at home to Bing? Does anyone actually want that fourth seed?

20 minutes ago, Dane96 said:

Craziest thing- this year is 100x more disappointing than last.  Maddening is a good description.  

Bad Coaching in the Player Development Category

Unfortunate Injuries

Lazy off-season for some-  If 75% of this team did what Hutch did in showing up early, working hard, wanting to gym rat / film study...this team would be alone in 2nd place.

Lack of Basketball IQ

You can probably throw roster construction in there also.

We brought in multiple forwards when we need another guard who can create. Not sure how many games this cost us. Granted the Anderson injury didn't help but it was a thin line to begin with. 

3 hours ago, BestDaneSinceHamlet said:

Another small forward? I dont get it.  

 

http://verbalcommits.com/players/jakorie-smith

 

Other places list him as a PF which makes more sense. Seems a little Garcia for Stony Brook as an undersized PF.

We're also listed as having interest in Arecko Gibson, a guard who attends the same JUCO.

That's the same Junior College where DJ Evans played and now coaches.

6 hours ago, UA'08 said:

You are banking on someone that’s coming off of ACL surgery. At this point I would just put a giant question mark by Anderson’s name for next year. So pretty much have a giant question at the PG spot! 

I feel the same way but am hoping for the best. We were actually in a similar spot when Jamar had season-ending surgery one year and then came back strong.

7 hours ago, UA1882 said:

Also I did not want to respond in the recruiting thread but someone said Hansen should have been starting week 1. I will majorly disagree (but in a good way). He has improved a ton. He was terrible the first 10 games. Shot like 25 percent and turned the ball over a ton, was never in the right position . He has 100 percent learned to play in the system and his thriving.  Good for him.

 

Totally agree with this. There was interview with Hansen of the weekly basketball show and he talked a little about how much he's learned over the course of the season.

Funny the difference a week makes. Last week we were coming off the win at Maine with two homes games and thoughts about sneaking into the two seed. This week is widespread panic.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with French. They've been all over the place with him - either he starts or doesn't get off the bench at all. I thought he was OK the other night. I can see why Dslyank and someone on staff liked him enough to recruit him. He moves well and has some semblance of a post-up game. I thought he rushed the shots he got, which was weird because I didn't think UNH had anyone on the court who could really contest him. He grabbed a couple of nice rebounds but is going to get bullied in the post on the defensive end. I'd like to see him paired up with Hansen in the front court with Lulka and Hank coming off the bench to back them up.

I keep waiting for Lulka to be the guy he was last year but I'm not sure it's going to happen.

I like Rizzuto for what he can do but I really don't like him playing at the SF spot for extended periods. It makes us really small and vulnerable to getting posted up which happened several times again UNH. 

10 hours ago, dslyank said:

Like I said in another  post: Give FRENCH  a shot. Can't do any worse (at least offensively) than what we've been getting all year.

They listened to you.

We are wandering through the desert right now. 

6 minutes ago, nysteve661 said:

This is my point about the coaching.  The article says teams are challenging UA to go inside cause they know they can't and the scouting says so.  And Hank says it's something they need to look at and they are working on some things to switch it up.  Coaches, it's game 28 today.  Been a problem all season.  We wait till now to switch it up?  Isn't that what the OOC is for?  I know they don't have stud low post players that can back down a defender so once a game we get a pick and roll for a dunk.  Then the defense changes to stop it and we have no answer and up goes the threes the rest of the game.  JMO

This is true but I don't think things are a straight line. 

There have been times when we've done it better and gone away from it. Certainly needs to be a point of emphisis again. UMBC was pretty much daring us to do and we only did it after timeouts when we had a play drawn up.

9 minutes ago, UA'08 said:

 who said they got banned lol. since 05 I have probably only seen one person get banned.

Not sure anyone did. There was some speculation so I just wanted to clarify.

Glad there is only two days after the UMBC debacle to play another game. Hopefully wipe away the memory of that game.

Encouraging that we're looking to go inside more. 

2 hours ago, Dane06grad said:

 

As for Eli and Click... As far I know no one banned them. They can begin posting again whenever they want if they choose. 

This is accurate.

2 hours ago, UA'08 said:

I believe there’s more to it than just counting your NCAA tournament appearances if you want to build a program with sustained success year after year. Our NCAAs where great and fun, but looking back I’d take 2 straight regular season conference championships instead of winning the 11/12 and 12/13 conf tournament. Yes that sounds crazy, but I’d think that would have done better for the program in the long run. 

You've said this before and you're certainly entitled to your opinion but I don't buy it. 

If you look at what men's basketball programs have done in their first 20 years of turning D1, you're not going to find another one that has gone to 5 NCAA tourneys. 

2 minutes ago, UA'08 said:

And being unprepared falls on...

you got it the coaching staff

It's pretty much on everyone but yeah. Not sure if we thought because we beat UMBC on the road that we couldn't lose to them at home. If we did, we better get over that by Saturday.

6 minutes ago, McFan said:

Can someone smarter than me explain the end of the first half?  
 

First w Hanks on the line shooting a 1 and 1 we have nobody rebounding?  Nobody?

Then with fouls to give we and 5 seconds left we let a guy into the lane to score?  Why didn’t we foul?

I know I'm not smarter than you so there's no way I can explain it. There were a ton of moments that made no sense.

UMBC is improving as the season goes on but we looked woefully unprepared tonight. It looked like we were handed a rubik's cube every time we came down on offense and had no idea how to solve it.

Sounds like we'll have Healy back and healthy for this game. Glad to see because we'll need him. UMBC has been looking more like the team that was picked 2nd in the preseason in the last few games.

2 hours ago, blorp said:

It was wild hearing the announcers say he has a more complete game than Lamb. Wonder how the naysayers felt about that?

 

Ha! I heard that too. 

I was thinking of the difference between last season's Ahmad Clark and this seasons. Maine threw a bunch of different things at him yesterday - double teaming as soon as he got across half-court, etc. Last year's Ahmad probably would have just hoisted some shots from five feet beyond the three point line. Yesterday he was more poised, trusted his teamates and racked up the assists. He's currently 4th in the conference in scoring and 5th in assists.

Just watched the replay.

Great to see Healy back. Lulka looked a little more like himself in this game. I liked the combo of Lulka and Hansen together.

Ahmad looked like he was going around pylons instead of Maine defenders. A lot of turnovers but otherwise, he was amazing to watch.

Kind of a workman-like win but much needed to stay in a good position.

And, of course, Hartford who was 10 seconds from beating Vermont, and then beat us, loses at home, to UMass-Lowell.

We have an offer our to Manel Ayol, a 6'7 wing from Western Wyoming Community College. Originally from Australia.

They fought hard. This has been the weirdest season in terms of guys getting hurt.

Going to be a tough turnaround for Maine - Ahmad, Rizzuto and Malachi played virtually the entire game.

Congrats to Ahmad Clark on becoming the 12th UAlbany player to score 1,000 points.

Penn State is ranked this year. Was looking at them and realized their senior class is the same group that we beat when we played down there. They were freshman and it was during Cremo and Nichols soph years.

Not shooting much better from 3. Don't think we subbed a guard in that first half.

Also an offer to Dakari Johnson at Cape Fear Community College. He's a freshman so it would hopefully be a situation like Ahmad where he'd come for three years.

Verbal Commits has Albany offering Howard College guard Eric Reed Jr.