Dane Pound

I'm a biased Danes fan also but I remember this from last year on the women's side. Danielle Hutcheson had better stats than Kim Corbitt but Corbitt won the POY. The argument at the time was that her team won the conference and Albany was tied for fourth. You can certainly draw some parallels there between Jamar and Adeleke although their numbers are actually closer than Corbitts and Hutch's were.

I thought at one time there was a discussion about renovating the RACC when a new football stadium is built. If my memory is correct the back wall above Section 200 would be removed and attached to the new football stadium as a large concourse area. At the time I thought this left open the possibility of expanding the seating capacity to some degree.

That same exact thought came into my head this morning when I read that this morning. Did the letter writer see the program Will Brown inherited and did he turn the page to see the story where Zoellner scored 17 and Jamar 30? I always thought when you pulled a player out of game after a mistake and told him why he did something wrong that was coaching. Otherwise you might as well just roll the basketballs out during practice and let your players figure it out for themselves. McFan hit on the head-Unreal. First winning season ever, currently in first place and that's when you write the letter. The postmark on that letter might have been Clifton Park but it was sent from the Twilight Zone.

Also women on women's recruit Charity Iromyana. From the Fremont Tribune: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Northeast extends win streak By Tribune Staff LINCOLN — Lincoln Northeast’s girls extended their winning streak to 43 games on Thursday with a 74-29 victory over Fremont High. The top-ranked Rockets improved to 19-0 on the year while Fremont fell to 3-16. “They’re playing at a very high level right now,” Fremont coach Tony Weinandt said. “Their experience, athleticism and overall size, that’s why they’re where they’re at.” Fremont trailed just 13-8 at the end of the first quarter, but the Tigers were outscored 26-6 in the second period. Northeast then outscored FHS 35-15 in the second half. “I thought we came out and played hard at the start,” Weinandt said. “Then they just brought in wave after wave of people, and it’s tough to keep up with them.” Charity Iromuanya and Dominique Kelley scored 16 points apiece to lead Northeast and Amy Chapman added 10. Kelley also had six steals. Kelsey Reilly led Fremont with six points and Morgan Fedde had a team-high five rebounds. Fremont hosts Omaha South on Tuesday and closes out its regular season next Thursday at Lincoln North Star. “We’ve shown signs all year of being able to play good basketball at times,” Weinandt said. “It’s just a matter of being able to play a complete game. I think we’re capable of doing that.” Fremont won the junior varsity game 48-41. Madi Sorrick led the Tigers with 15 points and Kaitlyn Moeller scored 10. Fremont 8 6 9 6 — 29 Northeast 13 26 13 22— 74 FREMONT — Kavan 3, Weinandt 4, Bentley 4, A. Peterson 2, S. Peterson 2, Milks 4, Fedde 4, Reilly 6. NORTHEAST — Lott 2, Iromanya 16, Kelley 16, Mahlman 3, Chapman 10, Bartek 4, Dart 6, Sanchez 3, Essink 2, Quiring 4, Hahn 8.

A big win for Reid Anderson's St. Edwards team. Story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Eagles stay poised, sweep away Wildcats Saturday, February 11, 2006 Plain Dealer Reporter No, it wasn't a victory at the district, regional or state level. But to St. Edward and St. Ignatius fans, it is as big as it gets. So big that Eagles senior guard Jeff Aerni described his post-game feelings as "truly amazing." St. Edward, with Aerni playing a major role down the stretch, held off the Wildcats, 71-64, Friday night in front of a crowd of more than 2,500 at St. Ignatius' Sullivan Gymnasium. With the victory, the Eagles improved to 13-4 and swept the regular-season series from the Wildcats for the first time since 1997-98, when St. Edward brought home the Division I state bas- ketball champion ship. That season, the Eagles defeated St. Ignatius three times as the two longtime West Side rivals matched up in the state championship game. "It doesn't sum up my [school] year, but it feels great," said Aerni, who hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and was one of five Eagles in double figures. "I've been thinking about this game for months." St. Edward, ranked fifth in The Plain Dealer's Top 25 poll, came out with the hot hand and on the strength of four 3-pointers led, 24-16, after the first eight minutes. St. Ignatius (10-6), the area's 12th-ranked team, responded behind the hustle of senior post John Ryan, senior guard Rudy Kirbus and senior guard/forward T.J. DiSanto. A 3-pointer by DiSanto and a free throw by Kirbus put the Wildcats in front, 31-30, with 1:59 remaining in the first half. Keeping their composure, the Eagles answered with senior guard Reid Anderson's third 3-pointer and took a 35-31 lead to the locker room after 6-8 sophomore Delvon Roe canned two free throws. Kirbus dropped in 13 of his game-high 25 points in the first 16 minutes. "I was struggling in the first half, but coach [Eric Flannery] told me to stay confident and keep shooting," said Aerni, who scored all 13 of his points in the second half, including three 3-pointers. "They all felt good, but they weren't dropping. But I knew eventually they would." After St. Ignatius took a 52-51 lead on a three-point play by senior guard Robby Parris, Aerni followed a strong drive by Anderson with two high-arching 3-pointers that extended St. Edward's lead to seven points. Anderson led the Eagles with 17 points. A putback by Roe and two free throws by junior forward Kyle Hubbard enabled St. Edward to maintain a seven-point lead with 2:04 remaining, and the Eagles withstood 3-pointers by Parris and DiSanto. "I think this is one of those character-building games, and it builds so much confidence for us," said Flannery. "Our two seniors stepped up tonight - Reid Anderson going to the basket and Jeff Aerni knocking down those threes. It's nice when your superstar [Roe] doesn't have a great game offensively and you still find a way to win. Especially in a place like this."

You're right Voice. I meant it as more of a timetable. If he's questionable after two days hopefully with nearly a week off he will be 100%. No question about holding him out of Bracketbusters if there is any doubt. Conference games are the most important ones although the VCU game is fun for the fans.

For anyone who hasn't looked at the schedule, men's lacrosse is scheduled to open their new field on March 4th against Siena. The same day as the opening round game in the America East basketball tournament in Bing. Since we can't be in two places at once and considering VCU just moved one of their women's game to facilitate the Bracketbuster game I thought I'd throw this out there. Probably not a possibility but you never know.

Questionable is better than it sounded the other night and hopefully if he's not back on Saturday he will be against VCU. I would guess Levi would get the start in his place?

From the AE site. Danes picked third: UMBC Chosen in Men's Lacrosse Preseason Coaches' Poll BOSTON— University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) is the preseason favorite to win the America East men's lacrosse conference title this year, according to a vote of the head coaches. The Retrievers received three of six possible first-place votes and 32 points overall. Stony Brook University garnered 28 points to finish in second.Complete Poll The University at Albany, last season's conference champion, earned two first-place votes and 26 points to place third, while Binghamton University received one first-place vote and 18 points to finish in fourth. University of Vermont (14) and University of Hartford (8) rounded out the poll. The top four teams in the conference will advance to the America East Championship with the winner of the tournament receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship. UMBC (7-8 overall, 5-1 America East in 2005) finished the 2005 campaign as regular-season champions. This year, the Retrievers will be led in the attack by last season's America East Player of the Year, Bredan Mundorf (29 goals, 28 assists, 57 points) and Andy Gallagher (24 goals, 11 assists, 35 points) and defensively by seniors Luke Powell and Justin Berdeguez. Head coach Don Zimmerman enters his 12th season at the helm of the Retrievers, Zimmerman owns the nation's eighth-best winning percentage. The Retrievers will have 12 freshmen on the roster this season. UMBC was recently ranked No. 19th in Lacrosse Magazine's preseason poll. Stony Brook (10-6, 4-2) earned the No. 4 seed in the America East Championship and advanced to the title game before falling to Albany. The Seawolves are tied for 20th in Lacrosse Magazine's preseason poll, this is the highest preseason ranking in the program's history. Head coach Lars Tiffany added seven players to the roster this season after graduating nine players last spring. Stony Brook will host the 2006 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse North Quarterfinals. The Seawolves will be led by Jason Cappadoro and Adam Marksberry, both are on the starting attack unit for Stony Brook. Albany (10-6, 5-1) won its third-straight America East Championship last season with a 16-7 victory over Stony Brook. Scott Marr's team was recently ranked 18th nationally by Inside Lacrosse and Face-Off Yearbook. The Great Danes open their season against Johns Hopkins, the defending NCAA Champion. Albany is led by Merrick Thomson, last season's top scorer. Albany was recently ranked 15th in the lax.com poll. Binghamton (4-9, 4-2) finished in third-place last season and advanced the semifinal game against Stony Brook. The Bearcats only lost one starter from last season's team and add 10 new players to this season's lineup. Binghamton will be anchored in the backfield by senior goalie Kevin McKeown and senior defender Kevin Kaylor, who have helped the Bearcats produce the top-rated defense in the conference in each of the last two seasons (goals against average). McKeown was the 2004 America East Player of the Year. Vermont (4-9, 4-2) returns 34 players from last year's team, including midfielder Sean Layton, a second-team all-conference selection, senior captain Auston Humphries, as well as All-Rookie selections, Jamie Kirk and Aaron Shore. Head Coach Steve Beville also added 12 newcomers to the Catamount roster. The entire starting defensive unit from last season returns for the 2006 campaign. Hartford (2-12, 0-6) welcomes its fourth coach in as many years, Peter Lawrence comes from a three-year tenure at Elmira College. The Hawks return leading scorer Matt Holman All-Rookie selections and Brian Tilley. The America East Championship will be held May 5 and 7 with all rounds played at the No. 1 seed.

I'll be there too. It has been a long time since I've been at the Pub.

NM

Good points from Sarge and GDG. As much as I'd like to see Brown back I think it would be a tremendous distraction for them to try and negotiate a deal during the season. Especially with the ESPN game, a bunch of road games and the tourney looming. It would be a disservice to Coach Brown and the team to get involved in that now. I'm confident it will happen but should wait until after the season when there is more time and not so many other things going on. The other thing I'd like to see is to keep this staff together in it's entirety. From my vantage point Eaton, O'Donnell and Fillien have made some big strides with this group of players. It seems like when you bring new assistants in there is a substantial period of time when they have to learn the personnel and what they're capable of. It'd be great to start the season with a coaching staff that's familar with the returning players and some of the players they helped recruit.

I agree Patch although I think he's a good coach on the floor. Off the floor has been another matter unless he's mellowed greatly. Albany (or Siena for that matter) would probably lose their corporate sponsors pretty quickly if he were the face of the basketball program.

Danes hoping it's glory road-TU Danes readying for Bracket Buster-Troy Record VCU's Bracket Buster moved to next Friday-Richmond Times-Dispatch

Great idea 73. Meeting at a bar that Friday to watch the game would be a lot of fun. Especially if they serve Guiness. Better than the Superbowl as far as I'm concerned.

Their concerns about UA playing at the Pepsi Arena seem unfounded. To be perfectly honest I think I would dislike it more than they would. I actually brought some Siena season ticket holders with me to the BPG (Iknow you're all horrified). They were impressed that our seats were at half court and that they had a good line of sight. We had both talked previously about how neither of us had a good view of the foul/non-foul on Jamar Wilson at the end of the Siena-UA game because it was at the other end of the court and we were both in the far corner. Then they asked me what the tickets cost. As you would probably expect the tickets at the Pepsi are over twice as much as they are at the RACC. They were surprised to know they could get courtside tickets, premium parking and access to the HOF room for substantially less than their tickets at the Pepsi without any of those things. I'm not sure they'll be UA ticket holders next year but you could see the wheels turning. I'm not denigrating what Siena has downtown and it's a great recruiting tool for them. I'm just not pining away for the Pepsi. Not that we couldn't afford it but I'd rather donate that extra money to the University than shell it out to the Pepsi Arena.

Scoring woes drag on-TU Danes aces in drawing full house-TU From the BU site: Hassan's Career-High 19 Not Enough as Men's Hoops Falls to Albany, 71-60 ALBANY, N.Y. – Jamar Wilson scored 22 points to lead Albany to a 71-60 victory over the Boston University men’s basketball team Saturday night. The Terriers dropped their third straight game and fell to 8-14 on the season, 5-6 in the America East. League-leader Albany, which swept BU for the first time ever, improved to 14-8, 9-2. The game was played in front of 4,538, the largest crowd ever to see a college game at the Recreation and Convocation Center. Kevin Gardner scored a game-high 22 points for BU, while freshman guard Corey Hassan scored a career-high 19. Wilson, the second-leading scorer in the America East at 17.0 ppg coming in, was held to just three at halftime, but exploded for 19 in the second half. Jason Siggers added 19 for the Great Danes, all coming in the second half. “Our kids showed tremendous character tonight by not folding in the face of a hostile crowd and the way the game was going,” said BU head coach Dennis Wolff. “I thought Gardner and Hassan could not have played any better. This was Corey’s best game of the year.” Albany used a 16-0 run in the first half to take control of the game, and BU was never able to completely recover. The Terriers found themselves down 17-4 with 12:30 left in the first half after UA made seven of eight shots and BU went nearly seven minutes without scoring. Hassan ended the drought with a jumper, then scored seven consecutive points to lead a 9-0 run and bring the Terriers within four, 21-17. The Great Danes would take a 26-19 lead into the halftime locker room, as the Terriers shot just 31% (8-26) from the field in the opening 20 minutes. Albany opened the second half on a 20-6 spurt to take its largest lead of the game, 46-25 with 13:24 remaining. The resilient Terriers did not quit, however, and a Hassan 3-pointer three minutes later cut the deficit to 12, 49-37. Then, with eight minutes remaining, Albany’s Lucious Jordan fouled Brian Macon and was whistled for a technical foul after taunting Macon on the play. BU made four straight free throws and drew within seven, 53-46. A three-point play by Gardner keyed a 7-0 BU run, and the Terriers clawed even closer, 60-55 with 4:24 remaining, But a pair of 3-pointers by Siggers thwarted the BU comeback attempt, and the Terriers were sent to their fourth loss in their last five road games. Hassan’s 19 points eclipsed his previous best of 18, set against New Hampshire on Dec. 8. Hassan had been averaging just 4.7 ppg in his last three outings. Gardner reached double figures for the ninth time in his last 10 games and is averaging 16.1 ppg in that span. BU shot 40.4% from the floor, including a solid 50% (13-26) in the second half.

There was more to Levi's suspension that just the tech at Lehigh. There was some exchange with the Lehigh student section if I recall. I can't see Lu getting suspended for what happened last night. As for the bottle caps or whatever was being thrown at the BU bench. I'm not sure what happened but I was sorry to see it happen to Wolfe who seems like a classy coach. A very small percentage of the students in attendance making everyone look bad. I thought it was a nice move on Brown's part to address the crowd over the PA system.

Great info GDG. It didn't make sense to me at the time but I thought I saw a sign at the game last night welcoming Price. I'm not sure if you were involved but I wouldn't be surprised. If he was there last night I couldn't image a better atmosphere for him to get his first taste of UA.

Story on Mike Yocum's Episcopal team which cruised last night. Episcopal puts on a how-to clinic in Inter-Ac victory-Philly Daily News The good news is that Brett Gifford accounted for nearly 25% of his teams scoring the other night. The bad news is they only scored 34 points. They still won the game and are ranked #2 in Missouri. Bruins register smashmouth win over Jays, 34-24-Jefferson City News Michael Knight is averging just under 11 points a game for his Juco team. He's shooting 42% from three but only 57% from the free throw line. As far as I could find women's recruit Charity Iromuanya's team is still undefeated and ranked #1 in the state. She's averaging 12 pts a game and shooting 48% from the field, 42% from three and 73% from the line.

Six games remain for the men; hope to capitalize vs. Albany-Daily Free Press 'Growl' could be ticket-TU Danes expecting record crowd for Growl-Troy Record

" ... opposed to the cupholder idea, extra maintenance, check out the cupholders at the pepsi the next time you go there (filthy, plus their ad stickers on each are often ripped/dirty as well)" -Alumni 92 That may be true but won't happen at the RACC. A much higher class of fan than at the Pepsi.

I'm not sure where we placed in terms of attendance in the conference last year but we should be 3rd or possibly 2nd this year. It certainly should help in getting some consideration for the conference tournament. In addition to the extra seats 96 menioned I'd like to see chairbacks put in on the side aisles. Plus some cupholders!

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday but I was surprised how much buzz the ESPN game and the win over Bing created this week. Someone in my office who I don't think ever watched a college basketball game in his life watched the Brook-Albany game the other night. I had a bunch of other people stop by asking me if I was going to the Growl. Great to see the way people have responded-hopefully this is just the begininng.

Hopefully we don't need the breathing room but thanks UMBC. It was probably quite an atmosphere at the RAC last night with two of the most refined, gentlemanly coaches going against each other.