Dane Pound

I think headlines like the Record's might contribute to Albany regaining the #1 Party School ranking if taken out of context.

Interesting to read the AE Board this morning. Vermont fans are looking past their game with Maine this weekend to the home game with us next week. Bing fans are looking for revenge and a shot at first on the 29th. Probably now after BU more than at the beginning of the season teams are circling the Albany game on their schedule.

I think that poll was based on the assumption Kevin Reed would be returning for Maine. They certainly aren't the same team without him.

Good story in today's Philly Daily News about Mike Yocum. Yocum delivers for Episcopal. Yocum delivers for EpiscopalBy TED SILARYsilaryt@phillynews.comTV CAMERAS were not on hand to record the moment. No microphones were thrust in his face. For Gerald Henderson (Duke)? Yes, and then some. For Wayne Ellington (North Carolina)? Ditto in bold relief. But when the third heralded basketball-playing member of Episcopal Academy's senior class last fall announced his college decision (Albany), he moseyed down the low-key path. He answered a few questions over the phone, mostly expressing relief that the recruiting process had halted and that he was completely comfortable with his choice, and then got back to improving his game. Say hello to Mike Yocum. He's not Gerald. He's not Wayne. But his value is high and his contributions run the gamut from little to big. In saunalike conditions in front of a turnaway crowd at Philadelphia University, the 235-pound Yocum last night stood at least as tall as his 6-9 height as Episcopal edged Roman Catholic, 49-48, in a battle between everybody's top two teams - this week, at least - in the city. Aside from leading all participants in points (14), rebounds (12) and even dunks (three), Yocum wound up contributing a crucial point with 56.8 seconds remaining. Much happened thereafter, but the free throw was important because Yocum had just missed the front end of the double-bonus, and had reacted by snapping away his head in disgust, and Roman's crazed student spectators, camped out on the stage, were razzing him even harder. "They have great fan support,'' Yocum said, pleasantly. "They were tough on me, but I love playing in front of those kinds of crowds. There's nothing better than walking out with a win, and silencing them. "They can talk and yell. I'll talk and yell with my play and the scoreboard.'' Yocum's free throw made it 48-45. Roman's Bradley Wanamaker nailed a right-wing trey, then Ellington, like Yocum, converted the back end of a double-bonus at 38.1. In a wild, make-the-blood-pump sequence, Wanamaker missed about a 17-foot jumper on the left baseline, teammate Mike Ringgold rebounded, Raymond "Doodles'' Sims missed a right-wing trey, the Cahillites rebounded again (Wanamaker) and time was called at :07.9. Final possession: Wanamaker, already a jump shooter of much renown, tried about another 17-footer, this time on the right baseline. It... went... oh!... in and out. Yocum slapped the ball out of harm's way as the buzzer sounded. "The first option was for Mike to curl down from the post,'' said Roman coach Dennis Seddon. "They took that away. A jumper for Brad was the second option.'' That response to a question came from Seddon after he offered a comment. "When you shoot 4-for-19 from the foul line, you can talk until you're blue in the face but you don't deserve to win.'' It was one of those nights. Even the coach was guilty of a "miss.'' Roman was 4-for-20 at the hardly charity stripe. Three of the makes came in the fourth quarter. But so did seven of the misses. As the third quarter ended, Roman was up, 40-35. Brian Wanamaker, Bradley's twin, went to the line with four-tenths left with a chance to provide a seven-point lead. No go. Part of pattern. Roman missed a purple-and-golden chance to knock off the second of everybody's preseason Twin Towers. Neumann-Goretti was conquered last week in Catholic South play. N-G, meanwhile, will meet Episcopal at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Palestra. The game will be shown on ESPN2. "I don't know any of the guys from Roman,'' Yocum said, "but I'm pretty sure after beating Neumann there was nothing they wanted more than to beat us, too. Hopefully, we're where we belong now.'' Yocum shot 6-for-13 and 2-for-4. Ellington managed 12 points, eight boards, two assists and three steals while Henderson had nine points and six blocks. Somehow, despite his head-hit-the-ceiling leaping skills, he went without a rebound (three total) until the final minute of the third quarter. Hard-nosed little guys Tim Ivory (eight points, three assists) and Charlie Barks (six boards, strong defense on Sims) were more than extras. Yocum, a fifth-year senior, attended Tamaqua, in Schuylkill County, through 2004. "A lot of people from my old high school said I was crazy to go to Episcopal because I'd never get [shooting] looks. But playing with Wayne and 'G' is great. I'll say it a million times, they're two of the most unselfish players I've ever met. Points are the last of their concerns. All they care about is winning. "The fact that they're so good makes me better. If they penetrate and my guy steps up to help, they know they can kick it to me and... '' Pause. "Hopefully, I'll finish with a dunk. I like my percentages dunking a lot better than laying up. If I go up for layups, sometimes I go up a little soft. But if I have that mind-set that I'm going to dunk, I'll try going through all five people if I have to.'' When given a choice of good or medium to describe himself as a foul shooter, Yocum smiled and said, "Improving.'' He shot 50 percent last season, he added, and then made a slight alteration to his delivery and invested countless hours in trying to, well, improve. Last night? Two-for-four. We believe that's 50 percent. Wound up being acceptable, though.

Terriers dogged by Danes: BU falls to 1st-place Albany-Boston Herald Upstart Albany takes a bite out of Terriers-Boston Globe Danes enjoy view-TU

Awesome win! Levi was killing me with those missed free throws at the end but they pulled it out. We are rolling-longest winning streak in D-1 history!

Just wanted to invite everyone into the chat room for the second half.

On lax.com has the Scoobies at #15. Surprised to see John Hopkins down to 5.

Danes have ironed out the kinks-Troy Record Terriers have lost bite-TU

Good story in today's paper about the BU game tomorrow. Danes face defining game -TU

She played in six games this year which I think is the max to still redshirt. Hopefully she makes a full recovery and comes back strong next year. There's a story about here redshirting in today's TU. Thrower redshirted-Times Union

I was hoping with the 15 point halftime lead they would come out strong in the second half and put the game away so the starters could get some rest for BU. That was not to be as Lillis, Jamar and Brent all played more than 30 minutes. Kinda ugly win but I'll take it. Levi came up with some big shots and overall played really well. Excellent job GoDanesGo with singing for Connelly's birthday. We could hear you up in 200 pretty well so I'm sure they heard you on the court. Also nice to meet Olddog last night at the game. I thought there was a decent crowd there last night. Surprised to see only 1500 in the box score.

Big Red falls at Albany-Ithaca Journal Half is plenty for the Danes-TU

In a perfect world I also would have liked to see the bench emptied the last minute or so of the game. I do have to say that 20 point blowout wins have been extrodinarily rare over the past 5 years so it's not suprising that Coach Brown doesn't have a system in place to handle them. I'm hoping he gets lots of experience managing them from now through late March.

Cornell Basketball Message Board

GoDanes is right on his game. It's Connelly's birthday today and he's 19 today. Just having a little fun. I agree with you Reeder. This looks like a classic trap game. Hopefully those losses early in the season taught this team not to look past anybody.

According to the story in the Ithaca Journal they got one of their big guys back a couple of games ago and have played better recently. Hopefully with the short turnaround from Saturday's game our depth can help out tonight. Also hopefully the distraction of the upcoming game against BU. I generally don't make statements like this but Brian Connelly 19 tonight!

Last tuneup before Ivy play for Cornell-Ithaca Journal Red-letter night for Danes' team-TU

Generally Statefan sits in the row in front of me. Last night he moved to a different section possibly because I haven't washed my Great Danes sweatshirt since the winning streak began. In any event he had a better vantage point than I did for those events involving Bafia and Brent. He has a post about what he saw on the AE Board. Since Bofia is only a freshman I don't think he'll be looking forward to his trips to Albany for the next couple of years.

Hartford women class of America East-Bing Sun Danes Dealt a Drubbing-TU UAlbany men flexing muscles-TU

Great team win tonight. We were discussing on the way home that we couldn't pick out one player who was the best tonight. Coach Brown is always saying Lillis has the highest basketball IQ on the team but if that's true Lou is a close second. He really seems to have a knack for knowing when to drive and when to pass. Crashed the boards a couple of times to get some big offensive rebounds. Lillis' stats for a PG 8 points 12 rebounds 6 assists only 1 turnover 1 steal Another great night for the Wilson twins. Jamar is making much better decisions and seems to have confidence in his outside shot again. Just curious if anyone saw what happened with Brent and Bofia. I didn't see anything that should have gotten Bofia tossed. Big crowd to see him play tonight-pretty sure because he prepped at RCA in Troy. Looks like a really good player. Considering the NFL playoffs not a bad attendance, just over 2K. I think they were saying on the news this is the second longest win streak in D-1 history. It was six games in 99-00 but I'm pretty sure on of those wins came over an NAIA school.

Scout.com lists the best (according to them) 2006 recruit in each conference. They list Brett Gifford as the best incoming recruit in the AE. Scout List.

If you don't mind listening to the Maineiacs you can catch the game on Black Bear Radio. Here's their link.

Iati learning a new role -TU

Thanks B9. I totally forgot abou the Coach Carter movie.