Dane Pound

A couple of pics from the SU game. Too bad there's not one of the Zoellner's block against Warrick on his dunk attempt. He'll be talking about that next year when Warrick is in the NBA.

I was thinking the same thing this morning Dane96. Looks like he jumped a little too quick and it would have been better for everyone had he stayed. For the second game in a row Jamar was able to get into the lane against a Big East backcourt. He had a couple of offensive fouls but I thought the aggressiveness was great. They were saying on the radio when he gets into the lane he's got to stop and take the 5 footer instead of trying to go to the hoop and getting the charge. Of course, he's not likely to see a frontline that quick that can get in front of him for the rest of the year. Also Zoellner and Wyatt when he was in sounded like they really went hard to the basket. Zoellner went to the foul 8 times which is a good sign although he didn't know many down. The Danes actually went into the dome and shot more free throws than Syracuse.

I thought this was based on the quotes in yesterday's paper. Someone was telling me today that Brennan was actually upset over things Brown said on Wyland's radio show. I didn't hear what was said on the show but I doubt they were as bad as Brennan is making them out to be.

Enough appetizers - just bring on the main course-Syracuse Post-StandardMissed opportunity-TU Danes lose game, Iati-Troy Record SU loses Watkins to a thumb injury-Syracuse Post Standard Boeheim Post Game Quotes-SU site

Not to beat the moral victory thing to death. Middle Tennesse is a pretty good SunBelt team picked to win their conference. This game bumped our ranking up a couple of spots.

No mention of the specifics with Dyson but I have to say I like how Brown is doing this. Not letting guys slide by academically. I'm curious how this works though. Does Dyson get this year of eligibility back or is it lost because he's already played a couple games?

I spoke with Don Ostrom about the Hall of Fame Club thing for Thursday. He said people who went with me and my season tickets could get into the Hall of Fame room because I'm a Varsity Club member. Hopefully this clears things up a little. As with all things new there may be a few problems the first time out.

From the Cherry Hill Courier Post: Camden Catholic scored the first 24 points of the game and then went to record a 74-47 win over Bishop McDevitt. The 3-0 Irish were led by Brian Connelly's 20 points and 19 points from Anthony Matera.

Scouting report: Danes not shy about shooting-Syracuse Post StandardDanes have juices flowing-TU Danes still not at full force for SU-Troy Record Mike Waters' game preview - SU vs. Albany-Syracuse Post Standard Trio upgrades talent for Great Danes-Syracuse Post Standard

A very good, very sad story about Stacy Johnson in today's TU. Enduring toughest loss of all-TU

Thanks Olddog. I'll keep trying to do my best with the board. The area's best Division I program should have the best message board, shouldn't they? Have a great holiday.

Just thought I'd share some of the highlights from the Nova board. If nothing else they know who Lucious Jordan is now. ncaaball ------------------------------------------------------------------------ anybody see the game? why the terrible defense? LetsGoNova ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was more a case of excellent shooting than terrible defense. Albany is one of the top 3-pt shooting teams in the nation and showed why. Don't jump to conclusions based upon a point total. Wildcat02 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ absolutely - Albany is the #2 3-point shooting team in the NATION and Lucious Jordan is ranked #6 in that category individually. Let's look at the bright side - we beat the best three-point shooting team we'll see all year (most likely) by 14 points. shooter15 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Albany is a low-level D-1 school you can't be happy with a 14 point win against them I don't care how good of a 3-point shooting team they are. Nova should be 20-25 points better than them TG77 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Give Albany some credit. Everytime it appeared we would pull away and get a 14 to 16 point lead, they would hit a couple of threes and narrow the margin. I thought overall we played okay but still no inside game. 72 points from Ray, Foye and Sumpter and most of those on the perimeter. Without some semblance of an interior game, we will struggle all season. Tyracho ------------------------------------------------------------------------ According to PhillyNews the Cats stunk up the place defensively. They showed little enthusiasm and hustle and acted as if all they had to do was show up. Hopefully this won't be the case in BE wars or "fuggeddaboutit". When your three big men(Fraser, Austin and Sheridan) take 4 shots the whole game, you better hope your 3's are hitting. How the hell are they gonna win with this agenda? LGBlue ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We are not going to win anything worth talking about without an inside game. We need to keep giving Sheridan and Austin as many minutes as possible, pound it inside when possible, and hope Fraser gets really healthy for this to happen. Charles is a nice guy but 10 minutes 0 boards and 3 fouls against Albany basically indicates his ability to contribute in BE games. Which leads to my favorite... vnovacat24 We should have held Albany to 40 pts and beaten them by 30... Reply ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I will never understand statements like these... WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!! WE WON THE DAMN GAME FOR KRIST SAKE!! YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME WANT TO VOMIT. What is the big deal if we gave up 70 pts. Many many college teams average over 70 pts a game, including what we would consider cupcake teams. To say we should hold a team to a certain amount of pts, or we should win by a certain amount of pts and then say we are in trouble bc we didn't win by that margin is so foolish, especially if we ended up winning the game! I was at the Monmouth game a couple weeks back. At the 1st half buzzer we were up seven, and this moron sitting behind me said, "I can't believe we are only up 7 at half time to freakin Monmouth, we suck." I wanted to turn around and knock him upside his head. By that same logic, Syracuse (a top 10 team nationally) must suck also, because they were only ahead 1 pt at halftime against Cornell. Most of you people KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about these schools that play in the non-major conferences. MONMOUTH was a NCAA tournament team last year. We weren't. You see a school like Monmouth, Albany, Winthrop, Santa Clara, Wichita St, Yale, St. Francis (NY), etc, etc, on our schedule and ASSUME it should be a 20-30 pt win. THAT IS JUST PLAIN DUMB! College Basketball is such a crazy game, and that's what makes it so great. How many points should UNC have beaten Santa Clara by? Well, Santa Clara won that game easily. Wichita St. and Winthrop both won on the road at Providence. Yale took BC to double overtime. St Francis (NY) lost to Seton Hall by 1 pt. I could go on and on with examples like this. My main point is, do some research on these smaller schools before you make ridiculous comments saying we shoulda won by this, and our defense sucked because we let them score a certain amount of points. Albany's roster is filled with sharpshooters, guys that live on draining the 3 ball. Alot of their 3's last night according to the radio broadcast "rattled in." "Albany is a low-level D-1 school you can't be happy with a 14 point win against them I don't care how good of a 3-point shooting team they are. Nova should be 20-25 points better than them." -this is just another mind-boggling comment. We can't be happy with a 14 pt win over them?!?! I DON'T BELIEVE WHAT I AM READING. Ok, shooter. So, because we didn't win by 20-25 pts we shouldn't be happy with our 14 pt victory. Let me use Syracuse as an example again, because they are a consensus Big East favorite and top 10 team nationally. How much should Syracuse have beaten Colgate and Cornell by?!?!? 30!? 40!? 50 even!? Well guess what, they beat both of those teams by only 13 pts. Does this mean Syracuse is in trouble?> Does this mean they are doomed for the rest of the season?! I don't THINK SO. Do you care to take back your ridiculous comment now, shooter? -if you want to say we are in trouble because we have a lacking inside game, or because we lack depth or whatever that's fine. But please stop saying that we will be in trouble or we suck or whatever it is you people think because of the result of one game that we "shoulda won by 25," but instead won by 14.

Nice sign of respect, although...3 of the teams in the top 25 were ranked lower than us at the end of last year. UMass is also picked higher, a team Albany beat on the road.

Connelly had 16 pts and one his teamates went banannas. Camden Catholic wins in a Rout-Courier Post

From the sounds of the article redshirting Lillis is off the table as was discussed right after the injury. Great to hear that his wrist has recovered so well. I either had visions of sugar plums dancing in my head this morning or I wasn't awake yet. Iati will practice on Sunday in a limited basis. Chance he'll play against Syracuse and a chance that he'll be redshirted for the year. If he plays next Tuesday can he still redshirt? He's played six games already which I thought was the limit.

Thanks Patch. Happy holidays to you and yours as well.

Story in today's TU- Danes move ahead with confidence. Lillis could return in time for the BU game. No word about Iati although I remember them saying he would be reevaluated over the weekend.

Thanks LetsGoNova. Good luck to Villanova the rest of the way. Two of the things that struck me listening to the game last night. One was it sounded like Nova had trouble keeping Jamar out of the lane. Great to see higher level guards have trouble with him as well. He will get his points and cause problems for the opposing defense no matter who we play. The other was the play of Brent Wilson. Alot of times we get exicted about our freshman when they have good games against teams like Army or UMBC. Brent had the best game of his 8 game old career against a team with a very solid Big East frontcourt. It didn't sound like he was intimidated or out of his league at all last night. I share Statefan's thoughts about the Wyatt dunk. Not to do a Chris Wyatt retrospective but he's had several moments like that through his career. The other moment I enjoyed last night was when Brent Wilson nailed that 3 to make it a five point game with a couple of minutes left. Even through the radio you could hear the air being let out of the Pavillion a little. Much better than the party time atmosphere we've provided for power conference opponents the last few years.

UAlbany scares Villanova-Times Union Danes play well in loss to 'Nova-Troy Record This from the Villanova site: Wildcats Send Great Danes to Doghouse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Craig Dimitri VUSports.com Senior Writer Villanova had some trouble in sending the Albany Great Danes to the doghouse on Wednesday night, 86-72, at the Pavilion. However, the Wildcats ultimately sent the Main Line crowd back scurrying to the King of Prussia Mall to finish Christmas shopping, secure in the knowledge that 'Nova is slowly - but surely - priming up for the Big East campaign. Three Wildcats had tremendous performances. Curtis Sumpter finished with 23 points and nine rebounds on 8-12 shooting. Randy Foye also registered 23 points, on 8-15 shooting, including 4-8 from beyond the arc. Finally, best of all, Allan Ray rocked the Pavilion for 26 points to join the 1,000 point club. For Albany, Jamar Wilson finished with 19 points to lead the way, Lucious Jordan contributed 16 points, and freshman Brent Wilson scored 15 points, including five triples. Villanova displayed a remarkable holiday spirit to their guests from Albany, surrendering an appalling 72 points. That may not sound so bad in absolute terms, but when you take into consideration that the Wildcats entered the game as the most miserly Scrooges in the nation, ranked first nationally in both points allowed and field goal percentage defense - well, that's disappointing. Moreover, the Wildcats had yet to allow more than 53 points in a game. How did it happen? Basically, unconscious outside shooting from Albany. The Great Danes growled their way to a shocking 52% from three point range and an impressive 54% overall. It was bound to happen, sooner or later. Albany hung around a lot longer than it should have. After Villanova zoomed out to a 28-18 first-half lead, the Great Danes pulled to just 33-32 at intermission. Villanova once again appeared to have the game in hand, after Ray canned a three roughly midway through the second half to give 'Nova a 68-50 lead. However, the Great Danes were as close as 73-68 with less than five minutes to play, after Wilson made yet another three-pointer. Fortunately, the 'Cats were able to repel the Great Danes' charge, winning by double-digits - Villanova won the rest of the game 13-4. Villanova improved to 5-1 overall, winning its fourth straight game. The Wildcats haven't lost since December 4, to Temple at the Palestra. Albany fell to 4-4 overall. The Great Danes are currently engaged in a highly arduous road trip, as Albany just played its seventh road game (out of eight total). The trip will also continue with (gulp) a visit to the Carrier Dome on Tuesday. While Albany was only slightly better competition than the UMBC team Villanova crushed in the season opener, the Great Danes still provided some drama as to the outcome. The Retrievers were picked to finish 10th in the ten-school America East conference, while Albany was a marginally better 8th. (Vermont, the alma mater of former Villanova mentor Rollie Massimino, was favored to finish first.) Albany is coming off a calamitous season in which the Great Danes went 5-23 overall, 3-15 America East, finishing dead last. By Albany standards, they have had a decent season, losing their only home game against Long Island in overtime. Moreover, the Great Danes have BLOWOUT victories at Sacred Heart, Siena (its crosstown opponent), and Army, winning each by 18 points or more, as well as a 12 point victory at Hartford. This was the first-ever meeting between the schools, which was not surprising in light of the fact that the Great Danes have only competed in Division I, since the 1999-2000 season. Entering the game, Albany had posted a not unimpressive 4-16 record against schools currently in the Big East (although not necessarily as Big East members). However, since Albany joined Division I in the 21st century, the Great Danes have challenged Big East opponents on four prior occasions, three of them against Syracuse. They have never come closer than 19 points in any of them. The best showing they have managed was a 79-60 loss, at the RAC to Rutgers on Valentine's Day, 2000. However, the Great Danes were obviously hopelessly outgunned and on the road in three of those four games. Syracuse actually came to the Pepsi Arena to play Albany in 2001, winning 91-65; it was probably a 3-for-1 deal since Albany has gone to the Carrier Dome twice and will be there again next week. It seems possible, based on tonight, that the Great Danes might have more success against the Orangemen than in the past. Albany is, quite simply, a work in progress. The head coach, Will Brown, is just 33 and already in his fourth season at the helm. Worth noting: Will Sheridan and Great Dane freshman Joe Dyson were high school teammates at Delaware's Sanford School; Great Danes tri-captain Christopher Wyatt is from the Philadelphia area; he played at Montgomery County's Hatboro-Horsham High. Ray Watch: The junior guard finally attained the millenial milestone, exploding for 26 points on 10-16 shooting. He is the first Wildcat to join the club since Ricky Wright. The Wildcats continue this long homestand, when MTSU arrives at the Pavilion right after Christmas. Merry Christmas.

That third foul on Jamar was tough. Playing tough and shooting well. Keep it up Danes!

I admit I haven't followed Villanova too much this year and they haven't played in a while. A few things I saw that were interesting on their game notes: -I don't if they started him all year but they're starting a 7 footer against us. Probably to Zoellner's benefit as he seems to have trouble with the smaller, quicker post players. -They've won a couple of games by 20+ points but only have 8 guys with stats. Are the other three guys walk-ons? I know they've had some injury problems. Judging by some of the posts on the Villanova message board and past experience the Wildcats will probably try to take Albany's leading scorer out of the game, in this case Lou Jordan. I have a hard time picturing anyone muscling Jordan around. I agree with GoDanesGo about the scoring. Not that I'm necessarily predicting a win, but with Wilson, Jordan and Levi out there this team should be able to put up points against anyone. I think our guards can hold their own but Nova's frontcourt is big, strong and athletic. Hopefully Zoellner has a big night on both ends of the court.

Wyatt looking for more time-TU UAlbany looking for early X-mas gift-Troy Record

More fun with the Pomeroy numbers. We are ranked ahead of 3 Atlantic 10 teams and 1 Conference USA team (Tulane). Ahead of two CUSA teams if you use the Sagrin numbers. Means nothing, but it's fun.

Hopefully I'm not contributing to the hype which we are being accused of over on the AE Board. This looks like a great recruiting job and that the staff really got who they wanted. Last year they brought in two players, Lillis and Brent Wilson, from one of the top AAU teams in the country and have done the same thing this year with Covington. To bring in this quality of recruits on a consistent basis is something we could have only dreamed about a few years ago. I don't know too much about the Chicago hoops site but they had Covington listed as one of the top post prospects in Illinois. Earlier this summer they had said he was one of the most physical players in the state.

In addtion to the food there will also be complimentary beer and wine. Very nice. I'll be curious to see how this works. If you're a varsity club member and a season ticket holder does it mean everyone who goes to the game with your season ticket can get into the Hall of Fame room? Or is it just the person that's a Varisty Club member who can get in and the rest of your party has to wait outside?