Dane Pound

Just got an email from the University asking for an evaluation of the Feast and soliciting feedback. No matter how you thought the feast went this is a nice touch. Somebody down there is really getting things going in the right direction.

I'm sure most of you saw this already. While I'm not a Giants fan this is good for the University and gets us some exposure. NY GIANTS WILL HOLD TRAINING CAMP ON UALBANY CAMPUS FOR THREE MORE YEARS By Michael Eisen East Rutherford, N.J. - The Giants today announced they have signed a new three-year contract to continue to hold their training camp at the University at Albany. The Giants have trained in Albany, about 2½ hours from Giants Stadium, since 1996. Their previous contract with the school expired after the 2003 training camp. But both sides were eager to extend the relationship. "UAlbany has been a great summer home for us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the university for many years to come," said John Mara, the team's executive vice president and chief operating officer. Tom Coughlin, who was hired last month, will become the third Giants head coach to conduct training camp in Albany, joining Dan Reeves and Jim Fassel. The school is excited about welcoming Coughlin and the entire organization for at least more three years. "I am delighted that the New York Giants football team will continue to hold their summer training camp at the University at Albany campus," said SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King. "While people are enjoying a visit to the Giants camp, I invite them to visit the campus and learn about the great strides SUNY is making in undergraduate education, research and economic development." "We welcome the entire New York Giants organization back to their summer home here in Albany and extend our warmest greetings to new Head Coach Tom Coughlin and his staff," stated Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings. "The Capital City of New York State and the UAlbany campus are appropriate locations for the training camp of our beloved New York Giants and I am looking forward to joining all the other fans to help launch a successful 2004 season for the New York Giants organization." "We are delighted that the New York Giants will continue to make UAlbany their summer home," said UAlbany Officer in Charge and Provost Carlos Santiago. "The university looks forward to welcoming the Giants' new head coach, Tom Coughlin, his staff and all the players when the camp opens at the end of July. The training camp at UAlbany has become a tradition for Giants fans everywhere and during this contract we will begin the second decade of this partnership. I wish to extend a special thanks to the Giants co-owners Wellington Mara and Robert Tisch and to the team's executive vice president John Mara for continuing this successful partnership." The players and coaches will report to Albany the last week of July. The exact date will be announced later in the off-season.

Great Danes looking for a rebound-TU. Bearcats hope to forget road trip-Press and Sun Bulletin. Road Trip Winding Down for Danes-Troy

Good story in today's TU about the Schenectady basketball program. Former Danes assistant Gary DiNola helped revive the program from the scrap heap before turning it over to Mark Sauville. Schenectady story. Also mentions $iena is recruiting one of the Schenectady players-Say it ain't so!

2nd week in a row Iati is ROW. Hutch is POW. She shot over 70% from the floor in both games. Congrats to them both!

No pictures of their mascot but I'm sure Damien the Dane will be a step up. They did make the list of best nick names in PA. I like the "Millionaires" myself-kind of understated and subtle. Here is a list of the top 10 nicknames of Pennsylvania high schools: 10. Karns City Gremlins 9. West Philadelphia Speedboys 8. Williamsport Millionaires 7. Avonworth Antelopes 6. Boiling Springs Bubblers 5. Bishop McCort Crimson Crushers 4. Benjamin Franklin Electrons 3. Cranberry Berries 2. North East Grapepickers 1. Northampton Konkrete Kids

Ayers was on Hoop Games a few weeks ago and I think she may have mentioned it then. The first I remember reading out it was in a story in the Rochester paper. Agree with the point guard assesment. I thought Stacy Johnson was brought in to help that situation. Apparently she's not the answer right now as she was the very last one off the bench in a 20 point game.

Story on Danes recruit Sherri Mikus who is near becoming her schools allt-time leader in steals, assists and scoring. Mikus story.

Sluggish Danes whipped -TU. Danes fall to UNH-Troy Record. Danes have their night-TU.

Have to say despite the outcome of the men's game I thought things went pretty well with the Growl. I don't know that this years crowd was any bigger than last years but they seemed louder. The students were great as they were during the Vermont game with "defense" chants throughout the game and not just during the last couple of minutes. The Feast went pretty well in the old gym. We were a little confused about where things were and we had some guests who met us who were confused as well. I think the wind kept blowing down the signs down telling people where the feast was. The old gym left alot more room for the kids games, the putting green and shooting some hoops. They should have had Kirsten Zoellner over there giving the kids a hand dunking. Everytime I looked over there were kids doing the activites so I guess they went over pretty well. LadyDP pointed out that it would have been great to have a closed circuit TV in the old gym showing what was going on in the RACC especially since the women's game had started before we were finished eating. I'm sure that's easier for us to think of than for someone to do. The food was good as usual. We went over between games for dessert and they had placed "dane (doggy) bags" out for people to take cookies, dessert back to the RACC, a nice idea. Have to say the feast really added to things and is worth it for anyone who hasn't tried it (this means you Statefan). I was talking with a usual $iena fan at the feast who was impressed with the Growl and said $iena really had nothing to compare. I hate to sound like a crank but I'm not sold on the band idea at the Growl. Nothing against the band, who was good, but I think alot of the feast is it being a homecoming where you see people you haven't seen in a while and chatting with them. It's kind of hard to do that with a band blaring in the background. Of course it could be that I'm getting old. When we went back the second time the band was done and I have to say it was much more condusive to conversation. Still overall a good time again.

AA5786 hold that tailgating thought until September when football season starts. Welcome to the board. I'm glad you found us. If you have any questions about how things work feel free to email me at danefan1@localnet.com. Hopefully you'll find we're a fairly friendly group who is currently enduring some lean hoop times but looking forward to a brighter future next year. I look forward to seeing you post and if you know any other Danes fans by all means let them know about us. Enjoy the board! DP

Uninspiring effort last night and I can't see why. The tone was really set in the opening couple of minutes of the game when the usual energy and effort on defense wasn't there. On "Hoop Games" Wyland mentioned that the Danes may be over-confident after beating UNH on the road this year and the last several times. Brown of course pointed out they they had only won two conference games this year and had no reason to be overconfident. I wonder if that wasn't the problem last night. The largest home crowd of the year for a game against the bottom (previously) team in the conference and the men didn't get it done. With a stretch of home games coming up it would have been great to give some first time RACC-goers a reason to come back and we didn't.

Danes to honor former player. Story on the locker room renovation, renaming and a scholarship in Mulderry's name. Should be a nice day as Mulderry's Mom is scheduled to address the crowd.

Isn't that Binnie kid going to Dayton? or is it Xavier. Either way that's pretty good competition to be playing against. Lillis is really coming on strong. Do they have a Mr. Basketball in Iowa? I'd have to think Lillis is a candidate.

Former Danes player and coach James Jones is featured in a NY Times story today. He's coaching a game against his brother, Joe of Columbia. Reportedly the first time two brothers have coached against each other in 40 years. New York Times Story.

Assuming they seed the play-in teams, Were the season to end today we would play the Brook that Friday night at the tourney. Who wouldn't mind a chance to know Nick and Co. out of the tourney? As mentioned before we are 3 losses behind Hartford (6th place) and they have home games with UMBC and UNH left on their schedule so they are probably out of reach. 7th place looks possible with UMBC and Stony Brook one game ahead of us in the standings but both with more road games than home games on their remaining schedules. 7th would give us a likely matchup with UNH which with how the Danes have played them lately would give us one happy night in Boston anyway.

UAlum72 Glad you mentioned mentioned the pre-game party at the AE tourney. I got the card last night also and was trying to figure out if we were mathmatically eliminated from 6th place. We aren't and hopefully can help ourselves on Saturday. Pretty cool of the alum to spring for the food and drinks for the party in Boston.

After last nights game a good start in getting a big BPG crowd might be sending a couple of buses down to York, PA. Charlie mentioned he wouldn't be happy unless we sold out Saturday . I'd be happy to have one more than they had the other night in Bing when they opened their new fieldhouse just so we have the largest conference crowd of the year.

Danes hold on, end skid -TU UMBC's weak shooting opens door for struggling Albany to win, 64-60 -Baltimore Sun UAlbany women rout UMBC -TU

There's a thread about the hoopscoop ratings on the $iena board as well. The theory floated on the $iena board is that when a highly rated recruit signs with a "mid-major" his ranking falls, when he signs with a "major" his ranking goes up. Don't know if it's true or not but it's an interesting argument.

The only thing I've seen about Jones and the draft are the links Reeder posted a few weeks ago. They are in the thread titled "Gary Jones." On a side note, there was an interview with McElroy on the halftime of the UMBC game. From what I caught of it sounded like the rules involving I-AA scholarships may change. My understanding is that in a few year the full ride of scholarships may go from 63(?) now down into the 40s somewhere which McElroy said was doable. I forget his exact statement but it was pretty clear the move up was imminent.

Terrific win and well earned. Sounded like a very physical game especially between Wyatt (of course) and several UMBC players in the first half. Iati's fan club was awesome-you could hear them several times on the radio. I'll be curious to see how many fans were there because they were probably a quarter of the total. Really a great team win as a couple guys stepped up including Knotts with some big free throws at the end of the game. I'll stop complaining about him now. Great win going into the growl.

I'm with you both on the defensive end of things. I credit the starting 5 and the coaching staff with this team battling the way they have. I guess what I'm really thinking of is that brief period of conference play this season when Knotts came off the bench and was productive with his scoring and rebounding. Really frustrating to watch the last few games where we are getting 2 or 3 points and maybe 2 rebounds off the bench.

Couldn't find a preview of this game online. If I remember correctly the last time we played UMBC their free throw defense was great and we shot about 50% from the line. Had we shot our normal percentage we probably would have won that game although this has been a season of "ifs." This team has been competing hard through a tough stretch of schedule (5 road games of the last 7, home game against Vermont) and it's time to grab a win in one of these games. Martin has gone scoreless his last five games and Knotts has been practically scoreless during that same time. Those guys need to give us a lift if we are going to win tonight. I realize Martin has his defensive problems but he's a good shooter and this is a team starving for another scorer or two to chip in. I'd like to see Martin and Knotts subbed in tandem into games much as Q and Wyatt were earlier in the season. If you can get them playing well together they could give us a spark off the bench. Maybe take them aside in practice and work on a two-man game together. Anything would be better than what their giving us now.

Good idea for the banners. I know they've done that in the past and it's a good idea to get the place dressed up the BPG. Story in today's Gazette about the Growl. Charlie Voelker said he won't be happy unless they sell out for the Growl. Pretty ambitious but I hope he's happy on Saturday. We enjoyed his quote about the price of the games and how they are affordable for families. "We have a family pack of four for just $15. There are some other places in the area where you can't get one ticket for $15." Gee, I wonder who he was talking about. Other things of note in the Gazette section were the Mulderry dedication on Saturday. Former Danes football player Pete Pedro is heading a group of Mulderry's classmates to create a scholarship in Mulderry's name. Other notes are about CJ and Wyatt and how their play has improved the last five games.