Dane Pound

Hopefully the win against Hartford energized this team and they come to play against Vermont. VT is just below them in the standings and then they have a game with BU at home who is one above them in the standings. Following that they have a game against UMBC who hasn't won this year and then UNH at the BPG. Sets up for what could be a nice stretch of games. Probably shouldn't get too far ahead of myself though as this team has been consistently inconsistent. A couple of wins though could move us up to 4th.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more press about playing four guys against Hartford. Wonder if that's happened to another D1 team this year.

I've heard the theory that if a program is going to bring in good players it's going to do it in the early signing period. The story in the TU in which Hughes is again AWOL made me think of it. He was a late signee and might not ever play. Over the past two years: Early Signees: Wilson-Terrific, Levine-Terrific. Late: Knotts-Indifferent usually, Banks: Bad and then transferred. This year: Early Signees: Iati-Terrific, Martin-Struggling but has shown some promise. Late Signee-Hughes-One appearence in the RACC may be the only one. Just curious if this was a coincidence or is a general recruiting rule that your early signees are your better players.

Someone mentioned adding the women's practice team guys to the roster just to have some bodies. I don't know how serious that was or if it's even feasible.

UAlbany to celebrate Sauers' 702 victories -TU. Wary Catamounts head off to Albany -Burlington Free Press. UVM women seek turnaround against Great Danes -Burlington Free Press.

You're right about that game being the BPG and I hope you're right about the deja vu' this year. The Danes were really fired up for that game and I think Vermont was coming off a tough game against Bing two nights before. I agree that was a huge win and done in convincing fashion. I have to say that team had some other nice wins that year including a trouncing of New Hampshire (who was decent that year) a couple of games before. They also beat Hartford and the Brook at the Brook which should have led to Brown's hiring right there. I was glad the other night on TV when they pointed out Brown has only coached two full seasons instead of the 3 they say in the media guides. You really count two months as interim as a full year. I'm looking forward to Q against Coppenrath-should be fun to watch.

Fate sealed by four on floor-From TU. Shorthanded Danes beaten by Hartford -Troy Record Hawks Show 8 Are Enough, Win 4th In A Row-Hartford Courant January 26, 2004 By WOODY ANDERSON, Courant Staff Writer Hartford is beginning to get it. After losing four players and some difficult games, the Hawks are getting used to playing with eight. Sunday, they defeated equally depleted Albany 57-48 at Chase Family Arena, their fourth consecutive victory. The Hawks (8-8, 3-4 America East) overcame a slow start with an 18-2 run late in the first half and clinched their fourth consecutive victory over the Great Danes by making 9 of 11 free throws in the final 85 seconds. Point guard Aaron Cook led the Hawks with 19 points, including 13 in the second half, and freshman guard Rich Baker had his best game with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists. It was Baker who helped pull the Hawks out of their offensive funk in the first half. Albany (3-14, 1-7) used a triangle-and-two on Cook and Ryan Stys, the Hawks' top scorers. It took Hartford 7:21 to score its first field goal. "In the first half it was real physical coming off screens, but Rich opened it up for us," Cook said. "They had somebody else to worry about." Said Albany coach Will Brown: "Obviously, Baker was told to drive, and he got into the cracks and hurt us." Baker had seven points in the first half, and his pass to Louis Bosley in the low post for a layup gave the Hawks their first lead, 12-11 with 7:59 left. That play started the Hawks' 18-2 run, the key to their 31-18 halftime lead. "My role is to provide a spark, play as hard as I can on defense," said Baker, who didn't expect much playing time this season. But as the team lost players to injury, illness and other reasons, Baker has been getting 15 to 20 minutes a game during the winning streak. Albany was playing with seven players, but its defense kept the Danes in the game. They cut the deficit to 35-31 with 11:34 remaining, but the Hawks went on a 10-2 run that included a Cook three-pointer. "We could have put the game away a lot of times," Cook said, "but they made threes and we made turnovers." Albany played out the final seconds with only four players, after three fouled out. Guard Jon Iati, limping from an ankle sprain sustained early in the game, scored 17 points. "We play ugly," Hawks coach Larry Harrison said. "We have a hard time scoring, but we're dedicated to outworking teams. Trapping. Rotating. Putting pressure on the ball and creating offense from our defense. We have to win by committee, all eight guys."

Story in the Bing paper about their new basketball stadium. I'm sure it's not as nice as it looks in the pictures.

Not sure how many of you caught it yesterday. Good show that featured an interview with Levi and the teams visit with the Loudonville school kids. Q+A with the kids was funny and I especially enjoyed Brown's recruitment of fans in hostile territory. He asked the kids "has anyone from $iena been here to visit?" and when they said "no" he told them "I guess that makes you Albany fans right?" to which the kids said they were. Good stuff. Was I mistaken or did I see a certain poster on this board in that segment?

Having only four guys on the floor to end the game I guess typifies the way this season has gone. I've been reading that Hartford has alot of guys out but they ended up playing 9 guys to our 7. Iati had some good looks which he hasn't had in a while but couldn't knock most of them down. As Brown said after the game that 10 minute stretch in the first half took away the chance to win. "Q" continues to be impressive-11 pts, 7 boards and 2 blocks. I've said it before but I'd like to see him shoot more if they can get him the ball. I could not belive the Hartford guard (Baker maybe) who went for the layup when Q was back and he swatted it into the first row-what was he thinking? Sounded like the Hartford fans were booing Iati for some reason, maybe someone who was there can say. If they were to boo anybody I'd think it would be Wyatt who was tangled up with Regan all day and seemed to get under his skin(have to say I enjoyed that). I don't understand Knotts, he was agressive and productive for a few games and now he's invisible. He sits on the bench most of the game, can't he see we need somebody to come in and score off the bench? One of the few times I've seen an AE game televised (other than Mortman and Wyland) where the announcer seemed to know what they were talking about. They actually seemed to have seen these teams before and knew something about them.

Those are just the season averages from the Lillis website that gives the leading stats on players in Iowa. I can't find game coverage on Wilson either.

Not much mention of Brent Wilson on the board but he is having a nice senior year. He's averaging 17 pts a game, 9 boards, 2.5 assists a game. Shooting over 50% from the floor and 80% from the line. As someone else pointed out he's a good 3 point shooter.

Dyson had 13 pts the other night in a loss. His teamates may be getting the idea that it's a good idea to pass it to him once in a while.

Couldn't believe it when I opened the paper this morning-Terrific win! Considering Schmaker and Hutch didn't score well this is fantastic. Great game by Mookie. This should be a confidence building game they can carry with them the rest of the season. TU Story.

Thanks for the links Reeder. It seems like even with the upper levels of the drafts the "gurus" can't predict what will happen. So who knows with Jones? It's pretty cool that he's on the NFL radar.

You're right. It might make more sense for the Dukes who don't have to travel so far but for Marist? The cost just wouldn't make sense.

It's fun to watch the recruits play high school ball but I don't know that you can necesarily project what they'll do in college by it. Quality of opponents they play and their teamates have quite a bit to do with it. For example of the three players who were freshman last year (Knotts, Wilson and Levine) one came out of high school averaging 14 pts a game, one averaged 28 pts a game and one averaged 21 pts a game. If you had to guess (as I would) you'd probably say Wilson averaged 28, Levine 21 and Knott 14. But it's wrong, Wilson averaged 14 pts his senior year and Knotts averaged 28. Going by their high school numbers you'd expect Knotts to be a scoring machine in college but obviously he isn't. I'm not saying I know anything about Dyson other than what the coaching staff says. I do know that Brown was pretty happy about the Dyson signing("we got lucky" was what I think he said) and for now that's good enough for me.

This was mentioned "Hoop Games" last week but this is the first thing I've seen publicity-wise. RICHARD "DOC" SAUERS TO BE HONORED AT UALBANY-VERMONT BASKETBALL GAME ON JAN. 28 Albany, N.Y. – Former University at Albany men’s basketball coach Richard "Doc" Sauers will be honored in a halftime ceremony when the Great Danes take on America East Conference-rival Vermont on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the Recreation and Convocation Center. Tip-off is 7:00 p.m. Sauers, who is being recognized on the occasion of his recent induction into the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame, is one of the winningest coaches in the history of college basketball, and coached the UAlbany program from 1955-97. Sauers led the Great Danes to eleven NCAA and four NAIA post-season tournament appearances during his career. His teams averaged more than 17 wins per season and recorded just one losing campaign. From 1975 until his retirement in March 1997, the Great Danes participated in 10 NCAA tournaments. In 1993-94, UAlbany established a school record for victories with a 25-3 mark, and reached the Division III East Sectional final. Albany also qualified the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) playoffs seven times and won a pair of championships in 1978 and 1989. Coach Sauers finished his career with a 702-330 career record in 41 seasons. He stands alongside such legendary mentors as Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp and North Carolina’s Dean Smith in the 700-win club. Sauers achieved that prestigious mark on Feb. 8, 1997 in an 89-71 victory over Bridgeport.

At the time he left I think we had an interim Athletic Director (was it Ford then? or Cummings-Danson?). I thought one of the reasons he left was because he probably figured a new AD would want to bring in his own coach. He was near the end of his contract also and Cetnar and Haggerty were graduating. He probably figured things were as good as they were going to get.

Haven't heard anything to that effect and there's no meniton of it in the game notes.

Former Danes coach Scott Hicks may well set the record for most consecutive losses for a D1 team at Loyola this year. I think most of us would still consider him only the 2nd worst coach we've had here.

Just curious but does the Pioneer League have a bowl-game thing like the ECAC? It might be interesting to see a NEC-Pioneer league bowl if MAAC football folds.

-When I said the thread got off track I didn't mean your initial post which was a good one. What I meant was that the rest of the thread got filled with the football vs. basketball stuff and it was hard to answer your original post after all that stuff. -My point about people being at the women's game. Usually after I listen to a road game on the radio I get a sense of how the game went and feel I can comment on it on the board. Because I was at the women's game I couldn't listen to the men's game and didn't really feel I had much to add since I missed out on listening to most of it except the bitter end. I did come to the board to read your thoughts on the game since you were there.

I think to answer Downtown's question about the interest (that thread got a little off track). There were at least four of us if not more at the women's game and couldn't listen to the men's game on the radio-even though some tried the radio reception isn't too good in the RACC. I only heard the last minute or two of regulation. In the future there will come a time when it is alot of easier to cheer for this team but right now I think this team is showing a ton of heart. Wins or losses aside this years team is defining what Albany basketball will become in the future and it's all about playing hard and determined. With $iena winning some games I am starting to have their fans give me a hard time again but to be honest if this teams keeps playing this way, win or lose I'm proud to root for this team.

Welcome to the board! If you have any questions or problems feel free to email me at danefan1@localnet.com. Glad you found us and enjoy the board.