Dane Pound

From the UA site" UALBANY’S JAMAL HUGHES WILL NOT PLAY BASKETBALL THIS SEASON Albany, N.Y. – University at Albany’s Jamal Hughes will miss the remainder of the 2003-04 basketball season due to personal reasons, as Director of Athletics and Recreation Dr. Lee McElroy announced on Thursday, Jan. 22. Hughes, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound sophomore from Rochester, N.Y., has not appeared in any games this season. He had returned to the program between semesters after leaving in mid-November to attend to personal and family matters. Hughes, a transfer from Brown Mackie College in Salina, Kansas, averaged 8.2 points and 6.8 rebounds on the junior college level last year. He was named to the NJCAA Region VI All-Division II first team, and helped his squad capture the regional championship.

I'm not sure why we need to revisit the football-basketball thing every so often. Anyway so far no one has considered that Ruler was genuine in his question so I'll answer it and not just call him names. A few years ago we made a terrible, not bad, terrible choice in hiring a basketball coach(Scott Beeten). He ran most of the players we had out of the program and put us in a hole player-wise. The important thing to know is that according to NCAA rules you can only bring in so many players in a year. Once your in a deficit it's hard to get out as we have found. For the last two years we have graduated 3 players-two years ago we graduated 3 and brought 4 in-still behind. Last year we graduated 3 players, brought 3 players in and this year 2 were injured and one was out for family reasons. In a nutshell that's why two years after Beeten left we're still trying to recover-he really left the program behind the eightball. This year we lose only one player (Pipikis) bring everyone back plus six new players and hopefully we will be pretty competitive next year.

That's the press release. The story in today's TU has some quotes from the players. Apparently they were recruting players as late as a few weeks ago. You have to feel bad for the players as they feel decieved. Tough situation but really if they weren't going to support it they are better off without it.

Danes sizzle, then fizzle -From TU. Erratic SBU Escapes in OT-Newsday Danes women get league win -From TU

The two ever-present rumors around here regarding local football-The Danes are building a new stadium and $iena is dropping their football program. I have to wonder which will come first. Right now both the Hansen board and the $iena boards are running with the rumor (again) that the Saints are dropping football.

just wanted to get this back up on top.

The AE board is now up and working fine!

Was thinking it was quiet around here myself Downtown. I hope everyone isn't holding their breath until next year. Good to hear that you're going down to the Brook as it's mini-ball giveaway night for the first 750 people in the door. Now you'll have something to throw at Marachuk. Looking around the league and the way everyone is knocking each other off you have to think we have a pretty good chance against a team like SB especially with them coming off a loss to Hartford. Hopefully some of these close ones will go our way and maybe Hughes will come back. Then we can move up a bit.

Didn't find an online pregame story of tonights game. There was a story in today's TU that talks about trying to shut down Munir although it also points out that last year we lost the game to SB that Munir was suspended and beat them when he came back. Should be a dogfight (literally) as these two teams always play each other tough and last year was a terrific game down there. Statistically SB is one of the worst defensive teams in the AE which should help. We are one win away from a tie for 5th place and avoiding the P.I.G!

Just wanted to let you know I've added a couple of new links that Dane96 brought to my attention. As most of you know former Dane Todd Cetnar is playing in England for the Thames Valley Tigers. I've added links to their team page and fan forum so we can follow him a little easier.

Some of you have messaged me that the link to the America East Board is broken. It seems that basketballboards.net, the board host, is down and has been since this afternoon.

Just to update as I'm sure you're all following this closely. They narrowed down the list of names to five. Here they are: 1. Chance 2. D.J. 3. Lil' D 4. Scooter 5. Scrappy 6. Spirit No way we can call him D.J. with D.J. Munir at Stony Brook. I kind of like Scooter or Lil' D. To vote email spirit@albany.edu

I thought it was the 21st of January.

No mention of Hughes in the game notes for the game against the Brook. Wyatt has been playing well but it'd be great to have another body in the rotation. Maybe Hartford this weekend or maybe we'll just keep him as a secret weapon and hold him out until the AE tourney.

Another good weekend for Lillis. It seems like every game they've played lately has been a "big game." Des Moines Register.

Well said Downtown. I have to say I think everyone has been pretty restrained on this board while discussing this. On a completly different note it was reported that Benn was at the Pepsi last night for the Iona game. I haven't heard anyone hear mention any Albany signees going to our games this season (I know it would be tough for the Iowa guys) but was curious about it. I would think the BPG (even if just a tape of the game but better if they were there) would be a terrific recruing tool.

That's a nice idea. Actually I started doing it and realized that the threads start with the oldest posts first-which makes sense when you're reading what people have written. When you're going through newspaper stories though you'd like the newest ones to be on top. The other problem with keeping newspaper links around is they change them pretty often and you might have several links that don't take you anywhere. I was thinking of having another category for media but it seems like a pain to have people clicking around to find them. Alot of time people respond to what is in the stories (see the Troy Record stories from this weekend) and it's better to have them in the rest of post where people are arguing about other stuff. Thanks, DP

Thanks for the link Dane96. I see you've posted on their forum and already made some friends among the Tigers faithful.

Danes close, no cigar -From TU

I check in from time to time and see how Todd Cetnar is doing in his pro career in England. He switched teams recently and apparently had very high expectations placed on him by his new team. It's amazing how many stories the papers get out of this team even when they are not playing. Here's some: Cetnar faces quick Plymouth return-Reading Evening Post. Holley: I was wrong to pile pressure on Todd-REP.

They played four times in the 70's (no, I wasn't there) with the Danes winning all four. The last was the most spectacular with the Danes winning 71-8. That's probably why they haven't played since then.

Wasn't Sausville an Albany assistant at one time or am I confusing him with someone else? Anyway, Lady DP (who was flattered) was among the last classes to graduate at Linton. She said the expression commonly used against Mont Pleasant was "kill the hill" whenever Linton and MP met. The MP kids were already intergrating at Linton (she still generally calls it Linton) during her senior year.

They are already talking about this game on the $iena site. I would hope as a public school most of you would be pulling for Schenectady especially since they are coached by a former Dane. LadyDP is a Linton grad so our allegiances are clear. Should be bedlam tomorrow night.

I agree this team is competing hard every game. Wyatt played well and it really seemed to be his type of game. Lots of grabbing and clutching. Thought both he and St. Hillaire were a little too suburban-league late in the game against Billings. Both had the ball down low against him while he had four fouls and both seem afraid to get their shot blocked. Some of it was fatigue I'm sure but I would have liked to see them throw one down and at least take a chance on getting Billings out of there.

Danes reach familiar end-TU Foul shots bail out Bearcats-Bing Paper. Danes in Giving Mood-Troy Record UAlbany women fall at Binghamton-TU BU women roll past Albany-Bing Paper.