Dane Pound

Welcome to the board Harrier74! I look forward to seeing you post. If you have any questions or problems feel free to email me at danefan1@localnet.com.

Classes begin Jan. 21. Don't know when the dorms open.

You'd make a great travel agent Prof. In the past few weeks you've advocated both Knotts and Martin transferring. That would be our previous games leading scorer (Knotts-15pts) and leading rebounder (Martin-8 rebounds).

Nice work Alumni92! Brown recruits the players and you work on recruiting the fans.

I'm just saying other than Marist the other teams they've lost to are in the top 150 rpi-wise and that their fans are overreacting somewhat. Believe me with the flack I take from $iena fans I'm not shedding any tears over their skid.

Glad you like it. Actually I gleaned most of the stuff from the UA site but I'll email you copies of the pics if you like.

Patch you are really making friends on the $iena board. I see you are taking a break (or giving them a break) for a while which is kind of you (a new year's resolution maybe?). They are going through a tough time right now although I have to imagine they will get things straightened out pretty soon. A really difficult part of their schedule and unfortunetly against some good teams that casual fans may not recognize as good teams (Toledo, Niagra, Manhattan and Northern Iowa).

Just wanted to get this back to the top for those who missed it.

I apologize if I sound chipper after a 17 point loss and a 4 game losing streak but there were a couple of good things yesterday: 1-Iati is driving to the hoop more. I like the floater in the lane and although they're blanketing him from 3 we're starting to see more of his game. 2-Knotts is starting to look more like a guy who's interested in playing. He doesn't seem content to sit outside and plunk 3. He's going underneath and getting fouled-A good sign. 3-Martin gave a good 20+ minutes yesterday. Scored a little was our leading rebounder and had a couple of assists. America East unveiled a new section on their website today. Even though Wilson is out this year he's featured in the artwork in the new section. A nice compliment. I know Statefan and some others recognized Jacob Iati in one of the half-court shooting contests yesterday. He had a good-looking shot and as a freshman is already on hoopscoop's radar. Pretty long term since he doesn't graduate HS until 2008 but he'd look good in an Albany uniform. Beside we already have one printed up with the Iati name on it.

Terriers press the issue in rout of Danes -from TU. Albany Hands it to BU-Boston Globe

There was no story in today's TU about the game today. I don't know if there was anything in the Gazette. I know in Friday's paper they talked about Hughes beginning practice on Saturday. If that's true then I would imagine he would be on the bench or at least in the RACC today. I can't say I expect to see him but I'd like to. BU is a 13 point favorite although they slept-walked on Friday in beating UNH. The Danes have struggled to score against teams not know for their defense. We may not be able to buy a bucket against this team. But who knows? We came awfully close to beating this team last year.

The other thing this team usually does well is shoot 3's. Last night they were 1-9 or something like 12%. Generally somewhere around 32% from 3 and I would have to think fatigue is to blame for that as well. While we need more rebounding from him I liked Knotts agressiveness on offense. He got to the line alot and didn't take as many wild shots as he has earlier this year. As big as he is he seemed to find a way around his guy alot last night. Wyatt had 6 points and I think at least two of his baskets came because Knotts drove around his man and drew the guy guarding Wyatt-Knotts then missed the shot and Wyatt put the rebound back in. I have to question the wisdom applying full-court pressure when both Iati and Levine are playing 40 minutes a game and Johnson played 36. I realize we need easy baskets and it was effective it getting some turnovers but it also seemed to wear Iati down and helped Q pick up two quick fouls. If we had another guy available or Martin is able to give some good minutes we may be able to press more. If you look at the foul situation last night, Q fouled out and Levine, Wyatt and Johnson all had 4 fouls. Not too hard to figure out why we didn't play good defense at the end of the game when everyone is worried about fouling out. The Danes were 3 fouls away from having four guys foul out and creating a "Hoosiers" type situation with only four guys on the floor.

Great Danes can't toe the line: Fatigued UAlbany's errant free-throw shooting is costly -From the Troy Record. Lack of depth foils UAlbany -From TU. From UA website: MEN'S BASKETBALL BEATEN BY UMBC, 67-62, IN AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE OPENER Albany, N.Y. – Rob Gogerty and Kareem Washington each scored 18 points to lead Maryland-Baltimore County to a 67-62 victory over Albany in the America East Conference opener for both teams on Friday, Jan. 2 at the Recreation and Convocation Center. Albany (2-8, AE 0-1) trailed by as much as seven points on four occasions in the second half, but rallied to take a 51-50 lead with 5:18 remaining on Courtney Johnson’s layup after a steal. UMBC (4-6, AE 1-0) went back ahead for good with five consecutive points. Washington’s 18-foot jumper, following an offensive rebound, gave his club a 53-51 lead. The Great Danes were still in the hunt with 3:02 remaining, when Jerrad Knotts, who had a career-high 12 points, made a pair of free throws to slice the deficit to 57-56. But UMBC pulled away with six unanswered points. Washington, who came off the bench to score a season-high total, sank two foul shots and then converted a driving layup after an Albany turnover. Gogerty, a 6-foot-1 senior who had 11 second-half points, buried two free throws for a 63-56 cushion with 29.9 seconds left. The Great Danes, who have lost five of their last six games, leaped to a 20-13 lead over the opening 12 minutes. Sophomore forward Levi Levine had 13 of his game-high 22 points before halftime to help build the margin. However, UMBC regrouped before the break by shooting 54.5 percent in the period. Jerrell Dinkins gave his team its first lead at 27-26 on two foul shots with 2:31 to play in the period. The Retrievers, who were making their America East debut after competing in the Northeast Conference the previous six years, would later move out to a 39-32 advantage early in the final stanza. "They caused some matchup problems upfront and their guards made some shots down the stretch," Albany coach Will Brown commented. "We have to have the mind set that we are not a good offensive team with not many options. We have to rely on defense and rebounding." UMBC’s Cory McJimson, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, recorded 10 points and 12 rebounds from his sixth-man role, as his team ended a three-game losing streak. Albany’s Aquawasi St. Hillaire had 10 points and seven rebounds. "The missed free throws definitely hurt us," said Knotts, whose team made 15 of 26 from the line and missed several critical free throw attempts in the second half. "If we had shot our normal percentage it would have made a difference. The mental mistakes and turnovers were key. We’ve have to keep our heads up; we have a lot of games left."

I know some of you have created your own avatars or uploaded them from other places. I wanted to let you know that I have added several avatars in the base gallery if you want to use them. Just click on my controls at the top of the page after you have logged in and click on "edit avatar settings." If you need help just instant message or email me. Some of the new ones are of former players, the RACC and the old mascot Pierre the Pedagon or whatever he was called.

I'm with the Prof on this although I'll believe it when I see it. I don't understand any part of this story-why he's been out so long or how he could even have grades for the fall semester when he's been in Rochester since November. That said, I don't think you can cut a guy loose for missing time for "family reasons" that are actually family reasons no matter if I understand them or not.

Very progressive DaneFan2K3-Extending Title 9 to the mascots. How about Hitchcock the Dane?

Story in today's TU about tonight's game against UMBC. According to the story Hughes can't play until his first semester grades are posted which could be as late as Jan. 21. St. Hillaire is listed as "questionable."

Really have to feel bad for Pipikis as this is a terrible way for someone to end his career especially when he started to play well. I thought though that he was academically a junior this year. He came in with Wyatt didn't he? I thought he was classified as a soph because of overseas playing or something. So academically he should be back next year unless he's graduating early which is quite possible because he is a pretty good student.

Considering the events of the past 24 hourse it seems almost ironic to say but have a happy and safe new year. Hopefully in the near future we'll be watching Coach Brown being interviewed on the NCAA tournament selection show and we'll look back on this and laugh. 2004-Year of the Danes! Happy New Year

I agree with your thinking UAlum. Especially since it doesn't look like Hughes will be here this year or next. I'm not sure though that Pipikis would heal in time for next season. I think the recovery time for MCL and ACL is a year+ depending on the damage.

Unbelievable. What next? BASKETBALL'S JANIS PIPIKIS WILL MISS THE REMAINDER OF THE 2003-04 SEASON Albany, N.Y. – University at Albany basketball center Janis Pipikis will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. MRI results showed on Wednesday, Dec. 31 that Pipikis has torn both his anterior cruciate ligament and a medial collateral ligament in the right knee. He will have surgery within the next two weeks to correct the damage. Pipikis, a 6-foot-8 senior from Ventspils, Latvia, suffered the injury in a morning practice on Dec. 27. He was averaging 5.6 points and 3.1 rebounds through the opening seven games. However, Pipikis had stepped up his performance during a recent four-game stretch, when he contributed nearly 10 points and five rebounds per contest. He scored a career-high 18 points against Sacred Heart on Dec. 20, and had 11 points in his team’s 68-62 victory over Army earlier this month. "I feel badly for Janis," said Albany coach Will Brown, whose top player Jamar Wilson had season-ending surgery on Monday to repair a fractured patella. "He was making great progress and had bought in to what we were trying to accomplish as a team. It's unfortunate because he was becoming a solid player at the America East level." Albany (2-7) will begin America East Conference play this weekend. The Great Danes host UMBC on Friday, Jan. 2 at 7:00 p.m. and Boston University, a 61-60 winner over Michigan in its last outing, on Sunday, Jan. 4 at 1:00 p.m.

Glad to see everyone relatively upbeat after a slow hemorage of a second half last night and one of the more painful losses I've seen in a while. It's funny we talk about Q's athletism but he is really a pretty good shooter. Considering our offensive limitations I'd really like to see him shoot more and maybe get in double digit FGAs on a consistent basis. I don't know if Courtney Johnson was excited about starting or what but it seemed like he gambled for steals several times on defense last night and gave up easy baskets going the other way. It's too bad because he's played pretty good D up until now. I'm curious, I saw the sign for the Wagner alumni reception or whatever that was. Did anyone see where they had that? It looked like it was upstairs somewhere. Just wondering because it didn't look like it was in the hall of fame room.

On a light note the Unviersity is having a naming contest for the new baby Dane pictured on the right. The name for the new dane is going to be announced at the BPG. For the life of me he looks like Satchel in the "Get Fuzzy" cartoon. Name the Dane

Apparently Mike Deane and Wagner were in town last night. Here's the stories. TU game story. Troy Record story.

I really hope you're wrong Prof. It's bad enough the RACC is going to be filled with $iena fans tonight. If it's filled with happy $iena fans that's even worse. Wagner has struggled this year with a pretty tough schedule. They've won two in a row but one was against a D2 team and the other was in OT against Chicago State who has only won one game this year and that was against a D2 team. Outside of the BPG and the $iena game this is probably as big a game exposure-wise as we're going to have this year. I hope the Danes are able to seize the moment and come through with win.