Dane Pound

I agree-great post Downtown. As misinformed as my initial post was I'm glad I posted it because you guys brought up some great points.

Here's this weeks slate of games:

Sacred Heart at Robert Morris

St. Francis at Stony Brook

Wagner at $iena

Not as many games this week as CCSU is off. How about as a bonus pick we go to the AE as our good friends at Maine are at our not so good friends at Northeastern.

Here's my picks:

Sacred Heart 17 Robert Morris 35

St. Francis 10 Stony Brook 42

Wagner 21 $iena 17

Maine 42 Northestern 21

I wasn't necessarily proposing Wyatt as Captain, just trying to take a guess at of the six returning guys who played last year which three might be named captain. I realize Wyatt has a variety of issues which have been discussed at length on these boards.

This is a very young team and it's most senior players (Pipikis, Wyatt) are not going to be it's best players by any stretch of the imagination. I would think the leadership role is going to fall on Wilson and Levine as from the middle of last year on it seemed to be "their" team.

There were rumors about this before. This is a terrific move along with the Voelker hiring:

BRIAN BARNES NAMED DIRECTOR OF MEN’S BASKETBALL OPERATIONS

     Albany, N.Y. – University at Albany head basketball coach Will Brown announced that Brian Barnes has been hired as director of basketball operations. Barnes, a native of Troy, N.Y. who attended Catholic Central High School, will handle administrative duties, videotape exchange, travel and coordinate summer basketball camps. He was a tri-captain on last year’s squad, after making the team as a walk-on in 1999. Barnes, who appeared in 40 games as a collegian, was later awarded a basketball scholarship.

From the University's site:

UALBANY BASKETBALL GAMES ARE PART OF AMERICA EAST TELEVISION PACKAGE

     Albany, N.Y. – The America East Conference has announced its basketball television schedule for the 2003-04 season, and the University at Albany’s men’s and women’s programs will appear a combined four times as part of that package.

     The UAlbany men will play at Boston University, the 2003 America East regular-season champion and NIT participant, on Sunday, Feb. 1. The broadcast begins at 12 noon on Super Bowl XXXVIII Sunday. The Great Danes also appear on the schedule at Hartford on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 12 noon. The Hawks, who finished third in the conference standings last year, are coming off a 16-13 campaign. WNYT-TV (NBC 13) will air both games live in the Capital Region market.

     "WNYT NewsChannel 13 is pleased to present two UAlbany men's basketball games this season," WNYT-TV General Manager Steve Baboulis said. "We think the team is positioned to have a solid year, and we are happy to play a part in showing the Capital Region the high quality of basketball played by the Great Danes."

     The UAlbany women will have two games televised as part of the America East schedule, including a home contest at the Recreation and Convocation Center. The Great Danes, who have three starters returning including All-America East center Danielle Hutcheson, will host Binghamton on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 7:00 p.m. UAlbany also has an away date at Binghamton on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 7:00 p.m.

Then who? Or do you just have two captains? I can't see Pipikis or Knotts either.

Despite the named captains last year I think this was really Wilson and Levine's team during the second half of last year. Those two should be a lock for captains this year with I would guess, Wyatt.

Don't know if we're giving Monmouth too much credit or if this game reminds us too much of last year's game vs. Stony Brook. Stony Brook wasn't a better team last year and they won-helped in large part by a big crowd which Monmouth will also have on Saturday. I'm not saying Monmouth is a better team but a good defensive team helped by a larger (5,000?) crowd is a touch situation to come away with a W.

Lady DP and I were talking about the $iena rivalry the other night at the diner (yes, we actually talk about this stuff). What she was asking was before $iena and Albany went from D3 to D1 basically all the schools in the capital district played each other (Albany, $iena, Union, RPI, Skidmore, St. Rose). Why then did Albany and $iena develop a rivalry and not say Albany and Union for example? I thought because $iena has the most arrogant fans but I'm not sure that's it.

My theory is both schools used to be filled with mostly local kids until recently. Some kids went to private schools for high school and then on to $iena for college. Public school kids went on to UA for college. That way the public school kids could start hating the $iena kids before they even got to $iena. I'm just guessing here as all this probably started before I was born. I went to UA in the later 1900's when the two schools rarely played each other in any sport. The exception was hockey where a buddy of mine played on the UA hockey team. That's where I learned that if you went to Albany you were supposed to hate $iena.

I know some of you saw those legendary Albany-$iena games of the 70's and I was curious when things became so heated. I remember the game two years ago at the Pepsi there were a couple of older guys behind me who were loudly booing the $iena players when they came on the court. These guys hadn't seen the teams play in over 20 years and they were still that animinated. Those must have been great games.

Since teams can start practice this week I assume there will be no midnight madness type thing. Usually the exhibiton games are in early November. Was wondering if there was anything different planned this year or if we were going to see the USDL all-stars or whatever they call themselves. I'd think with some of the Albany and $iena alumni players in the area you could make a exhibition team out of them-Corey Osinski, Will Brand, Joe Vukovic, James Clinton, Matt Haggarty. Maybe Dane96 could make the trip as well.

The Massey ratings have us as four point underdanes for this game. Massey

A few things concern me about the Monmouth game:

-We gave up over 400 yards passing against St. Francis. Granted it was a blow-out but still that's alot of yards against a pretty bad team.

-Monmouth has played in and won a lot of close games. We haven't. If it is close we don't exactly have the type of offense (passing game) that can move the ball quickly.

-I'm mystifyed why Sciarra got twice as many pass attempts as Delgado. It seems pretty clear Delgado is the better passer.

That said I don't think we should be four point dogs. Monmouth has had trouble scoring against the leagues better teams and we are one of those teams. Big games tend to favor teams that can run the ball-better to rely on a fired-up offensive line blowing people off the line than a nervous QB throwing the ball all over the place.

Lets hope this game is televised because it should be a great game.

This was posted on the America East board but I thought I would post it here. Shows just how hard Brown and Co. worked to get their guys.

Wilson + Lillis

Kind of surprised that of all the pre-season things I've seen not one has Jamar Wilson as first team all-conference. Am I missing something or wasn't he one of the best players in the conference as a freshman?

The Sports Network revised their Payton Watch list. Looks like Jones has been taken off the list.

Payton Watch

Kind of surprising. Was funny to see Monmouth go down a few spots after winning on Saturday. I didn't want to see Marist lose to Lasalle. I was kind of hoping Marist would win the MAAC this year-that way the ECAC bowl would be in Poughipse should the Danes win the conference. Had the makings for a great weekend-the $iena game Friday night and the ECAC bowl on Saturday.

Results are:

Robert Morris 27 CCSU 17

Monmouth 24 Wagner 0

Sacred Heart 41 $iena 14

Stony Brook 21 Georgetown 49

Reeder and I were the only ones to pick Georgetown over Stony Brook. The first week of the football picks goes to Reeder.

Rivals said I may grow a few more inches also. They didn't say if it was horizonially or vertically.

Pfohl is pretty solid too. Around 240lbs or so. Picture of him below. As far as being tough he should be. His father was pro wresler Lex Luger

Pfohl story-middle of story

Fox story

This is awesome news!

Patch said these were two of the guys Brown wanted and he got them. I'm hoping you guys will fill us in on Lillis. It looks like a great recruiting class so far. Bauman was offered by Holy Cross and BU. Wilson was offered by Indiana State of the MVC-a good conference. It's great to get early commits especially of this caliber.

I was going to do this last week but I forgot. Probably better off as I would have picked Stony Brook over Robert Morris.

This week:

Robert Morris vs. Central Conn.

Sacred Heart vs. Siena

Stony Brook vs. Georgetown

Wagner vs. Monmouth NJ

Here's my picks

Robert Morris 35 vs. Central Conn 14.

Sacred Heart 42 vs. Siena 10

Stony Brook 21 vs. Georgetown 35

Wagner 14 vs. Monmouth NJ 28

Thought they were sleep walking through the first quarter against St. Peters. I'd like to see them start stronger against St. Francis as the toughest part of the confernce schedule starts next week. That said this team seems to have much more of a killer instinct than last years team.

Patch-Bomber tends to show up on this and the old board after the Professor has posted on the $iena board. I wouldn't worry about it.

That was a brutal beating. Ford claimed to not have run the score up and seemed a bit embarrassed by the final. No way to control the two turnovers returned for touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

St. Peters does have a nice QB but he really looked like he had his bell rung on that touchdown run. Our QBs didn't thow any INTs and I though Delgado looked good again.

Stony Brook lost again yesterday so the Monmouth game looks to be the game.

Blair Wilson is 6'8 and from Iowa and I can only hope that's who you're talking about.

Trying to get an idea of how many people would be interested in a bus or van trip to the men's basketball game against UMass on Sunday, December 28. Transportation and tickets would be included, I'm not sure about food at this point. If you're interested either just post a response or email me.

Thanks