Dane Pound

Super young team also. 24 roster spots and 20 of them are frosh and sophs.

I like following the recruiting stuff but I don't know how much you can tell from it. It's encouraging to see other good school interested in your recruits but it's certainly not a guarantee. The JUCO players seem hard to guage based on recruiting information online. There was practically no information about Gary Johnson when he came to Albany and he ended up starting and playing in two NCAAs. Ditto for Evan Singletary who seemed to come from nowhere (in terms of hype.)

Good Lord. This looked bad when it started and is rolling downhill. They would have been better off giving Patsos another year or two because they might end up paying him anyway.

This is actually the first year I wouldn't really have a problem with the Oneonta game. Considering we just lost everyone but the mascot to graduation or transfer and we're going to have a bunch of new starters. If there were ever a time to play this game it would be this year.

Is there something you'd like to share with the class?

I think we are good at the SF position. Another guard would be nice to have in the mix, provided Fromm or Malachi de Sousa aren't going to get time at the guard spot. This will be an interesting off-season for Ahmad Clark. I think he has as much talent as anyone in the conference but never got things going in the right direction last year. The door is pretty much wide open for this to be his team next year.

CB mentioned the prospect of leaving a scholarship or two open this year if the staff couldn't find someone who fit. They did have a lot of ships to fill this spring.

They probably also have a little more latitude in who they can recruit in the MAAC. That's what kept Patsos from going to the Patriot League with Loyola. Siena isn't as bad of a job as we say but it's also not as good of a job as some of their fans believe. I'll be curious to see if this Patsos deal has any impact on them in the future. Right or wrong, they gave Patsos a contract extension, then when they didn't want to honor the deal they basically engaged in character assignation to get him to settle for less. They've made any coaching contract extension meaningless at Siena. I suspect any coach with any sense is going to realize that. I'm not saying it will keep them from taking the job but after watching the Patsos deal are you really going to be excited if Siena offers you an extension?

I'm pretty sure that's our role in those whole thing, isn't it?. We're not players and we're not coaches. We watch youtube clips and look up the 3pt percentages of our recruits. Then next year we'll drive through snowstorms to away games. We'll live and die with each foul call and then won't be able to talk the next day from screaming. We're fanatics, that's just what we do.

Signed on Thursday so he's gone from recruit to signee. A couple of stories about him in his hometown paper and the Times Union. Great to see our recruits getting coverage. https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/UAlbany-recruit-dealing-with-more-than-basketball-12830097.php http://napavalleyregister.com/sports/college-and-pro/french-s-long-road-leads-to-d-i-danes/article_6379c504-cefa-55e6-a953-79dc7ae0b433.html

According to Verbal Commits we have an offer out to 6'8 PF Simon Falokun from Texas.

I like that the emphasis seems to be on shooters regardless of position. That seemed like an achilles heel last year. Both Brooks and Devonte Campbell are from the Toronto area. In general, I like the smaller guys like Brooks who seem to have something to prove. I thought DJ Evans and both Iati brothers had that "heart over height" thing going. They are easy players to root for. Any long time followers of the program will remember the NCAA used to have a rule limiting how many players you could bring in any one recruiting class. This rule hampered CB when he was trying to build a roster when he first took over. Now he's going to have an enormous recruiting class, in part, because of the NCAA rule that allows grad transfers and turns mid-majors into a farm system for the power 5 conferences. As much as Cremo and Nichols leaving were a splash of cold water in the face there is still some hope. Clark, Healy and Campbell have a year together despite Healy not playing. Hopefully that offers some cohesiveness in the backcourt early on.

Iona's recruiting had to take a hit when they lost one of their main recruiters recently. Jared Grasso went to Bryant to take over their HC a few weeks ago.

Fromm has to be the first guy we've ever had from Alaska, I'm guessing?

Moreaux just offered by St. Bonaventure.

Not surprised she left but surprised it's only after two years at Albany. She won with a lot of Coach Abe's recruits. Nothing against her, I'd just expect BC would want to see a larger body of work than two seasons.

Seems like a good situation for Nichols. Playing for a good coach with a chance at post-season success. It looks weird to see him in the Florida State uniform but best of luck to him. For a while the reports on Cremo included Rutgers. Rutgers! Don't think it's a serious consideration anymore, luckily. I think Cremo can contribute just about anywhere. His game is pretty similar to Kyle Guy and if he's surrounded by players of similar talent, he won't be the focus of opposing defenses. Andrew Platek (of Guilderland) got about 8 minutes a game at UNC as a freshman and Cremo is better as far as I'm concerned.

Channel Banks committed to Akron this weekend.

Kassoum Yakwe just announced he's leaving St. Johns as a grad transfer. Power forward who came off the bench. He went to high school at Our Saviour New American, same as Jamar, Tim Ambrose and Suero.

Jeff Goodman of ESPN was talking yesterday about how schools are trying to dig up dirt to get rid of coaches instead of buying them out. From the outside, that's kind of what this looks like. I understand if they need to investigate but making it public isn't a great look for anybody. Have to wonder what it looks like to prospective coaches who would be coming to Siena.

Seems like they are setting him up to get fired or renegotiate his buyout. Local college hoops has just been full of good news this spring. Yeesh.

Green would be nice. A point guard with some D1 experience anyway. Hard to imagine the staff would have thought they'd have this many scholarships to fill. They're going to have to pull some rabbits out of their hats. Trying to get experienced big guys in the spring seems like a tough haul. . Given how many grad transfers there are out there, who knows? Maybe we can get lucky.

A higher conference but South Florida has been awful in the American. They're 8-46 in conference the last couple of years.

We've had some heated debates about uniform changes.

With as many new pieces as we're going to have the Ireland trip is at a great time. Some extra games for everyone to get to play together and sort things out.