Dane Pound

FIBA qualifiers are on ESPN3. Jamar is still Jamar (playing for Finland.) https://youtu.be/AorSyte8Wxc

Not quite the season we hoped for so far but the fourth straight 20 win season.

Weird game to say the least. I'm guessing Travis won't play on Tuesday against Bing. Cremo entered the top 10 all-time in scoring tonight.

It seems like the rankings and stars are done during the summer AAU season when guys are playing with and against other D1 recruits. It seems a lot harder to evaluate players during their high school seasons when they're playing against such a wide variety of talent levels.

ESPN3 might be a mixed blessing also. I work with some college basketball fans who aren't affiliated either with Albany or Siena but watch games of both programs. They don't really go out to games but watch them online. Honestly, I can see the appeal. On Wednesday night I was watching a couple of conference games and the Siena game at the same time.

And...UMBC loses at home to Stony Brook.

Forgot to post this earlier. Nice column on naming the court for Coach Bassett. Wyland had a good segment with Coach Brown on it also - https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Bassett-s-honor-a-deserved-surprise-12626288.php

Ordinarily, I'd have a rant about how spoiled we are to be complaining about how unsatisfying NCAA tournament appearances and 20-win seasons are but I suspect you guys are just trying to irritate any Bing fans who might be reading our board. BTW, a bunch of us were at our most recent NCAA tournament game against Oklahoma. Buddy Hield played right to the end and it was a six point game with a minute left.

U may think I'm crazy but if I'm Brown I may bring in 2 5th year Srs unless I can get a can't miss JUCO player. Season not over , just food for thought. I don't think you're crazy but I'm not sure we need multiple 5th year guys. Our two best regular seasons - 2015(1st) and 2016 (2nd) we had dynamic scoring guards coming off the bench and both were freshman. 2015 was Wheeler Baker and 2016 was Joe Cremo. My thought behind the 2 proven 5th year guys is this ... we have Cremo and Nicols's. Name the other 3 starters that you feel very comfortable with? X-No Campbell-No Clark- if still on team . No Conway-No 5 freshman -No A proven JUCO? Maybe. I'm not a college coach but if I were Brown u have 2 very good senior guards. There will be very good 5th year guys around . U sell the crap out of those two . I just don't think we can lose sight of that fact that the Nichols-Cremo-Campbell back court is going to have two seasons with 20+ wins. If we had some punch coming off the bench we'd be having a different conversation now.

U may think I'm crazy but if I'm Brown I may bring in 2 5th year Srs unless I can get a can't miss JUCO player. Season not over , just food for thought. I don't think you're crazy but I'm not sure we need multiple 5th year guys. Our two best regular seasons - 2015(1st) and 2016 (2nd) we had dynamic scoring guards coming off the bench and both were freshman. 2015 was Wheeler Baker and 2016 was Joe Cremo.

It sounds like an excuse but that was apparent down the stretch. UMBC was fresh and we faded. It didn't help that against Lowell we didn't put the hammer down and rest our starters but had to battle until the end. Coming into this year with the number of guys we were bringing back it looked like we "only" had to replace the production of Dallas and Mike Rowely. 29 games in it's apparent we haven't done that. Other than shot blocking with Foster, we're more or less the same team we were last year and are going to end up with more or less the same regular season result.

A lot like the Bing loss where we faded late.

#Casey2019

Story about the redshirt Aussies - https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/02/15/not-all-college-hoops-players-make-road-trips Also, for anyone who doesn't watch the basketball weekly show there are interviews with Hank and Lulka. They talk about how it will become "their team" in a few years. Good stuff. http://wnyt.com/article/12854/

Rizzuto knocked down a half-court shot and had a double-double the other night. With video: https://www.ydr.com/story/sports/high-school/basketball-boys/2018/02/15/northeastern-snares-yaiaa-title-long-distance-fashion/343268002/

Jiggits was the same year as Nico Clareth right? He was going to go to siena with Nico, then didn't, then decided to come to Albany, then didn't. The kids Dad was the coach or something. Do I have the story right? No, Jiggits was two years before Clareth. Clareth is a junior and Jiggits is a fifth-year senior.

Not against UMBC. Devonte has done a pretty good job on Lyles in the past and I don't see a reason to change.

I thought Clark played in the Hartford game.

Unexpected name from the past - Stephan Jiggits. For those of you who don't remember, he initially committed to Siena, then came to Albany but left before games started. He transferred to Farleigh Dickinson. Didn't realize he was still playing but he's the leading scorer at South Florida in the American Conference. I guess he must have went as a grad transfer.

Not sure what you have planned but you really need to recalibrate your priorities.

No offense taken at all. New banner is up! Thanks for creating it.

Iona has been weird lately. Deyshonee Much, their third leading scorer, had to be separated from their head coach after an altercation after the Monmouth game. Much hasn't played since. That said, nice win by Siena tonight.

Cremo missed 5 shots from the free throw line today. Didn't know that was possible. Great free throw line defense by Hartford.

Solid minutes from Costa Anderson knocking down some 3s. Gives Hartford someone else to think about on the perimeter.

Even without Lamb, they have a better frontcourt. Charles and Stire have played really well but Henson and Urqhart are bigger, more athletic and have better range. They can inhibit our low post play one-on-one while we have to take extra measures to control theirs. It puts a lot of pressure on our guards to score when we're not able to get easy baskets inside. Watched some of the replay of the second half this morning. When we were up 10 there were a couple of sketchy plays on defense that incensed most of Sefcu: Urqhart had a touch foul on a layup to make it an "and 1." Clark got called for a blocking foul. TBH collided with Cremo under the rim. Cremo got called for the block. Evertt Duncan battled with Cremo for a rebound and Cremo got called for a foul. Dslyank mentioned that the refs got into our head and those series of plays were where it looked like it happened. We looked afraid to defend for the next couple of minutes. Cremo especially was reluctant to pick up another foul after two quick ones. It didn't help that we had some bad offensive sets during that time. A lot of the VT guards back door cuts are the result of Urqhart and Henson being able to hit threes. We can't just let them stand out there with the ball because they can hit those shots and it creates space under the hoop. Just once, when Devonte is wide open at the three point line, I'd love to see him go "Gary Johnson" and take two dribbles, then two steps and attack the rim and see what happens. I did like that he took more of mid-range jump shots last night.