Dane Pound

A couple of things about last night: -Kent State might not be great, but look like a solid MAC team. I also doubt the attendance numbers but in any event, it was a nice crowd. If the students were around that would have been a terrific atmosphere for college basketball. -Loved when Ahmad Clark was open in the corner and he slowly took that one dribble to make sure he was behind the line and then knocked down the three. -Foster! I worry sometimes when a guy was a big time recruit like he was that he won't buy in to what we're doing but that hasn't seemed to be the case with him at all. He plays hard, seems coachable and is fiery. His career seemed to have a bunch of strange turns with coaches being fired and not really getting a chance to play at his previous schools. He seems to really be making the most of his time here. -Joe Cremo is going to do something ridiculous in just about every game but it's not going to be the same thing every game. Sometimes it's rebounding, sometimes it's scoring, last night it was assists. -The out of town scores on the scoreboard are nice. It would be even better if they could be localized to a preference to schools in our conference or our region.

Really short bench tonight. Seven guys with minutes.

Coach Brown was on Wyland earlier this week. He said the Kent State team that beat Oregon State is more like the team we expected to face in the beginning of the year. They've been missing some players do to injury and are just getting them back.

Sounds like they're financing their athletic budget through guarantee games against BCS schools. Their conference, the SWAC has 10 teams and 5 of them haven't won a basketball game yet. Combined, they are 0-65 on the season. Yikes!

RPI up to 64 with the wins in Puerto Rico. Two losses were to teams in the top 50.

Those recruiting violations seem almost quaint after the recent FBI investigations. Kent State message board - http://csnbbs.com/forum-474.html

True but the Bonnies will probably be in the top tier of the A10. I'd consider that a good win if it was us. Agree with you about Willis. I watched the two Vermont - UMBC games last year and I don't know that they would have beaten UMBC without Willis. I think some Vermont fans took him for granted. He was a really nice piece coming off the bench for them. Kind of like Levi Levine's senior year when he came off the bench. Vermont has looked good when I've seen them, maybe not quite as deep as they were last year but still damn good.

Nice to see Jamir Andrews is having a good season at Northeastern State in Oklahoma. He's leaded the team in scoring and steals - 15 PPG. http://static.goriverhawksgo.com/custompages/MBB/2017-18/teamcume.htm

No doubt Vermont has played a tough schedule on the road. The thing that has eluded both Albany and Vermont has been a marquee win. Vermont's best win was a neutral court victory over Bradley though they were painfully close to a great win at St. Bonaventure the other night.

Statefan pointed out last night that we were 9-9 after three conference games last year when Devonte Campbell entered the starting lineup. Since then we've gone 22-7.

I liked that they it was a noisy 2500. Sometimes we get higher numbers and people sit on their hands. Last night the crowd shook off the holiday spirit of goodwill after a few close/bad calls and got into it.

Clark looks like he has the skills to help us but he's been up and down. I thought he was great in the Siena game and hoped he had turned the corner. Last night, I thought Canisius did what smart teams do when the backup PG comes in and trapped him as soon as he came in the game. I think had we been up 5 or 7 the staff might have been able to live with mistakes a little more. I could be way off but I've developed a theory about this team this year. My first premise is that great players don't want to come out of the game. Exhibit A. I was at a road game during Jamar's junior year when we were at Harvard. I sat behind our bench as CB sent Iati into the game and told him to get Jamar. The substitution horn sounded, Jamar heard it, turned to Brian Lillis and told him coach was taking him out. Lillis went to the bench. CB sent Lillis back into the game to get Jamar. Jamar heard the horn, and then turned to Iati to tell him to come out. CB yelled at Jamar to come out of the game. Jamar did the put his hand to his ear as if he couldn't hear him. In the end, CB got his way but it took a while. I said that to say this. CB has said many times he wants to play his bench more. I've thought many times our games have been a game within a game. The starters know that if they come out blazing the first 6-8 minutes and build a lead, they're going to come out and the bench will play for extended stretches. I'm not saying they're playing bad on purpose, just that there isn't a sense of urgency in games they think they will win.

2 turnovers in 2 minutes probably didn't help his cause.

Don't count me in the unhappy part. I'm enjoying this season. Actually I liked that David Nichols had a rough offensive game and we pulled out the win. We would have lost that game for sure last year. Canisius was better than I thought. They ran their offense well and again, the Crumpton kid ate our lunch. Funny the way these end of semester games work out. Our guys are in the middle of their finals, while Canisius players are done with theirs.

Undoubtly, it will be low lot of conflicts this time of the year with holiday parties, holiday concerts, etc., and Disney On Ice at the TUC. My guess around 1500. It is maac team. If I was going to miss a home game, this would be the one but I will be there I was so looking forward to this comment. Thanks Bob! Also, Canisius did beat us out in Buffalo last year.

That scenario happens all the time to leagues both good and bad. Last year Monmouth won something like 27 games including a win over Memphis and didn't get a bid. Illinois State is in a much better league, had a win over a ranked opponent and won 27 games but lost in their conference finals and ended up in the NIT.

Judging from their message board, Canisius has been watching us - http://www.voy.com/30982/

I was saying to someone today, as a ualbany fan I never thought I'd d be aggravated about a road loss to Memphis. You are right about high expectation syndrome but we had some help getting those expectations.

Not as sharp as we needed to be but we competed. If it takes Tubby Smith to hang our second loss of the year on us then I'll take it.

In Nichols defense, when the offense breaks down and doesn't get a shot. He's the guy with the ball who has to make a play with the clock running down.

As bad as we looked I will take being down 7 at the half. When this became a half court game things looked better for us. MEmphis will probably storm out of the half again. HAve to weather that again and settle down.

Trying to press Tray Bell Haymes is a bad idea.

Siena fans who didn't like the refs at the TUC the other night must be really enjoying the official treatment in Burlington.

Memphis is still long and athletic. Keeping them off the glass will be tough. Kind of interesting that we'll be facing Tubby Smith. Smith recruited Alex Foster to Minnesota and then to Texas Tech when he coached there.

Forgot to mention, touch of class by CB to get Fruscio into the game. Probably meant a lot for a local kid to get PT in an Albany Cup game.