Dane Pound

Good story on two of the York, PA players we are recruiting - Melik Martin and Antonio Rizzuto. Rizzuto is actually the Jon Iati's cousin. http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/sports/high-school/boys-basketball/2017/07/18/york-county-basketball-standouts-racking-up-college-offers/489744001/ We've also offered JUCO PF Cedric Roland and SG Buddy Boeheim. That's Jim Boeheim's son.

Big Apple Hoops has us with a home game against LIU on November 14th.

Not just the same neck of the woods, the same high school. He's AAU teammates with Antonio Rizzuto who we also have offered.

Incoming PG recuit Ahmad Clark was a teammate with #1 draft pick Markelle Fultz at Dematha.

I meant to post this the other day. Great to see Coach Iati promoted to Associate Head Coach.

Saw that Wheeler Baker is transferring to Northeast Nebraska CC, the school Kyle McKinley just left for LA Tech.

Virginia looks like the right place to stay. On the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives map there are four places near Elon on the Virginia side and none on the NC side. That's how I make my travel plans. Glad the game is still on.

My money team: PG: David Nichols SG: Jamar SF: Brian Lillis PF: Sam Rowley C: Jon Puk Bench: Evan Singletary Jason Siggers Brent Wilson Kirsten Zoellner Dane 96 (because I know he would donate the money to the athletics program)

Story today in the Times Union about the three players leaving - http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Three-players-leave-UAlbany-men-s-basketball-team-11200423.php It also mentions Ahmad Clark and Alex Foster coming in but doesn't talk about the Matt Conway commitment.

I find the new conference talk interesting because right now, I don't see a "no brainer" conference option. The CAA maybe, but their high water mark seemed to be seven or eight years ago. The MAC maybe, but geographically it doesn't make a ton of sense. The last couple of years we've been around the top 100(ish) in RPI in basketball and the top 10 in lacrosse this year regardless of conference. Not to sound cocky but I don't think we've hit a ceiling yet.

+1, thank you for saying this.So funny coming from the people on this board who complain people take what people say on here too seriously. DP has asked people not to talk politics on here.... Not to say anything negative about DP; but it is really physically impossible to participate on this blog and NOT talk politics. We are a STATE University. Everything this University does whether athletically, academically, community or whatever has political implications. Did not the governor slice off perhaps the biggest most successful part of UA (not to bring up another item from other threads--but did he not?) Our very existence as a NEW DI athletic program vs being a historically big 5 power, is directly related to government blocking at the worst and government disinterest at the least. Like it or not, political interference at the most and government disinterest @ the least, continues to hinder any goals UA may have in expanding into a better conference and/or getting AAU certification. Funding also an issue; but again as a STATE University, government and politics inherently involved. How can we not talk politics????? You're right to a degree that there is no separating politics from a state school. The Elon game is a good example. I've been opposed to talking about politics for politics sake on this board because people can do that on basically every other form of social media there is.

Buffalo Bills signed Abner Logan today - http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-1/Bills-sign-a-pair-of-tryout-players/941c62ca-5ef2-404f-854c-74f0b464cded

Not sure what you guys were worried about. This was never in doubt. We just need to tweak our 10 goal lead offense a bit.

The program is in a pretty good place when we get a three star recruit who had multiple power school offers and we say "yeah, he can give us some depth in the front court." Foster looks like a solid piece of the puzzle. Seems like a good student who had some Ivy league offers coming out of high school also. I suspect if we see a lot of him we'll see flashes of why he was so highly ranked coming out of high school. The thing I like about this class is that it looks like we got what we needed. We added depth at the guard spots and got bigger and more athletic in the front court.

Still not sure who is leaving and how many spots we still have to fill. If we're still looking for a big guy, they don't come bigger than Rozelle Nix who is leaving Pitt as a grad transfer - 6'11 and 300lbs.

Gotta think that will be the highest opening round attendance. Looks like the highest from last year was just over 4K which was the Albany - Syracuse game.

Saw that Chas Brown is transferring from Coppin State to Coastal Carolina. I think at least half of Albany transfers end up at Coastal.

Chas Brown must have been a mid-year transfer who became eligible in the second semester. He put together a nice season - 12 PPG and over 7 rebounds on a tough 24 loss season. They've fired their coach and hired Juan Dixon.

Best of luck to Maitland at BC. It's all about Ahmad Clark now. Clark is coming with a little less hype but he still had offers from a solid MAC team and brought his team to the JUCO national championship game as a freshman.

Should be a fun atmosphere when they split the arena. It took almost 20 years but I'm glad it happened.

Sorry to see Lands go. I thought he could have been a nice player for us if he could clear up his injury situation. There are certainly a lot of chances now for any incoming big to get some minutes. Only Charles and Stire returning players who have any minutes. I actually don't see Costa Anderson as the "odd man out." I liked what he did last year and wanted him to get more minutes. Honestly, I thought he probably had to play out of position at the PG spot.

I don't remember so many three year JUCO guys before. I like that we have two of them this year. Along with the freshman coming in it will nice to have them behind the Nichols, Cremo and Campbell class. Conway looks to be a little like Dallas, a big wing or maybe a slightly undersized PF who can shoot. As 1882 said, it would be great to have a shooting big guy to drag the opponents big guys away from the hoop to create a more space for Nichols to drive. The maturity element on Conway being older is great too.

Clark played at the same high school (Dematha) as Bing's Thomas Bruce. Also, probable NBA lottery pick Markelle Fultz, now at Washington. Another teammate at Drexel. I guess if you can make it on the floor at Dematha you can play. Three years to play. Took his team to the national championship game this March. A little like when DJ Evans came in, no real pressure on him next year.

According to twitter, we have a visit this weekend from Ahmad Clark. A JUCO PG from St. Petersburg Colllege. I think he'd have three years to play.

I heard Stony Brook thought this was unfair and is petitioning to get the format changed... Just kidding. Good news.