Dane Pound

Lands has shown some signs of being really good. He's had some tough luck health-wise. Grayson has been more of an enigma. He's really talented and has been a terrific three point shooter. He just seems to fade away sometimes when he's out there. He might be more of a PG that we're trying to force into a shooting guard role. I don't know about Costa Anderson. He hasn't been on the court enough to make any kind of determination.

You know best DP, and I haven't seen this year's team much.S$ Ha! I don't know if I know anything not to mention knowing best! I just threw that year out there because it reminded me of this season. We had Levi, Jamar, Lucious and Brent Wilson, Lillis, Zoellner and Iati. We won our first two games of the year, blowing out Siena at the TUC. I thought we were going to be awesome. Then we lost the first two home conference games and the reality that we had some really good but really young guards. This group is really talented and they want to win, they're just going to take some lumps along the way. I think Click said he thought we'd be around 16 wins which would be OK. Just as a schedule complaint. We were the only team in the conference to start off with two road conference games. Then we come home to face a team that's had a week to prepare for us.

It will be interesting to see where our head is on Wednesday. New Hampshire hasn't played in nearly a week and are probably as frustrated as we are. They were expecting a big year and after their home loss in the opener are also staring at 0-2. The more I see us this year, the more I'm reminded of the 04-05 team (the first year we had a full roster and the year before the championship year.) It has a lot of talent but a young backcourt that struggles to close out games and doesn't hold focus for the full 40 minutes.

Just got home from game as well . End of the game offense wasn't firing either. Couldn't pass and too much individual, not enough team work. On to the next game I'm not sure the offense had much of a chance. We turned the ball over before we got shots. The few times we did have the ball, we panicked. This team is learning lessons the hard way this year. Playing the full 40 minutes is one of them. Having a backup PG would be another. We have a 20 win offense and a 10 win defense.

Lowell also turns our size advantage against us when Livingston is nailing threes from the outside. It drags Stire and Rowley away from the hoop. I forgot Lowell swept Vermont last season. Curious to see how this team responds this week down on the island.

Enough of this second best 3pt def in the conf. When you suck at defending the 3 you're going to have more taken against you. It's not like I made it up. Just looking at the stats. We have a lot of work to do.

Lowell ended up shooting over 50% from three.

% wise out three point defense is second best in the conference. That will probably change after this game.

I was thinking about those two free throws when I made my post. I wasn't expecting huge numbers but as Click said, I thought he would take the next step and he hasn't. He is what he has been the past few years, which is not a bad thing but I thought we would get more. Last year I think I (unfairly) expected him to be more like Sam when he's probably a little more like Luke Devlin. Scores a little but mostly makes winning plays in crunch time. On the coaches show CB was talking about the possible four-headed monster when Lands comes back. I don't think any one guy will average huge numbers but there will be a lot of production from the whole group.

I thought we showed an interesting look in the Cornell game with that 1-3-1 zone or whatever it was with Dallas at the top. I don't remember us doing that before.

Great kid but not having a good season at all. I was hoping he would breakout this year as the main low post scorer. I guess I didn't have those expectations of him. He's a solid big guy who sets screens, seals his guy off when guards drive, will score a little when he gets the ball and has decent assist numbers for a big guy. To me, the great part about Mike is he's shooting over 80% from the free throw line. That's a great luxury to have in a tight game when things become a foul fest. I have to admit, I tend to defend Mike because I will always think of the two free throws he hit in the closing seconds of the 2015 AE Championship game to cut the lead from three down to one. Then the missed Purifoy free thrown. Then one of the best moments in SEFCU Arena history.

An ESPN3 game. Lowell had a decent home win against Boston U. a couple of games ago and then beat Cornell on the road in overtime. They aren't a great rebounding team and hopefully this is the game we get Lands back.

A majority of us picked between 16-19 wins this year. So far, at 8-6 or 9-6, however you want to count it. That's looking reasonable although 20 wins aren't out of the question and would be a terrific season. Feats of strength: -win over Penn State. Feats of Meh: -Home loss against Holy Cross. Holy Cross is currently at 182 in RPI so it wasn't that bad of a loss. Six losses and four of those losses are to teams in the top 100 of RPI. Holy Cross and Grand Canyon are the exceptions. Grand Canyon is 9-6 but haven't really beaten anyone good (except us.) Lessons so far: Only two people can stop David Nichols - Will Brown and David Nichols. More of an emphasis on getting other people involved over the last couple of games. One of the reason it's fun to watch four year players is seeing them develop and it's going to be fun watching Nichols. Joe Cremo can score in some crazy ways. 15 games into him started and I almost come to take his full stat lines for granted. Dallas is unheralded so I'll herald him. It doesn't matter if he starts, if he comes off the bench, he just does whatever we need. Mike Rowley is playing better than Click gives him credit for. We need more Travis Charles.

Not a work of art but 9 wins in the OOC is a good way to start. Cornell did not even look to get an offensive rebound most of the game. It was our guys fighting among themselves for boards a lot of the time. Nichols seemed really under control tonight and let the game come to him. Travis Charles is worth coming to the games for by himself. Plays hard every second he's out there and makes good decisions. Cremo appeared to be having an off-night but his standards but then I look at the stats and he nearly had a double-double.

Columbia went up to Maine and beat the Black Bears by 25 today.

Just curious, I haven't heard anything about Devonte Campbell in a while. He was playing pretty well for a while and then was injured.

So that nasty Hickman dunk over Mike Rowley made ESPN's top plays (sorry Mike.) All I was thinking when I watched it was that Stire would have probably fouled him and not gently. One of the things that impressed me about this game was that Hickman delivered that dunk, the crowd and bench went a little crazy, and we didn't let it affect us. Just went on to win the game.

Programming note: Cam Healy's Montverde team will be on ESPNU on Jan. 16th

Yep, to go from those pre-season expectations to this reality has to be the most sobering of things for a completely delusional fanbase. The pre-season expectations were probably the worst part of the equation and the scheduling didn't help. I think they're going to end up being in the upper half of the conference when it's all said and done. The problem is, they thought with four senors that it was going to be 2009 again. Not including their Kansas game, the combined record of teams they've lost to is 73-40 and every team has a winning record. They'll be alright when they get to the MAAC schedule. I just hope Patsos is OK and able to stay for at least a few more years.

Also, don't forget to cancel your Ivy League subscription before it auto renews. The Ivies really don't need our money.

Winning on the road with a young backcourt against a Jim Engels coached team. I'll take it, warts and all.

Not sure how many Albany fans are there but they're being nice and noisy.

Petrasek. Good Lord.

Friends ? Maybe I should have said neighbors since it looks like some of them might be using their UAlbany season tickets after all.

Vermont is shooting 3-18 from three, under 60% from the free throw line and still up by 17 against our friends from Loudonville.