Dane Pound

Nice profile today of Nick Fruscio, a guard from Albany Academy who plays for his father. Nick is thinking of walking-on at Albany next year and wants to be a head coach someday. Sounds a little like Brian Barnes for those who remember him. It would be great to have another local player on the roster - http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/Fruscios-together-on-and-off-court-6892374.php

I see that former Columbia guard Jahlil Nails is leaving Central Conn. He had a pretty nice freshman year down there but I think I read Howie Dickerman is retiring. Nails probably didn't want to stay for a new coach.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping up and down at the prospect of Stony Brook winning and NCAA tournament game but I don't follow those who think tournament sucess doesn't help a program or the conference. Good conferences send teams to the tournament and they win games. Bad conferences send teams to the tournament and they don't win games. We would like to be in a good conference.

I'd look at it more as rooting against Calipari and Kentucky.

There's all kind of connections in this bracket: -Former Dane Anthony Odunsi now plays for Houston Baptist. -Assistant Coach Josh Pellitier used to coach for Jim Ferry at Duquense -Former Dane Geremy McKay transferred to Eastern Washington -And then of course, there's Vermont.

So, back to Columbus again? I agree, this isn't a bad match-up. Second place team in the AE vs. the second place team in the MAC. Could be Albany-Siena II down the road somewhere.

Congrats to Stony Brook. Their senior class has gone through hell in the AE tourney these past few years and they've earned the right to dance. I don't generally have much good to say about Stony Brook but I'll say this. 10 years ago when we won for the first time, our fellow SUNY members in the AE went in two different directions. Bing went quick and dirty by hiring a dirtbag coach who brought in tainted recruits and a scandal. Stony Brook, on the other hand, seemed to build a program the right way. Their fans are still ignorant nitwits but they deserve this one.

Awesome...then horrible...then awesome ending to that game. Five Championships in a row. Never been done before until now.

I do think we're looking higher, some of those guys you listed are three star guys which is why there is more competition and some at a high level. I think Kyle McKinley has 7 other offers. That's a good sign, not a bad one as far as I'm concerned. Slightly unrelated but I see Keanu Pinder just decommitted from New Mexico. He's an Australian SF we had been interested before he committed.

Somehow navigated their way through the Patriot League tourney and into the NCAAs. That's march madness. They were 5-13 in conference before the tournament started. We have wins over two teams in the NCAA field so far - Yale and Holy Cross.

Selling tickets seems like the main priority for these post-season tournaments and Albany-Siena would certainly do that. A CBI or CIT game at Sefcu Arena would certainly generate interest.

My thought is you spelled Downtown Abbey wrong to disguise the fact that you're a big Downtown Abbey fan. I'm not sure we can really look down on 5700 or whatever they had. For a one-bid league that's really good. It's probably higher during the regular season because they run a lot of promotions and there are so many cheap or free tickets. Something they can't really do during the tourney.

Alright, I guess at least one good thing happened on the drunk bus then.

Many of you have been saying how much you want an "off-topic" forum. OK, one of you has been saying they want an "off-topic" forum many times. Here's why there isn't one: I don't want one. I generally feel like I should read everything on the board, If I have to come here every morning and read some horsesiena about politics I will lose my mind. If something like the bus indident or nano college happens, feel free to slap an OT on the topic title and post away.

Nothing good happens on the "drunk bus." Not back when I was a student, and not now. When they founded the University back in 1844 there used to a horse and wagon that came from downtown, I bet there were problems on the last horse and wagon from downtown back then. No cameras then though.

All set. You might just want to go with Globetrotting_Dane or at least Countrytrotting_Dane!

For your increased aggravation, in today's TU John Gallagher said he got advice about the zone Hartford used last night from former Siena coach Fran McCaffery.

We'll see what happens down the road. Another tournament is the furthest thing from my mind tonight.

Congrats to Hartford. They were far hungrier and much better prepared tonight. There is no other way to slice it. Rough ending for a great class of seniors but they had a great run these past few years.

Hopefully there is a decent crowd. The fact that we just played them and beat them handily probably doesn't help generate interest.

It's kind of an odd mix of schools for White. Mercer, Albany, Boise State and then Duke.

Friggin Duke swooping in on our recruits!

Story in the TU about the conference awards - http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/UAlbany-s-Joe-Cremo-picked-as-top-rookie-sixth-6861885.php Joe Cremo on getting the ROY award and SMOTY: "It's not about individual awards. I won MVP awards (at Scotia) but I always stayed true to my guys on the team. It can never be about individual awards when you are trying to accomplish team goals."

Not that I can remember and certainly not for Albany. Evan is the first guy to be on the first team for two years in a row since Jamar. That's pretty amazing. For the most part we had an 11 man roster this year and 6 of those players got an all-league award. Awesome to see Joe Cremo take home both awards!

Just going with four year players... Jamar and Levi Levine for getting the program going. Mike Black for bringing the program back. Peter Hooley for taking the program to places it hadn't been before.