Dane Pound

Not that I am recommending anything; but if you want the GIANTS back, this is NOT going to get it done. Also, I am still curious why the corner screens were switched out for the last game. Anyone in the KNOW? Why on earth would we want the Giants back? What exactly the benefit to UA or our athletic program? What do you have against my giants . If we don't have the facilities that they want , so be it . But how was it a bad thing that while they were here they brought people to our campus and athletic facilty. Our arena and football stadium have also been used for high school games . I don't see that as a problem either even though I have never gone to any of those games All I know is they displaced our teams and coaches, never donated 5 cents to any facilities etc. They used UA...what were the benefits of them being here? To get this out of the way, I'm not a Giants fan but there were benefits to them being on campus. If you're a college program, having an NFL team come to town is a positive. -I think some of our players were doing internships with the Giants when they were here. Can't be a bad thing. -Gobs on NY media on campus. I think some of our coaching staff's relationship with NY media were developed/enhanced during that time. -It got people who like football coming to a place we play football. Granted that would probably help more now with the stadium and being in the CAA. -Having training camp reports on ESPN from UAlbany didn't hurt. No doubt there were negatives but if you want a big-time sports environment on campus they gave it to us. Back to the Sefcu fixing. One thing that doesn't seem like it would be that expensive but is pretty bad for new fans are the ticket lines. The way the box office set up, when there's a descent sized crowd buying tickets the line stretches right in front of the doors to enter Sefcu. It's pretty confusing. I saw it again this weekend at the Federation Tournament.

Yes.

That's a pretty good analogy. They probably had at least four D1 athletes on the floor, a couple for basketball and a couple for football. Ty Wheatley Jr. in the middle. He's one of the top recruits in the state for football, going to Michigan. Tough for the public schools to compete with that kind of roster but they did. Whoa: Is that Tyrone Wheatley's kid?!?! Man, I am aging... It is. There's only one alternative to again and it's not so good.

That's a pretty good analogy. They probably had at least four D1 athletes on the floor, a couple for basketball and a couple for football. Ty Wheatley Jr. in the middle. He's one of the top recruits in the state for football, going to Michigan. Tough for the public schools to compete with that kind of roster but they did.

Canisius is pretty much like Noah's Ark, two of everything and Scotia is not deep at all. Still, back to back state titles isn't a bad way to go out and Cremo played his heart out. I'm glad he'll be back on that same court in a couple of months.

Bill Nye, science guy, was just there last night. He probably could have set this up for us.

Well it looks like the changed the time to 9am Friday per the bracket? http://www.nysbasketballbrackets.com/2015/15feda.htmland it now says Scotia will play Canisus. Nice! I like the time and the place. Might be able to catch some of that..

That's not against chopped liver either. Spring Valley has two guys committed to Iona.

Back from Columbus. I have a lot to say about this season and this game but I'll only say this tonight: If we are lucky enough to go to another NCAA tournament and you haven't gone to one yet, you should really go. Really. Yes, it's a PITA to travel on short notice and there is some expense but it is worth it. It just does not get get old. There is nothing like seeing your team in that sort of environment. Dayton and Ohio State fans in Columbus remembered Albany from last year's tourney, knew about the Australians and probably knew more about our program than some of the fans at Sefcu during the championship game. As a college basketball fan, it is amazing. I really wanted to win on Friday night just to get to experience all that for two more days.

After the "meows" from Peter Hooley and Jay Williams we should be watching Super Troopers on the bus ride.

I remember that. I've watched him a few times when they've been on TV. He's really good but I'll take the star guard we have now.

I'm not sure even Bob87 can make it to both the Albany-Duke and the Albany-Oklahoma games but maybe he can. Hopefully Mike Wells will bring some fans since he went to school just north of Columbus. Who is going?

The "first four" game tonight. Winner will play Providence in the game after ours in Columbus. I am hoping Dayton pulls this one out. Their campus is only a couple of hours from Columbus so they would have a big turnout for Friday's game. I have to guess they'd be rooting hard for an upset in our game.

It's Matt M. Not sure if he is on the board or not. Who knew he had that kind of vertical? That's a great video, thanks for sharing it.

How crazy would that poll question have looked in October? There have been a lot of things no one could have predicted this year. 15-1 in conference, double digit winning streak, etc.

Unbelievable. An amazing couple of days.

Providence might be playing Boise State in that game. Boise is lead by former UAlbany commit Derrick Marks. It's a small world but maybe I'll finally get to see Derrick Marks play in person.

One of the other things I've noticed is we're getting sponsors for things more and more. Some of our game advertisements have had sponsored logos on them. JP Honsinger night was sponsored by a bunch of different local companies. The whole staff at Mohawk Honda wore purple on JP Day. Great to see some inroads being made.

Gozonjic committed to Colorado. Coming off a knee injury that kept him out this entire year. That's a pretty good offer coming off an injury. I forgot to mention the other day but Scotia advanced in the state playoffs the other day with an 80-33 win over Peru. They've won 50 games in a row dating back to last season.

I agree. Their ability to out rebound us was clear in the second half of our recent loss to them. I suppose we are not the underdog, but it feels like it given SB's momentum. They scored 50 points in the second half against Vermont up in Burlington. We actually out rebounded them in both games this year by 2 each time. Admittedly it didn't always feel that way during the game. We did give up a lot of offense rebounds. Richard Peters had one of his best games of the year down at Stony Brook. According to the TU Blog he will start on Saturday morning.

It would be great to come out, hit our first five shots, have the crowd go crazy and for SBU to just roll up into a ball but I don't think it's going to happen. I expect this to be 40 minutes of gut check. Last Sunday Vermont thought they landed a knockout in the first half and SBU stormed back. They've done that several times this year. It'll be interesting to see how guys who haven't been in this situation before react to Saturday's game. Both teams have a lot of guys who've played well this year but haven't been in a game like this before.

Platek and the Kevin Huerter will be going head-to-head again on Tuesday night for all the section II marbles. Should be a good game.

It's just about surviving this time of year. My heart could have used a little separation from UNH at the end but it was a heck of a finish. We couldn't buy a three in the second half - 0 for 5. Tough to get any space for Sam when we aren't making them pay from the outside. Herrion is a heck of a coach. He hasn't had much talent at UNH and has a tough time getting good players to take a shot with them but when he has the players he maximizing their ability. The last two games he gamed planned perfectly for us. Peter Hooley was 3 for 5 from three today. Everyone else was 1 for 8.

It's finally game day! In a story I read this morning Evan Singletary talked about how hard UNH played in both of their games. That's been one of the impressive things about them this year. Especially for a team as young as they are, they really grind for 40 minutes. I watched some of the UNH-Vermont game on the last day of the regular season. Vermont tried to make Matt Miller put the ball on the floor instead of being able to catch and shoot and did a nice job of it. Otherwise, his three point shooting is insane. No word on if Richard Peters will play in this game. I think he dressed for Maine but didn't play if I remember correctly. He had a tough match-up with Jacoby Armstrong. Armstrong hit a bunch of jump shots early and dragged Peters away from the hoop. Armstrong is as good or better than Mark Nwakamma. He and Miller are the two scary guys on that UNH team.

That was an amazing basketball game. Huge shot for Belmont to win at the end. Slightly off-topic but basketball-wise Belmont has been a program I've hoped we can emulate since in some ways we have. They went D1 about five years before we did. Had a lot of success in the lower ranked Atlantic Sun Conference Moved up to the better Ohio Valley Conference and have obviously maintained their success Kept one head coach through the whole process (Rick Byrd) Lead the nation in academic all-americans Involved in one of the best cross-town rivalries at the mid-major level