Dane Pound

11 hours ago, nysteve661 said:

I know it's only April but if you look at our current roster for next season, I don't have a warm, fuzzy feeling about next season and I don't see other AE coaches saying watch out, UA looks loaded.  We have 4 mystery players to fill, JUCO unknowns or grad transfers that were not stars.  Then you look at what we do have currently, probably one player who can make one of the three All-AE teams in Healy and if we are lucky and he gets PT, Amica on a All-Rookie team.  That's all I see.  Lulka bouncing back?  Eh.  Hutchinson building on rookie season?  UA track record on that lately is suspect.  Rizzuto and Hank doubling their numbers and being a consistent force? Doubtful.  History shows us that best case in the four other schollys is one guy MAY be a player that helps team night in, night out.  Not getting my hopes up after getting them too high at start of this past season.  

I look at this another way. If you want to be a contender, you have to have a player in the conference player of the year conversation. I'd say Healy is in the POY conversation. Does he have enough help? Maybe.

Hutch had a solid freshman year and can hopefully build.

Anderson and Lulka are big question marks. Both have proven they can contribute in the past but after injuries, who knows.

If Hutch improves and Anderson is healthy, I like our backcourt if you add another guard who can create. Granted, those are a lot of IFs and the front court has even more of them.

7 hours ago, Clickclack said:

I'm of the opinion that the transfer market and the new impending rule of no sit-out will not be as detrimental to MM as people think. Yes, it will put more of an onus on building strong relationship with kids already in program so they stay or want to stay but it also will allow for all programs to quickly fix recruiting mistakes or situations that aren't an ideal fit for both sides.

I disagree but I would be happy to be wrong

Both High Majors and Mid Majors have hits and misses. High Major misses are going to go to MM. MM "hits" are going to go HM. I don't think that bodes well for MMs.

Not saying every good MM is going to leave but it doesn't take many to change things.

You could tell something was weird the second half of the season. Wasn't sure if it was health related or what. Best of luck to Malachi wherever he lands.

As much as we debate JUCO players and whether they work out, we've had really no success with the New England Prep ranks through the years. Guys I could name off the top of my head that came through the New England Prep schools: Malachi, Doherty, Max Twyman, Mike Wells, Derek Tartt and Anthony Raffa. Maybe there's a success story I'm forgetting. 

Several offers out to JUCO players over the last couple of days.

Javaunte Hawkins, PG Butler CC

Jamel Horton, SG, Pratt

Jaylon Holmes, Guard/Forward, Lincoln Trail College

Simeon Kirkland, PF, Florida Southwestern

We've supposedly talked to Cam Allen, a grad transfer guard from Cal-Bakersfield. 

That would give us a dual Cam backcourt. 

Alright, that's lame but it's been a long week.

Curious to see where Maxime Boursiquot ends up. He's a grad transfer from Northeastern that we recruited out of high school.

One positive to their not being a March Madness is the Eli and I are spared from making lousy picks in our brackets.

I remember getting up in the mornings on campus and doing repeats up the stairs of the Dutch Quad tower. I remember those sucking.

One of my more vivid memories was when Ralph Tortorici brought a rifle into the lecture centers just before winter break and held a bunch of students hostage. It was my former suitemates (a former UA football player) and some other students who wrestled him to the ground and got the rifle away from him. 

2 hours ago, cwdickens said:

If Iona will hire a coach with the background like Rick Patino; Jimmy Patos will find a home in time.  This hiring demonstrates that a MAAC basketball 🏀 team will go to any lengths for a winning team. I suspect the other schools will use the hiring as a marketing tool to say their conference has come of age.

I honestly thought Pitino to Iona was something from the The Onion at first. If the "instant transfer" rule passes, I'm sure Pitino will be able to win quickly. He'll also make the "ice cream money" days of the MAAC look quaint.

Hartford knocks out Stony Brook on the island tonight. Nice coaching job by Gallagher. I think he's 3-0 against SBU this season.

Yeesh. So, they got rid of him for treating his players poorly. Then find out he was just treating them...sorry.

I believe this vacates their last win over us (which is probably why Statefan posted it)

Not much point in arguing about Clark anymore. Yes, he often tried to do too much and yes he often made shaky decisions but watching him all year, he competed harder than any player in recent memory.

If we had another PG to move him off the ball it would have been a different story but this whole season has been one if.

Great to see Cam Healy look like Cam Healy.

Just curious why we haven't played this #11 guy more? 

We were patient on offense for the first minutes, then not so much. Ahmad driving into four Seawolves is a good example of why he drives people crazy.

5 minutes ago, Eli said:

Anyone else having trouble bringing the game up?

Getting "We are unable to play this video at the moment. Try again later." from ESPN

Been OK for me so far. 

4 hours ago, nysteve661 said:

AE awards came out today.  Clark made 2nd team All-AE.  Hutchinson made All-Rookie team.  Lulka made All-Academic, 4.0 GPA in Psyc.  Didn't expect much more, maybe de Sousa for defensive team.  Healys injury and shooting wowes kept him off 3rd team I guess.

Great to see Ahmad get the recognition as he played all-out, all the time. Finished 5th in the conference in scoring, 4th in assists and 3rd in steals.

Sorry to see the season crumble around him because he made great strides this year.

Sorry to hear about the back pain 99. Even our fans are hurt this year. What the hell!!!

I have no idea about the where the injuries came from. I'm sure most guys lobby to come back and assume they'll be better soon. 

Depressing to look back that. We were 6-3 went Healy got injured and then went 1-6 in the next 7 games to finish the season. This thread would probably have had a different title had that not happened.

10 minutes ago, Eli said:

Brown has tried De Sousa up the court, Clark, Healey...I see where you're coming from. I think the team did best when for a limited time, JoJo was involved. It allowed Clark and Healey or others to play shooting guard and I think the team did better overall.

 

I understand the negativity. I don't think anyone's happy with the way this year turned out.

At the beginning of the year, I thought we had too many spot-up shooters - Healy, Rizzuto, Hutch and Sam Schaefer. Had Jojo Anderson been healthy, maybe we would have gotten away with it but we didn't. I just don't see blaming that on Healy for not being a PG when that's not really his game. He was forced into a role that wasn't his strength and was still having a terrific season until the injury during the Bing game.

2 minutes ago, Eli said:

That's not good for a guy who masquerades as the PG for decent chunks of games. Don't blame it on his usage rate either. 
 

I'm not smart enough to know what "useage rate" is but Healy doesn't masquerade as a PG. He's a really good shooting guard (when healthy) who was forced into playing the point by circumstances beyond his control (there was no other PG for most of the year.)

UML beats New Hampshire so unless Undercuffler comes in and throws a couple of touchdowns, we're going to Long Island this weekend.

Great moment to start the game.

2 hours ago, dslyank said:

I HOPE the score is 2 - 2 @ the 19:00 minute mark. Be embarrassing for either team to miss the freebee.

I'd start Fruscio and let him get the first basket.

Every time I watch SB I wonder why Otchere starts over Gueye. 

Stony Brook couldn't have made it any clearer that they were going to sag off Malachi to take away the driving lanes.

Hansen's play tonight made it worth going to game, along with Fruscio starting.

Healy is 4-25 from three since the Bing game.

On 2/27/2020 at 1:19 PM, UAalum72 said:

Will he? He didn’t travel Lowell due to migraines.

I could have sworn he was on the bench at the Lowell game.

Anyway, he's going to start!

It's unfair to slap the "disappointing" label on Cam Healy. He was pretty clearly a first or second team all-conference guys until the injury. Just over a month ago he set the school record for points in a game. You don't do that by accident.

I do agree that we went too heavy on guys who are spot-up shooters. 

I can't believe you guys aren't more excited about the possibility of Fruscio starting on senior day.

23 minutes ago, nysteve661 said:

If you think we are tough on the state of the program, go look at the SBU board.  They are saying Geno Ford is running the program into the ground and dark days ahead after losing to Hartford. They are in 2nd place,  one of their best players has been out(Olaniyi), and on their 3rd coach in 4 years.  Tough crowd over there.

Stony Brook without Olaniyi:

Beat Maine and Bing.

Lost to UNH, Hartford and Vermont.

Similiar to what we've done without Healy, or similar to what we've done with the post-injury version of Healy we've had since he came back.