haggyland

Bad back would definitely explain why he wouldn't sit, but I think his injury tonight was the result of direct contact. Also, he appeared to be icing his thigh, but I was across from the Siena bench, and I was not looking that closely...

Not sure how "hatred collision" got in there. I think I meant "fierce" but it auto-corrected, and now won't let me fix it!

I just got back from the game (scouting the competition.) For Siena, Hymes is still as big of a liability as ever, Poole methodically put up 20, and it seemed like there was a great reluctance to shoot by the Siena players. For Vermont, Ernie Duncan looked like the best player on the court, and he was running the offense with a confidence that belied his inexperience, and then he got into a hatred collision near the sideline and was taken out of the game with an injury. Odd thing I noticed was that while out of the game he stood right outside the corner of the court the entire time...I don't think I have seen that before. Also, when the fourth Catamount fouled out he tried to run to the scorer's table but he was restrained by the bench. The kid is a ferocious competitor with a great skill set... It will be interesting to watch him come conference play. Other than that, Vermont just played smart, organized ball.

Looks like PSU will be using all of their 55 fouls today.

Wow! That was darn exciting!

Both basketball teams looked good, and the 11-year old's signing was a really classy move. Football keeps missing tackles, but I promised no harsh words if the team could win a handful of games this year, so on to one of the most impressive UAlbany team's ever...Field Hockey! Congratulations to the Lady Danes on the big win. One look at the remaining field, and UAlbany is certainly the outlier in terms of historic success. The remaining 8 teams, in order of RPI ranking are: 1- North Carolina 2- Maryland 3- UConn 4- Penn State 5- Syracuse 6- Stanford 8- Duke 11- UAlbany! That is some heady competition. I hope at some time tomorrow to be reading about an upset of Maryland.

Unfortunate, but the "merc" in me says that a 7-9 win season is going to get us some better recruits.

Found this article on football players from Gontarek's high school that went on to the Big 10: http://thebeltwaydispatch.sportsblog.com/posts/1214513/linganore_high_school___big_ten_football__forever_linked.html Interesting part about Gontarek: "Another former Linganore star football player, wide receiver, Josh Gontarek was heavily recruited by Maryland, but after a poor 4.6 40 yard dash, Maryland backed out. Gontarek then chose to play at Albany after Maryland's former recruiter accepted the head coach position at Albany." One slow 40, and UAlbany gets one of its best building blocks.

Can I just chime in by saying how much I am loving the CAA? (Especially now that we have a few conference wins for the record books!)

Bwa-hahahaha! I got so excited that the linemakers still made us the favorite after a tough game in New Hampshire that I got my mid-Atlantic CAA schools switched up!... Good thing I didn't start that thread after all!

Albany a four point favorite against Villanova...I don't want to start the thread!

Really? I had no recollection of that...mad props to GDG for the notable recall.

Shorter... I read something from Coach Abe saying they were going to play a faster, more up-tempo game...if you can find someone to offer you a line on the over/under, take the over! (Until the rest of the gambling world catches on.)

The women's team has picked up a vote in the Associated Press preseason poll: http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1 First vote ever for a UAlbany basketball team?

Everybody is missing the most important takeaway from this game, which is that after the late missed field goal UAlbany was still able to drive for a touchdown, kick the extra point, and.... Cover the spread!!!

The pre-season AE women's basketball poll was released, with UA once again being picked to win the conference: http://www.ualbanysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209731623&DB_OEM_ID=15800 3rd year in a row being picked to win. 2nd year in a row being picked to win unanimously. Richards is the only representative on the Preseason All-Conference Team.

I didn't have the chance to watch, but did Rayshan fall from grace a bit in the last two games? The secondary tackling was bad against JMU and Richmond, and I see that true freshman Jamal Robinson started in the secondary...

Very interesting, but with Fairfield going to the MAAC the autobid was lost. Take one west coast trip a year and play two teams; then in the next year play the other two teams on the road, and travel won't be too bad... Good all schools are on board. Maybe we can parlay this into an all-sports affiliation with Cal and Stanford!

UAlbany down to an 8 point underdog... That means that John Q. Public is putting their money on us...

Saratogian article: http://www.saratogian.com/sports/20141007/saratoga-footballs-griffin-clancy-verbally-commits-to-ualbany Ends with "check back for a complete story."...

Richmond listed as a nine point favorite...I guess that sounds fair.

Newest poll has UAlbany dropping one spot, despite the perfect week. Maybe it is time to drop LCC and let them play D2 teams from here on forward.

The dude is good; I can see now why he was Gattuso's #1 recruit (even if I still think he calls for too many fair catches.) A good showing for UA athletes with the weekly honors: -Field hockey player and rookie of the week. -Volleyball player of the week. -Men's soccer player of the week. -Women's soccer rookie of the week. Let's hope for a similar showing next week.

Double post.

To be fair with the critique of the referees, I thought the play where Fiacchi dropped the ball and the referees were blowing the whistle as JMU was recovering it worth nobody between them and their end zone was a fumble, and not the incomplete pass it was ruled. That play would have made it 28-7 JMU at the half; instead, Albany scores on their next possession to make it a one score game at the half. Lots of positives from tonight; a win would have been great, but this team is improving each game, and is light years ahead of where it was last year. Finally, I thought Ngachie had the best game of his career (one crappy roughing the passer penalty aside); dude was playing on the line a lot of the game, and getting great pressure.