haggyland

An honest question, but how does a win against Siena get us to the NCAA's which is the point of playing college basketball isn't it?

It doesn't get us to the NCAAs. It gets us local exposure and relevance. It gets us more air time and more face time, and it gets the casual fan more interested. It also gets 10-12K people each year to stand up and take notice.

I for one never truly bought into the idea that the season should be all about the NCAAs. Point to your local dominance of a historically successful rival in front of 10-12K people each year, and that (to me) would provide some of the means to get to the NCAAs.

Let UVM hinge their success on making it to the NCAAs, as that is all they have. We have a regionally significant rivalry game that draws five figures for attendance. Play for that, and play for the NCAAs.

After the pain of last year's game I decided to take a year off.

Price Chopper Advantage card + nosebleed seats = $13 tickets + My first men's UAlbany basketball game in nearly a year.

After blowing a 19 point lead against an undermanned rival, a year of exile was needed.

I know rivalry games are tightly contested affairs, but this year UA has a win at Washington, and Siena has a loss at Maine. Call me a fair weather fan, but lose this year and I am not coming back to a men's UAlbany game until more attention is given to beating the intra-city rival.

Don't tell me it is just another game when you lose, and dance around the court with the trophy when you win.

We should be and act disappointed any time we lose to these guys. (Notable exception of the senior-laden McCaffery team that didn't even let UA sniff a lead.)

Surprisingly, steel work continues today, a Saturday with a dusting of snow on the ground. Surprised because they didn't work on the day after Thanksgiving, in much better weather.

I didn't want to offer my traditional doom and gloom, but the pace of construction has been irking me lately.

Here it is, December 1st, and the steel framework to the tower is just starting, and they are working on Saturday to erect more of it.

I guess that afters years of frustration that I should show more patience, but with rumors that the stadium will not be ready for the Spring game, I would personally like to see some more urgency. At this point most of the concrete has been poured, so let's get those frames and skins up and kick this thing into high gear!

26.0 ppg, but it is not translating into many wins for his team:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics

The staff was not trying to get rid of him they were trying to do what was best for him.

 

Reportedly the GA position was suppose to be a two year (non playing) position - if he played this year there would probably be no spot for him on the staff the following year - and Jacob reportedly like John wanted to get into coaching.

 

When Suero and Logan left unexpectedly Jacob saw an opportunity to possibly play significant minutes and decided he wanted to give playing one more final shot. He is currently playing and taking graduate courses.

 

The decision was his - the Coaching staff and the Iati family have a solid long standing relationship and there was no way that Jacob would be squeezed out as you kind of insinuate.

 

If he chose to be the GA the spot was his.

Thank you. I admit my wording was too liberal.

Those graduate positions seem to have high turnover, so he likely could still be in line for something, right?

And while I admit that the presence of Logan and Suero would have cut into his minutes, it took Aronhalt getting injured to get him minutes, and it took Aronhalt and Suero leaving to get him to stay and play.

In the same situation, if he didn't finish the season strong would he have been invited back to play, or would he be on the staff?

?? Am I missing something? My understanding is he was originally going to take advantage of the open Grad Assistant spot on the coaching staff to help pay for a Master's degree.

 

That was my understanding as well...after the season they met and I believe the coaching staff said we could really use you one more year and he was like ALRIGHT!

I think I might have worded things wrong, but why wouldn't he just play while in the graduate program? Or was the other position better for his long-term basketball future?

Congrats to Jacob, but I still don't get it.

He is deadly from long-range, has a heart and a motor that doesn't quit, seems well respected by his teammates, and is now the team's #2 scoring threat.

So why was the coaching staff in such a rush to get rid of him?

I didn't realize SBU lost last week to Liberty and are also out...yikes. Both teams looked GREAT 98% of the season...one loss in conference and the post season goes up in smokes.

Stony Brook drew Villanova in the first round, with the winner to face the 3 seed, Montana State.

Beating Army in non-con was impressive.

Cool news. One less quality player to replace.

His long of the season was 82 yards? No recollection of that one...

You guys posted a link for free streaming of games not too long ago. I'm thinking about trying to go there for tonight's game. Any one know where that was?

1) An oldie that I haven't tested in a while: http://channelsurfing.ws/

2) A more recent one with fair action: http://www.thefirstrow.eu/

3) The most recent. Recommended by MsGDG, and the best of the bunch: http://www.vipboxsports.eu/

It looks like tomorrow is shaping up to be an eventful day at the construction site, as four trailers are lined up, each carrying a payload of pre-fabricated concrete risers for the lower bowl.

Still, I don't think the stadium will be ready for this year's last home game, as originally claimed.

BTW, I'm leaving the "top 25" banner up at the top of the page. If refers to Field Hockey.

It is looking good so far for FH to keep their ranking, as they are up 2-0 in the first half of the AE Championship game.

Week 9: CCSU eliminated. (Credit Bob87 with the assist.)

Haggy

you can eliminate CCSU. as 72 reminded us last week Albany and Wagner play each other(on 11/3) Both currently have 5 wins. Someone will win to get to 6. Any team that can not get to 6 wins(in other words already has 3 or more losses) can not even get to a multi team tie for first.

Week 9: St. Francis eliminated.

CCSU defeats St. Francis 32-30, dropping St. Francis to (2-4 NEC).

Albany defeats Sacred Heart 23-20, getting Albany to (5-0 NEC).

Worst Albany can finish is (5-3 NEC), and the best St. Francis can finish is (4-4 NEC.)

Week 9: Robert Morris eliminated.

Wagner defeats Robert Morris 23-13, dropping Robert Morris to (1-4 NEC).

Albany defeats Sacred Heart 23-20, getting Albany to (5-0 NEC).

Worst Albany can finish is (5-3 NEC), and the best Robert Morris can finish is (4-4 NEC.)

Week 9: Sacred Heart eliminated.

Albany defeats Sacred Heart 23-20, dropping them to (1-4 NEC), and getting Albany to (5-0 NEC).

Worst Albany can finish is (5-3 NEC), and the best Sacred Heart can finish is (4-4 NEC.)

 

Did not look at who is playing who, but the only way Bryant is alive is if it is still possible for all teams to finish at 4-4. If everybody was 4-4 a single head to head would not eliminate a team.

Obviously this will be a moot point as soon as someone wins theiir 5th game or loses their 5th game.

Albany and Wagner both have four wins and still to play each other, so Bryant is eliminated.

Classic. I hadn't even considered the possibilities of a multi-team 4-4 record. Good thing UA72 chimed in, because figuring out the logistics on that one would be a nightmare.

I'm hoping for RMU and Monmouth victories this weekend. Take a little pressure off.

It's a little crazy that Bryant was eliminated 10 days ago, but yeah, this thing would really start to take shape if the weekend you want happens.

Week 7 (10/13/12): Bryant eliminated.

Bryant beats Robert Morris 38-35, improving to (1-4 NEC).

Albany defeats St. Francis 36-13, getting Albany to (4-0 NEC).

Worst Albany can finish in the NEC is 4-4, and the best Bryant can finish in the NEC is 4-4, but by virtue of the tiebreak (Albany beating Bryant earlier in the year), Bryant is eliminated.

Still alive in the hunt for the NEC title:

Albany (5-0)

Wagner (5-1)

Duquesne (3-2)

Monmouth (3-2)

CCSU

St. Francis

Robert Morris

Sacred Heart

Bryant

2010-2011: Picked 7th in the Pre-Season Poll, finished the season in 5th.

Coach Abe takes a team that went 11-19 the previous season and leads it to its most wins since 1996-97, and the most in its Division I history. In the AE Tournament, the team loses by five points to eventual AE champion Hartford.

2011-2012: Picked 5th in the Pre-Season Poll, finished the season in 2nd.

Team goes 14-2 in conference and finishes one game out of first place. Team wins the conference tournament, going to the NCAAs. Coach Abe wins COY award. First time in Division I history that UAlbany wins 20 or more games.

2012-2013: Picked 1st in the Pre-Season Poll, finishes the season in ???

It should be great to see how this team follows up after last season. This athletic department needs more coaches like Coach Abe.

I was on the UA websites looking for Homecoming events, and the athletic's site now has a promotions page (example, 12/21 is "Ugly Sweater Night"), and the ability to purchase tickets online.

It's overdue, but it is progress...

They are starting to build the columns that support the upper level of the stands. Vertical progress in time for Homecoming!

Knowing that the competition faced effects the numbers, here is a comparison of team statistics as of right now:

(Two fields are highlighted because I could not determine how 15 TDs for ranks UA 30th in FCS, but Monmouth 26th.)

Women's rings came in (with apologies to Tabatha):