reeder

Some final thoughts on the game - then it's time to let go 1. This is the second game where UA was exposed in the post. Vs. Florida, I assumed they were just a better team - now I think there is an issue that Brown has to address. San Diego State has an all conference power forward and UCLA is a big team - Brown only has a couple of days to make a plan. 2. The team is going to have bad shooting nights - they cannot get killed on the boards (that's so 2 years ago). Also, they can't have so many turnovers. On the radio feed, it sounded like every attempt at a bounce pass resulted in a turnover. 3. Imagine how Brown must feel - I am sure he saw McElroy today and I can imagine McElroy asking why he had the same problems vs. Sacred Heart as he had last year (if you remember some of McElroy's comments about intensity and winning the close games last year). Also, the team has two very tough games coming up before facing Siena - I'm sure Brown didn't sleep well last night. 4. IMO, for the next couple of days, Filien needs to take Zoellner, Covington and Graham and just work on post play - interior defense and getting the pass in the post and kicking it out. That said, bring on San Diego State !

Disappointing loss. Listened to the game on the radio and Brown almost sounded depressed in the post game interview. Clearly post play in general needs to be worked on - offensively and defensively. Some thoughts and comments on the game: 1. Would a zone have slowed the post play in the first half? 2. I agree that UA needs to make it a habit to get the ball in the post - they must also get it out quickly if the player isn't open. 3. Lucious missed two critical free throws 4. This was eerily similar to some of the conference games last year (albeit an extreme) where UA couldn't make any perimeter shot and didn't have a way to get the ball in the post. 5. They have to go play San Diego State next that has an all conference post player. 6. Kudos to Brent who apparently took a pretty hard elbow and came back into the game. Even with the loss, there was some good news 1. Zoellner played an inspired second half - a lot of blocks and he seemed more active 2. This was almost "the perfect storm" for things going wrong - pretty much all of their deficiencies were seen - post defense, reliance on the perimeter offense, occassional lack of intensity. Even with that, they were in a position to win - the 2 missed free throws hurt and they had the last possession.

I agree Patch. The challenge with Zoellner is primarily on the offensive end and I think that can be addressed. IMO, his role should be to have a defensive presence and his offensive role should be focused on open dunks, garbage baskets and quick kick outs to the perimeter player or to a cutter. He shouldn't have to put the ball on the floor or even bring it below shoulder level. At this level of basketball, you don't need to do a lot at 7' to be a very good player. I think he just tries to do too much. Every player on this team has a role and I think Zoellner's just needs to be refined.

Jamar was co-player of the week. Trimboli was ROW - good to know that the UA freshman aren't competing for this every week.

Will be interesting to see how Ford goes about recruiting scholarship athletes - I'm no expert, but it must be different than recruiting non scholarship athletes.

First home game tomorrow, hope there is good fan support. Would be great to have about 3k fans to get the home schedule going.

Tough loss - must be painful to be so dominant all year long and have one of your better players get hurt and lose in the semi finals. Not sure how at large bids work, but the tournament next week could be important for an at large bid. I don't know if those teams are any good, but if UA wins, who knows...

TU article focusing on Gifford Nice article focusing on Gifford. I hope he can make a big impact in the middle as that would be great for the next 4 years. That said, he only started a couple of games as a HS junior. The kid that started at Center was 6'4" - not sure why he didn't start but reading some articles on him it sounds like he improved quite a bit since last HS season. I still think UA needs to recruit a point guard. I know that Iati and Lillis can play the point but I don't think that is their primary position. That Zampier kid was a PG that chose Yale - maybe there will be a recruit next season. Nice recruiting class - this will be a very good team for the foreseeable future.

Jamar - Good article Good piece on Jamar

My understanding is that the selection committee ranks the teams and the 64th and 65th ranked team are in the play in game. I think those are usually mid major teams that upset teams in there conference tournaments (last year Alabama A&M was a 4th or 5th seed and won their tournament and Oakland was 7th in their conference and won their tournament). I'm sure that they use RPI and other factors as well. This is why, as a conference, you want members to win OOC games (improved conference RPI). It's also why scheduling is so important. If you look at the BU schedule, they play a lot of OOC games that are "winnable" against teams with comparable or higher RPI's - Rhode Island, UMass, Canisius, Holy Cross, Michigan and a west coast tournament that is with comparable teams giving them a chance to win. I mentioned on the AE board a while back, that the conference needs to enforce some sort of minimum RPI for OOC games to ensure that the conference teams are playing at an appropriate level of competition. It's good to play games against NEC and Ivy league opponents, but take a look at last years schedules that Northeastern, BU, Vermont and Binghamton had - again a lot of winnable games against higher or comparable RPI teams. If whoever wins the AE wins both the regular season and the tournament they will probably avoid the play in game (assuming there are a couple of upsets in other tournaments). Also, if the winner of the AE wins some significant OOC games, they may avoid the play in - one reason the bracketbuster game could be important. All of that said, having to win a play in game is not necessarily a bad thing. In regard to Bilas - I don't think he was saying anything bad about UA. He and Lavin both said they were surprised that BU wasn't picked to win the conference. These are people that don't know mid major basketball. If Kyle Whelliston (mid majority.com) said that, then I think it would have some validity. Also, remember that Bilas spoke at a BU event a couple of weeks back and these guys work with Tom Brennan who competed with BU for conference championships for the last few years.

Just back from Gainesville. Met alum73 and many other Danes fan - definitely a good trip. Thoughts on the team. 1. Jamar - I forget how good he is. I think he scored the first 7 points against Florida last night. Didn't force shots and he shot extremely well from the perimeter. He came out of the game late with an apparent groin injury - he was putting ice on as the game ended. Also, I don't recall more than 1 charge in the two games - he did a good job at stopping and taking the 1o footer. That said, the refs are focusing on carrying the ball this year and he had several called against him. That said, I don't think there is a guard in the AE that can stop him from penetrating. 2. Iati can shoot the ball. He had a couple last night just coming off a screen and putting it up - hard to tell if he even had a good look. Also played aggressive defense against the bigger guards. 3. Jordan - Not shooting as much as last year - not sure if his role is changing a bit. May also be that he is still recovering from the ankle injury. 4. Brent Wilson - played great. Shot the ball extremely well, took a couple of charges in the first half and played well against the big interior players from Florida. 5. Levi - Didn't shoot as well last night as he did against Oakland, still played pretty well overall. Tough when he's only 6'4" / 6'5" and playing against guys that are legitimately 6'8" or 6'9". 6. Zoellner - not sure what happened, he had two fouls in the first minute last night. He just had a tough time with the Florida big guys. He'll still be a very good defender in the AE. I can see him sitting on the bench a lot if he gets off to a slow start - the team can win with Covington or Graham at the 5. 7. New guys - Siggers has a nice shot but starts the shot almost at his hip - he'll make them if he can get it off, but he may have a tough time getting some shots off. Covington and Graham - both played well in their minutes. Just a tough way to start when Florida has so many athletic big men. They did play well against Oakland and I think they will get a lot of minutes as the team plays more comparable teams. The team has a lot of shooters and a lot of depth - they will do real well this year.

I don't know if they have a beat writer like Siena does. I think that would help with better stories. IMO, this all becomes a non issue once the season begins: 1. I expect atleast 3k at the home opener - even without great media coverage 2. A win vs. Oakland would be a great start. It'll be interesting to see if any of the local stations send a reporter to cover the games - I think they sent reporters to cover the Siena BCA games last year. 3. Siena game will be huge for media and local support - first game after a very difficult west coast trip and first in a series of winnable games. IMO, UA should spend every dollar they have promoting this game. Expect attendance to be down again, but they need to work to get people there - give away their tickets if they have to. Yes, media coverage is poor and not real positive right now, but UA has control over how the coverage evolves over the season

Will said that he voted for BU. In terms of the women, McElroy has shown that he will not tolerate losing - I am sure that Patterson understands that. I forget how what her extension was, but let's give her that time to turn things around. Also, the recent recruit that committed to the women made two promising comments (from my perspective). 1. She noted that Patterson was one of the coaches on the national team and 2. She noted that UA has made a priority of the women's basketball team. To me this shows that the recruits are getting a good message. Let's see how the next year or so are for her.

Online Gazetts says ticket sales up 60% - not sure what the base is.

It's posted on the AE conference website. Also, Jordan and Jamar are pre season first team all conference. I need to re visit Maine - not sure why they would get 1 vote for first.

I just saw that BU plays their field hockey home games at MIT - why are they hosting the tournament. I thought the tournament would be at the highest seeded school with a turf field. Since BU plays their home games at MIT, shouldn't Maine be the host team?

It is a joke. When I called to get my tickets, the woman asked if I'd be interested in "joining the Gators in NY the following week". I don't think she even understood that they had to win the 2 games in Gainesville first. On the topic of U of Florida - what's up with those football jerseys they wore against Georgia? Those jerseys along with the VT jerseys are some of the worst that I have ever seen

My take on the football team: First, let me say that as I live 1000 miles from UA, I have not seen any games this year. I think that Ford looked at the lack of passing and decided to revamp the offense. Maybe he thought that with having a new quarterback and a new set of tailbacks would help that transition. Maybe that's why Kenny Williams was the starting tailback (as opposed to Omar Johnson or Marcus Allen) - because he fits the mold of a running back in a spread offense. All of this said, if Allen and Omar Johnson are as good as their press clippings - and based on their performance the last couple of weeks maybe they are, why change the offensive strategy? Let them run the ball. IMO, the quarterback doesn't need to pass for a lot of yardage - they need to make smart passes and not make big mistakes. Roeder won a conference championship and he wasn't a great passer - he just didn't make the silly mistakes. Also, if you do want to change the offense, the games against scholarship teams make it very difficult. UA would have probably lost vs. Hofstra, UMAss and Maine anyway, but not only did they lose, they lost trying to implement a new offense against vastly superior teams. In other words, I don't think they got anything out of those games. It would have been much different if they took their existing offense with the new players and said let's expand what we already know so that we are ready for the conference games. Maybe I'm wrong, but perhaps Ford changed his philosophy and is letting the backs run the ball and moving Rossomondo back to o-line coordinator is going to get the line focused on blocking for the running backs before the season is a total loss. If you want to have a spread offense, then hire an o-coordinator that is an expert in running that offense. No knock on Rossomando, but I don't know that he was in a situation where he could be successful. According to a Ford quote in the online Gazette, he is again the O line coordinator. Rossomondo has been great at taking the offensive line and making holes for the backs for years. Yes, I think that perhaps his schemes were a bit complexed but they worked overall. The guy that is / was the O line coordinator was previously a tight ends coach. While I'm no expert on coaching, it is probably not an easy transition from tight ends coach to an o line coach with schemes as complexed as UA's. I don't think that guy had a chance to be successful either. Bottom line, I think that Ford needs to go back to running the ball hard - smash mouth football. That's what UA has done for years and they have done it well. Work on Hall and Bocanegra so they don't make silly plays to hurt the team. Rossamondo can re-focus the o line and get them to create holes for these very good backs. Lastly, I hope that McElroy looks at the scheduling. I would hate to see Ford's legacy ruined because of this silly scheduling. I would much rather see this team fly out to play a Pioneer League team (they could even take a bus - it's 640 miles from Albany to Dayton - a much shorter trip than the Albany to Maine to Baltimore and back disaster that the basketball team went through last year).

I'm reluctant to post any detail based on the issues last year. That said, the yearbook is out and this is the summary for Albany: BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS BACKCOURT: A BENCH/DEPTH: B+ FRONTCOURT: B+ INTANGIBLES: A

My first thought was why did he leave UMBC? But then I read the UMBC media guide from last year - seems like a good kid, good player in HS... Wonder if the coach ran him out - strange for 4 kids to leave. Anyway, I wonder if he will have 3 years remaining. He could probably sit out this year in JC and have three left for Albany. Also, Brown still needs a PG - guess that'll be addressed next year.

They get a new facility and now they are not only winning at home but against ranked teams. I'm not a psychologist, but I bet having a new facility has breathed life into that team. Also, I think they can make the AE tournament.

Great perspective for this kid. Think about all the bigs that don't progress at the high majors as projected. Some end up sitting on the bench for a long time and some transfer - Zoellner was in a similar situation at BC. Also look at Brian Butch at Wisconsin.

It is tough to change perceptions. Whether we like it or not, Siena is still perceived to be the premiers college basketball team in the region. The fact that Albany beat them last year and will be among the conference favorites doesn't matter much. I don't live in the area nor do I get there very often, but my take is that the community still does not see the programs as equal. To the community, Siena has been a solid mid major for many years - when UA was a D3 program, Siena was in the NCAA's (I think). How does that change? 1. Winning the conference / getting to the big dance. 2. Significant increase in promotional activities. 3. Winning significant non conference games. In terms of promotional activity, there is no reason that the website can't be updated to provide information and updates on the players and team almost real time. No reason that they can't get people in the RACC to create a brand awareness - give the tickets away if you have to. People need to become familiar with the brand and understand that it is high quality. I would hope that Charlie and company are putting together a plan to create an increased awareness of the program (and I would hope they don't put together another task force). No reason UA can't average 3k fans this year. If that happens, I believe the media coverage will continue to improve.

Thanks for the info: Was the media there? Did Iati show any rust? Did Zoellner show increased aggression? Thanks again for the update.

It is a tournament but you are guaranteed two games - so on the second day, the two winning teams play each other and the two losing teams play each other.