reeder

1. I don't know that intimidation is the right word - Vermont is a better team and it is difficult to beat them in general, but much more difficult in from of 3,000 loud fans. The same is true for Binghamton - only the team isn't as talented. 2. Not sure you want to start the year off with 4 tough games - you lose 4 in a row and nobody remembers that you were playing in front of 12k fans. Given this schedule, I think the team needs to take a few weeks and go on a pre-season trip to get some games in - I think Maine went to Canada last year. 3. Albany struggled throughout the entire conference season in three areas: 1. Perimeter defense. Binghamton lit them up in the first game and the third game, Northeastern won the game at the RACC when they shot so well, Sorrentine in the second half at the RACC... 2. Perimeter shooting. Albany ended up third or fourth in conference games shooting from the 3 point range, but the number was relatively low. Jordan had an incredible start but he and the rest of the team struggled from the perimeter for most of the conference season. Brent Wilson had some nice games and Jordan had a couple of nice games - Vermont at the RACC. 3. Consistent post play. Zoellner was great against Siena, I was sitting next to a Siena fan who kept asking why they wouldn't just dump the ball down low as Zoellner was dunking, using drop steps... Not sure what happened but he wasn't consistent for the rest of the season. One thing that I did notice was that once the conference season started, Brown made a point of starting the half court offense by feeding the post. I don't know if that was a good idea, there were so many games where Zoellner wasn't able to convert and Albany ended up with ony a few points at the 5 minute mark, training in the game. I think the big issue is that when you start out down in so many games, it is difficult to have the energy on the road to make the comeback.

According to Chicago Hoops, Covington verballed in December. He is listed at 6'6" on most sites although a couple have him at 6'7". He didn't seem to have a great year, but I'll take an OK year for someone in the Chicago Public Leagues. Connelly has had a great year and I've seen him listed at 6'6" on most sites - 6'8" on a couple.

Interesting, he was the only assistant coach that appeared to do any coaching. The other two just seem to sit around during the games. Even last year, with Spisto there, Driscoll seemed to be quite involved during the games.

I think he's referring to Dyson as the third front court player.

http://www.hofstrachronicle.com/news/2005/...al-886609.shtml

1. I think this is a pretty poor quote by McElroy. There is no reason to even imply anything negative at this point in the season. he should have simply said that he will evaluate the contract situation after the season is over. 2. I think Patterson's extension was before the AE tournament last year. 3. It was a 4 year 85k per contract. Yes I think Brown is underpaid. He should have his contract renegotiated sooner than later. I would be surprised if they haven't already had some conversations about it.

I also think Brown should have been coach of the year. Northeastern was picked to finish 4th and they finished 2nd. UA was picked to finish 8th and finished 4th. Not sure where the one year turnaround in wins stacks up, but I'd bet it is in the top 10 this year. Maybe the issue was that Albany was 0-6 against the top 3 teams?

Feeling pretty good about this kid - 23ppg is about twice what Dyson averaged last year (I know Dyson's stats in the media guide and the web page says he averaged 17ppg, but those are off significantly). Makes you wonder if he would have gone higher if he waited to sign in the spring instead of the fall.

Can't find stats for Covington, but he made the Chicago Public Schools League All Academic team. Boys All Academic Team GPA 1) Robert Eshmann Nothside Prep 4.1 2) Julius Hearn Lincoln Park 3.7 3) Addison WIlliams Robeson 3.3 4) Quinton Strother Whitney Young 3.2 5) Garvin Robinson Nothside Prep 3.9 6) Raphael Scott Morgan Park 3.6 7) Brandon Ewing Julian 3.0 8) Jimmy Price Brooks 4.4 9) Jimmy Covington Morgan Park 3.0 10) Joe Ballard Westinghouse 3.0

UA only had one POY - that was Jordan in the first week of the season. No ROY awards this year. There were a couple of indidual games where Brent Wilson and Brian Lillis played well, but I cannot think of any week where they should have won the award. Neither can I recall any week where there was a UA player that should have been up for the POY award. Jamar had some nice weeks, but Coppenrath, Sorrentine and Barea had a series of incredible weeks. I think this is good overall as it shows the team is pretty balanced and the freshmen were not needed as much.

Few thoughts on what UA needs to do to win on Saturday: 1. Jamar and Kirsten need to stay under control early and not have the quick fouls. I think this is what Brown calls letting the game come to you. 2. Switch defenses - I don't think they can press Binghamton 40 minutes again, that didn't work on Feb 9, won't work on Saturday unless they have some new pressing schemes. They also need to play an aggressive man to man - they played what looked like a match up zone early inthe year against Villanova and that worked pretty well. 3. Play aggressive defense on the perimeter. Can't give Heard, Hailey and Jackson ppen looks from the perimeter. 4. Make some perimeter shots. They don't need to make a lot, just enough to keep the Binghamton defense honest. 5. Don't give up the big run - UA tends to get behind a lot at some point in the game and then require a heroic effort to get back in the game. They need to weather the storm especially in the first 10 minutes of the game - will be a hostile atmosphere.

Wow - very disappointing and embarassing. I think many people thought she left because of a disagreement with the SUNY chancellor.

I thought they would be above .500 in conference play - they may end right at .500. I think that the good start inflated some expectations. When I look at the conference games, the only one that I can say was not a good loss was UMBC. Binghamton and Stony Brook are going to be tough on the road. They are doing good, would be great to win a tournament game.

Need to manage Cori Spencer in the post and stop the 3. When they played at the RACC, Santiago hit a lot of 3's to keep them in the game. Stony Brook just beat Binghamton - will be a tough game.

I think each of the top three teams has something that they are great at. Vermont has a great inside - outside game. They struggle when either Coppenrath or Sorrentine struggle (BU, Albany, Nevada) BU has great defense - they struggle when their oppenents get real hot (the Northeastern game)or when the opponents play great D as well (the second Albany game) Notheastern may not be great , but they have streaky shooters, they pass well and James is a very good interior presence on defense. I believe that Albany can compete with any of these teams if they play great defense and can make some perimeter shots. I agree with the point guard comment, but they have not had sufficient production from the post position either.

I'd be surprised and disappointed if there wasn't a bus going to the games. I think the athletic department should pay for the buses (they can use the money that they saved when the team took the 1800 mile bus trip). UA needs some fan support - you'll have over 3k Binghamton fans - maybe 4k. While the UA fan support has increased, I am not sure how many fans will drive the 2 hours to Binghamton to watch the game. They would want to have as much fan support as possible. I say they charter three buses and offer tickets to the games at the list price with free transportaion. Make it available to the first x number that sign up.

Who is planning on going to the AE tournament? I actually booked the trip a month ago as I use frequent flyer miles and it's so tough to get flights, just found out that my son has baseball tryouts on the 5th in the AM and I'm the coach so... Assuming Albany makes it to the Sunday games, I may use the tickets to go to those games.

The conference has reached a pretty critical point. The RPI is pretty high this year primarily because of the success of Vermont and BU. While the formula is pretty complex, some of the key factors are the RPI's of your competitors and their Strength of schedule. Wouldn't expect Vermont to play teams ranked as high this year as they graduate 4 starters. That means that other teams are going to have to "schedule up". Albany has one of the lower out of conference strength of schedules. Although we usually play 2 guarantee games against top notch schools, most of the ooc schedule is against lower rated NEC schools, Patriot League and Ivy League schools (Sacred Heart and Army have RPI's over 300) . By contrast, the lowest ooc RPI game that Northeastern played was Detroit at 226. I think Albany is going to have to play an increased role in helping the conference maintain their overall ranking, the question is how do they do that. I think if the games in the Coaches vs. Cancer pan out and they can get UCLA that will certainly help. I think in addition to that, they should take the two available games (with Northeastern leaving the conference) and schedule teams with RPI's in the 200 range. There are many options - Manhattan, Iona, Marist in the MAAC; Pretty much any Horizon League team if UA wants to continue improving their profile in the Midwest; Several of the A-10 and CAA schools... I am not saying that Albany needs to stop playing the games vs. Sacred Heart, Army... I am proposing that they need to evaluate ways to improve their RPI. At a minimum schedule up with the two newly available games. I believe that this topic should be high on the list of topics at the next conference AD meeting and a key initiative for the new conference commissioner.

Sounded like a poorly officiated game. Box score shows some good stuff: 1. Zoellner fouled out but appeared to play well when he was in. This is 2 consecutive games where he was pretty active. Only missed one shot - I think that was the dunk. 2. They're making perimeter shots. 7 for 14 from 3 point range. 3. Shot 52% from the field. 4. Wyatt stepped up and had a great game. The bad news is that they gave up a lot of offensive rebounds again. THe same thing happened against Vermont. UMBC had 14 more shot attempts than Albany primarily because they got 19 offensive rebounds (Albany only had 7). They need to figure this out before they get into the tournament.

I read somewhere that there are HS games at the RACC on Sunday - wonder what the attendance will be at those games. As I recall, they usually get in the 4k range.

They need to update the media guide on the UA website - it still has the 2004 media guide.

Any updates on Joe?

wnba scout - is this Sarah Sweetland? I think I read somewhere that she went to work for the NY Liberty

I think that it doesn't matter to us fans whether they are 4th or 5th. I do think it will matter to the players. They need to play well in their last 3 games to secure the 4th seed. Either way, they will probably be in the same bracket as Binghamton and Vermont.

Favorite Wyatt moment was his putback against Villanova this year. His family was there taping the game. I don't recall that he had a lot of minutes, but he got up high to put back a missed shot - even the Villanova fans were impressed. I think Q has had a great career at Albany - a JC transfer who sits out a year, walks on and gets the team MVP.