reeder

To win the regular season and avoid playing Maine at home in the first round of the tournament, the baseball team needs to sweep Northeastern.

They've won the first game.

Patch - I think it's a great move for UA. Certainly adds depth. I question it from the perspective of the player.

Good recruiting.

They don't need running backs - Vidal and Fantell both return as well as Omar Johnson off his redshirt year. They were so deep at FB that they moved the would be starter to defense - Eddie Unverzagt.

Placekicking may have cost them the outright conference championship and a mid major national championship as UA missed the field goal against Monmouth and didn't take several other opportunities through the year.

Linemen are always important for their offense

Looks like a good player. But you have to ask why he would sign at Albany - he will get limited minutes. May be the fourth or fifth guard.

I hope Martin lands on his feet. He wouldn't have seen much playing time next year - I do think that if his footwork improves, he could be a solid role player somewhere.

Would be smart to look for another transfer - have him sit out for a year and become familiar with the program. Also, will be tougher to get a recruit in now - the good ones are probably taken or planning on attending prep school.

While I never saw him play for UA, I've seen Gallup play several times on TV (on regional television in the south). He has an excellent perimeter shot. I don't know that he has the skills to play professionally, but he has one of the best pure jump shots that I've seen

BIg Win. Unfortunately they can't celebrate too much as they have to focus on the other conference team that beat them this year.

Big win for the program

OK, today is the second day of the draft and not one word in any of the Albany area online papers about Gary Jones. Even if he doesn't have a chance at being drafted, he will have an opportunity to sign a free agant contract next week.

Would expect a local paper to talk about his achievements on the field and talk about what he wants to do next - football or whatever. This would be a fitting way to say goodbye to Jones rather or not he has the chance to play at the next level

When you become a head coach, your measurement criteria changes - even if you are a coach at a mid or low major team. The criteria becomes wins. While I think Brown has done a very good job recruiting, he has not won anything so I am not sure he would even be a candidate for that position. That may change drastically next year when the team is much more competitive.

I have never really followed AE baseball, so I am not clear on why they play a doubleheader on Saturday and the third game on Sunday in conference games. That must be pretty tiring for players and the second game of the doubleheader is only 7 innings.

They should be able to play Friday, Saturday and Sunday games for many of the schools. From Albany's perspective - Hartford, Vermont, Northeastern, Binghamton and Stony Brook are all teams that are within a reasonable driving distance where they should be able to support that schedule. If there is a rainout, you play a doubleheader on the following day, if the forecast calls for rain on Sunday, you play a doubleheader on Friday or Saturday.

35 wins definitely in reach - 25 with 17 regular season games to go.

For those of you on campus - what have you seen or heard about spring practice? I think they had three or four sessions this week.

Amazing offensive stats from the baseball team

lead AE in batting - .343

lead AE in SB - 38

5 of top 10 hitters in conference play for UA

Nick Murphy leads conf in ERA, wins and K's

Schoonmaker leads conference in slugging as well as HR's and total bases

UA has 5 of top 7 players in on base pct

UA has 5 of top 8 leaders in RBI's

Top three players in runs scored

Lamb leads league in stolen bases

First, I'll acknowledge that I do not follow the SPring sports nearly as much as football and basketball. That said, I think you could argue that UA has three legitimate shots at a tourney bid - baseball, softball and lax.

Thoughts?

Add two more wins for baseball as they sweep Canisius.

I'll take the Beat Siena button.

I was actually rooting for Georgia Tech. I live about 20 miles north of Tech and a lot of my colleagues went there. They had a good run, but UConn was just too talented.

Who knows - maybe next year, UA will get an automatic bid.

Anyone planning on attending? If so, please post the details - interested in hearing Brown's and Patterson's thoughts on next year as well as a little more about the facilities plan.

Thanks

I think the ladies will beat UMBC and then beat Hartford in the quarterfinals.

That said, this is why you don't talk publicly about going to the NCAA tournament. It gets embarassing when you are blown out by the second place team - after being blown out by the first place team a couple of weeks earlier. That along with the fact that you'll play Hartford at Hartford in the AE tournament.

Do we know that Jones actually attended the combine?

When UA lost to Binghamton recently, Brown said "they have two great big men, Adediran gets a lot of garbage points because the other team focuses so much attention on Nick Billings". He went on to say that Bing would be a great team if they improved their guard play. I think he then realized what he was saying and refocused his comments on UA.

Last night at halftime, the announcer was interviewing the gazette writer and saying how similar these teams will be next year.

I thought it was a great point. The difference is that in addition to Zoellner and Dyson, UA will start at least 2 former ROY guards. I think the other difference (after seeing Bing on television a couple of times) is that the Bing offense seems to be centered around feeding Billings in the low post. I think UA will have a much more team oriented offense.

I agree that it's not a good idea to publicly talk about an NCAA appearance given that the turnaround has been in the last 9 or 10 games.

I do think it's great for them to rally around internally. The reality is that they will probably face a Maine team in the AE semi-finals that blew them out last week, they will probably also face Hartford at Hartford.

It does go to show what confidence can do - also getting Hutcheson back doesn't hurt.

Heard a few minutes of the game, sounded like Levi played well. Just a blowout of Hartford and congrats to the women - they may win a tournament game in Hartford

I admit it - I'm relieved that he is starting to put up some big numbers. Think about him and Zoellner in the same front court.

I'm watching Fox Sports Pittsburgh last night hoping to see a preview of the Freeport playoff game (Fox Pittsburgh does a very good job with HS Sports).

Anyway, the annoiuncer gets to the AA game and says (I'll paraphrase):

Aliquippa plays Freeport and you have to keep an eye on Freeport player Dave Bauman, you may never have heard of him but he's a D1 signee. He has signed with Albany, a team you may never have heard of but they are a division 1 team.

No respect - yet.

I'm not sure why everyone is saying the RACC is out. How has playing at the Pepsi helped UA? I know the team hasn't played well, but there hasn't been an increase in fan support or an increase in coverage. I think it should be treated like a conference game where teams alternate playing on their own home court (alternate annually).

Playing at the RACC would help UA - if UA can get 2000 fans that would never come to the RACC to see a game there, I think it would be great for the program. I also think it would be a great way to start the season - get 4k fans to start the season and 4k fans at the BPG.

If McElroy signs an agreement to continue playing at the Pepsi, then UA needs to get something for that - a real home game with the associated revenue. Siena can't back out now, they need the game for attendance reasons. Also, I would imagine that there would be political pressure to continue the game (governor's cup).

My point is that in every negotiation, you strive for a win - win. I don't see the win for UA yet.