DaneFan2k3

Even if you know you're not going to get a kid, at least getting him to mention you or have your name mentioned among the interested along with the big boys can make an impact. Whereas people in the know might realize that you have no shot, those players who are borderline might see that as a positive that you're involved with high-level talent, and their parents and other general fans will as well. I've always said it would be good publicity (and by the way I've said this mostly to myself now that I think about it) for the high-major schools to get the NBA-bound high school stars to at least mention them or say they would have gone there if they weren't going pro. Kobe Bryant essentially saying he would have gone to Duke and the subsequent courting of Coach K does wonders for them (although they don't need it) in terms of credibility. Was he really going to go there? Who knows, but that is what he says. This clearly isn't on the same level, but it's the same principal. If someone chooses Arizona State and an article says they chose them over School B, C, D and UAlbany ... that's overall a good thing.

I'm not sure you can call Siena a rival anymore. We don't play them nearly enough in any sport to make them a true rival. Being that we play Bing and SBU in every sport possible due to the conference, I would think that would make you more natural rivals than geography alone. Xavier and Cincinnati are rivals, but it's different because they've been on the same level division-wise for so long, whereas we have not. I think that hurts Siena as a possible rival for UAlbany.

I have a vague recollection of them being totally plastic. I could be wrong. I like that avatar, don't you Patcholi?? They evidently have those screensavers for each sport if you go to the "downloads" section on the UA website for each sport. I just took mine and shrunk 'er down to size. I chose Lax because, well, I like Lax!

If there is a written portion of the bar, just don't write the word "comfertable" lol I'm sure they'll have it air conditioned. They (Pepsi and Albany) don't want a bunch of future lawyers ticked off at them before they even start their careers.

Wolf Road also has all the requisite chains, Burger King, McD's, Denny's, maybe even a Wendy's. I would personally take I-90, however you're going to have to get on 87 to get there from Wolf Road (just for a short stint), unless you drive up to Central and down to 90 off Fuller Road. For lunchtime, all the vendors will be out (on sunny days) near the LOB and the Capital. So you can't really get much quicker than walking up to a hot dog, pizza or sandwich cart and eating outside. If you're at the Pepsi, there is McD's, you could pre-order from Pagliacci's assuming they do takeout, or pre-order pizza or subs to be delivered to you at the Arena at a specific time.

Any time a team leaves your conference for a perceived "upgrade", its bad public relations. I think that other schools and athletes will take note of this. The general public isn't aware of the behind-the-scenes things that went on, and are going to think that something is wrong with America East for people to be leaving. People on the inside always think things are better than they really are. Fans of schools in the conferences are always loathe to really step back and take an honest look. Sorry guys, I really think that is what is going on here. Anyone who really thinks the conference is stable and going to get "good" are fooling themselves. The conference is what it is. One of the bottom four or five in the country. I don't see that changing anytime soon. So just be happy Albany has a conference that they will be able to COMPETE in.

Attendance was 8,200 for the Syracuse game. The old schedules and boxscores going back to 1999-2000 are on the UA website. We had 12 home games in 2001-02, multiplied by 1649 is a total attendance of 19,788. So if you took out the 8,200 fans for that game, the rest of the season for 2001-02 saw 11,588 over 11 home dates, or an average of only 1,053. People will call my a hater again, but it's pretty sad that we wouldn't have cracked the Top 30 in Division II and would have barely cracked the Top 30 in Division III. America East as a whole is pretty low at 28th out of 31 conferences. Although attendance did increase an average of 291 fans leaguewide.

That's actually a really old article (April 2). I have heard other semi-solid things from the mouths of some people in the department and the plans are further along than this article makes it seem. Also, this article says that the report will be done in August, but I think that is simply a logistical matter. I have actually overhead some people talking about seeing plans already. Of course overhearing things in the RACC and PE Building isn't the greatest source of information, but some of what I heard sounded legit and detailed, so I have to believe it. I would be more interetsed in an article about the fundraising at UAlbany. It does nothing to put forth grand plans without some sort of fundraising already in place. The article quotes a UAlbany official, Mr. Coe, as saying that if there are viable plans they can start a fundraising campaign. I agree that would make it an easier sell, i.e. here is a visual of what we are trying to do ... but I think that they need to start now with a full-court press on the fundraising, even before a solid design is finished. Piggyback off the quarter-million dollar donation that the Lacrosse alum gave to kick-start that field ... and use that as a benchmark donation in a larger fundraising scheme. To present plans and THEN say ok, give us some money, people are going to look at us and laugh. But if you come at them with $100 million plans and $5 million (about half of one-year's cost if it is a 10-year plan) in the bank right from the get-go, then you're not looking so foolish.

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Even if your signing bonus was only a couple thousand dollars ... it's a couple thousand dollars. To play baseball. I'd go through the motions for that.

Any idea how many schools don't have turf at this point? I know that Vermont didn't, but now they do (I think I'm right on that?). The number has to be very, very small.

You have to think that top players, who probably have turf fields at their home high school stadiums, would not want to come and play on grass. At the D-II level, you're recruiting a different type of athlete. I bet there are only 10-15 schools with grass field hockey fields at the Division I level, Albany being one of them. And the America East is traditionally a highly-rated FH Conference. Playing a strong schedule isn't going to do anything for the Danes at this point, considering they play all their games on the road. They would be better off sticking to what they've got - other mid-tier D-I schools that they can build up confidence against. Hopefully the new coach is a good recruiter. Fiore did bring in the league's rookie of the year last season, however sometimes that can be misleading in that on a good team a rookie won't play as much as they would at UA, being that the Danes were terrible.

You have to think they would be very reluctant about going public with it until there was some determination as to whether or not the funding existed for the project(s). You don't want to make any sort of public announcement of "this is what is going to happen", only to have the state and University come back and say "well too bad there isn't enough money to do all (any) of that." We have to temper our enthusiasm with a healthy dose of reality and try to remember that these are only plans, and that some could come to pass, while others could fall by the wayside. They may choose to upgrade some facilities and not others, or the plans that they suggest may get scaled back, etc. The initial study I believe is intended to tell us what we should and what we can do (physically speaking), and then it would be up to the University and state to decide exactly how much they did want to ultimately undertake.

I think you have to remember that two of our sports have been on relative life-support for a while and are under new coaches. Field Hockey is playing without a turf field, which I imagine means they are one of the only schools playing field hockey not to have one. So they can't exactly go out and get the big recruits, let alone schedule the big boys. (Not unless you want psyche-breaking, let's-go-out-to-the-bars-every-night-type 8-0 scores plastered all over their team homepage). Same thing for the atrocious women's soccer program, who finally has a head coach with some credibility. The man was a legend during his time at UMass; that isn't to say that UA women's soccer is going to be legendary any time soon. However, he should get us pointed in the right direction quickly and I'm sure he has his eye on scheduling that will not break down a whole new group of girls that will be coming in to play under him (and further break down the players who have a combined terrible-and-even-worse record during their current tenure at the school).

Interesting that you posted this, as I just looked at a few of these schedules as well. For Field Hockey, though, they dont' actually play UConn - just at the UConn Classic. The two games listed below it (American and Sacred Heart, I think) are at that classic, so probably rather than an actual tournament it's just a chance to get a few games in on one weekend all in one spot. The Lock Haven game, I went to their site (curiously its not lockhaven.edu, but whatever) and they were D-II semifinalists. Also, they probably have a turf field, which is why we go there to play both them and St. Francis, Pa. at the same time. Interesting to note that the team plays at Union (listed as "Frank Bailey Field") for all of their "home" games. They will be one team that needs the turf field and welcomes it the most. The soccers' and field hockey all play Siena, which is just one more reason why this mythical Mayor's Cup competition should get underway. Siena is just plain old scared. Also, is it just me, or do we need to establish some sort of "Cup" to be given away to the winner of the UAlbany-Stony Brook football game each year?? It's a natural rivalry that would only be heightened by having something to play for, bragging rights if you will, each year. Nothing extravagent, but the winner of the game gets to keep it each year.

The school has a real self-inflicted image problem. They changed their image, or tried to change it, so many times that they damaged themselves. Like you said, sports channels can't get it right, but part of that is probably our own fault from dealings in the past. Albany, UAlbany, UA, SUNY-Albany, SUNYA, Albany State, Albany (NY) ... we get a lot of different listings. The more fans like ourselves promote the school as UAlbany the better, in my opinion, so that there aren't multiple images out in the community and nationwide, and so that people like G-town fans don't go listing us with 17-10 records (as Albany State, Ga. had last year).

As the player of the year, Schoomaker should at least get a look. Remember, it's a long draft, and he's probably comparable to Checksfield, at least in terms of pure numbers. (I haven't seen both of them play to give a true comparison). It will be interesting to see if any team gives Zimniewitz a sniff after his late-season screw up. Then again, was he going to get a sniff in the first place I guess is a more appropriate question. As an aside, the purple graphic for the polls doesn't work, i.e. when I see the poll results I can tell it's supposed to be a solid purple bar but it appears blank with just the ends colored in. FYI.

TheInsiders.com have four players from 2005 who list Albany NY as schools with interest. Among them are Pittman, as well as two players from Jamar's old high school, Benoit Bekono (6-6, 190, was he at that AAU tournament at Siena?) and James Tchana (6-7, 260, appears to have missed season with an injury), and finally the fourth being Joseph Vines (6-5 1/2, 240, Rice HS in NYC).

Albany State isn't "our" school's name. Don't get yourself confused, or you're in for a long four years. UAlbany, University at Albany, sometimes UA on this board, or plain old Albany (although that sounds too much like the City and High School without the "U"). That's it.

Binghamton only places ahead of UAlbany because they do not compete in two sports, while Great Danes do not compete in four sports. Call that a moral victory then, I guess.

Overall 37-14 is nothing to sneeze at, although like you said we were 3-0 vs. SB and only 1-4 against Maine, including 0-2 this weekend. Certainly a disappointing end to the season, especially when you consider that the TU's poster boy, Shawn Ryan, absolutely imploded in John Rocker-like fashion. Has a 1.5 or something ERA coming in, but the lead goes from 1 to 6 in a hurry. That stuff happens, though, that's why there is postseason play.

There is a history of some good talent at this event, however if UAlbany is looking at anyone coming it's going to be hard to find out since they don't list the players that are participating. Siena has the U:17 games for some reason, so all the rising seniors will be playing in Loudonville. Okafor was here, they have him on their page. Using theInsiders.com's search function, some noteable alumni from the 2003 event, according to the GymRat page, include: DaMarcus Bell, went JUCO after committing initially to Wisconsin-Green Bay Adrian Joseph, committed to Virginia Kelvin Davis, verbal commitment to Texas-El Paso (UTEP) David Whitehurst, committed to Penn Sam Dolan, committed to Mercer Josh Duell, committed to Vermont Brian Beckford, committed to UNC-Greensboro Dashawn Dwight, committed to Quinnipiac Devon Moffatt, listing some interest from Sacred Heart, FDU and Manhattan Two names I recognized from the less in-depth 2002 recap included: Tello Palacios, who committed to Louisville Tyler Relph (NY Mr. Basketball, I believe), who is at West Virginia Others I searched for were Loren Stokes, Hofstra; Konimba Diarra, South Florida; Oumar Sylla, Valparaiso; Frantz Dorsainvil, interest from Providence and Purdue but may have gone prep.

Times Union curse, as Ryan absolutely implodes. Enters the eighth inning down one and promptly the lead grows to six.

You mean besides the Great Danes Club, which is currently the school's athletics sponsorship organization? I know they don't do too many get-togethers, but they do hold alum gatherings in some places when football is on the road, etc.

"Wouldn't he just finish this summer or next fall?" I'm not sure I understand that comment. If you fail you fail. It's not like you get a "do-over" to finish in the summer or fall!!! But we still don't know that's the case anyhow! Someone look him up and call him! #84, get us the scoop, true ASP reporter style!