dslyank

We all know the MAAC is lowly [Bob reminds us all the time.] But Marist supposedly is the best of the MAAC and Bingo beating them by 18-11 does say something + about Bingo. Hofstra never seems to be as good or bad as they are suppose to be, but has handled sbrook mostly so says something about Merrimack? And lcc is a senior & grad heavy team and for NJIT (who has 1 or 0 AmEast victories all time) to hang with them on lcc home field, even against a lowly maac, is a + indication. Add in Bryant beating an improving Providence program, VT over a still rated BU, and UMBC is always tough; UA better start living up to the pre-season hype quickly, because counting on an AmEast auto bid is NO automatic.

I hope Scott is not depending on the tough schedule to skate through the AmEast. Getting beat up game in game out can have a demoralizing effect and also be a confidence shatter. IMHO last couple of years this has been the case; creating the opposite effect and causing UA’s AmEast failures as well. Also for what it’s worth VT bounced back & beat a very tough BU. Merrimack is 3-0, including a win vs Hofstra (not sure if they are tournament eligible yet?). Bingo won big vs an “good” Marist team, and even NJIT gave a supposedly good lcc battle losing by 1 @ lcc.

Not disputing you on Sanders, don’t know enough/anything about him; and beating UA 3 of 4 is no great testament. Maybe he is a great coach or maybe like a lot of what is going on these days, he just hit the “lottery portal” better than UA???

Agree why no time out? So if you are not calling time out, let your best ball handler; and a lot to ask of Jackson, but he should have never given up the ball—dribble around & take it to the hoop. You are going to make it, get fouled, get it blocked or just plain miss; 1-10, what do you got to lose. Drumgole & Reddish get stripped of the ball on drives what 50% of the time. Jackson should have taken the final shot himself & not tried to pass off IMHO. Anyhow, meaningless loss, going no-where, no talent team, who cares.

Last play absolutely should have been a flagrant 1. Definitely NOT intentional; but UA has had flagrants called for non-intentional HARD fouls, not even head hits like the shot Edmead took with 1.3 left.

There were a lot of breakdowns for us but a lot of positives as well. Scott usually not lost for words; but for the life of me, I did not see any "positives."?????? I missed the game live, illness in the family {glad I missed it & illness is OK now.} From what I saw of the scrimmages, particularly the lcc game; a lot of mis-communication because of numerous combinations & line-up changes. These pre-season experiments are of course all part of every program and of course necessary. But at some point, players got to get use to working with a certain attack team, middies that know each other, and most importantly the defense has to be in sync with each other. The last few years this pre-season experimenting seemed to go TOO long into the season; and unfortunately last night to me it was very evident, lines of attack & midfield were very much influx STILL. Defense was so BAD overall, like there was no defense at all. Seemed to me, when UA was the train the first line stayed together, and if UA fell behind by a lot, the second line/ third would give them a rest; and ultimately the first would get it together; and UA was never out of a game. Maybe, just don"t have the horses to be more stable [no pun intended]??? How can you go into the dome with no/little sense of who you are going to battle with or what you are up against???

UA totally taken to school in every aspect of the game. SU steals best D2 goalkeeper in the country off portal. He frustrates UA early and then SUs top rated recruit class in the country gets its mojo and totally takes over. God I hate the transfer portal Now UA has to rebound from a whopping by an unranked team and face second seed Cornell. Can UA get its mojo back or is their pre-season excitement all a hoax???

I was not really agreeing or disagreeing with coach carm. Just thought it was an interesting read and wondered what others thought about the prevalence of social media in college athletics and just how far, is too far when "attacking" college athletics and "student athletes."

If the CAA is suppose to be the "class" of the FCS football world {which they have demonstrated NOT of late} and most certainly only "marginal" in all sports but football; should't they be involved with #1 (by a mile) Sports Network ESPN. IMHO. Whatever or Whoever think they are only embarrasses themselves by being with Flo Sports 🤮.

No way this is an admission of guilt. Numerous reasons a person takes a plea. Just trying to move on; not worth the fight; just trying to do what's best for the team/ the university and maybe even for the kid involved, etc. And even more importantly he admitted to an "over zealous and inadvertent contact in a hype drill/activity." DK has in NO WAY "admitted" to an assault and the university has definitively denied all charges against them/ the coach/the AD. Also, in the assault charge in Kentucky courts not a single witness or shred of evidence was presented. And in the civil & NY State suit as far as any one knows officially no witness statements or evidence have been presented yet. Where the heck do some of you keep coming up with "admitted to the incident." Not true and not even relevant to the charges made.

Ps addendum to above. Take a look at the track record of the guy who would be responsible for finding DK’s replacement. 🤪🤑😥

I really hope Beagle does not leave. And I agree this dumpster fire was evident from early on, including a poor performance vs a ST. Rose team that is less than 50% in its DII conference. And we absolutely overpaid for a coach with no DI Head coaching experience; or for that matter no head coach at any level. NOT SURE firing him at this point and taking another step backwards is the best option or for that matter considering financial straights of the University an option at all. NOT SAYING I'M RIGHT {not even sure I believe my own opinion,} but at this point I would let him fulfill the last year of his contract. Supposedly 3 incoming freshman are the real McCoy, Best chance of retaining Beagle & Neely, Hopefully DK would do a better job of attracting some Transfer Portal help (than his past signees,) and not having to take a $400,000 salary hit. Again I'm NOT saying those of you saying "fire him now" are wrong. Just saying for the reasons mentioned, I'm saying/hoping: with the kids coming off injury, DK's freshman recruits as a whole have been a positive, and better recruiting off the portal; MAYBE this train wreck can be salvaged without a 2-3 year backstep and more $dollars wasted??????????????????

While I pretty much agree 100%; SADLY your last line "Students chose to come here and put their futures on the line." ; IMHO not as true as it use to be. With NLI, and the Transfer Portal being such an easy escape clause, and power 5's recruiting the best & the "brightest" from the lesser conferences; the college sports world has certainly changed the image of "student athlete." NOT saying they should be open to abuse of any kind; but as "quasi" professionals, maybe it is fair players/"kids" should get some of the blame or criticism when a "team" does not perform to expectations??

Elaborate please; Did you notice/conclude/predict anything from your view??? Thanks

https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/siena-basketball-coach-defends-players-online-17772311.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email Article in TU today: LCC coach complaining about social media being unfair, out of line, and even racist about his team. Kind of feel coach carm was "crying" about something which is a staple of sports today and thinking he was over reacting? He did not list any examples of the "abuse" per se, perhaps it is/was over and above respectability?? What I did want to point out and I think we've done a good job on this blog TO NOT cross the line when making player/team/coach {OK coach/adminstrators fair game--anything goes🙄.} comments/opinions/etc. Secondly, I thought interesting the article stated an assistant athletic director monitored all social media constantly. I know many have suggested that someone at UA does this also. Just seems like if so and who, rarely do he/she ever react even when complaints/question have a high degree of legitimacy. Sort of like the wolfs guarding the hen house when an assistant athletic director is the primary social media monitor?? Thoughts Opinions on the article and/or my comments WELCOMED!

I know it maybe nitpicking; but IMHO still DO NOT know if DK can coach or NOT. The TALENT on this team is simply NOT THERE. If you were to rate the talent based on which active players are D1 material; IMHO the score would 2-3 at best. You could absolutely argue that he is responsible for putting this team together and held responsible [perhaps even fired.] But given what he's got to work with {some of which is his fault--i.e bad recruiting, bad judge of talent} and INJURIES {which cannot be blamed on him}; I personally do not see how we can possibly evaluate him as a "coach", strategist, game coach; whatever you want to call it. How's the expression go: "can't make a pig out of a sows ear."

I agree bad play on Jackson's part. But from watching it live and hunting it down on the replay (sorry not going to look a third time🥲) seemed to me he was just in a bad position and flaying; sort of like he did not even know where he or his opponent was. Did not seem to me any intent to be flagrant? You could be right; perhaps he was frustrated and got physical with intent--I don't really know. But at least someone on the team is playing tough. And getting ejected at that point was NOT going to change the results one way or another. Will he have to sit Wednesday too??

Any idea re-coupe time? Do you know if it is season ending? Any comments how the youngsters did/competed in periods 4 & 5??

Got two T’s for hustle. Not that it mattered; no way UA wins this game but official calling pretty much one sided. VT pushing & shoving all game long. What ever happened to hands off on D??? Now if O simply puts out a hand to get D’s hands off ,it’s hooking. Granted officials were calling it both ways; but imho needs to enforce the hand off rule first. Anyhow a lot of pushing and shoving both ways especially on VT. Meanwhile Jackson gets two BS T’s. Fast forwarded to both to see again (I am not crazy enough to re-watch the whole disaster. ) The first T, Jackson was running in to get a rebound, Sullivan was standing under the basket Jackson tried to stop himself & just slid into Sullivan. Unfortunately he had his hands extended in front of him as he tried to stop himself. Will be called flagrant pretty much everytime, but there really did not appear any INTENT to harm. The second T, looked like Jackson was just spinning around looking for someone to cover. Again his arms were away from his body and he caught Sullivan with an elbow, which Sullivan really “sold” on. Certainly a bad play by Jackson, out of position & unaware who was around him & he seemed confused who to cover & where to be. But again did not look like any INTENT shown? Maybe I’m wrong and Jackson was just playing tough, in which case UA could certainly use some toughness. But in these two incidents, simply looked like clumsiness for lack of a better word??

Yes. Sorry, got them mixed up with Will Pepe; who by the way was taken to the hospital yesterday after a first qtr injury. Hope he is ok. Looked like arm or shoulder? Already lost Hay & Fingar to season endings.

ps from IL staff predictions, under dark horses: Matt Kinnear: UAlbanyTo preface, I'm not picking from the ACC or Big Ten for this; it just doesn't feel right to call Syracuse or Johns Hopkins a "dark horse." So this is a very dark horse. I don’t think they’re on the radar much from a national perspective this year, but I’m bullish on the Danes. And for the purpose of this exercise — a preseason non-Top 20 team that plays itself into at-large discussion — let’s look at the Danes’ schedule. They have a winnable game against Syracuse in Week 1, plus Cornell, Maryland, Yale and Penn. I’m not at all saying they win all of those, but they have the opportunities. It’s a team that’s grown up and matured, so it feels like maybe there’s some of that Dane magic brewing.

Saw the first three qtr's of scrimmage last night; left early it did not start to almost 9. Unofficially after 3 had UA 10-lcc 6; with 2 or 3 of lcc goals on fast breaks after long UA rebounds off posts or missed ground balls. Overall I thought the the UA defense was very sound. A lot of guys used on attack and midfield, kind of made for some inconsistent play IMHO. Also, when UA attack on far end of field, hard to read #s and identify who's/who's [and they attacked in that direction 2 of the 3 I saw.] So for what it's worth Graydon was outstanding and seemed to take charge of the offense and directed people where to be/pass; he also scored 2 or 3 times himself. #16 Salit who I mentioned above started I believe and played very well. Did not see Sheehan (Denver transfer) unless he changed his # from 1 to 0. 0 played a lot and maybe it was Sheehan? Did not see Carino at all. Seemed a lot of freshman got a lot of time; #28 Lee played very well and sophomore #18 LaPietro local kid from Shaker [younger brother of #12] also looked good. #24 Pucci had at least one goal from long range; but seemed to take some wild long shots--pretty much was his mo from last year. Goalie played very well IMHO, lcc though small was very quick and VanValkenburg made many nice stops and when lcc scored pretty much on un-stoppable shoots, I thought. Karnes started at F/O with minimal success and Regan took over and pretty much dominated. Anyone stay for the whole game, would love to hear your thoughts/opinions; and feel free to correct any in-accurates on part.

Noticed on IL, #16 Peter Salit is back. Checked the roster and he is definitely listed. He really started to shine towards the end of 2021; and I was looking to see how he progressed last year. But he was not listed on the 2022 roster; I never found out why? Think he can definitely be a + player, based on what I saw from him towards the end of his freshman year. [even started 4 games at the end of 2021.] Also, in the fall, I watched the stream of the scrimmage against team Canada. Angle and distance was terrible; but recall #16 played welled, but I had no idea who he was. If it was Salit reinforces my optimism in him?

Not that pre-season predictions mean all that much; but Baseball predicted to finish LAST in 7 team AmEast. Do Not recall a UA team in any sport finishing Last [except Football in Caa & more than likely basketball this year] since the early days of D1. With Volleyball not making the AmEast tournament for the first time in the D1 era last fall; just more proof that Benson has decimated UA athletics, pretty much overall.

Details? Time?