godanesgo99

There seems to be a lot more parity in the league this year.

UVM is 2-2 with losses to UML and NJIT

SBU is 4-0

UNH is 2-0

UMBC is 3-1 (lost to Bing)

Hartford (2-2) looks strong, but lost twice to NH

UA is 0-2 but only lost both games by a combined total of 6 points. 

Pretty surprising league start.

It's early in their first game, but I'm watching UVM on ESPN3 right now. They do not look good at the moment. It seems that the pauses and lack of games with refs and TV crews hurts a lot more than I thought they would.

To clarify my comments above, no I wasn't predicting that the team will make the dance, just that it wouldn't surprise me if they did. They would need to come together at the right time, and in the AE, almost any team could do it.

13 minutes ago, UA'08 said:

Is there still going to be an NCAA tournament for this season? Haven’t kept up at all on what they plan on doing.

As of now yes. I believe the current plan is to get rid of regional sites and have a massive single location bubble event. We will see as time goes on...

It's FAR too early to make any comments on what this team will do. UA is basically a team that is playing at the level they would normally be playing at around purple and gold scrimmage time (early November form) playing against a team that has played together enough to be in "Mid-OOC" form. (Early/Mid December).

The team hasn't scrimmaged anyone, and the coaches have had 0 chance to see what the players would do with actual refs, much less the lights and a TV crew.

That said, from the little we have seen, I see the following:

* Defense actually looks pretty good. They held UMBC to well below their season average. UMBC is a good team this year.

* Shooting is still extremely rusty. We won't win many games at those percentages.

* Team seems way faster, deeper, and more athletic than in recent years

* Still way too many three point attempts. Winning Albany basketball has always been about making more free throws than the opponent attempts. After attacking the rim non stop the outside shot opens up. 

* With Hank not playing much, the team is small and doesn't have much inside presence. I'm guessing he didn't play much because he isn't very fast, and might still be out of game shape with so few practices. I think we will need to see more of him to win the rebounding battles, and also to free up some of the outside shots. Without a big body down low the defense can spread out a bit, contesting the guards more.

I am betting this team will be playing well by the AE tournament, and will have a real shot at dancing, but it's gonna look bad when they start 0-4 in league after the UVM weekend, relegating them to PIG status. The only shot they would have to be a 15 or 16 seed would be a split at UVM, and the chances of that happening are pretty slim this early in the year.

I know UA was out rebounded, but with the smaller team this year, I expect that to happen a lot. Especially when the team shoots so poorly. 6-19 from 3 was probably the real difference. I hope that doesn't become the norm this season.

Good game. Fell just short. Feels nice to see UA basketball again. Would have liked a win, but the team showed a lot. Wouldn't be surprised to see a win tomorrow.

15 minutes ago, UA1882 said:

Shafer needs to take a seat.  Maybe in the locker room . 

It's a bit early for comments like this. Especially when comments have been made that he has been a top guy in practices...

12 players saw the floor in the first half. Anyone know if Amica is going to redshirt?

15 minutes ago, cwdickens said:

Why would it take a link for you to find UAlbany Women sports?  If your watching, why not encourage others to follow?

Dude, I watch every game I can. I just don't find it as compelling so I don't have much to chat about with it.

The link was making fun of you for posts in the other thread.

Just now, Dane96 said:

I’m sitting here with espn3 waiting for this shindig.  Wtf. 

can we also discuss the starting lineup—  Kellon Taylor is a surprise. 

Haven't seen it yet. Please post. Sitting with the espn your event hasn't started yet picture

10 minutes ago, cwdickens said:

Congratulations to the UAlbany Women's Basketball on winning the 1st conference game of the season ....nice job UAalum72....other than your posting followed by mine ....no one else on the forum seems to follow UAlbany Women's basketball... whoops...  bob87 and Jimbo have commented on UAlbany Women's Basketball recently thank you

Maybe more of us would follow the woman's team if you posted a link to their general Instagram page...

All kidding aside. Nice win. Just because we don't all post about the women's team doesn't mean many of us aren't watching.

Also, a general link to the Instagram page does nothing for me. I can go there to look if I want. I can see if you link to a specific post, or a specific item, but what is the point of saying: hey look here for info... go to their Instagram site...it means nothing.  Oh BTW, here is a link to their Twitter feed. Lmao 

4 hours ago, Eli said:

You should share the actual posts you're referring too because I, and the rest of the community probably, have no idea what you're referring too. Just a tip.

I think he meant the 1 day till tip off pick?

Interesting how ESPN came up with that prediction. Many sites have UMBC predicted ahead of UA, and it's our first game of the year, vs a team with 5 games in the books.

Not sure the home court advantage plays much with no fans in the stands.

I have UMBC by 13 in game 1, and UA by 4 in game 2. 

No idea why they wouldn't at this point. A Wednesday night snowstorm shouldn't affect travel on Friday for a Sat game.

51 minutes ago, UA1882 said:

I don't think anyone would disagree but the large schools are locking their players down. They go to practice,  eat with the team, and go home. They are not allowed to hang out with anyone not on the team. Its a choice they make to play baskeyball. Obviously our guys/girls have not made that choice.  

We don't know that. The "potentially" positive case could be with an assistant coach, it could be the locker room attendant. There are many people considered tier 1 that do not mean players. 

Two reasons to avoid media coverage of the team:

1. They expect to be exceedingly good and want to surprise other teams.

2. They expect to be exceedingly bad and want to keep expectations low with all the pauses and missed practices. 

Any other situation I can think of should have the athletic department doing as many interviews and press releases as possible. Fan interest could take a huge leap forward with all the shut downs. It would give people something to follow and hopefully result in more fans in the seats when things eventually return to some semblance of normalcy.

1 hour ago, McFan said:

How is it that I'm watching tons of BB from around the country and we can't get through a couple weeks of practice?

Virus gonna do virus things. I do want the team safe.

I know there are issues with the pandemic, and practices have been shut down for most of the preseason, but is it me or has the preseason coverage this year been way more lacking than the past few years.

You would think that the Athletic department would use this as an opportunity to promote the team with press releases and team info. While they aren't trying to get fans in the seats, it is free marketing to grow interest and the fan base. With so few other sporting events happening, you'd think the reporters would want more the write about.

On 11/26/2020 at 11:43 AM, Dane Pound said:

Maybe if there's an intersquad scrimmage they can stream it. I'd totally watch it.

Many of us would pay to watch.

Definitely not looking good. Even if the season does happen for conference games only, I am thinking it will look ugly with so much less practices than some of the other teams. Will we have enough talent to overcome the more preparation the other teams have.

Back to the original point of this post - I would attend games today if we were allowed. The stands have been mostly socially distanced for the last few years anyway. I would wear a mask to help keep others safe, but wouldn't care if the people sitting next to me didn't. I'm still a fan of working towards herd immunity. I would hope that people that are part of a vulnerable population would stay away. We do have some aging fans, but we are still no where close to the blue headed LCC faithful. 

Great interview with Will Brown talking about this year's team and what he expects. He seemed pretty high on the transfers and Amica. No real talk about Hank or Lulka in the interview. 

It's a couple of days old, as it is from the first day of latest pause. So little news on the team this year, so it's great to hear some news.

Some great other conversations with UA people if you look at the past podcasts from this group.

59 minutes ago, blorp said:

I'm amazed at your optimism. Not that the team will win 13 games, way too many question marks to even start making a prediciton, but that you think they'll actually play all 22 games

And yes I think they will play all 22 games. I also think that we will see fans in the seats by the end of the season. I mean the arena has already been pretty "socially distant" the last few years anyway. 

Maybe I spoke to soon on the season happening. Just got the notification on the ESPN app that basketball activities were suspended today due to a "presumptively positive test for an individual associated with the program"

Maybe we aren't in as good of a position as I thought.