godanesgo99

Agree with this statement 100%. While he can be frustrating at times, I don't think there is a person on this board that defended him harder than me last year. I know he can be a 1st teamer, and even challenge Lamb for POY should things go the right way for him. That's probably a stretch, but also not as much of one as many might think. He can be that good. 

JoJo is a huge loss, yes, but I do have confidence in the guards on this team. Someone needs to step up for the 5-10 minutes a game that Clark won't be in the game. Hopefully the injury isn't that bad, and we can see Mr. Anderson on the court by the middle of the conference slate.

59 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

In the AE and based on what we need this season in light of JoJo injury either Sessoms or Stef Smith. Also like Lutete a lot. 

 

I think Sessoms with some talent and shooting around him would be dynamic. 

Probably not a bad idea to get another ball handler, but even with JoJo out for an undetermined amount of time, I still feel pretty good at the 1 and 2 with Clark, Healy, Rizzuto, and Shafer. I think the injury is just going to force Brown to reconsider his plan of going smaller.

Last I heard, JoJo still could return this season but we won't know until after surgery. Anyone hear any updates? I think he is out of redshirt seasons without a waiver, so missing a full year would suck for him. He seems like a great kid. I hope he makes it through and is able to return.

Beyond Lamb, I'm not sure there is anyone in the AE I want over our roster. Maybe Otchere from SBU. We haven't had a defensive presence like him in forever.

I'd have to think about it for NCAA wide.

12 minutes ago, UAFAN said:

 

Ouch.

Your link doesn't work for some reason. Here is the article....

http://www.ualbanysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=70287&SPID=7999&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=211813406&DB_OEM_ID=15800

There hasn't been much talk on this board yet on the new California law allowing college athletes to get paid for the use of their image. I'm curious the thoughts on this board. I see the point that is made, but I'm afraid of what could happen, especially to the smaller programs.

The NCAA is considering banning California schools from competition.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2019/06/24/ncaa-california-schools-could-banned-championships-over-bill/1542632001/

I'm thinking that if athletes could get paid, it might help UA and LCC vs other mid-majors. Albany is a fairly big media market without much other entertainment or local celebrity competition. It isn't hard to imagine a car dealership getting appearances, and other local companies using players in commercials. It would be even harder to get the top recruits, but a player that would be 6th man at a major school might consider coming here because as a star in the AE they could get local deals that they wouldn't get at a power school.

Anyway, just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this....

1 hour ago, dslyank said:

Curious that brook rated higher than UA on "Non-Revenue Sports" ; since UA wins the Commissioners Cup nearly every year? Certainly have won it more than brook.  Or is the above chart reflective on 2019-2020  only??

I have no clue. Whomever wrote it was probably paid by SBU. Doesn't seem to make sense. I only posted it because it was out there and kind of made me laugh. 

https://imgur.com/a/gbz3US5

Lol it is true that we get listed as #4 almost every year in almost every publication. I think I saw the the blue ribbon book actually predicted third. 

This is what gets me the most:

https://twitter.com/AD_University/status/1178430570898042880?s=20

Ranking SBU and UMBC ahead of UA in MBB success? How many times have each of them made the tournament in the last 15 years? 

Notice we are picked #4 in this as well LOL

58 minutes ago, DanesRGood said:

If that is why they did then it's dumb.  I live 2 hours away and come up for 1-2 games.  Beer being GDAC only would not make me buy season tickets. It would just piss me off.

I wasn't saying that is why they did it, I was just guessing that was the reason. I can only see four possible reasons to make the change. All are pure conjecture and stuff I made up on the spot:

1. The school administration is still fighting against the party school image and it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to remove alcohol altogether. The athletic department fought back and were only able to save it for the donors as a compromise.

2. My original post above about using it as a way to encourage GDAC membership and season ticket sales.

3. The budget was cut because of low season ticket sales and anticipated lower attendance so they decided to try and save money by only getting a license to serve beer in a single location. The field club became that single location. Liquor licenses can be expensive and the state laws are quirky. They could get one for the full stadium, or they need to get event by event licenses for each sales area. This move could have been a significant savings.

4. An intern filled out the license applications and made too many typos and the licenses were declined. (This is a joke referencing some of the communications from the department over the last few years. There are multiple examples posted about on these boards)

I hate to make it about alcohol, because it shouldn't be that way, but it is. Your stereotypical sports fan likes beer. My boss was put off in SEFCU when he couldn't get a beer without going up to the HoF room at a game 2 season ago. When he was in town this last winter I asked him to go to a game with me and he politely declined and mentioned the beer thing. 

I'm guessing someone in the admin knew that attendance was going to be light this season, and there wouldn't be much they could do to fix it, so they cut the budget for the pregame stuff out of the stadium. I do like that they moved it. In past years people didn't know it was there if they took the bus from Dutch and we're dropped off near the north entrance. This was they see it when they are arriving.

I'm thinking making the beer area GDAC only was a way to encourage the casual fans that show up for one or two games to spend a few extra bucks and get season tickets next year. I disagree with that, as I think you want to encourage them to want to be there for every game because they had a good time, not because they could see people having a good time in the end zone.

Anyway. Why do I have a feeling that you will need to be a GDAC member to enter the HOF room for a beer during the basketball season this year.

22 minutes ago, Eli said:

Attendance: 3,329

No way in hell. MAYBE 2,500. Went to grab food with 1 minute left before halftime and I got back to my seat with like 30 seconds left (included a commercial break I believe or something). NO LINE at all.

However,  maybe a come-from-behind-but-almost-choke-yet-provide-excitement-at-the-end game will drive more butts into the seats.

The upper deck had a decent number of people on the left when looking at the field. The area to the right (while looking at the field) was almost completely empty. 

Lower deck had a a decent number of people, but once again the gold seats were less than half filled. During the game I tried to make sure I took a mental count. I guessed the place was about 1/3 filled, which would be somewhere between 2500-3000 people. It's sad. Maybe some more wins will bring the crowds, but considering we can't ask for 3 better days for the first 3 home games than we had. It will go downhill quickly weather-wise.

See my posts in the gameday experience thread. Football and beer go together. I am amazed that there is no way for fans to have a cold one if they don't have access to the end zone area or the gold seats.

I brought a friend and his son to their first game today. Had to leave at the end of the third because of a conflict, but I wanted to share a few comments I heard....

"I'd love to go to more games. It was fun. That said, WTF? No place for me to get a beer unless I am a donor? How can you get casual fans to start going? Not sure I'll be excited to come back unless I can use your wrist band again."

"Consessions are pretty limited. No burgers?"

"Had a great time. Too bad we had to leave before the comeback"

For the record, I'm not predicting 25 wins. I'm just looking at the projections on the site. If you look at the games the team is projected to lose you will see most are very small margins. Steal a few of those and 25 can be done.

A young team can lose games they should win, projections could be wildly off for the individual games, players can be overrated in the projections, or any number of things can happen and the team could end with 15. I would think 18 or 19 is the bar between successful year and a bad year.

Anything worse than that and this board won't be pretty. Of the 21 games they are favored in: 17 are by more than 5. 12 are by more than 10. 

I like the schedule for building confidence, but UVM is the only top 100 team on the schedule. SOS is very weak.

Look at the OOC schedule. We are favored in most of them, and the ones we aren't, it is relatively close and we aren't favored because we are on the road. We are only significant dogs in 3 games (BC, St John's, and Columbia, and I'm not sold on Columbia being as good as projected)

I don't think it's unreasonable to think the team could get 11 or 12 wins in the OOC including Madstop. If we project as 12-4 in league, then add wins in the first two rounds of the AE tourney you could have a 25 win team that doesn't make the dance.

Doesn't take drugs to be excited for the season. They just make waiting for it to start more fun.

I'm high. I'll admit it. I'm proud of it.

We have a team returning most of its pieces with new players that look nice.  There is a lot of talent. They may or may not put it together this year, but I'm glad we have optimism. It's nice being in this group with people with high expectations, vs the football forum where everyone attacks each other and 9 out of 10 posts are negative. 

32 minutes ago, Eli said:

In all honesty, in the AE, UVM is probably the overwhelming favorite but I honestly think this team can beat them if we gel and come together to match what we have on paper. I think this is a 25 win team this year.

Fixed it for you

1 minute ago, UAalum72 said:

Aren’t 90-85 games what some people have been calling for since Will Brown became coach? Saying team plays better if we run, no more Guru of the Grind?

Maybe, I know I have advocated the team playing faster and subbing more when the team is deep. I think faster paced teams are more exciting for the fans to watch and might help get more butts in the seats, but I think defense is still real important. I think we are looking for 90-70 games with us on top lol. 

A few other interesting thing you can see from his projections:

UA has a better chance of beating St Johns on 12/18 (34%) than it does at beating UVM on 3/3 (20%)

Albany has 4 of the top 10 players in the conference based on PRPG! projections (5 of the top 11, 6 of the top 14)

https://imgur.com/a/nDl53w2

I've spent a lot of time on the BT site playing with numbers and digging into his methodology. He has Albany rising. They were about 160 there a month or so ago, then moved to 155, then last week went to 154, now 153. 

Based on his projections we will have trouble with defensive efficiency this year, but are the best in the conference offensively. Only 4 teams in the county are in the top 100 with a defensive efficiency worse than 100 (86 Boise St, 93 Richmond, 97 Belmont, and 100 San Fran).  The top teams with 105 or higher are: 121 Columbia, 124 Pepperdine, South Alabama at 137, North Florida at 146, Dartmouth at 149, then Albany at 153. If the team doesn't improve on this number, we will see a lot of 90-85 type games. The winner of each will be determined by who has a better shooting night.  

I think it is pretty clear that how this team performs on the defensive end will determine how far they go. This is partly why I was so impressed with that Anthony Lamb quote where his goals included DPOY and being in the top 10% nationally in defense. We need that type of focus. 

I hadn't seen this article before. I'm sure I missed it and someone else already posted it here. Maybe in this thread lol....

https://www.rumbleinthegarden.com/2019/7/30/20747477/st-johns-non-conference-schedule-first-look-2019-20

 

After eight days off for finals, St. John’s takes on the Albany Great Danes (preseason rank: 155), an America East squad that could be much-improved, on Wednesday, December 18. Bart Torvik’s site is predicting a leap, and given Long Island-bred coach Will Brown’s consistency over nearly two decades, along with talent that cut their teeth last season, this could be a sneak-tough matchup.

 

 

Definitely made me laugh. I wanted to make a smart ass comment on the AE board about him saying that, but it's hard because I respect the lofty goals. I really do love his focus on defense. Too many kids strive to score 30 a game. If you have the talent to score: focus on your defense. The points will come.

National Champs. Lol.

Well I guess the guantlet has been dropped. It seems Lamb has some lofty goals for this UVM season. I love where his head is at. Love that he mentioned he wants to DPOY. He says all the right things, but damn that is a bold goal. I would almost root for him and UVM if I didn't hate their fanbase so much. They are going to be hard to beat, but after the last few seasons there is nothing I want more than to beat them badly this season. It would be so much better than waiting for next season and beating them without Lamb....

Quote

What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? I want to become an All-American, be DPOY, and be the best leader I can be so that they remember me for that. I also want to be top-10% in defense nationally. We want to win a national championship and I believe that we can actually do it: it will take a lot of hard work but we have the crew to do it.

http://hoopshd.com/2019/09/23/season-preview-hoopshd-interviews-vermont-sr-sf-anthony-lamb/

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/09/24/gattuso-addresses-holmes-departure-from-ualbany-football

Edit: posted before I read the article. Basically no new info there. 

On 9/6/2019 at 8:24 AM, Clickclack said:

 

Apparently he chose LIU....

Interesting pick.