cwdickens

These are high school lacrosse players, based on what I learn, most will join the team in the autumn of 2024, and one will join the team autumn of 2025, and he may be the best prospect of the group.

UALBANY BASKETBALL Danes unveil new arena Broadview Center opened to teams after year-long renovation By Pete Dougherty Jim Franco/Tunes Union UAlbany’s unveiled its new arena, Broadview Center, formerly the SEFCU Arena, on Wednesday in Albany. ALBANY — Equate it to waiting until Christmas morning to unwrap presents. Ny’mire Little and Kayla Cooper didn’t want to see their newly renovated basketball arena until it was ready. The official unveiling came Wednesday, when Broadview Center, home to the University at Albany men’s and women’s basketball teams, was opened to the players and coaches. “I wanted to wait until the finished product,” said Little, a redshirt sophomore from Chester, Pa. “I know some of the guys came in and out as they were progressing, but I wanted the full experience. It’s my first time seeing it. Definitely impressed.” “I was super excited,” said Cooper, a senior guard from Frederick, Md. “We’ve been allowed to come in here as the process has been going, but I specifically said I don’t want to see it until it’s fully done. When I came in here this morning, I was so happy. It was so crazy.” The year-long, $12 million renovation of the previously labeled SEFCU Arena caused both basketball teams last season to practice in a converted swimming pool in the basement of an adjacent building and to play their home games at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Now each squad has its own spacious locker room, including theatre seating for film study. “The efficiency of what we’re trying to do, it was always a challenge, not having a home,” Great Danes men’s coach Dwayne Killings said. “You’re watching a TV on what was once a pool on a practice court. It’s not the best learning environment for the guys. Somebody’s coming in right after you, so it’s not your own dedicated space. This is now our space.” UAlbany’s women practiced there Wednesday. The men will get their first chance Friday. “It’s a long time coming, and it just came out beautiful,” Great Danes women’s coach Colleen Mullen said. “It’s the premier venue in our league.” Neither team will play a game here for a few weeks. The men are scheduled to christen the basketball facility Wednesday, Nov. 29, against Boston University. The women’s first game in their new home arrives Saturday, Dec. 2, a 2 p.m. game against crosstown rival Siena. That will be part of a doubleheader, as the men will play host to Dartmouth at 5 p.m. The court lies perpendicular to the previous layout. All of the seats have backrests except for a student section in one end zone. Workers were still installing those seats and performing other finishing touches Wednesday. “It’s great for us,” said Justin Neely, a redshirt sophomore from Miami, Fla. “This is my third year here, and each year it gets better and better. We’re blessed to be able to play in a brand-new arena, be given a new locker room and film room. We’ve just got to take advantage of it.” The building first opened in the spring of 1992 as the Recreation and Convocation Center, or RACC. It was a key component to UAlbany’s 1999 transition into Division I athletics. Because of the reconfiguration and the additional chair-back seating, basketball capacity has been reduced to 3,800, 700 fewer than the old arena. New hospitality areas have been created. “Awesome” was a word heard often Wednesday as the players took in their new digs. “It’s awesome,” said Lilly Phillips, a junior from East Greenbush. “We have a great fan base, awesome people that come and support us. To have the gym to go along is awesome.” Pete Dougherty is a freelance writer. He can be reached at pete.dougherty7@gmail.com.

ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Brendan O’Keefe to the Great Dane family!

ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Brady Quill to the Great Dane family!

ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Ben Carey to the Great Dane family!

ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Trevor Corless to the Great Dane family!

ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Connor Kelly to the Great Dane family! There are a couple of Connor Kelly lacrosse players of note out there. Our Connor currently attends high school in NJ and may have hailed from Marblehead, MA previously and was listed as 6'3" two years ago from an article his presence on the field.

Currently a junior at Chittenango High School and a member of the Orange Crush Lacrosse Club, Brendon Barnard (Attack) will join the Great Danes in the fall of 2025, ualbanymlax It’s official ✍️ We are proud to welcome Brendon Barnard to the Great Dane family!

Now, I have seen the saddest ramblings ever posted on this forum.

Based on social media posts, I now know the MBB and the WBB locker rooms are finished. Both teams completed a walk-thru today.

You cannot discount Will Brown's successful year as coach & GM for the Albany Patroons. You cannot rewrite history and say he did not take the Great Danes to five NCAA MBB Tournaments. Further, how much do you really know about Will Brown and his family? I know he has made choices to support others in his immediate family. The Saint Rose WBB position just makes sense for him and his family. So, in the end, I know how you still feel about Will Brown and I know how Will Brown feels about you.

For you.... consider your request a done deal .....see you tonight!!!

Further, is this team capable of changing their mindset by Saturday?

Th expectations of filling the Broadview Center, this season, have gone south for the winter.

One of these two teams will earn their first win of the season as Columbia lost their first game to Providence 78-59. Nov 11 (Sat) 7:00 PM at Columbia New York, N.Y.SCHILLER COURT AT LEVIEN GYMNASIUM 7:00 P.M.

From someone that I follow elsewhere, no match with Syracuse... among others in 2024 grayed_danes_nil Isn't it time to drop the 2024 schedule? Let's go Scott - I need to start planning my Spring! Hearing no Syracuse, Cornell or Maryland this year but a trip to Charlottesville is on the table...

Nov 10 (Fri) 7:00 PM at Fordham (record 1-0) Bronx, N.Y. Rose Hill Gym Watch Live Stats Tickets Fordham beat Aldelphia 70-43 at home on Monday evening.

So, you want to have more access to UAlbany MBB and the sports administration that supports our teams .... consider buying dinner for the team, the AD, Associate AD and few other well selected individuals at 677 Prime. From today's MBB Instagram posting: ualbany_mbb Had an amazing time Friday night bonding with the guys, donors, and even some former players! Thank you to everybody who helps this program move forward, and special thank you to Rick and Diana Ostroff for the special night!

UALBANY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Loss in final game still drives Danes By Pete Dougherty Jim Franco/Times Union UAlbany senior Kayla Cooper, left, led the Great Danes in scoring and rebounding last season. ALBANY — A two-point loss to Vermont in last season’s America East championship game still torments the University at Albany women’s basketball program, but any retribution in 2023-24 will be accomplished by a roster that has only six returning players. The Great Danes, 22-12 a year ago and 45-22 over the past two seasons, launch the sixth campaign of coach Colleen Mullen (74-72, .507) on Monday night at Merrimack. UAlbany has lost four of its top seven scorers but is bolstered by the 11th-hour return of graduate forward Helene Haegerstrand and the addition of three transfers and five freshmen. “If that would have been a win or a loss,” Haegerstrand said of the 38-36 loss to Vermont, “it’s something you either want to avenge or you want to do it again. That’s a motivator either way.” The Danes were picked third of nine teams in the preseason America East coaches’ poll, behind Vermont and Maine. Senior Kayla Cooper was selected to the preseason all-conference team. “When you get there and you lose by such a little amount, it’s so deflating,” Mullen said. “They took the time to process that, and now we have a new face, a new energy. “We have a lot of new players, but that core of those players, knowing how that feels, how much work you have to put in to get to that point, they’ve instilled that type of standard in all of our freshmen and newcomers here. There’s an edge to want to get back there.” For now, according to Mullen, the Great Danes’ immediate focus is on improving each day and getting the new blood integrated with what’s returning. UAlbany lost six players to the transfer portal: graduate students Morgan Haney (Akron), Grace Heeps (Canisius) and Taniya Hanner (Radford), junior Freja Werth (San Francisco), and sophomores Karyn Sanford (Tarleton State) and Taylor Moffat (Williston State). Haney and Heeps, an East Greenbush native, were starters. In addition, senior mainstays Ellen Hahne and Lucia Decortes have graduated. “Nobody left under bad terms,” Mullen said. “They’re all graduates of UAlbany. They’re all alums that I hope come back and continue to feel that pride to the university and our program, and I wish them well. I feel like our staff helped provide them a positive experience, they got better as players, they were part of championship programs, and they were empowered to take a chance and see what another program was like.” The cupboard is far from bare, especially considering the fluidity of college rosters these days. The Great Danes, who won the America East in 2021-22, have 55 percent of their scoring and 45 percent of the rebounding from last year’s team returning. The incoming transfers should help offset the experience lost. Meghan Huerter, a 5-11 guard from Clifton Park, arrived after two seasons at Providence, where she averaged 3.4 points and 1.5 rebounds last year. Graduate transfer Sarah Karpell, a 5-7 guard, was a four-year player at Fordham, starting 67 of 109 games. Sophomore Gabriela Falcão, a 6-1 center, left La Salle after averaging 1.5 points and 1.2 rebounds as a freshman. “We learned a lot from the veterans that came and went last year,” said Cooper, who averaged 15.2 points and 8.3 rebounds last season, both tops on the team. “We’re very young, so we’re still learning, but we have a lot more speed. We’re quick and hungry.” The freshmen on the roster are 5-11 Selina Monestime from Framingham, Mass.; 6-2 Deja Evans of Conshohocken, Pa.; 5-11 Hailee Ford from Perry Hall, Md.; 6-0 Jessica Cooper of South Plainfield, N.J., and Ida Allberg of Stockholm, Sweden, the same hometown as Haegerstrand. Haegerstrand was working as a student assistant and nursing a leg injury when she decided less than two weeks ago to return. She is sixth on the school’s career scoring list. “It’s just the opportunity that I was given by Coach,” she said. “She had this scholarship, and I’m grateful that I had the chance to come back and for helping the team. I feel like we have a good season in front of us, and I’m just happy to help.”

Sadly, yes. No at large bid the NCAA Field Hockey Tournament, while many close matches with highly ranked teams, no wins to bolster their resume.

Score is 2-2 at the end of regulation .... on to O/T.

Nov 6 (Mon) 7:00 PM at Merrimack North Andover, Mass. Live Stats History

UALBANY 24, WILLIAM & MARY 8 Danes surge into tie for first Big plays by Easton, Hall help No. 23 UAlbany dominate By Mark Singelais Jim Franco/Times Union UAlbany senior Brevin Easton makes a sliding touchdown catch on the game’s third play to help lead the Danes to a win. ALBANY — University at Albany wide receiver Brevin Easton called it a “really routine” play, when it looked like anything but that. His diving 37-yard touchdown catch from a heavily pressured Reese Poffenbarger on the game’s third play sent the 23rd-ranked Great Danes on their way to a convincing 24-8 victory over No. 24 William & Mary in front of 3,518 fans at Casey Stadium. “It definitely was a great start to what we wanted to do,” Easton said. “We wanted to move fast and our goal is to have teams play from behind so they have to throw the ball so our pass-rushers can get after them. … It was a deep ball. Me and Reese connect on that type of stuff all the time in practice, so it was really routine, honestly.” There’s nothing ordinary in general about the Great Danes (7-3 overall, 5-1 CAA), who took another step toward the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs and moved into a five-way tie for first place with Delaware, Elon, Richmond and Villanova with two weeks remaining. UAlbany, vying for its first CAA championship, travels to play winless Stony Brook for the Golden Apple Trophy next Saturday. “It’s just keep winning,” UAlbany head coach Greg Gattuso said. “So many coaches talk about go 1-0 that week, but we’ve got our kids trusting the concept of win every day, whether it’s resting properly, rehabbing, learning, practicing, we’re just trying to be a complete football team and they’ve really bought into what we’re doing. We’re not worried about anybody else. We’re really not. If we win, it’s obviously a massive thing. This was a big win for our kids.” Another memorable play came from UAlbany cornerback Aamir Hall, whose 45-yard interception return gave the Great Danes a 17-0 lead with 2:07 left in the first half. Coming on a blitz, Hall stopped and leaped to intercept Darius Wilson’s pass into the right flat. Though Wilson caught up to him at the William & Mary 25, Hall kept running while in Wilson’s grasp and pulled the quarterback into the end zone. UAlbany defensive tackle Elijah Hills helped push Hall the final 10 yards even as Tribe offensive lineman Rian Haigler also attempted a tackle. Hall said his mother gave him motivation. “It was just me and (Wilson) between the end zone,” Hall said. “I knew that I wanted to get in today. I talked to my mom last night, and she said, ‘All you need is a pick and a touchdown now.’ It’s funny because she actually manifested that for me today. … Ended up doing that for her today and that’s really just a blessing.” The play highlighted a stellar day for the UAlbany defense, which came up with its most recent goal-line stand in the third quarter. On second down from the 3, UAlbany linebacker Dylan Kelly stopped William & Mary running back Martin Lucas just shy of the end zone. Then the Great Danes stuffed Lucas on direct snaps from inside the 1 on third and fourth down. Safety Larry Walker Jr. was credited with the fourth-down tackle. Though William & Mary helped UAlbany by going with shotgun snaps instead of a simple quarterback sneak, the Great Danes still rose to the challenge. “They believe,” Gattuso said. “Dylan Kelly, Ori Jean (-Charles), that linebacking corps is so aggressive and our corners show up. We commit to it. That front four, it’s a commitment to getting underneath the offensive linemen. That kind of stuff is want-to more than anything else. They’ve got to want to play like that.” Gattuso wasn’t happy with a William & Mary player walking down UAlbany’s path to the field before the game, which Gattuso called “not acceptable.” Hall said it fired up the Great Danes. While the Great Danes sometimes lost their cool with eight penalties for 88 yards, including three personal fouls and one unsportsmanlike conduct, they still earned a dominant win. Poffenbarger threw for 205 yards and a touchdown and Griffin Woodell of Glens Falls ran for 100 yards, including a15-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

UALBANY MEN’S BASKETBALL Danes intent on getting defensive By Pete Dougherty Jenn March/Special to the Times Union UAlbany’s Jonathan Beagle is the team’s top returning scorer. He averaged 12.4 points a game. ALBANY — All of the red flags were there. The University at Albany men’s basketball team, on its course to an 8-23 record and basement finish in the America East, placed last in the conference in points allowed (75.2 per game) and percentage field-goal defense (.491). That caused the Great Danes, for the first time in their 22-year Division I history, to miss the America East postseason tournament, finishing with a 3-13 conference record. Like many college basketball teams in this era of the transfer portal, UAlbany overhauled more than half of its roster. The six returning players accounted for just 37 percent of the scoring and 40 percent of the rebounding last season, putting ample responsibility on nine newcomers. Early on, the emphasis has been on the defensive end. “We’ve been pretty impressive offensively in our two scrimmages,” said coach Dwayne Killings, entering his third season with a 21-41 (.339) career record. “We got to get better defensively. That’s going to be a process for us.” Some ingredients are there, at least when healthy. Killings called Marcus Jackson, a 6-2 sophomore from Amsterdam, “one of our better on-ball defenders,” but the younger brother of NBA player Andre Jackson (Bucks) is recovering from injury — a fractured right wrist. Ditto for sophomore Justin Neely, the America East Rookie of the Year two seasons ago but still recovering from a knee injury. Neely, who was in his home area of Miami this week to have his knee examined, is definitely out Tuesday for the Danes’ season opener at Massachusetts. Killings gave a glimmer of hope for Jackson, who will have his wrist checked Monday, to play against UMass. Jackson has been around practice, staying in shape and doing whatever drills he could, and learning a lot about his new teammates. “We’re a very connected group,” Jackson said. “Coming into this year, I would say we play faster. We weren’t as good defensively last year as we could be this year. That really helps us push the pace. Last year we wanted to play fast, but we didn’t have the personnel.” The best thing to come out of the Danes’ rough season was Jonathan Beagle, a 6-10 sophomore forward from Hudson Falls who was the conference Rookie of the Year. He averaged 12.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, getting selected Rookie of the Week nine times. “We’re trying to get right on the defensive end,” Beagle said. “We have a lot of talent offensively. Defensively, if we get it right, we’ll be in a good position.” Also back from last season are 6-7 junior Aaron Reddish (8.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg), 6-4 sophomore Ny’Mire Little (3.4, 1.1) and injury-riddled senior guard Will Amica (1.3, 0.2). Among the new faces are five transfers: 6-1junior Sebastian Thomas (Rhode Island), 6-7 graduate student Marcus Filien (Cornell), 6-3 graduate Tyler Bertram (Binghamton, Alabama-Birmingham), 6-4 sophomore Amar’e Marshall (Hofstra) and 6-5 junior Muneer Newton (NAIA William Penn). Fi-lien is an Albany Academy graduate. Four freshmen — 6-2 Zach Matulu from Shaker, 6-2 Zane Adnan of Gaithersburg, Md., 6-8 Jack Margoupis from Sutton, Mass., and 7-0 Bautista Giralt from Argentina — round out the roster. Thomas, who transferred in from Rhode Island, will be running the offense. He averaged 4.3 points and 2.4 assists in his two seasons with the Atlantic 10 Rams, making 16 starts. “It’s definitely a process getting to know guys, getting to know their tendencies, where guys want the ball and things like that,” Thomas said. “It’s a process, but I’m still learning, and hopefully we can get it rolling.” MORE FROM Sports

I was able to access the Broadview Center prior to today's football game. The contractor responsible for completing the seating was hard at work. I did not ask if he had an idea when the seating would be done.