GreatDanes06

you want to hear how maybe that NCAA game helped in getting James (THIS IS JUST A THEORY): TU says that he picked UA over a walk-on spot at UAB. Who played in the NCAA Tournament right after UA in Philly? UAB. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm hahahaha

little bit of an update on the preview...so you can re-read if you want...

Chew me out, tell me im smokin the waky tobacci, but here is the WCDB preview for the 2006-07 Womens Basketball Season... Great Danes Women’s Basketball Preview The Great Danes are coming off a 7-21 (3-13) season from last year. Coach Trina Patterson has brought in a new staff and looks to build on pockets of positive play from last season. Patterson returns all but two of her players from last season and has three strong recruits coming in this year. Word has already broken that they will be without junior guard Tanika Thrower for the season due to personal reasons. However, the Great Danes have a solid returning cast that looks to improve on last season. The Guards/Perimeter: Sherri Mikus will be vital to the Great Danes offense in 2006-07. She finished the year putting up double digit points in the four of the team’s final five games. The strong second half allowed her to finish with 8.6 PPG and 3.14 APG, which was seventh in the America East last season, all as a sophomore. A solid performance in the Empire State Games during the summer kept her loose. (50 points in four games. Nailed eight FG's and finished with 20 points in the Bronze Medal match) Amanda Ward and Joy Sterling are back for the Great Danes. The question will be will their leadership come from the starters spot or from the bench? Ward’s best performances in the 2005-06 campaign came from when she was in the starting five. She finished averaging 8.3 points per game do to a strong second half. A big question is how will the Great Danes deal with their outside shooting with the loss of three-point specialist and AE and Great Danes leader Jen Schumacher? Schumacher connected with 66 three-pointers last year, with Amanda Ward finishing far behind in second with 20. Kelly Martinson could be one answer. She took 14 three-point attempts last year with limited playing time. With the loss of Schumacher, the Great Danes could be spending a great deal of time trying to create a perimeter shooting game, with most of the scoring coming from inside the paint. Quickness will not be an issue, as every player has the ability to move fast pace. However, that quickness lead to sloppy play. Simply break-away layups became an issue because of it. If the Great Danes can create a fast pace offense, with this talent, they could be one of the top scoring teams. The Post: Sterling, not the biggest member on the team, led the Great Danes with 6.3 rebounds per game. Sterling, along with her 4.6 points per game from last year, proved along with Gia Sanders that size does not matter when it comes to controlling the paint. Sanders averaged 6.0 rebounds per game and led the America East in blocks with 1.86 per game. There was a strong case that she could have been the Defensive Player of the Year in the America East last year if not for the Great Danes record. She also had 1.36 steals per game. The big question is who will be the leader down low for Albany? Kirsten Peterson is coming off foot surgery during the off-season and Tanacan, who did show signs of brilliance last season, is still only in her second year of collegiate ball. The answer to the question may lye in George Mason transfer Kristen Higy. The 6-1 forward adds tons of size to the Great Danes, however, will sitting out a year hurt her performance. Odds are it wont, as she was one of the top practice players last year for the Great Danes. Her performence in the Empire State Games (28 points in three games) should show she is not rusty at all. No matter what, having these three six-footers, along with incoming freshman Ashley Lindsey, and the play of Sterling and Sanders, the Great Danes should rank near the top of the America East in rebounds and blocks no matter if they play zone or man-to-man. The Bench: Tanya James averaged 2.7 PPG and shot .386 from the field with most of her time coming from the bench. (24 of the 27 games she played in) The depth of the team will be strong in comparison to last year. Sterling, Ward along with incoming freshman will all be battling for spots at the start of the year, meaning everyone will be hungry. Depending on how the center spot works out, the Great Danes will have three players all over six foot coming off the bench. The role of Kelly Martinson, who saw more time last year, could be a nice surprise for the Great Danes. Walk-on Sarah Hayes showed spunk and grit last year when she saw action. Asha Jordan is no longer with the team as she transferred to Southern Indiana. The Rookies: Freshman guard Charity Irminyura could be the make or break for UAlbany. Her stats in her senior year of high school show she could be an immediate impact player in the America East. She averaged 12.2 points per game and was named to the Nebraska Girls Basketball Super-State First Team. She was one of the key leaders in a 48 game winning streak for the Lincoln Northeast Rockets, which ended in the Class A State Championship Game. If the three-year starter can add help to the outside shooting game, she could be looking at a starting bid this year. Ashley Lindsay will be the fourth six-footer on the Great Danes next year. In her senior year for Canyon Springs, California, she averaged 6.7 rebounds per game, second on her team. She led the team with 21 blocked shots. She finished in the top 10 in her section in scoring, blocks and rebounds, and top 20 in steals and assists. Britney McGee rounds out the Class of 2006. She averaged 13.7 points per game in her senior year, second in her team. She finished in the top 10 in her league in scoring. Her ability to make plays is a specialty. She averaged 4.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game. (55 steals total) She was able to snag 6.8 rebounds per game. The Schedule: The Great Danes did not make the schedule easy on themselves. They will be traveling to Florida to take on Bowling Green and Central Florida or Farleigh Dickerson. They will face their first ever Big Ten opponent in Wisconsin, and play a Siena women’s team that looks to continue to grow. An emotional Army squad will also be coming to the RACC this year. The America East conference schedule will continue to be a toss-up for the Great Danes. Vermont is significantly weaker with the transfer of Alexis Castro, however, Stony Brook and Hartford remain strong despite key losses. Maine showed signs of great improvement last year and will be even tougher this year. The conference on the women side of the ball was one of the top mid-majors conferences last season, so the schedule does not really get easier for the Great Danes when conference games kick-off in January. The conference is in rebuilding mode this year with tons of younger teams, and that will lead to closer games in the conference. Vulnerable teams are New Hampshire, Binghamton, UMBC and Vermont. The Prediction: Starting Five Prediction: PG - Sherri Mikus, JR SG - Joy Sterling, SO G/F - Amanda Ward, SR SF - Gia Sanders, JR PF - Kristen Higy, JR The saying goes, “you have to learn how to walk before you can run.” The Great Danes will make significant strides this year. However, they are not a team built to winning the conference now. This year is for pride for the Great Danes. If anything, the Danes need to step up and say, “We are not going to let others treat us as the doormats of this conference.” The same team from last year is all but back, and they will all be back again next year minus Amanda Ward and Tanya James. R-E-S-P-E-C-T is the name of the game this year, and I feel they will earn it. However, it may not be enough to get them to the NCAA Tournament in a strong mid-major conference. The defense (first in blocked shots in conference/42nd in the nation and second in steals in the conference in 2005-06) will help them to survive into day two or three of the America East Tournament. 2007-08, maybe even further.Record Prediction : 14-17 (including AE Tournament), 6th in America East Conference

Higy to the center spot with Ward in as starter. They had a problem with scoring last year. They went 3 guard big time next year. Sanders is good enough down low with her defense (if not for a bad record, should have been Defensive Player of the Year in the Conference), and Higy is a solid starter spot at PF/C. Charity and Sterling I think are going to battle it out on and off to start the season to see who will get the bulk of the starts at SG, with the winner being a full time starter by VCU or Holy Cross. First off the bench is Irminyura, giving to Sterling as she is the vet. Ward is a different player when she is starting, all you have to do is look at her stats from last year to see it. She has to be in the starting line-up. PG Mikus SG Sterling G Ward SF Sanders PF/C Higy When they chose to go only two guards, which was 50/50 last year, it is a toss-up.

Brittney McGee coming in made 43 3Pters her senior year, but made 128 attempts, thats a 34% avg. Here are her stats: http://www.maxpreps.com/FanPages/Player.mx...22-fc94141fcc9e Charity in feb was 45 percent, making 22 shots from 3pr. Martinson took a good number of 3pa last year when she was playing. higgy and lindsay will give us tons of size inside...along with sanders inside game, i think we will have on of the best front court, inside games in the conference.

i am shocked. i cover this team and i am shocked....she will be missed this year, however, like we said, they still have loads of talent

seriously, dont start with that...im to tired to deal with that today...hahaha

where are you getting this stuff on Tanika man? Charity Irminyura is suppose to be really really good. Higgy will be in and adds signifigant height. I am telling you, you will see a team like you havent seen in a while...they will be much improved.

do we do a good job with broadcast...i have been trying to install a strong case of professionalism into my boys...i hope we are doing good.. side note: we will have our basketball sched out soon

brain fart...but still

the Sporting Network is the only one that really matters...AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!!! IN ANY SPORT!!!! WE CAN SAY WE HAVE A NATIONALLY RANKED PROGRAM!!!! not just receiving votes, ACTUALLY IN THE TOP 25...I can cry

remember this name: Charity Irminyora That is all I will say. We will talk at the end of the year about her...cause it will be something you will want to talk about.

thrower gone? where/ who told u that, cause it is wrong.

interestng new front page must say

Hanson's picks are usually all over the place, while the big polls are usually on que...The Mid-Major Top 25 i feel is correct, but the regular Top 25 is all over the place.

IT CAN ALL END ON A BIG NOTE TODAY FH VS. N. CAROLINA, 1 PM

if you didnt check out the board, my new top 25 for the week... 1 New Hampshire 2 Appalachian State 3 Furman 4 Montana 5 Illinois State 6 Youngstown State 7 Richmond 8 Cal Poly 9 UMass 10 Southern Illinois 11 North Dakota State 12 Hampton 13 Portland St 14 James Madison 15 Northern Iowa 16 Delaware 17 McNeese State 18 Eastern Illinois 19 Towson 20 UC Davis 21 Harvard 22 Alabama A&M 23 Western Illinois 24 UAlbany 25 Bethune-Cookman Just outside - San Diego, Monmouth, Maine, Northern Arizona, Elon

they will get in the top 25...tons of teams in front of us in the polls took loses today.

2-0 so far...but they get big time Uniondale next weekend. I didnt tell you, Jason is playing for them. He is like 3rd-4th string DT and back-up punter, lol

ATL, my dad has a house in Tucker, Ga (the nice part). We once went to a game there to check out Jabari Davis (old UTennessee RB recruit) one game. They are considered low level to some HS in the ATL area, and it was nuts. My cousins played for Maryville, Tenn HS, one more state titles then almost anyone in Tennessee HS Football. Talk about crazyness...wow

1977 Oceanside Conference I Championship on LI... (only title I know of) only big name player to come out of the Sailors program was LI's own Jay Fiedler (1989) AND NOW BRENDAN THAT YOU HAVE ME IN A FIX: BOYS BASKETBALL: COUNTY CHAMPIONS: 1958-59, 1960-61 BOYS SOCCER: County Champs: 1958, 1963, 1968 to 1972, 1984, 1992, 1997, 2000 LI Titles in: 1968 to 1971, SOFTBALL: COUNTY CHAMPS: 1981, 1995, 1996 BOYS LACROSSE: COUNTY CHAMPS: 1996 BASEBALL: LEAGUE CHAMPS: 46,47,49,53,59,60,61, 64,65,71,72,73,79,82, 84,87,88,00,01,04 COUNTY TITLES: 1959,2000,2001,2004 LI TITLES: 2000,2004 State Titles: 2000 If you can not tell, me and b9j are both from Oceanside, NY Oceanside is known for Baseball and soccer, and they have just built an unbelievable football field now.

i just came home for the holidays yesterday, and Oceanside HS on LI is putting brand new field in etc...it looks sick in compariso to University Field

to me, this is the anti-Jamar Wilson move. He saw his stock rising, so he turned his back on us. Sad.

NO...UT STUDENTS HAVE TO PAY TO GET INTO EVENTS...BUT BUY JOINING THE GROUP, YOU GET A DISCOUNT AND A FIRST CHANCE AT THEM.

The fact is, i think the Athletic Department needs to be promoting student involvment also. Look at Tennessee for example (favorite of mine), their athletic department supports the "Orange Nation", a student group that if you join you get a t-shirt, you get discount for tickets, a section put aside for them etc...the fact is the athletic department helps run it. I think because of the size of our department in comparison to others, you need some help to organize the students, and the athletic department or the SA should be doing it as a joint venture