Free Janis!!!!!!!!

[AlbanyObserver]

I have to tip my cap to Janis Pipikis. A solid contribution in the victory against Army. If he doesn't produce those numbers, we don't win that game. He really has no pressure on him with his role. Hopefully, we can see several nights of 6-8 points from him. From day one, I never thought he was really that bad. Just lost some confidence over time. This may sound crazy, but I would reward Janis with a start at Long Island and see what happens. Switching Martin, Wyatt and Knotts through the starting lineup thus far really hasn't done much. Knotts was a non-factor against Army, while Martin and Wyatt had their moments (especially Martin's big three late in the game and Wyatt had some good putbacks, but silly fouls). Once again, I am happy for Janis and hope he can contribute consistently.

[Patch]

KUDOS to PIPIKIS

 

I believe he was a determining factor in the Army game and maybe he'll be able to give us some games with 6 points and 5 rebounds and finish his stay at UA with a good feeling about himself.

 

I don't care who starts up front for us - but I believe Martin and "Q" have to get 20-25 minutes a game. Martin has a great upside and "Q" is by far our best athlete.

 

Right now we have 9 bodies for games with 3 of them being walk ons and 6 of them facing DI comp for the first time. We have 5 scholarship players available (of which only 3 are real DI scholarship players) it really doesn't matter who starts its all about every player playing their best just to keep us somewhat competitive some nights.

 

If Brown starts Pipikis Weds. that's fine, if not Pipikis will continue to get minutes as long as he performs as well as he did versus Army.

[DOWNTOWN]

Janis has had a tough time and I am sure he has been unhappy at times with his situation at Albany. I am not a big fan of his play and question his being a player of D1 caliber ( another example of the recruiting genius of Scoot Beeten).Having said that I applaud his work ethic and his attempt at trying to improve. Great to see him have a big game!!! I would love to see 1000 fans at the next game in Janis Pipikis masks!!

[purplehaze]

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>KUDOS to PIPIKIS</span>

 

I believe he was a determining factor in the Army game and maybe he'll be able to give us some games with 6 points and 5 rebounds and finish his stay at UA with a good feeling about himself.

 

I don't care who starts up front for us - but I believe Martin and "Q" have to get 20-25 minutes a game. Martin has a great upside and "Q" is by far our best athlete.

 

Right now we have 9 bodies for games with 3 of them being walk ons and 6 of them facing DI comp for the first time. We have 5 scholarship players available (of which only 3 are real DI scholarship players) it really doesn't matter who starts its all about every player playing their best just to keep us somewhat competitive some nights.

 

If Brown starts Pipikis Weds. that's fine, if not Pipikis will continue to get minutes as long as he performs as well as he did versus Army.

 

amazing how far we have come

[scrabbleship]

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>KUDOS to PIPIKIS</span>

 

I believe he was a determining factor in the Army game and maybe he'll be able to give us some games with 6 points and 5 rebounds and finish his stay at UA with a good feeling about himself.

 

I don't care who starts up front for us - but I believe Martin and "Q" have to get 20-25 minutes a game. Martin has a great upside and "Q" is by far our best athlete.

 

Right now we have 9 bodies for games with 3 of them being walk ons and 6 of them facing DI comp for the first time. We have 5 scholarship players available (of which only 3 are real DI scholarship players) it really doesn't matter who starts its all about every player playing their best just to keep us somewhat competitive some nights.

 

If Brown starts Pipikis Weds. that's fine, if not Pipikis will continue to get minutes as long as he performs as well as he did versus Army.

 

amazing how far we have come

 

In the days of Pipkis, what we are experiencing right now would have been a dream that would have been too good to be true.

 

Just out of curiosity, if Pipkis had stayed healthy, would we had won more than 5 games in 03-04 (considering at the same time Jamar was out for the season)?

[purplehaze]

doubtful we would have won any more. On Sunday I was thinking back to that season. It was only 3 years ago. Never in my wildest imagination would I have predicted what we have seen the past two seasons. Looking back at the board postings from that time really bring it home---those times were rough. Jamar was out hurt, Iati played every minute of every game. It was rough, but everyone on the team played hard and never gave up.

[Classof72/74]

everyone on the team played hard and never gave up.

 

 

May that always be the UAlbany legacy

 

U Know UA

[purplehaze]

The 2003-04 UAlbany Great Danes: Todd Martin, Courtney Johnson, Levi Levine, John Iati, Chris Wyatt, Jerrad Knotts, Aquawasi St. Hillaire.

Jamar Wilson, played one game and missed the rest of the season with an injury. Janis Pipikis was injured in late December and missed the remainder of the season. Kenny MacCalla joined the team as a walk-on in Late January.

 

On January 25, 2004 at Hartford--With a team of 7----Three UAlbany players fouled out--UAlbany played the last few minutes of the game with 4 players on the floor.

Edited March 15, 2007 by purplehaze

[scrabbleship]

When they were doing trivia-for-bottles-of-Sprite for those on the line for tickets the other day, one of the questions pertained to this:

 

On January 25, 2004 at Hartford--With a team of 7----Three UAlbany players fouled out--UAlbany played the last few minutes of the game with 4 players on the floor.

 

In reality, it should have been more like THIS given only a diehard or a trivia buff would know a question with this answer.

 

The 2003-04 UAlbany Great Danes: Todd Martin, Courtney Johnson, Levi Levine, John Iati, Chris Wyatt, Jerrad Knotts, Aquawasi St. Hillaire.

 

Seeing that only three of those people were around two years later (and even then Knotts was a bench player), it shows how much we've grown as a program in a relatively short time. I don't want to dig up anything, but how many of these people were Hicks/Beeten recruits vs. Brown recruits?

 

What I also wonder is if Jamar wasn't hurt, how big of a difference would he have made? Did it really set us back a year or two?

[UAalum72]

What I also wonder is if Jamar wasn't hurt, how big of a difference would he have made? Did it really set us back a year or two?

A quick look shows we lost about 10 of those 23 losses by 6 or fewer points; Jamar may have made that much difference, so we might have been near .500 that year, but then we wouldn't have had him THIS year, when he's got enough other players around him to make the team special.

[scrabbleship]

What I also wonder is if Jamar wasn't hurt, how big of a difference would he have made? Did it really set us back a year or two?

A quick look shows we lost about 10 of those 23 losses by 6 or fewer points; Jamar may have made that much difference, so we might have been near .500 that year, but then we wouldn't have had him THIS year, when he's got enough other players around him to make the team special.

 

Now that you put it that way, it's a LOT better we have Jamar now--when we have a chance to pull off an upset over Virginia in the big dance--than we did when we faced such out-of-conference luminaries as Army, Wagner, and LIU-Brooklyn and at best would have been a 5 seed in the conference tourney. The supporting cast today is a lot stronger (and in many cases better) than that of the one Jamar would have had if he was healthy in 03-04.

 

That 5-23 season was the price to pay for a season that will be at least 23-10 a mere three years later and in terms of deals it was a really good one to make.