Positive Will Brown Stories

[haggyland]

I must confess that I have never met Will Brown in person, but I have followed the team from a distance for some time now.

Anyways, I wanted to hear some of your stories about Will Brown the man, so here I share mine:

I am an Albany alumni living in Boston, and I have been trying to find some of the basketball games that will fit around my schedule. After missing the Brown University game, I decided I must go to the Albany at B.U. game. I e-mailed Coach Brown to see if there was an Albany section, and from his Blackberry he said he would leave me tickets for the game, asking how many I wanted. I requested four, he e-mailed back that I was all set, and when we arrived to the game there were four tickets under his name that were left for my party.

Now, as mentioned I do not know Coach Brown, but this event completely endeared me to the program. As it turned out Albany won for the first time against B.U., and I graciously thanked the Coach through e-mail.

Coach Brown did not have to leave tickets for somebody he never meant, but he did. Consequently, I found myself back in Albany for the Big Purple Growl, where I witnessed a win and the first RACC sell-out. I saw Coach Brown at the Ferocious Feast, but i didn't think I should disturb his cameo appearance by introducing myself.

So, I hope to make many games next year, and if there is a conference tournament home game I will be there, but as mentioned, I just wanted to hear some nice stories about the coach. I plan on sending him a congratulatory (and thank you) letter at the end of the season.

 

Thank you.

[alum73]

Great to hear. Glad to have you on board, and on the board. Our wholw athletic program has really made a tremendous transition from DIII to DI, and is still improving exponentially. Did you get a chance to see the new fields for LAX and field hockey? When the stands are completed, they will be very nice indeed and a DI level home for those programs. Go Danes.

[haggyland]

When I was back in Albany I saw the sketches for the athletics Master Plan, with football seating for 26,000, and the improvement of other facilities, which blew my mind.

I cannot understand why UAlbany doesn't put this information on their web-site (they did have one set of pictures from a ground-breaking). However, this is a major renovation of the facilities, and I think Dr. McElroy should be showcasing this to the world, and not just to those fans that find the glass enclosure at the RACC. Maybe McElroy is next to be e-mailed?...

[Clickclack]

This is a story I posted in one of the other threads.....

 

I've actually had the pleasure of meeting coach like 2 years back. I have a cousin who plays ball in Ukraine (Europe) and I brought him a video of the kid play. He is 6'6 and incredibly agile just an all around great player with great hops, strong, great shot, just incredible ball handling etc. Coach was considering offering him a scholorship but it turns out that my cousin plays for a college team as well as High League in Ukraine and they get paid. So he would be ineligable to play under NCAA rules. But all through the process coach was an upstanding guy and thats actually how I started following the program. It would be a sad day if he isn't resigned. I met with him 2 or 3 times in his office over a period of 2 weeks or so. He is a great guy. Sighn him NOW!!!!!!

[WCDBvoiceofUA]

As a broadcaster for CDB we never had much time with the Men's program and never got to talk to coach Brown that much. We tried getting him on our radio show but our schedule's just never worked out. Then after the BPG last year Coach Brown came over to our table and shook our hands commenting that he was a big fan of our women's broadcasts and that he listened as much as possible. Classy guy and I hope he is around for years to come. Also, about the moron who wrote that editorial a couple of weeks ago...During the VCU game Jamar committed a turnover during the second half, but was never taken out and you could see coach Brown saying "that's alright" and encouraging his team on camera. A picture is worth a 1000 words.

[KingDane]

As an alumni living far from Albany and having attended only 5 games in the last 3 years I appreciate this site immensely.

 

Coach Brown deserves every accolade afforded him, and deserves to be rewarded with a contract that not only acknowledges his successes but includes incentives for future successes. Inexperienced, he was handed a dead-in the-water, rudderless program. Not only was the talent not there, there was also no attraction in Albany for potential recruits. If he is not the primary reason for the c current success, who is?

 

Three years ago I was fortunate to have a conversation with Doc Sauers at the Siena game. I asked his opinion of Coach Brown. Doc said, "he has a lot to learn." From where we sit now, atop the conference standings, I'd say Coach Brown has learned a lot. There's no reason he can't have us on top of the conference every year.

 

Following Danes basketball from afar has become a great pastime. Thanks for a wonderful season.

[JonUA97]

Well I know that it has been mentioned a few times before but I have been close with the program since Coach Brown took the reigns and I lived much closer to the RACC.

 

The biggest standout in my mind about what a class act Coach Brown is was after the game at Stony Brook, it was the Friday before the holidays and myself and DaneGuy04 sat next to Rodger facing the Albany bench (and as we found out later in the game in front of Mrs. Iati) and after the game we walked over to Coach as Brian DeP. was trying to hussle him back to the locker room and he stopped and said to us, "Don't worry guys, we are going to get much better."

 

After the BPG myself and my hoops travel partner were near the court exit to the locker room and again Brian DeP. trying to keep the schedule on the rails with the media was hussling Coach back to the press conference and again he stopped to shake our hands and remembered what he said to us in Stony Brook by saying, "I told you we were going to get better!"

 

I know that this story has been repeated a few times on this board but I put it in this thread just in case Dr. Lee McElroy or President Kermit Hall would like to see it.

 

As I have said in my past few posts....

 

SIGN COACH BROWN NOW!

 

SSS

[bob87]

I also was at the Stony Brook game and was in the same general area. Saw you talk to coach Brown that night. Didn't get a chance to talk to him that night, but have talked to him numerous occasions and he always has been a stand up guy. The first time I talked to him was after the end of the first season I think. They had an event in the Hall of fame room after our season ended and we briefly talked in general about the upcoming NCAA tourney.