Summer Thoughts

[reeder]

Summer Thoughts:

1.Great that Jamar is playing in France with Athletes in Action. I understand that he is very religious and that AIA is a religious organization, but a part of me wishes that he was with his teammates in Belgium. Also, there is a blog for his AIA team that has pictures if you follow the links. http://aia.com/teamblogs/blogs/basketball_...en/default.aspx

2.Why isn’t Iati going to Belgium?

3.I wish that Covington was going on the Belgium trip. IMO, he needs to develop pretty quickly or Gifford / Yocum might be forced to step up sooner.

4.I think Coachwillbrown.com is great. I think that the athletics department needs to communicate better and this website seems to be updated every couple of weeks with meaningful information. Still not sure why the Athletics Department can’t hire an intern and post notes on football summer practices, pictures from games…They are missing a chance to connect with alumni and with the community.

5.The online ticketing may not be ideal, but I think it’s good. Someone mentioned that it will be updated periodically. It’s a great first step

6.The benefit to making the tournament is obviously much more than the check – apparently there are some pretty big time recruits that pay attention now. I just hope that all these kids make it to the school next year (I still don’t understand how there are three kids that are qualified and not enrolling – I know one is going to prep in California, what about the other 2).

7.President Hall will be a huge loss to the University and to the Athletics program – he had a vision. A lot of leaders aren’t crisp with their vision, I believe that he was and that he was executing on it.

8.I read the Siena board and find it entertaining. IMO, the loss of Kojo is huge because he gets to the line a lot – a lot like Jamar. I don’t have the stats, but both Kojo and Jamar were among the leaders in free throw attempts in their conferences. I don’t think that many of the Siena posters understand that. If you look at the results over the last couple of years, UA is not nearly as good when Jamar doesn’t get to the line. I don’t know that Siena will be as good without that aspect of the game – but they are still talented and did bring in some good recruits.

9.November 11th will be a very big day for the Athletics program. With the football game in the afternoon and the Bucknell basketball game that night. I think that was a great job at scheduling. Might be worth the trip up to see those two games.

10.Wish I knew what was going on with Knotts. Levi and Jordan. I hope they all graduated and have jobs or are playing somewhere.

11.While I don’t want to put much weight on the Siena game, it will be a big game for the capital district.

12.The football team is getting a lot of preseason respect. I hope they can step up and win the conference. They have new recruits from Florida, Texas, Georgia and Ohio - all football hotbeds. I would guess that these are some of the scholarship players. Let's see what kind of impact they have.

[Patch]

reeder - great post and I 'll try to clarify a few items.

 

1. Jamar going to France is an investment in his future he couldn't have gone with the other guys to Belgium there is a limit (2) to the number of team members that can play on the same team. The new recruits don't count towards that number therefore Ross and Knight can go too. The freshman I believe are taking more course work then JCs Knight and Ross.

 

2. Iati probably chose not to go or he would of had to find another group.

 

3. Covington is improving nicely from everything I've heard, also remember these trips cost $$$$$.

 

4. Coach's site seems informative and gives us all another perspective of what's going on. Our official site is limited to what info can be deceminated. I. too, would like to see it updated more often but there is a limit to what a few people can do and there is only so much money to go around.

 

6. The NCAA's impact on recruiting has been awesome. Ambrose is supposedly a "Big Time Athlete" and will be in school this Fall. Little seems to be ready to sign during the early period (Nov.???), I think he has a strong bond with Jimmy Covington. James is an interesting scenario I have no clue what's going on with him but he is supposed to be another "silly athlete".

 

7. President Hall will be greatly missed he was truly an inspiring breath of fresh air for UA. Replacing him will be all but impossible.

 

8. I'm with you about the Siena Board and I too believe they will sorely miss the penetrating skills of Kojo and his physicallity. I remeber when he was recruited many of the site described him as a High Major Athlete which was right on the money. He was a tough physical defender who rebounded like crazy for a guard. Their recruiting class is very good but filling the void of their 2 most athletic players(Jordan & Kojo) will be tough.

 

9. November 11th is going to be an awesome day for Athletics at UA.

 

10. Knotts and Jordan already graduated and Levi was finishing his final course in summer school.

 

12. This could be the year that the FB team puts it all together. Let's just hope we have some resemblance of a solid "Kicking Game"!!!!!!

 

What's really great about UA is that we are building a truly solid overall "Athletic Program"

[UA66]

Thanks Reeder for asking the questions that were on the minds of many of us, and thanks Patch for giving us the answers.

 

I particularly agree with you on the statement about Dr. Hall. He will be impossible to replace but everyone of us alums must do what we can to KEEP THE VISION ALIVE!

[UAlbany09]

Thanks Reeder for asking the questions that were on the minds of many of us, and thanks Patch for giving us the answers.

 

I particularly agree with you on the statement about Dr. Hall.  He will be impossible to replace but everyone of us alums must do what we can to KEEP THE VISION ALIVE!

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I'm sure the University will continue to keep Hall's vision alive. Everyone who worked for him knows what has to be done. It's only right that they push forward in his honor.

[Patch]

UAlbany09 - ideally you would hope so, but.......

 

The new President will have their own agenda.

 

"There is a big difference between the Ideal and the Real"

[UAlbany09]

UAlbany09 - ideally you would hope so, but.......

 

The new President will have their own agenda.

 

"There is a big difference between the Ideal and the Real"

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yeah, but I'm sure the search committee will look for someone who will do justice to the office that President Hall left, and who has a similar agenda to the one Hall had. You can't just hire someone who wants to go in a completely different direction after something like this. It wouldn't be respectful in my opinion. Either way, I hope they get someone who truly wants to bring the University to the next level.