Great Dane bashing

[statefan]

If anyone's interested, our program is getting bashed on the Siena board, being compared to their football team. Personally, I'm not offended and actually like it. I hate when we make nice and wish them good luck. I wish they would go 0-27 every season. I especially like their poster Indian Up North because he makes no bones about hating us and everyone associated with our school and feels about us exactly as I feel about Siena. Siena still sucks.

[reeder]

It's inappropriate for them to bash us, it looked like MTS was being critical and Indian Up North was pretty harsh. I have not heard anyone say that UA will overtake Siena - it's not a bad thought.

 

The reality is that we are not very good today - injuries, transfers sitting out, bad leadership before Brown...Doesn't really matter why.

 

I do think we will be much better next year, the frontline is still a question mark - Zoellner is unproven and Dyson will be a frehman. I do think the backcourt will be one of the best in the AE. At halftime, Doc Sauers said that Wilson is good, but Jordan would be the best player on the team - that will be an impressive backcourt with Iati.

 

If UA can compete as hard next year as they are this year with the improved talent they will definitely be a top tier team. Neither the Siena posters nor anyone should judge the team based on the performance against Siena. Today and next year, Siena is a better team - that doesn't mean that UA won't be able to win - see NC State

[Patch]

reeder

 

I don't care what the $iena fans think or say. We will compete with them well in the next few years.

 

In fact if the coaches get next years team to play with the intensity of this year's team we will be very good.

 

$iena often wallows in its own hype. Every player is a super star then when they lose they blame it on the coaches as well as the players.

 

They profess to be the Marquee program in the MAAC and they are struggling to play .500 ball.

 

They were so loaded this year they wouldn't miss the best player from last year's team (Prosper). With Prosper being their only loss from last years rotation and with a super group of freshman(4) and a redshirt becoming eligible they were going to be better without Prosper and you see where they are now.

 

I am willing to wait and watch and be happy when we turn the corner and become a winner. I will let them hype how great they are. They are a little better than a .500 club over the last 2.5 years at 45-41, yet they swear they are the Gonzaga of the east.

[Albany Fan]

As an area fan & supporter of both UAlbany and Siena, I think the bashing of UAlbany is coming from the thinking that Siena will soon not be the only game in town. Siena has established itself as a solid mid-major but with all the bad luck UAlbany has endured, they still have given Siena some pretty good games. I would not be surprised if UAlbany takes next game or so from Siena. I just glad that UAlbany has thown their hat into D-1 basketball as last night was a great night of sports entertainment & look forward to many more seasons to come. It will be awesome when UAlbany goes into the national spotlight w/ an NCAA tourney bid.

[Patch]

It will be awesome when UAlbany goes into the national spotlight w/ an NCAA tourney bid. - Albany Fan

 

I'm with you but I look forward to the first time we defeat $iena and our first winning season.

 

I think it would be awesome if the Danes and $iena both made it to the NCAA Tourney in the same year. I think the Capitol Region would go nuts, Hell let it be the "Play In Game" and play it at the RACC.

[Dane Pound]

Old Indian has been beating the "Albany should drop down to D2" drum for a while and it's just wishful thinking. Patch hit the nail on the head on their board when he pointed out that in the near future we will pose a threat to them and it makes them nervous. What I think most of them are figuring out it that we'll be better next year and $iena fans aren't so sure they can say the same with Miller, Andrews and Jackson graduating.

[DaneFan2k3]

I think it's time for all of us to head over there and start beating the "Mayor's Cup" drum ... what is the hold up? Even with them dropping football, I feel we would beat them in an all-sports head-to-head competition ... various other "rivalry" schools have these sorts of year-long things going on, here are three that I could find easily on Google:

 

Indiana vs. Purdue

http://iuhoosiers.com/newsarchive/03-04/ti...itanseries.html

"Each sport is worth one point towards an overall championship. A total of 20 points can be won. The winner of regular season head-to-head competition earns the point for its institution. Should the teams split or tie in regular season competition the point is split between the two institutions (i.e. if each team wins two games in baseball the point is split).

If the two institutions do not compete in head-to-head regular season competition, the team that places higher at the Big Ten Championship will earn the point. Should they tie in conference championship competition the point will be split. In the sport of track & field three-way meets that are scored as dual meets do not count as head-to-head competition."

 

USC vs. UCLA

http://gauntlettrophy.ocsn.com/

"UCLA and USC will compete against one another in the following sports with the point total for each sport listed. In the event of a tie in the season series in a particular sport, both universities will split the point total for the sport equally. For those sports that do not compete head-to-head, Pac-10 and/or NCAA competition will be used to determine the season series winner. For sports with multiple events, such as men’s and women’s track and women’s swimming, the dual meet finish of the teams will be used to award the points in each to the winner.

 

The 18 sports listed below will be worth a total of 110 points. Football, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball will account for 10 points each; the 14 other sports are worth 70 points -- five points per sport. Tiebreakers are also included to settle the series.

 

Through the joint efforts and cooperation of both USC and UCLA, the point formula was carefully devised, and agreed upon in full, to allow for both schools to evenly and fairly compete for the Lexus Gauntlet."

 

Duke vs. North Carolina

http://www.carlylecup.com/

"Duke vs. North Carolina will compete in 23 sports, with a revised scoring formula in effect for Year 4 of the competition. A total of 26 points is now at stake. Two points will be awarded for the season series winner in football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The other 20 sports will each be worth 1 point. There will no longer be a tiebreaker. Should Duke and UNC tie in the competition, 13-13, the Carlyle Cup will be retained by the school that last won it.

 

Points for each sport are awarded "winner take all" on which school wins more head-to-head meetings or has a higher ACC finish. If all head-to-head meetings are split, each school gets one-half of the designated point total. Post-season (ACC, NCAA Tournament) is included in head-to-head meetings."

[DaneFan2k3]

Unofficially, Siena would either lead 4-3 or trail 5-4 after the fall-winter portion of the mythical Mayor's Cup, with wins in Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer and Women's Golf. UAlbany won in Vollyeball, Men's Soccer and Field Hockey. Siena leads 4-3 in straight-up, head-to-head competitions.

 

There are games scheduled in softball (DH), women's lacrosse and women's tennis the rest of the way. Men's lacrosse, baseball, football, and track & cross country don't have direct competitions with Siena this year.

 

In Cross Country, for example, you would have to either schedule a dual meet annually, or you would just agree to take the higher team finisher at the IC4A-ECAC end-of-season Championships. In that case, UAlbany leads 5-4, as both X-C teams finished ahead of Siena. The same could be said for Indoor and Outdoor Track.

 

As with the other schools' competitions, you would probably want to weight basketball a little more than the other sports, although with the Saints dropping football that wouldn't exactly be fair to UAlbany. I read through the three that I posted above, and I think two of them weighted the sports based on what appears to be level of scholarships provided (i.e. football and basketball are the "money" sports and should count more heavily).

 

I'm sure the only UAlbany sport that wouldn't want to schedule Siena is men's lacrosse, as they play a schedule way above the Saints' heads. I think Coach Marr avoids playing the "easy" games, and rightly so. Maybe they would do it in this case, though, to generate interest for the athletic program as a whole.

[Dane Pound]

Nice idea. Actually the numbers the way you present them are closer than I would have thought. I doubt $iena would go for a plan like that. They really don't invest much in sports outside of hoops with the possible exception of baseball. Your plan might work better with the Brook as we seem to be pretty even with them in most sports.

There is the Corning Cup right now which doesn't get much publicity. I guarantee though if the Cup comes back to the RACC one of these years it will have much more importance.

[UAalum72]

2k3, the three plans above all involve teams in the same conference, so we'd need to schedule as many head-to-head OOC games as possible - although UA does play 14 games against 7 MAAC baseball teams this year, but none against the 'aints (surprise!), and that's not enough to project our place in the MAAC standings.

 

I think organizing a Mayor's Cup would require more cooperation than these two athletic departments have been willing to show.

[DaneFan2k3]

UAalum, I don't think scheduling Siena would be a big deal. We play them every year or almost ever year in the sports that I already mentioned.

 

We would just need to get UAlbany men's lacrosse and Siena baseball on board. I have a feeling that being the stronger programs in each of those sports, these teams/coaches believe they don't have anything to gain by playing the opposite school. You can leave out football and then set up something for track and cross countries involving the ECAC's if you can't schedule dual meets against Siena.

 

The Siena competition would be good for both schools. Siena can trot out their basketball teams, and we can trot out all the other sports when we have down basketball years. It would be close annually, and hopefully would bring out some fans and or more students to each of the games. I don't think it would be a big deal at all to get that done. If anything, I'd say Siena was afraid to do something like that. God, even the (gulp) community might get fired up about something like that.

 

It definitely would work better with Stony Brook and Binghamton, as you play each of them in-conference in all sports (or at least then you make the competition about the sports that each of the three has in common in-conference, thus leaving out football again). You could even do an all-SUNY competition (Governor's Trophy?), although that requires UB to schedule BingU, SBU and UAlbany, which is a burden to them being out of conference and wouldn't happen. Three out of Four isn't bad.

 

What was Siena's reasoning behind getting rid of football? That it didn't fit their priorities or something? Can we assume one priority is to upgrade the rest of their sports then?

 

I really have to say that Siena would be against any proposal like that. They have everything to lose (their perceived status as the "better" Division I school in the area) and nothing to gain (if they beat us, they were supposed to by being D-I longer). I think they know that beating us in baseball and two basketballs won't make up for their seemingly shoddy performances in the other sports.

Edited January 31, 2004 by DaneFan2k3

[UAalum72]

I agree it SHOULDN'T be hard to set up the scheduling, just like it shouldn't have been hard to play them in football the last 17 years. They even stopped playing RPI too.

 

$iena's football budget was around $200K, and if only about 15 of their players would NOT have gone there without FB, their tuition would have made up the dollars, so it's hard to see that money was the entire reason. But without facilities of their own, maybe it just wasn't worth the effort to keep it going. Football was never treated much better than a club sport there. Any money saved won't be enough to really help their entire program, but might if they concentrate it in one or two sports.

 

Men's lax does open against Manhattan this year, so Siena there isn't totally out of the question.