Postgame Siena

[Patch]

Siena Tony and all Siena fans - Congrats on the win. Your team is very very talented.

 

If you couldn’t see the difference in the talent level on the floor last night, then I can’t help you. Siena has one senior on its roster. Many of the players on the team Fran beat out BCS or A10 level teams for their services, and I’m not talking interest I’m talking offers. Fran has already signed a 6’5” athletic kid from Penn with offers from the Big 10 and Temple. Out of the 200 min available to play in a game Siena returns 193 of those minutes next year......

I’m not here to start arguments – just stating the facts - Siena Tony

 

Good Luck - I hope Siena wins out - they should - a team of good A10 players should easily win the 21st ranked ( real time RPI) MAAC.

 

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If those are the facts then Siena should retain Fran as a recruiter and hire a real X & O guy because with such a great disparity in talent the game between the 2 schools should never have wound up being a 2pt game with 6.6 seconds to go.

 

Using your facts if you are loaded with A10 type players why do you lose to a mediocre JMU (who did lose to VMI) and you lost to Ivy League Cornell (who only beat Lehigh by 4) and struggle with a lowly UA.

 

It must be coaching because based on your facts there is absolutely no doubt that the talent is at Siena.

 

Will this be the year they can finally beat a weak MAAC field or will you guys choke again like you did last year to Niagara a team you beat twice during the regular season:

 

Marist looks OK

Niagara lost to Liberty whose only other wins were against 300RPI teams

St Peters lost to Lehigh

Loyola lost to Mt St Mary's a 287 RPI team by 12

Rider is 5-3 with a 263 RPI plenty of ?????? there.

 

The one advantage you do have and it is big is that the MAAC will be at the TUC.

 

Being I'm working with the facts you presented I would expect that you wouldn't disagree with this post.

 

Good Luck and have a good season.

 

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As for UA for most of us I think we're as a group somewhat disappointed but most of us realize we're a work in progress - still seeking and identity and some consistency, hopefully (???) like usual we'll be better in March then in early December, only time will tell.

[UAlbany09]

I feel like Michigan. But it's not so bad because Michigan is a great program, and so is Albany.

[Clickclack]

IMO, there were a few good things to come out of the loss:

1. Brian and Brent showed good leadership - playing hard and willing the team back after being down by so many. Lillis was attacking the basket and Brent was making perimeter shots.

2. I liked the lineup that started in the second half with Martin at the point. I think the team is better with Lillis off the ball especially against a team as aggressive as Siena was.

3. IMO, the difference during the comebacks was when we went zone and Siena looked confused.

4. I agree about Ambrose - he makes things happen and he has a pretty good perimeter shot.

 

They played well, I think the aggressive Siena defense threw them off and it took a while to get into the zone to slow down Siena.

 

I agree with reeder, Martin played allot of point and I'm wondering if we aren't coming to a point where he'll be the primary PG on the floor and perhaps start. I thought he showed excellent poise, didn't get flustered....got everyone into the proper place on the court, communicating well etc. After his rookie of the week honors and last night playing well in a pressure cooker type of situation, perhaps we give him some starts at the 1 and see what comes about. Move Lillis to the 2 and have Jerrel be the first guy of the bench. You don't lose anything on the defensive end as Martin is a very good defender but has displayed a bit more O then Jerrel.

 

I'm just thinking....although I trust coach Brown will make the right call.

 

Also, I know this might be an unpopular position to take but I do agree with Tony. Siena was the more talented team yesterday, they are more quicker and more athletic no shame in admitting that. Although I think our new guys, once they develop, will be more able to deal and keep up with Siena type teams but time will tell. No shame in admitting you got beat by a better team.....just my 2 cents.

[Patch]

Bosi - I don't think many will argue about how talented Siena is.

[soup]

Despite the MAAC's weaker conference ranking providing Siena an easier ride, I'll still put my money on UA playing into March before them.

 

 

[Let me know the next time the home team draws 13,000 to the Pepsi.]

 

MAAC 3-0 against the AEast yesterday. The MAAC is 20th in the RPI, AE 24th I believe.

 

Siena in the MAAC title game should get over 13,000 this year at the TUC ;-)

 

You're a Binging moron. You're gloating being in the 20th ranked conference vs. the 24th? You truly are the biggest idiot in all of college basketball message boards. Congratulations.

[olddog71]

The key positive I see is that our team is very young. If the Siena game stays on our schedule, we have a much more competitive game next year. Hastings, Ambrose and crew with supplements from the recruiting class of '08 should be great depth with some valuable experience.

 

You do realize that Siena has all the players back from next year with the exception of Tay Fisher. You do know that Siena started 4 sophs and a junior last night right? If Fran can land a serviceable big man next years Siena team is very..very capable of making some serious noise nationally ( more than this years win against the 20th ranked team in the country)

 

Albany loses its 3 leading scores in Lillis, Wilson and Iati . It won’t get any easier for Albany next year. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Albany back out of a new contract given those stats

 

Tony,

 

I hope you see the next words for what they look like on the surface; there's nothing more. I don't want to start any flame war.

 

Yes, your team next year should be awesome. You have everybody back, and the experience from this year will pay off handsomely next.

 

Please don't discount UA next year. If I remember correctly, you said we would not be very good this year because we lost our great scorer Jamar. Well, I know it's still early, but I think UA will be just as good, and quite possibley better, than last season. I'm not picking on just you because you have plenty of company even within our own conference. Most people also thought that this year UA would take a major dive. The AE coaches picked us third. Fans on our conference board doubted our ability this season, as well.

 

By now, you and many others have seen Coach Brown in action. As many posters on your board have stated since last night's game, Brown did a very good job with the game plan. He and his staff are also good recruiters. Brown has built this program out of the ashes of the previous coach's efforts in a very short time. Brown has adapted a long-term strategy to maintain or improve our success. These two main ingredients should insure that UA will not fall much in 2008-09.

 

I know that, compared to many Siena posters, you have a more realistic idea (up until last night) of where UA is currently. You have stated many times here and over on your board that UA is a lot better this year than most people realize. I can't take you to task on that score.

 

Of course, strange things could happen in the next year or so. Bad things could happen to either team. All I am saying is don't discount UA's prospects for the future.

[SienaTony]

Good post Olddog and a respectful post deserves a respectful answer. I’m not discounting Albany at all. Unlike some of the Siena faithful I have no problem admitting Albany is a pretty good program. I have all the respect in the world for Will Brown as a coach. Nothing is written in stone, kids flunk out, get injured etc.

 

And I don’t recall saying Albany wouldn’t be good this year, I may have said they will take a step back. And while I think Albany is a good squad ( in fact better than I thought they’ would be) I don’t think this team is as good as the last two Albany teams… although I admit its close

 

I was responding to a few posts on this board like the one that started this thread with a brilliant statement like

 

“hard to pinpoint what the loss is based on.” To DP’s credit he pointed out the obvious quickly

 

 

Or this post

 

“The key positive I see is that our team is very young. If the Siena game stays on our schedule, we have a much more competitive game next year”

 

Despite the fact Albany started 3 juniors and 2 seniors last night and the fact Siena started 4 sophomores and a junior

 

I was pointing out the obvious that if Albany wants a competitive game they better improve, Siena only loses one part time player and Albany loses its top 3 scorers, doesn’t mean Albany can’t be better but on the face of it Siena is holding the upper hand by a considerable margin.

 

You guys have been a lot of fun, and with this post I’ll take my leave of this board. Good luck the rest of the way!!

[Zalman B]

EDIT: Post deleted so responses (if any) can be kept together here.

[olddog71]

Tony,

 

Fair enough on all your points. You may not have said that UA would be bad this season, but that we might experience a big dropoff. I can accept that.

 

I also compliment you on bringing a greater sense of reality about UA to your own board. Your comments, as well as those of others, may have made a major contribution to reducing drastically the number of negative comments about UA's ability. I appreciate that. Making unrealistic derogatory comments about someone else's team doesn't necessarily have the effect of lifting up your own team.

[GDBD]

Tough Day all round ....

Some thoughts on the morning after:

1) The only part of the experience that really frosted me good was the Ettkin column assertion that the MAAC was a better conference & therefore completely owned the Great Danes. How patently wrong, or at the very least parochial and myopic. ..... No - he is JUST WRONG!!!.

Zalman, pease consider sending your piece in to the TU Sports editor for publication.

2) We didn't bang the boards like I had hoped.

3) Connelly might be a good one, but he lacked the killer look in his eyes last night. If he's gonna be a go-to guy in this lineup, he needs to strap it on & go for it.

4) As posted elsewhere, Tim Ambrose brings excitement when he is on the court.

5) Last night REALLY showed the disparity in last year's class of players. LCC's sophomores bring so much to that team.... Ours just don't match up to LCC's or to our's this year (& next - IF projections hold true.)

On to the conference schedule tune-ups!!

[Clickclack]

Tough Day all round ....

Some thoughts on the morning after:

1) The only part of the experience that really frosted me good was the Ettkin column assertion that the MAAC was a better conference & therefore completely owned the Great Danes. How patently wrong, or at the very least parochial and myopic. ..... No - he is JUST WRONG!!!.

Zalman, pease consider sending your piece in to the TU Sports editor for publication.

2) We didn't bang the boards like I had hoped.

3) Connelly might be a good one, but he lacked the killer look in his eyes last night. If he's gonna be a go-to guy in this lineup, he needs to strap it on & go for it.

4) As posted elsewhere, Tim Ambrose brings excitement when he is on the court.

5) Last night REALLY showed the disparity in last year's class of players. LCC's sophomores bring so much to that team.... Ours just don't match up to LCC's or to our's this year (& next - IF projections hold true.)

On to the conference schedule tune-ups!!

 

GDBD,

 

In response to point number 2....we out rebounded Siena 40 to 25....thats a +15 rebounding edge 17 to 8 on the offensive end. I'm not sure what you were looking for but a +15 in any game will put you in a position to win.

 

Point #3, I personally do not look at Conelly to be a go-to guy at any point in his career. He has an excellent overall game, tenacious, strong, good rebounder, put back buckets, decent midrange game, never quits etc. but I don't think we'll ever see him as a first option on offense. When this current class and next years class takes over the reins of this team I think we'll see Ambrose and Martin have the ball allot in their hands. If Gifford/Turley continue to develop (last night was not a good night for them as they didn't match up well with the quick Saints) they are more true back to the basket type players you'll see them take part in a more inside outside game. Don't get me wrong....I love Conelly, what he is able to do (with his health) he does very very well. He will be an important part moving forward but IMO I don't think he'll at any point be option number one. I also LOVE his leadership qualities, he leads by example and that often speaks louder then words.

 

As to point #5, I agree with you. What you are observing is the construction of a program. When we were new to the D1 game it was much more difficult to get our foot in the door with players like Ambrose, Lindfors, Raffa, Aronhalt etc. and even Jamar who at that time was a major coup for us. If you follow the recruiting trail it's obvious that coach Brown is going after bigger and bigger fish and is starting to land some of them. That bodes very well for us moving forward. My comments are not intended to belittle the players we currently have (who were recruited when we were just starting out) but rather to point out that without them we wouldn't be in the position we are today and have an opportunity to go after talent with potentially a higher ceiling and a higher return for our program. This program was build on the backs of players like Iati (love the kid), Lillis, Jason, Jamar, Levi, Brent, Z and many others not to mention coach Brown who've laid the foundation when we really had nothing to build our house on. I think we are well within our right to be giddy about the direction we are going in and the players we are starting to land. I mean Lindfors is dropping 40 points on the opposition like it's going out of style, Raffa would routinely torch teams in South Jersey these are numbers being put up by incoming players the likes of which we've never seen around these parts. It is my belief that we are just only starting to scratch the surface of what this program could be and where it's going. For that I'm grateful to the coaches, players, Dr.McElroy and every one of us who supports this team.

 

When you look at it like that....it's easy to overlook a loss to a tough opponent (Siena) because in the end it's just a part of the process.

[UA_MA_2000]

I only add a technical edit in that I believe we were picked to finish second (behind Boston University) by the coaches. I believe the final tally was 5 votes to 4 votes. With one more vote, we would have been the pre-season favorite for the AE.

[UA_MA_2000]

For those who are interested, there is a fan poll at the America East website asking fans to vote on which team will win the America East this year. Though it doesn't really matter, of the 639 tallied votes at the time of this post, Albany was in first with a little over 25% of the votes (Vermont was in second with 22% of the votes).

 

http://www.americaeast.com/share/PollRecord.dbml

[Big D]

Some post game observations:

 

-The better team won. Refs had nothing to do with the outcome. Siena had a huge talent advantage both on paper, and on the court. We were lucky to make it a game in the last 5-6 minutes. Siena should win 22 or so games this year, maybe more next year. Hasbrouck is a terrific player, and brings his "A game" each year against UA . Franklin is a matchup nightmare for anyone.

 

 

- The "Programs" (as opposed to the current rosters) are relatively equal. I thought UA had the better team in '04 and '05, and the teams were equal last year. Siena is better this year and probably next year as well. Mid major programs have up and down cycles. We are coming down from a peak, Siena is on the upswing. Siena's current ascendancy is a combination of McCaffrey (who is an excellent coach and recruiter), the school's willingness to take a chance on players that Siena normally would not recruit, and an overall institutional commitment to the hoop program (i.e. recruiting budget, coaches salaries, etc). To the Siena fans who proclaim the gap between the two teams is "wide and getting wider" they may be right... for the next year or two..., but I like UA's prospects down the road.

 

 

- Brent played a great game last night. Nice to see him show what he can do in front of the big crowd. Lillis had an impossible assignment, and as expected, he struggled with Siena's pressure and team speed. I thought he played an excellent second half, even though none of his points came easy. Despite the difference in talent, I wouldn't trade Lillis for Ubiles if you paid me. Lillis makes it very easy to root for the Danes.

 

 

- As others have noted, Ambrose gives UA a much needed scoring threat. He can takes guys off the dribble, and hopefully he will be an important contributor as the season moves along.

 

 

-

[GODANESGO]

The thought just came to my mind after watching FOX 23's show tonight about the game...

 

Siena, the home team (as if I actually had to clarify that part..lol), was in yellow jerseys for yesterday's game. IIRC, the Danes had to switch to white jerseys for home games last year, per NCAA regulations.

 

If so, what am I missing??