Conference Preview-UA 5th

[I rock(ed) the Cape]

America Least did their conference preview, and they have Albany ending the season in a tie for 5th with UNH and Bing....here is the analysis...

 

 

This time, Albany has lost some players that will actually hurt their chances at a title. Losing Jamar Wilson was big as they couldn't get to the NCAA tournament again, but losing Brian Lillis, the guy who at points single-handedly kept the Danes afloat to a second place finish, but early exit in the conference tourney along with Brent Wilson and Jon Iati, does hurt. A lot. The Danes are going to be a very "green" team (playing on Purple Nation's hatred of that color? Maybe), featuring six newcomers that figure to be getting substantial minutes this season. Albany also has returning upperclassmen who are less than impressive. At this point in their careers, if anyone expect that Jimmie Covington and Brett Gifford will do something in a game, I'd like to have you committed to an institution. They suck. As for Brian Connelly, I like him as a player, but he is what he is: a jump shooting forward. He could get the team double digit scoring this season, but like Brent Wilson, he really is no threat to take over a game. He is a threat to hit a timely shot, but good defenses can squander his opportunities to score.

 

The reigns at point could be turned over to a freshman (Anthony Raffa), who by all accounts is talented and is a Rookie of the Year candidate, but will probably have his struggles to adjust like all freshman do. Mainly with turnovers I'd imagine. Sophomore Tim Ambrose showed he is a threat to score in bunches, but his coach doesn't believe he commits himself 100% to all aspects of the game. Does Ambrose play in spite of that to win or does Will Brown stick to his guns and make sure the kid gets the message? That will be a tough decision to make since Brown cannot really afford the luxury of cutting the kid's minutes so he gets the picture this season. Ambrose will have to play significant minutes.

 

Albany will take its lumps this season and its fans will quickly remember how good they had it before. Watching losing, and they did watch some of that last season even with the second place finish, will be hard and might deter some casual fans. Hopefully Albany markets the hell out of the tournament so it is well-attended by locals.

 

Some people might pick the Danes seventh or even eighth, but I still have to group them in the 5th place grouping because they are capable of playing up to that level. They have a good coach who could get them there and their youngsters have talent, but not every year can be a Winners Club members year. It was just a matter of turnover. Obviously some members of the original junior and senior classes didn't work out so there is not a lot of upperclassmen leadership to lean on (a staple of their NCAA teams), but freshman become sophomores very quickly so I don't think anyone can say the Danes are down for the foreseeable future. This year might be an exeption rather than the rule.

 

All this means is Dane fans will start talking smack about 2009-10 in December 2008, nothing we haven't seen before.

[uofalbany]

Isn't the author of the america least blog a teenager?

 

Funny how this kid is always on the basketball threads here, slurping up information that is posted.

[Clickclack]

Stupid last line....don't worry leaster, plenty of time this year to talk smack. Perhaps you should be a bit more worried about actually beating us this season. It's been a while since you you beat us.

 

It's not where you start, it's where you finish. Anyone have the preseason predictions from last year?

 

A-Least where did you pick us?

[Patch]

His preview as far as placing teams is fine it's his opinion. His attempts to be witty are way off base and are what make "The Leaster" in my opinion unprofessional and a questionable resource.

 

Writing that a player who has played and contributed to a team that has won two AE Tourneys and contribute to a team finishing no worse than 2nd in the conference in his 3 years - SUCKS - is just wrong. Jimmy Covington has contributed consistently to UA's successes. The Leaster should learn that it takes a team to be successful and a team needs it stars as well as its solid contributors. Jimmy has always been ready to contribute and has been extremely solid for UA.

 

As for making the same comment about Gifford is also foolish, in his two years he HAS contributed for UA. He has made a trip to the NCAAs and last year contributed on the second place team. I clearly remember that as Freshman Giff was on the floor vs. UVM when UA had to defend a 1 point lead on the road and did. That's not a position you put a player that SUCKS into.

 

UA the last couple of seasons has played the 5 spot by committee and as a group they have answered the call. People like "The Leaster" ridiculed "ZO" also and he did a commendable job for UA.

 

Finally I don't think anyone (who wants to be taken seriously) has the right to say Student/Athletes SUCK, if you don't like their skill set there are other ways (more professional) of stating that .

 

Just my opinion.

[bob87]

I don't put a lot of stock in Pre season predictions for reasons stated many times.

But if you are going to make them at least make a decision on the teams instead of a wishy washy 3 way tie for the 5 seed. I guarantee someone will be a 5 seed, someone will be a 6 seed and someone will be a 7 seed even if 3 teams end up tied in the standings.

You could always say I think 1 is a lot better than 2 and 3 is slightly better than 4, etc.

[Clickclack]

Funny how last year many of the same people were saying....Brent and John sucked....now all of a sudden we'll take a huge step back because we lost them. So which one is it?

 

I'm not to worried....like I said in my post on the AE board, if nothing else I trust our coaching staff to get this team ready to go. No one has seen any of the transfers like Mike, Scotty and Louis not to mention a prep player in Raffa who continues to rise and rise on the recruiting circuit all of last year. So the previews should be taken with a truck load of salt.

 

If history is any indicator, this talk is reminiscent of last year at this time and we still finished tied for second and swept UVM.

[bob87]

Funny how last year many of the same people were saying....Brent and John sucked....now all of a sudden we'll take a huge step back because we lost them. So which one is it?

 

You take what $iena fans say and others like them much too seriously.

Again, even experts in the sports business can not predict the standings of any sport accurately on any sort of consistant basis.

We are more than 2 months away from the first game. Make your prediction for fun if you like, but understand it is far from an exact science and most of those $iena fans are just talking $iena.

[UA_MA_2000]

Isn't "Leaster" from Albany too?

 

I do not agree with the Leaster's comments on his blog about our 5 men:

 

In my view, our program would not be where it is right now without Giff and Jimmy-C out there. And it's silly to judge players by the points per game that they put up. UAlbany's offense has not in the past several years, to my knowledge, gone through the post or 5 position. Our "5" man was never put in a position where he had to (or where he was even encouraged to) score points because that person was out there to do several other things while our guards (i.e., Jamar, Iati, Siggers, Jordan, etc.) created scoring opportunities. Defense, rebounding, and toughness has been the rallying cry for our 5 man, and I expect no different this year!

 

The fact that it has been crucial for our 5 man on the court to stay low and focus on rebounding on offense, for example, was even more evident on our team when our 4 man (Brent Wilson) was often out on the perimeter shooting three-pointers. If Brent was out shooting 3s, it was imperative for our 5 man to focus on positioning and rebounding as opposed to creating scoring opportunities for himself in the post. It's not how our offense worked over the past few years!

[olddog71]

Isn't "Leaster" from Albany too?

 

I do not agree with the Leaster's comments on his blog about our 5 men:

 

In my view, our program would not be where it is right now without Giff and Jimmy-C out there. And it's silly to judge players by the points per game that they put up. UAlbany's offense has not in the past several years, to my knowledge, gone through the post or 5 position. Our "5" man was never put in a position where he had to (or where he was even encouraged to) score points because that person was out there to do several other things while our guards (i.e., Jamar, Iati, Siggers, Jordan, etc.) created scoring opportunities. Defense, rebounding, and toughness has been the rallying cry for our 5 man, and I expect no different this year!

 

The fact that it has been crucial for our 5 man on the court to stay low and focus on rebounding on offense, for example, was even more evident on our team when our 4 man (Brent Wilson) was often out on the perimeter shooting three-pointers. If Brent was out shooting 3s, it was imperative for our 5 man to focus on positioning and rebounding as opposed to creating scoring opportunities for himself in the post. It's not how our offense worked over the past few years!

 

I agree with your point about how much the starting five will contribute to this team. None of the players comes across as very flashy playmakers, so their actual worth may be underestimated. Until last season, Brian Lillis would have been characterized mostly for his defensive play, but when the time to step up arrived last year he became the team's top scorer and one of the league's greatest top sources for points.

 

I am further amazed on the AE board about how low many of the top followers of the league have placed UA in the conference this year. They have placed us at about the same level as our entrance into the league 8 years ago. I think many of them will be surprised at how well UA actually does. I'm not saying that UA will win the league this year and I understand that the general level of the league has risen in the last couple years, but UA will not return to the position it had five or six seasons ago.

[I rock(ed) the Cape]

I think people are underestimating us simply because of the huge turnover on the roster...as far as the returning players go, there is no one who jumps out off the page at you (although many of them have the potential to do some great things this year). However, our incoming freshman class is loaded with talent, and we added some potentially great transfers in Johnson, Barazza, McRae, etc. No one has seen any of those guys play, and I think the lack of respect towards the team thus far is mainly because of the unfamiliarity...I think a lot of people will be surprised with the quality of the team this year...

[Dane Pound]

I agree with I Rock about the roster change. Although if you think about it, if we were to start say Raffa, Ambrose, Hastings, Connelly and Giff or Covington in our first game we'd be playing four guys who started some games last year along with a guy people are talking about for ROY. Not saying that will happen but we're not totally green.

 

I'm not sure I know what to make of this team on paper yet either but I'll take some comfort in the fact that since Coach Brown has had a full roster we haven't finished lower than fourth in the conference.

[McFan]

Isn't "Leaster" from Albany too?

 

I do not agree with the Leaster's comments on his blog about our 5 men:

 

In my view, our program would not be where it is right now without Giff and Jimmy-C out there. And it's silly to judge players by the points per game that they put up. UAlbany's offense has not in the past several years, to my knowledge, gone through the post or 5 position. Our "5" man was never put in a position where he had to (or where he was even encouraged to) score points because that person was out there to do several other things while our guards (i.e., Jamar, Iati, Siggers, Jordan, etc.) created scoring opportunities. Defense, rebounding, and toughness has been the rallying cry for our 5 man, and I expect no different this year!

 

The fact that it has been crucial for our 5 man on the court to stay low and focus on rebounding on offense, for example, was even more evident on our team when our 4 man (Brent Wilson) was often out on the perimeter shooting three-pointers. If Brent was out shooting 3s, it was imperative for our 5 man to focus on positioning and rebounding as opposed to creating scoring opportunities for himself in the post. It's not how our offense worked over the past few years!

 

I agree with your point about how much the starting five will contribute to this team. None of the players comes across as very flashy playmakers, so their actual worth may be underestimated. Until last season, Brian Lillis would have been characterized mostly for his defensive play, but when the time to step up arrived last year he became the team's top scorer and one of the league's greatest top sources for points.

 

I am further amazed on the AE board about how low many of the top followers of the league have placed UA in the conference this year. They have placed us at about the same level as our entrance into the league 8 years ago. I think many of them will be surprised at how well UA actually does. I'm not saying that UA will win the league this year and I understand that the general level of the league has risen in the last couple years, but UA will not return to the position it had five or six seasons ago.

 

I was a little suprised too by how little respect we are given on the AE board. i do however disagree w/ the fact that the level of the league has risen the last couple of years. I don't think any team was all that impressive last year. UA's teams the previous two years would have handled any of the top teams last year. Ditto for UVM the prior two years. I see a lot of potential for the conference but really think last year was a down year, a competitive year, but a down year.

[Clickclack]

Last year was a bad year for the AE, no way to spin it. I really hope we start to (as a conference) put solid teams out there, especially in OOC portion of the schedule. I honestly like where we are going as a conference, a few of the newer coaches are finally starting to gain some traction (Lebovitz, Harrion and Monroe) Bingo has a ton of talent but also a ton of questions marks....on talent alone they are much better. Now if only SB and Maine could wake up.......