Media Day at UA

[olddog71]

Here's the deal from Singelais's blog this afternoon:

 

Tidbits from UAlbany media day November 11, 2008 at 4:11 pm by Mark Singelais, Staff writer

UAlbany held its media day for the men’s and women’s teams today, which gave us the opportunity to speak to a few of the eight new players for the first time.

 

Here are a few assorted quotes from the newcomers:

 

Junior forward Will Harris, Virginia transfer, on getting a waiver to play this season: “It was an exciting feeling for me. I really wasn’t looking forward to sitting out a whole year. I felt like it was going to be something that helped me out a lot to sit out a year, but I’d much rather be on the court playing.”

 

Harris on his conditioning: “I wasn’t in best shape when I first got here, but Coach (Will Brown) did a great job in making sure that I made it there. So I’m here now and I’m ready to go.”

 

Harris on the expectations he’ll make an immediate impact: “I don’t really feel pressure because nobody sets higher expectations for me than I do for myself … It’d be nice to go out and score 25 points a game, but I’m just going to go out and do what Coach needs me to do and just be aggressive and play.”

 

Harris on transferring to be closer to his mother and five siblings in Queens: “Everything I do, I do for my family. They’re the most important people in my life so that was a good thing.”

 

Harris repeatedly praised Brown, which amused the head coach, who stood nearby while Harris was surrounded by cameras and reporters. Brown later jokingly accused Harris of politicking for playing time and told Harris to get a job working for Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings.

 

Junior point guard Mike Johnson on his competition with freshman Anthony Raffa to be the starting point guard: “Me and Anthony in practice, we just compete. We’re both high energy point guards and playmakers, really good creators. It’s been fun coming in here and competing with him and just learning the system … It gets real competitive. It’s good competition, but we both understand what’s at stake. We’re both competitors and we both want to be that guy. We’re really still good friends, but at the same time, we both compete, we both fight, and we both beat each other up on a daily basis. It’s been good.”

 

Raffa on the team being picked by the coaches to finish sixth in America East: “I think people, the coaches or whatever, don’t understand that we have talent. Sixth place, I mean, it’s all right. We have a lot of new guys, so I guess they realize that Brian Lillis, Brent Wilson left last year, Jon Iati, and they don’t know what we have coming in. But we have some players that can play.”

 

As for the women, they face a grueling first-week schedule, all on the road at (1) 9th-ranked California, (2) NCAA Sweet Sixteen participant Marist, and (3) NCAA participant Cornell.

 

It's great that the Danes will be playing against some of the country's best talent early in the schedule and will give us fans a chance to see how good our teams are.

[Clickclack]

Raffa on the team being picked by the coaches to finish sixth in America East: “I think people, the coaches or whatever, don’t understand that we have talent. Sixth place, I mean, it’s all right. We have a lot of new guys, so I guess they realize that Brian Lillis, Brent Wilson left last year, Jon Iati, and they don’t know what we have coming in. But we have some players that can play.”

 

HAHA...Anthony! "...don't understand that we have talent." I like him already.

[Patch]

bosi - do you have to copy the whole article to quote 1 sentence fragment?

[Clickclack]

bosi - do you have to copy the whole article to quote 1 sentence fragment?

 

Comeon...patch, it was an honest mistake...jeeezzz!

[UAalum72]

Gazette:

Great Danes hold some wild cards

 

UAlbany women aim for upper echelon

 

Times-Union:

Some great in this big Dane?