@UMBC 7pm (ESPN3)

[Clickclack]

UA's men's bb team is average in a low level conference. The Universities leaders have picked football and women's basketball to be our showcase teams. I would not be surprised to see the women move to a "better" conference.

 

It's quotes like this that drive me nuts. HOW ARE THE WOMEN MOVING TO A BETTER CONFERENCE WITHOUT THE REST OF THE SCHOOL?

 

And as a general rule, and following up on Dane Pound's general post expressing bewilderment, do you guys really think mid-low majors ALWAYS hit well with recruits. Further, most people whining now were praising the coaching job of our staff last year after losing what many thought were the most prolific scorers on the team.

 

It's like a group home for bi-polar on this board lately.

 

Again, I'm not all too happy with the season but let's not let facts get in the way: THIS TEAM HAS BEEN MISSING KEY PLAYERS OR HURT SINCE THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE SEASON. IT ALSO HAD TO REPLACE 6 PLAYERS BY A COACH WHO WAS BASICALLY A LAME DUCK. I can tell you this: When i was being recruited in H.S. if a coach was sitting on 1 year contract...there was no way I would have went that school.

 

We have what is considered to be a very solid four year class coming in that will try to mesh with some nice young pieces we have now. Bet your collective asses on this: When that class is sophs/jrs. with this years crops of frosh, if they aren't winning...Brown will likely be out.

 

That's not emotional, it's subjective but without letting W/L constitute my view of the team, solely. If by then you can't win...then something is seriously wrong.

 

This is all well and good. I'll even go so far as to say I'm probably the most bi-polar poster here. When you look at the reasons with a narrow view they all make sense. When you take a look at the bigger picture it becomes infinitely harder to ignore, 4 winning seasons in going on 13 years granted the first 2 or 3 are probably a write-off, no one was winning here. The complete domination of this program by UVM, SBU and BU before they left has been demoralizing. The recruiting strategy has been flawed for a long time...juco galore. Listen, next year there is no PG and no C on this team who won't be new to the roster. I can already see how this will probably go, you can't win 'ish without a PG.

 

I don't even say he needs to be top 3 every year in conference...I don't. I understand there are dips and there are down cycles but 4 winning seasons? We haven't won the regular season or even been close since Jamar left. He is under .500 in the AE. Think about that...in the AE he is under .500 both overall and since Jamar left.

 

Truth is there is a lot to be concerned about here long term. Attendance hasn't gone up one iota. Brown has an uncanny knack for winning the big game in the AE tourney, when he gets there, he is money! For that he is to be applauded...you can't take away from him. As I said previously, the highs are highs but the lows and struggling to stay .500 are far to frequent.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Clickclack

[uofalbany]

Good thing I lost power last night, and didn't watch the game.

Funny thing about this setup.. everybody goes to the tourny.

We can play like homers all conference season long, and still have a chance to win the title.

Although it could get a lot uglier than the lost to Virginia, if we do make it into the ncaas.

[UAalum72]

A lot of what's been said would make me feel better if this conference wasn't so horrible. Look we've lost Northeastern and BU since we joined. These were clearly two of the better teams in the conference. One championship in six years, ok. Think what would have happened had we not stumbled up Jacob Iati. Let's remember he was bolted to the bench until there were injuries and wasn't even supposed to play last year.

 

It's a dead horse but I just expected more. More regular season wins. More fans in the crowd. More exciting brand of BB. More consistency.

 

It's tough to go back in time but if somebody would have said that BU and NE are gone from the conference and UA is going to struggle to be a .500 team I would not have believed it. Yet here we are.

Would you rather have a record like BUMA and NU? OK. In the twelve years we were in the conference together, BUMA went to the NCAAs twice. How many did we have again?

BUMA won 4 1/2 regular season championships in eight years ending in 2004, did they 'build' on them, no, none since.

 

Northeastern was a dominant team - from 1980-1993, nothing since.

 

Or would you rather have BUMA's attendance (729 per game this year)? And they've got a lot more resouces and a higher budget than we do.

Edited February 13, 2014 by UAalum72

[UA'08]

A lot of what's been said would make me feel better if this conference wasn't so horrible. Look we've lost Northeastern and BU since we joined. These were clearly two of the better teams in the conference. One championship in six years, ok. Think what would have happened had we not stumbled up Jacob Iati. Let's remember he was bolted to the bench until there were injuries and wasn't even supposed to play last year.

 

It's a dead horse but I just expected more. More regular season wins. More fans in the crowd. More exciting brand of BB. More consistency.

 

It's tough to go back in time but if somebody would have said that BU and NE are gone from the conference and UA is going to struggle to be a .500 team I would not have believed it. Yet here we are.

Would you rather have a record like BUMA and NU? OK. In the twelve years we were in the conference together, BUMA went to the NCAAs twice. How many did we have again?

BUMA won 4 1/2 regular season championships in eight years ending in 2004, did they 'build' on them, no, none since.

 

Northeastern was a dominant team - from 1980-1993, nothing since.

 

Or would you rather have BUMA's attendance (729 per game this year)? And they've got a lot more resouces and a higher budget than we do.

 

I agree, but there are some fans who want more and want to see the school dominate year in and year out and even move into that 'better conference'. Some are happy where we currently are. I don't see anything wrong with both sides of the fence. Either way everyone is on this board because they are a fan of Albany.

[Dane96]

On the bright side we are the last team to win b2b championships. I just think the America east is so bad right now that there should be no reason for us not to win 10 games every year with BU now gone. I keep bringing up Lowell, but they have what six wins or so against D1 teams and all those teams are in this conference.

 

Anyone hear anything on the injury front? Is everyone healthy now or are they just keeping mum on everything? Because if they are back to where they were health wise when they played drake and Pitt, there should be no excuses..

 

Sam was riding the bike when he was not playing. Devlin's lucky to be running, let alone playing. Hooley has more knocks than you can count and when you are wearing Spider Tech on a shoulder...that is NOT A GOOD SIGN.

[UA'08]

On the bright side we are the last team to win b2b championships. I just think the America east is so bad right now that there should be no reason for us not to win 10 games every year with BU now gone. I keep bringing up Lowell, but they have what six wins or so against D1 teams and all those teams are in this conference.

 

Anyone hear anything on the injury front? Is everyone healthy now or are they just keeping mum on everything? Because if they are back to where they were health wise when they played drake and Pitt, there should be no excuses..

 

Sam was riding the bike when he was not playing. Devlin's lucky to be running, let alone playing. Hooley has more knocks than you can count and when you are wearing Spider Tech on a shoulder...that is NOT A GOOD SIGN.

 

That wasn't a fashion statement? Just kidding.

 

What about Sam's wrist? That one foul shot he took late was just flat out ugly.

Edited February 13, 2014 by UA'08

[Dane96]

UA's men's bb team is average in a low level conference. The Universities leaders have picked football and women's basketball to be our showcase teams. I would not be surprised to see the women move to a "better" conference.

 

It's quotes like this that drive me nuts. HOW ARE THE WOMEN MOVING TO A BETTER CONFERENCE WITHOUT THE REST OF THE SCHOOL?

 

And as a general rule, and following up on Dane Pound's general post expressing bewilderment, do you guys really think mid-low majors ALWAYS hit well with recruits. Further, most people whining now were praising the coaching job of our staff last year after losing what many thought were the most prolific scorers on the team.

 

It's like a group home for bi-polar on this board lately.

 

Again, I'm not all too happy with the season but let's not let facts get in the way: THIS TEAM HAS BEEN MISSING KEY PLAYERS OR HURT SINCE THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE SEASON. IT ALSO HAD TO REPLACE 6 PLAYERS BY A COACH WHO WAS BASICALLY A LAME DUCK. I can tell you this: When i was being recruited in H.S. if a coach was sitting on 1 year contract...there was no way I would have went that school.

 

We have what is considered to be a very solid four year class coming in that will try to mesh with some nice young pieces we have now. Bet your collective asses on this: When that class is sophs/jrs. with this years crops of frosh, if they aren't winning...Brown will likely be out.

 

That's not emotional, it's subjective but without letting W/L constitute my view of the team, solely. If by then you can't win...then something is seriously wrong.

 

This is all well and good. I'll even go so far as to say I'm probably the most bi-polar poster here. When you look at the reasons with a narrow view they all make sense. When you take a look at the bigger picture it becomes infinitely harder to ignore, 4 winning seasons in going on 13 years granted the first 2 or 3 are probably a write-off, no one was winning here. The complete domination of this program by UVM, SBU and BU before they left has been demoralizing. The recruiting strategy has been flawed for a long time...juco galore. Listen, next year there is no PG and no C on this team who won't be new to the roster. I can already see how this will probably go, you can't win 'ish without a PG.

 

I don't even say he needs to be top 3 every year in conference...I don't. I understand there are dips and there are down cycles but 4 winning seasons? We haven't won the regular season or even been close since Jamar left. He is under .500 in the AE. Think about that...in the AE he is under .500 both overall and since Jamar left.

 

Truth is there is a lot to be concerned about here long term. Attendance hasn't gone up one iota. Brown has an uncanny knack for winning the big game in the AE tourney, when he gets there, he is money! For that he is to be applauded...you can't take away from him. As I said previously, the highs are highs but the lows and struggling to stay .500 are far to frequent.

 

Where have we averaged in attendance compared to the league? Hmmm?

 

Let's face facts: Until we are playing bigger name teams...our attendance will be the same. Sure, if we are dominating you MAY get 500 or so more per game on average...but we will never, ever, ever average near "Sell-Outs" with this schedule in this decade. Too many casual fans unfortunately would choose a Siena game due to history.

 

As for JUCO's. I agree and disagree. I don't particularly love it UNLESS you say, "F IT...I'm recruiting the smartest juco (hoops IQ smart) I can...and I'm gonna live and die by them." I don't like that Brown takes forever to play these kids though I understand they may not get team concepts or even true organized basketball concepts. So, if you recruit a JUCO they better be high IQ guys and "need" guys.

 

That said-- we have a huge amount of JUCO's on this roster because of Brown's lame duck status. Again, I was recruited (in multiple sports). I remember heading up to Bridgeport with my dad and the Coach told us he was on a year-to-year contract. Aside from the poor academics, there was no way we were going to put my college years in the hands of someone who may be gone...especially with only a partial scholarship.

 

UA SHOULD HAVE MADE A MOVE...ONE WAY OR THE OTHER...WITH BROWN'S CONTRACT. Leaving him dangling out there was recruiting suicide. Heck, even in professional sports it's "FREE AGENT" suicide.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Dane96

[Dane96]

On the bright side we are the last team to win b2b championships. I just think the America east is so bad right now that there should be no reason for us not to win 10 games every year with BU now gone. I keep bringing up Lowell, but they have what six wins or so against D1 teams and all those teams are in this conference.

 

Anyone hear anything on the injury front? Is everyone healthy now or are they just keeping mum on everything? Because if they are back to where they were health wise when they played drake and Pitt, there should be no excuses..

 

Sam was riding the bike when he was not playing. Devlin's lucky to be running, let alone playing. Hooley has more knocks than you can count and when you are wearing Spider Tech on a shoulder...that is NOT A GOOD SIGN.

 

That wasn't a fashion statement? Just kidding.

 

What about Sam's wrist? That one foul shot he took late was just flat out ugly.

 

As someone who has sprained their wrist extremely badly both sliding headfirst into bases and falling while snowboarding I can say, if the reports are true that they originally thought it was broken...his wrist will likely remain sore until months after the season ends. It's not an easy heal. There are SO many tendons and nerves...pain usually radiates up the arm and down into the fingers.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Dane96

[Clickclack]

UA's men's bb team is average in a low level conference. The Universities leaders have picked football and women's basketball to be our showcase teams. I would not be surprised to see the women move to a "better" conference.

 

It's quotes like this that drive me nuts. HOW ARE THE WOMEN MOVING TO A BETTER CONFERENCE WITHOUT THE REST OF THE SCHOOL?

 

And as a general rule, and following up on Dane Pound's general post expressing bewilderment, do you guys really think mid-low majors ALWAYS hit well with recruits. Further, most people whining now were praising the coaching job of our staff last year after losing what many thought were the most prolific scorers on the team.

 

It's like a group home for bi-polar on this board lately.

 

Again, I'm not all too happy with the season but let's not let facts get in the way: THIS TEAM HAS BEEN MISSING KEY PLAYERS OR HURT SINCE THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE SEASON. IT ALSO HAD TO REPLACE 6 PLAYERS BY A COACH WHO WAS BASICALLY A LAME DUCK. I can tell you this: When i was being recruited in H.S. if a coach was sitting on 1 year contract...there was no way I would have went that school.

 

We have what is considered to be a very solid four year class coming in that will try to mesh with some nice young pieces we have now. Bet your collective asses on this: When that class is sophs/jrs. with this years crops of frosh, if they aren't winning...Brown will likely be out.

 

That's not emotional, it's subjective but without letting W/L constitute my view of the team, solely. If by then you can't win...then something is seriously wrong.

 

This is all well and good. I'll even go so far as to say I'm probably the most bi-polar poster here. When you look at the reasons with a narrow view they all make sense. When you take a look at the bigger picture it becomes infinitely harder to ignore, 4 winning seasons in going on 13 years granted the first 2 or 3 are probably a write-off, no one was winning here. The complete domination of this program by UVM, SBU and BU before they left has been demoralizing. The recruiting strategy has been flawed for a long time...juco galore. Listen, next year there is no PG and no C on this team who won't be new to the roster. I can already see how this will probably go, you can't win 'ish without a PG.

 

I don't even say he needs to be top 3 every year in conference...I don't. I understand there are dips and there are down cycles but 4 winning seasons? We haven't won the regular season or even been close since Jamar left. He is under .500 in the AE. Think about that...in the AE he is under .500 both overall and since Jamar left.

 

Truth is there is a lot to be concerned about here long term. Attendance hasn't gone up one iota. Brown has an uncanny knack for winning the big game in the AE tourney, when he gets there, he is money! For that he is to be applauded...you can't take away from him. As I said previously, the highs are highs but the lows and struggling to stay .500 are far to frequent.

 

Where have we averaged in attendance compared to the league? Hmmm?

 

Let's face facts: Until we are playing bigger name teams...our attendance will be the same. Sure, if we are dominating you MAY get 500 or so more per game on average...but we will never, ever, ever average near "Sell-Outs" with this schedule in this decade. Too many casual fans unfortunately would choose a Siena game due to history.

 

As for JUCO's. I agree and disagree. I don't particularly love it UNLESS you say, "F IT...I'm recruiting the smartest juco (hoops IQ smart) I can...and I'm gonna live and die by them." I don't like that Brown takes forever to play these kids though I understand they may not get team concepts or even true organized basketball concepts. So, if you recruit a JUCO they better be high IQ guys and "need" guys.

 

That said-- we have a huge amount of JUCO's on this roster because of Brown's lame duck status. Again, I was recruited (in multiple sports). I remember heading up to Bridgeport with my dad and the Coach told us he was on a year-to-year contract. Aside from the poor academics, there was no way we were going to put my college years in the hands of someone who may be gone...especially with only a partial scholarship.

 

UA SHOULD HAVE MADE A MOVE...ONE WAY OR THE OTHER...WITH BROWN'S CONTRACT. Leaving him dangling out there was recruiting suicide. Heck, even in professional sports it's "FREE AGENT" suicide.

 

Reasonable post...

[Clickclack]

On the bright side we are the last team to win b2b championships. I just think the America east is so bad right now that there should be no reason for us not to win 10 games every year with BU now gone. I keep bringing up Lowell, but they have what six wins or so against D1 teams and all those teams are in this conference.

 

Anyone hear anything on the injury front? Is everyone healthy now or are they just keeping mum on everything? Because if they are back to where they were health wise when they played drake and Pitt, there should be no excuses..

 

Sam was riding the bike when he was not playing. Devlin's lucky to be running, let alone playing. Hooley has more knocks than you can count and when you are wearing Spider Tech on a shoulder...that is NOT A GOOD SIGN.

 

That wasn't a fashion statement? Just kidding.

 

What about Sam's wrist? That one foul shot he took late was just flat out ugly.

 

As someone who has sprained their wrist extremely badly both sliding headfirst into bases and falling while snowboarding I can say, if the reports are true that they originally thought it was broken...his wrist will likely remain sore until months after the season ends. It's not an easy heal. There are SO many tendons and nerves...pain usually radiates up the arm and down into the fingers.

 

Everyone goes through injuries, every team. I'm really losing my patience with this excuse for the .500 seasons. I swear this gets dragged out there every year...look, we are injured. Yeah, I know, so are other teams.

[Dane96]

Simple question:

 

Did you expect the rotation to be as injured (and it is clear we lost key guys) as it was AND to have a rotation completely look different than when we had early in the season.

 

In short, if you were presented with our mid-year to current rotation prior to the season...WHAT RECORD AND WHAT PLACE WOULD YOU HAVE PREDICTED THE TEAM TO FINISH?

[UA'08]

Simple question:

 

Did you expect the rotation to be as injured (and it is clear we lost key guys) as it was AND to have a rotation completely look different than when we had early in the season.

 

In short, if you were presented with our mid-year to current rotation prior to the season...WHAT RECORD AND WHAT PLACE WOULD YOU HAVE PREDICTED THE TEAM TO FINISH?

11-5 was not unreasonable to me. We'll be lucky to hit 9 wins. I mean we were picked third and basically lost almost 30% of our scoring I think. That shows how bad the conference is.

Edited February 13, 2014 by UA'08

[Clickclack]

Simple question:

 

Did you expect the rotation to be as injured (and it is clear we lost key guys) as it was AND to have a rotation completely look different than when we had early in the season.

 

In short, if you were presented with our mid-year to current rotation prior to the season...WHAT RECORD AND WHAT PLACE WOULD YOU HAVE PREDICTED THE TEAM TO FINISH?

 

That's not the point...but I'll answer the question...10 or 11 wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility considering how bad the AE is.

 

But, the point is there is no backup PG on this team and we rely on a 5'7PG, Hooley is not a PG. Ede plays, shows some solid potential and can't get off the bench at all on a team that outside of two guys can't drive and can't shoot. Haas was a mistake...guy can't play at this level. Levon is suspended. This roster is a crap mix of players that can't shoot or defend outside of a few guys.

 

You can tell me all you want about Brown being a lame duck and having to recruit JUCO's and I'll point you to the roster makeup before he was a lame duck. The transfer/juco rout has been a staple of this program for many years. With impact players few and far between...

Edited February 13, 2014 by Clickclack

[UA'08]

Yeah what's the deal with Ede. I think Haas is just having trouble adjusting and don't want to give up on him just yet as he also has two more years left. A point guard with size is what we desperately need for next year.

[dslyank]

Tied for 5th in a BAD league; no way around it--this team just sucks. But unlike many of you, I refuse to blame coach. There are many factors beside W&L's to evaluate when looking @ a "college" coach. But my intent is not to get into that argument again/now, but to say as the saying goes, you can not fire the entire team, so blame the coach. It has kind of been an unwritten rule on this blog to NOT criticize players/kids/students. But without naming names some {maybe even many} players on this team have NOT played up to potential; and others have only played well inconsistently. It is easy to blame the coach and/or recruiting, but again there may be numerous other factors why a player does not reach his potential (maybe he is having girl friend problems, maybe he hated his mother growing up--who knows? {great scene in the "the Natural" of a shrink counseling the team in the locker room "losing is a disease"}. Getting off track obviously, but my point the players play the game--not the coaches. Last year, I got blasted when I said I thought a certain player was not as good as a lot of people thought. My point is maybe some of us on this blog should reevaluate our player assessments. After all we are the "experts"?

 

OT but last point. I would venture to guess that over the last 8or10 years, we have a better out of conference record than vermont {but do not really care to take the time to investigate, because I really do not care that much about vt}. In fact, (I could be wrong) but again would venture to guess counting jamar years and going forward we have the best overall ooc record of any AE team.

Edited February 13, 2014 by dslyank