Every new sport season brings hope. Often hope can be cruel for sport fans. Imagine being one of the millions of Chicago Cub fans. Every spring you look at the team’s new additions, young talent, players who are finally healthy, and think to yourself “this is finally our year. We are going to win the World Series! There is no way we can’t win.” Then October rolls around and once again Chicago Cub fans are at home, watching other teams compete to be crowned the league’s best, and wondering when they lost hope.
On the other hand, there are teams and programs with expectations- to win, to compete and be the team going for the championship while the rest are at home. U Albany Great Danes Men’s Basketball is a team and program with expectations. Going to the Division 1 NCAA tournament and nearly being the first team to ever upset a #1 seed as a #16 seed will create expectations. U Albany basketball is no Chicago Cubs.
U Albany Men’s Basketball Coach Will Brown recently wrote: “Our expectation for the season is to compete for an America East Conference Championship. The conference will be wide open with no clear cut favorite.” With that in mind, the season outlook for the team seems to be very positive. Coach Brown created a “very challenging” early non-conference schedule that should prepare the team for conference play.
U Albany begins the season at home against an Atlantic 10 foe, followed by a road game against a team from the Big 10, and then finishes up with a trip to a Pac-12 school (no team names can be mentioned because the contracts are not all signed). Coach Brown went on to say that these games “should be very interesting. (We) will learn a lot about our team early in the season.”
A vital player for the team this season will be Mike Black. Last season Black was 2nd Team All-Conference in the America East and according to Brown was “arguably the best point guard in the conference. He has improved each year and we need him to have his best season as a senior.” With so much success, Black has lots to live up to this season.
Coming off of an All-Rookie Team performance during his freshman year, Luke Devlin required major back surgery and was injury-plagued his entire sophomore year. This season, Coach Brown expects Devlin to be healthy and be an important part in the Great Danes’ success. Other key players to watch for this season are Jayson Guerrier, who averaged 11 PPG over the last eight games of the season while his playing minutes increased; Jacob Iati, who averaged 13.4 PPG over the last seven games of the season including a trio of games scoring 20 or more points; the addition of red-shirt freshmen Peter Hooley and Chris Page, along with three newcomers to the team.
Brown finished with an important piece of information that would make any coach pleased. He wrote: “We have a good group. They worked hard in the spring and summer. I am confident that we will be a much improved defensive team and a more balanced offensive team this year. We have a hungry group who enjoy playing together.”
Upstate Scouting Service would like to wish the U Albany Great Danes and Coach Will Brown the best of luck this season. The expectations for such a great school and program are always high.
Josh Skinner-Staff Writer
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