Friday, February 8, 2008

UAlbany's Time To Win......Now

University at Albany coach Will Brown said Friday that he's emphasizing a need to win now.

"I think our seniors are starting to understand that because we're getting to the end of the schedule and one of these days they're not going to be wearing that uniform again," Brown said. "I also think that a couple of our freshman are starting to figure it out a little bit."

On Saturday, the Great Danes will be tested when Hartford comes to town. Both teams have 6-4 records in America East play, but UAlbany won the previous matchup in West Hartford earlier this season.

In that game back on Jan. 19, the Great Danes jumped out early and led 31-18 at the half before clinging on to a 10-point, 73-63, road win.

"It was one of the days where the right Albany team showed up," senior guard Jon Iati said. "The last two games, the good Albany team has shown up and hopefully, in this game coming up that same team will show up."

Hartford has changed up their play a little bit, going with a smaller lineup that includes freshman Morgan Sabia, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer against Maine.

Brown says that the Hawks will try to spread his team out, but it was a good preparation for his team to have played a similar New Hampshire team just two days ago.

"We can't get extended, we have to defend dribble penatration and we have to defend the 3-point line," Brown said. "We have similar keys to the UNH game, the difference is we prepared for (Warren) McLendon to play a lot against us."

McLendon, who has seen his playing time reduce slightly, scored 19 points in the first meeting between these two teams and Brown said his team prepared for McLendon to play and also for him not to play as much as he did in the first matchup.

Brown also said he hasn't returned the team's practice gear yet, which he took a few games ago because he didn't feel they deserved to wear the Albany name until they turned their play around.

"I think these guys are anxiously awaiting for me to give them their practice gear, so I'm just keeping them off-balance a little bit," Brown said.

The Great Danes are trying to finish off a three-game homestand with a third win, but said there were no planned surprises after they pulled out a quote from Mike Christensen on Wednesday night to psych the team up for the win over New Hampshire and last Saturday, rode the Big Purple Growl to a big win over Stony Brook.

"I'm sure the coaches have something up their sleeves," junior forward Brian Connelly said. "I hope they do because it worked last time."

"Hopefully, we'll be up for this game," added Iati. "We need to be up for every game, no matter if someone makes a quote in the paper."

Brown said he won't rely on anything like he did on Wednesday though, hoping his team will be able to get fired up just because it's a big game.

"If we have to get these guys pumped up for tomorrow, we haven't progressed as much as I think we've progressed in the past two weeks," Brown said. "I think these guys understand that this is a big game. We've come out with great energy the past couple of games. That's one of the reasons we won at Hartford, our energy early was tremendous. I expect our energy will be good tomorrow."

Here are the up to date America East standings.
UMBC 8-2, 16-7
Vermont 7-3, 12-10
UAlbany 6-4, 11-11
Hartford 6-4, 12-13
Binghamton 6-4, 10-12
Boston University 4-5, 7-14
New Hampshire 4-6, 7-15
Maine 2-7, 6-16
Stony Brook 1-9, 4-18

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