ALBANY - When University at Albany coach Will Brown selected two sophomores -- Blake Metcalf (left, 21) and Logan Aronhalt -- as captains prior to the 2010-11 season, it came with some intrigue.

Now, the two juniors have a season of leading under their belts and feel more comfortable leading the way for the Great Danes.

"As a junior, you feel so much more comfortable saying something to the younger guys and saying something to guys who are the same age as me," said Metcalf, at the team media day, on Wednesday. "That one year made a big difference in my leadership."

Metcalf says he feels more comfortable leading and knows his role is to make sure the team has its focus up, is competing hard and continues to practice and play with high energy.

"This year, I feel a lot more comfortable calling a guy out from missing a play or doing something wrong," he said. "Also, it adds more pressure on me to not make any mistakes."

Metcalf credits assistant coach Brent Wilson with helping him grow as a leader.

"Coach Wilson has really been a great help to me," Metcalf said. "He's really trying to show me steps to take to become a better leader."

Metcalf knows that it's during the preseason and during practice, where leaders are most critical.

"Practice is where the leadership steps in and where I really feel that I need to be vocal," he said.

The Great Danes are in a great position to have a solid season, but they need players to lead them, especially when there are no seniors on the roster.

"You have to be able to put your foot down," Metcalf said. "Especially, now, as a junior."

ALBANY - Director of Basketball Operations and former UAlbany player Brent Wilson turned to coach Will Brown following Thursday's 62-57 loss to Binghamton and told him that wasn't a UAlbany effort.

“We never got out-toughed and outrebounded like that ever,” said Brown, recalling what Wilson said to him.

It wasn't a good game by many accounts for the Great Danes, who were coming off their best offensive performance of the year against Yale.

“I was surprised with how poorly we hit the glass and how poorly we blocked out,” said Brown.

UAlbany was outrebounded 41-28 by the taller, but smaller (in terms of depth) Binghamton squad.

Brown called it "ridiculous" and said he's never seen that type of disparity in rebounding from one of his teams.

“To me, you can take all the technique in the world and throw it in the garbage, rebounding is toughness and you need to be a ball-getter,” Brown said.

Brown was so disappointed that he said his veterans weren't leading and that his best leader is sophomore Billy Allen.

The Great Danes have a lot to work on before Sunday's game against Vermont.

On the other end, not a lot was expected from the Bearcats, who lost six players, including Troy're Emanuel Mayben after an offseason full of turmoil that left the defending conference champions a shell of their former selves.

While they picked up a victory, interim coach Mark Macon stopped short of calling it a statement game.

“It’s only one game,” Macon said. “We play to win one game at a time.”

Macon said it was a good game and he seemed happy to come out with the win.

“They didn’t make shots today, we did,” he said. “They’re a good team, we just, today, did some things better.”

I really liked what Greer Wright brought to the table for Binghamton.

The junior college transfer is long and lean and even handled the ball.

He finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and seven turnovers (way too many).

Mahamoud Jabbi added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Bearcats and Chretien Lukusa, the team's only returning starter from last year, had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Scotty McRae added seven points and 11 rebounds for UAlbany, but shot just 1-for-9 from the field.

University at Albany men's basketball coach Will Brown announced the hiring of former player Brent Wilson ('08) as the team's director of operations.

Wilson will take over for Ken Dagostino, who left two weeks ago to become the head coach at Hudson Valley Community College.

Wilson was a two-time captain for the Great Danes and a former America East all-conference selection.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa native is 16th on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,178 points, 14th in career rebounds (596), third in career 3-point field goals (229) and first in charges taken (that's not an official statistic).

Wilson certainly knows that program and that should help Brown and the rest of his staff because the season is right around the corner.

The final score was Gold (Black) 46, Purple (White) 37.

Here's the scorers...
Gold
Jimmie Covington 2
Brian Connelly 9
Will Harris 14
Anthony Raffa 14
Jerel Hastings 4
Scotty McRae 3

Purple
Brett Gifford 2
Michael Johnson 10
Tim Ambrose 8
Billy Allen 12
Louis Barraza 3
Jake Lindfors 2

Logan Aaronholt - DNP (Coach Brown thinks he should be back practicing by Nov. 13 after breaking a bone in his foot)

Here was Coach Will Brown's first reactions..

"Usually these things become glorified pick-up games and teams just try to outscore each other and make it like a NBA All-Star game, where there's no defense played, keep the fans happy," Brown said. "I thought for a Purple-Gold scrimmage, in front of these people for the first time, I thought they did a pretty good job of sharing the basketball, playing some defense and playing pretty hard."

Here's what I was thought.....

I was really impressed with Raffa's ability to run the point. His explosiveness is certainly something that will help this team and he had a ton of energy. He seemed fine after coming out of the game in the second half after he smacked his mouth on the floor when he got bumped on the way up for a lay-in.

I was doubly impressed with Harris' ability to score the ball from the perimeter. He made three 3-pointers and shot the ball very well. He didn't get inside like I thought he would, but this quote from Brown might explain why.

"He's a solid three-point shooter," Brown said. "Right now, he's probably at 50 percent, conditioning wise, so for him to get through the scrimmage was a good thing."

I think the way Allen stepped up will also be of great benefit to the team. He hit two 3-pointers and shot the ball well. After not playing at all last year, his presence could really be a boost.

"I think it helped Billy having a year under his belt, where he got to sit and watch," Brown said.

Coach Brown was also impressed with Covington, who only scored two, but was "active."

"I think a lot of that has to do with the mindset that (Al) Turley's not here and he's going to have an opportunity," Brown said.

"Last year, everybody rebounded," Covington said. "I want to be more active and get my hands on the ball."

Covington said he's excited for the team's second game, his return to the Chicago area, to take on DePaul (Nov.17). He mentioned that he will have plenty of friends and family there and has played AAU against some of the DePaul players.

Brown said they plan on using Harris like they used Brian Lillis last season, to give other teams matchup problems.

Here was how he summed things up.

"We have so many more guys that can put the ball in the basket from a year ago," Brown said. "Last year, we had to defend and rebound at a high level every night or we had no shot to win. This year, I think because we have a variety of guys who can put the ball in the basket, hopefully it makes life a little bit easier for us."

One other note, the Alumni game took place beforehand and it was good to see familar faces like Jon Iati and Brent Wilson return.

Iati is currently working with the Quinnipiac basketball team and from what I heard in the stands Wilson, who is a father now, is working in Westchester with Green Mountain Coffee.

The quote of the Alumni game came midway through the first half, when Wilson said...

"Got a media timeout coming?"

All of the Alumni played well and I had a chance to talk to Andre Duncan '98 for our news side and he was great to talk to and will be featured in our "5 Questions" segment on Page 2 sometime in the coming week.