Mike Long will be the next head men's basketball coach at Hudson Valley Community College.

Long was most recently an assistant coach for Brian Beaury at The College of Saint Rose, but has been coaching basketball for four decades.

"Mike Long is a great choice to take over as the next head men's basketball coach at Hudson Valley Community College," Beaury said. "He is a man with great values and impeccable integrity whose only flaw is he's loyal to a fault."

Long replaces Ken Dagostino, who left in June to take a position at Ave Maria, in Florida.

Long, who has three Hall of Fame inductions, has coached at Saint Rose, Sage College, Christian Brothers Academy and Siena, his alma mater, where he was the JV coach.

The basketball court at Saint Rose is named after him, as he is considered the father of Saint Rose basketball.

"We have chosen an individual to lead our program whose basketball successes and accolades are prolific," said Hudson Valley Community College Director of Athletics Kristan Pelletier. "Throughout these successes and tenures of excellence, he has demonstrated his ability and commitment to instill character and values in student-athletes. The members of our men's basketball program will be better athletes, better students, and most importantly better men after playing for Coach Long."

We are off and running for the college basketball season.

Below are links from stories that appeared in Saturday's paper. 

Free-throw shooting dooms Siena

Siena's first-year coach Ali Jaques wins debut

Troy High's Javion Ogunyemi says the winner is...Siena

UAlbany makes clutch plays down the stretch to win opener

Saint Rose coach Brian Beaury vows Knights will be better

It was a weird day today for many different reasons.

First off, the unfortunate incident with the Albany River Rats bus getting into an accident on Interstate 90 early Thursday morning.

"My heart goes out to the River Rats family," said Siena coach Fran McCaffery at his weekly luncheon. "So many times we are in that same boat."

With all the travel college teams due, both McCaffery and Siena women's coach Gina Castelli understood how frightening that could be, especially since they are in a guardian type role with regards to their student-athletes.

"Even when our assistants are recruiting, we’re often on the Mass Pike and that’s a dangerous place because you can’t see the ice," Castelli said.

McCaffery says he's had the same bus driver for every trip and that's something that is very important to him.

"It’s one thing I have always been an absolute stickler about - we have the same bus driver," McCaffery said.

He went on to say that their driver, Willy Wakefield "is as big a part of the Siena basketball program as anybody."

Then, I got into work and saw that Saint Rose senior captain Evan Lane had been kicked off the basketball team.

I've had the chance to speak with Evan a couple of times over the past two years and he has always seemed like a hard-working kid, who gives 100 percent.

I've also been able to speak with coach Brian Beaury on many of occasions and I'm sure he's making the correct decision or at least the necessary one.

On top of that, I did my first spring sports story on the UAlbany lacrosse team (who I guess didn't get the message that it's still 25 degrees out) for Friday's paper edition.

Also, I was at Siena to do something for the paper on the team winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title last night due to Rider's victory over Niagara.

All in all it was one of the stranger days I've seen since I've been in the business.

Okay I know it's a day after Christmas, but The Blog has decided tonight (it's the sixth night of Chanukkah) to give out some gifts.

Siena senior Kenny Hasbrouck - a 2007-08 Siena highlight tape and a bottle of aspirin. Hasbrouck has struggled more than anybody thought he would so far this season. Maybe watching some clips from last year, when he completely dominated the opposition, including a 30-point performance in the big NCAA Tournament victory over Vanderbilt, will settle him back down. As for the aspirin, Hasbrouck has seen more double teams this season than LeBron James and been the focus of opposing team's defense. His health is certainly a concern as the season progresses.

UAlbany freshman guard Anthony Raffa - full body pads. The way Raffa has played the first 12 games of his college career, he'll be lucky to make it through four seasons. Although, the way Raffa plays is energizing and great for the Danes, he's already slammed into more scorers tables than I'm sure UAlbany coach Will Brown would like.

Speaking of Brown, The Blog would like to give Brown a pat on the back for taking his team which had plenty of talent, but little experience coming in and getting out to the best start in the program's Division I history at 8-4. The Great Danes only losses have come to Siena (6-4), Villanova (11-1), DePaul (7-5) and what ended up being a bad loss to a good team in Lehigh (7-3).

Siena junior Ronald Moore - some respect. Moore is part of the "Big Four" for the Saints, but failed to be named to the All-MAAC First, Second or Third teams. Moore just moved into sixth in program history in assists (394) and he's scored over 600 points (609), to average more than eight points per game over his career. He was also nominated for the Bob Cousy award, given to the country's best point guard.

UAlbany junior Will Harris - an NCAA waiver. Okay, Harris got this back in October, but it allowed him to jump right into action with the Great Danes. While he hasn't been as good as expected or hyped to be so far (10.3 points, 4.6 rebounds per game), he has given a youthful UAlbany team a solid starter and someone who has the potential to be one of the best players in the America East Conference.

Siena juinor Edwin Ubiles - an electric razor and scissors. Ubiles didn't start against UAlbany because he was getting a haircut and thought the morning shoot-around began 30 minutes later than it actually did. With a razor, Ubiles won't have to miss any more starts - although Ubiles did score a game-high 23 points off the bench in that game.

UAlbany sophomore Tim Ambrose - a giant poster on the side of SEFCU Arena with his picture on it. What? There's already one of those - okay well how about the ability to outrebound men twice his size. What? He's UAlbany's leading rebounder. Okay I give up.

Siena freshmen Kyle Downey and Owen Wignot - some playing time. Downey and Wignot have been excellent in games, but some times that can't hit even reach the floor. Downey is averaging 4.0 points and 1.4 rebounds in 9.7 minutes, while Wignot is averaging 2.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 11 minutes per game. Both have made freshman mistakes at times, but both have performed like veterans at others. Downey scored 11 points against #3 Pitt, while Wignot scored eight in his collegiate debut against Boise State.

UAlbany Sports Information Director Brian DePasquale - a sweater. Since the state of New York has decided to try and save some money while the student are on break, DePasquale is suffering through a 55-degree office over the winter vacation. Could be worse though, The Blog's house (okay just the first floor) is set at 60 degrees to save money as well.

Siena coach Fran McCaffery - stress relievers. McCaffery's team was receiving Top 25 votes early in the season and even though sophomore Ryan Rossiter had turned it on and the freshmen have been great, the team has struggled in the big games. It only gets tougher for McCaffery as his team gets into league play because they are the unanimous pick to repeat as champions and with the team he's got, anything less will be looked at as a lost year.

Saint Rose men's basketball coach Brian Beaury - a fifth year of eligibility for Steve Dagostino. The Golden Knights are 3-6 this season and off to a slow start after the graduation of Dagostino, Will Monica and Shanty Robinson. Beaury is 493-195 (.717) in 24 seasons on Western Ave., but his team this year is being led by junior Jermaine Clark and Cambridge native Shea Bromirski. Still, Beaury would love to have back Dagostino, who is playing professionally in Hungary.

Hudson Valley Community College coach Andre Cook - some credit. Cook's teams are 47-3 over their last 50 games dating back to the 2006-07 season, including a 29-0 regular season in 2007-08 and the nation's top ranking so far in 2008-09. Cook's record is 99-36 (.733) in this, his fifth season at the helm.

Hope everyone got what they wanted.

Here's to a great start to 2009.