One-Bid Wonders

Mike Black spent most of the first three years of his career out of the spotlight, taking a back seat and second billing behind one flavor-of-the-month teammate after another. On Tuesday night, the senior point guard took center stage and stole the show.

Black scored a game-high 22 points, the last of which came on a heavily contested lay-up with 3.7 seconds left, as the Albany Great Danes shocked Washington on its own floor, 63-62.

“This is awesome,” Albany head coach Will Brown said in a post-game radio interview. “We played so hard, man. I can’t tell you how proud I am. Nobody thought we had a chance to win this game.”

The win over the defending Pac-12 regular season champions was the first win over a BCS opponent and the biggest regular season win in program history. It was also the 150th Division-I win of Brown’s coaching career. It was a signature win for the Great Danes and the America East Conference, both of which have taken it on the chin during recent seasons.

“It’s my 150th win?” said Brown. “Maybe they’ll give me a raise and an extension. I’ll remember it. We beat a Pac-12 team for my 150th win. I just have to thank those guys for it. I’ve had some great players and some really good teams. Hopefully I’m around to get to 200.”

Black has spent the first three years of his career seeing teammates – Will Harris, Tim Ambrose, Logan Aronhalt and Gerardo Suero – billed as “The Man,” and the program’s best player. If it wasn’t already apparent after last season – a season in which he averaged 13.4 points and 4.3 assists, and emerged as the clear-cut best point guard in the league – it’s now impossible to ignore that the diminutive six-foot senior is the Great Danes’ best player, and quite possibly the best in the league.

Black scored 20 points against fourth-ranked Ohio State in a 82-60 loss on Sunday, and followed it up by scoring 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting Tuesday, while also pacing the Great Danes with team-highs in assists and rebounds, with six and five, respectively.

Black quarterbacked the Danes’ pick-and-roll offense to perfection all night, scoring most of his points blowing by defenders, leaving the bigger Huskies in his dust. The senior closed out both halves with buckets off of slashing drives to the hoop. The first gave the Great Danes a 31-27 lead going into the intermission, the second gave them the game. (more…)

Today was a new day for the league: No wins, but better results than yesterday. An AE squad put up a fight against the fourth ranked team in the country. A team that didn’t show a mark of improvement all season long last year needed just one game to make a step in the right direction under a new coach.

Oh, and the reigning regular season champion – a team expected to compete for a league title – massacred a Division-III school. Perhaps they’d like a cookie for it? Maybe a juice box?

#4 Ohio State 82, Albany 60
This game was actually closer than the final score indicates. The Danes performed as admirably as any America East squad could hope to on the road against fourth-ranked Ohio State, and even won the rebounding battle, 29-28, against the bigger, faster, and stronger Buckeyes.

Mike Black continues to look like a conference Player of the Year candidate. The senior point guard scored 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, committed just one turnover, and looked like he belonged on the court every bit as much as anyone on the national title contenders. Jacob Iati scored 13 points, Sam Rowley added seven on 3-of-4 shooting, and John Puk pulled down seven rebounds.

OBW America East Player of the Game
Mike Black, Sr., G, Albany: 20 Pts, 7-of-13 shooting, 1 Ast

Brown 58, Binghamton 49
Brown isn’t supposed to be particularly good in the Ivy League, but this was a marked improvement from Binghamton’s season opener.

The Bearcats were anything but an offensive juggernaut, but they looked more comfortable moving without the ball, got offense moving towards the hoop on dribble penetration and back-cuts, and got the ball to open shooters on the perimeter.

First-year JuCo point guard Rayner Moquete scored 14 points on 4-of-9 shooting from deep. Senior forward Taylor Johnson, drastically under-utilized by the previous coaching regime, scored 14 points, going 4-of-6 from behind the arc, while pulling down seven rebounds.

Binghamton is still far from a finished product – or competent basketball team – and the Bearcats seem to simply not have the talent to be much of a threat, but they’re already making baby-steps, which is more than they did in three years under Mark Macon.

After the Bearcats program was felled by the biggest scandal in America East history, and its fall from grace was capped with last seasons 2-29 atrocity, its going to be a long road to redemption. New head coach Tommy Dempsey is appears to have them headed in the right direction.

OBW America East Player of the Game:
Taylor Johnson, Sr., F, Binghamton: 14 Pts, 7 Reb, 4-of-6 3-Pt

Stony Brook 93, Mt. Ida 57
The Seawolves are supposed to be one of the conference heavyweights, and compete for the NCAA berth that has thus far eluded the program. They opened their home slate curb-stomping a bad Division III team. Wow, that’s special. Cue Ralph Wiggum

When looking ahead and projecting the upcoming season, we always look at the prospective stars of each team. It’s only natural – they are the go-to-guys, the players who take center stage when the lights are the brightest, the ones who can put the team on their backs and carry them when the chips are down.

Yet in the good-enough-on-guts America East, examples of a lone star player single-handedly carrying a team to a championship without big contributions from role players and supporting cast are almost non-existent.

Guys like Jose Juan Barea and Kenny Adeleke, tremendous individual talents who went it alone without cohesive team chemistry and a good supporting cast, never won a thing.

For all of their heroics, Taylor Coppenrath and T.J. Sorrentine had the likes of super role players Grant Anderson, David Hehn and the immortal Germain Mopa-Njila doing the little things. Jamar Wilson had Levi Levine, Lucious Jordan, and Brent Wilson to do the dirty work. Chaz Carr and Billy Collins had Stijn Dhondt setting bone crushing screens and Ryan Butt battling it out in the paint. Marqus Blakely could pass out of the double team to a perfectly positioned Evan Fjeld for easy buckets, or rely on Joey Accaoui to bury the three.

The America East has always been a league where hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. With fewer true stars and less high-level talent returning to the league than any other time prior in conference history, now more than ever, the conference title may be decided by the supporting cast.

Here is a look at our X-Men: the “X-Factors” – unknown or unproven players flying under the radar who could play a big role in the success or failure of each of the nine America East squads. (more…)

When the fourth round of the NBA Developmental League Draft commenced, the professional career of former Boston University Guard Darryl Partin officially began.

Partin, the 2012 America East Player of the Year (as voted by the coaches), was taken by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with the first pick of the fourth round.

Partin began his career in the Atlantic 10, playing two seasons for the La Salle Explorers before transferring to BU. In his two seasons on Commonwealth Avenue, Partin scored over 1,000 points, was twice named to the All-Conference First Team (he was selected to the One-Bid Wonders second team both seasons), and helped lead the Terriers to the America East Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament in 2011.

During his senior year, Partin averaged 19.6 points per game, good for second in the conference and 23rd in the nation. Equal parts dominant scorer and offensive black hole, the 6’5” Partin was a shoot first, second, and third type of scoring guard, capable of shooting BU both into, and out of, games.

The D-League is branded as the official minor league of the NBA, and touts the number of alums annually called up to fill rosters in The League [87 was the count last season]. The Mad Ants are the minor league affiliate of Charlotte Bobcats, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks. (more…)

Today was Media Day in the America East. Coaches and athletic personnel from every team converged on SEFCU Arena in Albany for the league luncheon, meet-and-greet, and lots and lots of press conferences to kick off the 2012-2013 season.

It was on Albany’s home court – the site of the 2013 America East Tournament – that the official Preseason Coaches’ Poll was unveiled, revealing the predicted standings of the nine America East schools as voted on by the league coaches, as well as the preseason All-Conference selections.

There is always some gamesmanship that goes into the picks (acknowledging upperclassmen, nods of respect coaches – both accomplished and on the hot seat – and even some general ribbing), so they should be taken with a grain of salt (just take a look at the number of years in a row that BU was tabbed first).

Without revealing OBW’s own preseason predictions, which will be published in the near future, here is Sam Perkins’ breakdown of the nine America East teams in ascending order of how the coaches’ selected them. (more…)

(Albany, New York) – The Albany Great Danes lost a graduate assistant but gained a gunslinger, as Jacob Iati has decided to return to the court for his final year of eligibility.

Iati, who played his freshman season at High Point before transferring to Albany (and following in the footsteps of his older brother, former Great Danes long-bomber Jon), graduated this season with a degree in Business Administration.

Iati spent most of his first two seasons in Albany on the end of the bench; averaging under five points per game during that span.

Pressed into starting action down the stretch, Iati exploded in his first extended playing time, scoring a ten career-high 20 points against Rider on February 18th, only to surpass that point total one game later with 22 in a road win at Binghamton on February 23rd.

Despite his offensive eruption and a year remaining of eligibility, Iati was honored as the lone graduating ‘Dane on senior night, and had already agreed to join head coach Will Brown’s staff as a graduate assistant next season.

Iati once again set a new career mark with 23 points on 7 3’s in Albany’s 89-79 loss to Manhattan in the CIT tournament on March 14th, but publicly, his future still remained unclear.

Privately, the wheels were already in motion as Brown met several times with Iati in attempts to convince the best pure shooter in the program to return.

On Monday, it became official, as Brown tweeted “I hired Jacob Iati as our GA for next year and already fired him! Welcome back to the team Jacob! #opportunity”

If a game is played in the fourth-ranked post-season tournament and no one is there to watch it, was it ever played at all?

Attendance, venue, or title didn’t matter to Albany head coach Will Brown, who announced following Albany’s semi-final loss in the America East Tournament to Stony Brook (a loss which dashed the Great Danes NCAA hopes), that the Great Danes would play anywhere in order to keep their season going.

“We’d play in a CYO League, we’ll play in an intramural tournament,” he said at the time, before adding “We’ll go play you and four other members of the media in the parking lot.”

Brown got his wish with a CIT tournament invite, and the injured Great Danes played hard, before succumbing to the trademarks of their season.

There was another America East game played Wednesday night – in addition to the Catamounts “First Four” NCAA Tournament win – although, going by attendance numbers, few fans realized it.

In front of a season-low home crowd of 458 fans, the Great Danes season came to an end in the high-scoring, zero-defense, injury-riddled fashion that defined their season. Albany fell at home 89-79 to Manhattan in the “pay-to-play” CIT.

The Great Danes did, however, show reason for fans to remain excited for next season.

“I think we will be good next year,” said Albany head coach Will Brown following the loss.

All season, the Achilles-heel of the Great Danes – a juggernaut on the offensive end – was their defense. In the last game of the season, the ‘Danes D – or lack thereof – was once again the story, as Albany allowed the Jaspers to shoot an aneurysm-inducing .625 (35-56) from the floor. Manhattan also dished out 23 assists.

Five Great Danes reached double figures. Playing in what was supposed to be the final game of his career, Jacob Iati went out guns-a-blazing, scoring a career-high 23 points on 8-14 shooting, 7-12 from downtown. Leading scorer Gerardo Suero pitched in 18 points, point guard Mike Black added 14 and forwards Jayson Gurrier and Sam Rowley chipped in 10 points apiece. Rowley pulled down a game-high 8 rebounds (more…)

(West Hartford, CT) — With regulation about to draw to a close, Stony Brook sophomore guard Dave Coley faced the Albany Great Danes’ defense, searching for a point of weakness. The Chase Arena crowd was at a fever pitch after Albany’s Jacob Iati hit what threatened to be a soul-crushing 3-pointer to draw his team level with 37 seconds remaining. Even after more than 39 minutes of all-out effort, the Danes’ energy and alertness was formidable. No path to the basket emerged. Coley had to settle for a jumper, which missed. As the ball headed skyward, then downward, the audience began to exhale and prepare for overtime.

And then, in the blink of an eye, the ball rose back up and fell through the cylinder, and Albany’s season was over.

Stony Brook forward Tommy Brenton had gotten a hand to the basketball – while his tip was not enough to direct the ball in the right direction, its new trajectory brought it to the hand of another Seawolf forward, senior Dallis Joyner, who rose up among a crowd of purple and white jerseys for the tip-in as time expired, giving top-seeded Stony Brook a 57-55 victory over No. 4 Albany.

“That was a pass from me to Dallis,” Brenton deadpanned.

“Coach drew it up for Dave to get a shot up and when I tipped it I didn’t think it would count because I heard the horn go off for the shot clock. But when I went up I still saw time running off the game clock and I knew it was good,” said Joyner.

Thirty-seven seconds earlier, the Great Danes had run a picture-perfect execution of a collapsing double-screen to spring 5’8″ guard Jacob Iati for a game-tying three. (more…)

(West Hartford, CT) — As Albany head coach Will Brown approached the podium, a question rang out.

“Coach, how many points did you score in your career compared to what Suero scored tonight?” sniped one intrepid member of the media, referencing the 24 points Brown’s star wing, Gerardo Suero, dropped on the Wildcats.

“If I’d have taken as many shots as Suero, I’d be in the basketball Hall of Fame,” said Brown with a wry smile , drawing hearty laughs from Suero, as well as Albany players Mike Black and Blake Metcalf.

Getting into a verbal sparring match with the Great Danes silver-tongued coach is usually akin to bringing a knife to a gunfight, and Brown remains the quickest draw in the America East.

Brown was all smiles following a 63-45 win over New Hampshire in the quarterfinals of the America East Tournament – his first tournament victory in three years. For the first time in a long time, Brown appears to have an on the court arsenal that matches the one he brings to post-game pressers.

More importantly, the Danes finally have the heart and resolve.

“My group has turned into a very resilient group. This is not the group that we expected to have heading into the America east Conference Tournament,” said Brown. “This group has really come together and played some good basketball.”

Brown was all smiles following a 63-45 win over New Hampshire in the quarterfinals of the America East Tournament – his first tournament victory in three years.

“There is not one team in this league that is winning in this tournament without 2 of their top guys playing so for us to win and advance says a lot about the resiliency of our kids.” (more…)

I’ll admit it: I’m a Will Brown guy.

I respect the hell out of what he’s accomplished on the court in his ten years at Albany; turning around the worst program in the country and taking the Danes to back to back NCAA’s. But it’s more than that: The guy is the best quote in the league.

Albany’s head coach since taking over on an interim basis during the 2001-2002 season, Brown currently stands as the longest tenured head coach in the America East, but still hardly looks – or sounds – the part of “elder statesmen.”

The road that took him the youngest head coaches in all of Division I basketball, to present has been a long and winding one to say the least.

Ten years ago, Brown was charged with simply bailing water to try and keep arguably the worst program in all of Division I afloat. During his first few seasons, the Great Danes were handicapped by the 5-and-8 rule (which limited schools to only bringing in 5 scholarship players in one recruiting class and a maximum of 8 over a 2 year span). (more…)