Seawolves Fans

ALBANY (14-17, 7-9 America East)
Last 10: 3-7
Last Game: Vermont 85, Albany 62 on 3/3/20
Last Game with SBU: Stony Brook 52, Albany 49 on 2/29/20; teams combined 11-43 from three; Foreman team-high 16
Checkmate Unofficial Line: Stony Brook -6.5
NET Ranking: Stony Brook 185, Albany 271
KenPom Rating: Stony Brook 184, Albany 283
KenPom Prediction: Stony Brook 71, Albany 61
Listen/Watch:
TV: TBA
Radio: TBA
Notables:
6-1/175 sr G Ahmad Clark 16.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.5 spg, .811 FT%
6-3/190 so G Cameron Healy 13.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg, .344 3-pt FG%, .906 FT%
6-3/195 so G Antonio Rizzuto 7.6 ppg, 1.0 spg, .354 3-pt FG%
6-5/195 fr F Trey Hutcheson 6.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg
6-6/200 so F Malachi de Sousa 6.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg

OK, boys, buckle up. Here's hoping we have three good ones in us over the next week.

The last time these two teams played, they combined for the fewest points in a SBU game since ... the Peter Hooley game. 51-50 Albany. You may remember it. We hadn't won a game with so few points since New Year's Day 2013, a 50-44 thriller at Manhattan.

Let's drop in some trivia real quick: Albany was -0.1 in the rebounding column this year. When was the last time Albany had a negative rebounding margin for a season? Answer below.

One wild card in this thing is senior Romani Hansen, who wasn't much of a factor for the first two-thirds of the season but has really come on. He's been regularly in the high 20s in minutes of late, dropping in a season-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting against us. I'll remind you they scored 49 points as a team. He's got good length, good energy and can knock down the three ball.

I think player for player we have a noticeable edge on UA. We've defended them really well in our series this year. But I still worry about the lights-out game from Healy, Rizzuto or both. Healy in particular has had a difficult sophomore season. He seemed to be the next great shooter in the conference, assuming the spot left by Ernie Duncan, but just hasn't been the same player, fending off a hip and back injury late in the season. He's shot more than 7% worse from 3-point land (.416 to .344) and Brown now has him coming off the bench. Healy hasn't reached double digits in the last seven contests, and it's no coincidence that UA is 1-6 in those games.

He showed he could really really shoot it last year, and has had his moments, namely the 41-point night against Lowell in January where he hit eight threes. We've defended him well, but I'm always worried about an unconscious shooting night. Sessoms, Stewart and Show lit us up in last year's quarters. I'm hoping we can keep UA's shooters at bay. They haven't been good – just .324 as a team, their fourth worst proficiency from deep since 2002 – but you never know.

Make Clark beat you and I'll take our chances. Just too many bad shots and too many turnovers for my liking.

Trivia answer: Tricked you! It was last year. But before that ... the 2003-04 season. Fifteen years of winning the battle of the boards.

Olaniyi's been such a force for us offensively that you forget what he does us on the defensive end. He's yet another athlete who can shadow the ballhandler, get on the boards and handle the ball. I suspect we'll see Latimer-Clark III on Saturday. Olaniyi's effective straight up and on switches – such an asset. Here's hoping his ankle is near 100%.

Let's get four guys in double figures tomorrow – Olaniyi, Foreman, Garcia and a fourth.

I'm confident that we'll emerge with a win, but I wish I was more so. Last year's loss was just so devastating and we've also had desert droughts on the offensive end before. On top of that UA has given us fits before – pushing us around, getting to the line, locking us up defensively. But I dunno ... this just isn't your typical Will Brown team. I think we find a way, and then we're back here on Tuesday night.

All the 'dogs across the AE have to be feeling as good as any collection of 'dogs has ever felt going into Saturday. Even the #8 'dog.

Here's hoping for a solid SBU victory, and craziness everywhere else.

The one clear mismatch on our favor is Gueye on any of their bigs. UA more than happy to have him shoot jump shots.

2 for 14 from three at this point. Miserable.

Credit to Latimer. He’s a really good on-ball defender. Slides his feet, stays on his feet most times, goes straight up when he doesn’t.


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Might have been punitive for the bad reverse layup he tried to pull.

It was a grind but we won . Now to beat Hartford Tuesday night.

Solid win- Healey went nuts in the second half. This Albany team was much better than most 7 seeds

Hartford won't be easy by any means- let's see what happens

Best game in that arena in a long time.

Healy was obviously unbelievable. I do think we played him well in the last four minutes, closing out on threes and forcing him to put the ball on the floor. We can live with him making tough twos (which he did). In particular on the inbounds play late, UA ran him around two or three screens to the corner, and I thought he was going to get an open look. But nope, there was Gueye right in his face. Healy got the layup but at least he didn’t have a shot at tying it.

I thought Latimer was just awesome. Huge shots, including late FTs, and he is an excellent defender.

39 big minutes for Foreman. We had 10 turnovers super early in the game and ended up with 14. He’s taken some flak but he’s had back to back stellar nights. Like him or not, he competed for 36+ minutes a night in conference and helped us stave off a hot-shooting UA team. I’m happy for him. He’s starting to get his mojo back.

Massive effort from Gueye, especially in the first half.

THIRTY FOUR minutes from Elijah. Production aside, he’s such a leader out there. It will be great to have him Tuesday against Hartford.


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Best game in that arena in a long time.

Healy was obviously unbelievable. I do think we played him well in the last four minutes, closing out on threes and forcing him to put the ball on the floor. We can live with him making tough twos (which he did). In particular on the inbounds play late, UA ran him around two or three screens to the corner, and I thought he was going to get an open look. But nope, there was Gueye right in his face. Healy got the layup but at least he didn’t have a shot at tying it.

I thought Latimer was just awesome. Huge shots, including late FTs, and he is an excellent defender.

39 big minutes for Foreman. We had 10 turnovers super early in the game and ended up with 14. He’s taken some flak but he’s had back to back stellar nights. Like him or not, he competed for 36+ minutes a night in conference and helped us stave off a hot-shooting UA team. I’m happy for him. He’s starting to get his mojo back.

Massive effort from Gueye, especially in the first half.

THIRTY FOUR minutes from Elijah. Production aside, he’s such a leader out there. It will be great to have him Tuesday against Hartford.


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Agree with all.   So many things to talk about, but I think you and rest captured it all.  Incredibly entertaining game, where we fought back from 7 point deficits several times and persevered.  Really pumped for Hartford.