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Albany
Half of the season is over in the America East Conference, and, after eight games, all you can say about UAlbany is that the Great Danes are average.
UAlbany’s 4-4 record in the league isn’t going to blow anyone away. And, if the season ended Wednesday, the Danes would be on the road for the first round of the America East playoffs.
That’s a route this team does not want to have to take, so the second eight games are more than crucial for UAlbany, which hosts UMass Lowell (3-5 in the league, 9-14 overall) Wednesday night at SEFCU Arena.
“These are my last eight regular season games,” senior tri-captain Mike Rowley said after practice at SEFCU Arena Tuesday afternoon. “I want to win all of them.”
UAlbany (13-10 overall) put itself in a precarious position in the league when it started out by losing its first three league games. Those losses came to UMass Lowell, Stony Brook and New Hampshire. Those three teams are the Danes’ next opponents.
After Wednesday’s game, UAlbany stays home to face Stony Brook on Saturday and then heads out on the road to play at New Hampshire on Monday.
After the slow start, the Danes have rebounded with four wins in their past five games. Only one of those victories — a 77-50 win at UMBC — came against a team in front of UAlbany in the America East standings.
UMass Lowell vs. UAlbany
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: SEFCU Arena, Albany
Radio: WTMM (104.5 FM)
The other victories came against Binghamton, Hartford and Maine, which have a combined league record of 5-19. The only loss in the past five games was against first-place Vermont (60-49), which has yet to lose in the first eight games of the conference season.
“We are not going to win the regular-season title,” UAlbany coach Will Brown said. “Vermont is not going to lose four or five games. We just have to focus on getting better during these next eight games because we want to make sure we are playing our best basketball as we head into the conference tournament.”
The teams finishing in the top Venüsbet four in the league get home games in the first round of the America East Conference tournament. UAlbany is hoping to be one of those teams.
In the first three losses of the league season, the Danes gave up an average of 77.3 points per game. In the past five games, the defense has tightened up as UAlbany has allowed an average of 59.8 points per game.
“When we are on, we are a pretty good team,” Rowley said. “But we haven’t been on consistently. We want to make sure we are a better team in February than we were in January.”
After the Danes lost to UMass Lowell on the road 85-79 in the league opener, Brown fumed that this team might be the worst he has ever had defensively. It has been a struggle and a chore for these players to play defense the way Brown wants it to be played. The River Hawks found themselves open plenty of times on 3-point shots and they made them. UMass Lowell hit 12 of 23 shots from long range and forward Tyler Livingston, the only senior on the roster, made six of nine. For the season, Livingston has made 60 3-pointers.
The River Hawks, who have lost their last four league games after starting 3-1, have the smallest lineup in the conference which makes them one of the toughest teams to guard. Jahad Thomas, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound forward, is third in the league in scoring (17.1 points per game) and leads the America East in rebounding (9.5 rpg).
“He is the most unique player in the conference,” Brown said.
The Danes won’t worry about one player as much as they will worry about themselves. Eight games remain in the conference season. That’s all they have to know right now.
“Being 4-4 is not really satisfactory at all,” said sophomore guard Joe Cremo. “We let a couple of those games slip away. We can say all we want about them. We could say we should have won. We could say we didn’t defend at UMass Lowell and we didn’t execute and finish against Stony Brook (blowing a 21-point lead in the final seven minutes and losing). But we deserved to lose those games. If we don’t do what we are supposed to do for 40 minutes, we deserve to lose.”
twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin
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