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2016-17 UAlbany Men’s Basketball Preview

With the 2016-17 University at Albany Great Danes Men’s Basketball season kicking off tonight at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania, when the Danes take on Penn State in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament, I take a look into this years squad full of newcomers and the high expectations for this year.UAlbany is looking to continue its streak of five straight years in a postseason tournament, after they went 24-9, 13-3 in conference, and received a berth in the College Basketball Invitational last season.

The Danes lost in the America East Quarterfinal last season at home against Hartford, a shocking upset that ended their run of three straight America East Championships. The season ended two weeks later, when the Danes lost in the first round of the CBI in overtime at Ohio.

UAlbany is looking to continue its streak of five straight years in a postseason tournament, after they went 24-9, 13-3 in conference, and received a berth in the College Basketball Invitational last season. The Danes lost in the America East Quarterfinal last season at home against Hartford, a shocking upset that ended their run of three straight America East Championships. The season ended two weeks later, when the Danes lost in the first round of the CBI in overtime at Ohio.

Roster

More losses would come following those back-to-back losses, only the second time the Danes lost back-to-backs last year, as UAlbany graduated all-conference guards Peter Hooley, Ray Sanders, and Evan Singletary, leaving a big hole the Danes will be looking to fill this season, which will be led by Scotia-Glenville grad and UAlbany sophomore Joe Cremo.

Cremo, the reigning conference Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year, will now be catapulted from the first scoring option off the bench to the first scoring option in the starting lineup as the leading returning scorer on this year’s team. And with that new role, he’ll now be tasked with facing the opposing defenses best perimeter defender, something he didn’t face last year with Hooley, Sanders, and Singletary on the roster. Cremo is also looking to live up to the expectations of being placed on the Preseason All-Conference Team, the lone sophomore selected.

Who will fill Singletary and Sanders starting lineups spots will be more of a question, expected to be filled by returners David Nichols and Dallas Ennema. Nichols was impressive in the recent Purple-Gold scrimmage, filling the basket up with 26 points and looking more chiseled than last year, in a year where Head Coach Will Brown said he learned to compete everyday going up against Singletary in practice. Since Nichols loves to shoot the ball, Brown also expects Nichols to see a lot of time off the ball this season. Brown was quick to complement Nichols, saying there was “no doubt” he’s improved since last season. Newcomer Junior Marqueese Grayson seems to be the clear backup, after he averaged 4.2 assists per game at Gillette College at Wyoming last season. Grayson could even get a starting spot after a terrific preseason. His 13.6 points and 5.7 rebounds also helped lead the Pronghorns to a #4 national ranking and the NJCAA Third Place Game and 35-2 record as a sophomore. Costa Anderson, a junior transfer from Northern Oklahoma College, could also be a key contributor off the bench due to his shooting ability, in which he made 95 three-point field goals last season, leading to his nod as the team’s Offensive Player of the Year and an All-American selection. Jamir Andrews also returns for his senior campaign, looking to improve off the 7 minute per game he received last year, and Albany Academy grad Nick Fruscio also joins this year’s team as a walk-on.  Xavier Cochran, an incoming sophomore, was also supposed to compete for minutes in the backcourt but is out for the year after tearing his labrum in his hip during the preseason.

Ennema will look to get a consistent starting spot this year after getting only 16 starts his first three years in the program, all coming his sophomore year mainly during the absence of Peter Hooley. Another newcomer, in sophomore Devonte Campbell, could also see impressive minutes backing up Ennema. The 6’6, 225-pound forward has a reputation for being highly physical but also can get to the basket and plays with some finesse. He shot 36.6% from three last season and 54% overall from the field during his freshman campaign. A downfall of Campbell is he could be nice to a fault, Brown said, so in a tough, hard nosed league, it will be interesting to see how Campbell responds in his first year.

While new roles and new players will shift a lot of players around in the backcourt and leaves some uncertainty, the frontcourt could be the strength of this team, the place that has been unreliable in the past. The Danes return Mike Rowley and Greig Stire, who combined to start 65 of 66 game last year, and also bring back a healthy Travis Charles, who missed all but nine games last year with a heart condition. Big things are also expected from big man Jaraan Lands, who averaged 16.1 points and 8.6 rebounds over two years at Eastern Arizona Community College and has the ability to be a “man-child” as Brown tabbed him at this level. However, after battling a hamstring issue earlier in the preseason, he could be limited early on as the Danes would rather play it on the safe side with him. Junior Terrel Martin-Garcia will also look to get some minutes off the bench this year once an NCAA eligibility issue with his high school graduation in England gets cleared. The status of his eligibility is currently unknown.

Schedule

With 31 games on the regular season schedule this season, the Danes have a high chance of surpassing the 20-win mark once again. The Danes begin the season with four of their first five games in the Tip-Off Tournament, and the first of two at campus sites. The back end won’t be much easier than the opener tonight, with the next game coming at Cincinnati on Monday.  The Danes will have their home opener on Wednesday, November 16th, a match against Division III Oneonta, with the final two games of the Tip-Off Tournament against Grand Canyon and Brown, respectively, at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut next weekend. Rounding out November will be two more tough matchups against Northeast opponents. The first of the two will be the highly hyped Albany Cup, the first time crosstown rival Siena will travel to the SEFCU Arena for one of the biggest rivalries in mid-major Division I on November 27th. Three days later, Holy Cross visits Albany on the 30th as the Crusaders look to avenge an overtime loss the Danes took on the Crusaders home court last season.

Albany begins December with a visit to Yale on Saturday the 3rd. They return home on the 7th to face off with their second MAAC opponent of the year, the Marist Red Foxes. The Danes then play two games in three days, traveling to Colgate on the 10th and Canisius on the 12th. Albany returns home for their second and final home game of the month on the 17th against St. Francis Brooklyn, and round out the month traveling to Dallas to face SMU on the 20th and heading to New York City on the 30th to match with Columbia before they end their non-conference schedule on January 2nd at home against Cornell.

In conference, the Danes begin with a pair of challenging matchups at UMass-Lowell and Stony Brook, two teams picked in the bottom of the conference poll but have not been easy road games for the Danes in recent years. Albany opens their home conference schedule against New Hampshire, another team that has provided the Danes trouble both home and away and a possible contender for an America East title this year. UAlbany then hits a soft spot in their conference schedule, going on the road to face UMBC before home games against Binghamton and Maine. The preseason pick to win the conference, Vermont, follows with a visit to SEFCU Arena before UAlbany heads to Hartford to round out the month of January.

Albany hosts UMass-Lowell on the first day of February, and then has a tough two game in three day stretch with Albany hosting Stony Brook for the Big Purple Growl on the 4th and a visit to Durham and New Hampshire on the 6th to finish a challenging first week. Albany is on the road for three of the next four games, at Binghamton, home against UMBC, followed by the dreaded Maine trip followed by the visit to Patrick Gym and Vermont, before they finish the season at home against Hartford before the America East Tournament.

Expectations 

Outside expectations are understandably high for the team this year as the team looks for its sixth straight 19+ win season and with Cremo being named to the Preseason All-Conference team and a lot of positive talk coming out of the program about the seven newcomers. I expect Albany to win 19-21 games again this season to go with an America East title run and a possible NCAA Tournament bid in March. Expect Cremo to have a big year after his impressive freshman year off the bench, and Nichols to have a breakout year whether playing on or off the ball after showing sprints of his abilities in his limited time last year. With the big size Lands brings with his impressive numbers during his JUCO years to go with the expectations Brown has for Charles paired with the returns of Rowley and Stire, the frontcourt will be facing high expectations for this season- and expect them to live up to them. Nevertheless, whatever happens this season, there is no doubt the Danes will be fun to watch this season.

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