The Will Brown Dilemma
Time to call in the Medicine Man for Black's ankle? (UAlbany Sports)
The Will Brown Dilemma: I finally understood it when I saw it in person. He needs to keep Logan and Ambrose on the floor at the same time or else UAlbany cannot score. He needs two big men. Then he needs a point guard, Iati or Watts, to bring the ball up or else against the press, the ball will be turned over so frequently that we’d hand the other team the game. So Brown is almost forced to go with a defenseless perimeter, Iati looks like a JV player trying to D up, because the alternative is even more painful. Turnovers or poor defense, pick your poison. How the return of Mike Black can solve this: Black can play the point and will allow the Great Danes to score without needing bothAmbrose and Logan on the floor together. This will allow Will to plug in Russell Moore, the perimeter defender we desperately need, without burying our offensive production.
No Bad Taste: A twenty point loss usually leaves you with a horrible taste in your mouth, but not this game. UAlbany actually played a good offensive game. 50% from the field, 46% from three and only 11 turnovers… it was a fluid offensive game led by another strong showing by Logan Aronhalt with 25 points. Albany posted an offensive efficiency of 107…the problem was Iona posted an outrageous efficiency of 142.
30 great seconds of defense: Iona again and again went deep into the shot clock and then broke down Albany’s defense for wide open look. Machado got past the first layer of defense at will, and then he either found a cutter for a layup, or a wide open three. Either sagging too much on the shooters or playing to tight, Albany got burned. They kept Glover and Machado from exploding, but at the extent of giving wide open looks the Smyth and Jenkins- it’s no surprise Machado dropped 15 dimes.
Play of the Game: Or at least, most typifying. Lindfors dribbles to the left elbow towards Logan, Iona overplays and Logan makes a beautiful back door cut, nice bounce pass, nobody anywhere near the hoops…. and Logan blows the jams. All night, a lot of the pieces seem to be in place, but the result left a lot to be desired.
Hack-the-Living-Hell-Out-of-Glover Plan: I noted that Glover twice took 15 foul shots, but I overlooked the fact that Iona lost both those games. It was a good strategy! Yes, it was nice having a big body in Metcalf on the floor, but not so nice when he’s letting layups and dunk take place over his shoulder. Hack them! Puk took this strategy to the extreme, 3 fouls in the first minute and fifteen seconds of the second half, but hey, it disrupted their rhythm and they didn’t score. We cannot give up easy lay-ups.
Tim Ambrose played an exceptional game, those beautiful soft bank shots, a couple good drives to the hoop, and a few “how did he do that?!?” athletic plays. He had an incredible offensive rebounding sandwiched between to big men and he jumped after then, and he still came up with the rebound and got the put back. He had the most ridiculous reverse layup I’ve ever seen- he got caught in the air and had to spin it off the top right and corner and it swished in. Then on the back end of a scramble, Glover was cruising in for an easy layup and Ambrose came flying out of nowhere for a great swat…but then in the last few minutes when the game was out of reach, he made two just mind numbing errors. He drove into two big men and forced up a floater when Devlin was wide open to his side and then drove in, had nothing, and just half heartedly flipped it towards the hoop. huh?
Luke Devlin is a contributor: I’m not sure if he’ll turn into a big scorer, but he makes good things happens. He had a good defensive position, is around the hoop, works hard the entire time he is on the floor, keeps the ball alive, helped break the press. His face is always flushed and I worry about 30+ minute games taking a toll on his body by the end of the year, but he’s the best option we have at the four. Now if he starts making shots…
Purple and Gold Nation 