And they're off!!

Albany boarded a bus around 11:00 this morning for Philadelphia in preparation for their game vs. UConn, which will be at 7:25 Friday. This is still unreal to me, however, not completely in a good way. I am a big Albany fan....went to a lot of games, know the players, coach, some history, etc....you get the point. However, similar to Brian Ettkin's article today, the bandwagon is much too full. I mean, they are the lead story on the news, theres sellouts of Albany merchandise at Steve & Barry's, etc. On one hand, I love that the Danes are getting this attention and are growing before our eyes, but where the hell were all these people a year ago, when the RACC was being "packed" with 1,400 fans. Even this year the attendance and media exposure were pretty paltry until they started winning.....only Rodger Wyland really talked about them to any length. (Man, did I just give a backhanded compliment to Wyland AND Ettkin in the same article?) I felt the same way about this as I did when I got my DVD player in 1997.....I was in a pretty exclusive club full of passionate people, and a year or 2 later people were buying DVDs in Wal-Mart and Price Chopper.
Now for a ton of media links, etc....

The same AP article appeared here in Newsday and here in the Washington (D.C.) Examiner (and I'm sure countless other places). I like how the article starts out with Jon Iati, a player who took a backseat this season, a year after having a season-ending injury (and 2 years after averaging 40.1 minutes/game, tops in the NCAA). It finishes with a nice blurb about Doc Sauers......without him, we are still D-III, playing Sisters of the Poor instead of UConn.


The (NY) Daily News had a great article today, written in-house by Wayne Coffey. That impressed the hell out of me, that a paper the caliber of the Daily News, home of Mike Lupica, would write their own article about a team like Albany.....they could have just as easily pulled a story from the AP. The story focuses mainly on the Long Island-NYC hook that Albany has with Will Brown (Miller Place, LI) and Jamar Wilson (Bronx-born, played ball on LI). It even mentions Harlem-native Levi Levine, but that was for a brief moment, much like his production this season (I was shocked that he was 4th on the team in minutes.....he should have been a great force this year, but his game wasn't developing....insert Brent Wilson). Anyway, its a nice read.

Which brings us to the Times Union, which has "stepped up" it's coverage of the Danes lately. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon, Mr. Ettkin....look at your employers..... Anyway, Cathy Woodruff and David Filkins have a nice article welcoming the added attention. Danes beat writer Mark Singelais' article focuses on some Danes coaches that have been associated with tourney upsets (Eric Eaton with Holy Cross, Pat Filien with last year's Vermont team). Good article, a little too "local" for my liking. And the most original article is Kate Gurnett's, a piece about a group of Salt Lake City people that root for the underdogs....and one of its members just lost a longtime great dane he had....so, we get their karma.