UAlbany Men's Basketball Continues Against The Big East's DePaul Blue Demons

There is a difference between respect and fear.

The University at Albany’s basketball team will be a huge underdog against a Big East opponent for the second straight game, but the Great Danes won’t be intimidated when they visit DePaul tonight at 8:30 at the McGrath Arena.

UAlbany opened the season with a 78-60 loss at Villanova Friday night. After falling behind, 40-24, at halftime, the Danes whittled their deficit to 11 points late in the game, only to see the 23rd-ranked Wildcats pull away.

Albany head coach Will Brown liked what he saw from his young team, which has eight new faces from last year’s 15-15 club. He took the team to the Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls NBA game Saturday night to help get them in the mood to play the Blue Demons.

“I thought our team was fearless, probably to a fault,” said Brown. “We played really hard against Villanova, but we just didn’t make the best basketball decisions. That was the tough thing.

“Our energy was good, and our effort was good, but we need to get better at paying attention to the details. Villanova was an experienced, talented team, and they pressured us into making too many mistakes.”

The Great Danes committed 20 turnovers against Villanova, including several late in the game when they were trying to make their comeback bid.

“Overall, I think we played well. We got within 11 points, and we had the ball with about five minutes left. But we missed the front end of a one-and-one. Then Villanova gets a shot off just as the shot clock expired, they get the rebound and they score. That happened a couple of times to us.

“Throw in the fact that we were only 9-for-19 from the line and turned the ball over 20 times, and you can see that we didn’t do enough to help ourselves. I truly believe that should have been a single-digit loss.”

Freshman point guard Anthony Raffa and junior swingman Will Harris, a transfer from Virginia, led the Great Danes with 13 points each against the Wildcats.

Raffa’s total was the best colleg­iate debut for a Great Dane since Jon Iati scored 15 against Siena on Nov. 21, 2003.

Sophomore guard Tim Ambrose, senior forward Brian Connolly and junior center Brett Gifford, who grabbed a career-high sevenrebounds against Villanova, are the other likely starters for the Danes against the Blue Demons.

DePaul returns five letterman and three starters from a year ago. Mac Koshwal, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center, averaged 10.7 points and 8.4 rebounds last year. Dar Tucker, a 6-4 sophomore,

produced 13.6 ppg, while junior guard Will Walker added 9.6ppg.

Other key players for DePaul are 7-2, 260-pound center Kene Obia and 6-11, 245-pound center Krys Faber. Both are freshmen. Point guard Jabari Currie, a 6-4 senior, is the first player since Rod Strickland to lead the Blue Demons in assists his first two sasons.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the teams.

“They’ve got two NBA-type players in Koshwal and Tucker,” said Brown. “Koshwal is a big, athletic post player, while Tucker is a terrific perimeter shooter.

“I expect them to play an up-tempo game. They’ve got a lot of guys who can score the ball, and they’ll try to run often. When Tucker gets the ball, he just turns toward the other basket and starts dribbling as quickly as he can.”

Courtesy: Bob Weiner