Goodnight, McHale's Pub-- Link to Picture

I just learned about this-- a terrible way to start the new year.

The venerable westside dive (featured not-so prominently in the movie She's the One), McHale's Pub, closes its doors tomorrow, January 1st, 2006. Someone's gonna turn the block into condos. Not enough condos on the westside, I guess. For 5 years as I worked on 49th and 8th, McHale's was my favorite place to eat in New York. Oh, I've been to all the big names-- Jean-Georges, Daniel, Le Bernadin, Danube, Veritas. Call me a heathen, an idiot, whatever-- not one of these places has an entree that compares with a McHale's bacon-cheddar burger. Picture a pound of beef covered with a pound of bacon and cheddar cheese, with another pound of homemade fries on the side. It was as if the cook would open a new pack of bacon for each burger. The waitresses would always bring both ketchup and mustard and pickles for the burger...that's how you know you're in Manhattan, when you're given mustard to put on your burger.

Words just cannot do the McHale's burger justice. Anyone familiar with Claes Oldenburg's Giant Hamburger might get an idea, but not really. It was one of those meals, like going to any fancier restaurant, that for us, was an event. A McHale's burger for lunch and no one even thought about dinner. Some us didn't think about lunch the next day. I believe someone coined the phrase, "food coma" upon leaving McHale's and returning to work.

After a year of being unable to conquer the beast, someone came up with an idea. We'd have a halftime, a 15-minute intermission after eating half of the burger. We'd go into the grimy bathroom and wash our hands and face, take a swig of beer, and then, ding ding, Round 2. The results were better, but more times than not, the burger would still win. It would defeat us emotionally and physically. On a hot summer day, you'd emerge from the dive and could immediately feel the grease of the burger ooze out of your pores. I'm really going to miss that.

Albany 62, Brown 47

December 28, 2005
Pizzitola Memorial, Providence, RI

Will try to revise later when I have more time. For now...

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays. I've been recuperating from the last semester and getting back to basics in Southern CT., sleeping, reading, eating and watching Taxi re-runs, along with any college hoops and football that has been on. Pardon the extended absence.

Anyway, we made the trip up to Providence for the game last night. I love that city. We made it to Fellini's Pizza for a few slices and then onto the game.

Either we didn't see the real Brown team tonight, we didn't see the real Binghamton team on December 20th, or some combination of both. I base this simply on the fact that Brown beat Bingo by 10 on Bingo's homecourt. Granted, Brown was shorthanded as their best player, Luke Ruscoe, was sidelined with a sprained ankle. However, Brown had a tough time doing anything right tonight. This game could've been a lot closer if the Bears were simply able hit a shot. Brown had a lot of good looks tonight that simply did not fall.

Don't get me wrong, I'll always take a road win, but the final score does not tell the whole story. This was an ugly game marred by a lot of fouls committed by the Danes. Brown was in the bonus with 8 minutes left in the first half. Luckily, Brown had a tough time making the front end on a couple of occasions. I believe the Danes committed 10 first-half fouls to Brown's three.

This trend continued early in the second half, as Albany committed 7 fouls to Brown's three with 14 minutes to play. That's 17 fouls to 6 in about 26 minutes of total play. Ouch. At that point, it seemed as if Coach Brown basically told his players not to do so much as even touch Brown's players, as the Danes committed only two fouls from that point on.

It was nice rooting for the visiting team and hearing what the home crowd had to say about our players. I heard people comment positively on the play of Johnny, Jamar and Brian tonight. However, Brent was the offensive force tonight. Some big threes (4-7 from behind the arc) plus a little mid-range jumper. Brent also played good defense all night. Personally, I was glad to see Mr. Siggers get a piece of the action tonight. Jason had two threes in the first half, one that was part of a 13-0 run by the Danes, a nice runner in the lane, and also ended up with 5 rebounds. Jason finished the night with 10 points. Good work, Jason. Brian and Jimmy also contributed solid minutes this evening.

Despite a lackluster night from both Jamar and Zo, who were both plagued by early foul trouble, the pair teamed up for a monster alley-oop with about 4:30 remaining in the game. It was easily the play of the game that got a strong reaction from the whopping 500 people in attendance tonight. My guess is they don't see that sort of thng on a regualr basis in the Ivy League.

Brown seemed poised to make a run in the second half, behind PG Damon Huffman (who struggled in the first half and Aaron Jiminez, who helped provide a second half spark for the Bears and probably should've seen more action. Brown cut the lead to 13, but that was the closest the Bears would get to the Danes tonight.

A nice contingent of Albany fans tonight. We sat behind a crowd of 4, there was a nice group behind the bench, and one other pocket of fans not too far down, closer to the scorer's table. Nice work, Danes fans.

All in all, a nice win to add to our streak and something to build off of, especially with Kirsten and Jamar spending so much time on the bench. However, this game could've been much closer if our opponents weren't so off tonight.

RIP, Fred the Baker, aka, Michael Vale.
Have a Happy and Safe New Year's. next up-- Hartford on 1/4.

Stony Brook and Brown games...and a Happy Holiday to All

Next 5 games: @ Stony Brook (12/23), @ Brown (12/28), Hartford (1/4), Maine (1/7), Cornell (1/9)

Important stretch for the Danes starting tomorrow out on the Island. Hopefully we'll be able to get some rhythm and find the right combination of players by playing on a consistent basis against a few teams that aren't as talented as we are. As we have seen this year talent doesn't necessarily translate into victories, and I'd be thrilled to go 4-1 over the next 5.

Stoner Brook: 0-6, but only one home game thus far, which resulted in a loss to Columbia. However, games against Villanova, the Johnnies and Hofstra probably have helped prepare them for AE play. Now they are finally home and I'm sure Pikiell has 'em rarin' to go. Bonheaded move by whomever scheduled their second home game of the season when everyone is away.

Stony Brook has not been shooting well this year-- under 40% from the field and 45% from the line. Ouch. Plus, their opponenents have taken almost twice the amount of foul shots as the Seawolves. However, if memory serves me correctly, we went down there and lost late in the season last year just before the AE tournament. This game has "trap" written all over it if we're not careful.

Brown: Looking forward to this one, as I am planning to make the trip to Providence. I hope to make it more interesting with a friendly wager or two with some friends of mine. Even if I don't, Brown's team ensures this will be a good one. The Bears have beaten both Binghamton and Hartford by 10 this year. Brown does not have a particularly big team (one guy on their roster is 6'9"), so hopefully we'll be able to push 'em around inside and finally get Levi involved in this one. Reading about Brown got me thinking...

Somwhat interesting but very pointless stat I decided to look up at work:
The America East is 5-7 v. The Ivy League this year
Breakdown:
BU-Harvard (W, 72-63), Hartford-Brown (L, 60-70), Hartford-Cornell (W, 73-71), Hartford-Yale (W, 76-60), UVT-Harvard (L, 57-65), UVT-Dartmouth (W, 77-46), Albany-Harvard (L, 48-61), Bingo-Brown (L, 61-71), SB-Columbia (L, 54-55), Maine-Dartmouth (W, 64-55), UNH-Col. (L, 61-64), UNH-HU (L, 50-71)

Anyway, Have a Happy and Safe Holiday everyone and Go Danes!

We Finally Win a Close One...

Binghamton (2-7), 65
Albany (3-6), 70
RACC, December 20, 2005 (The 1000th win in UA's history.)

First of all, I'm taking up a collection to get the cheerleaders new uniforms. That sort of charity has to be tax-deductible, right? This is by no means an indictment against our cheerleaders, only against their hideous purple and white uniforms. At least let the girls look like they're in college.

I said to someone last night if I had my druthers, I'd rather see us win a close one than blow Binghamton out. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, who knows, but with the start of a new season, it was important that this team start learning how to win close games and how to handle adversity. I'd like to think we took a step in the right direction tonight.

In reality, I was just hoping for a win and I am thrilled we got one.

A weird, nervous atmosphere before the start of the game. President Hall and AD McElroy circling the stands before tipoff, understandably assessing the state of the team 1/3 of the way into what has been a disappointing season.

It should also be noted that both were on hand to congratulate Jamar for becoming the 27th player in UA history to score 1000 points. Congratulations, Jamar.

The Danes and the 2300 strong in attendance tonight watched Binghamton claw their way back from an 8-point deficit with just about two minutes left to get within one with 23 seconds left-- thanks to a couple of phantom calls by the refs and Binghamton's unflappable Troy Hailey, who drained 10 consecutive free throws with under 4 minutes remaining.

Luckily we had Johnny Iati, who countered by connecting on 8 straight free throws of his own. First of all, nice job by Iati tonight. Johnny was the odd man out tonight as Brian took over tonight at point guard, cutting into Johnny's PT. However, Johnny really came through at the end with his free throw shooting, also adding a nice layup near the end. Iati also connected on a three earlier in the game. Not bad for nine minutes of PT. Good work, Johnny.

We did a nice job of getting the ball to Johnny down the stretch. I also liked Iati's comments in the Times Union. Despite the cut in Johnny's PT, he spoke up and told Coach Brown he'd hit free throws down the stretch. Instead of sitting back and sulking, Johnny stepped up, showed confidence and leadership, and promptly delivered.

We're gonna' need that type of attitude from all of our players if we're going to win anything this season. There's a glut at shooting guard and players are going to have to accept their roles, which will probably change a lot over the season. We have already seen this happen a few times with Johnny, Brian and Lucious just nine games into the season.

I digress...

It was important to see the team hang in and persevere as Jamar "fouled" out with just under 3 minutes to play, as did Brent, with just under one minute in regulation. They were our two high scorers, and despite a few turnovers by Jamar, both played pretty solid basketball tonight.

Of course, the big story tonight was Brian Lillis. Inserted into the starting lineup and playing point guard tonight, Brian had only 2 points (off of free throws) and 2 assists. His big contibution was coming up with 11 rebounds. Brian wasn't always crashing the boards and banging underneath. He was just always in the right place at the right time, in perfect position to come up with a loose ball. This probably has something to do with what Coach Brown calls his high "basketball IQ."

Brian had a big steal and rebound late in the first half, both which led to points and enabled the Danes to go into halftime with a 37-34 lead, the first time that happened at home all season.

Lucious had two big three pointers, one to cut Binghamton's lead from 15-6 to 15-9 early on. I think that shot helped the team and the crowd both relax a little bit. We definitely didn't want to let another team get out to an early 10-point lead on us, so that was huge. His other 3-pointer put us ahead, 28-26.

Transition defense, a pet peeve of mine, was bad early on-- Kirsten misses a little jumper, the team stands around, Binghamton gets down the court for a layup and goes up 10-4. However, we did a much better job getting back on defense in the second half.

I thought the only part of the game that was off tonight was our foul-shooting. Jamar misses the technical, Lucious misses two free throws down the stretch. All in all, 21-34, though Kirsten accounted for 5 of those misses (3-8.)

Personally, I thought Walker's strategy of putting us on the line was a little premature. Binghamton fouls Kirsten who hit one of two to put us up by 8 with just under 3 minutes remaining. It wasn't like we were shooting light out in the second half, anyway, and 3 minutes is a ton of time. Binghamton could've definitely have gone for the stop there instead of fouling.

Notes:
Shout out to the kids from Averill Park going nuts in the stand during the second half. Hilarious. I'm gonna' rent the short bus and caravan them to every game for the rest fot he season.

I never get on the refs. but something was up tonight.

Hope Binghamton's Mike Gordon is all right-- he took a shot from Zo (I think) and anyone near the Binghamton bench saw him wince in pain as the trainer attempted to touch his nose. Definitely broken.

Binghamton had a strong crowd behind them tonight. Hopefully we can counter with a comparable contingent to travel to the armpit of America on January 28th.

Finally, I was impressed with our crowd tonight, all things considered. Everyone at the end was nervous-- players, coaches and fans alike. Yet our fans did a nice job of staying involved and imploring the team with chants of "defense!" every trip down the court. I'd like to think this really helped the team tonight.

The year in music...not Danes-related

Another year goes by which means that I buy less new music than I did in the previous year.
However, I used to do college radio and used to play in bands, so its tough for me not to think of the good, bad and the ugly over the last year. Luckily, I'm far enough out of the mainstream to think too much about the bad and the ugly.

Records (CD's)
The Hold Steady-- Separation Sunday. Feel-good record and record of the year, easily. A literate and rocking rock opera about a girl named Holly going to Catholic high school. So many great moments on this record. I'm not sure what's better, the music or the stories told, and its been a while since I said that. Probably my favorite non-Springsteen, non-Dylan release in a few years. Money-back guarantee right here.

Born to Run reissue-- everyone knows its one of the best records of all-time. Add to it a live dvd from England in 1975, which isone of the greatest live dvds of all-time, and you have reissue of the year.

The New Pornographers-- Twin Cinema. AC Newman really is one of the best great songwriters on the planet. It should be illegal to have Sing Me Spanish Techno, Streets of Fire, Use It, and Bleeding Heart Show all on one record. Outstanding.

No Direction Home, soundtrack and movie. Elaboration is unnecessary. Part II was one of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life.

My Morning Jacket-Z. Much more Flaming Lips and Radiohead than full-on rock on this one, but one really cool record. Dondante is nothing short of epic. How Could I Know is a great way to close the record.
One caveat-- I believe this CD is copyright-protected. Not only will you not be able to share it with your friends, you may be be running the risk of damaging your computer in the process. Screw Sony until they fix this nonsense.

Portastatic-- Bright Ideas. Through with People is mandatory for anyone and everyone sick of Albany. White Wave and I Wanna Know Girls are also great. This will have to do while I wait for a new Superchunk record.

M. Ward--Transistor Radio. Late-night AM radio- sounding music that sounds like it was just dug up by the Library of Congress and slapped on a CD. A number of these songs would be at home on one of Harry Smith's folk anthologies.

The Go Team-- Thunder Lightning Strike. Hip hop beats and cheerleading vocals are not usually my sort of thing, but dang, is this one catchy record. Plus, it helped me stay awake and crank out some ultra-shoddy work during finals week.

Shows:
Bob and Willie-- Dodd Stadium. June 21st and a great way to start the summer. All that was missing was a ferris wheel. Neither are at the top of their game anyomer, but they are still national treasures, so enjoy them while they are still performing. Two completely different styles and approaches, but both were great.
I took my mom who's 62 and arthritic, yet she stood up and danced the entire time, so it was the highlight of my year.

Brian Wilson-- SPAC. Note for note one of the best shows I have ever seen, this year or any other. Brian and his incredible band treated us to a bunch old stuff and then all of Smile. A great way to relax after getting smoked at the track earlier in the day.

Dinorsaur Jr (reissues and ) live at the Avalon in Boston-- my head almost exploded seeing them play The Lung for the first time in 15 years.

Pixies-- The Egg. I'm not sure who's the older bastard-- the Pixies for playing acoustic, or me for enjoying it. About the 10th time seeing them (going way back) and one of the best times as well. Not quite the day before T-giving at the Ritz in '89, when I lost my mind over Something Against You, but still terrific.

Rolling Stones-- The Knick. Still the coolest band ever.
Probably the worst rock and roll concert crowd I have ever been around in my life (state workers who can't stand up during Honky Tonk Woman stay home), but Midnight Rambler into Night Time is the Right Time was something else, as was their back-up singer. She's So Cold and Shattered were two of the nuggets I was hoping hear and I got 'em.

Of Montreal-- Valentine's. One of the feel-good shows of the year in Albany. Athens' Ga. buds of mine who actually had me missing my old stomping grounds for a few hours. Plus, we got to watch the Georgia-South Carolina game together. Its great to go somewhere in Albany and see 200 people all smiling.

The Bad
My Humps by The Black-Eyed Peas. I heard this song for the first time the other night in Bombers, and was immediately blown away by its idiocy. One of the worst songs I have ever heard in my life. Crap like this makes me want to move to Siberia.

More thoughts on the Harvard game...

First things first-- how about the blindfolded kid who almost hit the Harvard team with a basketball during a timeout? Completely asinine and easily the highlight of the game-- for me, anyway.

Second thing-- its tough for me to ever root for Yale in anything (I have one letter for you), but Yale's basketball coach, James Jones, is an Albany alum ('86, I think.) I don't know if Yale's team is any good this year, but from now on when Yale plays Harvard, Go, Bulldogs!

Not that I harbor any resentment-- Harvard came into the RAAC and although they did not play especially well, they played hard and they played as a team. That was really the difference in today's game. We had 5 guys on a court; they had one team.

Nice crowd on hand, considering finals and the holidays rapidly approaching. Problem is, we haven't seen a home win yet and the natives are getting restless. I feel bad dragging my grad. school friends to these games, telling them about how good a basketball team we have, only to have to apologize for the team's performance afterwards. However, even my friends who do not know a lot about college basketball can recognize how good some of our players are.

Right now, instead of playing to win, we're playing not to lose. Sacred money is stupid money, the saying goes. The same concept holds true in sports. Scared play leads to unwise play. We did a good job of getting some easy looks early and we came out with a lot of energy and intensity, as if we were determined to stuff the ball down their throats. When this didn't lead to early points-- we scored something like 8 points over the first 10 minutes-- we got frustrated and started to play tight. That was when Harvard went on their 19-2 run.

Its been the same thing so far with this squad-- when we don't score, we don't play defense. Today, it was more than that-- Harvard got all of the loose balls. They went to the ball-- we waited for it to come to us.

Kirsten started strong, but looked lost on the defensive end. Harvard, thanks to their backup point guard, Drew Housman (I think), broke our press with ease and in the second half, and always found the open man who was able to get off an uncontested shot. Housman was the best player on the floor today. I think he's a Freshman and if that's true, he'll be a nice player for Harvard for the next 4 years.

That being said, his two offensive rebounds in the second-half were flat-out inexcusable. That' s the result of a lack of hustle.

When it rains it pours. We get a steal and Brent falls down with the ball. Jamar dives for a ball on its way out of bounds that was last touched by The Crimson. That's just bad luck . However, every possession in college ball is important, and sometimes it seems as if the team forgets that fact. You can't take a possession off.

All in all, not really any positives to take away from yesterday's game, other than Lucious' resurgence.

To add insult to injury, my Johnnies also found a way to lose to Marist yesterday. Think of it in those terms and that it could be worse-- you could be an Albany and St. john's fan. Ouch.
Who ever thought St. John's would lose to schools like Hostra and Marist?

Harvard 61, Danes 48-- a few thoughts for now...

Been away for awhile, taking care of finals. Lots of all-nighters and not much of anything else, so please pardon my absence.

I have a lot going through my head, but I have to run off to a graduation party. I'll just say this for now:
Yes, you pay you admission and you can say what you want. However, if your sole purpose in attending a game is to let the world know who you hate, who you think sucks or to yell "bullshit" at every opportunity, stay home. We don't need you. To call for Brown's job 8 games into a season is a joke. Anyone berating their home players should be ashamed of themselves. These kids are in college and it is early in the season. This team has been scrutinized plenty by the media, and it really needs its fans' support right now.

If you want to blame anyone, blame McElroy. His handling of Coach Brown's contact was disgraceful and now having a struggling team and a lame-duck coach does not help matters at all.

Harvard has a nice squad. Their point guard, Drew Housman, reminded me of that pipsqueak, T.J Sorrentine. Stehle is also a very complete player who plays with poise. However, this was a bad loss that was a result of a very poor defensive effort by the Danes. Kirsten was lost out there as he seemed to revert to his old form tonight. Levi was nowhere to be found, Brent played hard but was just a little off today, Johnny couldn't find his shot, and Jamar's judgment, shooting and passing were all erratic tonight.

More tomorrow.

Who Dat Who Dat Not Gonna Beat Dem Saints?

Albany 74
Siena 82 (OT)
Pepsi Arena

Gotta' admit, I'm writing this with about the same amount of urgency the Danes displayed in the first half of today's game. We should just spot our opponents 12 points at the start of every game, play one half of basketball and save everyone an hour of their time.

I was really excited about the game-- very nice crowd at the Knick and an especially great turnout by Danes fans. Although Siena definitely had us outnumbered, their crowd could not match our intensity or enthusiasm. In fact, I don't remember a single "defense" chant issued by the Siena faithful today. I was actually pretty unimpressed with Siena's crowd, to be honest. Their crowd was pretty loud at the end of the game and that was about it. I was half-expecting an "overrated" chant and I didn't even get that.

Siena shot lights out tonight and for some reason we simply refused to guard them on the perimeter. Its like we were daring them to take 3's and Siena was more than up for the task this afternoon. I haven't seen a stats sheet but Siena simply did not miss in the first half. Oh, and other than Lucious-- who called a big game today and delivered on his promise-- we had a heck of a time hitting shots today. Outside shots. Inside shots. Three-point shots. Free throws. We were dreadful from the line today. Heck, we even got smoked in the Albany-Siena student free-throw contest. Their guy had 8. We had 2.

Jamar's play was pretty out of control at times, making a few bad passes and poor decisions. Of course his drive to tie the game with 2 seconds left in regulation was a thing of beauty, and he did come up with a few big offensive rebounds. To be honest, Jamar looks frustrated out there at times. It appears to me as if he feels he is trying to do too much, and he only gets into trouble when he plays as if he needs to carry the team on his back.

A Siena fan on the bigpurplefans site raised an interesting point. He questioned whether or not the Danes might be playing a little tight right now as a result of Coach Brown's contract status. I'm not sure whether or not I agree, but the team is obvliously very tight right now. Coach Brown alluded to his team's tightness in his post-game remarks, and nowhere was this better illustrated than in their 12-21 shooting from the charity stripe. This same team shot over 72% from the line last year.

(BTW, although I'm not a Siena fan, its good to see the civility and the sportsmanship displayed by both sides on the message boards.)

A couple of insanely bad calls. The no-call on Jamar was bad, along with a jump-ball call that gave Siena possession late in the game. However, if we played with the same intensity in the first half as we displayed in the second, those non-calls would never have been an issue.

Of course, its is going to be tough for a team trying to find its stride to do so when it plays two games in two weeks-- next Saturday at Cleveland State and the following Saturday when a surprising Harvard team comes to the RACC. I'm sure the team is champing at the bit right now and it has to be frustrating for the team knowing that their next game is not for another week.

Despite the disappointment, the team did not give up and did come back from an 18 point deficit with 13 minutes left in the game. Siena had the chance to put us away and they couldn't. We're a talented team, but we won't be a good one until we can get 40 minutes of solid play. Good teams also find ways to win, even when everyone is not playing well and firing on all cylinders.

Who Dat Who Dat Gonna Beat Dem Saints?

The Danes, dat's who!
Interesting game. Everyone says the Danes are favored, but I haven't seen a line. Objectively, Siena should be a 1-point favorite, as they are confident and playing better basketball right now. Fordham is not great, but they are a much better team than most people think and Bryant Dunston would dominate in the AE. Despite a strong showing against UCLA, we lost to a Sacred Heart team that lost to Columbia. COLUMBIA!

Siena will also have the crowd on their side, as well. However, we are the more talented team and we matchup very well against Siena. I'm hoping we might actually be able to push 'em around inside a bit, and our guards, notwithstanding Sweet Lou's slump, are better.

The Levi Levine-Antoine Jordan matchup will be a good one, and I think Levi is gonna be huge today. However, McCaffrey wasn't here for last year's drubbing , and you can be sure that his players have forgotten all about what happened a yerar ago. Albany's size and depth ultimately prevails, 77-69. Woof.

Albany/UCLA post-game notes

Mark Singelais, from the Times Union:
"Evidently, whoever did the play-by-play transcript that went with the box score was just as impressed by Iati's high-arching jumpers. A few descriptions of Iati's baskets: 'Iati stop and pop from the 518 area code'; 'Iati 22-footer comes down wet'; 'Iati 24-foot Saturn rocket shot'; 'Iati 25-foot transcon flyer."'
Great quotes-- wish I could find that transcript to which Singelais refers.