Danes got bite in Cats' fight

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Underdog UAlbany eager to face Vermont for title


BOSTON -- The University at Albany men's basketball team is bound for Burlington, Vt. on Saturday because of a loss last month that senior guard Jamar Wilson said never should have happened.


Vermont's 67-63 victory at SEFCU Arena on Feb. 11 completed a regular-season sweep of UAlbany and allowed the top-seeded Catamounts (25-6) to host Saturday's America East Conference final at Patrick Gymnasium.

"Vermont is a really, really good team in our conference," Wilson said Sunday after UAlbany beat Boston U. in a semifinal. "At home, we were up and we basically threw away the game."

UAlbany had a five-point lead on Vermont with 6:47 remaining but went scoreless for the next 5:35.

That drought ultimately kept UAlbany (22-9) from playing the title game in front of a packed house at SEFCU Arena, where the Great Danes romped over Vermont 80-67 in last year's title game.

To earn their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, the second-seeded Great Danes must find a way to win at Patrick Gymnasium, where they're 0-7 since going to Division I in 1999.

Senior guard Jason Siggers knows the odds but he's confident.

"We are underdogs but we know we can win," Siggers said.

The players had Monday off and will resume practice today. The team is scheduled to leave for Burlington on Thursday night.

UAlbany coach Will Brown said he not only wanted a rematch with Vermont, he rooted for it.

Brown sat at courtside on Sunday and watched Vermont struggled to a 72-63 victory over Maryland-Baltimore County in a semifinal the Catamounts led by only three points with 4:38 left.

Asked if he was rooting for Vermont to get knocked off, Brown responded, "I was hoping (Vermont's Mike) Trimboli would step up and bang three 3's in a row to end the game. I'm not kidding. Everybody in my program might think I'm crazy for saying that, but this is the game we wanted."

Brown said it's also a matchup that's good for the America East Conference, pitting the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the final for the third time in five years.

"I think you've got two teams that are going to go to the postseason," said Brown, referring to the NCAAs and the National Invitation Tournament. "We just want to go to that four-letter tournament, not the three-letter tournament. We will be ready to play. So will Vermont. I think it's going to be an outstanding basketball game."

 

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UAlbany?s Filien remembers great road win


History doesn?t favor UAlbany in Saturday?s America East Conference championship game at Vermont. Road teams are 2-20 in the history of the final.




However, UAlbany second-year assistant Pat Filien knows it can be done. He was an assistant on the 2003 Vermont team that won at top-seeded Boston University 56-55 in the championship game.

In that game, Vermont guard David Hehn hit a baseline jumper with 5.6 seconds left to begin the Catamounts? string of three straight conference titles.

Delaware is the only other America East road team to win the championship, winning at Drexel in the 1993 final.

?To do it on the road, you?ve got to be as mentally tough as a group as possible,? Filien said. ?Something we talk to the guys about often is winning on the road. You can?t be concerned with the crowd. You can?t be concerned with any other factors other than the five guys that are on the floor doing everything we?re capable of doing to pull out the victory.?

Saturday?s game will draw a sellout crowd of 3,266 fans, including 600 UAlbany fans. To prepare UAlbany for the raucous atmosphere, head coach Will Brown had them practice this week in University Gym, which is similar to Patrick Gym with its cozy confines and wooden, pull-out bleachers.

UAlbany also took the unusual step of having artificial noise pumped through speakers into the practice. That was done in order to get the players used to running their plays when it?s hard to hear.

Filien was on Vermont teams that played championship games at Patrick Gym in 2004 and 2005, which the Catamounts won. He was asked if the raucous atmosphere can be simulated in practice.

?I think it can,? Filien said. ?Any time you go into any kind of environment where it?s going to be loud and noisy and the sound is bouncing off the walls, you try to do as much as you can to simulate it. But that?s exactly what it is - a simulation.?

Filien said he?s well-aware it?s tough for team to win at Patrick Gym, especially UAlbany, which has lost in its previous seven tries there.

?But what we have with this group is a fifth-year senior (Jamar Wilson) who?s done wonders for our program and is as ready to go as he?s been in the time I?ve been here,? Filien said. ?Half of the guys got a taste last year of what it?s like to win a championship. But that was in the confines of your home, where you?re comfortable. Now you?ve got to shoot in somebody else?s gym. You?ve got 2,600 people rooting against you. I don?t think there?s any question it can be done, but it?s going to take a pretty good effort from everyone involved.?

 

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America East Conference men's basketball championship


The youngest team in the country walked into a sea of purple and was attacked by a pack of Great Danes.

Last year's University of Vermont men's basketball team had little if any chance to win the America East Conference men's championship game.

Those Catamounts consisted of seven freshmen, five sophomores, two juniors and no seniors, not to mention a new coach. They had pulled upsets in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the tournament and were the first No. 6 seed in conference history to reach the final.

They ventured to Albany for the title game, facing a deafening crowd and a top-seeded Great Dane team loaded with veterans firing on all cylinders. With Albany playing in its first title game, the 4,538 fans were amped from the opening tip, raising the decibel level with each basket during the Danes' fast start.

"In that kind of atmosphere it's hard not to have some butterflies," UVM sophomore forward Colin McIntosh said.

Martin Klimes was on three conference championship teams and was a starter on the Vermont squad that defeated Syracuse in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament, but admitted the Catamounts faced long odds that afternoon in the Capital Region.

"We were in a hostile environment," Klimes said. "We were playing with a lot of freshmen and were inexperienced. We were overwhelmed, maybe even a little intimidated."

The Catamounts trailed 44-26 at halftime and fell 80-67 in a game that was nowhere near that close.

"It was the biggest game in Albany's history," UVM coach Mike Lonergan said. "That was a tough atmosphere for us."

That was last year.

Saturday, the Catamounts have a chance at payback against Albany in the America East title game. This time the battle will be fought at Patrick Gym in front of their gold-clad fans.

"Playing at home is such a difference," UVM sophomore point guard Mike Trimboli said. "To have the crowd on our side is really going to help us."

The Cats cut the "youngest team in the country" label. Now they are experienced and battle-tested. They are enhanced by a talented rookie class. They are confident. The proof is in the regular season.

The Cats went into Boston College and thumped the then-No. 14 Eagles. They tore through the America East schedule with a 15-1 record. They posted 16 road and neutral-site wins, tied for the most in the country.

They won seven games with their leading scorer, freshman Joe Trapani, out of the lineup with a broken foot.

They are 6-0 in games decided by four points or fewer. They have won 20 of their last 21 games.

And they swept Albany, the second win in the same environment that spelled doom in last year's title game.

"We feel a lot better this year," Lonergan said. "We're a better team with more experienced players. Albany is a very good team, but we feel a lot better about our chances this year."