Will Brown Won't Return as Albany CBB HC After 20 Years with Program
Mar 1, 2021
Albany head coach Will Brown watches from the bench during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Cincinnati, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Gary Landers)
The Will Brown era at Albany has ended.
In a release from the university, Brown said he and the athletic department "agreed to mutually part ways" after 20 years. He was in the final year of a contract extension, according to the Associated Press.
Brown compiled a 315-295 record and brought the program to five NCAA tournament appearances, including a run of three straight from 2013-15.
The 49-year-old led the program to five America East championships and two conference regular-season titles. After a 14-18 campaign in 2019-20, the Great Danes finished 7-9—their third consecutive losing season.
"Anyone who knows me knows this decision was extraordinarily difficult," Brown said, per the release. "But I leave the University at Albany with an enormous sense of pride in the positive impact that my staff, my family and, most important, the student-athletes I had the honor of coaching, have had on UAlbany basketball and the greater Albany community."
Brown initially joined the program as an assistant, but replaced Scott Beeten during the 2001-02 season, according toPete Doughertyof theTimes Union. At 30, he became the second-youngest active Division I coach, and he was tasked with helping transform Albany into a legitimate competitor. The school had just joined Division I in 1999, per the AP.
Before his run at Albany, he had coached Sullivan County (New York) Community College for three seasons, where he led the group to a 90-10 record.
The school, whichcurrently listsassociate head coach Jon Iati as the interim head coach, said it will begin a national search for Brown's replacement.
Duke vs. Albany Basketball Game Canceled Due to North Carolina LGBT Law
Jul 14, 2016
A Gonzaga player drops a ball in the basket during college basketball practice, Thursday, March 24, 2016, in Chicago. Gonzaga plays against Syracuse in a regional semifinal game in the NCAA Tournament on Friday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The Duke men's basketball team's Nov. 12 Hall of Fame Tipoff tournament game against Albany has been canceled due to New York state's opposition to a North Carolina law focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
According to ESPN.com, Albany backed out of the game because New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has banned publicly funded, nonessential travel to North Carolina in protest of the law.
The law in question is known as House Bill 2 (HB2), and it requires transgender people to use restrooms in relation to the gender on their birth certificates rather than their gender identity. It also limits anti-discrimination protection of the LGBT community.
While the Blue Devils do not yet have a replacement opponent, it is reportedly expected that Marist will take Albany's place since it is a privately funded school.
Duke athletic director Kevin White expressed concern regarding the law to ESPN.com on Thursday: "It's most unfortunate. As an institution, if not personally, we have gone on the record indicating that our state position on this (HB2) is very troubling, if not embarrassing."
In addition to Albany's withdrawal, the law has placed the 2016-17 NBA All-Star Game in jeopardy.
Per the Associated Press (via NBA.com), commissioner Adam Silver continues to mull the possibility of removing the game from Charlotte due to the league's stance against the law.
According to ESPN.com, it is expected that a formal Nov. 12 replacement opponent for Duke will be determined within a week.
Oklahoma vs. Albany: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2015
Mar 20, 2015
COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 20: Frank Booker #1 (L) and Isaiah Cousins #11 of the Oklahoma Sooners celebrate following the Sooners 69-60 win over the Albany Great Danes during the second round of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Nationwide Arena on March 20, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
The No. 3 seed has been a bit of a poisoned chalice in the 2015 NCAA tournament with the Iowa State Cyclones and Baylor Bears falling in the second round Thursday.
The Oklahoma Sooners ensured that the same fate didn't befall them Friday. They earned a hard-fought 69-60 victory over the Albany Great Danes.
Heading into the game, OU head coach Lon Kruger spoke about how Albany's overall balance would present a difficult hurdle to scale for his team.
"They’re real solid defensively," he said, per Ryan Aber of The Oklahoman. "They really execute things offensively. They’ll run the clock if they need to. They have three guys in double-digit shooting."
The Great Danes were a tricky foe for the Sooners, who struggled to build a lead any bigger than 10 or 12 points.
Although the final score didn't illustrate a vast gulf between the two teams, Oklahoma was never in any grave danger of getting beaten.
Albany never led, and the final sequence of the first half served as a microcosm for the game as a whole.
Ray Sanders nailed a three-pointer with four seconds to go until halftime to put the Great Danes down seven points, 35-28. That bucket could've given Albany some much-needed energy as it entered the locker room.
On the ensuing inbound, though, Jordan Woodard ran the length of the court for Oklahoma and hit a right-handed layup at the buzzer. The Sooners went ahead by nine, 37-28, and wrested the momentum away from Albany.
Pete Iorizzo of the Albany Times Union wondered how the Great Danes allowed Woodard to weave his way all the way up the floor:
It was a big shot, but it only underscored Albany's inability to handle Oklahoma in the paint. Jeff Wallner noted how the Sooners used their advantage on the inside through the first 20 minutes:
Tough finish to the half for UA. How'd Woodard get coast to coast that fast? #NCAADanes
TaShawn Thomas was particularly impressive, scoring nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in the first half. The Albany Times Union's Tim Wilkin felt Thomas presented major matchup problems for the Great Danes all night:
At half: Oklahoma leads Albany 37-28. Sooners exploiting their size with 24 points in the paint and 15 second-chance points. #MarchMadness
Peter Hooley did his best to keep Albany in the game. He paced the Great Danes with 12 points and four rebounds.
Hooley's strong performance was a welcome development for his sister and father, who watched the game from home in Adelaide, Australia, per the America East Conference:
TaShawn Thomas is BIG problem for @UAlbany_MBB. 6-8, 242 pounds. Athletic. He gets ball inside, Danes won't be able to stop him. #NCAADANES
But while Albany remained within striking distance, the Great Danes couldn't find the kind of sustained run that would get them into the lead.
They cut the deficit to as little as six points, 60-54, with four minutes remaining, but Oklahoma responded on the next possession with a three-pointer from Isaiah Cousins as the shot clock wound down:
Albany can’t guard TaShawn Thomas. #Sooners not putting much effort into getting the ball to Thomas. Why?
It was the kind of shot that epitomized the futility of Albany's comeback attempts. Every time the Great Danes took one or two steps forward, the Sooners did just enough to knock them back to square one.
You wouldn't call it the perfect performance by Oklahoma, but the No. 3 seed never allowed Albany to build the kind of confidence that could've led to an upset.
Thomas led the way with 18 points. Buddy Hield provided the perimeter scoring with 15 points. His three three-pointers accounted for nearly half of the team's overall output.
The Sooners did a good job of locking down on Hooley and Sam Rowley, who combined to shoot 10-of-29 from the floor for 27 points.
While the win wasn't the most convincing, it might be good preparation as Kruger gets his players ready mentally for the next round.
Oklahoma will get Providence or Dayton, depending on the result of Friday night's game.
Either way, the Sooners will need to find a killer instinct between now and Sunday. If they let the Friars or Flyers stick around like they allowed Albany to, then they might be looking at a premature exit from the Big Dance.
Albany's Peter Hooley Hits Game-Winning 3 to Capture America East Title
Mar 14, 2015
What a heartbreaker for Stony Brook.
In the final seconds of Saturday's America East tournament final, the Seawolves failed to corral a rebound to secure the win.
Instead, the ball was tipped back to Albany's Peter Hooley, who stunned Stony Brook with a three-pointer from the top of the key. His clutch trey with 1.6 seconds remaining gave the Great Danes a 51-50 victory and their third straight America East title.
Amazingly, Hooley's game-clinching triple was Albany's only made three-pointer on the day.
The play was very reminiscent of a Los Angles Lakers-Sacramento Kings playoff game from 2002.
The ending couldn't have been more fitting for Hooley, who took an extended leave of absence earlier in the year to be with his ill mother, Sue, in Australia.
He wanted to be with her on her final days after a four-year battle with colon cancer.
Albany vs. Mount St. Mary's: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2014
Mar 18, 2014
One down. Sixty-six to go.
The first game of the Big Dance served as a fantastic omen for those hoping for a scintillating 2014 NCAA tournament, as Albany and Mount St. Mary's took part in a mesmerizing battle of contrasting styles.
In the end, the Great Danes' slow tempo and interior offense was just enough to overcome the Mountaineers' barrage of three-point shooting, as Will Brown's team booked a spot against Florida with a 71-64 victory.
The NCAA's March Madness Twitter feed celebrated the victory:
DJ Evans led Albany with 22 points, while Peter Hooley added 20. The Great Danes, who got all 71 of their points from their starters, shot a scorching 57.4 percent from the field.
That turned out to be just enough to hold off the Mountaineers, who poured in 12 of their 37 three-point attempts. Freshman sharpshooter Will Miller hit seven treys for 21 points, while Rashad Whack chipped in 16 but just missed a potentially game-tying three in the final seconds.
Here's a look at the shot that decided the scintillating contest:
When the Great Danes jumped out to a 13-0 and then 21-2 lead, the discussion almost predictably turned to their purple-and-gold jerseys, which were questionable at best.
Of course, as ESPN's Eamonn Brennan suggested, perhaps the ugly threads were intentional:
But talk eventually shifted back to the actual play. According to kenpom.com (subscription required), Mount St. Mary's entered the game with the nation's 32nd-fastest tempo and was 17th in America in percentage of shots coming from beyond the three-point line.
As such, many onlookers, including CBS Sports' Seth Davis, weren't ready to rule out a comeback:
Right on cue, the uptempo Mountaineers caught fire. Miller knocked down a trio off threes off the bench to fuel a 21-2 run to tie the game at 23.
It was about as wild of a start to the Big Dance as could possibly be expected, and USA Today's Eric Prisbell put some perspective on the opening roller-coaster of play:
By the time we reached the end of a thrilling first half, Albany led, 35-31.
Despite knocking down most of their shots and holding Mount St. Mary's to just 36.7 percent from the field, though, the Great Danes couldn't pull away. The reason? Fourteen turnovers (to just four for Mount St. Mary's), and an inability to limit the Mountaineers' production from deep.
After Sam Prescott drilled a three—Mount St. Mary's 10th make on 31 tries—to make it 60-56 in favor of Albany with just under seven minutes remaining, Davis wondered if the Mountaineers could keep it up down the stretch:
They could.
Will Miller drained a pair of threes to cut the deficit to one, but after the Mountaineers increased the lead back to three, a Rashad Whack three-pointer with 39 seconds remaining rolled in and out.
CBS Sports' college basketball Twitter feed summed up just how close Whack's shot was to falling through the net:
Evans and Rowley knocked down their free throws to seal the win in a high-level game that even had viewers trying to catch their breath.
And those were the No. 16 seeds.
If this game was any indication of what to expect for the next 66 games, buckle up. We're in line for an enthralling tournament.
Next up is the No. 1 seeded Florida Gators. Coach Will Brown is ready for the challenge via Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv:
The Gators haven't lost a game since Dec. 2 and ranked third in the nation in points allowed at 57.9 during the regular season. Behind studs like Casey Prather, Scottie Wilbekin and Patric Young, Albany is going to need a miracle to pull off the first ever No. 16 over No. 1 upset.
UAlbany: Getting to Know Men's Basketball's Graduate Assistant Josh Pelletier
Oct 17, 2011
Josh Pelletier has dealt with competition his whole life.
The son of a former football coach, each of Pelletier's three brothers and sisters received full scholarships to play college basketball (both sisters playing at the Division I level).
With that kind of background, Pelletier is no newcomer to the game, despite this being just his 2nd season working with the University at Albany as a graduate assistant.
Part of his day-to-day responsibilities entail managing film exchange video production with respect to individual workouts, practices and games. In addition, he has duties with travel, on-campus recruitment and supervising student managers.
The 6'4" Pelletier played basketball at the College of St. Rose here in Albany from 2005-2009, where he was a guard/forward, and did most of his damage from the wing—though he was a solid rebounder and passer as well.
Pelletier uses his own personal experiences as a player to help out with the current members of the UAlbany team.
Pelletier says that the best game he ever played occurred when he was in high school. “I went to LaSalle Institute and we were playing (arch-rival) Christian Brothers Academy for the third time that year, and they had beaten us badly the first two times. This was a sectional final game, and we really wanted to win, and we ended up pulling it out. Plus, I scored 25 points in the game, which made the victory even sweeter.” Pelletier would go on to finish his high school career with 1,504 points, the all-time LaSalle record.
Basketball was not the only sport Pelletier played in high school. He played football as well—quarterback to be exact—but it was his actions at another position that will keep him in the record books for a long time.
“I punted a little bit, we had a trick play formation, and I was terrible at it, but one night, we were playing a game with heavy winds. On one punt, I had the wind at my back and kicked one 77 yards, though some of that came after it bounced and rolled. Later in the game, I was punting into the wind, and the ball basically went straight up, landed three yards in front of the line of scrimmage, then bounced backwards. That punt went negative two yards. So I had the school record for longest punt and shortest punt in the same game."
Playing under the legendary coach Bryan Beaury at St. Rose, who had won 517 career games as of the 2010-2011 season, one humorous lesson imparted from his former coach stands apart from the rest.
“There are two things in life that will eventually die: dogs that chase cars and defenses that let the ball go middle (into the paint).”
Beaury might be a great coach, but he isn’t Pelletier’s favorite. That honor belongs to the legendary John Wooden, “The effect he had on the game is still relevant in the way teams play the game today, all these years later. Plus, he has more championships than any other coach, and championships are always nice.”
Pelletier majored in adolescence education at St. Rose and says if he wasn’t coaching, he’d like to teach social studies at the middle school/high school level, but that isn’t his dream.
“In 10 years, I would like to be a college basketball coach. I would love to be a head coach, but 10 years might be a bit too soon. That might take a little more time.”
