America East Notebook
The Cat(amounts) Meow
When people think of basketball up in Burlington, Vermont, names like Eddie Benton and Tony Ociarri come to mind. Well neither of those Catamount alums has anything to do with them having the top record in the America East at 14-4 (7-1 in conference). Fueled by the second and third leading scorer in the conference (TJ Sorrentine with 18.7 and Taylor Coppenrath) they had a school record 12-game winning streak before losing this past Saturday at Hartford. Coach Tom Brennan’s team continues its 3-game road trip at Stony Brook on the 24th and then to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines on the 26th.
3 Dog Night in Albany
Back in 1999, Albany made the leap of faith from Division II to Division I. At the time Scott Hicks was at the helm for the Danes in their first year on the indy circuit. In the fall of 2000 Coach Hicks took to the head job at Loyola College in the MAAC. In came Cal-Berkely assistant Scott Beeten for year two. In December 2001 Coach Beeten had some differences with the school hierarchy forcing the athletic department to reassign him within the Atletic Department.
In 2002 in comes Albany assistant Will Brown. Coach Brown, 2nd youngest coach in D-I (5 days older than Stetson’s Derek Waugh), had much success at D-II St. Rose, and also in the world of junior college at Sullivan County College. Coach Brown takes over a squad that is now 3-13 (0-5 in conference). If nothing else we look for Coach Brown to finish out this year and maybe next. A coach at Albany for more then one year seems to be a novel idea.
Player of the Week
This week A-East honors go to Chaz Carr of Boston University. The 6-0 freshman guard from Connecticut had 36 points and dished out 5 assists in a 95-88 overtime win over conference cross-town rival Northeastern. His 13.8 points per game leads the second place Terriers (11-7 overall, 5-1 AEast) in scoring and registers in 8th in conference for scoring.
