As eighth-seeded Albany prepare to host an NCAA tournament game for just the second time in the program’s Division I history, the anticipatory buzz is loud and clear in the state capital.
Saturday’s first-round confrontation with defending national champion North Carolina is a sellout at Ford Field at Casey Stadium, the $19 million, four-year-old, state-of-the-art complex that seats up to 8,500 and is home to the school’s football and soccer teams. As it has done in on past football game days, the school could admit enough standing-room ticket buyers to increase attendance to more than 10,000.
The Great Danes (14-2) last hosted an NCAA tournament game in 2007. Albany tuned up for its fifth straight tournament appearance and ninth overall under 17th-year coach Scott Marr with little drama. As expected, the Danes dominated another America East tournament and dismissed Binghamton 20-8 in Saturday’s title game.
Junior attackman and Tewaaraton Award contender Connor Fields, who left a big mark as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player with 16 points, including a record 11 assists, also was on the receiving end of a scary fourth-quarter hit that could have cost the Danes dearly.
With 9:17 remaining, as Marr said he was preparing to pull Fields and numerous other starters, Fields scored his third goal and ninth point of the day inside, then took an illegal shot to the head from Binghamton freshman long-stick midfielder Dan Mottes. Fields dropped to the turf as his helmet flew off. After a short delay, a dazed-looking Fields walked to the Danes’ sideline.
Albany led 19-8, but for a few moments, no one was thinking about the score, as the home crowd nearly fell silent. Mottes spent two full-time minutes in the penalty box. And the obvious question hung palpably in the air. Was the Great Danes’ top player about to miss a first-round NCAA tournament game after suffering a concussion?
Albany got the answer it had hoped for, as Fields was cleared to practice this week.
“[My heart] definitely stopped for a second,” recalled Marr, who is 162-110 at Albany, including 67-20 (.770) in his last five seasons.
“Not even 30 seconds before the hit, we had started to sub guys out of the game,” he added. “You just want to be at full strength in your biggest games. You sure don’t want your best player to go down because a kid has a momentary lapse of frustration.”
Mottes approached Fields following the game and offered an apology and a hug.
It will be challenging enough with Fields for the Danes to eliminate late-charging North Carolina (8-7). The Tar Heels came through when most needed. Had they not won the ACC tournament, they would have been automatically eliminated from the NCAAs due to a losing record.
Two up-tempo teams with two of the game’s most explosive offenses are set to clash under the lights before a sellout crowd that figures to bring deafening noise to the proceedings.
“The stands are right on top of you, and it really gets loud in that bowl,” said Marr, whose staff will employ hand signals and trust at times to navigate the contest. “There will be parts of this game when the players can’t hear us on the field. At some points, we’ll tell them what we want, and we’ll pretty much put it in the hands of the kids.”
Hopkins’ Unsettling Goalie Situation
Sixth-seeded Johns Hopkins (8-6) will make its record 45th NCAA tournament appearance, starting with the home game it badly wanted. The Blue Jays are 7-1 at Homewood Field, where an 8-7 overtime loss to Syracuse two months ago marks their only blemish at home.
And if Johns Hopkins doesn’t get a strong day from faceoff man Hunter Moreland — matched up against the outstanding Kyle Rowe — and stitch together a consistent effort from its up-and-down defense, unseeded Duke (12-4) probably will make this a short tournament stay for the Blue Jays.
The Blue Devils, who narrowly made their 11th straight tournament, have emerged with one of its better defenses and balanced teams under 11th-year head coach John Danowski.
Duke is ranked 10th in scoring offense (12.81 goals per game) and seventh in scoring defense (8.06 goals allowed per game) and has won three NCAA titles under Danowski (2010, ’13, ’14). The Blue Devils went to eight consecutive final four weekends before coming up short the past two years.
Johns Hopkins ranks a solid 13th in scoring offense (12.0) but a pedestrian 43rd in scoring defense (10.93). That’s the lowest-ranked of any defense in the tournament. In their past two games, the Blue Jays spotted Maryland an 8-0 advantage in a 12-5 defeat and trailed Ohio State 12-6 before a late rally produced a 15-13 loss.
Ominously, the Blue Jays have been unsettled at goalie for most of the year. Neither Brock Turnbaugh (six starts, 42.1 save percentage, 4-3 record) nor Gerald Logan (eight starts, 48.1, 4-3) have commanded the job. This marks the third straight season Hopkins has averaged below 50 in save percentage and has given up double-digit scoring on average.
“Part of [the problem] is the goalie, part of it is the defense. It all has to be more consistent,” said Dave Pietramala, the Blue Jays’ 17th-year head coach. “We’re trying not to make too much of [the goalie issue]. We don’t want that to be a huge distraction. They’ve both shown they are capable.
“[Our defense] is sliding to things we don’t need to slide to, and we’re not sliding when we should. Our margin of error is slim,” he added. “We’ve got to be disciplined and fundamentally sound [against Duke]. We’ve got to make good choices and make them quickly. If there is any hesitation, that’s where their shooters can kill you.”
Since beating Duke in the 2005 and 2007 NCAA final and toppling the Blue Devils in the 2008 semifinals, Hopkins has lost to the Blue Devils twice by blowout in the tournament — in 2010 and 2014. Each time, Duke went on to win it all.
Hopkins is 3-3 against Duke in the NCAAs. The Blue Jays have been to one final four since their 2008 appearance.
Etc.
Possession time is always critical in postseason play, and faceoff play will be huge once again in the tournament, maybe more so this year than most. Consider that nine tournament teams are ranked below the top 50 in saves per game. Those include five seeded schools (Notre Dame, Syracuse, Ohio State, Denver and Hopkins) and four unseeded (Marquette, Towson, Yale and Duke). … Four teams from the state of Maryland (Hopkins, Towson, Loyola and Maryland) made the field to lead the way, while Colorado, New York and North Carolina produced two teams apiece. … Syracuse, which won its ninth and 10th national titles in 2008 and 2009 and went to 22 consecutive final fours from 1983-2004, is trying to reach its second Memorial Day weekend in the past eight seasons. ... Marquette coach Joe Amplo, who was on this year’s NCAA tournament selection committee, summed up the importance of conference tournaments these days by saying, “Conference tournaments in our sport have become the equivalent of the first and second rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament.”