ALBANY – Want a glimpse into the attitude the University at Albany men’s basketball team is hoping to adopt this season? Just take a look at the t-shirts being worn by the coaching staff Monday at Broadview Center during the Great Danes’ first day of preseason practice.
From head coach Dwayne Killings on down, coaches sported t-shirts depicting boxers like Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali – or, in the case of assistant Elijah Burns, a shirt that simply stated “Cage Fighter Mentality” in large block letters.
Advertisement
“I feel like ever since I’ve been here, we’ve been doubted, and I feel like every single year we came up short by just a bit,” said redshirt junior guard Zacharie Matulu. “I feel like this year, we’ve just got to get out the mud … and in order to get that, we have to fight.”
Of course, fighting will be a lot easier when the Great Danes – who open their season Nov. 2 at home against Rhode Island College – have their full complement of players available. That wasn’t the case Monday, with a number of players limited to conditioning work on the side as they work their way back from preseason injuries.
But, Killings said, aside from a season-ending torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered over the summer by forward Ben Michaels, the rest are “nagging things” or injuries that are nearing the end of their expected recovery periods, like guard Pedro Santos, who is recovering from a fractured foot.
For a program that’s had recent seasons derailed due to persistent problems with injuries and player availability, Killings knows that keeping his group healthy will be vital if UAlbany wants to improve on its 11-21 campaign in 2025-26.
Advertisement
“We’ve worked really closely with our strength and conditioning staff, our athletic training staff, to try to figure out a formula to keep our guys on the floor,” he said. “Some things are out of our control. It’s a turned ankle. It’s two guys running into each other. It’s bad luck in some respects. But the big thing is, how do we maintain our bodies over the course of the season?”
At full strength, UAlbany should have one of the more intriguing rosters that Killings has assembled during his tenure with the program, which is entering its sixth season. Just four players return from last season’s squad, and of the 11 additions, eight have international roots representing seven different foreign countries.
Among those is junior Ollie Engen, a transfer from Queen’s University in Ontario who was a second-team All-Canadian selection last season. Engen is poised to slot right in as UAlbany’s starting point guard.
“I think,” Engen said, “we can develop into a team that can play a real tough brand (of basketball) and be a team that punches first.”
Advertisement
At 6-foot-5, Engen offers a major contrast to last year’s do-it-all point guard Amir Lindsey. The 5-foot-11 Lindsey transferred to Fordham during the offseason after leading the America East in scoring at 17.9 points per game and earning first-team all-conference honors.
This year, the shortest player on the UAlbany roster is 6-foot-2, giving the Great Danes added defensive versatility in the backcourt.
“We have the potential to have a very big lineup,” Matulu said. “And on top of that is our ability to be versatile … to guard one through four, one through five.”
“We’re a versatile team,” Killings said. “I think the coaching staff did a really good job of putting together a group of guys that want to win, that want to get better. We needed versatility. That was really, really important.”
Advertisement
In addition to preaching a fighter’s mentality, Killings is also eager to instill some confidence in his team early on this season. A year ago, UAlbany played an ambitious nonconference schedule that ended with the Great Danes beating just one Division I opponent prior to the start of America East play.
This season’s slate still has a couple of power conference matchups on it with trips to Syracuse and Penn State, but includes fewer challenges against teams from larger mid-major conferences and features a travel schedule that won’t require the Great Danes to board an airplane during the regular season.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, worked for some old school coaches, and they believed in confidence coming from going out there and getting your butt kicked sometimes,” Killings said. “I think with the portal and the changes in college basketball, I think you’ve just got to feel that win. I think that’s really important for this group, so we have some really good opportunities early in the season.”
Subscribe
There’s more to Albany with the Times Union. Subscribe today for just 25¢.
This article originally published at UAlbany men’s basketball opens preseason embracing ‘fight’ to improve.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
