Sorry Hawk, Great Danes' Bark Worse than their Bite

As many of you know, Lawhawk is an alumni of Albany University, in New York. The Albany Great Danes made it to the NCAA's march madness for the second year in a row, after defeating Vermont, 60-59, in a thriller to win the America East title. The Danes, who last year played # 1 ranked UConn tough in a 72-59 loosing effort, were ranked # 13 and and facing the #4 ranked Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. However, the Danes again fell short of advancing to the second round.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Flat on his back after a hard foul, J.R. Reynolds figured he might as well give it a shot.

Why not? Everything else was going in.

The high-scoring guard with a balky hip made shots from everywhere on the court Friday -- including a just-for-fun fling from his back -- while leading Virginia to an 84-57 victory over Albany in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"When you get it going like that ..." Reynolds said sheepishly, referring to his on-the-back bank shot. "That was a tough shot."

Everything came easy for the Cavaliers (21-10), who advanced in the South Regional with their first tournament win since 1995, when they reached the final eight. It was their most lopsided win in 37 NCAA Tournament games.

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The America East Conference champs gained distinction last year, when they made the tournament for the first time and, as a No. 16 seed, took mighty UConn to the limit. Huskies coach Jim Calhoun was so impressed that he later embraced Brown and told him: "You guys are special."

They returned to the tournament with senior guard Jamar Wilson, the conference's two-time player of the year, and a confidence bordering on brashness. They told everything that they had packed enough clothes to spend the weekend in Columbus.

Wilson missed five of his first six shots, allowing Virginia to take control. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting, but it wasn't nearly enough.

"We've been eating and sleeping (thinking about) the Virginia Cavaliers," Wilson said. "The fact of the matter is, they took us out of our game."

And sent them home with a lot of clean clothes.

Well congrats to the Danes for a great run, hopefully they can improve again next year.