UAlbany Men’s Basketball Releases Non-Conference Schedule

After losing two key players in Logan Aronhalt and nation's 7th leading scorer Gerardo Suero, the UAlbany men's basketball team will need to find new ways to win games this season. They now know who they will need to do so against, as they have released their non-conference schedule.

Fri, November 9: vs. Duquesne

Sun, November 11: at Ohio State

Tues, November 13: at Washington

Sat, November 17: UMKC (Neutral Site, Springfield Mass.)

Sun, November 18: Norfolk State or Loyola Md. (Neutral Site, Springfield Mass.)

Tues, November 20: at South Carolina State

Mon, November 26: vs. Wagner

Sat, December 1 at Siena (Albany Cup)

Wed, December 5 vs. St. Francis (NY)

Sat, December 8 at Colgate

Wed, December 12 vs. South Carolina State

Fri, December 21 vs. Quinnipiac

Fri, December 28 at Navy

Mon, December 31 vs. Brown

There is some decent competition on that schedule to be sure, but I do have a few issues with it as a whole.

First of all, why in the world do we need to play South Carolina State twice in one season? Are they going to join the America East soon? Are they a rival of ours? Would we gain anything by beating them? The answers to all of these questions are no. They are an awful basketball team which losing to could be downright humiliating. If there is one non-conference foe to play twice in a year, it is Siena. That's the only one that would be justifiable for.

Secondly, there is no one home game that jumps out at me. Quinnipiac is pretty good, but there is zero chance that I am clearing my schedule to watch the mighty Quinnipiac Bobcats come to SEFCU Arena. This is why attendance is such a concern for UAlbany basketball. You can't realistically expect people (students especially) to drop everything to see their team take on subpar competition both in and out of conference play.

With all of that said, there is a lot of potential for this relatively inexperienced team to grow with this schedule, something that they will need to do if they want any shot at an America East championship.