Rizzuto: I’ll do whatever
He’s willing to adjust role to help depleted Danes get first victory
Analytics may be the wave of the 21st century, but there is only one statistic that resonates with University at Albany basketball player Antonio Rizzuto.
“He does not care how much he plays,” his coach, Will Brown, said. “He’s concerned on whether we win or lose.”
While that may sound like hyperbole, Rizzuto, a junior guard from York, Pa., is willing to adjust his role to whatever will help the Great Danes, who are still looking for their first victory in this pandemic-ravaged season.
Beset by injuries, impeded by COVID -19 pauses and slowed by trying to work six new players into its rotation, Ualbany heads to Vermont for games Saturday and Sunday, and Rizzuto figures to be part of the solution rather than the problem.
“I just want to win games,” Rizzuto said in a phone interview Thursday. “I really do, if that means I don’t play at all or play a bunch. At this point in time, being my third year and not having the first two best seasons we possibly could, I just want to win. If that’s being a leader on the court or off the bench, I’ll do whatever.”
Although the Danes have been a combined 26-38 the past two seasons, their first losing campaigns since 2009-10, Rizzuto was a major contributor. He started 38 of 55 games, averaging 26.2 minutes and 8.4 points per game.
His value has increased this season as Ualbany tries to
offset injuries to Cameron Healy (oblique), Adam Lulka (nose), Jamel Horton ( back) and Will Amica ( head). Horton and Amica are among the half-dozen newcomers vying for playing time in a season that has seen six games canceled or postponed.
“We’ve been pr acticing with what we’ve got ,” Rizzu to said ,“and we’ve got to makeup for what we don’t .”
Showing his willingness to do whatever it takes, Rizzuto has started and come off the bench this season. Through three games he is third on the team in total minutes (75), second in scoring (10.3) and leads UALbany in plus/minus rating, a statistic that Brown covets. At plus-25, he is one of only two Danes on the positive side of that rating. (Chuck Champion, at plus-6, is the other.)
“We are still figuring some stuff out, ”Rizzu to said .“We’ re 0-3 right now. We have to figure out how to close a game, win a game. Three games in a row we were up at half time, and in the second half the opposing team had a run. We weren’t able to come back from that.
“Once we figure out how to win, this team is way more versatile. With some of the new guys we’ve got and some of the returning guys, I’m excited to play more games and be good. It’s still early but I think we’re better this year than we were last year. We’ve got to show people that.”
To do that, the Danes need to play more games. Their game Saturday at Vermont will be their first in 11 days. After the Sunday contest in Burlington, Ualbany will have another 12 days off, thanks to the postponement of a schedu led Jan 9-10 series at Stony Brook because of COVID issues at the Long Island school.
“We’d like to play ,” Brown said, “but with the health of our team right now it could be a blessing in disguise. We might look for a( nonconference) game. We just have to see where we’ re at physically. I deally, we’d like to play, but I don’t think it’ s the end of the world based on our health situation .”