Danes picked to finish 5th in poll
Ualbany ranked in middle of pack by the America East coaches
The Ualbany women’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the America East preseason coaches' poll.
Stony Brook was picked to finish first with six first-place votes, breaking Maine’s threeyear streak of finishing No. 1 in the poll.
The Black Bears came in second this year, followed by Umass Lowell. Vermont finished fourth.
Maine was the regular-season champion last season, ahead of Stony Brook. The Seawolves feature new coach Ashley Langford.
“It’s a lot of tremendous respect from the league,” Langford said. “But like I said, we didn’t do anything yet.”
For the second year in a row, no Great Danes were tapped for the preseason all-conference team, which featured Denai Bowman (Binghamton), Anna Olson (Vermont), India Pagan (Stony Brook), Anne Simon (Maine), Denise Solis (Umass Lowell) and Annie Warren (Stony Brook).
Ualbany finished fourth in the America East last season with a 5-7 record after taking fourth in the preseason poll.
The America East also returns to its regular schedule after COVID-19 forced teams to play two-game weekend series last season to help prevent spreading the virus. Ualbany will start its conference slate on Dec. 30 with a road trip to Hartford.
Conference notes
New America East commissioner Brad Walker said there
are no immediate plans to replace Hartford, which is set to leave the America East in 2023.
“Right now we feel pretty strong with the nine that we’re going to have,” Walker said. “But if we find teams, universities that fit our profile academically as well as the support for the athletic institutions, we’re going to keep our ears open.”
The America East hasn’t planned any major changes to scheduling following Hartford’s departure yet, but will be considering if any are necessary in the coming months. Hartford is the only private university currently in the America East.
Walker also touched on the changes to NCAA transfer rules.
“I think it’s great for the student-athletes to be able to play quicker,” he said. “It’s probably more of a challenge from a recruiting standpoint but I think it gives us an opportunity for more of our teams to be competitive quicker.”