Albany looking to get bigger
Patroons in search of a rebounder to shore up the team’s inside play
After the past two games, you would think that all is right with the Albany Patroons.
Think again.
Even though the Patroons mopped Washington Avenue Armory’s floor with the New York Court Kings last Friday and Monday, Albany coach Derrick Rowland knows better. Ask him what he thinks after the Patroons play the Yakima Sunkings, the second-best team in The Basketball League, at 7 p.m. Friday at the Armory.
“We can beat them if we play well,” Rowland said. “If we don’t
play better than we did the last game (a 127-110 win over the Court Kings on Monday), we probably won’t win.”
The Patroons are in fourth place in the league with an 11-7 record; Yakima, which beat the Patroons in the league championship series last season when it was known as the North American Premier Basketball League, is 15-6. The Sunkings, who played the Court Kings in New York on Thursday night, came East with a five-game winning streak.
In order for his team to be able to stay with the elite teams in TBL, Rowland says he has to find some new talent. And they have to be big.
“Our biggest hole right now is rebounding,” Rowland said. “We need to get more rebounding. I need another big man.”
The Patroons’ biggest player is 6-foot-9, 245-pound Alonzo Murphy, and he averages 8.38 rebounds per game. Darius Paul, at 6-8, 225, leads the team (8.75 rebounds) and 6-6, 225-pound Steven Cunningham, gets 7.69.
Yakima’s big man, 6-10, 240-pound center Mac Koshwal, is sixth in the league in rebounding, grabbing 9.67 per game.
Rowland has spent much of this week trying to find a big body to bring to town. So far, no luck.
There will be another familiar face on the team roster when the Patroons play Friday. Shadell Millinghaus, who scored 24 points for the New York Court Kings against Albany on Monday, will be wearing a Patroons jersey Friday. He played parts of his high school career at Schenectady High and Troy High.
But he is only 6-2. He gives the Patroons another local player who could bring appeal at the gate (that makes seven of the 13 players on the roster with Capital Region ties) but he doesn’t help Rowland’s immediate need.
The problem, Rowland said, is that he doesn’t have a lot of money to work with. He said the Patroons can afford to pay a new big man about $1,500 per month.
“The deck is stacked a little against me with the salaries,” he said.
Rowland said that Jamario Moon, who played here last season, is home in Georgia and not playing anywhere. He also said the former participant in the NBA Slam Dunk contest is out of the Patroons’ price range.
The two-game winning streak over the Court Kings might be misleading. New York is in last place in the league. Before that, Albany had lost seven of its past nine.
“I don’t do well with losing, I don’t sleep at night,” Rowland said.”it puts me in bad sorts.”
He said he is happy with the two recent additions in guards EJ Gallup and Shea Bromirski, saying both can help on the offensive end. But neither of them own a 6-10 frame that Rowland dearly covets.
“I’m looking,” Rowland said. “I do think this team we have now can beat anybody in the league, but we have to play really well.”