Haney embraces starting position
Last season’s Sixth Player of the Year says duties still unchanged
TROY — Morgan Haney is unlikely to repeat as the America East Sixth Player of the Year.
Not because the redshirt junior guard hasn’t been playing well — she’s averaging 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds for the University at Albany women’s basketball team — but because she’s started 12 of the 13 games she’s played.
Haney missed the first 11 games of the season with a meniscus tear.
Starting or coming off the bench, she approaches the game the same way.
“Just trying to feed my teammates, trying to play the best defense I can.
I’ve just kind of been a little bit up-and-down throughout the season, just with injuries and coming back and kind of just getting back into the flow of things, but the role is pretty much the same,” Haney said.
“Defensively, she’s been a huge key for us,” Ualbany coach Colleen Mullen said.
Last season, Haney missed the summer session and most of fall workouts while recovering from a torn ACL, so Mullen started then-freshman guard Lilly Phillips.
“(Phillips) was doing well, and then we were winning and being successful, and then Morgan was giving us a completely different look coming off the bench,” Mullen said.
Haney averaged 6.4 points and three rebounds in 2021-22, leading the team with 43 steals. She and Phillips had a team-high 71 assists apiece.
Coming off the bench this season, Phillips is averaging 4.9 points and 2.1 boards with 34 assists (third on the team) and 13 steals. She and Haney play fairly equal minutes — 24.8 per game for Haney, 22.7 per game for Phillips.
“Both years, I’m just kind of called to do whatever they need me to do. Even though my role has been a little different, I think just playing hard and running the offense and coming in as a spark this year, I don’t think a lot has changed,” Phillips said. She averaged 4.1 points and 1.8 rebounds last season.
“I can start the game off seeing how the other team is playing, how we’re playing, and I think that helps coming into the game,