Albany Events

It was a busy schedule in Section II Friday night with 34 games on the schedule for boys basketball and another 29 match ups for the girls. A big shout out to everyone new that has included us in your score distributions this week. We greatly appreciate it.

There are 45 different fish species classified for state records with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Some of them, like the 69 pound 15 ounce Muskie that Arthur Lawton caught on the St. Lawrence River on September 22, 1957 or the 46 pound 2 ounce Northern Pike that Peter Dubuc caught in the Great Sacandaga Lake on September 15, 1940 may never be broken.

Last night, the Madison Garden Crowd was giving it to their home team, as New York came out and played a sluggish first half. Boston led by as many as 25 and the boo birds were targeting Knicks star forward Julius Randle. Then, in the 4th quarter, with New York in the midst of an amazing comeback, Randle made that familiar 'thumb down' gesture towards the fans. Uh, oh...What are these athletes thinking? Like, New Yorkers are going to stop when you do that to them? You'll get a finger right back and it won't be the thumb!

Harbor seals can be spotted, especially in the spring time, as far north as the City of Albany. Seals generally live in saltwater. Tell that to 'Harbor Seal #246.' When you hear his journey, you'll think he deserves a better name.

Section II boys basketball played a light schedule with 8 games on Wednesday night but the girls had 15 match ups on the court. There were strong performances for both the girls and boys last night. However, there were only a few close games played in the Capital Region on Wednesday.

Hot 99.1 welcomes the Black History Month Step Show to the Palace and we want to send you to the show.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has a ton of time to think about his pitching rotation these days. One problem is, he doesn't know who is doing well coming off of injuries and who is not. Nor does he know who general manager Brian Cashman will be able to add via trade or free agency. As the players are locked out of team facilities, communication between organizational staff and their players is supposed to be non-existent. From everything that I can gather, that is true. So, let's give the manager some help and design a realistic starting five to take the Bombers back to the World Series.

With some NBA teams playing with playing with abbreviated rosters in limited capacity arenas, Section II high school student-athletes are doing the same thing. Tuesday night was no exception in the Capital Region. There were 27 scheduled match-ups in boys hoops and another 14 for the girls.

Each day, we watch the NBA and NHL shuffle another season of games. Canadian franchises are now playing in front of empty arenas. How will these stoppages effect the high schools and colleges in upstate New York? Will the expected surge of positive COVID 19 test results shut down games to fans or even worse cancel games?

2022 is a big year for Woody Johnson and the New York Jets. Gang Green owns the NFL's longest playoff drought, tying a franchise record of 11 straight seasons. Notice the word 'tying.' Losing is nothing new to this New York Jets organization. However, there may be a Super Bowl before you know it, if Mr. Johnson & Johnson applies the correct bandage. Here are 5 resolutions for Woody in order to resurrect his flailing NFL franchise in 2022.

Sunday was a disaster for the New York Giants. The 29-3 loss to a directionless Chicago Bears team, playing without their prized quarterback Justin Fields, was nothing less than a complete embarrassment. The Mara and Tisch families had to be hanging their heads in frustration. 2021 has been one stumble after the next for the storied New York National Football League franchise. Here are 5 resolutions that the Giants owners have to abide by to turn this ship around.

Davis ran the ball 8 times for 42 yards and a touchdown. 5 yards per carry and he got into the end zone? That's a pretty good day, except when your team loses and begins to fade once again from the playoff picture. The Bills beat the Falcons 29-15 and Atlanta dropped to 7-9. Along with the loss, Davis had to eat some, well, fine tasting crow this weekend.

New York sports in 2021 was fully of drama, progress, disappointment and another year of zero 'Big 4' championships. However, it's always a good year in Big Apple sports. That's because there is always something fun to talk about. There are enough major sports soap operas to interest a few cities, nonetheless one. This year was no different. I'm not going to spoil the ending but you know that somehow COVID 19 will find its way on to our list.

When Opening Day will take place, may be a bigger question than even the New York Yankees questionable Opening Day line-up. Let's have some fun and give general manager Brian Cashman a little help, while providing manager Aaron Boone with a winning line-up. Remember, we have to be realistic with our wish-list additions!

Jim Boeheim and his Syracuse Orange have struggled out of the gate this year. Losses to Colgate, VCU and Georgetown certainly have not been highlights on their road to a 5-5 record to start the season. A legitimate COVID outbreak has forced the program to be put 'on pause' since December 11th. With their 2nd game of ACC schedule just ahead, the Orange were in danger of possibly forfeiting conference games. Syracuse defeated Florida State 63-60 in Tallahassee on December 4th in there only ACC match-up so far.

UAlbany, who has won 3 out of their last 4 games, raced out to 24-7 lead over the Mountain Hawks and never looked back. Dre Perry led the Great Danes scoring attack with 18 points, while blocking 3 shots and snatching 2 steals on the defensive side. Freshman Justin Neely was a monster on the glass, grabbing 14 boards while adding 11 points of his own.

As holiday shoppers were navigating for that perfect parking space, local boys and girls high school hoops teams were on the hardwood courts Tuesday. It is certainly an unsettling time for these young student-athletes, as they observe major league sports pausing games. Many of these high school players remember their older classmates competing in empty gyms, while others didn't play at all. Memories that we'd all like to forget. On Tuesday, it was great opportunity to get out there and enjoy some holiday season hoops.

National Hockey League has announced a shutdown starting after Tuesday night's games. This will be the first major league to completely shutdown action since 2020 because of the pandemic. Actually, the 'shutdown' sounds worse than it is.

Tamarac High School boys basketball coach Eric Medved ran an 18 game weekend basketball tournament like he coaches, to win. Medved got his win this weekend, on the court and off. The Tamarac coach's weekend effort, besides two basketball games for his team, was running a Coaches vs. Cancer high school tournament at Hudson Valley Community College. How did it go? Well, we'll get to the basketball in a second but the tournament raised over $10,785 so far!

The Tweet came out on Saturday night, much like the white puff of smoke out of the Vatican when a new Pope is selected. This time it was from an estate in Greenwich, Connecticut and the home of billionaire Steve Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets. Cohen was alerting the New York Mets fanbase that Buck Showalter would be the new manager of the Amazin's. It was the name that the fans wanted to hear and much like their recent splurge into free-agency, they got everything that they wished for.

Matt Quatraro has been in professional baseball for 24 years. 16 of those seasons have been coaching. In his early coaching days, Quatraro would spend off-seasons volunteer coaching for the University at Albany Great Danes baseball team. Matt is a smart man. He is easy to be around. He is a team oriented and understands an organization's structure and each individual's role in its success. That is the baseball business today. That's the kind of person, if I had Steve Cohen's bank account, I would have representing my $2.5 billionaire dollar team on the field. Oh, and Matt's a competitor to the core and knows how to win at the Major League Level. Louis Rojas unfortunately didn't have that experience.

There were several questionable calls by officials towards the end of the Buffalo Bills vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game on Sunday. Enough to rile up a fanbase for a while. Some would stew but others get creative. Their team may not be winning as much as they would like but the Buffalo Bills fanbase, known as the 'Bills Mafia' is at it again with one of their fundraising initiatives, with an emphasis on the first 3 letters, 'fun.'

Wednesday on The Drive with Charlie & Dan, we had the pleasure of hanging out with the Tamarac High School boys basketball coach, Eric Medved, the organizer of this weekend's tournament. Yes, we talked about Tamarac getting off to a 3-0 start and how great the kids on his team are but this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, mean way more to Coach Medved than a couple of basketball games.

Assists are coming to organizations across the country from the NBA Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit organization established and initially funded by all 30 NBA teams. According to their website, nbafoundation.nba.com, "the Foundation is focused on driving economic opportunity and empowerment in the Black community." This month the foundation dished out its fourth round of grants. This distribution included 38 grants totaling $11 million dollars. One of those grants ended up at a small college just down the Taconic Parkway from the Capital Region.

Head Coach Dwayne Killings and the Great Danes men's basketball team are still getting to know one another. The media guide clearly states that 16 of the 22 players, coaches and staff are new to the program. More often than not, the cohesion that enables them to win college basketball games takes time for the players and the coaches to develop. Monday night in Chestnut Hill in Boston, the UAlbany Great Danes took a huge step in that process.

According to reports Sunday night by MLB network's Jon Heyman, the Mets have narrowed down their search to 3 and believe it or not, it looks like they picked the right 3. Buck Showalter, Joe Espada and Bethlehem Central High School grad Matt Quatraro are the 3 finalists. Eppler almost hired Showalter in Anaheim and has ties to Espada from their days in the Yankees organization. They were the first two names reported on Sunday by Heyman, maybe that was intentional, maybe not.

Fridays are always busy on high school fields and courts, December 10th one was no exceptions. There were 38 basketball games on the Section II schedule for the boys and 32 match ups for the girls. Anyone that wants to submit photos of games, it will be greatly appreciated. You can submit them to charles.voelker@townsquaremedia.com.

The one of the best things for high school student-athletes is getting to compete for your school against the next town over or a long-time rival. Numerous times, athletes from different schools have talked to me about their moms and dads competing against those same schools and therefore passing down the rivalry. Friday night, we start to get into the meat of the high school basketball season with plenty of those rivalries on local courts.

Wednesday night was a light night on the local high school basketball courts and score reporting was even lighter! Thank you to everyone that reached out to me @charlievoelker on Twitter to request scores to be posted. We are working on getting regular reporting of scores and highlights.

Much of the New York Mets fanbase along with the media, me not included, are rooting for the Mets to hire former Albany-Colonie Yankee skipper and long time major league manager, Buck Showalter. There are a few other candidates sprinkled in, including Tampa Bay Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, but Buck is getting the most attention. Showalter should get the most attention but shouldn't get the job.