More on the Albany win

A nice piece by official friend of the blog Brian Moritz in today's Press & Sun discussed Dwayne Jackson's role as the sixth man on this year's Bearcats team:

"My role is to do some of the little things," Jackson said. "Offensive rebounding, playing better defense and just taking my time on offense."

Of course, Jackson is not the guard that everyone's buzzing about tonight, as 'Magic' Mike lit it up for 32 this afternoon at SEFCU, but DJ picked up a quiet 10 points, 2 assists and a steal in 26 minutes, while freshman Brandon Herbert (who?) made his first career start.

Perhaps Broadus and/or Jackson embrace DJ's role as the sixth man, much as Richie Forbes was Al Walker's "instant offense" last season, but I don't. Jackson brings it every time he steps onto the court, and now in his junior year, the kid deserves a starting spot. At 6'3", he'd add at least a bit of height to the Bearcats' small, center-less lineup (Gio, where have you gone?), and his three-point shooting is a nice plus.

He'll certainly start next year, or so I would assume, with Gordon and Forbes both graduating, and with Forbes out with a "knee injury" (according to Moritz), now is the time for DJ to embrace the the role of a starting 2-guard.

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Y'know, I joke about Gio because I like the guy, but it's really becoming a trend around Vestal to see big man after big man fizzle out. Broadus announced his love for Jaan Montgomery shortly after arriving last spring, but Jaan has certainly not panned out, picking up minimal minutes after a nagging injury. Olomo appears to be injured recently, but you'd never realize it because he never played even before he was hurt. Kovacevic is hurt, and you can try and sell me all you want on his potential, but his offensive skill set is somewhere between "nothing" and "Jaan Montgomery."

The America East is just itching to be dominated by a young up-and-coming big man who can take over a game from the post. If you don't believe me, look at the first couple years of Nick Billings (or at least where he would've ended up had he not caught the injury bug), or the last couple years of Chris Holm up in Vermont. Albany fans saw flashes of what could've been with Kirsten Zoellner, while Kenny Adeleke completely dominated during his brief stint at Hartford.

Gio, Jaan and Minja are not the answer. Nor is the undersized Reggie Fuller (he's good, but not a center), nor is Lazar Trifunovic (see: power forward). Now, all the recruiting buzz for 2008-09 is focused on two flashy guards with plenty of baggage. Again, today's performance by Mike Gordon notwithstanding, one has to wish that the recruiting focus turn to a 6'10"-or-taller big man to clog up the lane and open up all these spot-up shooters (no, not Schafer Jackson) that Vestal seems to produce.

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(And by the way -- I told you Gordon could shoot.)