ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's basketball team will play Saint Joseph's for the first time in program history Tuesday night, having recently scheduled the non-conference opponent as a substitute for their previously scheduled series against Stony Brook.  The game will be broadcast nationally on NBCSN.
 
Game Info
Saturday, January 9 at Saint Joseph's (6:00 pm)
Live Stats | NBCSN
 
Leading the Pack

• UAlbany leads the America East in assist/turnover ratio and ranks second in turnover margin
• St. Joe's ranks second in the Atlantic-10 in 3FG per game
• Antonio Rizzuto leads the conference in 3FG% and 3FG per game
• Kellon Taylor ranks third in FG%
• St. Joe's has lost 11-straight games dating back to last season

 
Scouting Saint Joseph's
Saint Joseph's is currently 0-8 on the season, losing each of their games by an average of 17.1 points.  In the last two seasons, the Hawks are 6-41 overall.  St. Joe's schedule so far has been impressive, featuring games against Auburn, Kansas, Villanova, and Tennessee, the latter three of which were ranked in the top-10 at the time of each respective game.  The Hawks, who were picked 12th in the Atlantic-10 Preseason Coaches Poll this year, are led by redshirt-senior Ryan Daly, who earned Preseason Atlantic-10 Second Team honors.  Daly averaged 20.6 points per game last season to lead his conference, but this year is averaging 17.2.  St. Joe's finished 13th in the Atlantic-10 last season, and lost in the opening round of the Atlantic-10 Tournament to 12-seed George Mason.
 
Last Time vs. Saint Joseph's
This is the first time UAlbany will play against Saint Joseph's in program history.
 
Last Time Out
The Great Danes followed up a come-from-behind victory at Vermont by falling to the Catamounts in the second of two games in Burlington.  CJ Kelly led UAlbany's comeback effort from down 18 with 27 points in the first game, but was held to 14, including zero in the second half, in Sunday's series finale.  UAlbany kept the game close in the first half, playing the Catamounts to a 39-39 tie at the break, but Vermont came out of halftime on an 8-0 run to take control of the game.  Antonio Rizzuto matched his career-high 21 points in the loss, shooting 6-10 from deep.
 
Around the America East
Idle Stony Brook, on pause due to COVID-19 issues, remains atop the America East standings at 4-0 in-conference.  UMBC and New Hampshire are tied for second at 3-1, though UMBC holds the conference's best overall record of 7-2.  Hartford stands alone in fourth at 4-2, followed by a pair of .500 teams, Vermont at 3-3, and NJIT at 2-2.  UMass Lowell is 2-4 in seventh, while UAlbany and Maine are tied for eight at 1-4 overall and 1-3 in-conference.  Binghamton is 1-8 overall and 1-5 in the America East in 10th.
 
Saturday's America East Games

• UMBC at New Hampshire, TBD
• Hartford at UMass Lowell, 12:00 pm
• Vermont at Binghamton, 2:00 pm
• Maine at NJIT, 2:00 pm
• UAlbany at Saint Joseph's, 6:00 pm

 
Upcoming Milestones

• Will Brown: 399 victories
• Cameron Healy: 969 points, 246 rebounds

 
Milestones Reached

• Antonio Rizzuto: 500 points

 
Approaching 1,000
Junior guard Cameron Healy is set to become the 13th UAlbany men's basketball player to hit the 1,000-point career milestone.  Through his first two seasons, Healy has scored 953 points, averaging 15.1 points per game.  UAlbany's last 1,000-point scorer was Healy's former teammate Ahmad Clark, who eclipsed the mark on February 12, 2020 at Hartford.
 
Approaching 400
Through three games in 2020-21, head coach Will Brown has won 398 games as a head coach, leaving him just two wins away from hitting the 400-win milestone for his career.  After spending three seasons as an assistant coach at Saint Rose, Brown earned his first head coaching position at Sullivan County Community College ahead of the 1998-99 season.  In three years at Sullivan, Brown went 90-10 before being named interim head coach at UAlbany in the 2001-02 season.  Brown was named head coach officially, and since has compiled 308 of his 398 career victories with the Great Danes.
 
500
In the second of back-to-back games at Vermont, junior guard Antonio Rizzuto matched his career-high with 21 points, leading the Great Danes in defeat.  The total allowed Rizzuto to eclipse the 500-point milestone for his career.  He entered the game just two points shy of 500 through four games in his junior-year season.  In two-plus years as a Great Dane, encompassing 60 appearances and 41 starts, Rizzuto is averaging 8.7 points per game.
 
Storming Back
Trailing by as many as 18 in the first half at Vermont, and by 16 at halftime, UAlbany stormed back in the second half, using a 21-3 run, including 16-0, over nearly 11 minutes to stun Vermont to clinch the team's first victory of the 2020-21 season.  The win also snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Catamounts, a nine-game overall losing streak dating back to the end of the 2019-20 season, and was the program's first victory over Vermont in Patrick Gymnasium since 2016.  CJ Kelly led the way for UAlbany, scoring 27 points, including nine of the Great Danes' first 12.
 
Double-Double
Kellon Taylor recorded UAlbany's first double-double of the season, scoring 12 points to go with 11 rebounds in the team's defeat against Niagara on December 22.  Taylor shot 6-8 from the floor against the Purple Eagles, playing 38 minutes.
 
Presidential Scholar-Athlete
Junior Adam Lulka was named one of six America East Presidential Scholar-Athletes for the Fall 2020 semester.  Lulka, who completed his undergraduate degree in Psychology in December with a 4.00 GPA, was one of three Great Danes to be recognized (men's lacrosse's Jakob Patterson and women's soccer's Hailey Summers).  To qualify as a Presidential Scholar-Athlete, an individual must be graduating with an undergraduate GPA of 3.75 or higher.
 
Preseason All-Conference
For the second-straight season, junior guard Cameron Healy was selected to the America East Preseason All-Conference Team.  Healy averaged 14.2 points per game last season, despite falling off in production over the final stretch of the year due to injury.  Healy led the America East in FT% in 2019-20, ranking fifth in the NCAA.  He also ranked second in the conference in 3FG% and 10th in scoring.
 
Picked Fourth
For the third-straight season, UAlbany has been picked fourth in the America East Preseason Coaches' Poll.  The Great Danes received 51 total points, behind Vermont, who claimed the top spot for the fifth-straight year, UMBC, and New Hampshire.
 
Father-Son Connection
Head Coach Will Brown's oldest son, Jackson, joined the team this season as a freshman.  Additionally, Coach Brown has a connection to transfer CJ Kelly.  Brown played with Kelly's father, Chris, in high school during clinics and summer camps on Long Island.  After transferring to Dowling College, Brown once again played with Chris.  Coach Brown describes Chris as a well-rounded, defensively-minded 6-3 wing with a high basketball IQ.  CJ, by contrast, prefers the offensive end of the floor compared to his father.  Additionally, CJ's mother, Marlene, also played at Dowling, and one of his sisters played at Siena.
 
Late Start
December 19 is the latest date on record that the UAlbany men's basketball team has played its season opener.  The previous latest date was December 6, 1975, when UAlbany defeated Cortland 75-45.
 
America East Announces Basketball Schedule Format
On October 19, 2020, the America East debuted its revised schedule format for the 2020-21 season.  The conference season will begin on December 19-20, with teams playing back-to-back games at the same site against the same opponent on Saturdays and Sundays.  There are built-in off weekends to accommodate potential postponements throughout the season.  It will also be the first year that the conference schedule expands to 18 games to account for NJIT joining the conference.
 
Iati Voted Among Top Assistants in America East
A vote by 20 America East men's basketball coaches selected UAlbany Associate Head Coach Jon Iati as the second-best assistant coach in the conference.  The vote, conducted by Stadium, saw Iati recognized among his peers as second behind only Vermont's Kyle Cieplicki.
 
Will and Jamie Brown Donate to American Cancer Society
A longtime participant in the Coaches vs. Cancer program, UAlbany head coach Will Brown and his wife, Jaime, announced a donation of $10,000 to the American Cancer Society in April to help cancer patients facing new struggles due to COVID-19.  Brown announced the donation as he received the Society's Champion Award, recognizing coaches who have shown extraordinary leadership and commitment to the Society' mission.  Coach Brown has been a participant in Coaches vs. Cancer for 15 years since UAlbany's inaugural Coaches vs. Cancer game.
 
Next: UAlbany hosts America East newcomer NJIT on January 16 and 17.