ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's basketball team continues its home stand and wraps the 2020-21 regular season with a weekend series against 2019-20 America East quarterfinal opponent Stony Brook.
 
Game Info
Saturday, February 20 vs. Stony Brook (4:00 pm)
Live Stats | ESPN3
 
Sunday, February 21 vs. Stony Brook (2:00 pm)
Live Stats | ESPN3
 
Leading the Pack

• UAlbany leads the America East in turnover margin, and ranks second in scoring offense and FT%
• UAlbany ranks third in scoring margin, FG%, steals, and assist/turnover ratio
• Stony Brook leads in blocked shots
• Antonio Rizzuto leads the America East in 3FG% and threes per game
• Stony Brook's Mouhamadou Gueye leads in blocked shots
• UAlbany is 4-1 when scoring 70 or more points this season

 
Scouting Stony Brook
The Seawolves have lost four-straight games, coming off consecutive series against UMBC and Vermont.  The Retrievers and Catamounts are tied atop the America East standings at 9-3 in-conference.  Stony Brook started the season 1-4 before rolling off five-straight victories, including starting conference play 4-0.  The Seawolves, the two-seed in last season's America East Tournament, were picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches' poll, one spot behind UAlbany, after bringing in eight newcomers to fill in the gaps from last season's roster vacancies.  UAlbany has lost five of the last six to the Seawolves, including each of the last three, as well as each of the last three at SEFCU Arena.
 
Last Time vs. Stony Brook
UAlbany's 2019-20 season came to an end in the quarterfinals of the America East Tournament.  The Great Danes faced off against second-seed Stony Brook on Long Island, falling to the Seawolves in a 76-73 thriller.  Cameron Healy bounced back from his recent struggles due to injury to the tune of 28 points on 10-16 shooting, including 6-10 from deep to lead four Great Danes in double-figures.  Healy scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half. Stony Brook withstood Healy's onslaught, however, by shooting nearly 60% from the floor in the second half.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany secured its eligibility for the 2021 Hercules Tires America East Men's Playoffs with its 12th game of the season, defeating UMass Lowell 81-69 to split the series with the River Hawks.  Kellon Taylor scored a career-high 16 points, one of four Great Danes to score in double-figures.  UMass Lowell, who shot 80.0% from the floor in the second half of the first game, shot 60.0% in the first half of the second, before finally cooling off in game two's second half.  Though the River Hawks recorded 14 blocked shots in the two games against UAlbany, the Great Danes outscored UMass Lowell 17-9 in the second game in transition, and 23-9 off of turnovers.  Defensively, UAlbany set a single-game record against an America East opponent, recording 14 steals.
 
Around the America East
Vermont moved back into a tie with idle UMBC for first in the America East standings, jumping to 9-3 in-conference and extending their winning streak to seven games after sweeping Stony Brook.  Since sweeping NJIT, UAlbany has split each of its last two series, at New Hampshire and vs. UMass Lowell, with a team pause in between.  Behind Vermont and UMBC, New Hampshire and Hartford are tied at 8-6, followed by UMass Lowell (7-7) and UAlbany (5-5).  Stony Brook is tied for seventh with NJIT at 6-8, with Binghamton in ninth at 2-10.  Maine, unable to practice since January 17, has opted out of the remainder of the season.
 
Saturday's America East Games

• NJIT at Binghamton, 2:00 pm
• Stony Brook at UAlbany, 4:00 pm

 
Sunday's America East Games

• NJIT at Binghamton, 2:00 pm
• Stony Brook at UAlbany, 2:00 pm

 
Upcoming Milestones

• Cameron Healy: 987 points

 
Milestones Reached

• Will Brown: 400 head coaching victories – vs. NJIT, January 16, 2021
• Cameron Healy: 250 rebounds – at New Hampshire, January 23, 2021
• Antonio Rizzuto: 500 points – at Vermont, January 3, 2021

 
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-plus seasons, Healy has scored 987 points, averaging 13.9 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.
 
400
On January 16, 2021, head coach Will Brown won his 400th career game in his head coaching career, in an 83-75 victory over NJIT.  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 had compiled 310 of his 400 career victories with the Great Danes.
 
Captain
Head Coach Will Brown selected junior guard Antonio Rizzuto as the team's lone captain for the 2020-21 season.  The decision, made by Coach Brown on January 12, marks a departure in the team's usual format for selecting captains.  Brown noted Rizzuto's consistency and work ethic as reasons he felt Rizzuto was particularly suited to lead the team through the unprecedented season.
 
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 awaits their 2021 Hercules Tires America East Playoff matchup, which will be announced Sunday following the conclusion of the day's games.