Winter sports season is officially over in the 518.
On Saturday, the Albany FireWolves closed out a horrendous sophomore season with a 16-10 loss to Buffalo, finishing 3-15 on the season, good for last place and the #1 pick in the pending NLL draft. A 10 game losing streak in mid-season sealed their fate, as the 'Wolves could not recover from the departure of Joe Resetaritis.
Expect plenty of changes come draft time.
Less than 24 hours later, the Adirondack Thunder were eliminated from the ECHL playoffs by Newfoundland, 3-0. The Growlers won the series, 4 games to 1.
Later Sunday, Kevin Huerter and the Sacramento Kings fell to the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, 120-100. Huerter finished with 7 points and 9 rebounds, the former well below his season average of 15.2 points per game. Huerter will be heading home, and likely will host basketball camps this summer.
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UAlbany tight end Thomas Greaney wasn't drafted, but over the weekend, he signed a 3 year deal with the Cleveland Browns. While the Browns didn't send scouts to Afrim's Sports in March, they did get some good reports, leading to the contract.
Union's Ike Irabor, a running back, has been invited to try out at a rookie minicamp for the Giants in New Jersey next weekend.
So why weren't they drafted? Albany plays football in the Colonial Athletic Conference, and Union in the Liberty League, non-entities as far as the NFL is concerned come draft time. They'd rather fawn over the Power 5 conferences.
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The antics of majority owner Antonio Brown may have placed a curse on the Albany Empire.
The Empire lost their 2nd straight, 56-49, to Carolina on Sunday, the same Carolina team that swept Albany in the regular season last year, only to fall in the NAL title game. On the game's final drive, the officials opted to hold their flags, and used the playground mentality of letting the players play instead of slowing things further with penalities. While coach Damon Ware's okay with it, he feels the Empire got hosed on a defensive pass interference call on Dwayne Hollis in the 1st half.
I'm not a fan of home teams getting favorable calls. The officials are supposed to be impartial.
However, I can recall attending a Conquest game some 20 years ago, and a fellow fan told me how some of the zebras invent calls to make the games more interesting. WWE, it's not, and it shouldn't be. We see this same thing in the NFL, NBA, and some college games.
The Empire return home Saturday to play West Texas. Since Saturday is also Free Comic Book Day, they may want to have some swag to give to the kiddo's.....!
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The Albany Patroons defeated Tri-State for the 2nd time in 10 days, 101-93, on Sunday, upping their record to 15-2 for the season. The Pats travel to Lehigh Valley, where they had so much controversy last year, on Friday, and don't return to the Washington Avenue Armory until May 12.
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With more rain in the forecast this afternoon, check with your schools to see if your baseball, softball, and/or lacrosse games are still on. Rain is in the forecast for most of this week, making rescheduling problematic for Section II in the final 2 weeks of the regular season.
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