News & notes

 The other shoe is about to drop for the Albany Empire.

Mercurial majority owner Antonio Brown told reporters on Wednesday that he plans to add himself to the active roster and suit up for the Empire's next home game on May 27.

Albany has dropped 3 straight since winning their opener, and will travel to Jacksonville on Saturday. Given the legal issues Brown is facing in Florida, I doubt he'll be there for the game, and that's why he's waiting until the following week to make his Arena debut. Attendance reportedly is down from last season, mostly due to the Brown circus, and the thought is that the 7 time Pro Bowler could raise attendance just by playing. 

I can't say I didn't warn you this would happen, because I did. I'll believe it if I see Brown on the field at MVP Arena in 9 days.

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UAlbany is hosting early round action in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament this weekend. It'll be a homecoming of sorts for Michigan coach Kevin Conry, who was an assistant at Siena some years back. ESPNU will have their cameras at Casey Stadium Saturday when Michigan takes on Duke at 2:30 pm.

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Speaking of UAlbany & Siena, the annual Albany Cup basketball game between the two schools was supposed to be played at SEFCU Arena this year, but controversial Albany AD Mark Benson threw cold water on that by announcing Wednesday that the game will be played at MVP Arena as a Siena home game due to "concerns" about the ongoing renovation at SEFCU Arena, which apparently has taken longer than expected.

And you wonder why people are calling for Benson----and coach Dwayne Killings----to be bounced after a less than stellar 2022-23 season. Benson's not that sharp after all.

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Wednesday's sectional scoreboard:

Baseball:

Class AA 1st round:

Ballston Spa 9, Shaker 8.

Class A 1st round:

Mohonasen 9, South Glens Falls 6. The Mighty Warriors are looking to get back to the A title game.

LaSalle 11, Scotia-Glenville 4.

Class B 1st round:

Ichabod Crane 3, Hudson 1.

Cohoes 4, Catskill 0.

Ravena 11, Johnstown 3.

Schuylerville 5, Fonda-Fultonville 3.

Tamarac 12, Taconic Hills 10.

Coxsackie-Athens 11, Glens Falls 1.

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Troy High flag football update:

We've had to hunt around for recent scores because nothing gets reported, and e-mail requests to Troy AD Paul Reinisch have gone unanswered two weeks in a row. Anyway, with 1 game left, the Lady Horses are 4-5 on a 3 game losing streak. Troy won its 1st road game in completing a season sweep over Plattsburgh on May 8. Since then, however, the going has gotten rougher.

May 12: Rhinebeck collected a receipt, shutting out Troy, 32-0. Ouch!

May 13: Kingston, which has owned Troy in basketball for years, def. Troy, 28-12.

May 15: Saugerties blew out Troy, 42-28. The game was advanced by 4 days due to Section IX tournament play starting this week.

In the 3 losses, Troy has been outscored 102-40. The season ends Saturday.