America East Basketball: UAlbany's Season Ahead

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A 13-19 season which ended with a tough three-point loss to Vermont in the quarterfinal of the America East tournament, left the UAlbany Great Danes wanting more. So over the summer, head coach Dwayne Killings set out to put his team in a better position to compete in the league. Additions have been made to the roster and a non-conference schedule will challenge his team. All in the name of being better come league play. Here is what the Great Danes did to improve their place in the league.

The roster has three freshmen on it plus four from the transfer portal. The incoming freshmen are as follows. Amir Lindsey is a 5-10 point guard from Framingham, Mass. who was a two-sport star at The Rivers School. He was captain of both the basketball team and football squad. He spent his summer playing AAU hoops for the BABC program. He was ranked the 13th-best player in Massachusetts and the 26th in all of New England.

Kani Topuz is a 6-7 forward who started his athletic career on the soccer fields of Istanbul, Turkey. At the age of 14, he gave up soccer to concentrate on basketball. For the last two years, Topuz has attended the Hoosac School. He says he can play a variety of positions. however, defense is his calling card. Still, at 20 years old, basketball is somewhat of a new sport to him but he is looking forward to learning at the D1 level with UAlbany.

Ma’kye Taylor, a pickup from the transfer portal, is a 6-7 forward from Imhotep Charter in Pennsylvania. He played club basketball for Team Final. His size and ability to play down in the box should help the Great Danes to score and rebound in the paint.

Bryon Joshua is a grad student from Alcorn State. A season ago, he made 28 starts while appearing in 29 games. He averaged 11.3 points per game shooting 35% from the field. He was a 23.2% shooter from 3-point land (16-of-69) while averaging 3.8 boards a game. Demar Langford is a 6-6 guard who will be playing for his third program at the D1 level. He has spent time at both Boston College and the University of Central Florida. In 96 career games, Langford averaged 7.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists.

Kheni Briggs is a 6-3 guard who spent a year at Charleston Southern and a year ago he went to Indian Hill Community College where he played 32 games and averaged 10.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists. He shot 42% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point land.

Sultan Adewale is a 6-8 forward who spent last season at Iona College. He appeared in 33 games with 15 of them being starts. He averaged 3 points in 14.1 minutes of game time and grabbed 3.2 rebounds a game. A presence in the paint, he blocked 22 shots.

UAlbany’s non-conference schedule has them making trips to Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Classic. They also have stops at Georgetown and Syracuse.