New York state of mind

While all of New York is focused on the Giants' Super Bowl showdown Sunday against the Patriots, there is a small sliver of hardcore Empire State hoop fans saving room on the sports menu for Saturday's America East appetizer in Albany.

League-leading Stony Brook and its gritty defense travel upstate to take on the Great Danes at SEFCU Arena, where Will Brown is getting it done with scoring. The Seawolves will be tested by Albany's high scoring trio of guards. Gerardo Suero (21.6), Logan Aronhalt (15.9) and Mike Black (13.0) combine for 50.5 points a game for the Great Danes. Stony Brook won on Long Island, 81-68.
The game is the part of Albany's annual Big Purple Growl event and is a sellout.
The pick: Albany announces its arrival as a contender with an overtime triumph.

Saturday in America East

UMaine at UMBC
Chase Plummer, a 6-6 forward, leads the Retrievers with 14 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He had 17 in Retrievers' loss in Orono. Bears look to get back to .500 before hosting Vermont on Monday.
The pick: Black Bears

Hartford at Vermont
Vermont does not have a single player averaging as much as 30 minutes per game, but it does have nine players averaging between 12 and 29. The Catamounts' balance is highlighted by stalwart forward Bryan Voelkel's 6 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game. ... Hartford has one player averaging double figure points, Andres Torres at 11.9.
The pick: Vermont rolls into Monday trip to Orono

Boston U. at Binghamton
Bearcats trying to avoid a winless season. Terriers coming off a tough one-point loss to Vermont look to bounce back.
The pick: Boston U. victorious in Vestal

Anxiety about separation

Happens every year ... the separation.

Teams begin to lock in on a target area of the America East standings and the separation begins. Some years it happens right away. Others it takes a bit longer.

Just past the half-way marker and it appears as if Vermont and Stony Brook are breaking away from the rest of the pack.

Boston U. and Albany look like solid contenders while UMaine (once considered a possible lead horse), New Hampshire and Hartford will fight it out for the middle ground.

Binghamton and UMBC are destined for the Thursday spotlight dance at the America East tournament.

If the Black Bears do not want to get left in the dust, they must make a move in the next four games. Best they can do, and should do, is finish in the contender grouping with Albany and BU.

Noteworthy from last night's games: Albany got 60 points from its three guards last night. Gerardo Suero (32), Logan Aronhalt (21) and Mike Black (7) led the Great Danes to an 87-76 win over UMBC.

AE Bracket Buster games

America East's Bracket Buster schedule:

Marist at Maine
Rider at Albany
Binghamton at Radford
Boston U. at Loyola
Hartford at St. Peter's
UMBC at Canisius
Towson at New Hampshire
Stony Brook at Northeastern
Niagara at Vermont

Marist it is

UMaine will host Marist Feb. 18 or 19 in the ESPN Bracket Buster Challenge. Marist plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The Red Foxes currently are 7-14 overall and 2-8 in the MAAC.

Who's it going to be?

The Black Bears should find out who their Feb. 18 Bracket Buster opponent will be within the next couple days.

ESPN will announce its 13 Bracket Buster television matchups 6:30 p.m. tonight on ESPNU. The other games will come out in the following days.

Moving time

The back nine of the America East schedule has begun and if the Black Bears hold any hopes of moving up the leader board, the climb must begin Saturday at Maryland-Baltimore County.

Immediately following the game with the seventh-place Retrievers, UMaine will have four straight contests against the teams directly above it in the standings.

Thanks to the recent five-game skid, ascending to the No. 3 seed for the conference tourney is a longshot at best. It's not, however, inconceivable for the Black Bears to get to the No. 4 spot currently occupied by Albany.

UMaine's remaining America East schedule:

Feb. 4: at UMBC
Feb. 6: Vermont
Feb. 9: at Boston U.
Feb. 11: Albany
Feb. 15: at Hartford
Feb. 22: New Hampshire
Feb. 26: at Stony Brook

Fodder for renovation

The Black Bears have enjoyed incredible success at New Hampshire. I haven't missed a game in Durham in 13 or 14 years, but am still amazed at just how successful.

Since the 1983-84 season, the Black Bears are 24-5 at UNH, most of those games played at cozy Lundholm Gymnasium. There were at least a couple games played at the cavernous Whittemore Center before UNH made the decision to move all its games back to Lundholm.

Lundholm was spruced up about five or six years ago and now provides a solid college basketball atmosphere.

If New Hampshire can do it ...