Great Danes looking to bring grit into summer workouts

ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) -- The UAlbany men's basketball team won five more games last year than they did the year before. That jump wasn't enough, finishing the season with an overall record of 13-19, 5-11 in conference play before exiting in the first round of the America East playoffs. They're looking to make an even bigger jump to the top of the conference this season with some newfound grit.

The work is underway for the Great Danes, beginning offseason practice this week. After he originally entered the portal, the Danes were able to keep Amar'e Marshall, who averaged over 16 points per game last year, this offseason.

Like nearly every team in college basketball, especially at the mid-major level, there are a lot of new faces on this team. Headlining the transfer class are guard Demarr Langford jr. from UCF and forward Kacper Klaczek from Saint Joe's.

Head coach Dwayne Killings wanted to keep their offensive scheme in tact, but believes there was a lot left to be desired on the other end of the floor last year. "We want to play fast," said Killings. "This past year, we had the sixth fastest pace in college basketball. We played really fast. We averaged 82 points a game. We want to be really versatile. We want our frontcourt players to be able to start our offense. Sometimes I think we've got to exploit mismatches. I think our league is kind of built like that, but then I think we needed to really address our level of toughness. When you look at it, I think at times we can rebound the ball, but I didn't think we were as tough as we need to be defensively, kind of making gritty plays. I think we found guys that had that grit in their DNA."