ALBANY – Being picked to finish seventh out of nine teams in the America East preseason coaches’ poll did little to faze the University at Albany women’s basketball team.
In fact, the Great Danes are inviting a chance to defy expectations.
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“We all have this type of underdog mentality,” redshirt junior forward Kadence Johnson said earlier this month. “We were just picked kind of toward the bottom of the conference. We love that, and we’re just ready to compete.”
First-year Great Danes coach Kelly Morrone is happy to see her team use whatever it can as a source of motivation for the upcoming season, which starts Monday at Northeastern.
“If they like it,” Morrone said, “then I like it.”
Johnson, a native of Mattapoisett, Mass., was one of three players who followed Morrone when UAlbany hired her from her previous post at Merrimack to replace Colleen Mullen, who left after an eight-season tenure to become the head coach at Rhode Island. The player said the Great Danes get their mindset from their coach, who “brings a fight and a hunger” that permeates the program.
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“What I love about coach Kelly is that no matter what we’re doing, who she has on the floor, she just wants everyone to try their best and compete every single day, day-in and day-out,” Johnson said.
Sophomore forward Emma Zuccon, one of only two returning Great Danes from last season’s 14-16 squad that tied for seventh in the America East before being eliminated in the conference quarterfinals, said the team has tried to carry that underdog feeling into every team activity.
“We put energy into everything we do,” Zuccon said. “Not just in practice, but in the weight room or when we’re doing some team activities. … We feel like we play better when we have energy.”
There may have been some growing pains throughout summer workouts and preseason practice as a team loaded with newcomers got familiar with each other and Morrone’s system, but the first-year coach said that the team’s energy has been consistent throughout.
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“Even visitors that come to practice are like, ‘I don’t know that they’re doing everything right, but they certainly are doing everything really hard,'” she said. “That’s the requirement. That’s the cost of admission to be on this team.”
Energy and effort will be prioritized because the Great Danes aren’t just underdogs. They’re undersized. UAlbany doesn’t have a single player taller than 6-foot on its roster.
“We’re not the biggest team,” said senior guard Lara Langermann, UAlbany’s other returning player. “Making up for that with our presence, with our voices, being aggressive, being a scrappy team and outrunning the other team – I think those are things that will definitely define us.”
“Who doesn’t love that scrappy gamesmanship where they’re just flying around, playing hard for each other, playing hard for their university and doing it for the right reasons?” Morrone said.
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The undersized Great Danes will also be battle-tested in November and December. A tough nonconference slate includes three trips to face power-conference opponents – Ole Miss on Nov. 11, Rutgers on Nov. 16, and Morrone’s alma mater, South Carolina, on Dec. 16.
By the time conference play opens on New Year’s Eve at UMass Lowell, Morrone’s team may have taken some lumps, but they’ll also be toughened up enough to defy expectations.
“I’m not shocked with where we were placed,” she said, “but we’re certainly going to keep our eyes forward and try and do better.”
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This article originally published at UAlbany women’s basketball embracing ‘underdog mentality’ ahead of 2026-27 season.
