Leading off today: Seventeenth-ranked Albany CBA put all the pieces together last night to score a 62-49 victory over No. 2 Albany Academy in the Section 2 Class AA boys basketball final at Times Union Center.

   CBA (21-3), making its seventh straight appearance in the final, won its first championship since 2006. Tourney MVP Andrew Stire, a 6-foot-8 senior center, finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds in the triumph, and Kameron Ritter added 14 points and four assists. Galal Cancer had 11 points (including 8-of-8 on free throws), six rebounds and five assists.

   CBA shot 11-for-21 from the field in the first half and 13-for-15 from the line in the second half. The Brothers took command with a 9-1 run midway through the third quarter for a 40-29 lead.

   Albany Academy suffered from 7-for-20 shooting from the free-throw line, including 2-for-7 in the first half.

   CBA advances to state quarterfinals on Saturday vs. Syracuse CBA at Cicero-North Syracuse for a trip to Glens Falls.

   Fascinating reading: The Washington Post did a lengthy story last week regarding Abraham Lincoln star Lance Stephenson's recruiting trip to the University of Maryland in late January.

   According to reporters Eric Prisbell and Steve Yanda, Stephenson and his parents used the occasion of star guard's trip to the College Park, Md., school for an official visit to also stop by Under Armour athletic apparel company in Baltimore.

   It's an indication that the highly regarded, 6-foot-5 senior might be planning a one-and-done college career, after which he could line up big endorsement money ahead of entering the National Basketball Association draft in 2010.

   But it also raises concerns about the relationship between the university and the athletic apparel company. Under Armour founder and chief executive Kevin Plank is a former Maryland football player and member of the school's board of trustees, which qualifies him as a "representative of the institution's athletics interests" (i.e., a booster) in NCAA lingo.

   Under Armour Inc. has donated at least $1 million to the school, and the figure could be much higher. In September, Under Armour announced a five-year, $17.5 million deal that made Maryland the first school to outfit all its teams with the company's apparel.

   A school official said Maryland is investigating to see whether Stepenson's visit may have violated any NCAA rules, though Under Armour senior vice president Stephen Battista said, "We meet with the University of Maryland administration frequently and compliance is part of those meetings. . . . Because compliance is a priority, we are not concerned."

   Under Armour, you may remember, signed an endorsement deal last year with Brandon Jennings, a California high school senior who chose to play pro basketball in Europe rather than in college. Combined with the January visit with the manufacturer, that historical nugget has led to fresh speculation that Stephenson will announce next week after the PSAL championship game that he, too, will bypass college.

   However, the Stephenson family had consistently said in the past that Lance would enroll in college rather than make an immediate leap to pro ball in Europe. And the player's father, Lance Stephenson Sr., said Under Armour will have no influence on his son's plans.

   And then he added this gem: "To be honest with you, we really don't care for the sneaker. The sneaker sucks."

   Track note: The 2010 NYSPHSAA indoor track meet will return to Cornell University, but someone will have to come up with a fresh idea because the school has a scheduling conflict for its facilities on the traditional meet weekend in 2011. The most likely solution would seem to be to move the meet back a week. That, though, has implications for sectional meets, many of which are held at college facilities that might have their own NCAA-related scheduling issues.

   And the timing would also be bad for the Nike Indoor Nationals and National Scholastic Indoor Champsionships, which both draw many entries from New York. Given a choice of which meet to attend, it's safe to assume a fair number of athletes might skip the state meet in favor of going to one of the national meets.

   Everyone would come out a loser in that scenario.

   By the way, Section 5 will host the 2011 NYSPHSAA outdoor championships, though no facility has been selected yet.

   SU coach emphasizes N.Y. recruiting: In a speech last weekend during the Section 4 Football Coaches Clinic, new

Winter tournament brackets NYSPHSAA boys basketball NYSPHSAA girls basketball NYSPHSAA boys ice hockey

Syracuse University coach Doug Marrone said New York is critical to his recruiting strategy.

   "We want to make sure the state is our home ground," he said. "I cannot stand for the life of me people saying how bad New York football is. It's bull — it's bull! And you know what? I am going to prove they're wrong when I get a roster filled with New York kids and we're beating other teams around the country.

   "When I start getting 10, 12 kids a year in this state, we'll be a hell of a football team. One thing I know about this state, we have some tough guys in this state."

   Coaching conduct: The Democrat and Chronicle's Jeff DiVeronica reported recently on what's going to be a hot topic in Section 5 this spring and summer, and the subject will probably make its way around the state as well.

   The Greece Athena/Odyssey hockey team, which plays in the Division I semifinals Saturday in Utica, saw two of its coaches resign under pressure early last month and then be reinstated after they drank alcohol on a team trip. In the aftermath, the Greece Central School District is studying a new policy for a coaching code of conduct.

   "We don't want any gray area or for anyone to use words to say (rules) are not definitive," said ninth-year Greece Olympia AD Kim Henshaw. "This has brought up great dialogue with my coaches."

   More than a few other area school districts are examining the rules they have in place regarding coaches' conduct and responsibilities during the season. By extension, policy changes will likely also extend to class trips as well as travel by debate teams, language clubs, etc.

   "You're never off the clock, seriously, if you're involved with kids — at least that's how I view it," Gates Chili Chris Hodge AD told the paper. "There's not anything written, but our coaches know that."

   Bishop Kearney AD Sharon Kowalski said her school re-worked its code of conduct for athletes in 2007 and plans to write one for coaches this summer.

   "Society as a whole has changed, I think," she said. "More and more young people are getting into coaching and I don't know if they realize the implication their actions have on kids. I think it's something they need to be reminded of."

   Strange logic: I mentioned in a recent blog that the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association is suing a Gannett newspaper for Webcasting a high school football playoff game last November. Not surprisingly, other newspapers are rallying in opposition to the WIAA, though some of them are rolling out logic that's dubious at best.

   The Green Bay Press-Gazette, also owned by Gannett (full disclosure: I worked for the chain's Rochester newspaper from 1982 to 2007 and license blog material to them for inclusion in a weekly e-mail newsletter), wrote an editorial this week that, among other things, wondered if "every parent or grandparent . . . who might snap a picture" might have their First Amendment rights snuffed out.

   To be honest, that sort of hysteria/hyperbole clouds an important issue and is essentially just a red herring. But I'll answer the hypothetical question anyway:

   Yes, gramps could (and should) get his butt hauled into court if he attempts to broadcast -- which is essentially what a Webcast is -- a game over the Internet, a medium that has far more reach than any cable or broadcast network on the planet.

   No one in his right mind attempts to lug a camcorder to a Knicks-Celtics or USC-Notre Dame game and make the footage available in real time on the Internet. Similarly, though on a much smaller scale, high school broadcasts have monetary value to state associations, and those organizations are entitled to protect their rights.

   The editorial then tries to play the card about how school sports are taxpayer supported -- an angle that has proven to have zero meaning in the world of college sports (by the way, WIAA is a private entity and not a government agency) -- and lamely asks whether a city council might grant "exclusive rights to news coverage of its debates and excluding its radio, television and newspaper critics."

   That is so absurd that it barely merits an answer, but I'll supply one anyway: Get that lame-ass example out of here and don't come back until the Podunk City Council meetings become so popular that the town starts charging admission at the door. Then you'd have a comparable situation on which to base a hypothetical. Until then, no one would pay for exclusive rights.

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