Albany was the almost team - the team that, as a No. 16 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, found itself up by 12 with 12 minutes to play against No. 1 Connecticut. The Great Danes would lose their lead within six minutes and eventually fall, 72-59.
They became, at least for a few days, a national story and the poster child for overcoming long odds.
"It's amazing," Albany coach Will Brown said, "how much a loss can help you."
But when the Quakers head north to take on Albany (3-2) on Saturday, they'll be facing a team that has conquered much more than the ups and downs of a basketball game.
Brown's career, for instance, could have easily taken a different path.
He suited up for the first time in Red and Blue for Quakers coach Fran Dunphy in 1990, a freshman in his fall semester. But that term was as far as he got.
Suffering from Crohn's disease, a congenital illness he still faces, Brown had to have surgery to remove a portion of his intestines, and he transferred to Division-II Dowling College that spring.
And his story is hardly Albany's only unique tale.
The team's leaders in minutes, forwards Will Harris and Brian Connelly, have both trodden difficult paths en route to the Empire State's capital.
Harris played his college ball for Virginia last season, logging nine minutes in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against - you guessed it - No. 13-seed Albany. But playing time wasn't the primary concern of the 6-foot-6 Corona, N.Y., native when he decided to head back north.
"It was a bunch of things," Harris said. "Things got kind of rough on my family and we just felt it was best to come back closer to home."
Harris didn't get the opportunity to hone his game over the summer because he took it upon himself to work to support his mother and five siblings. Since Harris hadn't played any serious basketball for several months after last season with the Cavaliers, his new coach took a chance: Brown applied for a transfer appeal that would allow Harris to forgo his transfer year off.
"Once he got to school in September, I saw the appeals that all these other coaches were putting in," Brown said. "As I learned more about Will and his home life, I'm like 'What the heck, everyone else is putting an appeal,' so we put one in not expecting for him to be able to play."
But it paid off, and Harris has provided 11.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in what was almost his year off.
Connelly, on the other hand, has fought an entirely different kind of struggle. The 6-foot-8 forward, the team's top returning scorer from last season, has suffered from Type-1 diabetes since high school and must give himself insulin shots daily.
But through all of this, Albany has, once again, put together a fairly formidable squad.
"I think the strength of our team is in our versatility," Harris said. "We've got a lot of guys that are interchangeable that can play a lot of different positions."
Outside of Harris and Connelly, the Great Danes' most potent force is guard Tim Ambrose, who despite averaging 20.5 minutes, has poured in 14 points per contest this season.Albany has already faced a couple of stiff early-season tests in Villanova and DePaul, games in which Brown said the Great Danes "played 30 minutes of pretty good basketball."
They won the second half against the Wildcats in a 78-60 loss and had the ball with a five-point lead in the final five minutes against the Blue Demons in a 75-64 defeat.
According to Brown, chemistry may be the Great Danes' biggest obstacle.
"We have eight new faces in our program," he said, "so it's taking us a while to gel."
But they've faced tougher tasks.
