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McBulls

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Posts posted by McBulls

  1. 5 hours ago, skrabukes said:

    Continuously knocking everyone isn't the way I work or how I'd ever want any colleague or staffer to work. I want nothing more than to see UB excel, which is why I've always donated and attended every game, even in the cellar dwelling days of old. I just simply can't see how you or anyone can sit there and just rarely have anything positive to say. Again, that's your choice, but I won't see it that way. You say it's because you "have high standards". If your standard is 90% MAC wins and a lock for winning in Cleveland,  than you're delusional. If you're standard is 70% +/- MAC wins and in contention year in and year out in Cleveland,  than I'm fully on board. Of course we want the first, but it hasn't ever happened in MAC history before. 

    Hate to beat a dead horse, but I can't resist the debate. Plus I'm on vacation and my 2 year old is napping, so I'll unload my thoughts in stream of consciousness fashion while I have this window and beg forgiveness from the UB fandom for a long post.

    You're right in the sense that this year wasn't a total loss. 2 seed, MAC finals, postseason birth in a meaningful tournament (NIT). Whitesell was brought on, seemingly, for a sense of continuity. He preserved what was left of the returning core from the Oats era- which, in the modern day (800+ names in the portal already this season, up from 430ish at this time last year) is an accomplishment in and of itself. Clearly he has better buy in from people more important to the success of this team (our student athletes) than from message board posters like me.

    But there has to be room for criticism on a fan site. We had every advantage after Oats departure (returning core, name recognition allowing us to compete at our highest level ever for recruits, continuity in coaching) and did not capitalize as many of us had hoped. A lot of the frustration I sense on this board (and personally feel) is that we performed as less than the sum of our parts for the first part of the season. And the complaints were loudest this year at a point where we sat 4-4 in conference with several home losses. Many of those losses included complete no-show halves that put us in a near hopeless position to capture a W. When looking at our roster and realizing that we had a surging junior class complete with Williams (numbers similar to CJ), Mballa, and Segu and the return of an all conference player in Graves these results were a massive disappointment. When coupled with NCAA sanctions and two violent crimes committed by members of our roster at the open of fall semester, I think open complaints about the our coach and state of the program weren't just understandable but well earned. I guess where I'm going with this- as I made at least a few comments damning Whitesell- is that every comment the anti-Whitesell crowd is making isn't negative, and that this staff and team earned some of the condemnation thrown its way.

    What's more, fair or not, once the level of expectations have been raised simple wins don't garner a similar level of compliments (which I believe you asked for in prior posts). My mother is a stern Scottish woman, and she was a teacher. When I brought home a 99, she replied: "What did you miss?." If I brought home a 93, she asked: "Oh, no. What went wrong?" And she describes the best meal of her life as: "not too bad." Around here, given our recent track record, racking up wins is expected- again, many of us feel our roster, given its intermittently oustanding play and pedigree, should be doing so regularly against MAC competition. Doing so isn't deserving of flowery praise- its the baseline expectation if we want to uplift this program to new heights. And even if we did steamroll, that would be our 99: What did we miss? What can we improve upon?

    Can a season's success or failure can be captured in binary terms. Probably not. We surged. The staff and players deserve credit for turning our season around in the face of adversity. We ran out of gas against a rested and hot team in the MAC finals and lost a tightly contested NIT game against a team who was likely one win away from an at large berth. That said, I won't classify this as an unmitigated success, either. Our goal, year in and year out, is to win the MAC and make the NCAA tournament. I'm happy with 70% MAC wins and being in contention year in/year out. I remember the dark days, too. I'm not happy, anymore, if some of those seasons don't end with televised games on CBS/TNT/TBS in far flung cities. I think results, namely NCAA tournament appearances, matter, and should be how our coaches are measured moving forward. I don't want to be Kent St. I want to be Butler.

    Is it fair to fire a man after a slightly above average season year 1 and improvement and MAC tournament final year 2? No. But if he keeps this core intact and can't bring us back next year, I don't see him doing it at UB. We have big holes to fill next year, and haven't had any semblance of consistent outside shooting as a team for two years, but with a few roster moves (PG, SG, perimeter defender to take on the likes of Jason Preston) should be right back at the table with a chance to dance. I think JW has earned the right to do so. I'll cheer for this team every step of the way. I hope he brings home a title. I've been wrong about our coaches plenty of times: I defended RW even after his dismissal (clean program, new heights I feared losing with change), dismissed Hurley just before our surge (big name and poor results when 6-6 mid way through season of first NCAA trip), questioned why we would follow Hurley with a high school coach (whoops?). I was wrong on every count. I hope I'm wrong on this one, too. Maybe I should argue more vehemently against him to ensure our success next year.

    Also- side note- lets hope we never sink to this level:

    https://www.thestarpress.com/story/sports/college/ball-state/2021/03/21/ncaa-tournament-drought-continues-affect-bsu-mens-basketball/4790626001/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot

     

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  2. I also think that we have a disconnect- most people on this board weren't up in arms during the extended solid play late in the year, including those (count me among them) who are skeptical about JW. What's more, I don't think a conference tournament finals loss is cause for panic. That said, all of the reasons listed that we lost that game (lack of depth, lack of shooting) are due to failure of JW to recruit or bringing in athletes that gave the program a black eye (kidnapping, stabbing rival player) and failed to contribute. 

    I was a Reggie supporter and defender until the very end. I thought he had brought the program to a level we were lucky to reach and had done so with integrity. I was proud of the athletes that represented our school. Having seen the past two tenures, however, I want and expect more. When my coach says (paraphrasing): "We just lost BVP on that inbounds, hat tip to Ohio. They made some plays"- I want to tear my hair out. Can you imagine either of our last two coaches reacting in this manner? They'd immediately follow that our play, in that situation, wasn't good enough, was unacceptable. He seems to have no sense or urgency or have a set of expectations for these "kids." I don't think you get the job done without demanding better- either as a coach or as fans of a program. One more year- NCAA or start fresh.

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  3. https://247sports.com/Article/Basketball-recruiting-Illinois-Oregon-Alabama-USC-Vanderbilt-Nimari-Burnett-161310490/

    Burnett was the highest rated recruit TT had ever picked up. Mballa was relatively under-recruited, by comparison, and still probably only came here based on connection to our since departed assistant coach. Very unlikely. Doesn't mean we can't find some gems in the portal or among yet to be recruited freshman (look at CJ and Preston).

  4. 8 hours ago, yussi1870 said:

    We don’t have the donors to support a massive endowment like Bona. UB alum just don’t give, not the in numbers one would expect relative to our size.

    Not sure if this is meant in jest. A simple trip to Wikipedia to evaluate endowment size:

    St. Bonaventure $71.9 million

    Buffalo $788.9 million

    Gonzaga $308.2 million

    Obviously we have far more students to support with said endowment. We also offer a greater variety of academic(undergrad and graduate) programs, some of which carry great expense (ie new medical school), than either of the above comparison institutions. But at least a large portion of this is volitional: we spend less money on athletics relative to our size/endowment, and these peer institutions place a greater value on the basketball programs for which their schools are known.

  5. This will mirror what many here have said, but... it's all in the legs. We had Ohio players driving past us with ease early in the game. We clearly didn't have the legs to play defense, and as so much of our offense is derived from getting stops and out in transition, we didn't put up the points we usually do. 

    Having to expend energy running a half court offense with a team with limited outside shooting didn't help.

    Our lack of depth (and OT game the night before) doomed us for this one.

    I'm proud of the way we turned our season around, and I'm not as doom and gloom as many here for next year. We have a great nucleus. Have to hope, however, that Brewton has more in the tank than he showed this year, that Zachary plays and is as advertised, and that Jack steps in and contributes. Finding a few more contributors would go a long way, too.

  6. Bummer for Fagan. I suspect no problem for medical redshirt.

    I know he wasn’t a huge name, but he was really productive as a JUCO freshman. For perspective, numbers not dissimilar to JUCO freshman Justin Moss.

    Assuming he recovers we are still set for some time to come with athletic, skilled and mobile bigs (Skogman, Mballa, Fagan, Hardnett... wow!).

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  7. Also could be waiting to make sure UB (or other schools) clear him academically- not saying he wouldn’t qualify, but I imagine it can be more difficult for an admissions or compliance department to document coursework when a scholar athlete was home schooled.

  8. I think they see the writing in the wall. You almost never see it made public that a school has pulled a scholarship offer. Seems like a PR move to avoid having to explain to fans that Buffalo beat them out for a player they wanted!

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  9. TCU. Tough loss. TCU is overcommitted (15 scholarship players for next year). Arkansas just accepted a verbal for 'ship # 16. Very difficult to compete when the big boys operate like this. I know they'll have to cut some players loose, but will happen late (tying our hands) and probably won't be upper crust talent.

  10. Didn’t mean to seem as though I was upset with our staff and recruiting- love the team we have coming back and very happy with our three signees. Nickelberry is more of a 3, though. Still think we need a play now big if we want to repeat in the MAC next year. Skogman will give us some minutes, but he is still a freshman big- will take time to develop. 

  11. Where can you get a big at this juncture ready to play now? That is a tall ask.

    Just unfortunate that we had three stud posts in our class prior to NO departure. At least we have Skogman- I think he will need to bulk up but is a sure fire all conference guy down the road.

  12. Bummer if staff wanted him. Seems similar to Gallion, though, and I always assumed we would only take one of them. I was surprised we were among his finalists after we took Gallion’s commit.

    That said, I think we need a big who can contribute immediately and BPA available with our last two scholarships. BPA preferably a proven transfer.

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