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Big 4 Hoops Blogger

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Posts posted by Big 4 Hoops Blogger

  1. 37 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

    Unless the P5 teams think it’s a problem, it won’t change. If they do, it will change but it will be geared to benefit them the most 

    There's several leaders within P5 programs that think some of these issues need to be addressed as well. The biggest problem is that the NCAA is powerless. They tried to force 2nd time transfers to sit out a year but that was struck down in court.

    I don't think the majority of the P5 schools care about the money aspect but I do believe there's some anger about the unlimited transfers and players attempting to use NIL against in ways that are detrimental to their own schools.

  2. Joe Manhertz has resigned as the St. Bonaventure athletic director after botching the handling of the Bonnies preemptively turning down a potential NIT bid. He never told their players until they found out watching ESPN. Manhertz later told students he didn't realize their fanbase cared so much about the NIT. Donors were pissed and people demanded he be fired. He was gone within a week.

    Goes to show the difference between UB and Bona. Their AD was essentially forced to resign two years into his tenure because of extreme disgust over a potential NIT bid while Buffalo fans have been calling for Mark Alnutt's job for a few years now and it's not even a realistic possibility.

    I'm not calling for anyone's job but it's just another example of how the money determines everything. Bona's donors got upset and Manhertz leaves within a week. Buffalo's donors and administration are apathetic regarding UB athletics and things remain with the status quo as a result.

  3. 45 minutes ago, DaBulls99 said:

    Can we lock this thread unless it actually pertains to us? Feel free to go to their board if you want to oogle over BH. He’s not our coach. Time we move on. 

    Seriously? People are enjoying this thread and posting because it's an interesting topic. Hodgson is a former UB assistant and many of the things he's doing at Arkansas State apply to what we believe should be happening at Buffalo.

    • Thanks 1
  4. 17 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

    Hot take: UB shouldn't try to overly catch up in regards to NIL (need to get something going though) because NIL and mid major basketball is more like a bubble that will fizzle out

    They NEED to be ready for profit sharing and the potential to have student athletes as "employees". They should throw more resources into this to be able to hit the ground running. Which in my opinion will be a much bigger advantage than NIL is and ever will be 

    I have some bad news for you if this is what you want...

    • Like 2
  5. Arkansas State has a 39-29 lead at halftime over a top-seeded Appalachian State team that has defeated Auburn and James Madison this year. They’re getting it done on both sides of the court. We’ll see if they can hold on in the 2nd half.

  6. On 3/5/2024 at 1:29 PM, trueblue32 said:

    Agree with this and I also would imagine that the NIL deals people are hearing of in the first couple years are likely to the be the high end that gets offered at any point. If Akron supporters are paying $100k a piece to Ali and Freeman, are they seeing $100k in return for whatever business venture is paying them that? Akron reported an attendance of 2331 last game, and I'm supposed to believe those two are appropriately valued at a combined $200k? How many years of payments like that do Akron boosters want to make out of the goodness of their heart? Is the answer 0 if they don't make the tournament this year?

    I do believe UB needs to get more organized on the NIL front, but I don't see any MAC school regularly posting a 6 figure salary cap. I think there's still a lot of settling to be done in the college landscape, with NIL and the portal being new, and kids still with extra years of eligibility from COVID. I don't think college sports will really ever go back to what it was but I feel like this is an NIL bubble that's about to pop, at least for mid-majors.

    Recently found out some interesting information. Without going into details, I think UB is aware of what needs to be done to get their program back on track.

  7. 1 hour ago, everlast2504 said:

    My downplaying wasn't so much as we don't need it. But more of we don't need a lot of money to compete. We don't need millions to compete with the top athletes because we aren't going to get them anyways. I feel the public looks at the top deals and thinks all deals are somewhere in that realm. When the reality is that at the top the money may be millions, but on average NIL deals are well well under 10k. That's if there is any NIL deal. 

    A UB collective could probably have a fund well under $1 million and still be highly competitive nationally. Recruiting goes hand in hand with this too. UB needs to be self aware that we are still going after mid major talent, with the off chance of getting an under the radar player. Maybe pick off a P5 bench player who will want to get more playing time and maybe a little more money, or even a little less money. 

     

    I agree with all of this. It honestly doesn't take a crazy amount of money to make it work at the mid-major level. Just need to compete with your peers in the MAC. Was shocked to hear Akron and Kent State don't have collectives in place.

  8. These are all things we've been discussing for a few years on this board and there's been plenty of posters who have downplayed the importance of NIL in the college basketball landscape.

    The reason I said the things I said at the time was because I had multiple D1 coaching sources tell me NIL was going to make or break programs heading into the future. It's one of the top things prospective head coaches look into during job interviews.

  9. 14 hours ago, Chet said:

    KenPom currently has UB MBB at 345, NET at 343. Absolutely horrendous. 

    Coach Hodgson and Arkansas State is almost +150 from last season’s final rankings to where they currently sit. Is that a reasonable expectation for next season?

    The team will need an almost a complete makeover. I anticipate some roster turnover as a result of transfers too. Share your thoughts. 

     

     

    And there's only 362 schools in D1 basketball. UB has gone from being ranked 22nd in KenPom to 343rd in a period of five years. I know both of those seasons are extreme outliers but that's outrageous no matter how you look at it.

    I still think UB is a good mid-major basketball program with a lot of potential moving forward. I'm throwing this season in the garbage and praying for a complete rebuild focused on experienced transfers and JUCO's. The days of building through high school recruits are over. You still need to target a few each season but you can't project 2 years down the line anymore.

  10. I honestly think a complete re-start with the majority of their roster would be a good thing. I'm one of the people that gave them credit for battling against Georgia Southern and EMU but don't believe they've taken major strides. There's been "slight improvement" with this team but not what you would expect for a roster with a bunch of young players seeing time on the court. Imo, they would easily take care of our team from November but that's not saying much.

    With the way the transfer portal is set up, I think Halcovage needs to heavily target upperclassmen and JUCO's. College basketball isn't what it used to be. It doesn't take 2-3 years to build a roster. While I don't expect them to become a MAC contender overnight, there's no reason they can't do what Bowling Green just did and at least become a .500 MAC school next year with the right collection of guys. I think their next step is attempting to field a competitive roster and they'll need more experienced players from better cultures to pull that off.

     

    • Like 1
  11. 26 minutes ago, trueblue32 said:

    This actually made me LOL. You are out of your mind. So what's your line for the WMU team (#301) we just lost to by 19 against November UB? 50? Too bad we didn't make all this improvement earlier or we'd be contending for a final four!! JMU only beat us by 15, Bonaventure only beat us by 15, Butler only beat us by 13. This current UB team has to be a lock for at least a Sweet 16 then if we'd win by 30

    I truly can't believe the flip this board has done where I was on the optimistic side of posters during the Whitesell years and now people are taking moral victories (that are based on??) from a string of double-digit losses to 3rd and 4th tier MAC teams 

    It's pretty obvious from a psychological perspective what's happening with the board. This team still had massive expectations during the Whitesell years which according to several people including myself, they didn't meet which led to Whitesell getting fired.

    Then after another sub-par coaching search, they landed on Halcovage III which people knew wasn't one of their top choices. Most fans had low expectations heading into this season. I predicted 5-10 wins. Early on, it was obvious they were even worse than that.

    So we're grasping at little things to hang our heads on. See the funny thing about expectations is, when you have none, it's easy to become apathetic and no longer care but when you have high standards, it's easy to be disappointed. That's what's going on with UB basketball right now.

  12. 12 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

    Don’t dispute those stats, however their last NCAA appearance was 2014, they haven’t achieved Sweet 16 let alone Round of 32 since 1996 (note the 1996 season that ended in the final 4 was vacated). They haven’t won the conference tournament since 1996, they were last regular season champs in 2007. Will they be Top 4 in the MAC? Probably and should paying their coach close to double the normal going rate for a MAC coach. Potentially their coach may bail knowing their basketball future will be less bright and his recruiting may take a dip. We have had 2 slighter better than average players jump the MAC to A-10 in the last few years just from UB.

    All this said, I don’t see this move doing much to change the image of the MAC. I do appreciate your optimistic outlook of this move and I will grant you it is better than nothing, which is the usual course of the MAC

    While you’re right about their lack of tournament success, they’ve had five Top 86 KenPom seasons since 2007. While they have more resources in the A10, they’ve also had a much tougher road playing in a Top 10 league most years. Simply adding them to the MAC won’t drastically change the image of the league but they’ll be a tough team if they continue to spend the same way they currently are. If they reduce their budget, then they could be just another MAC school but I’m assuming they’re making this move because of football and the assumption they’ll be successful in basketball taking a step down.

  13. 14 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

    Ok, I will reserve judgement until 2025, but it doesn’t make the MAC a 2 bid league or anything of that level. Also, by this logic St Bonaventure would be #1 in the MAC as well. What does their NIL situation look like?
     

    They apparently spend a lot of money on athletics, however:

    They have 9 men’s sports/10 women’s sports. This includes expensive sports such as hockey and lacrosse. 
     

    UB has 6 men’s sports/8 women’s sports. 
     

    UMASS: $43.9 million = $2.3 million per sport

    Buffalo: $31.0 million = $2.2 million per sport 

    Obviously I’m aware each sport isn’t allocated equally but it’s interesting to me nonetheless. 

    Correct! This doesn’t make the MAC a 2 bid league but it improves the overall strength of the league and give the conference a better chance of at-large berths into the NCAA Tournament (very unlikely) and the NIT (more probable).

    I’d lump UMass in with Akron, Kent State, UB, Ohio and Toledo. They’re good this year but they’ll likely be among the group above during most seasons.

    Where this move will have more importance is if it’s a combo move with other teams in play. That’s one way to really improve the strength of the league basketball wise. If I told most mid-major college basketball fans the MAC was adding UMass and WKU, they’d say that’s great for the league.

  14. 11 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

    Was this chart supposed to be impressive somehow? they are worse than any MAC team in football and Buffalo over this time period is better then UMASS. They are a good academic and research school, spend more money on athletics than anyone in the conferences, yet suck in football and a middling in MBB. Marcus Camby is currently 49 years old, so if that is the “rich basketball history”, that was a while back.
     

    image.png.5a6de6cefae7c84d51bbf93db0f811d0.png

    UMass has won 11 NCAA Tournament games and has reached the Final Four, Elite Eight and a Sweet 16 and now they're in the MAC. They have the most basketball history of anyone in our conference. They also went to the NIT Finals in 2008 and NIT Semifinals in 2012. They pay Frank Martin over $1.6 million

    They're leaving the 8th ranked KenPom conference for the 24th ranked league. They spend money and have a good academic reputation. This is a good move for the MAC. A big reason their football is awful is because they've been independent and recently jumped up to FBS 12 years ago. It's not easy for Northeast Schools in poor recruiting areas to be successful at football. We know that being UB fans lol

  15. 1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

    UMASS was 3-9 in football, 3 of those losses to MAC teams. Interestingly, they also just hired Shane Montgomery as their new OC. I’m not very excited with this news, maybe I’m missing something.

    Mens Basketball is 17-10, but 8-7 in conference. I suppose it will bring us up a notch, but they will also likely start getting lower level players that will be MAC worthy but maybe not A10 worthy.

    maybe it will be an upgrade, but I still want out of the MAC.

    UMass basketball would be the top team in the MAC this season. Look at it as strictly a basketball addition. The conference benefits when there's more quality teams. Adding UMass helps out with that. I also think it's likely there's another move to be made. The Sun Belt shocked a lot of people with their aggressiveness last year. The MAC obviously took some notes and wants to look out for their long term future.

  16. This is great news for the MAC. Adding UMass is tremendous for basketball and also signals the conference might still want to add Western Kentucky to round things off.

    Can you imagine a MAC with:

    UMass, WKU, Akron, Toledo, Kent State, Ohio, Buffalo etc...

    That's a pretty good mid-major league most years!

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