#17 UB in Olean, NY - (12/08 - 4:00pm ET)

[squire17]

25 minutes ago, enrique14150 said:

Whenever anyone says "Bonaventure", you will immediately hear about Bob Lanier and how they went to the final four in 1970.  That was almost FIFTY years ago!!  And they're still living by it.  I appreciate the pride they have down there in that program, I think a lot of that comes from a lack of other big draws in the area.  Bona basketball isn't one of many things, it's THE big thing.  So it's going to mean a lot to a lot of people.  But the average impression I've gotten from the Bona fans I've come across is a more aggressive one than usual - like they're not just into it but they're angry.  Here in Buffalo we're so used to being the ones operating with a chip on our shoulder, it's kinda uncomfortable to see it in others.  They so want you to accept that they're a huge deal.  If you look at their record over the years - since those 1960's teams, they've had mostly okay years, some really barren ones, and several good ones.  Really, not terribly different from UB over the past 20 years.  But they'll aggressively push the idea that they're a big deal, in this kinda uncomfortably desperate inadequate way.  They think they're pushing their team, but they may not realize the negative impression it leaves on everyone else.  The aggressive attitude of "we invented how to watch a basketball game and support a team" doesn't win you a lot of friends or admiration.  The Little Three teams being big deals FIFTY years ago isn't really relevant today.

UB is 1 - 7 against St Bona in the past 10 years.

[Big 4 Hoops Blogger]

Buffalo and St. Bonaventure are rivals even if some fans disagree

There's been a lot of talk and references in this thread to posts on the Bonnies message board. To me, it signifies that the two programs are starting to build up some hate for one another. St. Bonaventure fans are used to being the premier basketball program in WNY. The last thing they want is for UB to be at their level.

I've attached my column on why this has the makings of a budding rivalry, even if some may disagree.

[dutchcountry7]

1 hour ago, squire17 said:

UB is 1 - 7 against St Bona in the past 10 years.

This is why this game is so big for the Bulls. 

[Buffalobonnie]

1 hour ago, Jeseph said:

You do realize those were your words, right...?

You just don't get it do you?  Enjoy tomorrow it will be fun.

[Jeseph]

6 minutes ago, Buffalobonnie said:

You just don't get it do you?  Enjoy tomorrow it will be fun.

I never will. Unless maybe we rise to the prestigious ranks of the A-10 only to have the same (slightly worse) 2000s NCAA resume as lowly Buffalo.

[bonaking]

Hi guys. Bona fan here. Should be a great atmosphere here tomorrow. Just wanted to let you guys know that this team has loads of potential. We have two freshmen that will be 4 year starters and all conference players. The 6' 10" freshmen center Osun Osunnyi will be a big time player. Just ignore our start and 4 -5 record. We were missing our two senior leaders(Stockard & Griffin). Huge losses. If we had both of them we would probably have only one loss. It's a team that could be very dangerous and very, very good by March. Should be a lot of fun tomorrow. Love what Oates has done there and glad to see UB emerge as a quality team. If pushed for a prediction, I say Bona wins 83 - 77. Enjoy!!!

Edited December 8, 2018 by bonaking

[UB85]

1 minute ago, bonaking said:

Hi guys. Bona fan here. Should be a great atmosphere here tomorrow. Just wanted to let you guys know that this team has loads of potential. We have two freeshmen that will be 4 year starters and all conference players. The 6' 10" freshmen center Osun Osunnyi will be a big time player. Just ignore our start. We were missing our two senior leaders(Stockard & Griffin). Huge losses. If we had both of them we would probably have only one loss. It's a team that could be very dangerous and very, very good by March. Should be a lot of fun tomorrow. Love what Oates has done there and glad to see UB emerge as a quality team. If pushed for a prediction, I say Bona wins 83 - 77. Enjoy!!!

Thanks for the info. Great post! Enjoy the atmosphere tomorrow. Just hope you’re wrong about the score. Having Bona and UB as teams excelling can only do wonders for college basketball in WNY. 

[enrique14150]

2 hours ago, squire17 said:

UB is 1 - 7 against St Bona in the past 10 years.

A barren head-to-head run over that time.  But a growing acknowledgement that this is a big game between serious programs.  Usually these have been pretty hardly fought, close games.  Bona has tended to keep their resolve down the stretch better.  We'll see if that's different tomorrow, it promises to be a good matchup.

[bull_trojan]

To me, it's just another game. It's big because we're #17 and all our games are big.

If we we're 5-3 right now with losses @ WVU, SIU and vs USF and never got ranked, this would just be a game, hope you win, hope you play well but otherwise, that's it. 

Just a game. One half at a time, One shot at a time, business  as usual.

 

[John]

32 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Thanks for the info. Great post! Enjoy the atmosphere tomorrow. Just hope you’re wrong about the score. Having Bona and UB as teams excelling can only do wonders for college basketball in WNY. 

Also thanks for the post. It good for all of WNY if we have all other teams have successful seasons and are able to see great games. You can still have allegiance and total support for one team and still enjoy quality basketball. We can still all have our opinions without getting into sarcastic comments. As far as our family we are happy that local college basketball is relevant again.Go Bulls!!!!

[BullsFan14]

1 hour ago, bonaking said:

Hi guys. Bona fan here. Should be a great atmosphere here tomorrow. Just wanted to let you guys know that this team has loads of potential. We have two freshmen that will be 4 year starters and all conference players. The 6' 10" freshmen center Osun Osunnyi will be a big time player. Just ignore our start and 4 -5 record. We were missing our two senior leaders(Stockard & Griffin). Huge losses. If we had both of them we would probably have only one loss. It's a team that could be very dangerous and very, very good by March. Should be a lot of fun tomorrow. Love what Oates has done there and glad to see UB emerge as a quality team. If pushed for a prediction, I say Bona wins 83 - 77. Enjoy!!!

Thank you for coming over and for the heads up. Looking forward to seeing Stockard . I want to see how he mathes up with us. The atmosphere should be rocking. We have a group of people coming down to the RC for the game too. They are typically a louder crowd

Looking forward to it!

Edited December 8, 2018 by BullsFan14
Typos

[bonaking]

Hi BullsFan,

It should be a lot of fun tomorrow. I always thought UB was a potential sleeping giant. Great to see them getting in the top 20. Hopefully, they can maintain and keep Oates around. The grass is not always greener. on the other side. Stockard has made a huge difference in this team. He's a very good player that I think can carve out a nice pro career. No one really talks about his potential at the next level, but I think he's got a good shot.

 

[UB85]

Unlike bonaking here’s some more arrogance and uppitiness from Bona fans just in case you were not already fired up enough for toda’s game. http://bonabandwagon.proboards.com/thread/16336/ub-st-bonaventure-rivals

As they say, when you walk the walk, you can talk the talk even if it’s shabby form. Let’s get a W so we can stifle a bit of their chest thumping. And more importantly to continue this great start to the season. 

[John]

16 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Unlike bonaking here’s some more arrogance and uppitiness from Bona fans just in case you were not already fired up enough for toda’s game. http://bonabandwagon.proboards.com/thread/16336/ub-st-bonaventure-rivals

As they say, when you walk the walk, you can talk the talk even if it’s shabby form. Let’s get a W so we can stifle a bit of their chest thumping. And more importantly to continue this great start to the season. 

This should be a very exciting game for all involved. This UB team does seem to have a different mental makeup from the last few years. They have been battle tested the last few years and have been in tough games on the road. As long as they keep their composure and play their game we should be successful. Go Bulls!!!!

[xDerekRx]

Who cares, message boards are usually filled with biased pettiness. Its been that way since well forever. I remember how bad the Syracuse message boards were back in like 2002. I actually grew up in a SYR fan household as a kid and I almost gave up on them completely when I joined their message board one year.

Ill always give local teams a bit of a nudge in interest if they are in the NCAA's. But its because of the team and not at all for their fanbase... Are we really shocked that the Bona message board is toxic? I mean that is what happens when you feel threatened by a rising local school. They could always deal with Can/NU because those two schools will always have lower ceilings. UB ceiling because of their conference may not be that of Bona because they are in the A-10, but its certainly high enough to scare their fans.

Its killing them UB is ranked and they haven't been in forever. But they have been an excellent team a few times in the last 2 decades. Before the welding scandal they were on track to being a regular St Josephs or Xavier. JR Bremer was actually a player I loved watching. I think they might have upset a ranked Uconn team that year too. But man they are garbage for what seemed like forever until maybe Nicholson came along.

All that aside, we are better than Bona this year regardless of their decent roster. You need these type of "turning that corner" type of wins to truly break out this year.

[Jeseph]

Let’s get this W!

[Kevin]

LMFAO

"Come on. the only people who think this is a rivalry are people from Buffalo. Reasons this is not a rivalry:

1. SBU is 10-2 against SUNY Buffalo. Not only do we have a significant edge, but we have only played them 12 times. We have played Niagara and Canisius over 100 times. 
2. UB has no fan base. Yes, they will be there now when the team is ranked, but how about when things get a little tough? Even last year in their "glory run" there were as many Bona fans in Alumni Morgue as there was UB fans. 
3. We are in the Atlantic 10 they are in the MAC. Our rivals are St. Joe's, Dayton, Duquesne, VCU etc. They are in a league that does not compare to the A-10. They hate to hear this, but it is true. Just as we can't compare to the Big East the MAC does not compare to the A-10. 
4. They have no sustained success. They have been good for four years. Oats will leave and this will end."

[mikescherrer8]

4 minutes ago, Kevin said:

LMFAO

"Come on. the only people who think this is a rivalry are people from Buffalo. Reasons this is not a rivalry:

1. SBU is 10-2 against SUNY Buffalo. Not only do we have a significant edge, but we have only played them 12 times. We have played Niagara and Canisius over 100 times. 
2. UB has no fan base. Yes, they will be there now when the team is ranked, but how about when things get a little tough? Even last year in their "glory run" there were as many Bona fans in Alumni Morgue as there was UB fans. 
3. We are in the Atlantic 10 they are in the MAC. Our rivals are St. Joe's, Dayton, Duquesne, VCU etc. They are in a league that does not compare to the A-10. They hate to hear this, but it is true. Just as we can't compare to the Big East the MAC does not compare to the A-10. 
4. They have no sustained success. They have been good for four years. Oats will leave and this will end."

They've made the tournament 4 times in the last 40 years. I don't understand why he is bragging. 

[SaneBonnie]

This is the type of stuff that gets old. Any time Bona plays a P5, Bona fans cry that we aren’t taken seriously and no one respects our conference.

Whenever we play a school from a “smaller” conference, we turn around and do the same thing.

I’ve always enjoyed the MAC for basketball (not so much for football), and I do think if the conference could have a team that could sustain their success for 5-10 years, the conference could be a two-bid league.

Ohio U, Kent State, CMU and Toledo are all appealing schools with solid arenas and good support, but they haven’t been able to build/sustain success at the National level.

I really do hope UB can stay top 50/75 most years because this is a much more interesting rivalry than CC or NU will ever be again.

In regards to Bona fans: like a poster said earlier, we do have quite the complex. It is annoying, but it’s never going to change to be honest. The posts about Oats are unnecessary and probably is due to the fact Bona feels threatened by UB’s potential. Ask any Bona fan about Siena joining the A10 and you will feel the same type of resentment.

Best of luck all year, but please, lose today and beat SU by 2000.

[xDerekRx]

Bit of a slow start for both teams in this game. 7-3 Bulls at the 16:00 break with FT to come.

[Pharaoh]

No flow to game so far. Refs whistle happy. At least we are up.  We are def looking the more athletic team thus far. Getting all the 50-50 balls which is a good sign on the road. 

[xDerekRx]

1 minute ago, Pharaoh said:

No flow to game so far. Refs whistle happy. At least we are up.  We are def looking the more athletic team thus far. Getting all the 50-50 balls which is a good sign on the road. 

Bona with 7 fouls already. Stockard with 2 still 16:00 left.

Bulls 3 missed FTs but between the two slow starts, UB in better position

[Pharaoh]

In the penalty already five minutes in.   Lol.   

[xDerekRx]

8 fouls on Bona, 13:41 left

Such an ugly slow game so far. Bulls wanna run but might not be that way this half. FTs will be very important

[UB85]

Good hard fought game so far. Gotta make FTs. Defense is excellent so far.