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#25 UB @ Akron (2/12 - 7:00pm ET)


Jeseph

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TV Coverage: ESPN+

Akron will get up for this one with our national ranking and what we did at their house last year. Akron plays the best defense in the league, we need to limit turnovers and rebound well in this one. Keep playing that team defense that we saw for stretches against CMU and Akron shouldn't be able to score with us.

HUGE week for UB.

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Akron plays solid defense so we will have to limit turnovers and execute in the half court. They also make about 9 3s per game. So while they don’t score a ton they can hit 3s. If we can get run outs that will make life easier. As has been the case the environment will be dificult (ready to court storm) and the opposing team will be extra jacked up to knock us off. 

First off two difficult road games and we can’t overlook Akron. They want to make it a bare knuckles matchup let’s take it to em.

Edited by DooleyBull06
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Akron shot well against Kent. That did not happen until Kent raised the white flag in the second half and stopped competing. Part of that was weak strength of character (when the going gets tough the tough get going, not Kent) and the other was Akron's pressure defense and making it difficult for Avery who struggled mightily. I'd recommend our guards in particular watch some video of how Akron D'ed Avery up. The key is for us to play good team defense, not just one or two guys, but all five. If we play consistent solid D Akron won't shoot nearly as well.

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6 hours ago, Jeseph said:

TV Coverage: ESPN+

Akron will get up for this one with our national ranking and what we did at their house last year. Akron plays the best defense in the league, we need to limit turnovers and rebound well in this one. Keep playing that team defense that we saw for stretches against CMU and Akron shouldn't be able to score with us.

HUGE week for UB.

Agree that we need to limit turnovers and rebound on both ends of the floor. Need a good all around game from Perkins. Hope CJ’s shoulder is better. Did anyone notice the last game with CJ’s shoulder hurting he was not involved under the basket as he usually is? He normally is very involved and always seems to come up with timely rebounds. Go Bulls!!!!

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I worry about this game.  Is UB a great team or a good team that had a nice run at the beginning of the season.

If UB is a great team, they win by 13.

I fear that, maybe, UB is only a good team.  At various points in the season I have thought they were a great team, but I am now beginning to doubt myself.

They lost that game @ NIU where they had to hit a 3-late just to tie.  Then they survived against KSU, especially clamping down in the last 4 minutes.  It could have gone either way.

After a predictable beat down of BSU at home, they went on the road again and were outplayed severely in the second half...especially on the turnovers.

Then they started out very slow at home vs. CMU, but outclassed them in the second half.

Now they take a trip to Akron.  The Zips have won all of their home conference games this season and all of their home games, total, save for a one-point loss to Marshall.

 

The Zips want to keep us in the 50s, so expect fouls, hard rebounding and tough defense.   As I mentioned in another thread, we really embarrassed them last year at home.  Playing strong against the ranked Bulls team would really give them an idea of how far they have come since the Dambrot exodus.

 

So...are we a great team...who shrugs off all I have written above, scores a lot in transition, hits threes and plays tight D on our way to a 13 point win?  Or are we a good team (now) with players who are hurting/slumping and have a big struggle tonight on the road?  I've seen plenty of UB games where we get run out of the gym at Akron when they start hitting threes in transition.

I want to believe we are a great team.  Go Bulls!.

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9 minutes ago, UB92 said:

I worry about this game.  Is UB a great team or a good team that had a nice run at the beginning of the season.

If UB is a great team, they win by 13.

I fear that, maybe, UB is only a good team.  At various points in the season I have thought they were a great team, but I am now beginning to doubt myself.

They lost that game @ NIU where they had to hit a 3-late just to tie.  Then they survived against KSU, especially clamping down in the last 4 minutes.  It could have gone either way.

After a predictable beat down of BSU at home, they went on the road again and were outplayed severely in the second half...especially on the turnovers.

Then they started out very slow at home vs. CMU, but outclassed them in the second half.

Now they take a trip to Akron.  The Zips have won all of their home conference games this season and all of their home games, total, save for a one-point loss to Marshall.

 

The Zips want to keep us in the 50s, so expect fouls, hard rebounding and tough defense.   As I mentioned in another thread, we really embarrassed them last year at home.  Playing strong against the ranked Bulls team would really give them an idea of how far they have come since the Dambrot exodus.

 

So...are we a great team...who shrugs off all I have written above, scores a lot in transition, hits threes and plays tight D on our way to a 13 point win?  Or are we a good team (now) with players who are hurting/slumping and have a big struggle tonight on the road?  I've seen plenty of UB games where we get run out of the gym at Akron when they start hitting threes in transition.

I want to believe we are a great team.  Go Bulls!.

I still think a big key for us to win is the health of CJ’s shoulder. If he can not get involved down low with all the banging that goes on and help on the boards along with Harris still having a tough go from the 3 point line we will need big games from Perkins, Jordan and Caruthers. Have faith in this team as they have been in these type of games the last few years and have had success. Go Bulls!!!!

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41 minutes ago, UB92 said:

I worry about this game.  Is UB a great team or a good team that had a nice run at the beginning of the season.

If UB is a great team, they win by 13.

I fear that, maybe, UB is only a good team. 

 I don't think that they have to win by 13 to justify being "great",  but when they are playing (this year's version of) UB basketball, they would win by that number, or more.

This is a "great team" in my opinion, especially as compared to any of UB's teams from prior years. Have they had bad stretches in games? Most definitely. So has Duke, UVA, etc. When these guys play at the top of their game, there isn't anyone in the league who can even think about hanging with them. That goes for both ends of the floor. If the energy on (team) defense is there, and is also there on the glass, look out. Their defense can turn into offense quickly, and if they can limit teams to one (contested) shot, they will be next to impossible for anyone to handle in this league. Injuries aside, I think that these guys know how big of a week this is, and if they can get it done over the next two games, there's no reason to believe that they'll finish anything other than 16-2 in the league season. I like to believe that they will get it done, starting tonight.

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I think whether this team is great or not will be determined at seasons end. If we win the Mac regular season crown, Mac tourney and get back to the big dance and win a game or two then the season is a success and no one will remember if we were 16-2 or 15-3 in the regular season. Depending on how far we go in the post season no one will remember if we beat Akron by 1 or 13.

The goals right now are to win by any means and continue to get better. Continue to correct our mistakes and trend upwards to then be at peak performance in March. I can’t emphasize enough that 2 wins this week on the road will be a huge statement. The bigger the margin of victory the more impressive sure. But I’m not gonna say we must win by a certain a number or else. Let’s just win.

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I have mentioned this before.

From here to the MAC Tournament, our biggest obstacle is ourselves. If we come out and play the game that we know we can, we will win the rest of these games. If they get in their own heads, they will lose against themselves. 

With that said, I believe if we shoot over 45% we will win this game tonight. The JAR will be rocking. I am hoping that they bring the same intensity that they brought St. Bonaventure when we played them in Olean.

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54 minutes ago, BullsFan14 said:

 The JAR will be rocking. I am hoping that they bring the same intensity that they brought St. Bonaventure when we played them in Olean.

C'mon.  The Bonnies game was a "shut up" game to their arrogant fans, clearly.  Even Oats got in on it after the game with his tweet.

Who knows the level of intensity UB will bring, but Akron will bring the intensity.  UB has to match it right from the gate.  They can't be down 27 -12 going 1 - 9 from 3 and Perk is on the bench with 3 fouls while Harris has 5 turnovers.   The guys have to play with the intensity and poise that ranked teams need to play with on the road.

I drove to the campus earlier and picked up my tickets.   The UB fans at the game...please, please, please...be as loud as possible all game.  The Akron fans tend to be older and they have trouble drawing students.  So...50 loud UB fans can make an impact. 

Go Bulls.

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I feel like this one could be a blowout. Akron really struggles offensively, they shoot the 9th highest percentage of 3s and make them at the 299th rate. They could get run out of the gym early. They have one true PG listed at a generous 5'8", he's gonna get man handled by our guards. Also they really only play 7 so they'll probably get gassed and/or into foul trouble. Not much about Akron scares me.

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Last night, 40k of my neighbors lost power.  Somehow, I was in the center of 6 blocks that never lost it.  Today, everyone is frantically buying out supermarkets and snow shovels.  Ha, being from NY, I've had all that stuff for awhile.  I'm frantically like; man I better have power for the Bulls game.  Keeping the phone powered up, as a last resort...

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Another game I just pray we don't embarrass ourselves by laying an egg. Just play our game and we should be fine. For all the defensive accolades they get we are pretty much dead even with them (29th v 31th per Kenpom efficiencies). They have no offense so unless they get especially hot and all our shooters catch whatever Harris has then we should be good. 

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