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


Jeseph

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8 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Give credit to Akron. They’re better than I thought. They played good defense. We had only 6 assists, which for this team is pathetic. Compounding that, we had 18 turnovers. Turnovers are becoming a huge problem. They’re momentum killers. And worse yet, they give the opponent an opportunity to score without us scoring thereby making it easy to change the game’s momentum. 

3 pt shooting once again abysmal at 29%. That number has to improve perhaps by being more patient offensively, rotating the ball to side to side more and by driving the lane and kicking it out to wide open shooters. 

Someone above made an excellent point re Perkins. He has become soft. He’s looking more for 3 pt shots rather than getting his butt inside and banging. This alone would open the outside more if he played inside more. He’s is a huge presence inside that few can handle in the MAC. He would have slaughtered Riak tonight if he focused on his inside game. I have absolutely no problem with him shooting the 3 ball. But it must be a complement to his inside game. That’s what has made him an all conference player and helped the team become a top 25 program this year. 

Lastly let’s stop the friendly fire. We’re all UB fans. Let’s use our positive energy to support UB men’s basketball. Do however feel free to call me out if I do or write something idiotic. Peace brothers. Go UB!!

Right on point my man. Our assist to turnover ratio has to be better. Turnovers give opposing teams easy points. And against teams that struggle to score we can’t help them out. 

3 point shooting has to be better. A lot of that is Harris being ice cold. 

I feel like we haven’t used Perkins as best as we can. If teams wanna slow us down and we have to play a half court game then we should as you said rotate the ball, play pick and roll/pop and feed Perk in the paint. We gotta be multi dimensional. 

We are so close to coming home for 3 straight games...let’s get this W against Toledo and really get the mojo churning.

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Perk is quick and has good moves inside, but he can’t jump too well. He gets in trouble when the opponent collapses on him - he tends to turn it over or foul. I think he should try to battle down low more and limit his shots from the outside. He did rebound the ball well tonight. Plus his foul shooting was good...sometimes he seems too aloof and not in focus. Buffalo needs every point it can muster from here on out. Go Bulls!

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Back from the game.  A few observations.

1.  Not a lot of energy in the crowd.  Most of it was manufactured noise.

2.   Jump rope as a halftime show? Those kids didn't really take it to the next level as promised.

3.  If you are going to give away free tuition, at least make sure the person can reach the backboard from midcourt.  I don't even know if it made the 3 point line.

4.  Akron's size (bulk and height) made McRae and Perk less effective inside.

5.  The turnovers are mostly a result of forcing and bad decisions.  They have to really value the ball more.   It is near RW levels.

6.  Bravo foul shooting.  Hit some front parts of 1 and 1.  Perk and CJ were particularly strong.  It may very well have been a different outcome if they miss some 1 and 1 shots.

7. The flexibility of Caruthers was on full display tonight.   He hit some highly contorted shots.  And he got some important boards.

8.  Williams...happy birthday.   I hit a 3 in front of the Akron bench and then earn a T.  Your present was the ire of Oats.   He was hot.   I hope some of his teammates get on him for that.  This isn't HS anymore.

9.  Segu keeps getting important minutes.  Needs some more bulk on him.   It is physical driving the lane.  Full marks to Graves for getting beat up while going inside.  Graves is going to shine next year.

10.  A table full of NBA scouts were at the game.

11.   Refs were a bit overwhelmed at parts tonight.  Called some things that were not fouls and missed a few more obvious ones.  Oats rode the refs tonight.   He looked Hurley-esque at some points...but without the Hurley baggage.

On to Toledo.  Go Bulls!

 

 

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These articles show how winning ugly can hurt a mid major in the eyes of pollsters. I’ll take winning ugly over losing ugly any day of the week. Of course as Jespeph points out both writers ignore that Nevada struggled mightily at home with A. As the noted UB alum Brook says, “just win baby!”

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Road wins in any sport are rarely pretty. MAC league games, especially at this point in the season, get to be battles.  Akron isn't yet fully rebuilt under Groce but he's a quality coach and they're always a tough team.  UB is good but not so good that they're not going to have some good battles with other good MAC teams.

Also, for the next time there's a discussion about "what's wrong with UB and the lack of attendance at things" - it's a problem everywhere.  Akron had what, 2500 last night for a ranked opponent that is always up for a quality game.

https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2019/01/mac-basketball-at-a-high-attendance-is-low.html

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There are a couple of concerns that I had last night. Turnovers and assists. 18 turnovers to 6 assists. Not good. 

Granted, the pace that UB plays at, does cause turnovers. But, they have to reduce that figure by half. They have to be smart with ball movement.

As far as assists go. UB is tied for 16th in the nation in assists with 16.6 per game. We had 6 assists last night. I do respect Akron's defense and their ability to slow the pace. But, that figure has also got to double, we have to move to ball better.

I wanted to say how pleased I am at free throw shooting last night. 21-26 from the line, 80.8%. Granted nearly half of that came from Massinburg. But, UB has shown that they can get to the line and make the free throws like they should.

Lastly, another shoutout to Dontay Caruthers who in the last 5 game has averaged 18.4 PPG, shooting 32-41 78% from the field. Added 15 points last night. As I've said previously, him stepping up has been huge for us.

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Great points.

1 minute ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Granted, the pace that UB plays at, does cause turnovers. But, they have to reduce that figure by half. They have to be smart with ball movement.

These were largely unforced TOs. We can't be beating ourselves against a solid defense like Akron. Luckily their offense was brick-city after a number of careless turnovers. Playing hard and fast is our game, carelessness does not have to go with it.

2 minutes ago, mikescherrer8 said:

As far as assists go. UB is tied for 16th in the nation in assists with 16.6 per game. We had 6 assists last night. I do respect Akron's defense and their ability to slow the pace. But, that figure has also got to double, we have to move to ball better.

When we move the ball we have one of the scariest offenses in the country. The issue is that this mostly happens in transition. Once we're forced to slow the ball down or inbound on the offensive side of the court we struggle with ball movement on half court sets. Passes are made "for the sake of passing" and then we just go iso and hope for an opportunity. We've got to figure out a way to bring our cutting/slashing/court vision into our half court sets.

2 minutes ago, mikescherrer8 said:

Lastly, another shoutout to Dontay Caruthers who in the last 5 game has averaged 18.4 PPG, shooting 32-41 78% from the field. Added 15 points last night. As I've said previously, him stepping up has been huge for us.

Dontay's ability to get to the rim, and finish, has been unbelievable lately. He has been one of our most clutch scorers (and doesn't take plays off on defense as a result).

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2 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

Also, for the next time there's a discussion about "what's wrong with UB and the lack of attendance at things" - it's a problem everywhere.  Akron had what, 2500 last night for a ranked opponent that is always up for a quality game.

https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2019/01/mac-basketball-at-a-high-attendance-is-low.html

I honestly could careless about attendance numbers for other teams. That’s shame on them. Last night was pathetic for Akron. But that’s their problem. We have 4 home games left and each one is gonna be sold out standing room only. The game against CMU was he 4th largest crowd. These next 4 home games should rival that. Our attendance at seasons end will prolly lead the MAC. And that’s where it should be. I’ll go a step further and say we have provided other mac teams with an attendance boost when we have come to town. 

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We have some small issues still lingering but TOs are certainly the biggest. The amount of them that is. It just really slows down such a fantastic offensive team. We are good enough to still win all of these games but cut down the TOs, get the flow going again and we get back to running teams out of the building.

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1 minute ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I honestly could careless about attendance numbers for other teams. That’s shame on them. Last night was pathetic for Akron. But that’s their problem. We have 4 home games left and each one is gonna be sold out standing room only. The game against CMU was he 4th largest crowd. These next 4 home games should rival that. Our attendance at seasons end will prolly lead the MAC. And that’s where it should be. I’ll go a step further and say we have provided other mac teams with an attendance boost when we have come to town. 

When they said the 4th largest crowd is that included before the reconfiguration of Alumni?? But at any rate it is great to see the big crowds and the enthusiasm of the fans. Our family continues to pinch ourselves at how far this program has come for both the men and women. Hope we see some of these fans come out for the women’s game on Sat at 2PM. We only have a few games left to see Dillard who is a joy to watch. Go Bulls!!!!

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53 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

Great points.

These were largely unforced TOs. We can't be beating ourselves against a solid defense like Akron. Luckily their offense was brick-city after a number of careless turnovers. Playing hard and fast is our game, carelessness does not have to go with it.

When we move the ball we have one of the scariest offenses in the country. The issue is that this mostly happens in transition. Once we're forced to slow the ball down or inbound on the offensive side of the court we struggle with ball movement on half court sets. Passes are made "for the sake of passing" and then we just go iso and hope for an opportunity. We've got to figure out a way to bring our cutting/slashing/court vision into our half court sets.

Dontay's ability to get to the rim, and finish, has been unbelievable lately. He has been one of our most clutch scorers (and doesn't take plays off on defense as a result).

Do agree Dontay has been our overall best, most consistent player on both ends of the floor. Graves has been our unsung player all year. With all of our other players he does go unnoticed in many games. one thing I noticed is how good both Graves and Dontay have improved their free throw shooting along with their scoring and just overall play. With the inconsistencies and struggles of Harris and Perkins where would we be without these two??

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If anything let those articles fuel our team for Friday. We all know they aren’t playing to their potential but a win in Akron is good no matter what the circumstances. That being said I’m glad Oats isn’t afraid to call it how it is and say where we need to improve. I think we are all just nervous because that kind of performance likely won’t cut it at Toledo. Turnovers were a big problem but can be easily fixed on a lot of them by just focusing. I’m a little more worried about the assists. I remember this team being super unselfish and passing the ball all over the place leading to wide open shots all The time . We need to get back to that. Perkins will have better games, Harris will get his shots back, and turnovers can be fixed easily...let’s get to it. All that being said, we can play as ugly as we want as long as we come out with a win on Friday. All these people can shut up if we come out with a q1

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I was upset with shot selection while watching live. The guys who were hot weren't shooting, the guys who were cold were firing away.

Caruthers and CJ shot 67% and scored 1.47 points/shot. They took 15 shots combined.

Jordan shot 45% and scored 1.09 points/shot. He took 11 shots alone.

Graves - Harris - Perkins shot 32% and scored 0.73 points per shot. They combined for 22 shots.

IDK if CJ or DC have to TAKE the game over, or if the team has to pass more to the hot hands, but I worry, that at our best EVERYONE is in on the action, and the open man shoots, but at our WORST, our opponent lets a cold guy take open shots, and he shoots us to death.

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14 hours ago, UB85 said:

Reporter for Cleveland.com, Elton Akexander, and one of UB’s Promoters in the AP voting unimpressed with UB. https://www.cleveland.com//sports/2019/02/no-25-buffalo-escapes-from-akron-with-a-76-70-victory.html

Alton in his pregame piece said: "The Bulls have dropped to No. 25 after 14 straight weeks in the AP Top 25 poll, losing two of their last five, plus a pair of late-game escapes against Kent and Central Michigan." 

We took the lead for good against CMU with 15:02 remaining, we never trailed in the 2nd half against Akron. I guess those go down as late game escapes if you only look at the final score.

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1 hour ago, bull_trojan said:

Alton in his pregame piece said: "The Bulls have dropped to No. 25 after 14 straight weeks in the AP Top 25 poll, losing two of their last five, plus a pair of late-game escapes against Kent and Central Michigan." 

We took the lead for good against CMU with 15:02 remaining, we never trailed in the 2nd half against Akron. I guess those go down as late game escapes if you only look at the final score.

Didn't we win by 14 vs Cmu? How is that a late game eacape? These guys are crazy. I guess we need to win by 50 in the 1st half and hold it for the final to make some people happy. 

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23 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

Didn't we win by 14 vs Cmu? How is that a late game eacape? These guys are crazy. I guess we need to win by 50 in the 1st half and hold it for the final to make some people happy. 

Left the CMU game early to beat the parking gridlock with the Bulls up by 10 or 11 with 4 minutes to go. When we got to the car the Bulls were up by 4 with a little over 1 minute to go. Then it developed into a foulfest which pushed the lead back up. My point is that the Bulls are squandering leads by rushing shots and throwing the ball away. They don’t have to always play at breakneck speed. They have to use the clock as their friend sometimes, which they don’t seem to grasp. 

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15 hours ago, Jeseph said:

We all know last night wasn’t “impressive” and the team has struggled but was THIS...?

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game?gameId=401084001

These guys cover Akron. What were they expecting to see? Akron has a top 30 defense and deliberately plays better defense because they dont have the offense talent/weapons.

I dont think anyone scores 75+ on them. Their tempo is terrible. They had two shot clock violations, to them those are like points. 

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