Jump to content
Buffalo Bulls - UB Fan Forum

(6) #15 UB vs (3) #9 Texas Tech - NCAA Second Round (3/24 6:10 EST)


Kevin

Recommended Posts

6 minutes ago, ubfan75 said:

And our coaching was disappointing; I never thought I'd ever say that coach Oats was badly outcoached, but there's a first for everything.

I strongly agree with this statement. For the first time Nate’s game plan and in game adjustments, or lack there of, came up small. My biggest criticism was the constant attempts to drive to the rim into 3 lengthy defenders and force up shots or turn the ball over. It was clear TT was collapsing the defense yet we made no adjustment to penetrate and kick out to shooters on the perimeter or rotate the ball to an open shooter. We kept trying to force an up tempo style, which yes is our style, but we’ve proven we can also win games that are slower paced. We had success in the 1st posting Perkins up (they had no answer for him down low) yet we completely abandoned that and went back to iso ball with little ball movement. 11 assist 16 turnovers. Credit TT but top to bottom we were outclassed for 2 hours. Not indicative of who we were all season.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I strongly agree with this statement. ...

Sorry, I can't agree.  Yes, the staff might have been out coached.  But I don't see that as a disappointment.  How many P5 teams did UB have to prepare for this year, what, 4 or 5?  How many did Chris Beard have to prepare for - ~25?  I can't expect one team to be equally prepared as another who has had 500% as much experience with high major competition.  Buffalo was as prepared as the MAC will currently allow.

Another thing I think about in this loss... How many other NCAA championship games ended with a 20+ defeat?  Buffalo was certainly not alone.  Sure, it stings, but the PAC-12 should feel much worse... Small consolation, but that does make me feel better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

Sorry, I can't agree.  Yes, the staff might have been out coached.  But I don't see that as a disappointment.  How many P5 teams did UB have to prepare for this year, what, 4 or 5?  How many did Chris Beard have to prepare for - ~25?  I can't expect one team to be equally prepared as another who has had 500% as much experience with high major competition.  Buffalo was as prepared as the MAC will currently allow.

I’m not disappointed in him in the sense that I’ve lost faith in him. I’m just disappointed.

“This is on me,” he said. “Hard with a one-day prep. We had to beat Arizona State. To put all your prep into that game. You got one day in between games and you got to figure out how to beat the No. 1 defense in the country.

That’s a quote from Nate. Kinda sounds like an excuse. TT had the same amount of time to prep for us. Yes they prolly overlooked their 1st round opponent and spent some extra prep time on us. But if we wanna fancy ourselves the Gonzaga of the east we can’t keep coming up small. You would’ve thought we would’ve learned a lesson from the Kentucky experience. I’m not discounting our season. I’m talking about for 2 hours on Sunday...we were out classed on the bench and on the floor. No shame...just grow from it. We will break through sooner than later with Nate at the helm.

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/ub-s-magical-run-halted-by-texas-tech/article_06313289-4242-5430-a64c-7b7a5204dc07.html

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I’m not disappointed in him in the sense that I’ve lost faith in him. I’m just disappointed.

“This is on me,” he said. “Hard with a one-day prep. We had to beat Arizona State. To put all your prep into that game. You got one day in between games and you got to figure out how to beat the No. 1 defense in the country.

That’s a quote from Nate. Kinda sounds like an excuse. TT had the same amount of time to prep for us. Yes they prolly overlooked their 1st round opponent and spent some extra prep time on us. But if we wanna fancy ourselves the Gonzaga of the east we can’t keep coming up small. You would’ve thought we would’ve learned a lesson from the Kentucky experience. I’m not discounting our season. I’m talking about for 2 hours on Sunday...we were out classed on the bench and on the floor. No shame...just grow from it. We will break through sooner than later with Nate at the helm.

https://www.niagara-gazette.com/sports/ub-s-magical-run-halted-by-texas-tech/article_06313289-4242-5430-a64c-7b7a5204dc07.html

Here's the video, in case you'd rather watch the post game press report...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJdg-MZFLPg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I had to hit rewind and watch the tape. Here’s what I saw. 

First play of the game. CJ gets a contested layup. Gets bumped before the shot. No foul. Ball bounces off.  I think this is important. Sets the tone for the night. CJ is going to have a rough night. Refs are not going help. 

Perkins stabilizes this team. Without him keeping it together, game would have been over in the first half. 

Wasn’t sure when I watched this live but Jordan had a really good game. He had some big buckets and was very active on offense. 

I hate to point out one player but watching the video, I couldn’t help but notice how bad Harris was. He took some bad shots. But I can live with his offense cause we all know he can explode but the issue really was his defense and lack of effort. He was constantly getting beat by his man. And when he helped, it was a lazy help. And then to top it off, he didn’t box out which led to many offensive rebounds for Tech. He usually plays very casually but he was noticeably out of it on rewind. 

CJ was off. I can’t explain it. But when your best player is off like that it makes it almost impossible to win against a top ten team.  I’ve rarely seen him have a bad game but it might actually be the worst I’ve seen him play.

I think the crowd was a factor. We played in a hostile setting. We have not played in a setting like this in the ncaas. 

In the beginning of the game when TT hit some really tough shots. Some of it was their athleticism but still... I doubt they make those shots on a regular basis. We played tough D and we were definitely unlucky with some bounces on rebounds. 

Caruthers is the one player who got the brunt of TTs length. He got blocked a lot. 

We took the lead 26-25. We won that stretch by sheer will. It was not pretty. It goes to show how tough our team was this year. We didn’t win but I commend the players for that stretch. It gave us a chance. At the same time TT played absolutely horrible during that stretch. It was some ugly basketball. They did not look like a top team. 

We did not play bad to close out the half but TT got some freebies at the line and they converted. We didn’t. Perkins missed a front end of a 1 and 1. In a game like this those misses are magnified. Jordan makes a great drive to the basket but the ball doesn’t fall  

Second half, TT again makes incredible shots. Everything is falling. I think mentally this was the tough part. We had clawed our way back and then to just have the lead expand that easily. Then I think the cliche of the wheels coming off is the only way I can describe it. Everything went wrong at this point. With the crowd going nuts, the opposing players feeling invincible, the game gets out of hand quickly. 

Credit goes to Coach Beard. I think he knew our team tendency and attacked it. One thing I noticed was how there were always 2 or 3 guys on our penetration. He did not give up anything easy at the rim. I had to think about this but I don’t think we had a player who plays the midrange game this year. I know that’s the most inefficient shot in the game today and it is probably by design but perhaps one can counter the analytics based team by playing only the 3 point line and the paint. Wes Clark would have done well on Sunday cause the midrange jumper was sorely needed.

overall, it was ugly but I don’t think it was as bad as it looked.  Some of it was that it was not our day but I don’t think the issue was the talent gap which most would automatically conclude. Some of it really was scheme and some the emotion of an ncaa game. 

We had a rough night. It happens. We will be back. Coach Oats is good. He will be hungry to bring another group back soon. I am pretty sure of it. Some of the way he generates offense is really innovative. He will make the next group shine. He always does. He knows what he’s doing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, 121Merrimac said:

Buffalo was as prepared as the MAC will currently allow.

Disagree with this - this is part of the reason some of us "complaining" about some of the ugly games. It goes to prep and focus. You can't be on all the time, but you can't have some of the (relatively) lazy, ugly games we had and say we were prepping well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

I understand.. I just think that if anyone should be disappointed, it could be Villanova, not UB.  One team too a step back, and one did not.

Yea... But one team knows they have a great program that'll be back, whereas we're still partly in the hoping for the best mode...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

meh, I'm confident that they will have yet another year of... " they have a great program that'll be back"

"Yet another year"? Uh, they won it all last year, and you're dogging them because they're (relatively) down year this year, but they still did as well as our best year ever (both 6 seeds bounced in 2nd round)? Huh. 😉

Edited by ed
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't do my post mortem after the game because it was still fresh but after a couple days... 

TT was a tough matchup. Completely dictating how we played our game. However in the first half I thought up to and right when we took the lead, we could win this game ugly. TT doesn't have much on offense. And as good as TT is on defense (And they are great, long, active) If we hit a couple more shots we keep it within reach. But good on them for frustrating us to the breaking point in the second half.

I loved Perkins in both NCAA tournament games. Hes been a guy we all thought could dominate full games whenever he wanted but had sort of a ho-hum season based on his ceiling. But both of these games he came ready and found success inside. TT game we went away from him in the 2nd but I expected that as they needed to get going from the outside.

CJ needed to get that layup to start the game. Not sure if it would have changed his game overall but could have. I do like that he hit a bunch of shots late. Regardless of what the game flow was at that point, its just nice to see him finish with some buckets.

Harris was bad. Unfortunately he just had an all around bad season save for a few games at the end. If we have a better version of him the team is complete.

That said, it was an amazing season. Absolutely nothing shameful about this game. I read some posts a couple pages back and I think a couple of you "fans" need to follow a different sport if you think this was "embarrassing" lol. These games happen to really good teams. Think how Arizona felt last year getting drubbed by us.

This game doesn't change a damn thing about this amazing season. Not one.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, xDerekRx said:

Didn't do my post mortem after the game because it was still fresh but after a couple days... 

TT was a tough matchup. Completely dictating how we played our game. However in the first half I thought up to and right when we took the lead, we could win this game ugly. TT doesn't have much on offense. And as good as TT is on defense (And they are great, long, active) If we hit a couple more shots we keep it within reach. But good on them for frustrating us to the breaking point in the second half.

I loved Perkins in both NCAA tournament games. Hes been a guy we all thought could dominate full games whenever he wanted but had sort of a ho-hum season based on his ceiling. But both of these games he came ready and found success inside. TT game we went away from him in the 2nd but I expected that as they needed to get going from the outside.

CJ needed to get that layup to start the game. Not sure if it would have changed his game overall but could have. I do like that he hit a bunch of shots late. Regardless of what the game flow was at that point, its just nice to see him finish with some buckets.

Harris was bad. Unfortunately he just had an all around bad season save for a few games at the end. If we have a better version of him the team is complete.

That said, it was an amazing season. Absolutely nothing shameful about this game. I read some posts a couple pages back and I think a couple of you "fans" need to follow a different sport if you think this was "embarrassing" lol. These games happen to really good teams. Think how Arizona felt last year getting drubbed by us.

This game doesn't change a damn thing about this amazing season. Not one.

It was an amazing season and the highlights far outnumbered the lowlights. But unfortunately the last game is the one that we all remember. The game was not like a lot of our games this year. We started out hot hitting shots and running and playing good defense and the opposing team missing shots etc. TT did hit a lot of contested shots, made foul shots and did not give us any easy buckets in the paint. AS we continued to miss shots from almost the entire team it just snowballed and we could never get over the hump. Collectively our worst game with Harris, Caruthers and Graves with single digit scoring and losing the rebounding battle, missing foul shots.There is such an upgrade in very good teams in the tourney that when you have a bad game you can lose big. A case in point with Fletcher Magee of Wofford one of the best 3 point shooters in the nation going 0-12 from 3’s and Ja Morant from Murray State missing 12-15 2 pointers which was the worst of his career. Our family will remember this season for all the great moments especially our home games with sold out crowds, the senior game celebration, notables like Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas at games and talking to the team, and of course our MAC championships in Cleveland with great UB crowds and having game day watch parties with family and friends that rivaled parties when the Bills and Sabres were in post games. These are memories that will last a lifetime. Horns Up and Go Bulls!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

Sorry, I can't agree.  Yes, the staff might have been out coached.  But I don't see that as a disappointment.  How many P5 teams did UB have to prepare for this year, what, 4 or 5?  How many did Chris Beard have to prepare for - ~25?  I can't expect one team to be equally prepared as another who has had 500% as much experience with high major competition.  Buffalo was as prepared as the MAC will currently allow.

Another thing I think about in this loss... How many other NCAA championship games ended with a 20+ defeat?  Buffalo was certainly not alone.  Sure, it stings, but the PAC-12 should feel much worse... Small consolation, but that does make me feel better.

Regarding the "Buffalo was as prepared as the MAC will currently allow comment"...I think there is something to that.  I interpret that as meaning UB doesn't play as many strong teams in conference as TTU does.  And, as such, they were not as "battle tested" as TTU.  They didn't have to deal with some of their overall shortcomings on a game-to-game basis.

I believe this is a fair statement.  Of course, in a one game series like this, anything can happen (and does).

 

Also, if Oats didn't have as much time to prepare as he would have liked (as he alluded to in the press conference), isn't that just a failing of his at this moment in time?  I mean, Oats is not a finished product at all.  He is all of four years into his college head-coaching career.  He still has things to learn.  It is what it is.  I assume he will figure out how to get us to the Sweet 16 -- I have complete faith in him as a coach (and as a learner -- he already provided a demonstration of this in some of the changes he made a few years ago).

 

Go Bulls.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, UB92 said:

...  I interpret that as meaning UB doesn't play as many strong teams in conference as TTU does.  ...

Correct, for the most part, I think you understand the intended meaning.  But, in the context of that reply, I wasn't really speaking about player against player.  Instead, I was thinking about coaching in the MAC, where the opponent might have 1 exceptional big, or 1 shooter, or 1 speed freak.  And, comparing that with a P5, where teams have multiple players who are both tall and fast and can shoot high percentages.  TTU's roster was a couple inches taller at every position.  Preparing a game plan to take away one or two players is one thing.  But, the MAC's schedule doesn't require game plans that eliminate an entire starting roster.  (neither does a mid-major's 2nd team/practice squad, for that matter).  So, even if there was a plan of how you could attack an entire team of taller, faster, better players (I'll bet there was a plan), I don't think Nate has had many opportunities to test that plan.  If you don't see it in action, you can't learn what works and what needs to be adjusted. 

Another thing from the press report...  Didn't Nate suggest he could have scouted TTU more in the off season?  Great reminder that it really is a year round job, even though we only get to enjoy it for a few months. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

Correct, for the most part, I think you understand the intended meaning.  But, in the context of that reply, I wasn't really speaking about player against player.  Instead, I was thinking about coaching in the MAC, where the opponent might have 1 exceptional big, or 1 shooter, or 1 speed freak.  And, comparing that with a P5, where teams have multiple players who are both tall and fast and can shoot high percentages.  TTU's roster was a couple inches taller at every position.  Preparing a game plan to take away one or two players is one thing.  But, the MAC's schedule doesn't require game plans that eliminate an entire starting roster.  (neither does a mid-major's 2nd team/practice squad, for that matter).  So, even if there was a plan of how you could attack an entire team of taller, faster, better players (I'll bet there was a plan), I don't think Nate has had many opportunities to test that plan.  If you don't see it in action, you can't learn what works and what needs to be adjusted. 

Another thing from the press report...  Didn't Nate suggest he could have scouted TTU more in the off season?  Great reminder that it really is a year round job, even though we only get to enjoy it for a few months. 

Another big difference between the Arizona game last year and the TT game was we really neutralized Arizona’s guards and really spread them out on the defensive end and Arizona was not known for their defense. The biggest factor was we made shots where TT was known as a very good defensive team and neutralized us on the offensive end. Go Bulls!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, John said:

Another big difference between the Arizona game last year and the TT game was we really neutralized Arizona’s guards and really spread them out on the defensive end and Arizona was not known for their defense. The biggest factor was we made shots where TT was known as a very good defensive team and neutralized us on the offensive end. Go Bulls!!!!

And, TT was shooting like someone other than TT.  They were unconscious.  They hit shots with guys in the their face all night long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, ChubbyHubby said:

And, TT was shooting like someone other than TT.  They were unconscious.  They hit shots with guys in the their face all night long.

Do agree. We said that right from the start of the game. They were hitting shots from all over the court, turnaround 3’s etc and were making their foul shots. We had a lot of games this year where we did shoot the lights out and also played a lockdown defensive game. Go Bulls!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...