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I find myself constantly keeping these two things in mind: 1. This is not the same team as the past two years. Not in a bad way, but a real way. I hope we see some teams that exceed that - but we'll probably always remember those as some of the best UB teams ever. 2. 4 MAC titles and 4 NCAA trips in 5 years has bought a lot of patience and benefit-of-the-doubt for me. That goes for the coaches, recruits, decisions, etc. The program has shown it knows what it's doing. Walking out of there on Friday, my friend said "they look like they're a year away." Next year you're looking at a core of Graves, juniors Williams, Mballa, and Segu, soph Hardnett, and a 4-star guard Robinson. With the experience they're building this year, the future is bright.

SGBull - and yet there's probably a section of Virginia fans who are concerned about the direction of the program and want to burn everything down if they're down double-digits in the first half. If anyone thought they were going to be a top-25 team again this year, get real. No matter who the coach was. As SGBull said, it's not a sign that the program is in distress. They changed over what, 3/4 of the team? Hit on some transfers so far (Mballa, Hardnett, and Johnson is coming around), missed on some others, but that's not much different than previous years (I mean, a top, top level transfer like Harris or Clark won't pop up here every year, and Clark only came because of the coaching connection). They're competitive, they're working hard out there, they have some good wins so far, they're not great but it's been fun to watch. Are people willing to give Whitesell any share of the credit for the past 5 years? I don't know who exactly coaches what in practice but I'm really pleased by the development of the young guys right now. For these reasons and what I wrote a couple posts ago, that's why I didn't flip out at the end Friday and cry on my way home. We're living in some of the best of years for UB sports - please fully enjoy them. I sit behind a guy at the games who is quick to boo and gripe his displeasure when any little thing goes wrong but never NEVER cheers or even claps his hands, just sits there with his arms crossed. A guy I sat next to in the first game said, not even a game into the season "this guy should be fired" (thankfully he hasn't been back). 4 titles in 5 years.

After the game ended, I just shrugged. It was weird. I mean, it was clear the guys were trying out there. It could have gone either way. Those two bank-shot 3 pointers. UB missing their free-throws. UB fouling the guy (maybe...we never sayw the replay) on that important possession. Graves not getting his penetration to fall. We kind of are who we are. Coach is who he is. I think I have accepted it...but that's not a good thing. I gave myself a few days to think about why I just shrugged after we lost and I wasn't really upset. Last year (or year's past), I would have been very bothered. I would have jumped on UBfan and vented. It would have bothered me the rest of the night and the following day. But I didn't jump on UBfan and it didn't bother me the rest of that night or this weekend. The fact that this is only page 3 of this thread after a tough home loss tells me that maybe I am not alone in this feeling. You just shrug at this point. My guess as to why (and maybe, others) feel this way is that we were among the best teams in the country last year. We had this swagger as a team, we had a focus and a worked hard. And the coach had something special about him. That whole "Gonzaga of the East" talk may have been "just talk", but I liked it. We are a long way from that now, from my perspective. We are back to being a pretty good MAC team now. That's okay, but...man that "Gonzaga of the East" was attractive. The "reloading, not rebuilding" part was attractive. I bleed blue so I will always root for the Bulls. Go Bulls.

Sounds like he is trying to create dramas to get clicks. The A10 should be at three bids and the ASun is worse than the MAC.

Point taken. But still, the team is averaging 16.2 assists on 44 FG% this year compared to 16.9 assists on around 46% last year. The main issues I see are defense, FT shooting, and the lack a of closer (I miss CJ).

I still think that the Bulls can win any game left on their schedule. That said, they could lose any game too. The players haven’t quit, and I don’t expect that they will no matter how the rest of the season goes. I have faith in Whitesell, but see the Bulls finishing close to the middle of the pack in conference play. What would be great would be to knock off either Kent or Akron in the tournament. Keep battling. Go Bulls!

I'm also on this train of thought. I'm not going to freak out until the end of next year if the team doesn't improve. We lost so much talent (and a great coach) from last year that it doesn't make sense to expect a high level team. UVA went 35-3 (16-2) and won the NCAA tournament last year, they are currently 13-6 (5-4) and have the same coach they had last year. All teams go through up and downs, we are not immune to that.

100% agree. And with all that said I still think we can win the MAC tournament this season. If this type of season becomes our “down” year then I’ll sign up for that as a program.

Another 2020 commit today, OL addition: https://twitter.com/JOg2020/status/1221469170405183489?s=19

Guess we can't complain about Grad transfers leaving us.

Listed at 6’5” 320lbs, big kid hopefully he hits the ground running with only one year of eligibility left. At the very least it’ll allow some underclassmen to develop more instead of getting thrown into the fire