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They got really good (for the MAC level). Like Icarus, they flew too close to the sun and the wings melted off. The price of winning at this level is turnover, and keeping all that going is not easy. The only in-between is to be good but don't win trophies - Reggie's teams here, or Kowalczyk's in Toledo. This isn't an indictment of anyone, it isn't an "I told you so", it isn't for or against any of these previous coaches - it just is. You get good, and win, and you have to start over, and it isn't a guarantee that it will continue. This applies to every team, UB isn't special/brilliant/stupid. The lesson is: enjoy every minute of those highest points that you can, while you can, because they will be fleeting by their nature. I know I did - I still have the confetti I picked up on several occasions on the floor in Cleveland. I'm hopeful/confident we'll be back again, I'm just not sure when. One can both be shocked and appalled at what this team looks like right now, AND realize that any coach's project gets several years to see if it matures. I can't extrapolate what this program will look like in 3 years yet, but I can say this team currently doesn't look like one that's going to win many, if any, games this season.

I honestly have no idea what would make you guys say there's enough talent to win some in the MAC. I'm seeing the exact opposite. I'd put the MAC line at 3.5 and take the under.

I maintain my position that the team isn’t a lost cause. If you look at every game there’s always a period of 10 or so minutes where they score like 5 points and the other team runs away. If they can get rid of those lapses they’ll be ok, but I think we can attribute these lapses to not filling the roster. Every so often the guys aren’t clicking together and coach has nothing to turn to. Not a bad loss, hopefully they can figure it out

I'm not going to bother with another round of why that comparison is complete garbage, but I will say that everything you're saying is insanely premature. We have no idea what Halcovage can build over time. We just know that this team is a hot mess right now - 4 flippin' games into the new coach's career. I've always held the opinion that a coach gets 3 years to prove that the program is on an upward trajectory. The previous administration failed to do that. This administration deserves more time to prove they can right the ship. Unless this isn't about Halcovage at all and you just want to yell "I told you so!" to make yourself feel better.

It's not a knee jerk game. Last game was worse than this one, but there still is some talent there. It's still not far from the late 90s/early 00s teams however. Man for man, this team is better than 1999 (Cohane's last full season, 3 MAC wins), 2000 (Reggie's 1st), 2 MAC wins, but not nearly as good as 2001 (the big 4 recruiting class year, 7 MAC wins). That 2001 team versus 2000 versus now: Darcel Williams, Lou Campbell, Rob Brown, Battle, Clem Smith, Bortz, Davis Lawrence, Gilbert, Bird, Cagwin, (Big) Swoffer, Joe Veal 2000: Rob Brown, Lou Campbell, Jason Robinson, Damien Foster, Lawrence, Cagwin, Smith, Swoffer, Libomi, Alston, Rainey, Duane Williams (from the football team), Walcott, Adam Johnson (also from the football team) 2023: Adams, Chatman, Fulcher, Smith, Sabol, Boldin, Jones, Williamson, McVeigh, Wilson At least we haven't raided the football team (yet) for players. The bench is pretty short though. I believe you were one of the loudest yelling for JW's head (along with Erie County who has disappeared now). His teams were respectable, while nowhere near Nate's teams, and never were going to be anywhere near Nate's teams. While far from perfect, it was a solid team every year, pushing for double digit MAC wins each year. This is a far, far cry from that.

The woman's team looks to keep progressing against a St. Bonaventure that lost to Niagara by 24 two weeks ago. My hope is Coach Burke and staff has worked on half court execution since the abysmal first half offensive performance against Stonehill. At times it just seems like a lack of motion on the weak side or in general making it easy to be defended. I would like to see Watson/Lewis-Williams play off each other more as they can create off the bounce allowing Ogden/Rana a chance to shoot less contested 3s. The freshmen have to improve FT shooting I'm sure as they get more reps it will improve but in a close game can be a labiality. Main things I'm looking from UB is continued sound team defensive pressure and rebounding . The Bonnies shoot at a low 35% from the field and worse 27% from 3 but avg 20FTs per game so play the drive and rebound. This should be the type game where we can see more of the bench players.

I was being comical. Or sarcastic. Or frustrated. Take your pick. I fully understand UB couldn’t write a blank check…hence the joke.

Did that with women’s basketball Turns out nobody wants to play for her or work for her. Our best football/basketball coaches have been: High school head coach turned UB assistant D3 head coach P5 head coach P5 position coach/NFL front office A10 assistant No secret recipe for success

The UB Volleyball team was swept in the MAC Semi-Finals by Bowling Green. The Bulls had lost to the Falcons twice the previous weekend in the regular season; and Buffalo had also been swept by Bowling Green in last year's MAC Semi-Finals. The Bulls were the #2 seed this year, while Bowling Green was the #6 seed, but that didn't seem to matter. The MAC Semi-Final this year was eerily similar to the two regular season matches between these two teams a weekend ago, when the Falcon's first team All-MAC right side, Lauryn Hovey, simply was unstoppable. She had 26 kills in 4 sets against Buffalo in the first game a weekend ago, and 20 kills in three sets in the second game against Buffalo a weekend ago. In the MAC Quarter-final, Hovey score 28 kills in five sets against Ball State, and then against Buffalo in the MAC Semi-final, Hovey had 20 more kills and hit 0.571. It seemed as if the Bulls were ready for Hovey in the MAC Semi-finals. Buffalo was able to put well-formed double blocks in front of Hovey almost every time she attacked, but it simply didn't make a difference. Hovey went around the block, or over the block, or through the block, committing just 4 errors and scoring the aforementioned 20 kills. The Falcons were able to hit 0.434 as a team. It seemed as if they were passing in system 90% of the time, and that helped Hovey and all the other attackers. Buffalo struggled to take Bowling Green out of their offense. In the first set, Buffalo never led and lost 25–17. Buffalo passed poorly and hit 0.107 while the Falcons hit 0.550. Buffalo would pass and attack better in the next two sets, hitting over 0.300 in each, but the Falcons had a higher hitting percentage in each set. One of Buffalo's few leads of the night, and one of the only times Buffalo's serving took Bowling Green out of their offense, was in the second set when with BG leading 7–6 a kill from freshman outside hitter Manoela Forlin pulled the Bulls within one point; and then strong serving by junior setter Mandy Leigh pushed the Bulls to a 9–7 lead. After Leigh served an ace, another tough serve by Leigh was passed poorly by the Falcons, and that resulted in one of Hovey's few errors of the night. Another tough serve led to a block by senior right side Emma Gielas and fifth year middle blocker Courtney Okwara, which finished the run, and Bowling Green called time out. Buffalo would stay ahead at 13–11 but then Bowling Green pulled away and won the set 25–21. Despite Buffalo hitting 0.355 in the third set, they never led and lost 25–21. Senior outside hitter Katrin Trebichavská had 13 kills to lead the team, while Forlin had 10. Mandy Leigh had 33 assists. Fifth year middle blocker Abby Leigh had a team high 3 blocks. Buffalo's record is still a program best since joining Division I at 23–8, and 13–6 in the MAC. Buffalo appears to be in line for an automatic bid to the upcoming NIVC tournament, which they played in last year as well. Here are part of the selection rules for the NIVC tournament: "A team that is offered an automatic berth by the NIVC shall be the team that is a.) the highest-finishing team in its conference’s regular-season standings, and b.) is then not selected for the NCAA Tournament. The team’s overall record is not a criteria. For the automatic qualifying berth, the NIVC believes that a team’s conference record is a more fair comparison among teams within their own conference, and that the conference record should pre-empt overall records among teams from the same conference. The automatic qualifying team is rewarded with the AQ spot for its in-conference play." If I am understanding that properly, Western Michigan is the regular season conference champion, and if they get selected to the NCAA tournament (which seems very likely), then Buffalo is the highest finishing team in the regular season standings that is not selected to the NCAA tournament. The NIVC selection show will be on Sunday, November 26. Other Stuff Buffalo placed five players on All-MAC teams, the most ever for this program. First-team All-MAC: Abby Leigh, Mandy Leigh, Courtney Okwara, Katrin Trebichavská. All-MAC freshman team: Manoela Forlin.

I am with giving a coach 3 years. That said I think that a better philosophy in building the team year 1 would have been getting two more transfers and one less freshman (use all 13 scholarships). Especially given the teams trajectory so far. Unfortunately with the portal the way it is, it is more difficult to foster loyalty and build a team. A modicum of success would help encourage players to stay another year. What we have seen so far...not so much. Let's hope things improve some over the remainder of the season, that is up to players and coaches to drive.

Been very pessimistic about this current team but I do like the 3 freshman sabol/boldin/Wilson the minutes they got together tonight they seemed to have some chemistry. (The five of sabol/boldin/Wilson/Adams/Smith had some semblance of an offense and ball movement) Should be 3 good building blocks for the future hopefully the culture being built will keep them here to see them reach their potential

One of the things that really stood out watching this game was that the team didn’t really look organized or with a plan on either side of the ball. I wonder what practices look like. The contrast with Oats is stark. When Oats took over UB, he already had like ten years as a head coach (albeit in HS), but he apparently ran things like you would in a D1 program. He sort of knew what he was doing right from the jump. Our new coach may have a lot of experience in doing a variety of jobs in a top notch D1 program like Nova, but no one could have watched that game today and not be concerned with the the future. At times, it looked like an intramural team playing together (or worse…a pickup game). Even Reggie ball…with those handoffs on the perimeter, was a plan. I know it is only a few games, but I am sort of scratching my head about what that was. Maybe there was a disciplinary issue. Maybe he is trying out different players in different groupings. But whatever it was, it looked non-competitive. That’s about the most damning thing I could say.

I'm worried the coaches that Nate oates beat by 30+ for a couple years in a row still remember and will take their turn doing right back to ub this season There are a couple Mac teams that might beat this team by 50+

Last 4 years: 70-49 - JW 78-47 - Boals One is talked about like a king on here, one was talked about like a chump at every turn. Again, while nowhere near Nate (neither are close), the team was respectable every year. If last year's team played the soft schedule of this year's team, they'd have been close to 20 wins. Instead, they played Colgate, JMU, Uconn, Drake, Tulane, WVU, Michigan State. We can compare things in all sorts of ways, but the days of top 25 are looking to be long gone, never to return. Previously, we were at least able to watch the game without desiring putting on a brown paper bag over our faces. Sadly, football is looking that way too, 14-22 in the last 3 years.

You're asking "Was Whitesell better than Halcovage?" when you should be asking "Were Whitesell and Halcovage both bad choices?". Whitesell teams regressed every year and halted any national recognition that we had built, while Halcovage appears to be driving the nail in the coffin. Either way, these were both Alnutt hires so imo your complaint is misdirected. Overall, I still think it's wayyyyyy too early to go crazy about Halcovage. We don't know what we have yet. You can't be cheerleading to keep Whitesell after his 4th year of failing but jumping down Halcovage's throat after 4 games.

I'm not the one who hires the coaches. I wanted Whitsell gone because I didn't think he was the best hire. The answer is Alnutt by the way, not me calling for Whitesell to get fired on a message board. See all of his hires.

Knee jerk the game? The start to this season has been God-awful.

There is some talent there. There's no way they get 3 or less wins in the MAC, unless the veteran players completely check out/leave mid-season.

I said I wasn't going to care about results this year. I even thought 7-10 win season was possible. But this might be even a little worse than I expected. Is this why GH never got a real shot after all the years of being around success? I don't want to go to far on that front. I liked the optics around the GH hire and still do. Not going to give up this quick

Well here’s how this is gonna go. They’ll lose nearly all games, attendance plummets, recruiting bottoms out, and we bottom feed for the next 5+ years. Can’t wait

This has been nothing short of a disaster. GH looks lost out there.......deer in headlights.

This is a below D1 level team right now. Can’t even get rebounds that are right in their hands. embarrasing is an understatement.

This is an absolute embarrassment

Good thing everyone is happy JW is gone.

I strongly discourage clicking this link due to extremely poor content

Will Hofstra manage to shoot 85% and 71% from 3 for the entire game? No, but I doubt it will matter. Not pretty through the first 10:00

Took me a while to find the feed on YouTube. Only 96 people watching 🙂

Positive: It's nice that I'm able to watch the game Negative: looking like I'll be turning it off before the half

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I will probably look like an idiot, but for some reason I feel like the team is due for a good game.

Yeah I'm expecting a 20pt loss, those rankings tend to have some credibility when projecting winners Played close games with non d1 teams, let a 300 ranked team be insanely efficient on offense and got the doors blown off against a team in the 200s all while at home First non home game, low expectations for me

Now would also be a great time for me to hit the Mega Millions... Knowing next to nothing about Hofstra, I don't see how we can win against average D1 competition yet. Expecting a 12-20 point loss, but I'll throw it on my laptop I'm sure. Go Bulls, play McVeigh and Wilson more.

They have nobody to blame but themselves. When these groups shell out that kind of money, that is 100% on them, not the coach. There is 1 national champion each year. At best, you might get 4-5 undefeated teams a season (and that is a tremendous season). Most of these groups are completely delusional. Look at Penn St? The people there are nuts, want Franklin's head. Their last national championship was 1986! They act like they are going to be in contention every year. Do you know when Texas A&M won NC? They won 3 - 1919, 1927, 1939, yet they feel they should shell out $100 million on their coach? There are plenty of more examples, but this is glimpse at the ridiculousness of college football. LL is even cashing in just because his team is slightly above mediocre at a school that just paid their college basketball coach $10 million/year. He has been at Kansas now 20 years and has 2 national championships. It's pure insanity the money that is thrown around and the hype to "win it all" when even the best have the odds stacked against them.