I didn't like this (I never like losing to Little Three teams) but I don't hate it as much as I expected to. They lost but weren't humiliated. The bar is that low right now.
Early on we said, "all Bona needs to do is feed it inside to #32, UB has no one to match up with him." It took a little while but they did, and he had a game. Interestingly they started Zakir and Jo Smith came off the bench. Hit some three's, and this game is closer. As another poster noted, they had a chance second half to make it a game but Fulcher missed both free throws and then they turned it over. I thought they played better second half, they did better on defense (it would've been harder to do worse than they looked a couple weeks ago), rebounds were pretty even despite Bona having a big size advantage inside (UB was doing better today at getting position). Funny thing was, nothing was going from outside (a team like UB HAS to hit outside shots, they're not built to play half-court basketball and work it inside), but they were getting most of their baskets inside today. They had some fight in them and they play hard to the end. Some signs of progress I guess.
Chatman - he's trying to be a go-to guy. Finished off some dunks second half. I like when he plays with some confidence.
Smith - had a nice stretch of play but then he couldn't keep going with that shoulder. I say time and again, he doesn't act big. When he does, good things happen for him. He tries really hard. Drained a couple long jumpers first half when UB needed something to happen.
Sabol - he's a freshman, consistent performances are not in the cards yet. Nothing was dropping for him.
Fulcher - just does some dumb things, which negates his speed.
Bona - #32 isn't actually that good, it's just that UB has no one to match up with players like that. They're going to get steamrolled this season by those kind of guys. I thought they got sloppy in the second half and it let UB kinda sorta not really hang around.
Crowd - are the kids on break already? Or is it just a Saturday afternoon, it's raining, the team stinks and everyone's still hungover from last night? The Bona fans were quiet. Except I got to my seat (usually all the people around us are fellow season ticket holders), and two Bona guys were in front of me. One immediately told me how lame this was, and the other told me how pathetic our athletic program is. The first guy then spent the whole game picking his nose. (I don't have anything complimentary to say about Bonaventure but I also wouldn't say it to a Bona person's face in their arena and expect them to somehow agree with it, that seems...rude.) Typical for Bona fans - but way better than the guy years ago behind me who kept yelling homophobic slurs at UB, the fans, and players. I still don't know what a "Bonnie" is.
Let me get this straight, they didn't get rid of the awful DJ's, they decided to make one of them the emcee out there? Congrats, you figured out a way to somehow make it worse.
I know this is a complete tear-down rebuilding year - but please salvage some pride and beat Niagara.