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You captured how I am coming to feel about it too. Sad. I've been a college football fan for more years than a lot of board members have been alive, but my passion is waning. I find it tough to get invested in young athletes when they are not invested in the team. That is not a condemnation of them. I get the economics and such. But I used to know that when a player committed to OU or UB that they were in for the duration in all likelyhood. Now, even at P5 schools, you can't get invested. Caleb Williams taught me that. I'll keep my UB season tickets, and go to most of the games; catch the odd UB road game; and see a few more games elsewhere. It's okay, but it is surely different. And life (and football) go on...

I was pretty optimistic at halftime. Down 2, pretty even game, they were hitting some outside shots. Then Miami shot the lights out in the second half. A couple stats stood out - Miami shot 65% for the game. That's obscene. You pretty much can't lose if you're shooting that well. UB slightly beat Miami on rebounds, but Miami won the points in the paint 56-38. I had a feeling a few weeks ago that UB was going to have a big problem in the MAC against some of these teams that could out-match them inside, and this was one of them. Fulcher - I've been tough on him, maybe too much for a freshman, but he had his best game so far tonight. He took care of the basketball a bit better, and used his speed to the basket to great effect. Keep it up. Adams - one of his worst games. Nothing was working. Smith - he works so hard. I really want to see him do well. He's winning some good second chance rebounds for them. Sabol - continues to improve. Getting more confident with his shooting and his release looks quicker. Chatman - pretty invisible today. McVeigh - actually hit a couple of his shots today. Playing with some more confidence. Miami - I was really impressed last year by Mirambeaux, and he impressed again this time. His touch around the net is excellent. It left me wondering if he dropped 20 pounds, would he be able to play more than half the game? Or would that take away from some of his effectiveness? Crowd - about what you expect for a 2-win team, on a weeknight, with bad weather, and the students are still on break. Every game we enjoy the look-back-in-time Castle 'Clean the Glass' trivia, and they screwed it up, using Shannon Evans' picture while describing Mitchell Watt. Come on, guys. Halcovage - I'm one of those who doesn't care if the coach yells and screams or not. Maybe because I coach kids and adults and I don't yell and scream (though I have my moments, they're rare) and I don't think it has anything to do with my effectiveness. Everyone has their own style. I get why some people want to see some kind of response or reaction to games like these. But I don't think for a minute that he doesn't care, or cares any more or less than a lunatic like Hurley. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

I think the fact of the matter is that he's just a better ancillary piece than he is a lead player. Too much is being asked of most players on this team due to the low talent level and the fact that we're not scheming our way out of talent deficits. Last year 62.8% of Adams' baskets (not shots) were assisted, down to 45.2% this year. I'm sure if there was a way to calculate "potential assists" on shots rather than makes the decrease would be greater than that. Please go rewatch the ATO with 33 seconds left in the first half and tell me what Halcovage drew up there. The highlight of the game for me was my brother's comment "UB thought they were getting Jay Wright, but they got Jay Wrong"

While I have no idea as to what happened (or is happening), he's not here, along with others who were originally supposed to be on this roster. This team suited up 9 yesterday. As was stated in an earlier post, Wilson finally gets in down 20 and is pulled with a minute left. McVeigh, who was finally playing decently is playing well, they pull him. It's crazy to watch what is happening here. We've gone from the penthouse to skid row way too fast. Yes, transfer portal eats us alive. Yes, NIL paying players doesn't happen for us. But this is dumb. There's no way JW and Co have UB with 1 win in the 2nd week of January, and without any hope for anything remotely close to a silver lining on the horizon. Whether you liked or disliked him, the team at least was watchable. Sadly, many times this season, this has not been, and has felt like JV basketball. Whether it's been a lack of on the floor awareness/IQ and/or effort, it's just so so sad to see. Yesterday was the quietest game I've seen in 25 years. A player on UB blocks an opponent out of bounds and there was literally not one clap heard from the crowd. That's how checked out everyone has gotten (much like the Mitchell Watt/Shannon Evans error).

At this point, does it really matter? We are relegate to scouring the transfer portal for mercenaries or people trying to get PT. If we happen to find a guy and develop him, they will likely bail. I am just rooting for UB and can't get invested in individuals anymore. It really sucks as a fan, but I guess that's where we are for now.

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I am hoping it's a good game. We are going to need to shoot a good percentage and get good quality looks at the basket.

Anecdotal, but I watched one of the non-conference games with my girlfriend. She's a basketball fan and follows her high-major alma mater closely; she doesn't know anything about mid-majors but she generally knows her way around college basketball. I forget which game we were watching, she just mindlessly asked me, "what level this is - is this D3?" I said something to the effect of "uh, no, this is D1. UB was ranked a couple of years ago and made tournament 4 out of 5 years." She just kinda blankly looked at the TV, confused, and said "well, this looks like a high school team." Not ideal.

Well said. I wondered that last weekend - if you can't get minutes on this team, this year, then I don't know. I totally agree with you when you say there's an alarming lack of basketball awareness and sense out there. Especially from some experienced guys who should know better at this point. Looking back, it's not hard to go down in the standings if the recruits you brought in don't pan out. However well regarded they are, maybe they just don't have the same ceiling, or drive, or don't fit as well together. Look at what happened after Battle/Bortz/Bird/Gilbert - Betts/Robinson/Gamble/Pierce were decent, but not as good. Then you had teams with Watt, McCrea, that had a really good couple players but without a lot of depth. Even when you think you're recruiting the next batch of players to take over, they might not be the same. Segu/Williams/Mballa - we thought they were going to be awesome. For various reasons, they didn't do as well as their predecessors, and it wasn't all because of talent... I've been trying to think of what went right in the past. What were some of the qualities of the players, the culture, etc. 1. Building something - I don't want to speak for them, in case this is wrong, but I got the sense there was pride in some of those teams where they were building something new, taking the program where it hadn't gone before. 2. Drive - they tended to get guys who had a chip on their shoulder, who wanted to play at a higher level but were overlooked. They wanted to prove those places wrong. CJ, Perkins, and on the football side, Khalil and Brandon Oliver come to mind. Mitch Watt had to learn how to walk again! McCrea was passed over despite his talent because he was 6'7" and not 6'10". Segu and Williams had to follow that and they were different players, I didn't see them with the same level of motivation and drive. Battle, CJ, Watt, Perkins, Dontay, those guys had a competitive fire that burned bright when it mattered most. 3. Getting guys to buy into a culture, a way of doing things, a way of playing, and that it may take a couple years of work to get to be a starter, good enough to play regularly in that group. For years this program was known, under several coaches, as one that played good defense. That has completely melted away. You seemed to have a torch passed along between guards that took pride in their craft at being a shutdown defender. We have been missing that person for years now. Who among this group has the competitive fire out there that leads by example, sets the tone and the standards, and picks up everyone else? As someone else said, you have some complementary parts. You'd think 'maybe' Chatman but I've been vocal about his terrible demeanor out there at times. Personally, when I take on a new team or a new group, you have to find out what everyone can do. Losing provides a good indication of who gets frustrated/angry and tries harder; who emerges as a leader; who stops trying; who doesn't care. You build with the former and move on from the latter, you set those expectations and that culture. Is that what Halcovage and company are doing right now? Will anyone they want to keep after this season actually want to stay?

The players who were here have regressed from last year to this year. Adams was good, now struggling. Jo is only good when the coach doesn't get in his head, pulling him immediately after a miss or turnover. Sy would've been a force last year, and is talented now, but is completely alone at times. They ran off Kanye. Curtis and Jack saw what this was going to be and left town early. Williamson didn't help before and still isn't. Sabol, Fulcher and Bolden are solid role player additions, and have been afforded big time opportunities. They've played well at times, but struggled in others. Overall, this team showed little heart on D yesterday and tends to get over run by the leader on the other side of half court. It's so hard to watch as this team is 1st year MAC bad right now. Sadly, I think this team has much more top end talent than that team, and a few solid ancillary players alongside them. But they are proving to be much, much worse right now. Best quote from yesterday... "Where's your paper bag for covering your face?" "This team isn't good enough to even deserve a paper bag". Thats a sad, but poignant exchange from 2 long time ub supporters and fans.

In 2021 we took a transfer from Eastern Michigan (Quian Williams) and he had a couple really productive years at UB as WR. I guess it was their turn to sign a UB transfer.

I wonder what is going on with Adams, his stats are well below what he contributed last year (last year MAC - 52.3% eFG%, 36.7% from 3, 12.8 ppg). Is he still not 100% physically, are other teams defending him tighter or is he not playing with confidence. Hopefully he returns to last year's level, and produces at the level commensurate with his ability. This team needs him scoring more efficiently to be competitive.

Why should UB Bulls football fans care? Cole Snyder sucks that is a automatic win on the UB Bulls football schedule next season in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo

I am not sure MBB would be Ball State WBB at this point...

Looked promising at half down just 2. Then we proceed to give up 40 pts in the first 13:00 of the 2nd. Picking up 3 MAC wins looks to be a challenge if we can’t play a full 40 minutes and win some home games against other middle to bottom tier MAC teams

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Horrible foul call on Chatman. Ridiculous

Not sure how that's a jump ball

I 100% support the Army, Navy, Air Force comment. But the games are in 13 years. Seems insane to schedule games that far out.