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...that after UB, I am an Oklahoma "homer".....but OU Softball (three time defending National Champs) just won their 60th consecutive game. Say what you will, but that is pretty freaking amazing.

The bar is set REALLY low right now. So I hoped that they kept it competitive for a half, on a day when they were honoring an all-time great with some others in attendance. And they did that, up by 6 at the half, partly because they played much better defense today, partly because Akron wasn't shooting well (partly because of that defense). I figured we might be able to hear Groce explode at halftime in that locker room, and sure enough they eliminated that deficit quick after halftime. The Bulls stuck around, kept it a 3-5 point game most of the second half but couldn't quite get over that. Like so many other times, the game was decided in the last 3 minutes and the Bulls folded up. But I was entertained, the team played hard, especially more physically on defense. Among so many games to get down about (the Kent game, for instance) or mad about (the NIU game, or the Niagara game), this wasn't the worst. They were in it today despite some of the worst 3 point shots ever - how many didn't even hit the rim? Chatman - his usual double digits, and to his credit, hit his foul shots at the end Adams - got some good rebounds today, tough to the basket on offense, but fumbled it away at the end. Zakir - some progress here. He wasn't afraid to get tough underneath. Sabol - not his day Fulcher - getting more confident taking it himself to the hoop. They need that. Wilson - wish we saw more. Hit his foul shots The team could really use some more depth but I guess Graham and Boldin are hurt? Akron - until the very end, they were HORRIBLE from the line. At one point they were 4-14. The person they trot out there once a game to try foul shots blindfolded was doing about as well. To the point that I kept thinking, keep fouling them, they can't hit their shots. First half they weren't hitting three's, second half they started to. I expected better from Freeman, I thought he was going to have a record day against this UB team, but the Bulls had a plan for him, get physical, and they did a good job of it. Akron goes to the hoop inside forcefully and confidently. You match that or you get run over. My brother: "Akron's bench warmup shirts say something like 'Right is Right'. I wonder if those are court-ordered?" Crowd - the team gave them a reason to get excited at times. The band does a great job of cheering in the almost total absence of True Blue.

Off topic kind of but watching Memphis vs SMU Rob Lanier is coaching SMU now and looks to have his team going When ub originally hired Whitesell, it was rumored they were close to hiring Lanier but he ended up going to Georgia st instead I wonder if Lanier would have left UB for SMU or if he would have stuck around That might have been the big miss in hiring by alnutt in hindsight

"The time is always right to do what is right." It's an MLK quote

You mean you're not entertained by this year's 2 win team?

JW was the modern day Reggie You would compete year in year out but never actually win anything meaningful Two things can be true, Jim getting too much heat from this board and it being the right time to move on from him

Because he didn’t have “energy” and bench had less “energy”

I was one who tried to remain optimistic in JW tenure. For example, even last year, UB was 3rd best defense in MAC. The nail in the coffin for JW was the 1-7 record (average 82 pts against vs 68 pts for) against top four MAC teams last year coupled with poor performance against Akron in Cleveland. The better teams were able to shut down the ISO ball.

I think you were watching a different team to me- Per KenPom under JW they ranked top 20 every year in Pace of Play/Tempo - They played a fast uptempo style of basketball which is miles better than what we see now. Also in 2 of the 4 years of JW Tenure they ranked top 100 in Offensive efficiency - Year 1 was almost a full rebuild where they lost CJ, Perk, Harris, Caruthers, McRae - Year 4 they lost everybody on the roster essentially MAC conference Rankings for scoring under JW; 2019-20 = 1st - 78.6PPG - Graves and Jordan were only returners who played meaningful mins on the last team 2020-21 = 1st - 81.4PPG 2021-22 = 2nd - 79.7PPG 2022-23 = 3rd - 77.5PPG - (Lost Williams, Mballa, Segu etc) - Full rebuild For context; 2023-24 = 11th - 67.2PPG I don't see your point about us being a heavy ISO team though - because as you can see above we scored very well - Williams was a very good ISO player, as was Segu - Why wouldn't we ISO with them? For the record I thought we were fun to watch and moved the ball plenty. What is done is done though - It just irks me the level of hate JW gets on here

Fire the AD and hire Turner Battle either as AD or coach. Also change to a Northeast Conference. Buffalo is not a mid west college. I believe there would be more fan interest and would appeal to more transfers if a change was made.

Agree. What it boils down to also is upper classmen not being leaders and having little situational awareness. Two examples…Smith dives on a lose ball and instead of calling a timeout he throws the ball into an Akron crowd of players. A possession or two before that Adams tried to dribble penetrate from the top of the key and turned the ball over going 1 v 2. Both those possessions were late in the game when we were down 3-5. We have a young and inexperienced roster but what’s compounding our issues is our upper classmen aren’t taking control. Plain and simple we are a team that doesn’t know how to win. We don’t know how to execute in the crunch to win games. For what it’s worth, I thought GH3 called the timeout at the right time, dialed up the right plays got the ball where it needed to go…players just didn’t execute. Against NIU players did hit their FTs. The last week we’ve been playing our best stretch of basketball yet yielding negative results.

I think we should ban all posts regarding the eXtreme until they fix the school's name on their anglefire web site.