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We've fallen a very long way when we would be excited picking up guys from Canisius.

There's a difference between what they want to do and what they're actually able to do. They know their roster wasn't properly constructed this past season.

Young players improve. Following the development of players is one of the most enjoyable things about following college basketball with as young as the athletes are. Will they develop well? Only time will tell, but to me there's more optimism in trying to build young players up than randomly piecing transfers together each year. Of course there's the risk of players transferring out eventually, but that's just life now and the frequency is overstated imo. Our current freshman class seems to be pretty well bonded and happy here for the time being. Am I optimistic overall for next season? No. I do think we have the chance to be significantly better than this season with a roster of more than eight healthy players, the continuing development of our guys, and hopefully the improvement of the coaching staff after a year of tough lessons. We'll know a lot more when the last two roster spots get filled and we get some eyes on all the new guys on campus.

D1 limits are 15 for women’s basketball. If all of the roster and coaching movement is done, this is a massive win for Burke and she absolutely proved me wrong. Portal is still open for about a month, but so much happens early on. Retaining the MAC FOTY and the conference’s top scorer (who I have to think has a degree by now, meaning transfer without sitting out is a possibility) is also huge.

We're adding four HS seniors and a sophomore and losing a senior and four juniors as it stands. Two open spots remain. Not sure I'm seeing any evidence of the strategy you describe.

Yea, you're absolutely right. I'm not sure Oats would've signed an extension with a much larger buyout though when that could've been a deterrent from other schools pursuing him. The buyout money definitely should've been used for going after a bigger coaching candidate though.

I think the lack of NIL will be a bit of a hinderance to that vision. I think that may be why he is focusing on some higher level D2 and Ivy guys where UB has some better prospects for them and money may not be the carrot they need (not that money isn't nice).

Understand that, but that buyout could have been bigger and they also should have spent on a better candidate. We were in a position to actually start at a plateau point and then advance forward. JW offered some stability and likely preservation of the roster, but it basically caused us to stay at that plateau without moving up. I also am not talking about BH, I am talking about a competent HC with a winning history where UB would have been a step up and then he could have advanced to that next level. It didn't happen, so here we are.

To be fair, Oats signed that extension fully aware that he was likely leaving in the near future. He was doing the athletic department a favor with the buyout but UB chose to promote a cheaper internal candidate rather than spend big money on an up and coming outsider.

Not if they go towards the activity model which is being discussed. Preferred admissions would be gone, preferred class registration would be gone, academic tutors would be gone.

It's sad but time. The staff had to rebuild an entire roster from top to bottom and without nil doing that in one off season is near impossible I see a team that can last being built rather than a group of guys at a gym playing pick up coming together. Which is what we saw ever since oats left Realistically the first recruiting class GH3 had provided a base - very useful players on a good Mac team but not likely the main pieces. High floor low ceiling type of players. His second class on paper looks to be higher potential a lot more size length and athleticism again continuing the build a base of a team. Hopefully hit on a main piece His third class will be very telling because that's when you absolutely have to bring in legit talent to supplement the base or to put your team over the top

We didn't deride our past productive transfer from a MAAC squad in Rider (Pierce - 1st Team All-MAC). We are looking at players from D2, freaking Brown, etc. If we get experienced players and they fit in our rotation, I'll take a competent PG from ANYWHERE.

More than 3 wins and getting blown out by double digits in less than half of the games. I have no idea how this roster is more talented than the previous one, but then again this past year's roster had far more talent than their final W-L record. Maybe this roster will play as a unit and double their win total and cut down on the double digit losses, but at least on paper, it appears to be very young and not filled with much high end talent (at least according to recruiting services, whatever they are worth). The good teams in the league have men on their team, much as we used to. Who does this roster have that can remotely compare to being a "man" like a Dontay, Davonte, Nick? Not a single one, as far as I can tell. Heck, where's an Armoni Foster/Jerrod Oldham? Even a Zid? Heck, from what I can tell, the much destroyed on this board Gabe Grant would be a star in comparison to what this group appears to have. I hope these guys are good players, but it's a super young roster and based on recent history, by the time they are ready to be at a strong productive level (if they get there), they'll be at their 2nd or 3rd school.

What’s the path forward?

I actually like this recruiting, I like this build This past season I didn't really see a path forward but I'm at least seeing a path Granted I think overall talent is down currently but the team might be up

No, when Graham was granted the ability to play this season, basically the court ruling said there can't be transfer sit-outs anymore so anyone can go anywhere, anytime regardless of previous transfers or what year you are in. It's currently the wild west. Maybe it will change, but it will be a court ruling and I'm sure everyone already in the portal will be protected.

The recruiting by this staff is underwhelming. As incredible as it is, I actually feel worse about our chances next year than I did at the end of the season.