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I was at the Jim Christian press conference today and spoke with him afterwards. I'm going to increase my college basketball coverage next season. With me being back with Trainwreck Sports, I will be credentialed with UB, Canisius and Niagara so I look forward to providing additional content in the future.

My view is similar to you, I will be optimistic and hope for the best come November when we find out for sure what type of team we have. Right now I have the view that Batchelor will be an improvement over what we saw from Adams, Dunn will be an improvement as primary ballhandler, the returning players will be better than last year, the bench is deeper and they will play better team ball. We will see what they do with last two scholarships, but I believe the team will be better. That said I support those who are less optimistic than I am and have no problem with them expressing their view. I am glad that they care enough to stay interested and contribute.

Done

Deep Snow could have a special ring to it this coming season.

Fair just got drafted #17 by the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces as their first pick. Makes 2 recent UB pros, both from Rochester.

True to form, we have another Canadian! 31 minutes/game, 15.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 6.4 assists/game, 2.11 assist/turnover ratio, 37.5% 3-points (30-80), 75% FT shooter. Hopefully it can translate to UB and give us a veteran presence that looks like he can shoot and distribute. 5.8 rpg is really solid for a 6'3 guard as well, could be a gym rat.

https://umeshawksports.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/ariana-seawell/5605 Final roster spot

Nice feature articles on Lopez and KLW. I did not know Lopez was still on the Argentina U19 national team and will practice with the national team this summer. In the articles both players are committed to improving their game. KLW has to improve on her 12-18ft shooting. Teams played off late in the season packing the lane with true post presence now that shot will be there. Lopez weakness was her 3pt% and being sped up, not establishing pace. I'm sure they will be fun to watch in the fall. https://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2024/04/kirsten-lewis-williams-ub-womens-basketball?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_featured https://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2024/04/i-felt-like-this-had-to-be-my-place-paula-lopez-on-her-first-year-as-a-bull

I was thinking the staff was going to go for size with two remaining scholarships. I wouldn't be surprised if UB is no longer in the mix.

Honestly, we have about as much knowledge of what the guys will do as if we had a bunch of 3 and 4 star recruits. Until everyone gets together and rotations are set you don’t know. EMU was going to be really good when 4 star went to EMU, they were a dumpster fire. Segu and Williams, arguably our best recruits ever, on paper, underperformed. Nate is now in the NBA so obviously talent wasn’t the problem. Nobody knows so I’m going to be optimistic until they give me a reason not to. We won 3 games last year, I don’t think I want those top 7 back for an encore.

Officially added to the roster.

I guess it depends how you define "matter". If they pull two rabbits out of a hat that are better than any players that they've recruited to date then maybe they can approach Whitesell's worst season with 15 wins. The realistic "matters" that we're splitting hairs about here is 12th in the MAC vs. 11th in the MAC. That doesn't matter to me, shouldn't matter to Alnutt or whoever replaces him, and definitely won't matter to future recruits

If referring to Quintin Cooper, he's a 6'4 scoring guard, not exactly a pass-first PG. Would be great to get a true floor general PG in the mix for the future.

It’s to the point where it doesn’t matter what they do with the two scholarships. On paper, this roster is considerably worse than last year. At least when Whitesell and Co. brought in Foster as a 5th year Senior PG, he was a Dll All American and was being recruited by a handful of mid majors. Where is the scoring coming from next year? What about rebounding? Defense?

One of the things I wanted to see when GH3 was hired was to build up a Canadian pipe line Hoping it's just the beginning of bringing in some of the better talent Canada has to offer Reading about NIL in regards to non us citizens, a school like buffalo who is on the boarder will have the opportunity to get foreign players NIL easier than some other schools. (Apparently there is a loop hole on if it takes place on us soil or not. At least in regards to Zach Eady, who did all his NIL work while the team was in one of the early season tournaments)

I hear ya and like I said, I'm interested to see how the team comes together and where they land on the wide range of possible outcomes. But when it comes to "off the radar" prospects, I have my doubts. Staffs' radars are pretty sharp these days with the how connected everything is digitally. There aren't as many secrets out there even as compared with when we recruited CJ and Perk. I'm not sure our staff deserves any faith from us yet that they have the eye or connections to uncover "deeper" talent. Unfortunately it often feels more like taking what they can get. Goes without saying I hope they prove me wrong and discover a bunch of gems!

As of today our roster looks as follows: Guards: Dunn, Fulcher, Sabol, Boldin, Akot Wings: Wilson, Mcveigh, Michaels, Batchelor, Jackson Bigs: Oboh That gives us the following class breakdown: Freshman (4): Michaels Oboh Jackson Akot Sophmores (4): Sabol Boldin Wilson Mcveigh Juniors (2): Fulcher Batchelor Seniors (1) Dunn That leaves us 2 scholarships left. Hard to predict today with 2 spots left to fill but here is my guess at starters for next season as of now: PG: Dunn SG: Sabol SF: Boldin PF: Batchelor Center: Grad transfer to come I would like to see staff fill the last two roster spots with a grad transfer big who can start and provide some veteran leadership and a freshman true big man who we can develop in our system who can play with his back to the basket and rebound and protect the rim. I like the direction this team is headed and I am looking forward to next season. This team is going to surprise some people, especially with their ability to shoot. Lets hope the staff can bring in a few more solid pieces to build on what they have started. Go Bulls!

Dunn will have one year of eligibility as far as I can tell, so this is an Armoni Foster mercenary PG transfer. Foster took some time to adjust to the higher level coming from D2, and I imagine Dunn will too coming from Canadian college. We've all been clamoring for a pass-first veteran PG and I'm happy to have one, but I'm still a bit miffed on the sources and presumed quality of these additions. Next year's team has a wide range of possible outcomes and I'm interested to see how it comes together, but the possibility exists that the team is worse than it was last year imo. Two scholarships left.

I've been to two spring practices so far. It appears that CJ Ogbonna has a solid lead over Gunnar Gray. Ogbonna had three touchdown passes during their scrimmage on Saturday including two BOMBS to Taji Johnson who had himself a day! Gray really hasn't really stood out too much. Can't wait for the Spring Game to see how they play in front of a crowd!

I really like this pickup. Gives the staff another open scholarship next season, but she will reap us rewards this year. A real low block presence that is used to playing 28 minutes a game, which she will likely not have to do this season, so she can be fresh, clean the boards and give us much needed post scoring. Well done staff.

Sadly, you are right. This is a perfect example of players go for the coach, not the school. Not always the case, but many times the case. This will be interesting both ways. WNBA is chocked full of talent and players on the larger end. I'm wondering if DF will be able to compete at that level given her stature. I know she has played against bigger teams her entire career, but most in the NCAA don't have the honed skills of grown women that are 6'2"+ packing rosters. With on'y 12 roster spots, you can't really afford to keep players that may be considered a project. Will also be interesting for FLJ. She has 4 women in the portal so far (including McEvans) and will no longer have Fair to lean on as she has for 5 seasons. Wooley is a solid player, but I don't see her taking over that role. Not sure what recruits she has coming in, but I would be surprised if they maintained the same level next season after a loss of a player like that. I still wish her well, but it would be nice to get a Buffalo shout out once in a while too.

For what it's worth, watching the video clips at the UBBulls.com site has me a bit jazzed up for the upcoming football season. I couldn't tell you the last time I was looking forward to football this far out. Lembo has definitely created something...

Our Roster may be complete for the WBB team! Coach Burke just posted a huge Boom and said 3/3 Stay tuned. Assuming Makenna is 1 of 3, that means 2 more announcements should be forthcoming in the next day or so. If she got in 3 recruits over the weekend and landed them all, that is wild stuff!!

There's definitely something to be said for recruiting transfers with high major pedigree but they signed a bunch of role players on a West Virginia team that was rated lower than Akron last year. They could pop at Akron, but I don't think they look prohibitively talented. I think getting a group of transfers that played together at a previous school is interesting though. It sounds like Texas is trying to do the same thing by grabbing a bunch of the Indiana St. transfers.

Burke picked up another player from the portal freshman 6'1 Makenna Shaffer JUCO Florida Southwestern State. Good size played guard started 28/30games 12/pts 7.8/reb shot 34% 3pt meets the team needs of size and shooting ability. There are two scholarships left keep building🤘

Everyone looking for the next Mark Sears I live less than an hour from The Mount. Maybe I will go at lunch time decked out in UB gear and try to find the basketball team to make a sales pitch. That shouldn’t violate any rules, right?

Anyone care to chime in on what brand of basketball we will be playing next year? The net loss on paper is significant and we were already horrendous.

Chatman and Adams had A LOT on their plates I think a lot of their issues this season was because they had to do nearly everything. Take some off their plate and think they would have been good. They just needed help Really the issue I think fans are saying when they say the team will be better without them is, UB will now have a team all playing the same style/same mind set. Last season you had guys trying to play play a more pro style and some playing a more college style Lots of off season to go but as it currently stands my opinion is that we are looking at another three win team Get another point guard and my thoughts will change but until we have more than one point guard UB is in for another long year in my opinion

I would assume that the assertion that we would be better without Chatman and Adams implies that the rest of the team stepped up in their wins and put them over the top. The reality is that Adams/Chatman accounted for a greater percentage of the team's productivity in (D1) wins than losses. Here are their stats in games that they both played* So Adams and Chatman played more minutes, scored a greater percentage of the team's points, grabbed a greater percentage of the team's rebounds, used a greater percentage of the team's possessions (aka being "selfish"), and took a greater percentage of the team's shots in wins than they did in losses. This is to say they had to do everything for the team all year and the wins were the result of extra Herculean efforts rather than the rest of the team. I agree that it is obviously unlikely that the team next year gets worse than 3 wins, but based on the roster we currently have I think it is certainly within the range of outcomes. *Usage numbers are slightly higher than KenPom or wherever you look because I didn't analyze PbP data to see if shots were offensive rebounded which wouldn't count as a possession used.

Not a transfer, but we picked up a commitment from Drake Saltarelli out of IMG, 6'1 215lb LB. Sounds like he has family in the Buffalo area. I know Lembo mentioned we are a bit thin at LB, so maybe a Freshman depth piece for us.

So I met with a former player the other day, one of my best friends as well. He had played under Leopold and Linguist. He didn’t have many great things to say about linguist at all. He said the majority of the team didn’t like his coaching style and said he was very unorganized. My friend also told me that he had full control of the offense and didn’t let the OC do much if at all. He’s now ran out of eligibility but still gets to practice with the team during spring ball. He loves Lembo and the consensus around the team is that Lembo is a great coach who gets along well with his players. My friend thinks the team is in really good hands with him

https://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2024/04/wrestling-team-complaints-2024 @UBinMD @clodney @MuchMany @Chet @rma @BrooklynBull @promotherobot @SGBull