Sportsfan

3 hours ago, SamuraiBull said:

133 out of 133…

128 in total defense.  Who could be worse?

5 hours ago, clodney said:

Over the past few years there have been people calling for Mark Alnutt's head (myself included) for focusing too much attention on football and letting the basketball program fall off a cliff. What are we thinking of Alnutt now that the football is also failing? 

IMO Alnutt is the one who needs to go and it's long overdue. He inherited a department that had Lance Leipold, Felisha Legette-Jack, and Nate Oats, and he replaced them with Maurice Linguist, Becky Burke, and Jim Whitesell. The jury is still out on Becky but the other 2 struggled mightily trying to maintain relevance. Fan support has dropped off and I'd imagine donor money has as well. We're back on par with the lowest teams in the MAC, we're losing to FCS schools, and overall it feels like 2003 again. Am I wrong here? Do others still have hope that ADMA can actually right this thing?

100% agree, he has made really bad hires and that is the AD #1 role.  Not sure how he works his way out of football, as this was his "big hire". 

Also, not clear on the need to extend Becky Burke contract after 1 bummy year.  Losing your entire coaching staff isn't a great start, but she does have experience as a HC, unlike Linguist (or even a coordinator).

1 hour ago, HomeyG said:

We won’t be consistent top of mac team with Mo as head coach. He’s awful

I would say Mo is inexperienced, and was rushed by Alnutt to a role he should not have been promoted to until he did 2-3 years as a coordinator and proved he could lead and coordinate a unit.  Everyone knows he can sell/recruit, but there is a big jump from great recruiter to Headcoach.  His learning curve is steep, so we either stick with him, or regroup with an entire new staff.  Both are not great options after the success we had with Lance.  The cuperboard was not bare, and in today's world assembley players is a lot easier than in the past.  What Lance is doing at Kansas is very impressive.

My observation is that the record is directly related to inexperienced coaching, than the player talent and experience.

Not the same level of recruiting as in prior HC's, and would seem 10 is low, with 4 being new to the roster this year.  Would expect 15 scholarship OL.  Comparison, we have 6 TE's, 10 WR's and 17 DL scholarship players.  Is this a reflection of the OL coach?

6 hours ago, rma said:

Judging from my observations and their subsequent jobs I don’t think Montgomery and Cauthen were necessarily “lost” more likely they were not retained. Bailey went to his Alma mater

"Not Retained" would seem to be a key word.  Why would be a good question.  Both are seasoned coach's with strong backgrounds.  Cauthen is now DC at Utah State and Montgomery was OC at James Madision.  Would Mangus and Wright be considered coaching upgrades for a coach himself who has never been a coordinator.  Really have to wonder what is going on behind the curtain with the coaching staff.

Look at this transition.  He hasn't been able to keep coaches, and his coordinators are not qualified to be coordinators for a Headcoach who was never a coordinator.  UB has 2 assistant coach (20%) in the same role after only 2 years.  If you want to see the polar opposite, go look at Lance's staff at Kansas.

Note:  Bailey leaves after 1 year to go to Georgia Southern, Ojong leaves to go to Charlotte.  Not what I would call promotions to Power 5.

Facts

The coaching staff has no experience at coordinators or HC

3 defensive coordinators in 3 year

2 offensive coordinators in 3 years

3 RB coaches in 3 years

Lot's of transfers playing

Both teams are legit and look to be headed back for a rematch in championship game.

BTW, interesting that both programs hired within when their headcoach retired / went to Power 5.  

Stability of the staff's seems to be paying off for them.  

Lance was a very experienced HC, Mo was never even a coordinator.  Mo is learning on the job, Lance brought a system and a group of coaches that were experienced with his system.

The Mo hire was a much higher risk hire.  Great recruiter, great communicator, but no real experience.  Also, not really having a system, as he was at 9 schools in 13 years as a DB coach.

BTW, which school did he get the 5 DB scheme, with only 2 LB's?  

Is it recruiting or development.  

3.2 yards a carry and 97 total yards against an FCS program

Albany averaged 4.9 YPR (total 146), Wagner 3.3 YPR (88 Total) against Fordham.

Up 21 - 3 and cannot rush the ball is a problem for the team, and 362 total yards.

21 minutes ago, BRJACR75 said:

Maybe somebody can explain to me how a Head Coach that specializes in Defense and more specifically in the Defensive Backfield has terrible Defensive Backfield play.

It’s a scary thought when your best player in the defensive backfield is a converted Wide Receiver making only his third start on the Defensive side of the line.

What is clear is that Lance built his offensives from the inside (OL) out, and was far advanced from a scheme that what we have seen under Mo.

This OL is not very good.  Buffalo should have done to Fordham defense what Wisconsin did to Buffalo last week.

Getting outrushed on the ground by Fordham is the telling sign of the weakness of the team.

On 5/21/2023 at 8:45 AM, UBinMD said:

I have the same count. Definitely an interesting setup.

I think this season we will play thru Watson. BB stated last year she would have been the best player in the MAC, which is a bold statement. Hopefully with 16 options we can get at least 8 or 9 in a rotation. We have bigs now and lots of guards/forwards, so she should be able to mix and match based upon the opponents strengths and weaknesses. 

On a final note, all 5 of the former recruits found homes and good ones by my view. Boston College being the top and Wofford being the bottom with Marshall, Toledo and Bowling Green being the middle. Looks like they have picked decent recruits, unfortunately if didn’t work. We got some solid replacements though. Looking forward to the season and hopefully the coaching staff settles in.

I would tend to agree with you.  Doesn't seem that Athletics facilities investment at UB is a priority from the state or university.  Most of the investments (other than Fieldhouse) have been small, incremental steps, not a big leap forward.  Maybe lack of big dollar donors is the foundation of the investment gaps., but for the profile and endowment level of UB verse the rest of the MAC schools, you would think athletics would mirror the massive gaps between the schools.

9 hours ago, rma said:

I think this is the football center, right?

Yes...all that would remain would be a major stadium improvements, but don't believe I have heard of any plans in the works.

2-3 stars are a dime a dozen.  The 2nd set of recruits are just as qualified to compete for MAC titles as the ones that when elsewhere.

BTW, only Boston College is an academics peer to Buffalo.

Not sure how any parent/player who has a sense of the value of a quality education can even compare Wofford, Marshall, Bowling Green and Toledo with an AAU, Top 50 Public University.

Coaching matters significantly more in the MAC.  These are not future pro players.

7 hours ago, clodney said:

Who are we to trust? Random AAU coaches and former players who quit on their team midseason sending ominous messages on twitter? Or perhaps we should look to the person who joined ubfan 36 hours ago and has 8 total posts? 

This is a Buffalo fan message board. Absolutely nothing has come out yet in the details that indicates our coach did anything wrong (despite the obvious strange circumstances) so why wouldn't we stand by her at this point and suggest someone else must've done something wrong? It's all hearsay at this point.

Agree 100%.  Unless our AD and President report something, some parents, past players and AAU coaches commenting on social media when they know Coach Burke cannot comment / reply back is sad. 

BTW, I really like the new players she added, actually look on paper better than the 5 that reneged on their NLI.

If I recall, we also had a football player quit during the season, and enter transfer portal.  The way of life in 2023.

14 hours ago, Ubball said:

Maybe he couldn’t walk away from a toxic program in good conscience and leave the girls that he worked so hard to recruit to fend for themselves. 

Definition: A toxic person is anyone whose behavior adds negativity and upset to your life.

Coaches and Players should definitely go were they want to be and how they want to be lead/coached.  High intensity coaching isn't for everyone, but there are athletics that can handle "Bobby Knight" and can get the message and ignore the tone. 

On 12/11/2022 at 9:11 AM, Sportsfan said:

Buffalo =Top US Universities = Academic Ranking and Funding (see endowment image). 

Athletic Program = TBD

Since the Athletic Department has only been D1 for 20+ years, the donor base/ funding shouldn't be considered along the same lines as the general endowment, but it would really help them get to the next level if a few "big" donors appeared (outside of Murchie Family) to rocket the facilities to be aligned with Cincinnati, UConn, etc.

New turf field announced in June and still traveling around to play home games.  Also, little info if they have even started.

Anyone on campus see any progress?

Early predictions of the starting lineup?

8 hours ago, 1975 said:

UB alums didn’t attend games when they were students, so why would you expect them to attend games now? 
where are the data that show the percentage of game attendees as alumni or not? 

 

They also don't stay past halftime if they do attend.

Besides the blue bloods/southern football schools of college football, the majority have attendance challenges if their team isn't winning.

The 5 criteria I believe AD's utilize in order:

1. Wins / Losses / Championships
2. Generating fan Interest via personality/tv/social media, fund raising/NLI, recruiting rankings, etc. (not record related)
3. Off the court/field issues - players, recruiting violations, coaches behaviors, etc.
4. Financial - contract, buyout, etc.
5. Player academic success (graduation rate, GPA)

Of course, a significant #3 can trump #1 and #2 (i.e., Rick Pitino, Hugh Freeze, etc.)

Other thoughts?  

5 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

It's why I rarely ever read any of the in-game comments.

6 hours ago, Bluebird96 said:

One step at a time! Of course running the table in Cleveland would be great and totally unexpected.  Would probably earn JW another extension which I’m not sure some on here could handle even the thought of lol

As for the regular season, yes it was frustrating to watch a few games thrown away by careless ball handling, lack of focus, bad coaching or what have you. Despite all our flaws, the luck sure didn’t seem to go our way a lot of times. If we manage to win those games @ CMU and @ MOH we might be looking at the 4 seed. Throw in the winnable games versus Howard and Drake and we’re looking at 19-12 and a totally different outlook on the season.

As for the players, I would definitely say that Curtis Jones exceeded all expectations. Who honestly expected him to lead the team in scoring and 2nd in rebounds after averaging 2.5 ppg last year? He did have his ups and downs but overall there’s not much to complain about.

Adams I would say improved as the year went on after a slow start the first 5 games where he scored just 32 pts. From that point forward he averaged just under 13 ppg. His stats were very similar to Jeremy Harris’ senior year, with much better 3P% (35-27). Needs to work on his turnovers though. 

Hardnett really came on at the end of the season and I’m glad to see his turnaround from last year after showing a lot of promise his first season. Hopefully he takes advantage of his extra COVID year and sticks it out for one more season at UB.

Jack had a solid freshman year and hopefully keeps improving his game next year. Also a lot to like with Smith’s season.

Powell and Foster might be the most inconsistent and frustrating to watch of all the new guys. Both had their moments but neither are dependable shooters and both faded down the stretch a little. Love Zid’s energy and he’s solid at the FT line. 

Overall in MAC play, UB led the conference in total rebounds, rebounding margin and assists. Third in assist to turnover ratio. Need a lot of work on defense. We were spoiled having guys like Caruthers, Jordan and Graves all those years. Don’t know if we’ll get back to those kinds of players under the current staff.

Two 4th year coaches.

Coaching matters.

Buffalo

9-9 Conference Record

15-16 Overall Record

6th place in MAC

Alabama

16-1 Conference Record

26-4 Overall Record

1st place in SEC

20 hours ago, Old Bull said:

I really don't understnd this logic.

It is possible to have a great university and big time sports. The Big Ten is mostly that and that is where I come from. What I tried to convey is that most schools in the Big Ten grew with their athletic program decades ago. Students arrive at their school supporting sports as an integral part of their university experience. Many are legacy's and  as alumni support the programs well. UB on the other hand emerged from  a mid-sized private school with little or any public support and a SUNY system mostly hostile to athletics. I was around during the Kettter years and know he had no choice but to disband fooball. Decades later several Presidents came to UB knowing the the value of an intercollgiate program. Beginning with Nelson Townsend through Danny White , AD's with the vision to grow a program were hired. That vision now seems dimished nor is their an institutional ethos for continuation of that goal.

It will be very hard to grow a program at UB. Community support is frankly an afterthought. The Bills occupy the attention of almoast everyone. Frankly many of the Bills Mafia types ever set foot in a college. We really do not need or want them. What we do want is a revewed commitment freom the toip down and some new partners by elevating to a better conference.

It is all based on winning.  Urban schools with Pro Teams will never have the fan base of state schools with no Pro Team, but win and plenty will show.

UB appears to lack the investment to really dominate and move up in competition.  Average MAC team isn't going to drive big attendance.

1 hour ago, BrooklynBull said:

And the potential for more embarrassment.

Also Syracuse does not have an open date until 2027. https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/syracuse/

Would be great if AD's focused more on the objectives of athletic "competition" and the interest of the fans.   There is soo much $$ in college athletics that AD are more focused on how to get promoted, or not fired, than fans and "competition".  Sad state of affairs in intercollegiate sports.