sportscliche

I don't either. Jordan's season 3 PT FG percentage of 31.8% (27 of 85) is better than his FT percentage of 27.3% (12 of 44). Does anyone recall a situation like this ever happening before? This is a good shooter who has psyched himself out.

It will be a 9-hour all-night drive for us, but we'll be in Tulsa for Friday's game.

What better way to prepare for two possible opponents....watch them play each other just a few days before one of them has to travel (again) to play you. I’m liking this setup a lot better than having to deal with #12 Murray State and Ja Morant.

No way Turgeon is getting fired at Maryland. The Terps have made the NCAA tournament 3 of the last 4 seasons, which were their first years in the B1G. They are currently a Top-25 team. Yes, they had a bad loss to Nebraska in the B1G tournament, but are still certain for an at-large. A P5 school or two will be after Oats, but Maryland won’t be one of them.

As of right now in the 2018-19 season, the UB Bulls and Buffalo Sabres are tied at 30 wins each.

The booster bucks seem like a lotta loot for a mid-major basketball program. Does anyone have any insight as to how this happens? The alumni base is huge, so is the idea to get many small contributions? Or does it come from a few well-heeled boosters? Corporate sponsors? Alnutt seemed confident the funds are there, so I suspect some phone calls were made and checks with lots of zeroes were written.

Defeating the 14th ranked team in the country probably saved Montgomery’s job.

As UB head coach, Nate Oats has faced against Akron 9 times with a record of 5-4. He has never lost to current Zips coach John Groce. Here are the results: 2018-19 season: W 77-64, W 76-70 2017-18 season: W 87-65, W 80-68 2016-17 season: L 90-91, L 83-89 2015-16 season: L 71-75, L 70-80, W 64-61 (MAC tournament)

I took a look at Wofford. Their losses were to UNC, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi St. There have been some nail biters in conference: 4 points over Mercer, 5 points over Furman, 1 point over Samford, and 2 points over ETSU.

What I find interesting is the substantial minutes being given to freshmen Williams and Segu, especially in critical game situations. That's not happening with Fagan or Bertram. The coaches must truly believe in the ability of the first two to contribute and/or are willing to roll the dice with them for the sake of gaining experience. If Oats is willing to risk a game loss to get these guys some quality playing time, that speaks volumes to his long-term planning for the program.

Got that right. NIU has a two game home winning streak against UB. Duke barely — just barely — beat ACC cellar dwellers Wake Forest tonight. On Duke’s home floor.

I believe Nevada now has a quality Q1 win. Their loss tonight to Utah State will elevate Utah State in Q1. Nevada beat Utah State in Reno earlier in conference play. By losing to Utah State they actually help their own cause! Can anybody say “circular logic”?

And now with an identical record to Buffalo in a weaker conference and weaker OOC schedule. Yet they are likely to stay higher in the polls thanks to the big head start they got at the start of the season.

Kinda boggles the mind where this team would be if Harris was hitting from 3 like he did last season. Gotta figure the record would be 28-1 and ranking in the Top 10. I know everyone involved is trying very hard to get it sorted out.

Seems this list is more of a Top-25 popularity contest. This suggests that whoever put it together didn't give it a whole lot of thought. I'd like to believe a COTY candidate is someone who vastly exceeded expectations, who did a whole lot without having much to work with. In my opinion, this eliminates Beilein, Bennett, Few, Izzo, Krzyewski, Musselman, Painter, and Williams. I am an unapologetically biased UB homer, but I'll narrow it down to Mack (Louisville) or Sampson (Houston).

Made the Final 15 for Naismith Coach of the Year: https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2019-02-27/naismith-award-releases-15-nominees-mens-basketball-coach-year

Exasperating really. Weaker P5 get many opportunities to play ranked teams. Get an upset in February and just like that — in the discussion for an at-large berth in the NCAA. #6 Nevada just lost to unranked San Diego State in the Mountain West. I wonder how much the pollsters will punish them for that on Monday. Their other loss was to 11-15 UNM, which has to be as bad as the UB loss to NIU. Nevada got a 6 point win over (then #20) Arizona State back in December, but otherwise nothing particularly noteworthy OOC.

Thought it would be interesting to watch BGSU v NIU, the two teams that have defeated the Bulls in conference this season. Bowling Green got an early double-digit lead and never gave it up. Red-hot shooting. This team is legit, very impressive. In spite of his legal problems, German was allowed to start for NIU. He had just 2 first half points, the rest coming after the game had long been decided. T’d up early in the second half and sat for about 5 minutes. Body language of NIU seemed as though they weren’t really into it. Hard to believe UB has lost in Dekalb twice in the last two seasons.

I don't think the article (blog post?) has much credibility. He also mentions Jason Kidd as a potential college coach...potentially at Cal or UNLV. Kidd played at Cal, but is not an alum. No degree and multiple arrests over the years are not resume enhancers. Lack of a degree almost automatically disqualifies him for an NCAA coaching job. Might even be a requirement in the UC system.

Maybe someone can explain the rationale behind this campaign? You vote every day and can do this from multiple IP addresses, eg. home and at work. Voting goes on for a long time -- multiple weeks. It sure looks like it's ripe for gaming, perhaps implemented with something similar to a DDOS attack. I am a cancer survivor, so in principle this has a lot of relevance for me. I have been voting nearly every day, but don't have a lot of faith in the integrity of the system. Hard to see what is happening beyond just a popularity contest.

Sure would hate to be a Louisville fan tonight. Up 23 on Duke, midway through the 2nd half on their home court...and lost! It’s hard to compare teams in different venues and leagues, but I’d venture to say that UB would not have folded in a situation like this. Duke clanked a lot of shots in their comeback, but Louisville just completely collapsed in the face of full-court pressure.

Oats in the conversation about a likely opening at Penn State (scroll down): https://sports.yahoo.com/college-hoops-coaching-carousel-whos-next-ucla-060907941.html

This team has all the key components from last season except for one player — Wes Clark. Was he the respected, motivating senior leader who made everyone around him better? Is that key role-player missing on the 2018-19 team?

This topic was certainly beaten-into-oblivion long before I started visiting these boards. And yes, this thread has gotten derailed, but I'll add to it anyway... The problem from my perspective is that centuries ago someone decided to name the State the exact same name as a very, very big city. It can be confusing, but many/most people naturally associate "New York" with NYC. Re-branding a school in Buffalo -- 400 some miles away from NYC -- is awkward at best. The only other States I can think of with identically named big cities are Iowa and Oklahoma. The Iowa Hawkeyes are in Iowa City. The Oklahoma Sooners are in Norman, a suburb of Oklahoma City. And don't bring up Kansas City because it isn't even in Kansas. When I was a student, it was the University of Buffalo. And the women sports teams were "The Royals".

I see the Big East as a poor fit, especially now that UConn, Pitt, and Syracuse are gone. The league is primarily smallish, private, religious schools. The MAC doesn’t mesh particularly well with UB’s Carnegie I academic pedigree, but does have larger public schools. I agree that the natural landing spot would be the B1G, but is there any realistic scenario for that to happen?