dutchcountry7

The conference was tougher back then. I just looked it up. They got a bid to the NIT with a 6-10 conference record in 1998. The A10 had 5 NCAA bids and 2 NIT bids. They are about the same--nationally--as they were back then.

I don't think that's the case. I am pretty sure Jimmy Barron ran a clean ship. He took over a struggling program at Bonas in the early 90s and didn't win a conference game in his first year. Turned them into a regular NIT team and took them to an NCAA tournament where they nearly knocked off Kentucky. It seem like you think they were a world beater in those days before the scandal. They were good team but never close to winning the conference. They were right about where they have been the last few years. Anyway, the problem seemed to come after Barron was hired away to Rhode Island and Bonas hired Jan van Breda Kolff to replace him. The new coach then hired some no name with limited coaching experience to be his assistant coach. Then that assistant coach recruits a kid to play and when the athletic department says the kid isn't eligible, the assistant coach goes to his dad, the University President, and gets his dad to make the kid eligible even though multiple people in the athletic department told the President and the assistant coach the kid couldn't play. The athletic department ends up contacted the NCAA to see if they actually could play him. They learned near the end of the season they the kid could not play and had to forfeit games. The team had a losing record even with the kid playing. Let's not pretend that Cuse started playing it straight.

Five seasons back: Nearly a Sellout to watch UB Play Bowling Green in Basketball Three seasons back: Nearly a Sellout to watch UB Play Akron in Basketball Last year: Nearly a sellout to watch UB Play Bonas in Basketball Are you telling me that all those seats were filled with Akron, Bowling Green, and Bonas fans?

FIVE YEARS OF SUCCESS. We are on FIVE YEARS. The school graduates like 6,000 people a year. And there are over a million people who live in the area. Getting 6,000 people to a game shouldn't be hard. 23,000 showed up to see the football team play Army following a 6-6 season. Don't tell me people don't turn out without years of success! If Bonas can sell out a Buffalo game then Buffalo can sell out a Buffalo game!

How about after three NCAA bids in four years? How about after first ever top-15 national ranking? How about after nearly selling out for MAC games? How about after people were just a month ago commenting on here about how Alumni Arena should be made bigger? It is built. Now the people need to come.

This game is going to be a sell out. No way around it. The game is too big and the Bulls are too good not to sell out the small Alumni Arena. If this isn't sold out then people need to be fired. This is an easy game to get people to attend.

We have to stop making excuses. Now is the time for sell outs. If Alumni can't get sold out with UB being ranked and playing a tough opponent then what are we even doing here? Might as well pack up and go home. Seriously, Alumni isn't big. This game is a sell out.

This game will sellout. It would be an embarrassment for the program if it didn’t.

No doubt losing Xavier and Temple hurt, but they added Davidson and VCU. Those aren't as good but they aren't slouches. I would love to have Davidson or VCU come to Alumni! I suspect the A10 remains a multi-bid league. I don't follow women's basketball.

Do you still feel this way? SIU is a HUGE home game. The Bulls could actually be in at-large contention this year.

That's not too crazy. They have four teams in the top-75. Usually top-50 teams are in. They have multiple teams flirting with it. those teams separate themselves from the pack, I wouldn't be surprised if they had two or three in again. But one of those teams is NOT Bonas. They are the typical A10 powers--Davidson, Dayton, Saint Louis, and VCU.

I am not sure the Bulls will move up much. The AP voters do like momentum so just staying undefeated has been enough to move up but they have historically not let teams from single bid conferences move up too much higher than we are right now without some big wins over ranked teams. We don't have a win over anyone currently ranked. The win over WVU got us into the rankings but WVU hasn't beat anyone in the NET top-100. USF looked good but their schedule has been really weak. Which makes me nervous that maybe the team is over ranked and that a string of a few losses will make the committee turn on the Bulls for an at-large slot. Need to win this week.

Isn't it amazing how the Bonas fans still think their team has the makings of an NIT or NCAA tournament team after starting the year 1-5 and currently sit 4-6. Reminds me of SEC football fans.

Yeah. After everyone is pumped up over that big win at Bonas. The team needs to remember that though it seemed like Bonas was a really good team and we all know it was really big to get a win over them, they are only rated #256 in the NCAA NET rankings. SIU, Cuse, and Marquette would all blow out Bonas too. These are big games that can't be taken lightly. We need a few more wins to secure that at-large slot. The at-large slot is critical.

One year doesn't make a trend though. La Salle was in the Sweet 16 five years ago. They just had a coaching change and hired Nova's top assistant. Yeah, they aren't good, but I wouldn't say it is a trend. And yes, Saint Louis could lose to a bottom A10 team and still get an at-large. Let's not forget that Bonas lost to Niagara last year who was a sub-200 team and Bonas still got an at-large bid. Let's be honest here. People around the country are talking about Buffalo specifically because they are a MAC team. It is because people expect such little from a MAC team. If it was some A10 team, people wouldn't be talking the same way. The conferences are still significantly different. The MAC is a competitive league with good teams but it lacks the number of top-100 teams needed to really show how good teams are. Conference tournaments is much harder when there are many more top-100 teams. It is the reason Gonzaga didn't get respect for so long. The line was always "Big deal, the WCC only has a tough matchup in the finals, everyone else is expected to be a blowout." Look. I don't want to defend the A10 and Bonas but have watched a lot of college basketball. I would love to be playing A10 teams. Can you imagine UMass or St Joes coming to Alumni? That would be awesome. Records mean very little. Especially at this point in the season with very different non-conference schedules. You can't compare records. Do you really think 5-3 Akron is better than 5-4 Dayton? Or 9-1 Toledo is better than 6-2 Saint Louis? I would say 5-3 Ball State is significantly better than 7-2 Fordham, wouldn't you? These are their results. I have highlighted each of their best win and their worst loss. Akron: - W Youngstown ST - W Chicago ST - L Clemson - L Illinois ST - W Bona - W Alabama ST - W Detroit Mercy - L Purdue Fort Wayne Dayton: - W North FL - W Coppin ST - W Purdue Fort Wayne - W Butler - L Virginia - L Oklahoma - L Mississippi ST - W Detroit - L Auburn Toledo: - W Oakland - W Wilberforce - L Wright ST - W FL Gulf Coast - W Louisiana - W UC Irvine - W North Alabama - W Cleveland ST - W Detroit Mercy - W Marshall Saint Louis: - W SE Missouri ST - W Troy - W North Alabama - W Seton Hall - L Pitt - W Central Arkansas - W Butler - L Southern Illinois Ball State: - W Indiana ST - L Purdue - L Virginia Tech - L Alabama - W Appalachian ST - W Evansville - W Tiffin - W IUPUI - W Loyola Chi Fordham - W City College NY - L Houston Baptist - W FL International - W Youngstown ST - W Columbia - W Alabama A&M - W Manhattan - L Maine - W Rutgers

I agree. I don’t like it but I have heard it at many college games. I am am not about to clutch my pearls and pretend I am shocked by it just to attack Bonas. Isn’t the win enough?

Dude, I would like to think you’re right but what really matters is getting quad 1 and 2 games. Quadrant 1: Home 1-30; Neutral 1-50; Away 1-75 Quadrant 2: Home 31-75; Neutral 51-100; Away 76-135 top-75 teams: MAC -1 (Just UB so no one else to play) A10 -3 (Davidson, Dayton, Saint Louis) top-135 teams not in top-75: MAC - 3 (Toledo, Ball state, Akron) A10 - 4 (vcu, st Joseph, Rhode Island, UMass) The A10 will give more respect than the MAC. the reason the A10 is down in the rankings is because they have a few teams with really bad years—like 0-10 Lasalle—pulling the conference down. but the committee doesn’t care about conference rankings they care about quad 1 and 2 wins. right not UB has one quad 1 (wvu) and one quad 2 (San Francisco). But more chances to come with Marquette and cuse. Maybe even San Francisco will upset Gonzaga and move to quad 1 .

Bonnies have a losing record yet their fans turn out and think they can win any game. I wish we had fans like that. We we all know Bonas is weak this year but everyone was saying how they were worried about the game. Really? A sub 300 team with a losing record scares a top-20 team? It’s clear that this is probably the biggest with for fans since the drubbing of Arizona. It helps kill that little brother role UB has been in.

What do you think they should go about it? Seriously? If UB students did it what would they do? Its not like they would ban the students.

Win over a sub 300 team as expected. Not sure why anyone was worried.

That crowd is great. Can you imagine if alumni had crowds like that?

What? I don't know what you're saying.

To be fair, the crowd has a different feel because they are the only games where there are any visiting team fans in attendance and have historically been the games with the best crowds. I wonder why we don't play Niagara and Canisius regularly. We struggle to get D1 teams to play at Alumni Arena but then we have two local teams that we don't schedule? What sense does that make?

This is why this game is so big for the Bulls.

Turns out Coach Hodgson grew up a Bona fan too.