ubfan75

Brutal. Harris terrible on both ends of the court. Williams not ready yet. BG benefitting a bit from home cooking with only 4 fouls. Unforced errors. Ugh.

Hate to be Captain Obvious, but Harris is killing this game. 

13 hours ago, rma said:

I see it as more of a positive.  Roads are shit, we're probably just short of a travel ban, and yet we can still get a good crowd in the building.

I agree. And I don’t quite understand the snark in the original post. Many of those empty seats belong to folks who drop up to $1000 over the cost of the season tickets to watch our boys play ball. And most of those seats are occupied when the all you hear in the student section is ‘crickets’. 

12 hours ago, rma said:

Ah, thanks.  For some reason I thought they got two techs since Morrison shot two with everybody behind half court.

Since UB gets possession of the ball after the technical FTs are taken there is no contesting for any missed FTs awarded for the common foul. Therefore, the common foul shots are taken first and all the players remain behind. As for the refs not seeing Cierra get hit in the head - no one should be surprised since MAC women's game refs in general (but especially Felicia Young) are atrocious. 

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

Woof. Metaphors.

You get the point. 

This was a really poorly officiated game. Hawkins was at half court yelling at the officials, Oats had already gotten T'd up for similar. Flowers was taunting and pointing at Caruthers the whole way down the court at one point (Theo James was T'd up for less). They decided when they were going to call soft contact or not. That travel on McRae was miserable (they then didn't call it on a WMU three). 

They evened out the foul count and the game favored UB. Even WMU people at the game mentioned the very poor performance from this nickel-dimer crew. 

Agree with everything you say. Sadly, poor refereeing in the MAC is the rule and not the exception. And as bad as it is for the guys, it's even worse (believe out or not) for the gals. As for WMU's strategy, hack-a-Shaq might slow UB down, but the strength of our bench more often than not blunts that effort. Oats and Hurley before him (and to some extent Reggie) are credited with playing the bench as often as possible early in the NC season...WMU looked gassed the last 5 minutes...we didn't.

Is Autumn still with the team? I can’t recall seeing her the past few weeks.

16 hours ago, John said:

I thought there used to be or is someone from the conference,NCAA or whoever is in charge of officials at each game to critique the officials or am I wrong? Is there someone or some organization we as fans can write or email to?? I fully intent to talk to UB administration about my concerns. Go Bulls!!!!!

I don't have a solid answer, but I will ask my A10 referee friend next time I see him. My guess is that there are not enough evaluators to do every game. For the men, near the end of the season evaluators are sent to watch the referees identified by each conference to be regarded highly enough to be selected for the NCAA tournament. Not sure if the women do the same.  

On 1/5/2019 at 7:32 PM, John said:

A tough first MAC game against an Ohio team that we should of blown out in the first half. One reason we did not is the suspect officiating. I have seen these officials before and do not understand how they still have jobs. We are going to have a tough time winning games when we commit 29 turnovers and when Dillard shoots 3-14 from the field and 3-11 from the 3 point line. One positive has been the improvement of Hanna Hall. You can see what the other teams blueprint will be - hound Dillard, double/triple team her, don’t let her breathe and UB will have a hard time winning games. Foul trouble will be a problem this year and I believe the officiating or lack thereof is going to be a concern this year and it does not appear we have the players to overcome that. Still keeping the faith and will continue to support the team’s effort. Go Bulls!!!!

Agree with all you say, especially about the officiating - it was as bad as I can remember - bordering on shameful. Felicia Young in particular is way out of her element, calling contact fouls where none exist game after game.

OMG, these refs...

7 hours ago, ubmae86 said:

Does anyone here remember the foam spoons they would give out when Reggie was at UB? I loved that thing, but eventually the white piping came off and it was just a giant blue foam spoon with nothing on it.

I still wear my Reggie shirt, too. I liked him, but his methodical “hand-off” offense was largely ineffective then, as it is now, and it drove me crazy. My fondest memory of the Reggie era at UB was me, wifey and daughter betting on how long it would take before Reggie would rip off his sport coat and throw it on the floor in disgust of the (still) crappy officiating in the MAC. 

Yes, Howard was a magician. But I can’t get past the fact that we did not sign another big, physical player to spell Perkins when his game is off. Bertram is not, and looks to never be, that guy. 

15 minutes ago, mikescherrer8 said:

The handsome team ruffling feathers.

They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. 

Don't know if anyone e posted this link, but it's a nice article about coach Oats: https://www.nunesmagician.com/2018/12/18/18145531/bullish-on-ub-nate-oats-sustained-buffalo-basketball-success-bobby-hurley-syracuse-basketball

This game will certainly help us be ready for Eastern Michigan’s 2-3 zone. 

I’ve got an Apple Watch 4 with the ECG app. I was afraid to use it during this game. 

Harris not dressed. Anyone know why? Oops. He is. Yay!

On 11/19/2018 at 9:10 PM, rma said:

I don't think AA is a bad arena.  It's the best D1 basketball arena in upstate NY.  It doesn't get as loud as Bona or is as big as Cuse, but I think it's the nicest.  Canisius and Niagara remind me of my high school gym.

Want to complain about concessions? Bona doesn't even take credit cards.

I do want to complain about concessions - they are horrendous. Too few registers result in too long lines. The food is generally gross. Does it send fans running to the door? No, but it certainly doesn’t add anything positive to the overall experience. So, what about parking? It is completely inadequate, especially when there is an event at the Center for the Arts. Even worse, the pathetic attempt by campus police to streamline postgame traffic has only made it worse and is a frustrating experience. Despite these irritants, I go to every game with my family. Good basketball at a decent price is good enough reason for us.

Speaking of H.S. gyms pretending to be NCAA D1 gyms, we went to the UB women’s game at Canisius. Ugh - it’s an ugly, tiny and hot dump. The concessions don’t even rise to H.S. level, and for some reason Canisius believes turning the PA system to 11 is a good thing (it’s not). AA is a palace by comparison.

9 hours ago, hurley said:

Saturday is our biggest test since WVU in my opinion. Big rivalry game on the road with a huge target on us to take out a ranked and undefeated opponent. I actually had both the UB and Bonnies game on (parents are both Siena alum) and they looked very good, although Siena is terrible this year. 

I was really excited to see Caruthers step up and be the guy tonight that helped separate us early in the 2nd half. He will be very confident heading into the game Saturday and I think he will be the key match up on Saturday against Courtney Stockard.  They are 3-0 since he returned and he has played great in each game.  Big strong guard that may prove to be a bit too much size for Jordan so I'm curious to see how Oates plays it.

Here is a video of him from NCAA tourney last year if you need a reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhs3rUc0_4o

Additionally, we've gotten out to our games very slow this year and crushed teams late.  Can't let that happen on Saturday.  In that small gym it gets very loud and if we get behind early with missed shots and turning the ball over (10 TO's 1st half tonight) we could be in a tough hole. Jump out to an early 5-10 point lead and hold it the best we can while still playing our game.  Curious to see if the young guys get any burn in this.  Williams has not looked great, Segu looks more confident and sure of himself out there.  Fagan seems to be falling out of the rotation entirely except for wash up minutes.

One final note.  This Bonnie team was predicted bottom half of A-10 (9th from what I remember).  Tough game, but we should expect to win this even though it is a feat yet to be had.

My prediction?  A close one with Harris crushing them down the stretch: 93 -75 Buffalo.

Go Bulls!!

Agree on all counts, especially about the bench. Williams was ineffective last night; Segu looked confident, but created a few matchups he shouldn't have; Fagan looked lost for pretty much the entire 5-6 minutes he was on the floor. It's early yet...I'm hopeful.

8 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

Credit to LeMoyne, they came to play.  My brother next to me said they had more size than he expected.  Going 8 for 12 from three in the first half put them in the game.  It took a Jeremy Harris 3 at the end of the half to go into the locker rooms tied.

As we've seen several times thus far, UB will figure out what the other team is doing and clamp down on defense in the second half.  Thus a tie game at the half turns into a 30 point lead near the end.  Amazing to think they gave up only 18 points in the last 20 minutes.  The Bulls killed them on the boards tonight, but that many turnovers kinda bothered me.  As much as anything possibly can in a big win.

Dontay - gets first mention because he brought the energy tonight, at both ends of the court.  He's really improved his touch around the basket and his foul shooting.  Setting a great example for the new guys.
CJ - the quietest triple-double ever.
Perkins - was a mismatch for LeMoyne underneath and continually made them pay. 
Harris - seemed to have his shooting stroke back.  I like how he's willing to take, and hit, those mid range jumpers.
Williams - has a great physical reach, but one of the guys behind us wonders if he's a little more raw than we expected based on his recruiting rating.  I know, I know, what can you expect from a freshman in the first half of their first season - but he and Segu are no normal freshman at this level.
Bertram - he's big, but doesn't play big.  And I keep wishing he would.
Jordan - he's gotten so good at drawing and selling those offensive charges and push-offs, you hope that he doesn't go too far and it gets to the point they don't believe them anymore. 

The students and the band were back and the energy returned to the building.  It was much appreciated.  Question - will they all be at the next home game (Saturday Dec 15 vs Southern Illinois)?

All in all, a good performance tonight, they responded well to a team that came out shooting well.  Saturday will be a big challenge.  Bona is looking better, and they and their fans will be up for facing a ranked team at home. [shudder], Bona.

Side note - in the post game interview, Hodgson mentioned that Niagara decided not to continue the series this year.  I don't know if that's a one year thing or we won't be facing the Purple Chickens for some time now, but that's a shame.

Great observations as always. Bulls looked disinterested in playing in the first half. Frowns on their faces coming out of the locker room to start the second half suggests they got blistered by the coach. Postgame interview revealed that the team was going to focus on allowing LeMoyne to score "one point a minute". Bulls certainly came through on that. I concur on the CJ comment - I barely noticed him one the court, yet he had a triple double. Conversely, it was difficult to miss how completely ineffective Bertram is anywhere on the court. The it was announced that Bertram was headed to UB, I watched some film of him online. My reaction then was "meh" and, sadly, it still is - slow footwork and slow to react. Fortunately, the rest of the bench is looking a bit deeper with each game. LeMoyne came in with attitude and more size that I expected. Obviously every team this season will have their date with ranked UB circled, with exclamation points, on their calendar.

I honestly don't see the value of a "rivalry" in the MAC. I wouldn't anticipate that attendance would increase, and TV exposure wouldn't change either. So what's to be gained? As to changing conferences, UB is fine where it is. The MAC is favorable geographically (and thus financially) and a good fit in terms of talent. I used to obsess about the basketball team driving a change in conferences, thinking that our recent successes plus better competition in conferences other than the MAC would improve recruiting. But I now think that's a zero sum game (and obviously we can attract 4 star recruits). I vote to stay.

I had the same observations. Lots of player combinations resulted in some confusion and maybe expected early season lack of cohesive play. I had to laugh that player (new center) was given a technical for wearing the wrong number even though her name was sewn onto her jersey; she looked strong under the basket but slow running the floor. It was nice seeing Hannah Hall score, but being only a competent PG may not be good enough and I see maybe Finess taking over sooner than later. Nice to see all 15 active players on the score sheet (I think). As a side note, I don’t recall seeing the official with the darker hair on our court before - I could be wrong but she seemed to blow whistle as much as the other two refs combined. 

16 ladies on the roster, but NCAA allows only 15 scholarships. What am I missing?

Interesting first half. 21 points in the span of just a few minutes. Controversial clock reset at the end of the first half leads to EMU score. 

The “rust belt”? Is mh55 95 years old and senile?

Not sure who these two announcers are but they are absolutely atrocious. The color commentator is particularly irritating, sharing his wisdom by saying, after every miscue, something like “the player needs to make that catch, etc”. Ugh.