trueblue32

I was a terrible basketball player and I was never once named a JUCO all-american smh

I see both points of view here. I'd consider zone more if we were considerably outmatched talent wise or if this one game meant more. I don't think this is a spot where we need to be changing our gameplan though. Our team has a bunch of good guards that can stay in front of people and we lack the length to maximize the benefits of a zone. If we need to change our whole defensive philosophy for a team that's grading out as a mid tier MAC team on the analytics sites then we're in for a long year lol. Anyway this game doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of our postseason hopes, it should be an opportunity for the team to grow in their identity. All that said it would be fun to see Whitesell sprinkle in the zone during ATOs if nothing else than to keep their inexperienced coach on his toes.

Sure, I agree with you, we should play more home and homes. Unfortunately we just haven't been able to schedule that caliber of opponent at home (whether by UB schedule maker choice or not). Regardless if we were to start scheduling quality home and homes the first game I'm cutting is the annual D3 game (this year Naz), rather than the Toronto event or any event of that ilk. At least we're not EMU/CMU, scheduling multiple non-D1s.

As we already rehashed in the other thread you linked the attendance could've been 0 and that was a good event for the program. We don't get Harvard at AA and now we have a top 100 win under the belt. We already have 5 non-con games where we're paying shitty teams to come to AA, a 6th provides no value. I never disagreed on Bona having a better turnout. My point in the last post was saying I don't really care what the turnouts are like. There's not a national (or conference, etc.) championship for fans caring. Even if there was Bona would've finished behind Buffalo last year by about 1000 fans per game.

You can choose to ignore it but it doesn't make it wrong. People on this board don't need lecturing on the value of the basketball program. The whole thing is a dumb argument anyway. If Bona's moderate fan showing at a 7 PM game in Toronto is the best thing the program has going for it then...

You know Buffalo was an original invite and Bona only got in because South Carolina dropped out lol. I see you're also in the prestigious Boca Beach Classic playing San Diego while UB is in Charleston playing lowly UConn. Maybe someday we can be as coveted a program as Bonaventure.

To be fair it was the #1 D2 team that only lost to Duke in an exhibition by 6

I don't believe Syracuse played walk-ons either while we played walk-ons for 5% of our team mins.

We can agree to disagree on the agility because neither of us can be proven right, but Bertram's last block of the night came two mins into the second half on a D2 all-American. So the block point was factually incorrect. Additionally if you don't think Smart hacked away in the post you remember a different Smart than me. His BEST season at UB he committed 7.5 fouls per 40 minutes.

I think people here are too hard on Bertram to be honest. I agree he probably won't be playing in closing situations because it's hard to imagine it not being the 3 guards + some combination of Grant, Williams, and Hardnett. However I still think he'll provide serviceable post minutes, and he plays hard. It was just a few years ago that we won 2/3 MAC championships with Ikenna Smart starting at center who was not significantly more agile than Bertram. Additionally Bertram had 3 blocks last night which was encouraging and Smart only managed once in his career. While you prepare for your Williams/Segu breakouts keep in mind that Bertram has gotten less than half the D1 minutes in his career than Williams and Segu have gotten because he was stuck behind Perkins and McRae.

If it makes you feel any better he was a D2 second team all-american as a sophomore. Legitimately might be better than any big man in the MAC. With the success of Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, etc. transferring to the high major level after starting D2/D3 I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up at a good D1 team for his senior season

Gabe Grant from Houston off the bench too

Not an update on Mballa directly but per Jeff Goodman 90% of waivers thus far have been approved. Maybe these are the clear cut cases but it's encouraging. It's also absurd that we're two weeks out from the start of the regular season and the NCAA has only made decisions on 35% of waivers.

Long way to drive to see a loss when you could just wait until next year to see it in your hometown

Nearby LI Nets games for WNY folks: 11/29 - Missaugua, ON 12/5 - Toronto, ON 3/3 - Erie, PA

Having first team Jayvon, newcomer of the year Antwain Johnson, and presumptive DPOY favorite Davonta Jordan and finishing behind Kent with 0 award winners would be actually difficult to do

Zach Berry a writer for an Ole Miss blog also in with a UB crystal ball. He's 35/37 on his predictions.

We've played a D2/D3 exhibition and a D2/D3 regular season game each of the last 4 years

Without an internet connection in Olean the few dozen will probably have to buy at the door if there are any left

No not a lot to be honest. If you only care about UB stuff its probably not worth it. I saw a Marquette fan asking an editor on Twitter why they got less articles and he said it basically comes down to pageviews and they're always monitoring it, maybe if this one gets enough views/people joining from it they reassess, but as of now there's not a ton of UB content.

If you have access to your .edu email it's only $2.49 a month. They have some good content.

Two other schedule things I took from the article: 1. They're still looking for one more game so we may not get the full schedule for a while. 2. Specifying Dartmouth is the home opener leads me to believe we're on the road for the season opener. The past few years we've pretty much only played high major and Big 4 games on the road in non-con, so I'd think we're either opening at Niagara or with a big game. Hopefully the latter since we haven't gotten Niagara at home since 2014.

He's blown up since UB offered so I don't really expect much but we'll find out if we made the cut tonight

It's gotta be in his head, you don't shoot better from 3 (roughly at the national average too) than from the FT line with a busted shot. I'd almost rather that isn't his main focus all summer. I find when I golf a lot and focus on my swing mechanics too much I play like trash but coming back after a long break I play well. I think he's got a decent shot but missing then over thinking and missing again is a harsh cycle.