trueblue32

6 minutes ago, MaineBull said:

Any body willing to defend Adams is not watching the game close enough.  Adams (and Chatman) let this team down tremendously last season.  Adams is one of the most selfish players to ever play at UB.  He was second in the conference in turnovers per game and he had the worst shot selection of any player I have ever seen at UB. His effort on the defensive end (and rebounding) was laughable at best.  This program is in a much better place with him (and Chatman) gone.  I wish him the best and good riddance.

Adams played more minutes on last year's 15 win team than he did on this year's 4 win team. Saying that the program is better with all 3 D1 players we had no longer on the roster is the most needlessly contrarian bullshit I've ever seen. When there's no fans at the games next year enjoy yelling that at an empty seat

8 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

A+ snark. Unfortunately, Adams committed to UB 2 calendar years after being named Mr. Basketball. Hardly enough time for your "data" to prove anything. He was a disappointment here based on expectations, end of story.

Based on your expectations that you made up? Did you watch his sophomore season at UCF? Or even bother to look at his stats?

The only offensive statistic he didn't improve (significantly) in year one at UB was assist rate?

20 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

For the 2020 Mr. Basketball from a state as elite as Florida to not figure out how to star in the MAC as a junior or senior under two different coaches is absolutely a failure on Adams part, but that's not the main point of this conversation.

Re: expectations for next year, I don't think he'll match the contributions of a younger Curtis Jones on a team anywhere near as good as Iowa State. Adams is a fine player, but he hardly has any killer instinct or alpha traits. 

I mean yeah if we just wanna close our eyes and pretend we don't have any data on what Isaiah Adams was in the 3 years between high school and now then sure.

Good news everyone! We're going far this year! James Graham was a projected second round pick out of high school
https://247sports.com/Player/james-graham-46058803/high-school-225312/

We haven't learned anything about him between the time that assessment was placed on him and now so this is the best analysis we can do.

11 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

His two season at UB were very similar. Shot worse this year. Had more assist this year. I think we just expected more from him and he didn’t live up to that. We expected a star. And he’s just a role player.

That's fine, that's always what he was. Anybody expecting a 3 year 3 & D wing to seamlessly transition to point forward in his 4th year with the least talent in UB history to support him are just day dreaming. Halcovage and fans included. It'll be what he does at a high level on a better team next year.

3rd leading scorer on the #6 team in the MAC in 2023 to "star" was never a realistic expectation. People can huff & puff about senior leaders (or whatever) but not understanding what Adams was is a failure on the staff, not on Adams

Hey A PG!

32 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Adams to the portal

 

 

He'll transfer to a better program and play well in an off-ball role that suits him, and people on this board will act like he had a miraculous improvement rather than reflect on the pile of garbage that Halcovage put on the court next to him this season.

1 hour ago, DooleyBull06 said:

With the way the portal is now there no time to have a coaching search take longer than a week. You might miss out on transfers. And be left in a situation like we were a year ago.

Are we still doing the thing where we pretend that there was nothing that Halcovage could've done last year? He was hired on March 30th last year and brought in 5 unranked freshmen and a transfer who was once a high level recruit that did nothing at Maryland.

This year with a full recruiting cycle he has gotten 3 unranked freshmen and a transfer who was a once a high level recruit that did nothing at Maryland. If last year he needed more time, he evidently squandered it all this year (tbf he has 4 days to prove me wrong)

1 hour ago, Dabulls said:

If the team preforms better next year I’d consider it. Some of our freshmen were pretty impressive at times this year, they’ll only get better. Just need to hit the portal hard and find some players to surround them with. The young guys seem very bought into the process so I think they’ll stay for the ride. I’d go and grab another transfer center and PG instead of another freshman 

Rightfully none of the freshmen were all-freshmen team in the weakest MAC in 20 years. Extending Halcovage for improving on 3 wins would be insane

11 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

Well money is not a guarantee of success.

 

Doesn't really tell us anything unless compared against the schools that did make the tournament. There are a whole bunch of conferences that didn't have schools paying $2 million and only got 1 into the tournament

1 hour ago, DocCas86 said:

Thank you for the extra information.  Both Adams and Smith may end up transferring any way, but was trying to determine if the were eligible for exemption.

They are not. That was a one year deal because the extra year was announced after incoming recruits were already committing and signing NLIs so that no one was left out in the cold. It's been back to the normal 13 scholarships again for a couple years

39 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Can you tell us anything more about him? Seems to have had a very down year. Injuries?

Starred at the D2 level as a freshman (21 PPG, 7 RPG), transferred to ETSU 2 years ago under the previous coach and had a decent role as a sophomore. Fell out of favor with the new coach this year (don't know why). 6'7" with guard skills, not suggesting he would have the same level of success but a UB comp would be a Blake Hamilton mold.

WNY kid that I expect UB to be connected to

From D.C. so he may have originally been a Cage recruit. He was preseason 3rd team all-MAAC but he didn't play at all this year. I guess due to injuries although I don't see much coverage on it. He posted 10 points, 9 boards as a freshman against UB, and 8 points, 7 boards as a sophomore against UB

3 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

This is the problem with the portal.  If he cannot shoot at UB, what would make another coach think he can shoot for them?  As the portal gets "more common" the players will begin to realize that many end up not playing somewhere else or having to drop to Division II or Division III.  When that is realized players will be much less likely to enter the portal.

It's not a problem. Why is it bad that D2 or D3 caliber players find a situation that they can excel in and the D1 team can give a scholarship to a more deserving player? It's supposed to be better if the NCAA holds a gun to their head and makes them stay at UB in a situation that was clearly not working for either party? AFAIK there is no fine print that says Transfer Portal (to another D1 school). It also works the other way. Riley Minnix at Morehead St., and Patrick Cartier/Joel Scott at Colorado St. are a few off the top of my head who moved up and are now playing in the NCAAT

24 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

True, a good run in a tournament is one thing but may not tell the story. However, in your wildest dreams would Zid have ever been a MAC All-Tournament performer based upon what you saw? Does that then mean he improved under a different system or is the American worse than the MAC somehow?

I think he was probably the second best player on last years team so if we made it to a title game I wouldn’t have been surprised if he propelled us there.

Our 4 MAC tournament MVPs are Xavier Ford, Willie Conner, Wes Clark and Jeremy Harris. I think Clark is the only one with a case as the best player on the team the (entire) season they won it. I think tournament success is often due to secondary or tertiary players stepping up and supplementing the established stars. All of this is basically to say that I think some things just happen in sports and they don’t all have big picture implications.

I think that it’s true that Zid had a worse offensive season this year, but he played well and earned an all tournament spot. His team went on a run primarily because of defense and he scored 21 in the title game. Good for him, don’t think it needs to mean anything about Whitesell and co.

Zid’s Ortg is down and UTEP’s offense is significantly worse than UB’s last year. They had a nice run but he didn’t turn into Michael Jordan there lol. Not everything has to be a referendum on the last staff.

Probably not a Cage connection as a big man who just got to Canisius this year but bring me Frank Mitchell. His 15.9% offensive rebounding rate and 30.6% defensive rebounding rate were 8th and 4th in the country respectively. For reference Mballa's Buffalo career highs were 14.7% on the offensive end and 22.7% on the defensive end

Could be a “diamond in the rough” or could be appropriately lightly recruited like all the freshmen this year

Just now, Bluebird96 said:

Zid Powell with 8 pts & 7 rebs and makes 3/4 FTs down the stretch as UTEP comes from behind and upsets 1 seed Sam Houston to advance to the CUSA final vs the winner of MTSU/WKU.

 

Mading also starts for Norfolk St. who is in the semis as the #1 seed in the MEAC this evening. Jones and Jack are locked at Iowa St. and Dayton respectively for at large bids. There could be 4 transfers on 4 different teams in the NCAAT this year

Crazy end game from both teams. There were 4 possessions in the last 30 seconds

Horrible end of game management. Needed a timeout there when things got sloppy. Should’ve had the last shot but now their fate is in Toledo’s hands

29 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Serious not so serious question, if Toledo doesn’t get a bid to the NIT would you rather have choked yet again like them or had the season we had lol

Would I rather get the #1 seed with everyone on the roster having at least one more year of eligibility or the worst MAC team in two decades that will lose its 3 best players?

5 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

That's my beef with the MAC. Toledo still doesn't fire their coach because in the MAC, close is good enough. Being good in the regular season is good enough.

If Toledo fired TK I’d want UB to hire him ASAP. Every year they have the best group of guards in the MAC. Lack of a frontcourt recently has done them in. Make him hire someone who has a track record of identifying and developing big men. It was unfortunate that some of their best years coincided with the UB glory years but I wouldn’t fire TK.

Hornbeak on Kent is from Toledo, if TK recruited him they’d probably have won this game lol

One of these years Toledo will decide to recruit a big man and break through. Gonna be tough to win three straight when you’re bottom 15 in the country in two point defense.

I think Akron is the best representative for the MAC this year so hopefully they show up