trueblue32

8 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

George honestly looked like he was going to cry at the end there

You can't coach dude

I’m with him, when I was in school I was on the board of True Blue and I used to wake up at 6 AM on game days to put flyers in all the lecture halls. I’ve had seasons ever since I graduated. For the first time I’m undecided on if I’ll waste my time on attending the next game. He’s murdered the fan support, there’s no promise for the future, and he can’t even keep the home games against fellow MAC cellar dwellers interesting. I don’t know if anyone in the athletic department reads this but these are the fans Halcovage is finding a way to drive away

Don’t worry guys this is a rebuilding year. In other unrelated news the only player who hasn’t touched the floor is the only freshman on our team who had a rating on any recruiting site

1 minute ago, squire17 said:

Chatman keeping it closer than it could have been.

My biggest takeaway every game is that I feel horrible that he’s wasting his final year of eligibility on this team. The coach he got recruited by got canned when he was out with injury and NCAA rules stranded him here

1 minute ago, eyjee said:

I'm gonna hold fast to the fact that I want to give GH3 a chance at a full recruiting schedule but I'd be lying if I said the bolded didn't worry me in a big way.

You’re more optimistic than me and I respect that but what freshman class do you think could have saved this season? Not to mention that plenty of quality transfers were on the board when he was hired and he also failed at re-recruiting the players already on campus. It’s literally never been easier to rebuild a team on a one year schedule

1 minute ago, Chet said:

GHIII is not him. This team has a few role players for next year, but that’s it. 

Anyone saying otherwise is truly out of their mind. We’re about to start 1-6 in the worst MAC in at least 25 years. Kenpom has the MAC ranked 24th this season, going back to 1997 the lowest rank was 20th one time. This team could improve leaps and bounds each of the next two seasons and be at best a middling MAC team. And I will reiterate that each loss we add to the pile is only going to make recruiting harder (as if he was killing it to begin with). If you bitched about the middling Whitesell years prepare for how the Halcovage era has set this program back

Just now, Chet said:

There is little or no improvement with this squad. Losing by 14 at half to a Ball State team with 1 win in the MAC is a new low. 

A group with little continuity and D1 experience has the most room for growth too but alas

A 1-5 MAC team spotted us an 11 point lead on our home floor and before halftime we’re down by 14. Truly a hilarious product that Halcovage is putting on the floor

2 minutes ago, Chet said:

Not sure what Graham brings right now.

A warm body who hasn’t quit the team (yet)

4 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

UB starting HOT 🔥🔥🔥

Halcovage doesn’t want to see any of that as it jeopardizes the #1 pick so Adams and Smith to the bench 3 mins in

Last year there were 47 mid-major freshmen guards (6'5" and under), that played 50% of team mins and posted a PRPG! of 1.0 or worse. 8 are playing at a new school this year:
-Javon Bennett: Merrimack -> Dayton
-Reggie Bass: CMU -> Kent
-Tony Felder: VMI -> Stonehill
-Trey Miller: Incarnate Word (coach fired) -> Southern Illinois
-Jason Nelson: Richmond -> VCU
-Jalen Jackson: UIC -> Purdue Fort-Wayne
-Asher Woods: VMI -> Tulane
-Di'Andre Howell-South: St. Francis NY (shutdown athletic department) -> Wagner

Javon Bennett is the only one who stepped up to a program/conference clearly above UB and while he isn't a scorer he's a special case, as true PG who was 2nd in the country in steal rate as a freshman. Not a big market for the Boldin/Sabol profile. If they leave that is much more of an indictment on the program under Halcovage than them getting offers they can't turn down

https://barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?link=y&sIndex=11&maxht=77&yvalue=Fr&cvalue=Mid&year=2023&minmin=50&start=20221101&end=20230501&minppg=1&ppgSelect=-1

Amongst freshmen playing at least 30% of their teams minutes Sabol and Boldin rank 140th and 157th respectively in PRPG! (Offensive rating adjusted for usage and quality of competition). People are overestimating the demand for the 6th and 7th leading scorers on a 2-15 team. I like them as pieces for the future but I don't see a bunch of high major schools kicking down their doors. Maybe they leave if they want to play a smaller role on a mid/low major that could win their conference, but I don't think we're gonna lose them in a bidding war to a P5 unless they light the world on fire in the last ~15 games

https://barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?link=y&minGP=15&yvalue=Fr&year=2024&minmin=30&start=20231101&end=20240501

Mo's a carpetbagger who talks big and then takes a new job before anyone can realize he's a fraud, goodbye. Thanks for the savings Alabama. Now if we could replace Alnutt before we let him make another hire..

15 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

They ran off Kanye.

I haven't said anything in case he does have things going on in his personal life, so I hope all is well, but I don't buy their story on him. He's slowly had his role reduced, didn't get into the last couple of games before break, then disappeared after Christmas break. It sure seems like he just quit or was told not to come back. He was also in the group that didn't play a half in Cancun Fort Myers for what Jay Wright alluded to as attitude issues. Diovion Famakinde wasn't dressed the first few games (I assumed injury), and then disappeared off the bench. Bryson Wilson was brought in with 4 mins left when we were getting blown out and then pulled for no apparent reason with two minutes left? The vibes surrounding this team are dogshit. Maybe its some "bad eggs" but at a certain point Halcovage is responsible for who he brings in and how he handles it. Halcovage didn't want to use the 13th scholarship so we now have 8 healthy players who Halcovage seems willing to play. People are really underselling what a mess of a situation Halcovage has made. I repeat that none of this is going to get easier next year with at a minimum Chatman gone and maybe a 5 win record to recruit with.

To expound on my previous point, for all of our players who have D1 experience (with some small sample caveats):


Everybody's offensive rating has gone down compared to their previous D1 season, except for Zaakir Williamson, who is notably the only player who hasn't had an increase in usage. Sy Chatman is the only player whose percentage of makes assisted has increased (I suspect this mostly to be due to a decrease in his offensive rebounding rate, which eliminates some unassisted putbacks). This is an indictment on the general talent level, notably at the PG position, as well as Halcovage not making up for it in anyway schematically.

1 hour ago, DocCas86 said:

I wonder what is going on with Adams, his stats are well below what he contributed last year (last year MAC - 52.3% eFG%, 36.7% from 3, 12.8 ppg).  Is he still not 100% physically, are other teams defending him tighter or is he not playing with confidence.  Hopefully he returns to last year's level, and produces at the level commensurate with his ability.  This team needs him scoring more efficiently to be competitive.

I think the fact of the matter is that he's just a better ancillary piece than he is a lead player. Too much is being asked of most players on this team due to the low talent level and the fact that we're not scheming our way out of talent deficits. Last year 62.8% of Adams' baskets (not shots) were assisted, down to 45.2% this year. I'm sure if there was a way to calculate "potential assists" on shots rather than makes the decrease would be greater than that. Please go rewatch the ATO with 33 seconds left in the first half and tell me what Halcovage drew up there. The highlight of the game for me was my brother's comment "UB thought they were getting Jay Wright, but they got Jay Wrong"

Graham isn’t dressed. 9 players dressed, approximately 9 fans in the stands

With the caveat that I started at UB (and started closely following) the year after McCrea graduated, I think the #1 scorer and #3 rebounder in program history needs to be on the wall.

CJ being (imo) the best player in program history also gets him on the wall.

Perkins being another 4 year stud and the #2 option in the greatest era of UB history, and playing in the most games in UB history gets him on the wall.

Jeenathan's case is a little fuzzy to me, his UB career alone frankly probably doesn't deserve to be on the wall, based on how few players have been honored, but him making to the NBA is certainly an important feather in the program's cap and worthy of honoring in my opinion.

I loved Segu in his time at UB, but in my opinion his career is not particularly close to being worth "honoring" his number. He had one MAC second team honor in his career, and never led a MAC championship team, we'd need a huge wall if that is the bar.

Good news: we’re gonna win

Bad news: I’m not sure that effort beats anyone else in the MAC other than CMU when they shoot 5% from 3

3 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

It would be coaching malpractice to not play him. Literally every head coach across the country is playing or planning to play their two time transfers. So why hold out a player who could impact things? If the NCAA closes the 14 day window then I’m sure playing 1 game won’t count towards burning his eligibility. Right now, take advantage. It’s a free for all. You play the kid. Worry about the rest later

DooleyBull06 is sure that playing 1 game won’t count towards burning his eligibility (it literally does, barring an injury that would require a medical waiver) so we will burn a year of free college, living paid for, and development towards a professional basketball career. Not my life so who cares right

18 hours ago, John said:

I think he should play this year and let the chips fall wherever. We need to field a more competitive team this year so we don’t lose more fans and especially more season ticket holders who are leaving and not showing up for games as evidenced by many empty seats. 

Giving a few less minutes to Adams, Chatman, and Smith to get Graham on the court is not improving this team in any meaningful way. The only outcome that it possibly flips is the 6 point home loss in the opener to FDU. This team is getting killed and Graham isn't going to save fans' attention. If we're truly "rebuilding" this year then burning a year of Graham's eligibility would be coaching malpractice and frankly would be unfair to him. Is there any guarantee that he'd even be eligible beyond the 14 day window of the TRO? We want to burn his year of eligibility for a single away game where we'll be 20 point underdogs?

13 minutes ago, rma said:

Do we see Graham for the Richmond game now?

Honestly let him redshirt and hopefully he’s a piece of a competitive team next year. Chatman will be gone and Adams will eligible to grad transfer (presumably). Wing/Forward isn’t even the weak spot on this team so he’d probably just dilute minutes for our few experienced players

2 hours ago, dutchcountry7 said:

Year one of a rebuild...  Let's see how this team looks in February.  Lets see what players coming in over the summer.

The sky isn't always falling.

People keep saying this, but this isn't pro sports where we need to tank for a high draft pick. There is literally no reason that this team should be the worst in UB history by a wide margin. Is the idea that the recruiting gets easier after the mystery of what could be is gone and Halcovage is just a coach leading a team coming off of (what we can hope is) a 5 win season? Spoiler alert: even without a coaching change there is no guarantee that any of these players are here next year. We are not rebuilding anything currently. Next year Halcovage will be rebuilding from the depths that he has plummeted the program to. If he thinks rebuilding is recruiting off a 15 win season then he is about to find out what rebuilding is.

You’re underselling Curtis Jones who is the 6th man on the #20 rated KenPom team. ISU’s starting PG is going to be in all-American consideration

Maybe I’m just sour on Halcovage but I’d love if he spent less time whining to the refs in games that we’re down 20

A UB classic the past few years: a sports center top 10 dunk at home down double digits