trueblue32

It’s bad coaching. Not getting your best players on the floor is not good coaching. Possessions count the same no matter when they occur. If you don’t foul out and you sat because of “foul trouble” then you wasted some X possessions on the bench. The other major difference you might notice is that Villanova had talent in spades and UB has 2 D1 frontcourt players. If a player is fouling due to fatigue, frustration or something that can be coached it makes sense to briefly pull them. “Foul mode” is not a thing that requires sitting a half. Let’s pretend UB was playing in the MAC Championship against Ohio and the MAC decided they wanted an Ohio school to win. The MAC decides that UB’s players foul out of the first half with two fouls but Ohio’s do not. You think that’s fine? That’s what our coach’s official strategy is in a game that he is a 24 point underdog in

I think there are better shooters than their numbers but you can’t tell because the offense generates no looks for spot up shooters. Every 3 we get is off a dribble or just shooting over the top

Yeah and that’s fine for today but it’s a definite trend now. As a younger coach I would’ve hoped that was something of Jay Wright’s that he’d abandon but I guess we’re stuck with it

Halcovage’s 2 foul auto-bench is so bad

I think it's fair to be critical of the hire already. We need to stop pretending that this was just the hand that Halcovage was dealt as if it was entirely out of his hands whether or not we retained any players on the roster. The only player he retained that wasn't forced to be here due to transfer rules is Zaakir Williamson who is not a D1 caliber player. Even if we pretend that having experienced players was out of Halcovage's hands, here's a list of teams with equal or lesser minutes continuity and D1 experience, and a first year coach. 180.) Notre Dame 274.) Southern 287.) Texas A&M Corpus Christi 298.) Green Bay 318.) Valparaiso 322.) Manhattan 338.) Buffalo 341.) Northwestern St. 342.) Idaho 360.) Coppin St. 361.) North Carolina A&T Even within this specific set of parameters Halcovage is not doing a good job early compared to teams that are universally less resourced aside from Notre Dame and (maybe) Valparaiso. Alnutt hired a coach who hasn't led a program and only worked in a program that's success was predicated on 4 year guys and few incoming transfers. Is that a recipe we expect to succeed in the current basketball landscape as a mid-major? The bigger issue is where are we getting money to buy out Alnutt and hire a replacement? Then where are we getting the money to buy out these coaches and let a new hire replace them? It's not happening, Alnutt has positioned us here and we're stuck here. At some point people need to accept that UB's Top 25 seasons were flukes that we've now cut all connection to. We're not a special school that's destined for greatness, waiting for the right guy. We're UB before Oats and Leipold. We don't need guys who are doing their best in the tough circumstances of being a mid-major. We need coaches and administrators with plans to succeed in spite of that.

Sabol has grown a lot even in a month so far. I hope we keep him for 4 years lol

FWIW 3P% defense is one of the least sticky defensive metrics (i.e. over a large sample 3P% allowed is more a measure of the caliber of shooters you played than your ability to defend). UB is currently 358/362 allowing opponents to shoot 43.4% from 3. The worst team in the country allowed 41% percent last year, and shooting generally improves significantly as the season goes on. I think they're due for significant positive regression which will make the defense numbers look a bit better. That said, that would be a lot more encouraging if we were losing by 5 instead of 20.

They were missing their starting PG so we matched up well against them because we also don’t have a PG

Adewale, Panzo, and Gordon were all recruits UB was involved with. They’ve scored 15 points, UB has 9 at the under 8

I paid the $30 troll’s toll for a month of FloHoops. It’s ridiculous but I’ll take a week of work day hoops

I feel like I skew optimistic compared to most of the board but it ain’t happening this year. Every team presses us because we have like half a ball handler. We occasionally exploit the press to get a layup and they smoke it. A couple of the freshman look promising but they get no support from the vets. Kanye again is dressed and not playing (yet). What a mess

Jay Wright was on the broadcast in the second half yesterday and referred to Halcovage having to deal with needing to sit 3 starters (Jones, Adams, Smith). I think the implication is that it was disciplinary (I assume not major since they all played in the first half). My guess is Jones sitting was related to that but I don’t think anything has been stated. He was dressed and on the bench today

This year has been brutal so far but Boldin has been such a bright spot. I think he and Sabol both look like they could be contributors on good teams in future years. Hopefully the pieces we find in this rebuilding year are still in a Buffalo uniform next year

It would be nice if Kowalcyzk is out of the MAC

I have it on pretty good authority that back when we had a men's soccer team the Strykers had committed to build a soccer specific stadium next to/behind the football stadium. The rumor was that Allen Greene was pushing too hard on it and the Strykers backed off. Soon after the soccer team got axed. That season IIRC the men's team was at one point the top team receiving votes in the soccer poll (essentially #26 nationally) and we had built a pretty good student following for the team. What could've been

Eh being a high school kid leading a wide open recruitment in May self selects for under the radar types. I think the idea is that likely not all of them will be a part of the next great UB team, they’ll transfer down after next year, then the scholarships are available for next recruiting cycle. If a multi-year D1 transfer doesn’t pan out they’re likely eating a scholarship until they graduate. If a couple look good next year and are part of a competitive team with the returners (and a couple transfers still to come hopefully), I’d consider the incoming group of underclassmen a success. I think finding > 0 long term pieces is significantly more valuable than a group of band aids. I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that the staff can’t evaluate and develop talent until they show us that.

The top 100 list is kids graduating from JUCO. Presumably he’s a qualifier (didn’t go to JUCO because of bad grades) and will be joining us this year with 3 years of eligibility because he doesn’t need to graduate to be eligible at the D1 level. Most kids on the top 50 freshmen list will be on the top 100 list next year

Some highlights from him at Wofford: Looks like he can handle the ball pretty well for his size. I think Halcovage has a vision for him in a Jermaine Samuels type of role in that he guards and rebounds like a big but is versatile on offense. He has to improve a lot to reach even a MAC level of that but I see the vision for him. I hope we land him. His highs scoring-wise were 11 points against Drake and Furman on good efficiency in 15 and 17 minutes respectively. Two of the best teams Wofford played last year, both top 100 tournament teams. That's really promising IMO

Didn't recognize the name but it appears he was going by Amarri Tice at the time we were originally recruiting him: His ORtg was bad last year (79.5), but his 22% DR% would've put him top-150 among qualifiers last year (he didn't qualify). He took more 3s than 2s last year, maybe that will change given the bad results, but he is an interesting archetype in that he seems to be perimeter focused on offense but rebounds the hell out of the ball on defense. He may need some development but the fit makes sense to me if we are looking for Villanova lite types.

Sure, they retained one all-MAC player who like all of our remaining players can't transfer without having to sit out. AJ Brown is a good freshman they retained, I'll give them that. I'm not sure who else on their roster was worth throwing NIL money at Sure he might turn out well. He also sat at Maryland behind Patrick Emilien (among others) who didn't have a future at Maryland and two years ago averaged 5.2 PPG on a 5 win WMU team. I guess my point is $100,000 is a lot of money to be throwing at a roster that looks like the 3rd best roster on paper in the MAC, and they're not the only ones still looking to add.

Good for them if that's the case, but really this just says to me that NIL isn't even really worth worrying about that much if a mid-major scrounges up $100,000 and all it nets them is Shereef Mitchell and Ike Cornish.

Eh they beat out Bonaventure, Grand Canyon, and George Mason for Cornish. They beat out Bradley, Nebraska Omaha, and North Texas for Mitchell. That's fine, Ohio is a good mid-major program, that doesn't scream spending big bucks to me. High major benchwarmers have to go somewhere if they're being squeezed out by mid-major up transfers. Unless they've announced NIL deals since committing I don't think this is what the differentiating factor is. Boals has been pretty open about being an old man yelling at a cloud since the NCAA tournament.

He has pictures on his Instagram of the visit..

6'7" Forward who had 8/2/1 in our game against JMU this year. Had a reduced role this season averaging 4.9 PPG and 3.6 PPG. Averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.2 RPG across his freshman and sophomore years. #87 available transfer (#288 overall) per evanmiya.com

Can't believe Jerrod Calhoun turned that down for $300k at Youngstown State and Hodgson preferred $385k in Arkansas /s Jokes aside, this does point to Alnutt telling the truth. We probably got turned down by Cohen for whatever reason and then Halcovage was the second choice. Any other "candidates" "turning us down" were just trying to pump their own stock