trueblue32

Pretty sure that Kanye Jones is #3. He has longer hair than Blocker and it makes more sense to me as he is the only other player not in the portal

I don't see any other news of a UB offer or even his commitment but apparently we offered a HS guard who just committed to Toledo. I assume it was an offer from the Halcovage regime because Tibbs and Presutti both follow Ford on Twitter

Starting Lineup: PG: Nico Patti SG: ? SF: ? PF: Wheza Panzo Center: Great Osobor Just have to find some names on the wing

Per game numbers aren't eye-popping (10.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG) because he played behind another good big man that Montana St. had this year but his metrics are pretty good. #94 available transfer per evanmiya.com. 1-4 in his career from 3 with good rebounding/block rates so he fits more of a traditional center's role. Not the type I'd expect to see Halcovage target

I went to high school with a kid who swore he got into UB. Turns out he enrolled himself at Buff State. Our recruits are crushing that guy

I have no inside info but that has also been my impression. Someone commented on his Instagram post about doing a bunch of military fitness tests for nothing.

Same school as Caesar came from. Hopefully he hangs around a few years longer

#16 in the JUCO 100 https://www.jucorecruiting.com/2023-juco-top-100

Yeah so a few things on this. Evan's BPR is an all-in-one metric meant to represent how many points per 100 possessions a player is better than a replacement player. Any all-in-one metric has its flaws, but in my experience it seems to be the closest all-in-one I've found to what my eyes tell me. On the projections for next year, like I said above it doesn't account for Jones' extra eligibility, and it also bakes in some degree of recruiting pedigree which can help offset some of the effects of a bad fit (which may be why they're in the portal). FWIW Jones' was rated higher this season, I don't know exactly what gives Powell the edge in his projection next season, but I think most people on the forum agree he is a good talent and it's possible the fit just wasn't right here, maybe we'll see next year.

6'7" and shot 46% from 3. Looks like pretty much a catch and shoot guy with only a 6.4% assist rate and 6.8% TO rate. Interesting one, he's from Mississauga, so that should help our case. 176th rated available transfer by evanmiya.com. FYI his rankings only project for next year and don't account for younger players having extra eligiblity. UB transfer rankings for reference: Powell: 76th Jones: 107th Jack: 238th Williamson: 478th Blocker: 618th

The event was clearly not intended for students, nor should it be. It's like a 45 minute trip each way on bus/train (not including wait times), most students aren't old enough to (legally) drink, most students don't have the desire/money to be paying for craft beers, the athletic department doesn't want college kids getting sloppy drunk at a department happy hour event. They didn't have True Blue put anything out about it on social media. Let's be realistic. I'm sure there will be plenty of student outreach in the run up to the season. We don't need to invent things to be mad about lol

We will undoubtedly see a spike in recruiting activity now with a staff in place, and the roster from last year shaking out. There are still over a 1000 players in the portal, and how many ever JUCO/HS players available. The first live period for HS kids hasn't even occurred yet (since Halcovage has been hired). They know they need players too, but of course we're all excited to see the roster start to take shape.

I think it's fine to say Curtis Jones is a P5 talent, but not a P5 level playmaker. He has good size, shoots the hell out of the ball, takes care of the ball, passes well, and defends. If he goes to ISU and plays next to Tamin Lipsey where he's not being relied on to create for others I think he is going to excel. That said I'd like to see him do all that in Buffalo lol

I also read that he'll be graduating at 17 which is pretty young for a recruit. Often times D1 recruits repeated a year or do a prep year. Brandon Miller for example at Alabama is a freshman but he's 20. It suggests to me that Fields may have some latent size/strength/athleticism that he hasn't even tapped into yet. Definitely an interesting prospect

Some of the guys they just missed landing have also been big hits. We were finalists for Antonio Reeves before he went to Illinois State then on to Kentucky where he averaged 14.4 PPG this year, and finalists for KD Johnson before he went to Georgia then on to Auburn where he's been a key contributor on two tourney teams. I'm not going to rehash my thoughts on the last staff but I think they did mostly fine identifying talent and recruiting it but it was after they got on campus that there were issues.

I think he is a legit 6'6", his teammate (#32) that he high fives early in the clip is listed at 6'11". If they're a loaded high school team I don't think 6'6" would necessarily be one of the taller players Edit: Yeah here are some of his teammates: James Evans 6'5" #104 in 2024 https://247sports.com/Player/James-Evans-46117606/ Andrew Meadow 6'6" 3 star commit to Boise State https://247sports.com/player/andrew-meadow-46117805/ Jazz Gardner 6'11" #119 in 2023 https://247sports.com/Player/Jazz-Gardner-46114377/ Darrell Morris 5'9" 2024 recruit with offers to NIU and NAU

Potentially a diamond in the rough as we are apparently are his first offer but I don't think those stats are accurate. He probably has 12 games on his max preps schedule with 1 or 2 box scores uploaded so the per games look weird. From a MaxPreps top 25 article his team was ranked 17th and was "led by senior Isaiah Fields (12)" https://www.maxpreps.com/news/Rw015V5PuEa58xjjtIvUPg/high-school-basketball-rankings-no-20-sierra-canyon%2c-no-24-roselle-catholic-and-no-25-myers-park-re-enter-maxpreps-top-25.htm

The only other mention I really see of him is getting D3 offers and a preferred walk-on spot at UC Davis. I'd be surprised if we're recruiting him as a scholarship player (if this is even the current staff's work)

And Sy Chatman AFAIK. Williamson is the only one of that group who didn't transfer here from another D1 which means he could transfer without having to sit out. I'm surprised he hasn't hit the portal but Villanova does love their small ball 5s so maybe Halcovage thinks he can get something out of him

I was searching around trying to find out what's going on with Curtis Jones. Sounds like he is visiting Iowa State and their fan forum is pretty confident he will commit (I have no idea what that's based on, I don't see anything on Twitter) https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/threads/iowa-state-transfer-recruiting-class-2023.277819/page-47 Clearly a step up and only a few hours from his hometown of Minneapolis so it could make sense for him. Hopefully Halcovage gives him a good pitch before any decisions are made

This is unrelated but I saw today that Binghamton might be adding a D1 hockey team I wish we could get one lol

And he said he made his money at Villanova + on TV so he will do it for free 🤣

Tom Fox removed UB from his social media bios which is expected with another DOBO being announced yesterday. I will assume that Foley and Fitzpatrick are sticking until we see something suggesting otherwise. I'm guessing the 3rd assistant will be an Associate HC with head coaching experience similar to Whitesell joining Oats' staff. Head Coach: George Halcovage III Associate Head Coach: ? Assistant Coach: Calvin Cage Assistant Coach: Brendan Foley (?) Director of Basketball Operations: Tim Saunders Video Coordinator: Jack Fitzpatrick (?)