trueblue32

51 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Good possibility, he was #0, but maybe he wanted #3 and now it's available.

Practice jersey numbers don't mean anything. They wouldn't have ordered gear at this point anyway. Their jerseys were probably dirty/forgotten.

In this vid Kanye wears 42 and Jo Smith and Isaac Jack are both wearing 24s

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

18 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Gotta get this guy, even if it's just for the name!

Starting Lineup:

PG: Nico Patti
SG: ?
SF: ?
PF: Wheza Panzo
Center: Great Osobor

Just have to find some names on the wing

8 minutes ago, ub2019 said:

 

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

15 minutes ago, UB92 said:

If he comes here, there is plenty of time for him to learn the “at”

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

5 minutes ago, bulls2684 said:

According to Verbal Commits it looks like he had offers from Navy and Army. I wonder if he was considering a service academy and didn't pursue that.

https://verbalcommits.com/players/bryson-wilson 

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

19 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

A little surprised with Williamson above Blocker and Zid above Jones? But what do I know?

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

24 minutes ago, everlast2504 said:

The place should of been packed. It's a bus and train ride away for students. The Athletic dept marketing and PR needs to get much better. It should be a simple sell of "Downtown + Beer + meet the new coach" get a 20% off your tab..... Or something. Free growler with UB student ID and valid 21+ id. Otherwise enjoy the food and the experience. 

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.

23 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Yet we didn’t win big games. And very often in those big games Jones disappeared. So while those guys may have P5 talent, the coaching (JW) failed to put them in the right in game situations.

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

16 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Sounds like he transferred in and was the sixth man, possibly contributing to his under-the-radar status. Strange that a kid on a top-25 HS team with good size and a not-broken shot didn't have any D1 looks, but hey maybe our gain. 

 

 

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

31 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

IF Isaac Jack goes to Vanderbilt (or other P5) and Curtis Jones goes to Iowa St and, my thoughts on our previous regime's HS evaluation and recruiting abilities will be changed. They may not have been able to use them to their maximum ability, but the talent was obviously there with whomever found them.

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.

1 hour ago, everlast2504 said:

Might be on to something. He looks to be on the shorter side in this clip. At 6'6" in high school I would expect him to be one of the tallest out there. 

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

48 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

First one I have heard. 6'6", 180lb, 12 games, 1.5 ppg, 0.3apg, 0.3rpg

Diamond in the rough or a good player on a stacked team? Team is 29-3 and 12-0 in conference, so it may be full of D1 talent.

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)
 

6 minutes ago, bullsbball said:

Who's hasn't entered the Transfer Portal? Smith, Adams, Williamson and K. Jones?

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

2 minutes ago, Dabulls said:

We should be happy we have D1 athletics, very few SUNY schools do. The University at Buffalo is the poster child for SUNY, the only schools that come anywhere near close to UB’s pedigree is Stony Brook and Binghamton. I’d love to see UB go to a major conference but it’s not going to happen, unless we drop SUNY. And dropping SUNY I can’t see happening 

This is unrelated but I saw today that Binghamton might be adding a D1 hockey team

I wish we could get one lol

8 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

I heard Jay Wright's wife doesn't want him hanging around the house anymore, he is driving her nuts in retirements, so maybe he will take the Associate HC gig.

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