BullBoy

I wonder if now that there is a clear date for in person recruiting to begin again (June 1) that maybe some guys are waiting so they can take official visits and meet coaches face to face instead of just doing everything on zoom.

So here is what I am thinking right now with the addition of Jones

PG - Segu, Jones

SG - Jack, Brewton

SF - Williams, Fagan

PF - Mballa, Williamson, Mudang

C- Hardnett, Bertram, Skogman

I know most of these positions are pretty interchangeable. Still need one more guard at least that could probably play both the 1 & 2 spot.

I am happy enough to keep Leipold for another season, but what does it say about this guy that he can't even get some of the worst P5 jobs in the country in Illinois and Kansas?

Is just winning a bowl game at Buffalo not good enough?  I am just confused why is he not getting any of these jobs that he is obviously very interested in.

So if Brock doesn't count, I see 10 scholarships already handed out for next year? Still three openings i believe.

1. Hardnett

2. Brewton

3 Segu

4. Williams

5. Fagan

6. Maceo Jack

7. Mballa

8. Skogman

9. Zaakir

10. Kuluel

Walk-on: Saleh

Does Bivens return too?

4 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Sources confirm to me that everyone will be returning but Nickelberry and Graves

Do you know anything about NBA Draft declarations? 

I would assume Mballa and Williams might declare without an agent.

1 minute ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Ugh. Love him as a heart and soul guy but dang hopefully this doesn’t turn off Williamson and/or Mading. A lot of bigs not enough wings and guards. 

I think this is fantastic for those young guys.  Brock knows what it takes to play at the highest level...heck he will now go down as our winningest player of all time.

Brock will understand what his role is next year and that might only be five minutes a game.  But he will make those young bigs, including Skogman still, much better.

3 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

I was a little deflated when the official Mading signing press report was released so soon.  It may suggest the school doesn’t expect another signing in the near future (next week or two).

I wouldn't put too much stock in it.  Where as in the past schools used to always wait and announce the "full class" I think now they want to give each guy their own moment. 

As for scholarships.. I don't know this for a fact, but I don't believe seniors from last year that return count against the number.  Fagan is a different story because he is only technically a redshirt junior, but if Brock came back, I don't think he counts against the 13 scholarship limit.

32 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

To add to you point...obviously there’s a divide amongst us. Those who see 1300 names and several months before the season starts. And those who see every other school making moves while UB doesn’t even have a list of prospects of interest. 

The main point is that things are moving quickly. Whether people wanna believe it or not it’s getting late soon. Schools are making moves. Getting verbals. Kids are making their minds up to change 5 days later. Yes things will play out but dammit a whisper of something would be nice. Wasn’t it nice to hear that we made a run at Cone. Wasn’t that nice. That’s all we want. Some signs of a pulse. 

How about the fact that we are one of the few schools that have lost zero individuals of consequence to the portal.  While kids are jumping left and right, our staff has done a great job keeping these guys bought in.  That should always be the number one priority of a coaching staff.

As far as I am concerned you now have to re-recruit your own players every year and our staff has done a great job keeping Mballa, Williams, Segu, Hardnett and others to remain here.

1 hour ago, Jeseph said:

More news from Olean as a bump to make people think we did something.

 

Who cares?? Again you make a story out of nothing because of your dislike for Whitesell. This individual decided to go to an A-10 school which is a step above the MAC. 

There are 1200 people in the portal, if you start to share every player that is not coming to Buffalo, this thread is going to get very pointless very fast.

Missed this one from a few days ago... but this guy seems like an interesting option.. Kobe Elvis from DePaul

Canadian guard that would only be a sophomore next year.

6 minutes ago, UB05 said:

Am I ok to assume no news is good news with UB players staying here?

I think its good to see that nobody jumped into the portal right away because to me that means they enjoy the program and the coaching staff..However, I think it is still very early to assume that nobody is leaving.  Our season only ended about a week and a half ago so I am sure guys are still assessing their options.  

26 minutes ago, 961819 said:

Which is part of what made him and Hodgson such effective recruiters. Athletes love the spotlight, they love fanfare and such a large part of recruiting nowadays is based on clout and feeling wanted. The new leadership is different in their approach and it’s definitely an adjustment to get used to it compared to previous years 

You also have to remember Oats and Hodgson were allowed to go on the road so people saw them in the airports and in gyms. 
 

Nobody is traveling right now. It’s a completely different year 

1 hour ago, Jeseph said:

First off: I'm not doubting you.

Can anybody confirm, with confidence, whether or not the staff is currently allowed to recruit (virtual or not)?

My guess is the two week dead period was served a long time ago.  In years past this sanction would be quite hard since the coaches couldn't travel or connect with anyone for two weeks, while other staffs were able to.  This year the two week dead period really was just a slap on the wrist since nobody was able to travel.

I understand frustrations of the fans, but come one do you really think that between our head coach and three assistants that nobody is recruiting right now?  The transfer list is at over 700 names. We are still trying to figure out what we might have coming back/leaving from our current guys.

Just relax a bit, I am sure our staff is talking to coaches and players right now on the phone or on zoom.  Just because every communication doesn't make it's way onto social media until their is an offer out, doesn't mean our staff isn't doing their job.

This thread is really getting pointless. Whitesell is not getting fired after a MAC championship game appearance and the NIT. 
 

if that was the case let’s fire Lance because he has lost in the championship game twice and oh let’s fire Felisha because they didn’t even get there this year. 

There is something to be said to that remember due to the pandemic these guys never had off-season workouts last year. 
 

they do a lot of individual work in the off-season and that was taken away. 

Ohio was a buzzsaw in this tournament. It will go down as one of the best tournament performances of all time with what they were able to do against Kent, Toledo and us in three days. 

remember they were off the whole final week of the season so they entered Cleveland as probably the freshest team and showed it 

I think the Akron game had such a championship feel to it that it was hard to replicate that back to back nights. In some ways this tournament is so much harder than even NCAAs because there are no days off. 

im proud of the players and proud of this coaching staff for what they were able to accomplish this year. 
 

I mean I don't think these TBT teams really need a coach.  My guess is Hodgson was more the guys who just kind of helped put the squad together.  

I don't think a head coach like Whitesell or Oats would have time for this, but since recruiting coordinators couldn't travel this year, I am sure sure Hodgson had a lot more free time on his hands.

When we talk about recruiting are we that far behind other schools in our league or has recruiting kind of been quiet across the board due to the pandemic?

I know it has now been close to a year since any coach could travel to watch a kid play and close to a year since any kid could make a visit on campus. Also if you add the idea in that this is a free year for everyone as a coach do you even completely know how many available scholarships you have for the future?

This post is not in defense of our staff as much as it is just a general inquiry on the state of recruiting in Mid Major college basketball right now. 

I hope this doesn't come off as an excuse for the way we played at stretches, but the opposing team sitting their best player isn't always the easiest thing to deal with.

Think about UB practices these past few days.  What were they keying in on and who were they building their game plan around...stopping Danny Pippen.  When he goes out it is almost like you entire game plan does too and now you are coaching the game on the fly.  Matchups are changing and the coaches have to adapt.  So lets give the coaching staff some credit on that front.

As for the team, it is great to see Graves playing his best basketball right now and he seems to finally feel comfortable in his role.  When this team decides to move the ball and get out in transition, there is nobody that can beat us.  This all starts on the defensive end and the defensive performance has only gotten better these last nine games (it honestly wasn't even that bad against Toledo).

I'm pumped for the #2 seed and a defacto East Division Title, even if divisions are no longer a thing.

I've had a lot of different thoughts going through my mind and I hope what I am about to say makes sense.  Yes Oats and Hodgson left us with some of the highest recruited players in school history, but Oats and Hodgson are not at Alabama because of that.  They are at Alabama because of under recruited guys like CJ, Perk, Caruthers, Harris that nobody would give a shot to and they had a chip on their shoulder.

Look at the best players in the MAC... They were all under recruited,  Marreon Jackson didn't turn down Power 5 offers for Toledo, Jason Preston had no offers other than Ohio and the list goes on.

We have a ton of talented players, but I think we have guys who think they are too good for this league and they can just cruise through the season.

Jim Whitesell was the lead recruiter on the greatest players in school history in Massinburg... Oats was the lead recruiter on Perkins.  I'd almost like to see us get back to finding these diamonds in the rough that have something to prove over these Top 150 kids that maybe think they are better than they actually are.

I believe this schedule achieves the MAC's goal of making sure that everyone plays a team at least once.  If this is the case and there are no further makeups, Buffalo will get out of three road games

at Akron

at CMU

at EMU

While those last two would be nice wins, at this point if we can get this team out of long bus rides the week leading up to the Tournament, I think that is more beneficial than a couple of easy wins.

I believe this only applies to arenas with capacities of 10,000 or more so I don't think it impacts us at all.

1 hour ago, Tee4three said:

It seems that they have found a starting 5 for once in segu, graves, williams, hardnett and mballa

Now to just find the the 3 to 4 bench guys that can provide meaningful minutes

Hopefully what skogman showed today is just the beginning of his development

With Bertram out, this has really opened up minutes for Fagan and Skogman and if they play like they did yesterday, it is great production.  I know this board isn't high on Nickelberry, but I actually think he has been much better this season than last year.  In fact, in the Ball State game he hit a very big three in the second half as Ball State was cutting the lead down to 10.

He's not going to be a star or anything, but he provides some decent minutes off the bench.  I really want Brewton to get going.  He seems like a good kid that provides some energy out there, he just hasn't shot it like we saw him do at Coastal.  Anyway, as mentioned it seems like a rotation is being set and that is good news.

People do realize we have a nationally televised game tonight right?

Or does just nobody on this board care anymore?

3 hours ago, DocCas86 said:

As always hope all those with virus recovery fully.  

It seems to me it is becoming increasingly difficult for the Bulls to play full 20 games, as there are 3 games that were postponed so far.  I am wondering what options will be if they proceed with MAC tournament / NCAA tournament.  Can these be pushed back to allow make up dates in various conferences? I would expect we are not only conference with this issue.   Does MAC tournament get cancelled and regular season winner represent MAC.  Would the MAC seeding for a tournament be based on games played.  It is pretty clear what teams wouldn't be playing in Cleveland, the Michigan schools and Northern, but seeding is uncertain.  Could our seeding be hurt by losing possibly two of easiest games.  Hard to envision what March is going to look like.

The MAC has done a completely awful job with scheduling and making these games up.  As you have mentioned Buffalo still has three games now to make up and my guess is this won't be the last of it.  There is zero consistency, the Kent-Ball State game got postponed last night so they immediately got Kent State and Bowling Green scheduled for today, which is great, so why is it sometimes you are immediately making games up and at other times you are still sitting on postponements from Jan. 1 (UB-Akron).

This past Saturday, Buffalo was one of four teams to not play a game and only NIU was on pause. So why are three teams off? There should have absolutely been a game scheduled there.