DooleyBull06

Here’s an interesting question: Do we want teams ranked in the teens and 20s to lose to unranked bubble teams? Example: If Texas were to beat Iowa St right now, that would strengthen Teaxs at large resume and potentially weaken our at large case. But it would drop Iowa St in the rankings and keep us potentially ranked. Same with Miss St and Ole Miss. So my fellow board members...going forward which do we want?

He puts out his bracketology on Tuesday and Friday, but he tweeted that we are 25th in his Saturday seed list. Which equates to a 7 seed.

I wouldn’t be shocked if we lost at Toledo. That would give us 3 losses. Realistically I see us losing no more than 3 or 4. And we must beat BG on senior night. Life on the road is rough. Tough pill to swallow but hopefully we grow from it. Back to basic this week. Treat it as the start of a new season.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...we control our own destiny. It’s a long season. February equates to the dog days of August if you follow baseball. Just win the MAC tourney and leave nothing to chance. 3 days in March. It’s what life has been for us always. So win that and we are in. Then if we win that I feel the committee will give us a seed from 7-10. And we will be that dangerous team no one wants to see.

No it’s not a given we drop out but this would be the perfect time for the voters to be like “see they were a cute story now let’s rank the bubble P5 teams.” Major conference bias. Plus a week of not playing will help us regroup but out of sight is out of mind to the voters.

One of the big issues aside from TOs, FT shooting and Harris...is that we don’t have a reliable backup PG. Keep in mind Jordan missed a large stretch bc of foul trouble. When that happens it thrust the ball handling responsibilities to Segu, CJ and or Caruthers. Segu can steal you minutes but he’s a freshman, Caruthers can get out of control at times and we want CJ playing off the ball. As of result of Jordan’s foul trouble our offense went stagnant and our defense had lapses. Both happened at the same time and thus you had what happened happen. I hope the pressure of being ranked get lifted off the teams shoulders and we can use the next week as chance to practice on fundamentals and rest and refocus.

I think we will drop out of the top 25 and that’s for the best. We head into a week off with a lot to work on. I’m gonna take the bright side and say that it’s tough to win on the road when you are the hunted. We lost ourselves in the 2nd half but still had a chance to tie. All this adversity I feel and hope will make us stronger come the MAC tournament. That said let’s use to week to refocus, work on ball control and free throw shooting. And finding Harris who has seemingly been mia all year.

I think it’s evident that everywhere we go arenas will be more filled than usual. Teams and students want the upset against us.

Great stuff on an unsung hero on this team. He’s been an emotional leader and is ferocious on defense and when he drives to the basket. Side note: Rachel Lenzi has been doing a great job covering us.

We’d be at least a 1.5 games on top of the 2nd place team going into our week off.

Don’t sleep on Toledo. We face them at Toledo on the 15th.

What about New York State University at Buffalo?

The key to this game is going to be rebounding and limiting 2nd chance possessions. Wiggins has been a beast on the glass this season. BG has some talented players so in no way am I underestimating them at home on national tv. Gonna be a tough road matchup and environment. I could see a nail bitter along the lines of last weeks road games. Big game though...and in big games big players make big plays. So expect CJ to do his thing. Hopefully Perkins and Harris bounce back. Our guard play has been stellar the last two wins. Let’s win and build a nice lead on 1st place in the MAC east. Go Bulls!

My only two take aways from this game are: 1) Free throw shooting has been awful and is now becoming mental. Just look at Jordan shooting an air ball from the line. I know he’s not a good foul shooter but at least draw some iron. FT shooting can and will cost games come March. We need to be better. At least 75% not 50%. 2) 3 point shooting was bad. I’m not panicking about it however. You assume we will be better and eventually the shots will fall. Glad to see us score and win big despite the bad outside shooting. That’s a positive. And just imagine if the 3s fall at a slightly higher rate...dangerous. Other than that we cut down the turnovers, out rebounded them, our defense did not let up and our hustle on loose balls even up big late was great. Friday’s game against BGSU is for first place so we better be ready to rebound. I expect a loud hostile environment so it won’t be easy. Has the makings of a physical get knocked down get back up kinda game.

On the basketball court Ball St has suffered injuries this season which has exposed their lack of depth. Other than that if Buffalo needs a joker it ain’t nor should it be Ball St. We play them once maybe twice a year since they are in the west. For us teams like Kent, Akron, Ohio or Toledo are our jokers. Don’t look now but Toledo is playing well. Could the MAC title game be a rematch of last year?

Graves is in the starting 5 according to the UB men’s basketball Twitter handle. Kinda shocked. But we are at full strength. Go Bulls!

It also has him mock drafted at 54th to the Hornets in the 2nd round.

That Marquette game still irks me. Only because they were so lights out from 3 that I think they can’t duplicate that to that percentage again. Perhaps the constant barrage of 3s mentally drained us making us look like we were dragging, but Howard was making some 3s with hands in his face. You just tip your cap and hope to see em again.

I love all these post about traffic and parking. This is stuff that was never an issue in my UB days lol. In all seriousness I hope the weather doesn’t prevent the general public from coming out but maybe if they don’t show up that could mean AA allows more students in??? What better way to spend a snow day right?

I would guess that Ball St. should be in buffalo already. They should have gotten into this afternoon and had an evening shoot around. I would expect us to leave Thursday early afternoon and get an evening shoot around in at BGSU. I would also think that’s a bus trip. So hopefully roads aren’t bad. If the public can’t make tomorrow’s game that’s more room for the students ;)

https://247sports.com/college/basketball/recruiting/Article/Tark-Classic-Available-2019-recruit-Raymond-Hawkins-emerges-126733567/Amp/ Interesting article from late December about Hawkins recruitment. Sounds like Arkansas is the leader despite not offering a scholarship yet. Which to me is a clear indication that they (Arkansas) like him but are still hoping for a better player. Keeping their options open. Meanwhile we want him and are ready to pounce. He mentions DePaul and St. John’s as heavily recruiting him as well.

Oats said on the radio this morning that the ranking is great for the publicity of the program and a great reward for the kids and how hard they work. He also said that he worries more about the metrics rather than the ranking. To echo what you said, Oats said he wants the efficiency numbers to be better. So margin of victory will be important. And I agree that the MAC has been tougher competition than what Nevada has faced in conference. But I do think Nevada is real good.

This is great stuff. Truly is. I think what has become evident are 3 things 1) You have to surround the freshman with as much upperclassmen as possible. This will allow them to play within the flow of the game and also hide their defensive inabilities. 2) Any lineup combo that has Perkins-Massinburg-Harris on the floor is our best. They are the money players. Guys like McRae, Jordan, Graves and Caruthers you can rotate around the big 3 depending on the situation and hot hand. 3) Our depth is insane. When a guy like Graves is averaging 10 a game and isn't depended on in crunch time is crazy. And when you get the two frosh to step up like they did against Kent, it speaks loudly to how deep Oats can comfortably go in his rotation and lineup combos. Great stuff!

The fact that we didn't drop out of the top 20 is pretty big and keeps us nationally relevant (not another "oh that was a nice run by a mid major"). I was kinda shocked we didn't fall to like 22 or so. But that shows that the voters respect the MAC (this season) and how difficult it is to win on the road during conference play. Also shows that the voters have given us the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. This all doesn't mean we can afford many more conference losses though. And a loss at home would be devastating to the ranking. Given all that lets keep growing and building...we want to peak in March not on January 28th. Go Bulls!

Coach on the radio this morning said Graves didn't practice yesterday and isn't looking likely to play tomorrow. Great opportunity for the younger guys to play more minutes. Maybe Caruthers starts but call me crazy I would start Williams. Lets him play with the upperclassmen (where he can play within the flow of the game) and still come off the bench with Perk and Caruthers. All that said I expect Alumni to be finally rocking and the team to come out and really play solid. i expect a double digit win.