UB92

How about an alumnus who was on the team and wants to get his start in coaching?  Or is at a low tier program?

Anyone for that bill?  

27 minutes ago, DaBulls99 said:

The Big Ten and SEC didn’t even take a meeting. So looks like more just an opinion column than anything with traction. 

Once I read that it involved Gordon Gee, I rolled my eyes.

Relegation won't work for football...too much difficulty in scheduling and other things to overcome...and not enough "history/nostalgia" to make it worthwhile.  This ain't Aston Villa.

I do, however, eventually see a sort of "super league" happening in the next 5 - 10 years.  Whether it's called that is another story, but there will be the "haves" and "the rest".  The haves won't be as many as before, so P5 schools that struggle with the finances to make ends meet (even with the TV money) will be left out in the next iteration.  That's the part that will be different.    We have already seen the start with the Pac12 breakup.  I mean, Cal is now in the ACC...but if that breaks up (with the efforts of Clemson and Miami), Cal will be a good example of a school that, I'd wager, is not part of the "haves".

2 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

To echo some of the comments above, Nate might be the best one game scenario coach right now.  He is great at finding and exploiting mismatches. Like poor mans Chet Holgrem last night. Jeremy Harris vs Arizona for us. He’s got one thing left to do and that’s win it all.  Basically what we are seeing at Bama is what we were beginning to see at UB. Tempo. Threes. Multiple ball handling guards in the lineup at the same time. Wings who are lengthy and can switch on defense. Everything. Bama is what we would’ve been had we been able to keep him. 
 

Forgot one thing…Nate loves his lefty players too. Purposely recruits them. Tactical. 

Just watching him on the sideline, standing there, after a bad turnover, he didn't explode or yell.  Just kept coaching for the next play.  I've seen coaches lose their mind after bad plays by players, but he didn't yesterday.   And he didn't panic/change plans when UNC had some guys (not great shooters) hit open shots early.  

Now they get Clemson.  They could easily go to the Final Four.

2 hours ago, MuchMany said:

Michigan State would make some sense, but I think he likes the south now and the SEC. I think one of his daughters is a student at Alabama now too. Plus he's closer to the major talent producing states of Georgia, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina where.

Not sure how much he'd value moving closer to "home." Can't see him going to Madison anymore either. He's turning Bama into as good of a job as any Big Ten job.

Michigan is an awesome school academically (as is Buffalo, by the way).

Alabama...not as much.  But I have to tell you that Alabama is looking to change that (and have been).  They have a lot of money and are, basically, buying REALLY GOOD out of state students through their scholarship program.  They are doing a lot of building and are making it a destination.  The problem is, of course, it is in a small, poorly accessible town in Tuscaloosa.  But once you are on campus, they do an outstanding job of recruitment (forget about athletes...I am talking about a general student)...and they have a lot of things on campus.

Considering the weather (at least in the winter) and the importance of athletics at Alabama (go beyond MBB and football...you will find a lot), I can see why Oats would have no intention/interest in moving.   I think he stays for a long while -- why would he go?  Maybe if he wins a championship at some point and wants the challenge of the NBA, he could...but I don't see it at the moment.

The job Oats did last night was great.  There were a few times I felt they would get run off the court with their decision making and turnovers, but they made enough shots and he kept them in the game.  UNC could not keep up the defensive effort for much time after the time outs...it dragged on them.   Oats didn't overreact at all...he was thinking about all 40 minutes.  Just a great win for him in a game where I don't think they were the better team, overall.

12 minutes ago, TheCommish said:

What specifically has the AD done to be considered bad?

lack of nil?

bad football and mbb hires?

The thing that bothered me most about the AD was the pretty obvious lack of preparation when it came time to replace Oats.  I have outlined this more in other threads.   NIL part, obviously.   But other things.  I mean, we have had some very successful ADs.  Manuel, White, Greene.  Heck, having Manuel and White back-to-back was pretty amazing for a school like Buffalo.

So this AD pales in comparison.  Even Greene went to Auburn and is now back in Oxford.

I would be okay in keeping GH3 for another two years if we could start over (now) with a new AD.  

1 minute ago, UBinMD said:

More often the people in their ears telling them how much better they should have it. I actually read an article the other day and it referenced one of the college players agents? Not sure if that was a slip of the pen or not, but with the new NIL world, are players actually able to have agents? If so, maybe I missed that change.

I mentioned this before, but being a recruit in HS is a lot of "me me me" spotlight.   These are young kids.   Now they can chase that spotlight more than once by entering the portal.   This is even at the potential expense of their (non athletic) future, especially if they are not guided well.  But as (young) humans, most prefer the immediacy and not the future.

45 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

Brutal Q4 with seemingly 10 or 12 turnovers.  Brand new game. LFG Bulls! 🤘 

They had highlights on ESPN and I watched this.

That entry pass at the end of the 4th quarter.  If I didn't know there wasn't a foul on UB, I'd have been listening for the whistle.   

At any rate, on to the Finals!

Congrats WBB.

On 3/13/2024 at 10:52 AM, UBinMD said:

So rock bottom is official. Buffalo got no post season accolades, not even MAC Honorable Mention for Sy. Not that I disagree, but there are basically 20 spots( 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Honorable) and we have none of them, truly embarrassing. Certainly All-Defense was out the window. Definitely not 6th man. Hopefully better things to come!

There were 36 names here:   https://getsomemaction.com/news/2024/3/12/mac-announces-2023-24-mac-mens-basketball-all-mac-teams-specialty-award-winners.aspx

None were from UB.

I don't have the time or heart to check back in the history books to see when this happened the last time for UB (though who knows if there were 36 slots back then).

I understand the various tables and figures (and analysis therein) allows one to go deeper into the numbers (which is fine), but the "eye test" tells me that this is reasonable.   

There was a poster recently that looked at the (recent) history of Freshman and their impact -- it was a good look into that.  I remember about 15 years or so ago people on this board would project the hell out of some of our players who were underclassman and coming off questionable seasons.  Things like "so and so will be a junior next year" and that fact alone was supposed to account for improvement.  It was silly then and its silly now.

--

I think 0 - 36 and 3 D1 wins tells you all you need to know about the year.

On the plus side...I bleed blue...so...Tim Oboh!   I hope GH3 and his staff have a phenomenal offseason in filling out the roster.

Go Bulls.

1 minute ago, MuchMany said:

Maybe I'm alone here, but what the roster looks like in November will matter a lot to my season predictions. Presutti could pull guys from his Big East connections. Tibbs could find guys from his northeast AAU ties. Cage could land guys he knows from the DMV.

The fact is the "facts" haven't been formed yet. The roster is going to look very different and that's a good thing. I expect some real talent to arrive this spring, like the staff's jobs depend on it.

I would be very happy to be wrong, but you could also put together a scenario for the A's to win the West this year as well.  

My point is that, with the portal and the very likely roster turnover, we are relying on this coaching staff to remake the roster AND improve on all the other challenges people have listed.   It is not even a big ask...it's a huge ask.  

I was going to start this topic after the game, but then I went out of town...and now I see it has already started and thrived.  

A few thoughts...

• Has anyone on this board ever complained about UB scoring too many fast break points?  I don't think so, but it was brought up.  
• One of the things we saw was GH3 trying to play the system he knew at Villanova, but didn't get the guys he needed to do it.  However, he ran that system anyway for most of the season...and it showed.
• Throughout the season, the 1 v 1 ball and the look of a pick-up game was very evident on the offensive side.  I don't know enough about basketball coaching/coaching staffs to properly diagnose why that was, but I suspect whatever the reason...it isn't a good thing.  As someone mentioned, it was in sharp contrast to the women's team and, of course, to MBB.  In fact, I really can't remember that much 1 v 1 ball in any of our coaches in the last 20+ years (except McCrea, and when you are All-MAC 1st team for 3 years, it is okay!) 
• The defense broke down alot.  From my eyes, this was the biggest weakness.  Other teams scored so easily so often.  We seemed always a step behind.
• Someone mentioned that the players, it seemed, didn't really like each other (or looked like they didn't like each other).  When you are losing like they did, it is hard to gel.  Having a new coach, many new players, and less than seasoned assistants, perhaps this was inevitable.  
• I am not sure how many players we will turnover (outside of graduation), but I suspect it will be a sizeable chunk of the roster.  After all, UB is a known team playing in a decent conference...but ends up 345 NET (surrounded by teams you don't want to be surrounded by).  I suspect many/most players will explore their options elsewhere as scholarship athletes.  
• I can't say I am optimistic here.  This coach/his staff didn't recruit well/get what they needed last year...and even with that, they (by most measures) underperformed as a team.  So the expectation is that they will now recruit what they need for his system and perform up to par?   They had 3 D1 wins and 27 D1 losses.  That should get you fired, but that won't happen here for a variety of reasons.  I don't even have to see what the roster looks like for November to say that a single-digit win season is exceedingly likely.  Anyone who is thinking a .500 season is in the cards isn't really looking at the facts.  I am sure someone with time can look at 3-win teams during the last 20 years and provide an average win total (with SD) in the following season.  Or 5 win and under teams and look at the win-total change in the last 20 years (year-by-year) to identify any portal outliers.

While Championship Week progresses across the country without UB, I will think back to days when people were saying...Gonzaga of the East.

Of course, of the 350 or so D1 teams, I only have one:  Buffalo.  So I bleed blue...and am saddened by the 3-win season as I think about the spring football game next month (and who will be our QB).

42 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

We are still the outsiders, so it makes sense to doing something with UMass. The other groups all have their little rivalries already.

No.   Too forced.   

This is the AD's efforts?  Make up a trophy?  

A lot of Civil Conflict vibes...

2 minutes ago, trueblue32 said:

Do we really think this? We started the season by beating Daemen, a strong D2 team that has even given some of our good teams trouble. Then we lost a close one to Fairleigh Dickinson who isn't an uber-talented team but retained a lot of the core that was last seen beating Purdue in the NCAA tournament. At the time, given the turnover, I was optimistic about being a middling MAC team at least as everything came together.

Since then we've seen individual improvement from Sabol and Boldin, and Graham got surprise eligibility and on-court results for the team have gotten worse. We lost by 19 to a terrible WMU team two games ago and people are saying we're improving?

I am sure we have improved some...in that there are parts of the game (for minutes at a time) we are playing better basketball than we were during the first several games.  Of course, other teams have improved as well.

If a student fails an exam with a grade of 10 out of 100...then...after studying/training...takes the exam again and gets 20/100...you can say they improved a lot.  But...it's still 20.

2 hours ago, TheCommish said:

Correct. Where is the savvy veteran coach that has been fired? Zero head coaching experience on the bench and this season has shown they're missing the guy with 30 years experience. How does that conversation not happen? 

 

We really don’t have a very good AD…

5 hours ago, MuchMany said:

You misquoted be a bit. I said that PPG was high because of tempo and leftover talent, not that leftover talent was the reason for PPG and tempo. Whitesell rolled the ball out and said play "Nate Ball," and it became less successful the further we got from Nate's brain and his players.

And of course Segu and Williams didn't play much in their one year under Oats, as freshmen on The Best Team Ever. Then, to be expected, they became three year mainstays under Whitesell when CJ and Co departed. They were the two best recruits in UB history and we never sniffed talent like that again. I'm not sure JW had much to do with their recruitment either, as I was under the impression that BH and JQ were the recruiters in that order.

The staff deserves varying credit for developing Jeenathan and Rondo while here. Jeenathan absolutely improved, esp his outside shooting, handle, and decision making. Rondo on the other hand kind of stalled out and never reached the ceiling I thought possible. Mballa as well stalled and then regressed. I don't know who deserves what credit and blame for those developments, but I grant that JW had a hand in it all.

Retention is important yes, but it was also the key reason JW got the job in the first place, so it was expected and required of him.

Not sure I can agree to disagree, as the results speak for themselves. The outcome of his tenure was a failure to maintain the lofty national profile and success that Oats established. Further, a failure to even maintain our standing within the MAC as a perennial title contender that lasted for six years between Oats and Hurley.

The roster was increasingly pieced together by bad fits, short-term JUCO and transfer fixes (the opposite of what built our best rosters in the past), and our overall recruiting had fallen off a cliff. Fan support was drying up as on-court results worsened. Granted Covid and the new transfer landscape were new wrenches thrown into JW's tenure, but every coach in the nation had to deal with the same and I felt he showed a lack of agility responding to the emergent new reality of CBB.

It's easy to look at the shocking results this year and reminisce on the previous regime with rose-colored glasses, but the truth is the program had already fallen under JW. Recruiting was dead, we were playing challenging schedules that players nor coaches were up for leading to discouraging results, and overall energy around the program was low.

Everyone I know who knew JW and staff have the highest praise for their character and passion, that's never been in doubt. But the point remains, it was reasonable to call for change once it was clear that the lofty goals that we all have for the program had become out of reach. And I grant that this year has been a reality check regarding what our expectations should be. The resulting search, hire, and status of the current staff can absolutely be scrutinized, but I'm at least trying to keep an open mind by acknowledging where we're starting over from.

If I was a debate judge, you'd have won this round.  

I think one thing that has taken a back seat in these discussions is the coaching itself.  I can remember a game when UB lost to Army under JW in a home game they had no business losing.  Oats would have exploded during and after the game...but JW just shrugged (verbally).   They are different leaders, different coaches...even with a lot of the same players.    Certainly UB is spoiled to have had Oats here and the type of play/effort/performance/success he got out of his players.

I know that this sort of "look back in history" is what we are doing now since the current team is at/near the bottom of the MAC conference...and we have to think about the glory days (even if they weren't that long ago).

8 minutes ago, Chet said:

Can’t agree more. If Bills and NYS could have built in Amherst, Big 10 could have been a real possibility especially considering our rise in MBB, WBB and football until those runs ended. Now we are stuck in shit. Would have loved Danny White’s leadership to get that done although the reality is that most likely never happens.  ADMA seems like a great human being, but appears to significantly lack the ability and stamina required to move us forward.

You can lay this on the feet of the AD, but the President, based on what has and hasn’t happened, isn’t supportive of doing that at the present time. 
 

The focus is on investment in research…as evidenced by what has happened during the last several years.  Heck, that AI institute is now at UB. 

Sports investment will need to wait.  

Has anyone read or heard (via interview) what Lembo has said about Patenaude?

It is obvious Lembo has brought in guys he is comfortable with, but is inheriting a brand new OC.  Well…new to UB anyway as Patenaude is long on experience.  
 

Crawford was a Michigan State commit out of a performing arts HS in Pittsburgh.  Another 2024 HS graduate.  He is a corner.  
 

Safety from Delaware. 2024 HS grad.  Was committed to James 
Madison, but it seems he opened up again after their coaching change? 
 

Good luck to him!  Go Bulls!

At this point, the season will play out the way it will play out.  But barring something unexpected, it will be fair to consider whether this should be a one-and-done for GH3.   I mean, this is now a reclamation project and is he really the person we want leading it?   This is with our without ADMA.  

What do we know about GH3?

No head coaching experience.  
Wasn’t able to recruit what he needed. 
Team has not grown/improved since November.  
Team still looks like a group, especially on defense, that just got together for a pickup game 

Not explosive or fiery…team and coach has no identity.  
 

—-

And he is going to be the guy to rebuild this mess?   An easy pass.  
——-

It isn’t that I was against this hire - I thought it was good…looking from the outside.  But I was wrong.  Of course, I didn’t make the hire.  The person that did should be held responsible.  
 

The men get back at it today, hosting the Golden Flashes at 6:30 in Buffalo.  The game is on CBS SN.

Kent is 10 - 11, coming off two home losses to Ohio and Miami.  Not your typical Kent State team, but good enough versus UB to be an 8 point road favorite.

I would just like to say I can't believe UB is 2 - 18.  It is hard to even write, but much worse when you look at the conference rankings.  

We once had this awesome car and a great driver.   Then the driver left and some parts fell off the car...and we ended up getting a retread driver who already proved he was an average driver, at best, who slowly let the car fall into further disrepair.   Then we hired a guy who hung around a Ferrari car shop for many years but didn't have a license...and he drove what was left of the car off a cliff.

12 hours ago, MuchMany said:

This is crazy bad, but we haven't been "recently" ranked. We finished 192 last year and 142 the year before that. While this is a new, bad low, we've been on this path for a few years now.

I checked TBN this morning.  I don't think a report was even filed about the game last night...that tells you something.  "Disaster" and words like that, though often overused, are apt in this situation.

Functionally, we are overmatched on offense, defense, and coaching versus almost every other D1 team.   I know there people on this site show a lot of graphs and do a lot of analysis on this -- which is fine -- but the fact of the matter remains that you have to have enough talent to hit open 3 pointers (or be talented enough to take open 3 pointers).   Same thing on the defensive end.  Everything isn't "regression to the mean".   We just lack the talent with these players and whatever talent they do possess is not being cultivated by the coaching they have received.  It is the worst of both worlds.

In watching a few games at various points in the season, I do think we have below average MAC talent (overall), but better coaching and talent development would have likely won us a few more games (and made a few others closer).  The problem is I don't see a lot of growth.  We are 20 games into the GHIII experience.   He has gotten the team to come out better from the start, but we are still overmatched.

We are 6 - 13 against the spread, which means we are performing worse than the sharps expect us to.  6 - 13 is awful -- it is the 17th worse in D1.

We have more games left this season, so I want to see something from this coach and this team that provides hope.  If not, any conversation after the season (in my opinion) is fair to have.

3 hours ago, rma said:

This looks to be an excellent hire. Ball State was 14th in the nation in rushing yards per game allowed. And I like the idea of hiring a coach from the conference for the exact same job here.

He is hiring people he is comfortable with and has worked with before. 
 

At the end of the day, the MAC is the worst FBS conference.   So the bar is low if you want to play FBS football across the MAC.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Lembo gets enough decent players to get to six wins this first year.  
 

23 hours ago, DaBulls99 said:

Gotta love the Alabama hard hat for a program with more resources than God. 

It just means more…

I watched that game last night.   They miss Miller, but still have all the plays you’d remember.   Lots of 3s and run outs.  
 

In Tuscaloosa today.  Still Ball and Oats…

This is promising for the new coach:   

Favorite movie: “The Great Escape,” starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough and Charles Bronson