UB92

While I am interested in whatever coach speak Lembo spews at the presser this afternoon, overall it is a pretty uninspired hire. But UB’s leadership and commitment from the very top on through the AD have been uninspiring these least several years, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. I would expect middle of the pack, at best, for the next few years. At least it seems we will have good special teams!

For those young(er) folks, there was a time (pre-Saban) where Alabama had some bad seasons and some mediocre seasons. I know it is hard to believe since Alabama is the gold standard now. After Coach Bryant, all future coaches were compared to this unreasonable expectation. Heck...they drove out Ray Perkins off the back of 9-2-1 and 10-3 seasons, not to mention what they did to Bill Curry!! This feels like the beginning of those times of unreasonable expectations, where 8 -4 gets the new coach fired after 3 years. At any rate, while coach Mo might have done well in recruiting, his players underachieved on the field. Bringing him to the premier program in the nation seems off. He lost back-to-back years to FCS schools.

Akron slept through the first half of the last game against UB and, I strongly suspect, the Toledo coach will use that to fire up his guys against at team more than 200 slots behind them in the NET Rankings. Even on a sort of bad night for Akron where UB showed some hope, they still lost by 17. I am not sure what the number will be tonight, but I expect a little more focus out of Toledo early on and a wider gap at halftime than the Akron game. I'd like to see Boldin get more touches. I mean, the guy played 24 minutes last game and had 0 assists, 0 blocks, 0 turnovers, and 0 fouls.

Yeah. 4/25 from 3. Some of these are good looks. Once again, they just aren’t really good shooters. Makes it hard when an open 3 consistently doesn’t drop. I would like to see a lot more of Boldin.

Yeah. Not a lot there with Graham at all. I would to see more Smith but I understand why. Fulcher has to finish or make that pass…

Are you a time traveler? It is 5-0 to start the half.

Will take another photo if we take the lead this half!

Good half, overall. The Zips are sleepwalking through this one. They have had success inside (Akron), but seem a step slower than UB. We have gotten a lot of boards. Refs are letting them play. UB didn’t have their first foul till about 2 minutes to go. Sabol hasn’t seen a lot of the floor tonight. Chatman is doing what he does. Fulcher…not sure what to say. He brings energy. The Zips are going to come out with energy to start this second half. I suspect they will guard Chatman even more and let someone else try to hit a jumper. I see the Zips getting the ball down low much more often this half. They did early, but UB played better on the interior for a good chunk of that half..till the last few minutes. Same effort this half Bulls!!

I would take a ten point lose after a close game.

I have moved some things around to be in Akron tonight as the best in the MAC take on the bottom-dwellers. I have seen the Bulls at several MAC venues, but a visit to Akron is always interesting. The Zips get on runs and can get 13 points in 3 minutes to blow open a game. It would be easy to say the Zips will look past the Bulls, but UB have not been fast starters. I think it starts bad, gets worse, then we get some garbage time run. I sort of think a 93-61 score here. I am keen to watch how the coach and players handle the situation and any signs of growth or development from either. I will still be rooting for my Bulls, even down 30 with 4 to play! Go Bulls.

I am not sure MBB would be Ball State WBB at this point...

Western Michigan started their conference season visiting Oxford and Amherst. A nine point win against Miami and a five point win against our Bulls. UB is currently giving 1.5 points.

I am not sure how I saw that the next game was BSU tomorrow. it is not. it is at home versus Miami tonight. and we are 1.5 pt favorites. we were 2.5 point favorites on open. This line could move more leading up to game time.

For me, Yassin was the first player I watched at UB since the reentry into D1 basketball where I thought “oh…this guy is special”. I mean, TB was already there, but Idbihi was a big that was very skilled. in addition to Battle, I would assume CJ would be next at some appropriate point in the future.

They are 1-1 now. The next game is against BSU on the 10th.

I don’t know if there are actually lines on this, but I would think 3-15 would probably be the most likely scenario.

I would be quite surprised if UB manages to win this one. I mean, how does one game take away all of what has happened this year? I would guess UB loses by 11 points. But if UB does go out and dominates today (heck…even a 1 point win) I would be surprised. Pleasantly surprised, that is. Go Bulls.

Great, great, great to get a win. You have to learn how to win. Let’s keep it going!!

Do you have a link to this information?

We’ve sort of gone down this road before on this board on what was available at the time, what was offered, etc. in both hires (Whitesell and Halcovage). I do believe that this time Alnutt was better prepared (had a list) but either the money didn’t work or the candidates weren’t interested in the overall opportunity in the current landscape (or both). We know that he settled on Halcovage despite the PR attempts afterward. As someone wrote, we should not be on a list of teams with no D1 wins and Alnutt will ultimately take the fall for this. Of course, UB has de-emphasized their commitment to athletics in this overall landscape for the sake of academics. Perhaps they are just reading the market early. It is a shame. I suspect we have already seen the high point of UB athletics unfortunately unless a new President has a shift in priorities.

I was looking at Barttorvik and it isn't a pretty picture. https://barttorvik.com/team.php?year=2024&team=Buffalo But if you are local and want to see the Bulls win, next Saturday vs. W. Michigan we have a 51% chance to win, according to that site. The rest of the games are not above 40%. Practically, I can't see a scenario where UB doesn't win at least one game, maybe more. You would have to think that they are likely not to be a favorite in any game the rest of the season, barring a turnaround. But the season is long, other teams get injured, sometimes the ball falls your way. What was a bad turnover one game leading to a fastbreak the other way, turns into a lucky bounce and an open 3 on your end. A five point swing. A few of those in a game and you have a victory. We shall see. The thing that bothers me most, as one poster pointed out, is a player on a 0-win (vs. D1) team arguing with the ref on a play multiple times. In the past, maybe you call a time out and pull the guy so he learns. Now? You call a time out and pull the guy...and at half-time he is on his phone entering the transfer portal. I don't think everyone appreciates that it is a little more challenging to climb out of a hole, from year-to-year, because that player you coached up and is doing well...will leave to go somewhere else. The have-nots, which always had a difficult road, will be challenged even more. I don't live in Buffalo, but I will try to make it to one of these road games and see the team in person and watch the coach a little more. I wonder if GH3 is on the phone to Jay Wright after games discussing things, etc. I get the impression, when reading the quotes from the players and the coach after the game, that they are "fighting it". They sort of can't really pinpoint the problem and defer to things like "keep working hard in practice", "we are all learning", etc. In other words, like the coach is "learning as well". That's got to be a bad feeling as a player...when you are working with a brand new coach and that person is learning. It is like going to a class in your major and you see a brand new faculty member (their first class) and are a bit suspicious. And then your buddy, in another section, is taking the same class with the teacher who won the "teaching award" last year and loves their teacher. And then, after the few month or so, you both talk about what you are doing/learning in class...and the guy with the experienced teacher can go on for five minutes on the subject, non-stop, about the class....and you are baffled since that isn't your experience, and you say things like "who knows what we are doing in my section".

Sometimes coaching careers at a school are short, so even though this is only the 12th D1 opponent for this coach, a lot points to this being an important game for him. The oddsmakers have UB favored by 3.5. The team is coming off an interesting loss in Richmond where they had both Adams and Graham...with a late surge making the margin of defeat smaller than the game flow would indicate (UB scored six points in a ten minute span in that second half). Graham only showed up on the boards, grabbing 6 rebounds but going 0-7 from the field in 21 minutes. Surprisingly (and encouragingly), the Bulls only had six turnovers the entire game. If UB is ever going to put together a complete game this season, here is their best opportunity so far (and, perhaps, for the rest of the year). Who knows what this is going to look like tonight. Niagara isn't a good team, but have been in some games. Anything is possible here...UB could win by 19 or lose by 19...and anything in between. Let's hope for the former!! Go Bulls.

Here is a ranking. https://247sports.com/Season/2024-Football/CompositeTeamRankings/?Conference=MAC Last year we were number 1. This year? Not so much… some more takes…. https://herosports.com/fbs-college-football-recruiting-rankings-mac-cpcp/

I read about this one recently... "The 1890 Initiative launched in October 2022 is an ambitious Nebraska-focused collective that could shake up the already crowded Cornhusker NIL space. Former Husker great Matt Davison partnered with Nebraska businessman Tom Peed and Shawn Peed to form The 1890 Initiative. As part of the launch, the group is taking over Athlete Branding & Marketing, as ABM intends on ceasing operations at the end of 2022. ABM was the first local collective to offer NIL opportunities to Husker athletes, and it has represented dozens of football and volleyball players since August 2021. The Peeds say they will provide a “generous annual contribution to 1890, allowing for 100% of all additional contributions to go directly to Nebraska student-athletes.” Nebraska played its first football game against the Omaha YMCA in November of 1890, and the collective’s name is a throwback to that game. The collective, while not officially linked to the university, does appear to have the support from the athletic department. “This collective will give our young men and women another opportunity in the NIL world,” Husker athletic director Trev Alberts said." From: https://www.on3.com/nil/collectives/the-1890-initiative-174/ Why I am adding this one here is because I often have read on this board about how the Athletics Department is unrelated to what happens in NIL, which I think is as naive as it gets. Trev Alberts could have declined to comment, but did not. Related...Dylan Raiola will be moving from Georgia to Nebraska.

NIL has been discussed in some other threads, but I thought it might be valuable to start a thread specific to NIL. Perhaps what is known, overall, what is going on at UB, at other MAC schools, etc. I started another thread to discuss UB MBB at 1 - 9 and it, somehow, went off the rails into areas not intended (let's just say that). Hopefully this one can stay (mostly) on topic.