UB92

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

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!   

57 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Here is our previous mercenary, no shame for tanking a Top 25 program. Good riddance, the Alabama fans can have him:

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.  

Just now, UBinMD said:

Graham just looks lost. Sabol is close on his 3's but not quite there. Adams was starting to get a rhythm towards the end of the 1st half. Hopefully he can get it going again. Chatman is like Watson for the WBB, he's doing everything he can to keep the team in the game.

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…

Just now, UBinMD said:

Gotta love a 12-0 run to start the 2nd half...Assuming you are rooting for Akron.

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!!

16 minutes ago, DocCas86 said:

My prediction is more 85 - 65.  I am hoping the team finds a way to defend better than the last two games.  We have seen before where this team doesn't quit and they hadve made final score closer than it really was.  I wouldn't be surprised - if final margin close to 10 points, still on the losing end.  

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. 

25 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

You must have been looking at the women’s schedule.  They play Ball State tomorrow 

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.  

7 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

  It shouldn’t be shocking to anyone on here if the Bulls go 3-15 in conference, as much as we hate to  consider that sharp a decline from last year’s 9-9.

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. 

3 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

We have said for several games now: how does this look if they made a few more of these outside shots?  An undersized team needs to in order to compete.  6 of 20 from three - but to be fair, 5 of those were Sabol.  Someone hit their three's, and things went a lot better. They shot 50% overall. 20 for 22 from the free throw line.  Those are more like winning numbers. It overcame 18 turnovers on 11 assists, and a lineup where the bench didn't play much. I'm happy to see them win, we'll see if it's something they can learn and build from.

Great, great, great to get a win.  You have to learn how to win.  

Let’s keep it going!!

2 hours ago, Chet said:

The Athletics department at UB receives more funding from the school budget than any schools in the MAC. Funding from UB continues to rise. 

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. 

2 hours ago, MKBullsfan said:

Does anyone have the final list or highlights from the article from the Buffalo news? Sad how far this program has fallen that we don’t have a final list on this site or more in depth analysis. There is no excitement at all it seems over recruiting as in the past. No QB in this class but maybe a transfer? If you don’t have a QB, you can’t win. That’s the bottom line. 

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/