John

19 hours ago, clodney said:

So far this is the worst MAC Tournament I've ever seen.

Agree. All blowouts and the fan attendance is disappointing. I believe the MAC signed an extension with Rocket Mortgage early in the year and can’t remember for how long?? They have to be taking a bath with the attendance and overall terrible games. Is it the cost for fans and overall excitement level or are older fans like us losing our excitement level due to what is happening at both the college and pro level. 

52 minutes ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

Mark Schmidt has a long track record of success and built that program from a laughing stock in the A10 coming off probation to a school that has made three NCAA Tournaments (should be four), a NIT Final Four and a perennial contender in a Top 10 conference in college basketball during his tenure.

One year doesn't destroy his reputation, especially when they didn't have one returning player from his team last season. So while both teams were especially awful this year (Bona 200, UB 204 in KenPom), I'm more inclined to give Schmidt a pass than Jim Whitesell.

Whitesell has been a D1 head coach for over a decade and hasn't made a NCAA Tournament at this level. Spending money doesn't guarantee success but it certainly helps.

The A-10 is a higher and better overall conference with overall better teams and thus more bucks in many ways. Can’t compare what coaches are paid in the A-10 versus the MAC. Between alums and donors along with tv contracts we can’t compete. Such as life in the low rent districts.

14 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Funny we complained about the fouls. Look at the foul calls now. Pretty even. 

Of course the refs start evening out the fouls when the game is out of reach. I am tired of hearing the refs are just human. For all the supposed instruction and training they get they do not improve. Make these refs watch their games and point out all the terrible calls and non calls. For the most part the top teams usually get the calls. But the refs are just human!! Maybe we should try that in the private sector when we make mistakes!! I am not saying that is why our record is because of refs. It is just one of many factors of why we are a mediocre team. Will take the summer off to recharge the batteries and hope for some changes on this team.

15 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I think by this you mean how she can implement her style with her recruits? She doesn’t have to change. She will bring her style players in that fit her schemes. Right?

Yes . Any coach will try to recruit her type of player to fit their coaching style and mindset. Based on what players you have and what happens as a season goes on with injuries, personal problems and of course if players do not perform like a coach envisionined any coach has to be able to change. Again I think she will implement her style but the big question is trying to get the entire team to buy in to her coaching style. Time will tell to see if any of these new players turn into the better D1 players and if we can compete against the better teams in the MAC. Hope all these new recruits are still locked in to coming here and look forward to a new chapter in UB basketball. Go Bulls!!

54 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

I do too. I've been following some of her recruits, most notable Timberlynn Yeast, Jakayla Thompson and Paige Kohler. Some of the others as well. Yeast and Thompson are vying for Miss Kentucky BB, which is pretty amazing for 2 recruits coming to the same place. Paige Kohler is a leader, true point guard and can put the ball in the hole. She is one of those players that wants the ball at the end. Piece that with Mashaire with a year under her belt and if Ogden can shoot like that for a season this team will be extremely dangerous in the MAC. We also have another Canadian import and a young lady from Spain that I don't know much about. Maddie Heiss is a high level 3-point shooter out of Texas. I saw a commit recently from Chaneese Craig, who is a 6'2 big body inside JUCO presence that should help. Especially if Johnson comes back. The future is bright and I think BB will make a bid mark at UB before she is done.

 

Do agree. Some of the recruits do look promising and Ogden definitely improved as she got more playing time. Will be interesting to see how Coach Burke can change both her offensive and defensive mindset with all these new players. Congrats to this team that have played a roller coaster season and never gave up. I did not think they could stay with Toledo who was on a big time roll. Will look forward to getting more information on this incoming team and see if they can become one of the top teams next year. Go Bulls!!

2 hours ago, Blue03 said:

Yeah I agree that alum attendance is dismal. It’s been a big issue that people come to the buffalo area for college and then leave for elsewhere. UB is trying to start campaigning for people to stay in buffalo, things like ads on busses and whatnot. I’m from Rochester myself and don’t really watch local news here while I’m in school, so genuine question here. Do local stations ever talk about UB sports? Back home the sports people always talked about Syracuse, but do they do that here? North campus is a little bit of a hike for some people in buffalo, I feel like some exciting ads and news sections would be the only way to motivate the community to come. 

Our family were surprised with the attendance this year especially when it seemed UB lost a lot of season ticket holders.Many of the games averaged over 4,000. But there were many open seats in the low 100 sections and in our 114 section  and we noticed that many of the fans we had seen last year were gone. Just think if we had a top team with a very good team how many fans would of come back. As far as the local news and the paper the coverage is terrible. Many times the day of the game the news does not even mention the game. The News covers all the high school games more than the college schools.I don’t know what kind of research they do but somehow they have more subscribers that are more interested in the high school scene. The news should be able to cover both scenes but sadly that is not the case.

1 hour ago, 1975 said:

I’m with both you and DooleyBull. My left hemisphere understood coach’s outburst, but at the same time my right hemisphere’s reaction was “coach hasn’t earned the right to that sort of inartful response on this court in front of these fans”. Meh, that’s just me. 
 
Interesting about Johnson - maybe her pregnancy hiatus from playing gives her an extension?

Finally, what’s the rule about a player going down with an injury while the opponent has possession? Play on, like in today’s game - or did the refs blow it?

Go Bulls!

Agree. I do not like a coach yelling at players in a crazy fashion but hope this is just growing pains for a coach that is in her early years of being a head coach. I was not able to be at the game so after Burke went on her yelling rampage how did the players respond? What was the crowd like and were they into the game? In any case congratulations to the team and coaches for staying the course. It was Jim Volvano who said “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” That sure can apply in life and also in sports. Go Bulls!!

11 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Just win. Getting to Cleveland with this squad amidst a bumpy start to her tenure here at UB would be a great accomplishment. Would be great for team moral and building. Great for recruiting. Would kinda stabilize things moving forward. 

Agree. It would be great for this group of players to experience the MAC tournament atmosphere in Cleveland. The venue is great for players and fans and our family have a great time in Cleveland. We always like to meet fans and especially parents from the other teams. Met some parents from Akron after the game and had a nice conversation about basketball and life. Go Bulls!!

3 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

The women host Akron tonight.  They need to go 2-0 in their last two at home to have a shot to go to Cleveland.  If they win the two games they will probably be in a tie breaker situation.

https://getsomemaction.com/sports/2023/2/24/BSK_0224232059.aspx

For those of you in Buffalo and surroundings, get out to the game tonight.  Listen to Coach Burke.

 

Great to see some happy, smiling faces and a unexpected win against a quality team on senior night no less. A win happens when UB shoots lights out and get quality positive contributions from other players like Ogden and Mashaire who not only scored double digit points but also has like 15 rebounds combined. As has been the case all year you have to have solid contributions from more than the top three players especially when playing against one of the better teams in the MAC. Hope the last two games we can see competitive games and the team can go out with positives for next year even though the team will have a totally different makeup. I know Coach Burke asked for fans to show up tonight so it will be wishful thinking if more than a handful of students show up tonight!!! Go Bulls!!!

1 hour ago, DooleyBull06 said:

What has hurt us and will continually hurt us is that we play in the MAC east. Which usually means playing Akron, Ohio and Kent twice a season. They are usually at the top of the conference pack. And this year we played Toledo twice. As we all know, under Whitesell our record versus those teams is atrocious. The regression of this team as the season has evolved is scary. That falls squarely on the coach. 

Can’t disagree at all, There is plenty of blame to go around. I have watched the coaches on timeouts and like all coaches seem to be drawing up  plays on their board!! Are the players not following the plays?? I believe this team overall has been overrated based on how athletic they looked. Bottom line the coaches are the ones that get the blame or fired. The players share as much blame as the coaches . It has been discussed all year about their inconsistency and not playing together as a group. For every good play that is made there is more bonehead plays made. Let’s bring in a more energetic and young coach trying to make his mark and for a few years with the right players have some successful years and then move on again. A total crapshoot if we can hit on both. With all that has happened with the transfer portal and the money grabs by both coaches and players the years of good mid-major teams is sadly in the rear view mirror. 

13 hours ago, rma said:

UB women have done this same thing during intros. I'm not as close to the bench during men's games but I wouldn't be surprised if they did it too.

Wow!! Did not notice. Will pay more attention on Wednesday. In this day and age I do not think it is appropriate at any venue. Our family have lost so much of our passion and enthusiasm for sports as it has become for all a business and a money grab for all concerned that it is hard to be objective about how life is and will be in the future. As we were raised our parents stressed with us two main tenants were responsibility and accountability. Both are solely lacking today in both life and sports. 

20 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Oats again admits he has no control of the team. He doesn’t watch introductions so he can’t be to blame. Although he has done this in other games, Miles obviously feels he’s in the clear and above suspicion so he doesn’t need to change his actions. I guess when you take the paycheck, you put up with whatever it takes to stay on top and fattening the bankroll. Oats went from golden boy to tone deaf boob is a couple of weeks.

Just a terrible situation and Oats promising career and any good should be lost. What the hell was the coaching staff doing not making sure the players knew how they should handle themselves. Oats continued to put his foot in his mouth talking about how mentally tough Miller is. He made a terrible mistake that cost a woman her life and the entire Alabama administration should be ashamed of themselves. Unbelievable how power and greed influence your decisions. All the words Oats continues to say mean nothing when you don’t walk your talk. Oats will never live this down in the eyes of many people but is sure he will be able to justify this in his small group of people. Amazing what power and money do to people who lose alll sense of intelligence, common sense and decency. 

3 hours ago, dj_paige said:

But that's where the team is right now. That's an accurate reflection of our MAC play.

Do agree. Looks like we will be able to compete against the bottom half of the teams but with our depleted roster and only our three main players we do not match up against the top teams. As a true basketball fan our family played basketball and has enjoyed it all our lives and will always support our UB teams but of course it is more enjoyable when our teams are competitive and win. Hope we can see a turnaround next year for both teams. Go Bulls!! One more question? After not seeing the last few games has the coaching staff checked out and just going through the motions as losing can become mental for both coaches and players.

3 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

I was only able to catch about the last 4:00 of the game yesterday.  From what I saw down the stretch, this could not be less true.  They wiped out a late lead to go up by one and then had two shots at the buzzer to hit a game winner.  teams that have quit would have packed it in when they down 7 with about 4:00 left.  They did not pack anything in.

I was not talking about the CMU game as I did not see the game. Some of their previous games they seemed to have stretches  where whether mentally or physically they lose their focus. With their short bench after exerting so much energy it is understandable they could have stretches that look like they start to run out of gas. They are still competing but with no true frontline going against the better teams it is a no win situation. Go Bullls!!

17 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Those black unis look sweet! CuJo modelled it on twitter. Would be nice to come out with a W on this evening.

We will be wearing our black UB attire tonight and hope to see the largest crowd  of the season. The team should be primed for a great game against a quality opponent. Go Bulls!!

4 hours ago, 1975 said:

I’m not bailing on BB…she’s in a tough spot. UB AD won’t bail, either. I’m just hoping that the 4 students who come to the games are with us on this. Yeah, sometimes I do sarcasm.

It is not sarcasm in my opinion. Even in our past great years the students did not show up. Between the true blue and the administration they did hot try hard enough to get more students involved. It is wrong to just depend on cell phones and social media to get all your information. In many cases our family has thought this athletic administration runs the marketing like a D11 or D111 programs at times. Sadly not sure if UB can get any of the season ticket holders back but can only hope our teams can become one of the upper echelon teams again.

16 minutes ago, clodney said:

She's in her first year with a completely revamped roster. If Whitesell gets 4+ seasons of tolerance after inheriting a $hitload of talent, then Burke should get 5+ before we lose any patience.

Do agree. I don’t think anyone is calling for a coaching change especially what has happened with the roster and lack of any positive contributions from any player except our three main players. Coach Burke’s track record so far is she has put together good teams in her second year and beyond. With another almost totally new team coming in next year it will be interesting how it will look and how she responds to new and different type players. Go Bulls!!

5 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Coach Burke’s post game tweets for patience and hang with us have dried up. I’ll still support, but have tempered expectations. I will selfishly admit I’m a little happy Syracuse is 6-7 in conference and hanging out in 9th place. I don’t want our fans to be the only miserable group in the transition year. Go Bulls!!🤘🏻🤘🏻

Just thinking just a few years back UB, Central Michigan and Ohio were the best teams with some of the most exciting and very good players. Now all three in the bottom of standings with depleted rosters. Trying to enjoy basketball for what it is and watching the other teams with some very good players and supporting our team and not trying to take the game so seriously. Can only hope that many of the recruits Coach Burke has coming in decide to stay and some turn into very good players. Go Bulls!!

3 hours ago, UBinMD said:

7 points in a quarter, 28% shooting. This team is painful to watch. I’m giving BB a pass on this season, but it’s confirmed Salmons left the program. The season probably can’t end soon enough. I hope we have a couple bigs. Regardless of the shooters, etc. we need some size to compete in this league.

It does look like the entire team and coaches have mentally and physically checked out. Sad to see when they have lost so many players and have no D1 players accept Winfield, Stone and Young. Will still be there the rest of the year to show support for the team.

1 hour ago, UB Horns Up said:

Good UB Bulls win. The Bulls need to run up and down the floor forget about half court game Jim Whitesell that isn’t our game Reggie Witherspoon was slow half court game when he coached at UB. UB doesn’t have great outcomes with that low scoring slowing the game down it usually ends with loses.
 

Last why did UB Bulls basketball have a black out Alumni Arena tease that UB Bulls basketball were wearing new black UB uniforms then play in there usual home white uniforms? While Eastern Michigan was wearing black uniforms? Strange sometimes I don’t get UB athletics marketing at all. I am surprised I am the only one noticing that about last nights game. We should have worn our old black UB uniforms at least they are black uniforms in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

Wonder if any marketing going on for Friday game????

17 hours ago, bullsbball said:

I assume Salmons is not longer on the team since she no longer appears on UB Women's Roster. 

So very sad that we can barely field a team.

Do agree. With Salmons not even on the roster  and Nwora not active but still on the roster we have no true frontline type post players that can overcome the bigger frontline players on the other MAC teams. How this coaching staff can try to get this depleted team to play with some positive vibes will truly be the toughest part of a coach’s job. Will continue to show support and look to the future for better days ahead. Go Bulls!!!

2 hours ago, ChubbyHubby said:

Enrique14150... As always, an awesome recap of the game.  You mentioned Bates not playing defense.  He picked up his first foul with less than 10 minutes left in the game.  That doesn't happen if you're playing any semblence of D.  Agree with MuchMany on his assessment of Bates.  He was interacting with the crowd, and not in a nice way.  I feel bad for the guy that got tossed.  What's with Bates' Dad being behind the bench the whole game.  I guess he even went to the locker room with the team at the half.  Is he on staff?

I also want to give a shout out to Erie County for his/her first UBFan post without a negative comment. (See Hardnett is balling...)  

Agree with your comments. A very entertaining game and as the first half rolled along we said this looked like a shootout in the making. Good positive contributions from many of our players. We did say during the game that EMU doesn’t look like a 6-18 team but looking further they really seem to have only three main players and don’t seem to get enough solid contributions from their other players case in point after the three main players the rest of the team only scored like 16 points. With Jones having an off shooting night kit is a positive to have many of our players contribute. Also a positive the last two home game having 4 to 5 thousand fans. We have noticed how many open seats in the 100 sections and even in and around our 114 section that have been empty and how many season ticket holders we have lost. We will still continue to support our teams and enjoy college basketball. Go Bullls!!!

1 hour ago, dj_paige said:

I will be there. ChubbyHubby will be there. That qualifies as a decent crowd in my mind.

Our family will be there also. Will be interesting to see if the students show up similar to the last game. The three main player are Bates, Acuff and Farrakhan who average 21, 13 and 12. EMU is averaging 73 per game and giving up 81 per game. I have watched some of their games and Bates puts shots up at any time and from anywhere and if he gets hot and we have a poor shooting game not sure how the final score comes out. Wonder if Blocker continues to get more minutes and would be nice to see Powell get out of his poor play and funk that he is in. 

43 minutes ago, 1975 said:

As an aside…the all-woman officiating crew was a refreshing change from the stale, piss-poor (some say biased) refs we usually see in AA…very few “marginal” fouls were called (and I was glad to see a usually overlooked “3 second lane violation” draw a whistle). 

It was a definite change and we thought they called a decent game with not too many fouls for three quarters but then is usually the case the game is called different in the 4th quarter in most games. 

14 hours ago, bullsbball said:

As I heard on the radio broadcast a few games ago, the coaches are trying to find ways to give the 6 that are playing rests during play by bringing up the ball slowly and other "slow" play.

In a loose ball in the middle of the 3rd quarter, Young dribbled it off her own foot and just gave up on going after the ball and let NIU have it. Two NIU players laying on the court and all Young needed to do was grab the ball for "jump ball". But instead, she just walked away. UB was up by a point at that point and couldn't score and gave up too many wide-open threes after that.

This team needs more energy, in particular, to improve their rebounding. The best rebounder is Winfield and not much after that.

Also, during one of the timeouts, Coach BB was again in somebody's face on the bench. I don't know who she was yelling at and I forget what she said. Everybody in the arena could hear her.  Just curious if the players like/respect the coach.

Also, curious why more players aren't playing. Nwora was already mentioned. Salmons is "away from the team for personal reasons".

Caelan Ellis Freshman Played in 13 games for 158 minutes. Not played since 1/28.
Briyanna Baron Senior (Walkon?) Played 5 minutes in 2 games
Olivia DeBortoli Senior Volleyball recruit 1 game for 1 minute
Chellia Watson No games

On the radios after the game, they said that next year's recruiting class is #1 (not that I understand how that was determined).  Is their hope for this team "next year"?

Don’t’ t really agree at a coach yelling at her players in full view of all the sectors but she probably seen something that we don’t. I think it was on the defensive end giving up open NIU 3’s. It seems we are able to see the frustration on the player’s faces so maybe frustration for the coach also. At the rate the team is going it probably only 50-50 for them to make the top eight and go to Cleveland which will be sad for the many players that have not experienced  Cleveland. Go Bulls!!!