Big 4 Hoops Blogger

FLJ is one of the best ambassadors of UB athletics the school has ever seen. She lit up every room she walked in with her bright personality. Her players loved her and she made women's basketball relevant at UB in the same manner that Hurley/Oats did for the men. Wish her the best at Syracuse. It's her dream job and appears to be a perfect match. My only hope is that UB will hire someone that will be able to continue the positive momentum she started. Obviously, it'll be difficult with Fair and Woolley being potential transfers but I still want to believe that they'll figure it out.

Was told similar things around that time before he took the job at Georgia State. Big reason why I was shocked when UB ended up hiring Jim Whitesell.

It’s all based on expectations. You can “lol” all you want but those play a role in how teams are perceived. No one is saying UB is better than Bona. We thought the Bulls were a Top 75 team that finished around 125 in KenPom while Bona was a Top 30 team that finished around 90. They “both” had incredibly disappointing years. That’s not up for debate.

It’s truly amazing how badly Toledo chokes in Cleveland on a yearly basis. Tough night for Ohio. Kent State has been playing the best basketball in the MAC. If they can continue playing their stifling defense and sneak in as a 14, they might have a chance to pull an upset in the tourney. Won’t predict it but they’re a solid squad.

Big time failure for St. Bonaventure. More so than UB because they had even higher expectations coming off NCAA Tournament season in which they returned their entire starting lineup and opened the year ranked. I doubt he’ll ever leave but if there was a time, it would be now for Schmidt to bolt for another school based on his age and the rebuilding project facing the Bonnies. In reality, UB and St. Bonaventure had similar seasons in regards to failing to meet their lofty preseason expectations. The main difference is Schmidt is highly regarded due to his history with their program while most here feel that Whitesell has been a disappointment.

Where did you live in West Virginia? I lived in Oak Hill near Beckley for one summer back in 2014 and worked at WOAY. Was all over the southern counties. Our sports guys covered a ton of Virginia Tech, Marshall and WVU.

I doubt this team will participate in any postseason tournament. They don't have the resume for the NIT and I doubt any of their seniors have any ambition to play in the secondary tournaments.

I never wanted this. I’ve been holding out hope the entire season that we’d see the best version of UB in Cleveland. Unfortunately, we didn’t. This was our last good shot for a while with our senior class. I think they’ll remain competitive but they’re now a rebuilding project pending any offseason moves that shift their trajectory.

I’m officially on the fire Whitesell bandwagon. This is one of the most disappointing seasons in the history of UB basketball from a expectations standpoint.

If UB loses this game, I have a feeling we won’t be arguing about many of the hot-button issues going forward.

I’m at the arena right now! Great to have the MAC Tournament back to normal.

My list is long… Grew up a diehard Syracuse fan but not really passionate about them anymore. I love Ohio University since I went to college there. Obviously care a ton about UB as well which makes things interesting every year. I support all of Buffalo’s Big 4 opponents. Canisius was the first school I had season tickets for. My uncle went to St. Bonaventure and I have a soft spot for A10 hoops. Also, Niagara was good during my teenage years when they had Mihalich. The one outlier is Purdue Fort Wayne (formerly IPFW). I covered the Mastodons for two seasons and have a lot of respect for their head coach, Jon Coffman.

Updated look at MAC Tournament odds

If Mballa returns to form, I think UB will beat Akron. I think the biggest key to a run will be how Toledo performs in a different atmosphere. If the Rockets play like they’ve been all season, I don’t think Buffalo can upset them but if the Rockets start missing looks they normally hit, they’ll be vulnerable and anything could happen.

Had UB won tonight, they would've been the 2-seed since Ohio lost.

UB wins and Ohio loses, UB can move up to the 2-seed. Every other scenario involves UB in 4/5 game.

Finally got 100% confirmation. Buffalo can’t be the 3-seed. There will be no multiple team tiebreakers with unbalanced records. In Kent State, Ohio, Buffalo scenario, they’ll break the 15-5 tie first betwen Kent and Ohio which Kent wins. Then it would be 15-5 Ohio vs. 14-5 Buffalo, which Ohio wins.

Getting more clarification now. The previous scenario where UB could be tied with “both” teams ahead and behind them based off winning percentage is not applicable, meaning, if Akron is 14-6, UB is 14-5 and Ohio is 15-5, that will not be considered a 3-way tie even though UB would technically be tied with both of them according to “no contest” rules. This is a complete mess!

Disregard earlier note about 3-seed. Just discussed another possibility. Assuming Buffalo wins, if Ohio wins and Akron loses, UB should get the 3-seed with Ohio at 2, Kent State at 4 and Akron at 5.

Yep, I’m still looking for definitive answers. I wouldn’t rule out anything at the moment.

This isn’t official but sounds like the 3-seed is no longer in play. From what I’m hearing, it looks like UB can be the 2-seed with a win and Ohio loss They should be the 4-seed with a win, Ohio win and Akron loss. Everything else results in a 5-seed.

I don’t know exactly what’s going on 100% but the no contest rules have made this more complicated than necessary. They should’ve stayed with winning percentage. Would’ve been unfair to UB but a much simpler solution or they could’ve tried harder to reschedule the CMU game. They had the entire conference schedule to do so. I understand worries about fatigue and lack of availability but this is a mess right now.

Either way, I’m not sure how UB can move up if Akron wins on Friday. Issue being, if the Zips and UB win, that could potentially trigger a 4-way tiebreaker with Kent State, Ohio, UB and Akron. Ohio would be 3-2, Kent would be 3-3, Akron would be 2-3 and UB would be 2-2. So in that scenario, UB would be a 4 taking on Akron. if they don’t do the 4 way tiebreaker though, UB would have a tiebreaker against Akron and lose that to be the 5. I haven’t gone beyond that but I’m guessing for UB to not be in the 4/5 game, they need Akron to lose to CMU and they have to beat Kent State.

According to Wolff, the no contest rule works both ways so a 13-5 UB team would be tied with a 14-5 MAC team and a 13-6 MAC team which is why it gets confusing heading into Friday. Main issue being, is UB currently 5th because a tiebreaker with Akron or are they 5th due to a 3-way tiebreaker with Akron and Ohio, which would be completely unfair to Ohio since they’re a full game ahead of Akron in the standings.