Big 4 Hoops Blogger

Appreciate you watching! Hoping they can remain hot heading into the MAC Tournament.

I think it’s clear at this point that Danny White was a visionary. It’s hard to find guys like that to lead an athletics department. He played a huge role in the rise of UB athletics. When you lack unlimited resources, you have to be creative. White was criticized for some of his ideas but wasn’t afraid to take risks. I don’t have a strong opinion of Mark Alnutt either way but it appears that he’s safer with how he runs the department. That can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective.

Ohio has signed everyone in their class. Some of the recruiting sites are behind. As I posted in a recruiting thread, they’re bringing in: 1. AJ Brown, 4 star ESPN, 3 star 247 (180 overall) 2. Aidan Hadaway, 3 star Rivals (Once listed as Top 150), 3 star 247 (280 overall) 3. Elmore James, 3 star Rivals 4. AJ Sheldon, unranked

Brown is a big-time recruit for Ohio. He’s listed as 4-stars on ESPN. Several P5 offers including Alabama. 247 has him as 180th overall player, although he had been top 150 prior to committing to Ohio. Aidan Hadaway was also listed as a Rivals Top150 player before committing to Bobcats. He’s since been downgraded to 3-stars which seems to happen when top recruits sign with mid-majors. When it comes to recruiting, those are the type of guys UB needs to compete for at the top of the MAC. Last years class was strong on paper. Let’s hope it plays out once they get some significant time on the court together.

Guys, It's been a while since Kevin and myself (@Mike_Bundt) have done a show so we wanted to recap the last few weeks of UB basketball and preview the final stretch of the regular season heading into Cleveland. I know most of you see our posts on here but we like to engage with our Bullet Points twitter audience. We appreciate anyone who watches, follows us or engages with our posts and welcome all opinions. Hope you check it out!

Central Michigan just blew a golden opportunity to upset Toledo. Had the ball twice with under 7 seconds left with an opportunity to take the lead and couldn’t get a shot off either time…

Thoughts On The Game: Pretty poor first half. Looked like UB was sleepwalking but was never really concerned about the outcome being in jeopardy. Ohio had that same thing happen to them a few weeks ago at home against WMU and they took over the 2nd half and won by double-digits. UB completely dominated the final 20 minutes. Whatever Whitesell told them at halftime paid off because they jumped out to a 16-3 run. I felt once they increased their lead to 19, they got a little complacent and accepted trading buckets. They knew WMU wasn’t coming back but you don’t want to get into bad habits. Jeenathan, Rondo and Mballa all had strong performances. Mballa is starting to play the way we expected heading into the season. I don’t want to focus too much on Brewton but he’s a detriment when he’s on the court. You can see he has talent but it just hasn’t meshed on this team. He wants so badly to make an impact that he forces things. Overall, they won a game they were expected to. Now, onto the next one.

This was my highlight of the afternoon! Maniac is a cool dude but I was giving him crap after that performance lol

I think this site would go downhill quickly if I took over!

Never easy playing at EMU. Won’t be much of a difference between tomorrow at noon and tipping off with their normal crowd. Let’s hope UB is energized because that building has been known to get some ugly performances from road teams.

Believe me, I understand what you’re saying. I’m not a Whitesell guy. I like him as a person and wish him the best because I support UB basketball. I was simply speaking from the perspective of those that do support him, they would compare him to previous regimes prior to UB’s “golden era” and say that’s a more fair standard. I’ve been critical of Whitesell during my podcasts in the past due to the current talent level on this squad. As I’ve stated in previous threads in the past, I thought Buffalo should’ve went with someone else but I don’t want to start a completely different discussion lol

Great win for Buffalo tonight! They did exactly what I was hoping they'd do and then some! Good teams go on the road and find a way to defeat inferior competition. UB went to BG and HANDLED the Falcons. Josh Mballa had one of his best games of the season with Jeenathan Williams and Rondo Segu looking solid as well. Buffalo is starting to click. The big question, which we won't get an answer until the end of the regular season is whether this is the result of a team finding itself or if it's due to playing weaker competition. Final two games of regular season against Toledo and Kent State will be very telling.

I feel confident tonight. I don’t think highly of this Bowling Green team and the metrics back that up. It’s never easy winning on the road but I’m hoping for a comfortable UB victory.

Great numbers. This Toledo team felt different to me and the numbers apparently back that up. I was more so referring to not using previous results to predict future outcomes but I understand where you’re coming from and those changes could be huge for the Rockets moving forward.

Sometimes it’s hard to articulate points through text on a message board. I was simply stating that based on previous UB expectations, Whitesell’s resume to this point would be considered solid by many. If you compare him to the Reggie years and early Hurley/Oats, Whitesell is doing fine. But if you judge him based on recent expectations since Oats final two seasons, many would be upset. And as I stated in another post, I wasn’t just referring to expectations from the players and coaches. I was including media hype as well. The fanbase thought this was a 20+ team that would win the MAC. As of now, that’s not likely. They could win the MAC Tournament but will most likely be no better than 3rd in the regular season. I was explaining the divide between the positive and negative posters. My post wasn’t complicated. I’m sorry you didn’t understand it. That’s partly on me but as I mentioned, it’s hard to get your point across on message boards sometimes but I thought you could’ve had a more polite response.

Definitely wouldn’t take a miracle for UB to win. In fact, I think the Bulls have the type of team to give Toledo problems. I was just stating that they’re a notch above everyone else. Doesn’t mean they’ll win in Cleveland based on past experiences. Skogman developing into an offensive threat is a huge bonus closing out the season. With Mballa’s offensive struggles down low, they needed another big to pose a threat to provide more balance when they’re on the attack.

I’m lumping player expectations with media expectations. I should’ve worded that better. When I was referring to player expectations, my point was more this: If Williams and Segu were thinking of a regular season title and Sweet 16 before the season, what do you think they’d say about their current state of things? They’d probably be pissed off but say they still have a chance to make a run in March. Thats what I’m essentially saying. The people upset on this board have every right to be mad. But there’s still plenty of reasons to be optimistic and hopeful. UB can still make a run in Cleveland. There’s no reasons for us all be attacking each other because one side is more optimistic and the other group of people are pessimistic.

The reason for my initial post on this topic is because I’m tired of the stupid fighting on this board between the positive and negative posters. This place has become toxic and it’s apparent that many people avoid the board now because of what’s taking place. My recent posts were addressed to both sides to basically admit that I can see the logic from the positive and negative posters on this board. It’s okay for people to have different expectations for this program, positive and negative and neither side makes them an idiot. my post about expectations is simply based on how expectations impact people’s perceptions of a team. I’m experienced with this stuff from working in broadcasting and sales in the past. This post is not directed at any individual poster.

I am not saying that players shouldn’t believe that they’re capable of winning at a high level. I am saying there is a portion of the UB fanbase that is disappointed with this squad because they have failed to meet their high expectations that the team AND the media set for them prior to the season. I am essentially saying that it’s fair for the “negative posters” to be discontent with this squad while at the same time also having the chance to win in Cleveland which is what all of the “positive posters” believe is a successful year. It’s an expectations game and is a delicate balance. The same thing is used in politics, sales, and many other regards in life.

To be fair, Buffalo has the 2nd best offense and 4th ranked defense. UB has a shot in Cleveland. They’ll just have to play their best ball that weekend. Another sneaky team is Akron. They’ve done alright in conference play outside of getting swept by Kent State.

If you go according to KenPom, the top 3 defenses in the MAC are Ohio, Kent State and Toledo. The best offenses are Toledo (by far), Buffalo and Ohio.

That should be the goal but that’s also why fans get upset when they don’t live up to expectations. Also, there’s a big difference between saying “Sweet 16” and “Making the NCAA Tournament.” In sales, they say “undersell, over deliver.” When you do the opposite, it leads to a disappointing customer experience. For that same reason, there’s many upset UB fans that wanted more from this squad.