Big 4 Hoops Blogger

Attendance was 3,014. Decent for this season but nothing like past years. Normal crowd showed for tip-off. Students trickled in later.

Pretty even first half. I think UB is the much better team but they haven’t really shown it through 20 minutes.

Early look appears to be a pretty average crowd for this season. Not many students here.

I tweeted this the other day and believe there’s some relevancy to this: Toledo is the top team in the MAC. All of the metrics support this. They’re 3-0 against Ohio and UB. The Bobcats are the most consistent team though. They rarely elevate or play down to their competition. They’re consistent and a top 80-110 team. Buffalo is the wildcard. They have the ability to be the best team in the MAC but they’re also capable of losing to teams like Miami. I believe it’ll be one of these three teams that wins it all in Cleveland.

As far as last night, a lot of encouraging signs. Most complete game of the season. Gotta hope the Bulls keep beating up on their weak schedule moving forward. We’ve been saying they have the ability for the past few years. They made a run last year and can do so again now. Just can’t afford letdowns in big contests. Right now, UB is 0-3 against the top 3 teams in the MAC. Can’t wait to see what they do hosting Toledo. If they can take down the Rockets, things are going to appear much better heading into Cleveland.

That’s what is going to make the MAC Tournament so difficult and why seeding matters. Defeating Ohio and Toledo on back-to back nights wouldn’t be an easy task for any mid-major. Buffalo has the talent to do so but they’ll need to bring their A-game to Cleveland.

That’s for high school only. You can click on overall class which includes incoming transfers. https://247sports.com/Season/2022-Football/OverallTeamRankings/?Conference=MAC

This is what we were all hoping for when Coach Mo was hired. We knew he might be a little raw in the beginning but expected him to make up for it with his ability on the recruiting trail. This is how you build a program. You bring in talented ballers. UB has a huge increase in natural ability on the gridiron. Now, they have to put it together during the offseason.

According to KenPom, UB will be favored in every game down the stretch except for Toledo so it’s likely they’ll be hot heading into Cleveland. The question will be whether that’s due to a weak schedule or a team figuring things out. The MAC is having a down year as the 19th ranked conference so it really doesn’t matter what you do against the bottom teams. What we do know is that UB is 0-3 against the top three schools in the league. That’s who they’ll need to defeat to make a run in the MAC Tournament.

I can admit when I’m wrong and I was clearly off when it came to my assessment of North Texas. I thought they were a decent but not great team. In hindsight, that win has been the high point of the Bulls season to this point.

Both teams are close in the metrics despite their records and the game is at Buffalo. Makes sense that UB would be favored but it could go either way.

Defeating Ohio is a must for UB to have a chance at the 2-seed. It might be needed to have a chance at the 3-seed with Buffalo already losing to Akron. I’m not sold on the Zips but 4-4 with losses to Ohio and Akron in their only games against them would put UB in a tough spot in the standings. That said, I think Friday will be a good game that could go either way. I give Buffalo a slight edge over the Bobcats.

My thoughts:

Another big time transfer is coming to Buffalo! Arizona wideout Boobie Curry had 21 receptions for 233 yards and three touchdowns last year. He’s a former 4 star recruit and was ranked in top 200 nationally. His list of offers was staggering.

Rumor on the street is that Dwight Wilson III is out for the year but will get an injury exemption and return next year. There’s also rumblings that BVP could possibly comeback using his COVID year. Sounds like Carter was dealing with extreme cramps and should be fine. It was an issue he dealt with earlier in the season. Toledo was lights out shooting last night. Hard to carry that over into Cleveland but they’re the best team for now. I really think it’s a coin flip between UB/Ohio/Toledo.

It was a GREAT defensive performance but an UGLY offensive performance. I credit UB for finding a way to win fairly comfortably despite not having their typical offensive output. Jeenathan Williams had himself a night and the Bulls defensive intensity was a nice thing to see. That said, they’re desperately lacking quality shooters and going 7-30 (23%) from deep is concerning. Williams shot 4-4 from behind the arc. The rest of UB: 3-26 (11.5%) This is not your typical Kent State team. They’re still capable of pulling off an upset or two but are not a MAC contender. UB will need to improve their situational basketball if they want to make a run in Cleveland.

Sears, BVP and Carter make a solid top 3. One bad game doesn’t define a team. They’re still 14-3 with a win over Belmont and all of their losses against Top 100 opponents including two Top 25 teams. I think that game says more about Toledo. IMO, they look to be the top team in the MAC at this moment. We’ll see where Ohio and Buffalo stack up when they battle each other. The rest of the league is battling for 4-12.

Bullet Points Postgame Show:

I wish I had more information. I’m not sure the specific details of what Hardnett is dealing with. Was told that it was going to be a difficult season for him and that he probably wasn’t going to have a significant role early in the year. We’re now starting conference play and not much has changed in regards to his play on the court. I’m hoping things get better but I don’t have any new details at this moment.

This is accurate. I was told prior to the season not to expect him to have a big year because he was dealing with nagging injuries. I don’t have any specific details but it seems whatever he’s dealing with is having a significant impact on his performance and playing time.

So essentially, the reason I’ve been so difficult on UB at times is that I didn’t want what happened to Ohio to take place at Buffalo. Luckily for the Bobcats, they eventually figured things out but it was looking scary for a while. Unlike Whitesell, Jim Christian didn’t receive much support by the Ohio fanbase at the beginning due to his personality and him being a former Kent State head coach. Bobcat fans wanted to love Saul Phillips but he just wasn’t consistent enough. I think the moral of the story is, hiring a solid coach is an inexact science. Sometimes making a safe hire keeps you consistently good but never great while risky hires have the ability to elevate or destroy your program. Then there’s obvious choices that schools luck into and I think OU is benefitting from that right now. To sum up, I think UB is better than Ohio was when they hired Boals but he was lucky to inherit untapped talent. I don’t know if I like the depth behind the Bulls Big 3 that a new UB coach would inherit in the unlikely scenario that Whitesell leaves.

I would say Ohio hit rock bottom before they finally decided to go with the obvious hire in Jeff Boals. People forget they hired Jim Christian after Groce departed and won 49 games in two seasons before he bolted for Boston College. Christian won a lot but was considered a disappointment. They settled for the NIT in their final season with DJ Cooper, Walter Offutt and Ivo Baltic despite making the Sweet 16 and finishing 25th in the country the year before. Saul Phillips won only 10 games in his first year as the program couldn’t deal with all of their short term changes but he figured things out with Antonio Campbell and everyone thought they were back. They had two 20-win seasons under him before they completely fell apart. Boals was the guy the fanbase wanted since John Groce departed. He’s an Ohio alumnus, high energy, great recruiter, relates to the younger generation and knows the game inside/out. It only took the program to bottom out before realizing that’s what they needed. I don’t know enough about Turner Battle beyond his playing days at UB but that’s a hire that would fire up a portion of the Bulls fanbase.