Big 4 Hoops Blogger

Incredible performance tonight! Curtis Jones and Armoni Foster were fantastic. This was a pivotal game to see how UB stacked up against the 2nd tier of the MAC. They now have wins over Ball State and Ohio which is encouraging heading into Kent State later this week.

This week on the show, we discussed if we believe UB can contend in the MAC this year. John believes anything is on the table. We also got into UB's upcoming MAC slate which features the top teams in the conference. Please fast-forward to the 45:00 mark. Appreciate any comments and opinions!

Is this sarcasm? 2018 UB football went 10-4, UB mens basketball went 32-4. UB women's basketball went 23-9 and made it to the second round. This isn't even close to the best fall in UB athletics history. I'm actually really excited for the football program moving forward but lets not talk up MBB and WBB when they're clearly going through rebuilding seasons. It's okay to be critical without being on life support. The criticisms of the men's program are completely valid. I still think the program has a bunch of potential. That's why I want them to make a change in the first place. It's the same reason I was fine with them firing Reggie Witherspoon back in the day. It's not that I don't love the program, I'm hoping for them to better themselves.

This team is completely different at home than on the road. That's the case for most squads but their W/L splits are wild. 8-1 at home, 1-8 on the road/neutral sites They now start their toughest stretch of conference play (TOL, @Ball St, @Kent St, Akron). How they do their next four games will go a far way in determining what we think about this squad moving forward.

I'm not sure if Hodgson would make a good head coach or not because we've never seen him running his own team. He does offer an elite skillset as a recruiter. When it comes to mid-major coaches, you're looking for someone that offers high end potential. There's no doubt he brings that to the table. That said, I don't think UB will ever approach him in the future. As far as Blue Collar U, he was supposed to be their head coach when they first organized the team and stepped down when it became obvious it would be a schedule conflict. The players would confirm that. I was at their first practice when they started their TBT team. As to why he hasn't taken lower level head coaching jobs... Why would he when he has a comfortable living as a high paid assistant at one of the best programs in the country? He can enjoy that lifestyle as long as he wants with Nate Oats or until an opportunity presents itself. Of course, if he really wants to be a head coach, he can take a lower level job but I don't see that happening. All of this just to say, things have worked out well for him. I'm sure Hodgson has no regrets about how it all played out. Everyone wishes things would've worked out better for Whitesell. There's still time this year to turn things around but if they don't, I hope UB does a national search and brings in young blood that can bring some energy into the program once again.

That’s part of what makes this difficult. I do believe Jim Whitesell is a great person and I’ve been hoping he could turn things around. I’m not sure what direction UB will go. I could even see the program holding onto him for another year or two. I’m a fan of Bryan Hodgson but I don’t believe he’ll ever be the head coach at UB. That said, I do hope Buffalo targets a young coach with strong recruiting ties when they eventually do make a change down the line.

We opened the show discussing Buffalo's past two losses and dove deeper into Jim Whitesell's future in the program. I've always been a firm believer in hiring young, up & coming assistant with solid recruiting ties to lead mid-major programs. Feel free to comment.

I addressed my thoughts regarding Jim Whitesell and his future at UB in our latest episode of 'Talkin Big Four Hoops' Please fast-forward to the 17:21 mark.

UB entered today ranked 202 in KenPom. The regression over the past four years is pretty apparent now. Buffalo hasn't finished with a Sub-200 KenPom ranking since 2003.

Bump... How are we feeling about Whitesell now? Has losses to Howard (274), Miami (287) and Central Michigan (288) with UB sitting in the 200+ KenPom group. We all knew this would be a rebuilding season but this is another disappointing setback after a pair of decent games against Ohio and NIU.

Congrats on the win! As you guys know, I'm always conflicted when UB and Ohio battle it out. I thought Buffalo did a great job defending the Bobcats tonight. Nothing came easy for them, especially down low in the first half. Bulls athleticism was on display. AJ Clayton was consistently getting burned defensively. Buffalo was absolutely deadly with 20 offensive rebounds. If UB can play like they did tonight, they'll be a tough game most nights in the MAC. The biggest concerns, some poor shot selection and shot making ability. It felt like UB was dominating this game and still let Ohio have a chance to tie it up at the end. Need to clean that up. Otherwise, not much to complain about. Should grab another win over NIU.

This week, we opened our show discussing the UB/WVU game. A lot of positives for the Bulls. Hope you check out the show!

We opened our show this week discussing the UB/WVU game. I was really encouraged by UB overall. The first 30 minutes provided a lot of positives. Obviously not the outcome we all wanted but hopefully a step in the right direction outside of the final 10 minutes.

We discussed Buffalo's loss against Tulane starting at the 32:00 mark. We also talked about how it's a down year for the Big 4 and the importance of UB finding their identity.

This is my general takeaway as well. It's going to be a roller coaster type season. In the end, I hope there's more highs than lows and that they get hot heading into Cleveland. Much different mentality than past years for me personally.

Appreciate you tuning in! Tulane game is definitely winnable with them recently losing at home against Fordham. Won't be easy for UB though. I think 125-150 is a fair expectation for this group based on their early results this season. UB is currently 165 in KenPom. The Howard game is their only ugly looking loss in the metrics while James Madison was their worst effort overall. While it might be difficult to get coaches to speak on record, we do have a few connections that we can hopefully get some more insight from at some point during the season.

Great win for Buffalo over the weekend against St. Bonaventure. The Bulls dominated from the very beginning. Curtis Jones and Zid Powell look to be a dangerous 1-2 punch. A big key for the Bulls was getting Chad Venning into foul trouble early. Yann Farrell will be good for the Bonnies but was their only real threat on Saturday. UB is looking solid heading into the end of non-conference play. The victory over Bona changes my outlook a little bit. Buffalo now has three Top 130 KenPom victories just eight games into their season. They might have the ability to cause some problems in MAC play.

I’ll eat crow, I didn’t see that coming. Great win for UB. I’m really encouraged by the 1-2 scoring punch they’re developing with Jones/Powell. It’s never easy controlling the tempo against St. Bonaventure and the Bulls controlled the pace from the very start.

Curtis Jones is playing out of his mind! 27 points with 11 minutes left. UB might have a young star in the making.

I'm giving St. Bonaventure a slight edge in this one. Bonnies are good at slowing down the pace which could give UB some issues. SBU guards are hit or miss. Banks and Luc both have the ability to go off any given night but also have the potential to force shots and struggle from the field. Their young forwards have some ability. Transfer Chad Venning has size and was strong against Notre Dame. Freshman Barry Evans was highly touted and Yann Farrell was a Top 150 recruit for them, choosing St. Bonaventure over a bunch of P5 programs. Buffalo has a chance today but they'll need to take care of the ball and shoot well overall. Bonnies lost to Canisius, which is awful but have responded well since. I'll pick the Bonnies 67-63.

Appreciate your response and input. My point about the schedule is that it’s one that could potentially really beat up this Bulls squad. As mentioned earlier, there’s multiple different philosophies on how to create non-conference schedules. I’ll never say I’m right or wrong because it’s all about individual point of views. This is a schedule I’d be more in favor of if UB was expected to be a MAC contender. With a rebuilding squad, I would’ve liked something more along the lines of what St. Bonaventure put together to build some confidence. KenPom has UB as underdogs in their next four D1 games and heavy underdogs against WVU and MSU. Realistically, Buffalo could be 5-8 after 13 games if they don’t find a way to split Bona/Tulane which are both hovering around Top 100. There are aspects of this UB team that I’m encouraged about but it’s difficult to take too much away from a dominating win over Canisius, although there is something to be said about taking care of business which the Bonnies failed to do against the Griffs. Curtis Jones has been incredible and I think Zid Powell is fitting in nicely. Jones has a scoring touch that I didn’t see happening this quickly in his career. I like the Bulls defensive intensity but there hasn’t been many other high level performers. Hardnett has taken a step forward to where I think many of us expected him to be a few years ago. As far as Adams and Foster, they’re scoring but I’m hoping they’re able to step up their level of play because I was expecting a little bit more out of both of them. UB has been playing with a fast tempo which is nice but they also have to cut down on their turnovers. I think the MAC preseason prediction of 6th place will be pretty close to accurate with this squad.

I'm going to update the link to our show every week here so I don't need to start new threads. Fast forward to the 15:00 mark for some UB talk. We discuss their challenging upcoming slate of games and breakdown their recent victory over Canisius. We started the show this week discussing St. Bonaventure's win over Notre Dame if you want insight on the Bonnies and spent some time near the end breaking down Nate Oats recent success at Alabama.

Going live with our latest episode at 6:45. I’ll post the link below and the replay of it afterwards. Lots to discuss today regarding UB. Big 4 Talk Episode 3

Ohio led by as many as nine points and had a 61-55 lead at U4 timeout before things unraveled. Bobcats roster full of transfers and young freshman. Dwight Wilson III is back for his final year of eligibility and was an absolute beast tonight. Rest of team is trying to figure out their identity. Has the feel of Kent/Akron where they might struggle a little bit to open the season before figuring things out in MAC play.