skrabukes

1 hour ago, bull_trojan said:

Alton in his pregame piece said: "The Bulls have dropped to No. 25 after 14 straight weeks in the AP Top 25 poll, losing two of their last five, plus a pair of late-game escapes against Kent and Central Michigan." 

We took the lead for good against CMU with 15:02 remaining, we never trailed in the 2nd half against Akron. I guess those go down as late game escapes if you only look at the final score.

Didn't we win by 14 vs Cmu? How is that a late game eacape? These guys are crazy. I guess we need to win by 50 in the 1st half and hold it for the final to make some people happy. 

16 minutes ago, promotherobot said:

Well we went from beating teams by 30 to eeking out wins. All while shooting poorly and turning the ball over a lot.  That's a bad 21-3.

If we eek out 10 more wins, we'll be a bad MAC champ and 16 more wins, we'll be a bad national champion. I'll take it.

Not good

35 minutes ago, yussi1870 said:

Yeah but a bad 21-3, not a good 21-3

I didn't know that there was such a thing as a "bad 21-3" when you've played against as many solid to strong opponents as we've had, most of which were on the road. In year's past, we were clamoring for 20 wins seasons once all of the games are played. Now we've got 10 or so games left and we're talking about "bad 21-3". That's silly.

A win on the road in conference play is big no matter what. Of course we'd love to clean up a lot of the turnovers, shoot better, etc., but in the end, UB won. I'll happily take it every time. Let's hope for another one on Friday night, so that we can get back home for 3 in a row!

9 hours ago, everlast2504 said:

What's with the Rassaun Young hate?

Not sure that it's hate, but anyone matched up with CJ was going to lose at this point. He's our top player now, and has been great for 4 years, with  the potential of being an NBA draft pick this summer. Rasaun was great, but hard to beat CJ when comparing Mid-Con vs. MAC, the mid/late 90s teams vs today.

6 hours ago, ed said:

That and we're playing ugly. 

We are 21-3 right?

Big win. On to Friday. Huge game

We aren't playing worth a horse's ass right now. Never seen so many turnovers. Hustling like crazy, but so out of control. Not a good last 7-8 minutes.

Is anyone else's ESPN+ feed awful? Mine is bad right now

41 minutes ago, UB92 said:

I worry about this game.  Is UB a great team or a good team that had a nice run at the beginning of the season.

If UB is a great team, they win by 13.

I fear that, maybe, UB is only a good team. 

 I don't think that they have to win by 13 to justify being "great",  but when they are playing (this year's version of) UB basketball, they would win by that number, or more.

This is a "great team" in my opinion, especially as compared to any of UB's teams from prior years. Have they had bad stretches in games? Most definitely. So has Duke, UVA, etc. When these guys play at the top of their game, there isn't anyone in the league who can even think about hanging with them. That goes for both ends of the floor. If the energy on (team) defense is there, and is also there on the glass, look out. Their defense can turn into offense quickly, and if they can limit teams to one (contested) shot, they will be next to impossible for anyone to handle in this league. Injuries aside, I think that these guys know how big of a week this is, and if they can get it done over the next two games, there's no reason to believe that they'll finish anything other than 16-2 in the league season. I like to believe that they will get it done, starting tonight.

5 minutes ago, rma said:

I won't comment on the last time I saw a team that I was rooting for pull that kind of choke job...

0/2 (Rothstein, Borges) so far, but neither ranked us last week.  Seth Davis is posting his ballot at 9.

Not on Seth Davis' ballot, but his ranking of Cincinnati at 18 could hurt us.

Cincinnati at 18 is a joke, but whatever. Hopefully Couch keeps us at like 12 or so, and a many others keep us around 20-25 to give us enough points to stay in.

Just now, Jeseph said:

What a collapse by Northwestern, that one would have been nice

Yes, I watched. They suck. Iowa wins by 1 over them, we win by 14, but they'll still be ranked higher than us, even though we're higher than them in the NET and right next to them in KenPom (prior to the NW game).

Not good news. Disappointing.

9 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Jordan has been consistent last year and this. He comes out strong with a high level of confidence and plays great out of the gate. It seems he loses his confidence as the year goes on and plays more timid. I think it’s a confidence issue with him. Today his first FT was textbook beautiful with a nice extended arm and the ball rolling off his fingertips for a beautiful swish. His next shot was short armed and rather than shooting it was more of a throw at the hoop. He can do it. He needs to believe in himself. 

I'm certain that he can do it. He has made some big 3s throughout the year, but the FTs have been a problem all season. Additionally, Kudos to Nate and staff for the benching of Perk. I'm not sure what happened, but obviously it warranted punishment. I'm sure that he looked down the bench at times during that first half when the team was struggling and wanted to put him in, but they stuck to their guns and held him out.  The staff has been great all season long and I most assuredly am behind them and their process.

Additionally, great win by the women today! Congrats to FLJ and staff. HUGE game next Saturday. I hope that people come out to watch that one...2 top 25 RPI teams!

6 minutes ago, UB85 said:

That’s f$&@ing ridiculous. This team will go only how far and how well their top 3 perform. Dontay has proven he’ll be there. If Graves plays like a mean cuss and like someone punched him in the mouth we’ll be tough to beat.  

Yep. I wish badly that Jordan could make FTs.  He's very important out there but we could see "hack a shaq" the way his FT % has been. We definitely are the best team in league when at full tilt. Sometimes they forget that they have to bring the intensity and that the other team is just going to roll over to them...not gonna happen! 

6 minutes ago, trueblue32 said:

Distinct lack of bench Jeremy Harris posts today

I heard it yelled in the crowd today

It is a 40 minute game. I know we all want a perfect 40 min, and yes we were awful in 1st 10 min, but still won by 14. Considering a hurt CJ and no Nick totalling 0 points, we were only down a few at halftime.  Then with a full compliment of players, won the 2nd half by close to 20. Big road games next week. Gotta win 2. Go Bulls

29 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Noon? What? R u going to polish the floors? You are officially named Super Fan for today’s double header. 

I hope many of the people show up by at least 1 anyway, the girls deserve a good crowd...they're playing well and in the top 25 in the RPI!

I'll be there at noon, looking forward to the only doubleheader of the season. 2 big wins needed!

26 minutes ago, verandaman said:

And regrettably, KJ is going to be lost in stat lines and losses by The U.

😞

14 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

Fantastic second half by the women today, against Toledo, in their Alzheimer's Awareness Game.  They overcame a 10 point deficit, to earn a 10 point victory.

What a tale of 2 halves, they were awful in the first. They definitely got an earful at halftime, scoring twice as many points in the 2nd half as the first. Big win over a good team. Saturday will be a big one also. Hopefully the crowd is strong for the women's game, not just the men's. It's a should be a fun day!

24 minutes ago, UB85 said:

Personally I say reward excellence. Given his track record he should be paid more. UB has received tons of free advertising thanks to the basketball program. And don’t forget what when Hurley left and the disaster that followed. There was absolutely no drop off thanks to Nate and his staff. That was accomplished under far more trying circumstances. So while there could and may well be some drop off due to losing so many seniors I still think this program under Nate’s stewardship is in excellent shape. 

100% agreed..."this program under Nate’s stewardship is in excellent shape" is an understatement.

2 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

I hope the pressure of being ranked get lifted off the teams shoulders and we can use the next week as chance to practice on fundamentals and rest and refocus. 

Is it a guarantee that they drop out of the top 25? I still think they could hang on (I think it's close). 8 days off comes at a perfect time however. A chance to rest up any issues and get back to work at home next Saturday.

Here we go again. We lose another game, tightly, on the road, to a good team, to a team that shot lights out in the 2nd half, and some people just want to criticize everyone on the squad. That game was quite enjoyable to watch (until the last several minutes, where it hurt).  We out-rebound the top rebounding team in the league by 9, and people criticize the team's effort. That's just ridiculous. Isn't is possible that a team can lose a game and not have their fans talk trash about them? Too many turnovers? Heck yes. I mean, no, I'm not happy, nor did I expect them to lose this game. I have to give BG credit for defending their home floor, especially when they were down pretty big at halftime. We'll finish with 16 wins in league and BG won't have more than 14, that's been my prediction for a couple of weeks, and I'm standing by it. 

Great game by CJ, as he has in every tightly contested game, been THE guy in the final minutes, and just showing up huge. Dontay was great in every spot, other than some out of control turnovers, but 30 points, wow. 

8 days until the next game. Good time to reload and get ready for the next 10. As I've said before, it's hard to win games...the other team is trying to win too! It's not as though we're playing teams that are THAT far beneath us. This league is very solid and losses can occur. 5 of the last 9 are home and the schedule surely looks favorable the rest of the way.