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50 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

There's no way that happens. C'mon now, even Canisius was close with them. Bona is excellent,  but let's not downplay that this UB team is good as well. Will they win? We shall see, but getting embarrassed out of the gym is unlikely. A loss to SFA in Cancun shouldn't mark the end of what could and should be a solid season.  Sorry that some expectations by people on here were for this team to be the like the ranked Oats team from a few years ago. Even that team put up a clunker every so often. Way too early to throw this team away. Definitely a LOT of room for improvement,  but a very long season remaining. This team needs to come out a little better instead of frequently coming on far stronger in the 2nd. They'll figure it out, hopefully. 

Agree yesterday's loss leaves a lot of room for improvement.  Talent is there - but players have to start playing with more intensity on the boards and defensively (especially at the outset) and cut turnovers in half!  SFA had 19 more field goal attempts than we did.  You cut that to 10 and we win this game out by about 4-5 points.

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While I do believe that the talent is there, there is something that is very odd about this team. I don’t know if it’s lack of leadership, coaching, or cohesiveness, but I have yet to see them play a full 40 min game hard. They seem to lack fire until they need to turn it on. And that irritates me. It’s the one thing, above all, that I used to love watching this team play. The grit, the defensive intensity.

They don’t seem to know where teammates are or are planning on going. Which is why turnovers are so prevalent.

Going in to the season I had incredibly high expectations for this team, but in both wins and losses they’ve seemed lack luster. And unless there’s a gut check from coaching and senior leadership I don’t know if that’s going to change.

Although, I hope that I’m wrong and they wipe the floor with the Bonnies and everyone else in the MAC! 

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1 hour ago, RocChiTown said:

SFA has won 20+ games in 10 of the last 15 years. On top of that, they've only had two losing records in the last 20. 

They are most certainly a very strong club, and not a bad loss.

This is getting ridiculous. SFA winning 20+ games in one of the worst conferences in Div1 hoops has nothing to do with the fact that they are ranked somewhere in the 100-150 range this season. If anyone thought this Buffalo team was going to challenge for an at-large then this loss destroyed that opportunity. Not to mention, we basically just missed the front end of a 1-and-1 because now we get to play #228 Illinois State instead of #94 St Louis. It is an incredibly bad loss and it basically ended anyone's need to watch the rest of the regular season.

I still don't understand how anyone can say that this team isn't a complete disappointment so far. We are down in nearly every statistical category YoY - PPG, Rebounding, Assists, Steals, Blocks... and if it weren't for a miracle comeback against UNT we would be 1 and 3. If you told me a couple of weeks ago that we would go 2-2 in our first 4 games and get completely outplayed by everyone except Rider then I would've been pissed. We have started every game completely flat-footed and we look like we don't have a strategy or even an identity yet - which is extremely disconcerting since this is one of the oldest, most experienced teams in the country. 

Edited by clodney
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14 minutes ago, clodney said:

This is getting ridiculous. SFA winning 20+ games in one of the worst conferences in Div1 hoops has nothing to do with the fact that they are ranked somewhere in the 100-150 range this season. If anyone thought this Buffalo team was going to challenge for an at-large then this loss destroyed that opportunity. Not to mention, we basically just missed the front end of a 1-and-1 because now we get to play #228 Illinois State instead of #94 St Louis. It is an incredibly bad loss and it basically ended anyone's need to watch the rest of the regular season.

I still don't understand how anyone can say that this team isn't a complete disappointment so far. We are down in nearly every statistical category YoY - PPG, Rebounding, Assists, Steals, Blocks... and if it weren't for a miracle comeback against UNT we would be 1 and 3. If you told me a couple of weeks ago that we would go 2-2 in our first 4 games and get completely outplayed by everyone except Rider then I would've been pissed. We have started every game completely flat-footed and we look like we don't have a strategy or even an identity yet - which is extremely disconcerting since this is one of the oldest, most experienced teams in the country. 

The worst thing about the sfa loss is stops ub from playing st. Louis

I agree with your post, so far its been very disappointing

Just for arguments sake if an at large was the goal or at least be on the bubble, the sfa loss just needs to be substituted for what would have been a conference loss. 

So instead of being 16-4 or 17-3 in conference(at minimum) you now need to be 17-3 or 18-2(at minimum)

The at large aspirations will be there until 12/4 against st. Bonaventure 

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Can we stop the "at large talk"? If you think the ncaa would ever give the MAC or pretty much any non big time $$ conference extra bids, you're crazy. The NCAA is about $$, and UB/MAC isn't part of their plan. Just enjoy the team, hopefully they will build as the season continues and can win in March, and then make a run. 

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If Buffalo and Ohio were to both have only one or two losses in MAC play, AND play each other in a close game in the MAC championship, then I could see the conference possibly getting an at-large bid. However, that scenario is a pipe dream. Mballa got schooled yesterday by a guy that outweighs him by 40 pounds. He’ll be fine in MAC play. But this is a one bid conference, so hopefully the Bulls stay healthy and play up to their potential from here.

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Getting an at large bid out of the MAC is extremely difficult. You could likely only afford 1-2 losses max in conference play.

Add in the fact you probably have to win every OOC save maybe one or two, and it seems unlikely.

Monmouth won what, 27 games a few years back and still got sent to the NIT despite a few good wins OOC. Until the MAC reduces the number of Q3/4 teams in conference, or at least adds to the number of Q1 games in conference play, at an large is extremely difficult. 

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12 minutes ago, RocChiTown said:

Getting an at large bid out of the MAC is extremely difficult. You could likely only afford 1-2 losses max in conference play.

Add in the fact you probably have to win every OOC save maybe one or two, and it seems unlikely.

Monmouth won what, 27 games a few years back and still got sent to the NIT despite a few good wins OOC. Until the MAC reduces the number of Q3/4 teams in conference, or at least adds to the number of Q1 games in conference play, at an large is extremely difficult. 

That's been true for the past two decades but didn't always use to be the case. There's only been a handful of MAC teams during the past 20 years that have been in the at-large conversation.

Buffalo in 2004-05 (not selected) and 2018-19 (Won MAC)

Kent State in 2001-02 and 2007-08 (Won MAC both times)

Ball State in 2001-02 (not selected after beating two Top 5 teams to open their season, made deep NIT run)

Akron in 2012-13 (Won MAC)

There might've been a few other instances I failed to mention.

The majority of the time, these dominant MAC teams take care of business in Cleveland. To get an at-large bid, a mid-major conference needs their best program to choke in the conference tournament. That just hasn't happened the few chances the MAC has had for an at-large. It's not impossible for MAC teams to get a bid, it's just very unlikely given how little their margin of error is.

 

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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Below, I listed a link to a really good article on the demise of at-large bids for the Mid American Conference. It wasn't necessarily that the MAC got weaker, instead more so the NCAA started changing their criteria for selecting teams in a way that favored power conference schools.

https://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/2017/03/march_madness_2017_how_did_the.html

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9 minutes ago, Big 4 Hoops Blogger said:

That's been true for the past two decades but didn't always use to be the case. There's only been a handful of MAC teams during the past 20 years that have been in the at-large conversation.

Buffalo in 2004-05 (not selected) and 2018-19 (Won MAC)

Kent State in 2001-02 and 2007-08 (Won MAC both times)

Ball State in 2001-02 (not selected after beating two Top 5 teams to open their season, made deep NIT run)

Akron in 2012-13 (Won MAC)

There might've been a few other instances I failed to mention.

The majority of the time, these dominant MAC teams take care of business in Cleveland. To get an at-large bid, a mid-major conference needs their best program to choke in the conference tournament. That just hasn't happened the few chances the MAC has had for an at-large. It's not impossible for MAC teams to get a bid, it's just very unlikely given how little their margin of error is.

 

Things have changed a lot in the past decade or so, and they're never going back to the way there were.

Mid-majors are crucified for losing Q3/Q4 games, which unfortunately will happen even if you're a good team. Meanwhile, it's much harder to get quality home games if you're UB, Bona or Murray State, etc. Not too long ago Buffalo hosted UConn and Bona hosted Miss State. That ain't happening again, unless you want a low level P5 at home.

The powers know they don't need to schedule a ton of quality OOC games as virtually their entire conference schedule is filled with good games, and they sure as hell aren't going on the road to a mid-major unless the team is amazing (Q1).

With conferences likely going to 20 game conference slates, it'll be even harder to schedule going forward.

We are living in an age where a P5 can get an at large with 15 + losses...AND STILL AVOID DAYTON!

To your point, while it IS possible to get an at large out of the MAC, it is very, very difficult and is only getting harder. You have to be virtually perfect and probably win 30 games with maybe one or two bad losses.

I try to tell this to Bonnies fans, but your Q3/Q4 games don't matter...unless you lose. When Bona was rolling through a crappy A10 in 2018, people thought we were a lock after being URI. Unfortunately, that was not true. If we had loss one more game the rest of the regular season, we would have been in the NIT 100%. 

That's the one thing the separates bubble teams on Selection Sunday. The power bubbles rarely have bad losses, the mid majors usually do have a couple. Add in the fact that mid majors usually get most of the quality games away from home and it makes things so much more difficult to compete for at larges.

Sorry for the rant!

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4 hours ago, RocChiTown said:

Things have changed a lot in the past decade or so, and they're never going back to the way there were.

Mid-majors are crucified for losing Q3/Q4 games, which unfortunately will happen even if you're a good team. Meanwhile, it's much harder to get quality home games if you're UB, Bona or Murray State, etc. Not too long ago Buffalo hosted UConn and Bona hosted Miss State. That ain't happening again, unless you want a low level P5 at home.

The powers know they don't need to schedule a ton of quality OOC games as virtually their entire conference schedule is filled with good games, and they sure as hell aren't going on the road to a mid-major unless the team is amazing (Q1).

With conferences likely going to 20 game conference slates, it'll be even harder to schedule going forward.

We are living in an age where a P5 can get an at large with 15 + losses...AND STILL AVOID DAYTON!

To your point, while it IS possible to get an at large out of the MAC, it is very, very difficult and is only getting harder. You have to be virtually perfect and probably win 30 games with maybe one or two bad losses.

I try to tell this to Bonnies fans, but your Q3/Q4 games don't matter...unless you lose. When Bona was rolling through a crappy A10 in 2018, people thought we were a lock after being URI. Unfortunately, that was not true. If we had loss one more game the rest of the regular season, we would have been in the NIT 100%. 

That's the one thing the separates bubble teams on Selection Sunday. The power bubbles rarely have bad losses, the mid majors usually do have a couple. Add in the fact that mid majors usually get most of the quality games away from home and it makes things so much more difficult to compete for at larges.

Sorry for the rant!

Don’t be sorry! I agree with virtually everything you wrote. It’s a shame that it’s turning out this way but the power conference teams have found a way to essentially cheat the system while consistently putting mid-majors at a huge disadvantage.

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On 11/27/2021 at 4:45 PM, squire17 said:

Bona lost at the Reilly Center today. Northern Iowa killed them on the boards, and shot lights out. The Bulls should easily outrebound St Bona. Can they shoot well enough to come away with the upset? 

Couldn't UNI stick around till Monday to play UB? That would be a better game than Park Place U.

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16 minutes ago, promotherobot said:

Couldn't UNI stick around till Monday to play UB? That would be a better game than Park Place U.

It would be amazing if we could schedule them.  
 

They are a great program.  I remember watching their win over #1 UNC a few years ago. 
 

They are always tough. Even when rebuilding. 
 

I doubt they would be willing to play back to back tough road games.  They play good home/homes and money for travel doesn’t seem to be an issue for them. 

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