Ohio/Buffalo

[Kevin]

4 minutes ago, 961819 said:

This is what happens when you conduct a national coaching search, lowball every qualified candidate and end up being stuck with the career .500 coach. Seriously we had all the momentum in the world to launch our name to a higher tier and instead we have an Athletic Director that is seemingly woefully incompetent and a President that cares more about the academic nerdy old dudes that sit around huffing their own farts all day than what the school seemingly had going for it. 

Always good to see you 961819. 

Seemingly what i tried to say 2.5 years ago. 

[961819]

2 minutes ago, Erie County said:

My GUI is back from the top rope

Had to come out of retirement for this. Wish there was a way the boosters that care about the team could pull all their financial support until changes are made because that’s the only way the school will take notice and action. Money talks 

[Kevin]

3 minutes ago, 961819 said:

Had to come out of retirement for this. Wish there was a way the boosters that care about the team could pull all their financial support until changes are made because that’s the only way the school will take notice and action. Money talks 

Money always talks. Even if they can just gather enough for a buyout. 

[squire17]

7 minutes ago, 961819 said:

Went from standing room only at games to high school level attendance 

There were very few SRO games at Alumni Arena even in the 2018-2019 season. 

[Chet]

10 minutes ago, 961819 said:

This is what happens when you conduct a national coaching search, lowball every qualified candidate and end up being stuck with the career .500 coach. Seriously we had all the momentum in the world to launch our name to a higher tier and instead we have an Athletic Director that is seemingly woefully incompetent and a President that cares more about the academic nerdy old dudes that sit around huffing their own farts all day than what the school seemingly had going for it. 

Alnutt probably deserves his own thread. Incredible how far football and basketball have fallen. Incredible actually.

[961819]

1 minute ago, squire17 said:

There were very few SRO games at Alumni Arena even in the 2018-2019 season. 

I was at every home game in that stretch. Religiously went to watch fun and exciting basketball. Not sure where you’re getting that from but there was consistently people standing along the railings 2 rows deep

[DooleyBull06]

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

But graves was a train wreck on offense his last year. Now he’s lighting it up at San Antonio. Go figure 

It’s called coaching. A constant theme under Whitesell is player regression.

[enrique14150]

After 4 league wins a row, we all wondered where this team stood.  Considering it's a group that put it together last year and went on a run all the way to the MAC title game.  So we all figured we'd learn a lot this week....

...and it's tough to say that this team is in any way going to contend for the MAC.  Plain and simple, they ran into teams that played better basketball.  Plain and simple, you CANNOT win many basketball games, if any at all, when you shoot 30-something percent.  37 percent on Tuesday, 38 percent tonight.  I don't know if any other numbers matter right now.

Ohio, besides maybe Sears, didn't appear to be a more talented team.  But they raced away with this one because UB kept making mistakes and Ohio didn't.  Time and again.  16 turnovers.  Heck, they held Ohio to 43 percent shooting (it sure seemed a lot better than that!), but the Bulls simply shot too badly, made too many mistakes, to beat a team that wasn't.  I doubt a comeback was really in the cards but they hit timely 3's in the second half to nip any ideas in the bud.  I have been surprised several times at the lack of drive by the Bulls this season - in my mind, no one should ever have to light a fire under a team with 6 seniors.

Segu and Williams - they're seniors, they are what they are, you're not going to get anything more from them.  They're good but not as good as their predecessors.  I could tell both have enough pride that they showed their frustration at times.
Mballa - it's shocking to see where he's at right now.  I keep trying to realize what I don't know - and I don't know how covid affected him, I don't know what's going on, but he can't shoot anymore, he's clutzy with the ball, he's a liability out there.
Skogman - continues to mature and make confident moves.
Jones - played with the energy of a guy who wants more minutes.  That's what I like to see.
Brewton and Jack - I'm really disappointed in these guys, especially Maceo.  I expected so much more.
Fagan - plays hard for rebounds, but don't try any more 3's.
Hardnett - it was good to see him healthy enough to get out there and play.

Ohio - Van der Plas is that typical MAC player who seems under-athletic but somehow is way more effective than you figured.  Carter is a smooth player inside.  Sears was the real deal.

Crowd - no energy, and I don't blame them.  Some students meekly took their places and sat quietly throughout.  There is fun to be had at a basketball game, I don't see a lot of initiative or effort on the part of the program or True Blue to get things going.  It's going to take leadership from True Blue to get consistent noise and chants going.  I always say, start with noise on defense and noise on foul shots, and you're halfway there.

I hope you were upset at what you saw today too.  That's possibly the first time I ever booed a team of student athletes off the court/field/ice at halftime, but they deserved it.  

Why I have hope for the future: I don't think they can get much more out of most of these guys.  This team is what it is.  HOWEVER - in college sports, rosters naturally turn over a lot.  All those guys we're complaining about?  A lot of them won't be here next year.  And they may be replaced by hungry players, guys with potential.  Think of when Hurley left, and they brought in transfers Willie Conner and Blake Hamilton, plus some hungry freshman, all looking to prove themselves.  With 6 guys moving on, there's a lot of opportunity here for anyone coming in to play.
 

[squire17]

1 hour ago, 961819 said:

I was at every home game in that stretch. Religiously went to watch fun and exciting basketball. Not sure where you’re getting that from but there was consistently people standing along the railings 2 rows deep

I just checked attendance per ESPN for all home games at Alumni Arena for the 2018-2019 season. For some reason, I couldn’t get the attendance for the Central Michigan or the Akron games. Here is what I found.
 

 

ESPN lists Alumni Arena’s capacity at 6783. Kenpom lists it at 6100, as does UB. Therefore, there were at least 5 SRO games during the 2018-2019 season. Let’s say that there were seven SRO games. That means that 50% of the home games were SRO when the team was a top 25 ranked team. Congratulations.

 

[UBlearns]

2 hours ago, 961819 said:

Went from standing room only at games to high school level attendance 

I'm not sure it's HS level.  I've been to local games (granted sectionals, or NFHS games when they've been good) with more fans.

[121Merrimac]

4 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

All good…it’s just good conversation. I know we are all frustrated fans. 

After going down memory lane, and looking at the #operation 6000 thread, I’d say it’s Ohio, Toledo, Buffalo, as the top three over the last decade.  True, UB has probably fallen to #5 this year.  But, that’s part of the point.  If a top 25 team couldn’t draw a #1 attendance, then what do you really expect from this team?   Of course there will be a decline.   Relatively speaking though, they haven’t fallen that far. 

[121Merrimac]

5 hours ago, UBinMD said:

We can’t hit layups, 3s or FT, not good

They didn’t even attempt a FT until the second half though, so that part was a bit premature. 

[121Merrimac]

5 hours ago, UBinMD said:

… We need a sports psychologist 

I’ve been saying this since Nate took the previous one with him.  Does the head coach hire this position, or the athletic director?