Becky Burke named new UB WBB HC

[skrabukes]

2 hours ago, Jeseph said:

 

Nice adds. The subtractions have been huge, the adds appear to be solid. Need some size, but the roster is building. Glad the staff has been rounded out as well.

[UBinMD]

17 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

Nice adds. The subtractions have been huge, the adds appear to be solid. Need some size, but the roster is building. Glad the staff has been rounded out as well.

If she gets them to play with the intensity and adds a couple more pieces and retains a few of our portal players, I’m hoping for a minor dip, not falling off a cliff. The women she has brought in are winners and scorers. I think they will play hard and be a fun team to root for.

[John]

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

If she gets them to play with the intensity and adds a couple more pieces and retains a few of our portal players, I’m hoping for a minor dip, not falling off a cliff. The women she has brought in are winners and scorers. I think they will play hard and be a fun team to root for.

Was thinking the same thing. The three additions appear athletic,quick and can shoot along with having some intensity attitude. We only have five left over front line players and all with very little experience and with limited minutes. I would think Coach Burke and staff are looking for some good front line players that can play defense and can rebound. An exciting start something to really look forward to when all appeared lost when Coach Jack left. Go Bullls!!!

[UBinMD]

Laney Bone and Kaelonn Wilson are now in the portal. Any word if Loren Christie and/or Casey Valenti-Paea are officially staying? They are still in the portal officially. 

[John]

5 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Laney Bone and Kaelonn Wilson are now in the portal. Any word if Loren Christie and/or Casey Valenti-Paea are officially staying? They are still in the portal officially. 

Thanks. So if they do leave that leaves us with even less front line players. On the positive side with the 100’s or 1,000’s in the portal there should be some good players that would want to play with one of the better MAC teams with a new and energetic coaching staff. Still crazy to think that all these players are going to find a school to not only get an education but to get a scholarship and continue to play basketball. Still confused with the transfer processs. After this transfer free period if a player wants to transfer do they have to sit out a year before playing?? It will probably take years to see how this crazy process turns out for not only the players but how fans feel about this. Go Bulls!!!

[UBinMD]

9 minutes ago, John said:

Thanks. So if they do leave that leaves us with even less front line players. On the positive side with the 100’s or 1,000’s in the portal there should be some good players that would want to play with one of the better MAC teams with a new and energetic coaching staff. Still crazy to think that all these players are going to find a school to not only get an education but to get a scholarship and continue to play basketball. Still confused with the transfer processs. After this transfer free period if a player wants to transfer do they have to sit out a year before playing?? It will probably take years to see how this crazy process turns out for not only the players but how fans feel about this. Go Bulls!!!

I don't think there is any sitting out at this point, it's basically free agency. Not sure if it will change back at some point, but if I were a betting man I would say, it will never return to that. My confusion revolves around the "student" part of this. Do transfers finish up in May with the spring semester or do they leave immediately and join the new team? Seems like a lost semester, which could be a problem. I know a lot of athletes do summer classes, but even so, taking half of 4-5 classes and leaving in the middle seems bad, but what do I know. Maybe they are allowed to complete remotely or something.

At last count I believe there are close to 1,400 Women's players in the portal. That a lot of shuffling, the logistics of the whole thing is mind boggling and those that deal with it are usually early-mid twenties operations and recruiting directors, etc. so welcome to the shark pool on that one!

[ChubbyHubby]

The thing is, you never know when a coach, especially a new coach, has suggested to a player that they enter the portal because they don't fit into the new system. 

Edited April 20, 2022 by ChubbyHubby

[UBinMD]

3 minutes ago, ChubbyHubby said:

The thing is, you never know when a coach, especially a new coach, has suggested to a player that they enter the portal because they don't fit into the new system. 

I agree with that for sure. The two newest portal players may have been in that situation or the game plan or offensive/defensive schemes, etc. may not be what they were interested in playing in. The newly brought in players are all guards, the two new portals are wings/forwards. You just never know. Cheyene McEvan's Mom (I think), responded to me on Twitter with this exchange:

Replying to

@conradmostiller

and

@amcevans

It's a shame that we are losing that production, but they chose to leave. I understand wanting to stay with the coach that recruited you, but it's not like UB kicked them to the curb.

 

 

 

Anika McEvans

 

@amcevans

·

Apr 18

 

@bniles408

Please be careful when speaking on decision making process. Much more involved than just going with the coach that recruited her. Lot lacking in efforts to keep roster intact.

 

Sounds like Cheyene and maybe others, were not "feeling the love" somewhere along the line, either UB in general, Coach Burke, other. Pure speculation, I have no inside knowledge whatsoever. Some coaches may prefer to start clean, who knows. Best of luck to all of them.

[TML1000]

I fully expect Burke to bring in a handful more players over the next few weeks...would not be surprised to see a JUCO or two as well. Players like Bone and Wilson may have realized their best chance at playing time was likely not at UB, despite the coaching change.

With the addition of Stone, Watson and Perkins, we will have a good chance at replacing a fair (no pun intended) amount of the scoring lost with Fair and Woolley. Stone and Watson in particular are scorers at multiple levels.

Has anyone heard anything on Gaba? Did not see her in any of the workouts but do not see her in the portal either. If she has a full off-season, she has the potential to be a real asset on the offensive side down low. Hopefully Christie will stay but again, I'm sure we will be bringing in a few other bigs.

[TML1000]

I liked McEvans game...another thing to consider is she is coming off of a major injury. Not sure how long she will be out for but shoulders can be very tricky.

[bull_trojan]

40 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

My confusion revolves around the "student" part of this. Do transfers finish up in May with the spring semester or do they leave immediately and join the new team? Seems like a lost semester, which could be a problem.

I spent some part of my career monitoring Satisfactory Academic Progress. If you fail or withdraw from too many courses, you lose your financial aid eligibility. Regular students withdraw and transfer all the time, sickness, parent issues, homesickness, lack of money...and they tend to fly blind, with no advice. Athletes losing semesters via transfer is in no way an issue, because they generally have people advising them throughout the process.

When I was in grad school, I wrote about re-instating the ban on 1st year participation that was killed in 1972. 

Let freshmen come in and do 3 days of practice instead of 5 or 6, do not allow them on the sidelines on game day, let them sit in the stands. Get them a good start on their academics, and let them become part of the community first, THEN let them become athletes working for that community. No way the NCAA does this now, but maybe mid majors should consider it...vs playing a freshman and having him/her have no connection to anything outside the gym and then transferring.

Edited April 20, 2022 by bull_trojan
grammar

[BrooklynBull]

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

Do transfers finish up in May with the spring semester or do they leave immediately and join the new team?

Because of GPA eligibility requirements, that as of n=know still exist, they need to finish the semester.  Pulling Blutarsky is going to make it hard to be eligible at their next school.

 

 

[BrooklynBull]

44 minutes ago, bull_trojan said:

I spent some part of my career monitoring Satisfactory Academic Progress. If you fail or withdraw from too many courses, you lose your financial aid eligibility. Regular students withdraw and transfer all the time, sickness, parent issues, homesickness, lack of money...and they tend to fly blind, with no advice. Athletes losing semesters via transfer is in no way an issue, because they generally have people advising them throughout the process.

When I was in grad school, I wrote about re-instating the ban on 1st year participation that was killed in 1972. 

Let freshmen come in and do 3 days of practice instead of 5 or 6, do not allow them on the sidelines on game day, let them sit in the stands. Get them a good start on their academics, and let them become part of the community first, THEN let them become athletes working for that community. No way the NCAA does this now, but maybe mid majors should consider it...vs playing a freshman and having him/her have no connection to anything outside the gym and then transferring.

Even when freshmen were ineligible for varsity teams, they still played.  They played either on a Freshman team or a JV team.  There were not as many games played, but games were played against other schools.

The gap in the run of NCAA titles by UCLA was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's freshmen year, when the freshman team beat the two time defending national champion varsity team at the end of preseason training camp.

As for some school adopting the old rules, while others do not is going to hurt recruiting at the schools that do not allow freshmen to play.  Gene Banks was going to play at Penn coming out of high school.  But the Ivies kept the no freshman rule in effect when the rest of the NCAA eliminated it.  Because of that he went to Duke. He went to the national championship game in 1978 instead of being embarrassed by Michigan State the following year in national semi-finals.

If only some conferences adopt the rule their recruiting will suffer greatly.  If the non-Power 5 and Big East allow freshman to play and all of the other conferences do not, it will effectively set up a FBS/FCS divide in basketball.

[bull_trojan]

19 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

As for some school adopting the old rules, while others do not is going to hurt recruiting at the schools that do not allow freshmen to play.  Gene Banks was going to play at Penn coming out of high school.  But the Ivies kept the no freshman rule in effect when the rest of the NCAA eliminated it.  Because of that he went to Duke. He went to the national championship game in 1978 instead of being embarrassed by Michigan State the following year in national semi-finals.

True, but then at least you're bringing in freshmen who are committed to at least 2 years, and hoping they stay for 4 or 5 like CJ Massinburg or Khalil Mack...instead of freshmen who you recruit and play only for them to leave immediately like Woolley.

What is the value of recruiting a freshman 1-year rental? Obviously, in this case, it helped UB WBB get a ring, but you could have also gotten that productivity from a grad transfer with less resources and less coaching time put into building the player up. 

[ub2019]

Bringing in Stone's teammate as well. Averaged 18 PPG and 7 RPG. Shot 57% from the field. 

[UBinMD]

10 minutes ago, ub2019 said:

Bringing in Stone's teammate as well. Averaged 18 PPG and 7 RPG. Shot 57% from the field. 

Scoring shouldn't be a problem. Now the gel comes into play.

[ChubbyHubby]

Former Wilson girls basketball coach Doug Myer recognized early on that Zakiyah Winfield’s passion for basketball was virtually unmatched.

“She loved to play basketball,” Myer said. “She just had that drive to win.”

I'm really liking the players that Coach Burke is bringing in.

Edited April 20, 2022 by ChubbyHubby

[UBinMD]

12 minutes ago, ChubbyHubby said:

Former Wilson girls basketball coach Doug Myer recognized early on that Zakiyah Winfield’s passion for basketball was virtually unmatched.

“She loved to play basketball,” Myer said. “She just had that drive to win.”

I'm really liking the players that Coach Burke is bringing in.

Seems like she's trying to find players that love basketball and have the passion she obviously does. The fact she is bringing in winners tells me that is the expectation in Year 1, which I love. She's not looking at a rebuild.

[121Merrimac]

On 4/12/2022 at 4:29 PM, rma said:

We do need players putting up good numbers when we play St Bonaventure too. 

Apologies for the unrelated sport, but this comment was so funny that I had to post these recent results:

On 4/16/2022 at 11:10 AM, rma said:

Stu Riddle… I couldn’t find if his contract wasn’t renewed at WMU or if he sought out a new job… 

I haven’t found proof either, but iirc, the move was his choice. 

[skrabukes]

22 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

Apologies for the unrelated sport, but this comment was so funny that I had to post these recent results:

 

Bona's track program is one of the worst in the country. I don't think that they have anywhere to practice even. 

[rma]

3 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

Apologies for the unrelated sport, but this comment was so funny that I had to post these recent results:

Solidly beat by a D2 NJCAA program, a D3 school, a D2 school, Niagara, Canisius, and of course UB.

This is why I'm in favor of a bunch of decent programs rather than one program we put half the athletics budget into. When the entire school's existence comes down to a free throw or two in NYC and a NIT run (which is more prestigious than the NCAA tournament) and the team comes up short, there's nothing in between that season end and the next MBB season.

One day maybe UB can dream of being invited to a conference like the Atlantic-10.

[121Merrimac]

3 hours ago, rma said:

… This is why I'm in favor of a bunch of decent programs rather than one program we put half the athletics budget into…

110%.  Diversity is important to college life; the Director’s Cup agrees with you. 

6 hours ago, skrabukes said:

Bona's track program is one of the worst in the country…. 

Are they better, or worse than Binghamton’s tennis program?    Collectively their men and women went 1 & 43 this year… including 0-4 against UB. 

[skrabukes]

12 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

110%.  Diversity is important to college life; the Director’s Cup agrees with you. 

Are they better, or worse than Binghamton’s tennis program?    Collectively their men and women went 1 & 43 this year… including 0-4 against UB. 

I don't know anything about Binghamton's tennis program, but I do know that Bona's track & field team is very limited.  They don't even compete in short sprints or field events, basically just using their XC kids. Canisius and Niagara do similarly, although Canisius has a much better squad than those two. 

 

But back to UB women's hoops. Any word on McNabb? No news is good news, right?

[UBinMD]

Kiara Johnson - from Tonowanda, played at EMU and Towson. 6’2 forward. Should be a good piece to the puzzle and finish her career at home.

[rma]

1 hour ago, 121Merrimac said:

Are they better, or worse than Binghamton’s tennis program?    Collectively their men and women went 1 & 43 this year… including 0-4 against UB. 

Look up UB men's tennis all time record vs Canisius and Niagara. 😂

Of the 70 wins and 0 losses against Canisius, only one (that has a score listed) came down to a single point.