Game Night 9pm vs Kent st.

[MuchMany]

JW needed to get Adams an extra 10 shots tonight. He was clearly on fire shooting (and struggling creating for others.) Foster, Powell and Jones should have all been playing point to Adams' hot hand. The team scrapped and defended enough to be in the game, it was just a matter of the wrong guys taking some wrong shots (and missed FTs in the 2nd.) Jack also had a very rough game and looked overmatched by the intensity of a top conference opponent. 

[Tee4three]

I don't know what to make of that game

Kent is definitely the best Mac team they have played, and honestly right up there with mich st/Tulane and UConn in my opinion 

This year's team looks like it has a few plays that they really like offensively but if a team takes those away they get confused and have no idea what to do and proceed to turn it over 

[enrique14150]

Shooting percentage. You can't shoot this badly and win.  

"This team plays no defense." Held a very good Kent team to 40% shooting (30-something percent a lot of the time before that).  Rebounds about even.

After that Toledo game I said to my brother, "so was this what the other teams felt like in 2018 and 2019? Hey we didn't play bad, just that the other team is really good." (I don't mean to say they played well today - Kent is a very good team, and very good teams take away what works and see what else you have).

I have no time for the people who don't say a peep when the team blows out a good Ball State team by 26 on the road, but are the ones who think the entire program lacks direction after a 9-0 run in the first half of a game.

The team is interesting.  They're hungry, they're competitive.  But they're a bit behind the top couple teams, that have more experience right now.  It ebbs and flows.  I maintain that I want to see progress and that they're playing their best basketball in March.  Let's see what's next.

Signed, 
The Glass Half-Full Fan

Edited January 28, 2023 by enrique14150

[Bluebird96]

An ugly game overall for sure but I wouldn’t call it an ugly loss. Certainly not as bad as the losses to Miami and CMU or the blowout losses to JMU and Tulane.

Shooting obviously wasn’t there tonight for everyone except Adams. Hardnett played a solid game with the double double. Other than that guys struggled to get the ball in the hoop even when the shots weren’t contested, and Kent (well, mostly Carry) made just enough shots to pull out an ugly MAC win. They play tough D but honestly didn’t look unbeatable tonight, so I’m not willing to say UB doesn’t have any chance when they come to Alumni. 

[UB Horns Up]

Another terrible loss by the UB Bulls basketball team just a mediocre team playing out the games on the schedule coached by a mediocre basketball coach basically sums up 2022-23 UB Bulls basketball it is what it is in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

[DaBulls99]

6 hours ago, UB Horns Up said:

Another terrible loss by the UB Bulls basketball team just a mediocre team playing out the games on the schedule coached by a mediocre basketball coach basically sums up 2022-23 UB Bulls basketball it is what it is in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

You were awfully quiet Tuesday night 

[DocCas86]

Personally I liked the way they kept battling all game, despite their struggles offensively.  More development is needed to compete with the top team in the MAC but I love the effort.

[Chet]

Kent was getting great looks at the basket. The ball moved on their end. 

[Bluebird96]

Kent wasn’t allowing anything easy inside which may help explain why Powell attempted 8 threes. Love his hard-nosed style but that’s a few more three’s than he should be taking as a sub-20% shooter from deep.

Kent also takes good care of the ball, a big part of why the Bulls were held to 2 (?) fast break points.

Curtis was due for an off night but 1/13 with 0 assists is rough. Good thing Adams was ready to step up or this could have been really ugly.

Blocker is still raw but so athletic, and thought he deserved to get a few more shots. He seems to have decent range from outside so maybe a few of those 3’s that Powell shot should have gone to Kidtrell.

All in all a 6-Pt loss on the road to the top team in the MAC with such a bad team shooting performance, shows me this team doesn’t quit and can’t be counted out of any game if they play as hard as they did last night. Curtis makes just one of his 3’s and a couple other layups fall in, and it might have been a different result.  Next game up vs Akron will be another big test for this team. Go Bulls! 

[DocCas86]

51 minutes ago, Chet said:

Kent was getting great looks at the basket. The ball moved on their end. 

Yet their EFG% was 45% which is 4 points lower than their home MAC EFG% of 49% (including the 45% against UB). The Bulls could have shot better, but they played good defense, so I don't see the defense as reason for their loss.

Edited January 28, 2023 by DocCas86

[Tee4three]

Against a defense that is as physically tough as Kent and how they packed the paint, UB was missing a guy with speed who could stop on a dime and hit a mid range shot, would soften the defense up

Hitting a couple mid range or knocking down the open looks from three from Powell and Jones would be ideal

Simply put Kent's game plan was to pack the paint and let Payton rome around waiting to block shots 

[Bluebird96]

12 hours ago, Erie County said:

Clark averaged 15.5 points and 5.4 assists with 2.3 turnovers from Missouri. 2.35 assists per turnover. 

Foster averages 9.9 points and 3.7 assists with 2.8 turnovers from D2. 1.32 assists per turnover.

Clark was one of my favorite players of the past decade despite not being a homegrown Bull. He always seemed to rise to the occasion and wasn’t afraid of the spotlight in big games. He was an average SEC player who became a star in his one year playing in the MAC. UB really hit the lottery when Oats was able to bring him to Buffalo.

No disrespect to Foster, but there’s really no comparison as Wes was clearly on a different level. That being said, Foster has become a solid distributor who picks his spots for scoring. Outside shooting isn’t his strength but I like that he doesn’t force a lot of bad shots especially from deep as he rarely takes more than a couple threes per game.

[121Merrimac]

4 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

… No disrespect to Foster, but …

Fwiw, I was quoting the school’s article, and not making a comparison of my own. 

Additionally, I feel that because of the connection to the head coach, Wes felt closer to a homegrown Bull than any other transfer ever will. 

[Bluebird96]

4 minutes ago, 121Merrimac said:

Fwiw, I was quoting the school’s article, and not making a comparison of my own. 

Additionally, I feel that because of the connection to the head coach, Wes felt closer to a homegrown Bull than any other transfer ever will. 

Totally agree. Without Oats and his connection from HS there’s no chance Clark comes to UB. As much as he did in that one season it seems like he was here longer than that. Maybe his exploits with BCU make it seem longer.  And I always forget that he wasn’t a member of the ‘18-19 team.

[DooleyBull06]

Comparing Clark to Foster is foolish. Clark should be compared to Battle. That’s the kind of impact he had on his teammates, winning and the school. And he only played a year.

As for the game last night…typical Kent State style slug fest. Tons of fouls. No rhythm game. We didn’t beat them at their game. Had Jones had a better night, perhaps we steal one there. As we close out January right now this team has an identity. It hustles and plays hard. It’s competitive as others have mentioned. However we currently are inconsistent. One night we shoot 50% or better the next only 33%. Last night we shot and outshot them at the line. Despite that horrible technical foul sequence where we missed 3 of 4. We are just, at this moment, inconsistent. As we move through February, to really get this thing going we gotta level out a little. The truth of this team lies in the middle. If we level things out, IE: turnovers, with our explosive abilities, we can be the team no one wants to face in March. And yes for fan confidence sake beating a Kent or Akron or Toledo along the way would be nice. Someone fact check Whitesell’s record against teams ahead of him in the standings during league play. Curious to see what that looks like.

 

[clodney]

12 hours ago, enrique14150 said:

I have no time for the people who don't say a peep when the team blows out a good Ball State team by 26 on the road, but are the ones who think the entire program lacks direction after a 9-0 run in the first half of a game.

Signed, 
The Glass Half-Full Fan

As the half glass empty fan, I really hope this isn’t directed at me. I haven’t said anything during these in-game threads. 
 

As for the game, this team lacks shooters. We have a roster full of slashers but if nobody can hit an outside shot they’re less effective. 

[121Merrimac]

7 minutes ago, clodney said:

As the half glass empty fan, I really hope this isn’t directed at me. … 

I’d bet a mortgage payment that it was not. 

[DooleyBull06]

Here’s the questions we should be asking…

1) Does this team right now have the ability to rip off the 3 wins in a row that it would take to win the conference tournament?

2) If not, how do we become a team that can do that?

Quick glance at the standings…looking like the best seed we can get is a 4. Fortunate that right now we have the tiebreakers against the middle of the pack. Beating Akron with students back will go a long way. After Akron there’s a landing spot to get on a roll. 

[121Merrimac]

12 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

… the middle of the pack. … 

I’m not sure where the boundaries are, but todays matchup of Akron and Ohio should be good, and help define them. 

[Bluebird96]

As it stands now UB is at 7, just ahead of Ohio. To stay in the 4-6 range, we need teams like NIU and BG to start coming back down to earth a bit. If Toledo, Akron and Ball all win today that will help our cause. Then beat Akron Tuesday at home and we’re right back on the roller coaster again 😂

[Tee4three]

49 minutes ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Here’s the questions we should be asking…

1) Does this team right now have the ability to rip off the 3 wins in a row that it would take to win the conference tournament?

2) If not, how do we become a team that can do that?

Quick glance at the standings…looking like the best seed we can get is a 4. Fortunate that right now we have the tiebreakers against the middle of the pack. Beating Akron with students back will go a long way. After Akron there’s a landing spot to get on a roll. 

Until they win one of these ugly games, I don't think they can pull off the tournament win

They have the talent and players to do so, but you're not gonna play 3 easy amazing games in March. You're gonna have to win at least one game where you will need to win ugly 

[DooleyBull06]

26 minutes ago, Bluebird96 said:

As it stands now UB is at 7, just ahead of Ohio. To stay in the 4-6 range, we need teams like NIU and BG to start coming back down to earth a bit. If Toledo, Akron and Ball all win today that will help our cause. Then beat Akron Tuesday at home and we’re right back on the roller coaster again 😂

NIU plays Ball St today so that’s a win win for us. As the loser will be 4-4 and we hold the tie break. BG plays at Toledo so I expect them to lose. We will leap frog them based on tie break also. End of the day we could be in 5th. We also have the tie breaker right now over Ohio too. It’s way too early but this is still fun looking ahead.

[enrique14150]

2 hours ago, 121Merrimac said:

I’d bet a mortgage payment that it was not. 

It was not.  I made the silly mistake of viewing a thread without signing in, so I saw the posts from the people I put on the ignore list.  And reminded myself why.

[enrique14150]

3 hours ago, DooleyBull06 said:

Comparing Clark to Foster is foolish. Clark should be compared to Battle. That’s the kind of impact he had on his teammates, winning and the school. And he only played a year.

 

Clark was an SEC-level player who was a step better than everyone at the MAC level.  When UB played Kentucky, he was the only guy who could match up with them.  Foster has a quick first step but that's as far as the comparison goes.  And that's not a knock against Armoni - he's improved his game since the start of the season.  Just that Clark was a level better than what we typically see here.  It didn't take long to realize why he was at an SEC school to begin with.

I've seen some interesting comments here and there - one, about how UB lacked the size inside the play a physical game against a team that can do so better, like Kent; two, that in road games like Miami and Kent, the opponent took away the outside shooting and it left UB overly dependent on driving to the net.  For the first one, maybe that's one reason they try to play faster.  Setting up against a bigger, more physical team may not work in their favor.  Secondly, driving to the hoop can work if you hit your foul shots and get some offensive rebounds and putbacks (against Miami, they were not making their foul shots).  It's a challenge the team has to figure out.  

Curtis Jones has become the kind of dangerous outside shooter they lacked the previous two years.  Hopefully if the opponent has to adjust their defense to focus on that, UB can find a way to exploit what they're leaving space for then.

Edited January 28, 2023 by enrique14150

[DooleyBull06]

1 hour ago, enrique14150 said:

I've seen some interesting comments here and there - one, about how UB lacked the size inside the play a physical game against a team that can do so better, like Kent; two, that in road games like Miami and Kent, the opponent took away the outside shooting and it left UB overly dependent on driving to the net.  For the first one, maybe that's one reason they try to play faster.  Setting up against a bigger, more physical team may not work in their favor.  Secondly, driving to the hoop can work if you hit your foul shots and get some offensive rebounds and putbacks (against Miami, they were not making their foul shots).  It's a challenge the team has to figure out.

This is fun x and o convo…remember our win against Arizona. Who am I kidding, everyone does. But specifically remember how we put Ayton in a blender? We did that in a half court set by having him guard dribble drivers and pulling him away from the paint. Rather than always shooting over the top of taller defenders, one way is to attack them in space. If Jones can be the threat outside, we have guys like Powell who can penetrate. Then either finish, get fouled or kick for open looks. Combine that with our transition attack…that’s a way to counter opposing teams height and strength down low. But overall, we aren’t gonna win many games when Jones shoots 1-13. He has become the key to this offense.