Women's Basketball Limps into February

[dj_paige]

For the UB Women's Basketball Team, there was much to be excited about as January began, but they limp into February on a 4 game losing streak.

As January began, Buffalo had a 4 game winning streak, and they would continue their success with 3 wins in the next 4 games. The only loss was to Kent State, by 1 point, on a last second shot by Kent. The Flashes at the time had an 8-3 record, and were expected to be one of the top teams in the MAC, so the fact that Buffalo nearly defeated Kent was a positive. But since the winning ways ended with a 19 point win against East Michigan on January 14, Buffalo has been in a tailspin.

In the four losses, there was a moral victory (more on that in a moment), but in three of the four games, Buffalo was outscored by double digits in the fourth quarter. In fact, in those three losses, the Bulls could not average even 10 points in the fourth quarter. With head coach Becky Burke allowing the three leading scorers, Jazmine Young, Re'shawna Stone and Zakiyah Winfield to play huge numbers of minutes, many times all forty minutes, people began to suspect that fatigue was playing havoc with Buffalo's fourth quarter efforts.

The moral victory in that stretch was a three point loss against Bowling Green, where the Bulls came back from a 9 point deficit in the third quarter to finally lose by 3, outscoring Bowling Green by 5 in the fourth quarter. The Falcons had only one loss in the MAC, and just two losses all year, and the Bulls had a chance to send the game into overtime with a final play with about 5 seconds left, but could not get a shot off as time expired.

In addition to the large number of minutes played by the guards Young, Stone and Winfield, they often don't get much help from the rest of the team. One game, Latrice Perkins had 12 points and played really well, but that was a one time scoring outburst from Perkins. In their most recent game against Akron, freshman Hattie Ogden knocked down 5 three pointers, not only her career high but the high for the entire team all season. Ogden's 15 points led the team, and was only the second time all year that someone other than Young, Stone and Winfield had put in 15 points (the only other time was when Kiara Johnson had 17, but her season ended due to injury, so that's not going to be repeated). But in the Akron game, the three guards had their worst collective performance since MAC play began.

So the Bulls need to reverse the trend. There's still a need for the three guards to play well, and for someone else to step up. Right now, with a 3–5 MAC record, the Bulls are in a three-way tie for seventh place, with the MAC's top eight teams advancing to the conference tournament. In other words, no room for error.

 

 

[UBinMD]

On 1/31/2023 at 5:53 PM, dj_paige said:

For the UB Women's Basketball Team, there was much to be excited about as January began, but they limp into February on a 4 game losing streak.

As January began, Buffalo had a 4 game winning streak, and they would continue their success with 3 wins in the next 4 games. The only loss was to Kent State, by 1 point, on a last second shot by Kent. The Flashes at the time had an 8-3 record, and were expected to be one of the top teams in the MAC, so the fact that Buffalo nearly defeated Kent was a positive. But since the winning ways ended with a 19 point win against East Michigan on January 14, Buffalo has been in a tailspin.

In the four losses, there was a moral victory (more on that in a moment), but in three of the four games, Buffalo was outscored by double digits in the fourth quarter. In fact, in those three losses, the Bulls could not average even 10 points in the fourth quarter. With head coach Becky Burke allowing the three leading scorers, Jazmine Young, Re'shawna Stone and Zakiyah Winfield to play huge numbers of minutes, many times all forty minutes, people began to suspect that fatigue was playing havoc with Buffalo's fourth quarter efforts.

The moral victory in that stretch was a three point loss against Bowling Green, where the Bulls came back from a 9 point deficit in the third quarter to finally lose by 3, outscoring Bowling Green by 5 in the fourth quarter. The Falcons had only one loss in the MAC, and just two losses all year, and the Bulls had a chance to send the game into overtime with a final play with about 5 seconds left, but could not get a shot off as time expired.

In addition to the large number of minutes played by the guards Young, Stone and Winfield, they often don't get much help from the rest of the team. One game, Latrice Perkins had 12 points and played really well, but that was a one time scoring outburst from Perkins. In their most recent game against Akron, freshman Hattie Ogden knocked down 5 three pointers, not only her career high but the high for the entire team all season. Ogden's 15 points led the team, and was only the second time all year that someone other than Young, Stone and Winfield had put in 15 points (the only other time was when Kiara Johnson had 17, but her season ended due to injury, so that's not going to be repeated). But in the Akron game, the three guards had their worst collective performance since MAC play began.

So the Bulls need to reverse the trend. There's still a need for the three guards to play well, and for someone else to step up. Right now, with a 3–5 MAC record, the Bulls are in a three-way tie for seventh place, with the MAC's top eight teams advancing to the conference tournament. In other words, no room for error.

 

 

Today was a very nice victory, Ogden seems to be finding the range and they were able to finish after giving up a double digit lead. Still only 1 player off the bench, not sure why Salmons was out of the rotation. We will see how it plays out but this was a nice road win.

[Bluebird96]

I didn’t get to watch the game, but from the boxscore it looks like the shots were really  falling for the Bulls with 53.7% FG, 44% (8/18) from behind the arc, and 83% (15/18) on FTs.  Good to see every player in the scoring column and Winfield just missed another double-double. Crazy that they did it all with just 6 players (hopefully more than that dressed for the game?).  The only knock would be they only had 8 assists on 29 makes but whatever works, a win is a win. Maybe this will be the start of another good streak. Coach Burke definitely instills confidence that her team will keep improving and battling no matter who the opponent, home or away. Keep it up, Bulls! 🤘

Edited February 2, 2023 by Bluebird96

[Steve86]

According to the radio, Salmons did not make the trip for personal reasons

[dj_paige]

12 hours ago, Bluebird96 said:

I didn’t get to watch the game, but from the boxscore it looks like the shots were really  falling for the Bulls with 53.7% FG, 44% (8/18) from behind the arc, and 83% (15/18) on FTs.  Good to see every player in the scoring column and Winfield just missed another double-double. Crazy that they did it all with just 6 players (hopefully more than that dressed for the game?).  The only knock would be they only had 8 assists on 29 makes but whatever works, a win is a win. Maybe this will be the start of another good streak. Coach Burke definitely instills confidence that her team will keep improving and battling no matter who the opponent, home or away. Keep it up, Bulls! 🤘

Yes, very low assists, but with the style of play where guards dribble into the paint and take their shots, you won't get a lot of assists. So I don't even consider the 8 assists to be a negative here. It is a reflection of their normal style of play. But certainly a lot to feel good about, emphasis on "a lot". Ogden now with 9 made three-pointers in the last two games. Bench had 4 players, but two of them, Baron and Debortoli, were unlikely to see action unless the game was a blowout, and one other player Ellis hasn't been getting meaningful playing time in weeks; only Perkins came in off the bench.

Edited February 2, 2023 by dj_paige

[dj_paige]

So UB loses by 10 today to Northern Illinois, getting badly out-rebounded 51–25, and NIU's center A'jah davis picks up 21 rebounds, 18 points and shoots 8-for-10. What choice does UB head coach Becky Burke have here? Essentially, none. There is no one on the bench (until Salmons returns) that she can put on the floor that would provide better rebounding or better interior defense. And so, when the season began, and we had a team with lots of names that we didn't know, it still looked like a big front line by MAC standards, but then injury to Kiara Johnson, and the absence of Ronni Nwora, and the (hopefully temporary) absence of Kayla Salmons, and suddenly we've got no effective big players. Hattie Ogden, despite being 6-2, has been effective from the perimeter recently, but not on defense in the paint, and hasn't demonstrated any strong rebounding abilities. So the bad news is we're stuck with what we have right now, and that has major weaknesses. The optimism of early January is gone, and I think there's no real solution. I'm not trying to blame Becky Burke here, she was, and is, in a tough situation that wasn't of her making.

Edited February 4, 2023 by dj_paige

[bullsbball]

As I heard on the radio broadcast a few games ago, the coaches are trying to find ways to give the 6 that are playing rests during play by bringing up the ball slowly and other "slow" play.

In a loose ball in the middle of the 3rd quarter, Young dribbled it off her own foot and just gave up on going after the ball and let NIU have it. Two NIU players laying on the court and all Young needed to do was grab the ball for "jump ball". But instead, she just walked away. UB was up by a point at that point and couldn't score and gave up too many wide-open threes after that.

This team needs more energy, in particular, to improve their rebounding. The best rebounder is Winfield and not much after that.

Also, during one of the timeouts, Coach BB was again in somebody's face on the bench. I don't know who she was yelling at and I forget what she said. Everybody in the arena could hear her.  Just curious if the players like/respect the coach.

Also, curious why more players aren't playing. Nwora was already mentioned. Salmons is "away from the team for personal reasons".

Caelan Ellis Freshman Played in 13 games for 158 minutes. Not played since 1/28.
Briyanna Baron Senior (Walkon?) Played 5 minutes in 2 games
Olivia DeBortoli Senior Volleyball recruit 1 game for 1 minute
Chellia Watson No games

On the radios after the game, they said that next year's recruiting class is #1 (not that I understand how that was determined).  Is their hope for this team "next year"?

Edited February 5, 2023 by bullsbball

[1975]

1 hour ago, dj_paige said:

So UB loses by 10 today to Northern Illinois, getting badly out-rebounded 51–25, and NIU's center A'jah davis picks up 21 rebounds, 18 points and shoots 8-for-10. What choice does UB head coach Becky Burke have here? Essentially, none. There is no one on the bench (until Salmons returns) that she can put on the floor that would provide better rebounding or better interior defense. And so, when the season began, and we had a team with lots of names that we didn't know, it still looked like a big front line by MAC standards, but then injury to Kiara Johnson, and the absence of Ronni Nwora, and the (hopefully temporary) absence of Kayla Salmons, and suddenly we've got no effective big players. Hattie Ogden, despite being 6-2, has been effective from the perimeter recently, but not on defense in the paint, and hasn't demonstrated any strong rebounding abilities. So the bad news is we're stuck with what we have right now, and that has major weaknesses. The optimism of early January is gone, and I think there's no real solution. I'm not trying to blame Becky Burke here, she was, and is, in a tough situation that wasn't of her making.

Spot on comments. This game was even worse than what the score, and even the lopsided stats, would suggest. The UB offense is the opposite of dynamic - I suppose “plodding” is the correct description. Worse still, there were some situations where it appeared some players gave up on even trying to rebound or hustle after a loose ball. As I asked a few days ago - what’s the point? 

Edited February 5, 2023 by 1975

[John]

3 hours ago, 1975 said:

Spot on comments. This game was even worse than what the score, and even the lopsided stats, would suggest. The UB offense is the opposite of dynamic - I suppose “plodding” is the correct description. Worse still, there were some situations where it appeared some players gave up on even trying to rebound or hustle after a loose ball. As I asked a few days ago - what’s the point? 

Agree. Just tough situation with so few players and no real bench players that can come in for a few minutes to give our starters a little blow. After watching all the games the trend is there where they go a period of time especially in the 2nd halves where thy become very stagnant and have no ball movement. With a frontline or strong post players they get consistently out rebounded and what we have seen in most games when we put up a shot our frontline players are not under the boards and are already running back down the floor on defense. Don’t know if that is be design or Coach Burke knows we have no chance and when your best rebounder is your shooting guard in Winfield  our chances become less and less to bat any team. If all the players that were on the roster at the start of the year it would of been interesting to see if the results would of been different. Go Bulls!!!

[John]

14 hours ago, bullsbball said:

As I heard on the radio broadcast a few games ago, the coaches are trying to find ways to give the 6 that are playing rests during play by bringing up the ball slowly and other "slow" play.

In a loose ball in the middle of the 3rd quarter, Young dribbled it off her own foot and just gave up on going after the ball and let NIU have it. Two NIU players laying on the court and all Young needed to do was grab the ball for "jump ball". But instead, she just walked away. UB was up by a point at that point and couldn't score and gave up too many wide-open threes after that.

This team needs more energy, in particular, to improve their rebounding. The best rebounder is Winfield and not much after that.

Also, during one of the timeouts, Coach BB was again in somebody's face on the bench. I don't know who she was yelling at and I forget what she said. Everybody in the arena could hear her.  Just curious if the players like/respect the coach.

Also, curious why more players aren't playing. Nwora was already mentioned. Salmons is "away from the team for personal reasons".

Caelan Ellis Freshman Played in 13 games for 158 minutes. Not played since 1/28.
Briyanna Baron Senior (Walkon?) Played 5 minutes in 2 games
Olivia DeBortoli Senior Volleyball recruit 1 game for 1 minute
Chellia Watson No games

On the radios after the game, they said that next year's recruiting class is #1 (not that I understand how that was determined).  Is their hope for this team "next year"?

Don’t’ t really agree at a coach yelling at her players in full view of all the sectors but she probably seen something that we don’t. I think it was on the defensive end giving up open NIU 3’s. It seems we are able to see the frustration on the player’s faces so maybe frustration for the coach also. At the rate the team is going it probably only 50-50 for them to make the top eight and go to Cleveland which will be sad for the many players that have not experienced  Cleveland. Go Bulls!!!

[BrooklynBull]

17 hours ago, bullsbball said:

As I heard on the radio broadcast a few games ago, the coaches are trying to find ways to give the 6 that are playing rests during play by bringing up the ball slowly and other "slow" play.

In a loose ball in the middle of the 3rd quarter, Young dribbled it off her own foot and just gave up on going after the ball and let NIU have it. Two NIU players laying on the court and all Young needed to do was grab the ball for "jump ball". But instead, she just walked away. UB was up by a point at that point and couldn't score and gave up too many wide-open threes after that.

This team needs more energy, in particular, to improve their rebounding. The best rebounder is Winfield and not much after that.

Also, during one of the timeouts, Coach BB was again in somebody's face on the bench. I don't know who she was yelling at and I forget what she said. Everybody in the arena could hear her.  Just curious if the players like/respect the coach.

Also, curious why more players aren't playing. Nwora was already mentioned. Salmons is "away from the team for personal reasons".

Caelan Ellis Freshman Played in 13 games for 158 minutes. Not played since 1/28.
Briyanna Baron Senior (Walkon?) Played 5 minutes in 2 games
Olivia DeBortoli Senior Volleyball recruit 1 game for 1 minute
Chellia Watson No games

On the radios after the game, they said that next year's recruiting class is #1 (not that I understand how that was determined).  Is their hope for this team "next year"?

Another way to get extra rest for players is to take them out if you get a stoppage shortly before a media timeout.  It gives the time until the media timeout plus the media timeout to rest.

[1975]

2 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

Another way to get extra rest for players is to take them out if you get a stoppage shortly before a media timeout.  It gives the time until the media timeout plus the media timeout to rest.

That couldn’t hurt. Once in a blue moon a team as short-handed as this one gets lucky using a member of the scout team as a walk-on. 

[UB Horns Up]

14 hours ago, John said:

Don’t’ t really agree at a coach yelling at her players in full view of all the sectors but she probably seen something that we don’t. I think it was on the defensive end giving up open NIU 3’s. It seems we are able to see the frustration on the player’s faces so maybe frustration for the coach also. At the rate the team is going it probably only 50-50 for them to make the top eight and go to Cleveland which will be sad for the many players that have not experienced  Cleveland. Go Bulls!!!

Becky Burke was a bad UB Bulls basketball hire and the damage is already done UB Bulls women’s basketball is irrelevant again in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

[dj_paige]

17 hours ago, 1975 said:

Once in a blue moon a team as short-handed as this one gets lucky using a member of the scout team as a walk-on. 

Do we have a scout team? The only "scout team" I know of are male practice players. Their "team manager" is already on the roster (Briyanna Baron). The usual "desperation" attempts to add to the roster have already been done, and those additions haven't helped.

Edited February 6, 2023 by dj_paige

[dj_paige]

8 hours ago, UB Horns Up said:

Becky Burke was a bad UB Bulls basketball hire and the damage is already done UB Bulls women’s basketball is irrelevant again in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

Are you the same guy who said Lance Leipold was a terrible choice? Yes, I think so. And just so that you know, if there was a way to ignore you here at UBFAN so I would never see your posts, I would do so, just as I did at Bull Run. But I will ignore you in all other ways, from now on.

[1975]

3 hours ago, dj_paige said:

Do we have a scout team? The only "scout team" I know of are male practice players. Their "team manager" is already on the roster (Briyanna Baron). The usual "desperation" attempts to add to the roster have already been done, and those additions haven't helped.

I assumed they did. Quite a few women’s teams do (and some of the power programs have scout teams with men on them). If UB doesn’t, with several players MIA, who the heck do they practice against? How can they truly be prepared for opponents without a scout team to mimic their play?

[markchicago]

Have to Ignore Mr negativity. He has a very short horizon.  Coach Burke lost an entire team We are lucky we have a roster We knew this would be a tough year.  Apparently we have had a great recruiting class lets judge her in a few years.  Mr negativity had the same view with football He called for firing Coach Linguist. We had some up and downs but we finished 7-6 with a big bowl victory. Again a great recruiting  year...we will be very good going forward.  

 

Ps also called for firing of Athletic Director and University President 

 

 

Go bulls

Edited February 6, 2023 by markchicago

[dj_paige]

3 hours ago, 1975 said:

I assumed they did. Quite a few women’s teams do (and some of the power programs have scout teams with men on them). If UB doesn’t, with several players MIA, who the heck do they practice against? How can they truly be prepared for opponents without a scout team to mimic their play?

They have 9 players on the roster currently available, 10 if Salmons comes back and Chellia Watson also practices with the team, plus at least 3 male practice players at the start of the season (and I really don't know if they are still available and un-injured). There's also no reason why assistant coach Wheeler couldn't join in on the practice. So they have enough for practice. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by dj_paige

[bullsbball]

29 minutes ago, dj_paige said:

They have 9 players on the roster currently available, 10 if Salmons comes back and Chellia Watson also practices with the team, plus at least 3 male practice players at the start of the season (and I really don't know if they are still available and un-injured). There's also no reason why assistant coach Wheeler couldn't join in on the practice. So they have enough for practice. 

I'm just wondering why we can't get more players on the court.

jp_paige, you seem to be "in the know". Why isn't Watson playing in games?  Any idea what happened to Nwora?

And why hasn't Ellis played in the past few games? Ellis averaged 20 minutes in her first 5 games and only 5 minutes> And now not even playing in the last 2 games. Not much productivity out of her. 

[dj_paige]

Watson's transfer was not approved by the NCAA. So she has to sit out a year. 

Nwora has personal reasons for not playing this year.

Ellis hasn't earned playing time, her performances when she does get onto the court are weak.

[bullsbball]

7 minutes ago, dj_paige said:

Watson's transfer was not approved by the NCAA. So she has to sit out a year. 

Nwora has personal reasons for not playing this year.

Ellis hasn't earned playing time, her performances when she does get onto the court are weak.

Thanks for the update. I was unaware that Watson was ineligible and that Nwora is out for the year.

So the only hope in the short term is getting Salmons back?  I haven't been too impressed with her either. Not too much offense or defense out of her.

Still makes for a lot of MIA players.

Edited February 6, 2023 by bullsbball

[BrooklynBull]

12 hours ago, UB Horns Up said:

Becky Burke was a bad UB Bulls basketball hire and the damage is already done UB Bulls women’s basketball is irrelevant again in my opinion. UB Horns Up! Go Bulls! Let’s Go Buffalo 

Much to the chagrin of a former UB women's basketball player/SA President.  I am going to compare Coach Burke to situation that Geno Auriemma is in right now.  The UConn game yesterday against South Carolina looked very much like the UB game on Saturday.

Both UB and UConn have very short benches and it was obvious that UConn was exhausted with their limited bench.  South Carolina basically put them away late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, only to have UConn make a run at them that ended up short, making the game look closer than it really was.

So I am not sure you want to fire a first year coach who is doing exactly what one of the greatest coaches in history has to do this season.  Next season UConn will have Paige Bueckers back and UB will have Coach Burke's first real recruiting class.

People say the current generation wants instant gratification.  They have nothing on you.

[DaBulls99]

5 hours ago, dj_paige said:

Are you the same guy who said Lance Leipold was a terrible choice? Yes, I think so. And just so that you know, if there was a way to ignore you here at UBFAN so I would never see your posts, I would do so, just as I did at Bull Run. But I will ignore you in all other ways, from now on.

Horns Up is a clown who doesn’t know his —- from a hole in the ground. But it’s a message board so trolls gonna troll. 

[dj_paige]

2 hours ago, bullsbball said:

Thanks for the update. I was unaware that Watson was ineligible and that Nwora is out for the year.

So the only hope in the short term is getting Salmons back?  I haven't been too impressed with her either. Not too much offense or defense out of her.

Still makes for a lot of MIA players.

Yes, I agree that Salmons has not put up big numbers, but I think some of the things she does will not show up in the box score. She boxes out. She takes up space on defense, opposing players decide not to shoot over her. The NIU center, in my opinion, wouldn't have had such an outstanding game if a player like Salmons was on the court. And she does score when the guards get her the ball, pick and roll or similar type of plays. But will she solve the team's problems? A little certainly, but other problems aren't going away.

[dj_paige]

On 2/6/2023 at 9:16 AM, dj_paige said:

Are you the same guy who said Lance Leipold was a terrible choice? Yes, I think so. And just so that you know, if there was a way to ignore you here at UBFAN so I would never see your posts, I would do so, just as I did at Bull Run. But I will ignore you in all other ways, from now on.

And now I have figured out how to block someone here at UBFan. So UB Horns Up is now blocked, and I will never see his posts again. 👦 If you'd like to do this yourself, go to the top of the screen, click on your user name, a drop-down menu appears and you can then select Ignored Users. From there, select any user you wish to ignore. 

High fives gratefully accepted!