Women's Basketball Limps into February

[John]

5 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Coach Burke’s post game tweets for patience and hang with us have dried up. I’ll still support, but have tempered expectations. I will selfishly admit I’m a little happy Syracuse is 6-7 in conference and hanging out in 9th place. I don’t want our fans to be the only miserable group in the transition year. Go Bulls!!🤘🏻🤘🏻

Just thinking just a few years back UB, Central Michigan and Ohio were the best teams with some of the most exciting and very good players. Now all three in the bottom of standings with depleted rosters. Trying to enjoy basketball for what it is and watching the other teams with some very good players and supporting our team and not trying to take the game so seriously. Can only hope that many of the recruits Coach Burke has coming in decide to stay and some turn into very good players. Go Bulls!!

[clodney]

5 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Coach Burke’s post game tweets for patience and hang with us have dried up. I’ll still support, but have tempered expectations.

She's in her first year with a completely revamped roster. If Whitesell gets 4+ seasons of tolerance after inheriting a $hitload of talent, then Burke should get 5+ before we lose any patience.

[ChubbyHubby]

Here's my take.  Take it for what you will.  Today's world is a mamby pamby, "tell me what I did wrong, but tell me in a nice way so that my self esteem isn't bruised" kind of world.  From what I've seen, Coach BB doesn't operate that way.  She's going to let you know you F'd up loud and clear, even if it's front of 1000+ fans.  Some will take that and work hard at making themselves better.  Some will cower and remove themselves from what they deem as abuse.  My guess is that's why even some of the players that planned on staying after the coaching change, changed their minds.

 FLJ seemed to do the same thing, but she saved the really loud rants for in the confines of the locker room.  (At Niagara a few years ago was a classic example.  Problem was, everyone in the gym could hear her from the locker room.)

[John]

16 minutes ago, clodney said:

She's in her first year with a completely revamped roster. If Whitesell gets 4+ seasons of tolerance after inheriting a $hitload of talent, then Burke should get 5+ before we lose any patience.

Do agree. I don’t think anyone is calling for a coaching change especially what has happened with the roster and lack of any positive contributions from any player except our three main players. Coach Burke’s track record so far is she has put together good teams in her second year and beyond. With another almost totally new team coming in next year it will be interesting how it will look and how she responds to new and different type players. Go Bulls!!

[UBinMD]

3 hours ago, John said:

Do agree. I don’t think anyone is calling for a coaching change especially what has happened with the roster and lack of any positive contributions from any player except our three main players. Coach Burke’s track record so far is she has put together good teams in her second year and beyond. With another almost totally new team coming in next year it will be interesting how it will look and how she responds to new and different type players. Go Bulls!!

I in no way, shape or form want BB or staff to be changed, I think it is exactly what we need. I think she doesn't have the right players currently that want to play the way she wants them to, have the skill to do it and I don't think they are the right players for her style. Hopefully the incoming group knows what they are getting into and thrive in that type of environment. Just a rough season, then there was some hope for a while, then it went back to the D2 loss and Canisius loss style of play. I'm behind the staff 100%

[DaBulls99]

15 hours ago, bullsbball said:

And I presume these 4 will be returning:

Caelan Ellis G Freshman
Emerita Mashaire G/F Sophomore
Hattie Ogden G/F Freshman
Chellia Watson G Redshirt Junior

I just can't see Johnson returning for her 6th year (assuming she could).

That would make a lot of Guards and no true Forwards. I think that leaves 3 scholarships still open. 

Plenty will be available in the transfer portal that should come with experience. 

[promotherobot]

9 hours ago, clodney said:

She's in her first year with a completely revamped roster. If Whitesell gets 4+ seasons of tolerance after inheriting a $hitload of talent, then Burke should get 5+ before we lose any patience.

I'm not bailing on Coach Burke. I'm just saying that team right now is a tough watch.

[1975]

8 hours ago, promotherobot said:

I'm not bailing on Coach Burke. I'm just saying that team right now is a tough watch.

I’m not bailing on BB…she’s in a tough spot. UB AD won’t bail, either. I’m just hoping that the 4 students who come to the games are with us on this. Yeah, sometimes I do sarcasm.

[John]

4 hours ago, 1975 said:

I’m not bailing on BB…she’s in a tough spot. UB AD won’t bail, either. I’m just hoping that the 4 students who come to the games are with us on this. Yeah, sometimes I do sarcasm.

It is not sarcasm in my opinion. Even in our past great years the students did not show up. Between the true blue and the administration they did hot try hard enough to get more students involved. It is wrong to just depend on cell phones and social media to get all your information. In many cases our family has thought this athletic administration runs the marketing like a D11 or D111 programs at times. Sadly not sure if UB can get any of the season ticket holders back but can only hope our teams can become one of the upper echelon teams again.

[UBinMD]

Losing to CMU, even by 1 point, has to be rock bottom.

[BrooklynBull]

On 2/8/2023 at 11:19 PM, John said:

It does look like the entire team and coaches have mentally and physically checked out. Sad to see when they have lost so many players and have no D1 players accept Winfield, Stone and Young. Will still be there the rest of the year to show support for the team.

I was only able to catch about the last 4:00 of the game yesterday.  From what I saw down the stretch, this could not be less true.  They wiped out a late lead to go up by one and then had two shots at the buzzer to hit a game winner.  teams that have quit would have packed it in when they down 7 with about 4:00 left.  They did not pack anything in.

[bullsbball]

2 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

I was only able to catch about the last 4:00 of the game yesterday.  From what I saw down the stretch, this could not be less true.  They wiped out a late lead to go up by one and then had two shots at the buzzer to hit a game winner.  teams that have quit would have packed it in when they down 7 with about 4:00 left.  They did not pack anything in.

Nice that we were competitive against the second worst team in the MAC.

[John]

3 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

I was only able to catch about the last 4:00 of the game yesterday.  From what I saw down the stretch, this could not be less true.  They wiped out a late lead to go up by one and then had two shots at the buzzer to hit a game winner.  teams that have quit would have packed it in when they down 7 with about 4:00 left.  They did not pack anything in.

I was not talking about the CMU game as I did not see the game. Some of their previous games they seemed to have stretches  where whether mentally or physically they lose their focus. With their short bench after exerting so much energy it is understandable they could have stretches that look like they start to run out of gas. They are still competing but with no true frontline going against the better teams it is a no win situation. Go Bullls!!

[dj_paige]

22 hours ago, bullsbball said:

Nice that we were competitive against the second worst team in the MAC.

But that's where the team is right now. That's an accurate reflection of our MAC play.

[John]

3 hours ago, dj_paige said:

But that's where the team is right now. That's an accurate reflection of our MAC play.

Do agree. Looks like we will be able to compete against the bottom half of the teams but with our depleted roster and only our three main players we do not match up against the top teams. As a true basketball fan our family played basketball and has enjoyed it all our lives and will always support our UB teams but of course it is more enjoyable when our teams are competitive and win. Hope we can see a turnaround next year for both teams. Go Bulls!! One more question? After not seeing the last few games has the coaching staff checked out and just going through the motions as losing can become mental for both coaches and players.

[Bluebird96]

Another tough loss to Kent for the women last night. I was only able to watch the last few minutes on ESPN+ but what a performance by Stone pouring in 36 pts including a 3 with under 1:00 left to cut Kent’s lead to 3. After her modest start (11.3 ppg the first 9 games), she’s become the go-to scorer with 20 ppg over the last 13 games.

Despite all the challenges they’ve faced I don’t see any quit in BB’s team. If they can manage to win 3 winnable games down the stretch to get to Cleveland that would be a good way to cap this up and down season, then see if they can go on a little run and makes things interesting. 

Edited February 17, 2023 by Bluebird96

[promotherobot]

Another late lead lost. 

It's hilarious that they pressed the inbound when they were down 5, but didn't when the game was tied.

Edited February 18, 2023 by promotherobot

[Bluebird96]

This was one of those winnable games mentioned above. A home game against a fellow bottom-third MAC team, need to win that depleted roster or not. Not looking so good for the ladies’ chances of going to Cleveland.

[promotherobot]

2 hours ago, Bluebird96 said:

This was one of those winnable games mentioned above. A home game against a fellow bottom-third MAC team, need to win that depleted roster or not. Not looking so good for the ladies’ chances of going to Cleveland.

Just as well.

[skrabukes]

Not looking good right now, down 10 half way through the 3rd quarter. Need this win if they want to make it to Cleveland.

[bullsbball]

One win in (now) 11 games.

[UBinMD]

50 minutes ago, bullsbball said:

One win in (now) 11 games.

At halftime, ESU had 22 points in the paint, UB had 0. Hopefully BB and the staff realize that playing a 5 guard offense is not going to work in the MAC. We need to find some bodies and none of our 7 recruits seem to be that and we do not have any on the current roster. You can certainly play a smaller, quicker lineup at times, be we will need some level of inside presence to compete.

[bullsbball]

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

At halftime, ESU had 22 points in the paint, UB had 0. 

Why stop at Halftime: 48 to 8 at the end of the game.  And only 3 fast break points (3-pointer?) so those "fast guards" aren't working either.

Having a short bench doesn't help. These girls are getting tired (and frustrated). Nothing from Winfield (3-14) and Young (2-9) today.  They need a tighter defense but that takes energy. Giving up 46% for the field isn't good. I guess that extra day in Ypsilanti didn't give them any rest.  Nice that they had a good 4th quarter but wasn't enough.

[UBinMD]

5 minutes ago, bullsbball said:

Why stop at Halftime: 48 to 8 at the end of the game.  And only 3 fast break points (3-pointer?) so those "fast guards" aren't working either.

Having a short bench doesn't help. These girls are getting tired (and frustrated). Nothing from Winfield (3-14) and Young (2-9) today.  They need a tighter defense but that takes energy. Giving up 46% for the field isn't good. I guess that extra day in Ypsilanti didn't give them any rest.  Nice that they had a good 4th quarter but wasn't enough.

Honestly, I was too lazy to look at the final numbers, so I stopped at halftime 🤣 Apparently it didn't get much better in the 2nd half. When we were down 13 and looking awful on offense, I assumed it was over. I was a little surprised that the final delta was only 4 points. Looking forward to the 2023-24 season at this point. They miss a lot of relatively easy shots in the paint, they appear off-balanced a lot, not very good touch on the runners or short shots inside the foul line, missed layups, on and on. I'm sure it gets frustrating, but if you can't convert those, you really put yourself in a bind. The loss of Salmons for whatever that reason was, hurt much more than anyone probably thought it would. She at least hit most of her layups and was a presence to make other teams think twice about running down the middle of the lane.

[Bluebird96]

Not often that you see a team’s 3-Pt FG% (39%) higher than the overall FG% (35%). Lack of scoring in the paint obviously a problem as others pointed out. Didn’t help to have down games from Winfield and Young, but 15 assists on 18 baskets and only out-rebounded by 1 despite the lack of Bulls’ size are good signs for what it’s worth. Not easy playing most of your games with only 6 players seeing the floor.

Edited February 23, 2023 by Bluebird96