UB MBB vs South Alabama 11/11 2:00pm

[DocCas86]

The men's team kicks off the action in Alumni with MAC / Sunbelt challenge game against South Alabama.  Currently on ESPN - I see that UB is slight favorites.  Both teams are coming off season opening losses.  South Alabama lost to NAIA Mobile College (per Massey a top 30 NAIA program).  Rankings for SA are Kenpom: 155 and Bartorvik: 207, compared to 273 and 260 for UB. 

SA, like UB had an 8 man rotation.  They did not shoot particularly well in their opening game, shooting 35.5% overall and 25.0% from 3.

Main things I will be looking for from UB is limiting the easy baskets and keeping turnovers under 13.  Also, hoping that players like Williamson, Jones, Boldin and Sabol settle into solid supporting roles as they get more acclimated.

Edited November 12, 2023 by DocCas86

[UBinMD]

1.5 point dogs. I like our chances! Looking for a little better D today and some of the bench guys providing quality D or O or both. Would love to be 8-9 deep with contributors. Spread the load around so nobody has to force things.

[UBinMD]

Interesting side note, South Alabama is the next opponent of Alabama.

[BrooklynBull]

Despite the topic title, this is a home game.

[DocCas86]

6 minutes ago, BrooklynBull said:

Despite the topic title, this is a home game.

Sorry about that...are there any admins around to fix it.

[Tee4three]

Should be a winnable game, would like to see a continuation of the second half for m the first game where I thought they started to play together as a team

Can't watch live, does anyone know how quickly it gets put up on ESPN plus to re watch? (I feel like it's instant and I guess I assume it's on ESPN plus)

[UBinMD]

Free throw shooting is really struggling, need to clean that up. D is much better, a few easy ones, but a lot of circus shots that are going for South Alabama. You can see glimpses of good players for UB. Like seeing the freshman getting some good action so far. Sabol could be a weapon if he can keep that up.

[DocCas86]

Need to cut down the turnovers otherwise a better first half than vs FDU.

[UBinMD]

The wheels have fallen off a bit. Man to man is not our friend right now. Maybe be can get their team to foul out.

[Dabulls]

Yeah this is bad….

[UBinMD]

Peck needs to stop taking about the new players. South Alabama had the same number of new players. Not an excuse the way college athletics is setup now. Need to figure it out.

[Blue03]

Offense… is no good today

[UBinMD]

So many layups and back cuts and deep penetration. If we don’t find some inside defense, we are in serious trouble. This is all on tape. Looks like Sabol is about to replace Fulcher.

[UBinMD]

2 minutes ago, Blue03 said:

Offense… is no good today

I hope we find a way to get to 50

[Ubbullsfan09]

It’s gonna be a loooong season. South Alabama got trounced by an NAIA team and we are playing like garbage against them. This years team is a bottom of MAC level squad. Idk how Halcovage recruited so poorly this summer, the only good players are Whitesell holdovers 

[UBinMD]

Just now, Ubbullsfan09 said:

It’s gonna be a loooong season. South Alabama got trounced by an NAIA team and we are playing like garbage against them. This years team is a bottom of MAC level squad. Idk how Halcovage recruited so poorly this summer, the only good players are Whitesell holdovers 

35% FG, 15% 3, 53% FT, yikes

[UBinMD]

I’ll give them credit for battling back, but the 2nd half was tough to watch. Let’s hope they can get some flow and confidence going with Roberts Wesleyan coming to town.

[Chet]

That was tough to watch. 

[UBinMD]

5 minutes ago, Chet said:

That was tough to watch. 

I was giving the staff the benefit of the doubt that we found some under the radar talent, but I’m thinking we lost out on a lot and are on plan Z this season. Hopefully they can get a bit this year and stick together next year with a few good recruits/transfers.

[Chet]

1 minute ago, UBinMD said:

I was giving the staff the benefit of the doubt that we found some under the radar talent, but I’m thinking we lost out on a lot and are on plan Z this season. Hopefully they can get a bit this year and stick together next year with a few good recruits/transfers.

We gotta hope! 

[UBinMD]

The women are not starting off well either so far. What the hell happened? We had Football, MBB and WBB all humming. This has been painful.

[UBinMD]

The women are shooting 23%, 0-10 from 3 at halftime. The offensive output from all 3 major sports this week has been horrific. 

[enrique14150]

I didn't mind where things stood at halftime.  They weren't playing great, but only down 6.  Second half, the shooting fell off a cliff.  Neither team was shooting well from three, but for this Bulls team they're dead without it.  Like others pointed out, interior defense, especially on drives to the net, was poor.  They're going to have to get a lot tougher really fast because the intensity goes up in league play.  

Adams and Smith - anonymous today.  For as well as both played last game, neither had anything working for them today.
Fulcher - I don't want him to be afraid to be aggressive at the point on defense.  I usually don't like seeing them give up fouls that far from the net...but they're not stopping people going to the net, so go at them out there.
Sabol - an improved showing.  Brought a good work rate and intensity.  I feel like he's a guy who needs a year, year and a half to become a consistent player at this level though.
Chatman - a better game today.  Tougher on both ends of the floor.  He has a nice touch on his shots.  In this group, with his experience, he has to be a go-to guy.
Kanye - 14 points.  Maybe a lot of them at the end?  But I liked what I saw better today than in previous games.  A little more in control of himself.

South Alabama - I don't even think they played that great, it's just this UB team can't play defense that well.  I was surprised their coach didn't play more guys down the bench in the second half.  But he did almost break that piece of the scorer's table after a pair of missed foul shots at the end. 

Crowd - the band was into it.  The rest of it is what we expect these days.  And with games like this, I don't blame anyone for a lack of enthusiasm.  The DJ's play list was straight out of the games at Alumni Arena in the mid-90's.

Overall - Halcovage gets a pass for games like this because he's new here.  The message board would be on fire if this was from any of the previous coaches.  Someone near me said "well it's a whole new group, they're all transfers."  I said, "same as last year."  And as someone else pointed out here, how many other teams does that apply to?  If they can't figure out things on the defensive end, first and foremost, and I don't know if they have the size inside to do so, they're not going to be competitive.  I want to see what guys have the potential to get a lot better in the years ahead.

Edited November 11, 2023 by enrique14150

[enrique14150]

59 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

The women are not starting off well either so far. What the hell happened? We had Football, MBB and WBB all humming. This has been painful.

You're not new here, so I won't talk as if you don't know - you get coaches that win things (or in Leipold's case, almost), they move on quick and you have to rebuild.  Or you could be like Ohio U football under Solich, or Toledo basketball under Kowalczyk, who have good teams every year but never win anything.  The price of winning in the MAC is starting over.  If it was easy to keep replacing coaches and stay good, everyone would do it.  We're paying the piper right now.

[Tee4three]

Are sabol and boldin actually promising freshman or is it just that the rest of the team is that bad

I can't tell

Edited November 11, 2023 by Tee4three