MBB vs Ohio | Tues 3/5/24. 7pm | CBSSN

[UBinMD]

7 minutes ago, JFH47 said:

I guess there will be no season ticket fan appreciation night this year. We deserve something after supporting this brutal team and rookie coach! 

Maybe you will get sent a coupon for next season 🤣

[John]

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

Maybe you will get sent a coupon for next season 🤣

I wonder if Alnutt will raise ticket prices next year??? Another game like so many this year with little ball movement, turnovers and missed free throws when it mattered. So sad when the true blue was announced that there were 5/6 students in attendance. Looking at our section 114 so many fans are gone that we came to know in years past. There doesn’t seem to be much hope for next year when there is no indication Coach H has an any idea on recruiting. The years of getting some decent transfers and JUCO’s seem to be gone. At least Coach Burke has three promising commitments for next year. Is UB going to put tickets up for the women’s game in Cleveland??

[MuchMany]

54 minutes ago, John said:

There doesn’t seem to be much hope for next year when there is no indication Coach H has an any idea on recruiting. The years of getting some decent transfers and JUCO’s seem to be gone.

Curious what makes you think this. The next two months are going to be incredibly active for transfers. And we have two HS commits that seems as good as what JW was signing.

I don't want to get ahead of myself on the negativity before anything actually happens. The coming off-season does not have to follow the course of this season. The staff certainly knows it will be in trouble if it does, so I expect quite an effort here.

[Tee4three]

17 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Curious what makes you think this. The next two months are going to be incredibly active for transfers. And we have two HS commits that seems as good as what JW was signing.

I don't want to get ahead of myself on the negativity before anything actually happens. The coming off-season does not have to follow the course of this season. The staff certainly knows it will be in trouble if it does, so I expect quite an effort here.

I think there will be a ton activity fairly quickly too once the season ends 

[MuchMany]

Just now, Tee4three said:

I think there will be a ton activity fairly quickly too once the season ends 

Yeah I mean six guys who will be out of a job at this time next year unless things turn around here. Seems like it should be major motivation to hit the portal hard.

[UBinMD]

8 minutes ago, MuchMany said:

Yeah I mean six guys who will be out of a job at this time next year unless things turn around here. Seems like it should be major motivation to hit the portal hard.

I also think if we can keep Boldin, we got a lot of freshman that will be sophomores that got a lot of experience (along with some bumps and bruises) as well as Fulcher with another year under his belt. If these guys can take an honest inventory of what happened this year, what they need to improve upon, etc and focus on that for the summer they can be in a good spot in the fall. I think moving forward from Sy and Adams will help. Although they brought a lot of points to the games, I think they were well set in their ways and may not have fully been ready to buy-in to something new. Not denigrating them personally, but I just think we may as well stick with the young guys (Sabol, Boldin, McVeigh, Williamson, Wilson, Fulcher). I wouldn't mind having Jo Smith back, he's a glass cleaner and shot changer who has cut down on his fouls, so he could be a good piece. Not sure about Graham, maybe given a full offseason and starting games from the start may bring him back around. Then bring in some JUCO guys with significant playing time and who want to play in whatever system GH3 et al plans to run and see what happens. We do need to tune up on defense, which is a teachable skill and we need to have the young guys become more consistent shooters or bring in consistent shooters. While I'm asking, a quality ball handling, pass-first PG would also be nice.

Thank you Santa!😀

[John]

3 hours ago, MuchMany said:

Curious what makes you think this. The next two months are going to be incredibly active for transfers. And we have two HS commits that seems as good as what JW was signing.

I don't want to get ahead of myself on the negativity before anything actually happens. The coming off-season does not have to follow the course of this season. The staff certainly knows it will be in trouble if it does, so I expect quite an effort here.

I must of missed the two high school commits so thanks for the information. I do agree that we will have to wait and see if this staff can recruit any quality transfer or juco’s and also see if their coaching philosophy will change. Some of us believe this is worst than some of the Reggie years. With spring and summer optimism and some positive vibes would be very welcome.

[enrique14150]

23 hours ago, John said:

Some of us believe this is worst than some of the Reggie years. With spring and summer optimism and some positive vibes would be very welcome.

If that's what we're comparing this to, then good times are ahead. After a couple years building, those Bulls went on to have consistently competitive teams.  And built the foundation upon which succeeding coaches added.

I'm like most everyone else in that I didn't see this program as needing a total rebuild after last year, and I was just as shocked at how bad the basketball was.  Once I got past that, I started seeing the bigger picture.  We'll see how this plays out.

[Ubbullsfan09]

On 3/5/2024 at 11:21 PM, enrique14150 said:

The Bulls couldn't get over the hump tonight.  They closed the gap to 7 at the half, working past a bunch of early three's by Ohio.  Second half they were behind by double digits again (almost 20 at one point)...fought back to down 7.  Ohio took a timeout, the Bulls got a good defensive stop...and on the ensuing possession Chatman bricked both free throws.  Over the next three or four possessions Chatman and Adams kept turning it over.  I kept yelling, "you guys are the seniors!" You're supposed to be the ones they count on during times like that.  Ugh.  It's not the first time either.  I'm going to say this as nicely as I can, but bluntly speaking, I'm not going to miss them.  Adams regressed this year (one of the guys behind me said it's because he's not playing out wide like he should), Chatman puts up points but screws it up at the worst possible moments. What are they going do without them? How about maybe, win.  18 turnovers, many by guys who are experienced enough to know better, way too many.  A sneaky stat lately, and I'd have to look back to see if this is a recent development - the Bulls have been outrebounding teams, or pretty even, and scoring more in the paint.  It's not what I would expect from this lineup.

Zakir - I don't know why we didn't see more of him, he had a nice putback and foul early on.
Wilson - a little ragged today, he and others had a tough time driving to the net.
Sabol - wasn't getting looks, as soon as my brother said "he only has 1 point" he hit a three.
Fulcher - was getting beat off the dribble by their quick point guard. For these guys, a lot of this can't just be taught, they have to play and learn it themselves, so all this game time is valuable.
McVeigh - actually hit a couple shots, and had a couple scrappy rebounds.

Ohio - Clayton was ridiculous.  I was amazed at the times he actually missed.  This game is a little closer if Ohio doesn't manage to shoot 42% from three. 

There were times that not a single student (outside of the band) put their horns up for a free throw. For shame.

In the end, Ohio hit too many from three and UB turned it over too much.  The team defense has gotten better though - they're extending opposing possessions, they're not giving up so many easy buckets. It felt like the kind of game 2 months ago they would've lost by 25.  The fact that the team is still playing hard tells me that either (a) the coaching staff hasn't lost them or (b) they're trying to each make the best possible highlight film for other teams to see.  The optimist in me hopes for the former.  I keep finding this season that I just like going to games.

I agree on Adams, but the Chatman hate is ridiculous. He is the only reason we have won any games at all this season and consistently puts the team on his back offensively. He would turn the ball over less and make less mistakes in general if he actually had a supporting cast, rather than borderline D2 caliber players surrounding him 

Edited March 8 by Ubbullsfan09

[DocCas86]

9 hours ago, Ubbullsfan09 said:

I agree on Adams, but the Chatman hate is ridiculous. He is the only reason we have won any games at all this season and consistently puts the team on his back offensively. He would turn the ball over less and make less mistakes in general if he actually had a supporting cast, rather than borderline D2 caliber players surrounding him 

Not sure if my recent comment is perceived as Chatman hate, so I want to try to clarify my view.  First I agree 100% that Chatman has carried this team offensively all season.  He has also lead the team in blocks and second in steals.  So they would be lost without him.

At times I observed he tried to do too much himself (or he was asked to do too much - maybe a little bit of both).  At some point in a lot of games it was clear that the opposing defense focused on stopping him, collapsing as many as 3 players on him (sometimes even that was not enough to stop Chatman).  I get that the talent around Chatman was too inexperienced, (I still expect several of the freshman to have productive D1 careers), but someone had to be open.  I felt a dynamic often evolved that was one or two on five on offense. So spirit of this observation is not a critique of Chatman, but an observation that the team concept could have been much better. 

Edited March 8 by DocCas86

[UBinMD]

19 minutes ago, DocCas86 said:

Not sure if my recent comment is perceived as Chatman hate, so I want to try to clarify my view.  First I agree 100% that Chatman has carried this team offensively all season.  He has also lead the team in blocks and second in steals.  So they would be lost without him.

At times I observed he tried to do too much himself (or he was asked to do too much - maybe a little bit of both).  At some point in a lot of games it was clear that the opposing defense focused on stopping him, collapsing as many as 3 players on him (sometimes even that was not enough to stop Chatman).  I get that the talent around Chatman was too inexperienced, (I still expect several of the freshman to have productive D1 careers), but someone had to be open.  I felt a dynamic often evolved that was one or two on five on offense. So spirit of this observation is not a critique of Chatman, but an observation that the team concept could have been much better. 

I think that is a fair assessment. I didn't perceive it as hate from you either, but yes, if 3 dudes are on you, odds would say someone was open. No guarantee that the open person would actually score, but it would probably have better odds that going into 3 people in the paint. It's not like the refs are going to reward that typically if you go 1 on 3 and get a foul call, especially MAC refs. I appreciated Chatman's contributions for sure and I can't help but think if he was eligible in 2023, JW likely would not have been fired so I give JW credit for finding him as a talent, he is a solid mid-major college player. 

[John]

2 hours ago, DocCas86 said:

Not sure if my recent comment is perceived as Chatman hate, so I want to try to clarify my view.  First I agree 100% that Chatman has carried this team offensively all season.  He has also lead the team in blocks and second in steals.  So they would be lost without him.

At times I observed he tried to do too much himself (or he was asked to do too much - maybe a little bit of both).  At some point in a lot of games it was clear that the opposing defense focused on stopping him, collapsing as many as 3 players on him (sometimes even that was not enough to stop Chatman).  I get that the talent around Chatman was too inexperienced, (I still expect several of the freshman to have productive D1 careers), but someone had to be open.  I felt a dynamic often evolved that was one or two on five on offense. So spirit of this observation is not a critique of Chatman, but an observation that the team concept could have been much better. 

We observed the same thing. This team offensively is the Chatman and Adam’s show and we can debate it is because of the inexperience or lack of talent of the other players. One game we see Williamson down low and with good ball movement and the next him just standing out in the wing and not getting the ball. It is hard to believe this coaching staff is telling Chatman and Adam’s when you are double/triple teamed don’t look for open players. Adam’s has had many games with 7+ turnovers himself. A product of so many teams in college with not enough good players or coaches that find a way to lose games. Hope to see a competitive last game and see some exciting plays from both teams and a win to end the year. Go Bulls!!!

[enrique14150]

15 hours ago, Ubbullsfan09 said:

I agree on Adams, but the Chatman hate is ridiculous. He is the only reason we have won any games at all this season and consistently puts the team on his back offensively. He would turn the ball over less and make less mistakes in general if he actually had a supporting cast, rather than borderline D2 caliber players surrounding him 

"Hate" is way too strong a word - more like "frustration."  He's a talented player who's consistently scored a lot of points for a team that needed them this year.  What frustrates me to no end is that he can score lots of points, but is the one that screws it up at the worst times, often when the game is on the line/momentum could change.  He'll get you plenty of points earlier but I don't want him to have the ball at the end.  It's like watching the basketball version of Miro Satan - a guy who will score a lot but you'll never win a thing with him.  And he was one of the only guys I've seen this year who showed a noticeable lack of effort on some plays.  He'd get beat and just stand and watch. I get that there had to be a lot of frustration this season - but that's a bad look from a team leader and veteran, who should be setting the example for the rest.  Contrast that with Jo Smith, that guy works his tail off, so does McVeigh.  He also has a bad habit of looking at the refs for calls when the immediate concern is the other team breaking the other direction in transition.  Bad optics.  I don't hate Chatman, but I won't miss him.  What happens when the shots he's taking are taken by other guys?  Do their numbers pick up? Teams are taking what, 50-60 shots a game, you're parceling them out somehow.  He's averaging 32 minutes a game, and takes about 25% of their shots - yeah he should be averaging double digits.  Every college fan wonders "what are we going to do without so-and-so?" And other guys come in, or step up, or develop.

[UBinMD]

24 minutes ago, enrique14150 said:

"Hate" is way too strong a word - more like "frustration."  He's a talented player who's consistently scored a lot of points for a team that needed them this year.  What frustrates me to no end is that he can score lots of points, but is the one that screws it up at the worst times, often when the game is on the line/momentum could change.  He'll get you plenty of points earlier but I don't want him to have the ball at the end.  It's like watching the basketball version of Miro Satan - a guy who will score a lot but you'll never win a thing with him.  And he was one of the only guys I've seen this year who showed a noticeable lack of effort on some plays.  He'd get beat and just stand and watch. I get that there had to be a lot of frustration this season - but that's a bad look from a team leader and veteran, who should be setting the example for the rest.  Contrast that with Jo Smith, that guy works his tail off, so does McVeigh.  He also has a bad habit of looking at the refs for calls when the immediate concern is the other team breaking the other direction in transition.  Bad optics.  I don't hate Chatman, but I won't miss him.  What happens when the shots he's taking are taken by other guys?  Do their numbers pick up? Teams are taking what, 50-60 shots a game, you're parceling them out somehow.  He's averaging 32 minutes a game, and takes about 25% of their shots - yeah he should be averaging double digits.  Every college fan wonders "what are we going to do without so-and-so?" And other guys come in, or step up, or develop.

Well said and it's pretty much how I feel about Adams and Chatman. There will be someone else that will come in and score. Hopefully they will also have a great work ethic, play defense and make those around them better. Those are the kind of guys you will truly miss when they are gone.