Bonnies @ SUNY-Buffalo Game Thread (12/30, 7:00 PM)

Disappointing loss, obviously. Insert obligatory remarks here about the team showing a lot of heart in the final minutes to make it close.
 
Bonnies got honked. Better luck next game.

Pissah!

Aloha!
 
PYBonnie05 said:
Regan wasn’t too bad.

The substitution- probably due to UB throwing athletes at the guard position. Jordan is a great defender and Segu isn’t bad. Kyle was also going the full length of the court on several possessions due to rebounding position. No Court this year to be a secondary ball handler. English and AJ will get there.
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They're trying more with English, but he's got to get there fast. We're gonna start playing teams like Dayton and VCU that will press the hell out of us. That's when we're in trouble...
 
A few thoughts:
  • Why did Schmidt take Lofton, Welch and English out in the first half? This one really baffles me considering his tendencies
  • 4 threes at a 20% clip wasn't gonna cut it
  • Free throws were the difference in this one. Both shot at a 77ish clip except they shot 21 more times than we did. The first couple games when we didn't get fouls shots we didn't drive to the hoop and get inside, this was the exact opposite today (52 points in the paint), wasn't much consistency from the officials here
  • UB had a really good strategy going into this game, attack Shoon and get him into foul trouble. Worked like a charm and they ended up out-rebounding us, held him to 6 points in 17 minutes of play. Playing against Mballa was almost the equivalent of insider trading.
  • Kyle and Dom had 46 combined tonight they average around 27ppg, they've only eclipsed 30pts together once before this season. They had 35 against Siena, which oddly makes us 0-2 when they score more than 30pts combined. No surprise bench points in these losses were a combined 15.
I'm glad we fought until the bitter end and made it interesting, that showed mental toughness. I'm not happy, but I'll take the heat check before conference play.
 
English has the stones to get better. AJ just needs time (and to learn... he has so much to learn).

Here’s a point I wouldn’t dare make on the Bandwagon due to misinterpretation and general ignorance:

Look at our roster this year. There are 2-3 players who play major roles with us who wouldn’t sniff the court on that UB team and most other D1 teams. I know most teams have that, but they don’t play the minutes our guys do. They’re nice guys this year (not so in past years), but they’re not going to contribute enough offensively to win games like that.

UB’s run was fueled by brick threes on our end and their speed.
 
PYbonnie, im with you on 2 of the 3, not sure I know who the 3rd is at this time. One of them I’ve suspected is overmatched for a while, and oh my God did he ever look horribly overmatched offensively tonight.

That’s just it though. Right now we have 2-3 guys who possess, maybe, the ability to break through as scorers but none of them are there yet on a consistent basis. And that’s discouraging in nights like tonight where the offense is stagnant, choppy and Difficult to watch for long periods, and yet, we only lose by 5.
 
SlaughterHouseSBU said:
A few thoughts:
  • Why did Schmidt take Lofton, Welch and English out in the first half? This one really baffles me considering his tendencies
  • 4 threes at a 20% clip wasn't gonna cut it
  • Free throws were the difference in this one. Both shot at a 77ish clip except they shot 21 more times than we did. The first couple games when we didn't get fouls shots we didn't drive to the hoop and get inside, this was the exact opposite today (52 points in the paint), wasn't much consistency from the officials here
  • UB had a really good strategy going into this game, attack Shoon and get him into foul trouble. Worked like a charm and they ended up out-rebounding us, held him to 6 points in 17 minutes of play. Playing against Mballa was almost the equivalent of insider trading.
  • Kyle and Dom had 46 combined tonight they average around 27ppg, they've only eclipsed 30pts together once before this season. They had 35 against Siena, which oddly makes us 0-2 when they score more than 30pts combined. No surprise bench points in these losses were a combined 15.
I'm glad we fought until the bitter end and made it interesting, that showed mental toughness. I'm not happy, but I'll take the heat check before conference play.
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I believe the substitutions of Kyle, Dom, and Jaren were because SUNY at Buffalo sped us up. Our guys were gassed. Hectic, shitty basketball will do that.

If we shoot like shit from deep, we struggle. When the opponent lights us up from deep, we struggle (Davidson every damn time we play them). That's college basketball nowadays. You have to hit shots from deep.

Mballa was a major factor. Graves played out of his mind despite being a huge known in this game. That frustrates me. He had far too many open looks to keep them close enough in the first half and that is inexcusable.

Waiting until Sunday for the next game will suck, but let's hope shit gets corrected in these next few days. We had opportunities in this game despite not playing very well (except Kyle, who looked like he was healthy and back to normal).
 
PYBonnie05 said:
English has the stones to get better. AJ just needs time (and to learn... he has so much to learn).

Here’s a point I wouldn’t dare make on the Bandwagon due to misinterpretation and general ignorance:

Look at our roster this year. There are 2-3 players who play major roles with us who wouldn’t sniff the court on that UB team and most other D1 teams. I know most teams have that, but they don’t play the minutes our guys do. They’re nice guys this year (not so in past years), but they’re not going to contribute enough offensively to win games like that.

UB’s run was fueled by brick threes on our end and their speed.
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I know Bobby is included in the 3, but who are the other two? Matt Johnson and AJ? I'll give AJ the benefit of the doubt for now, I think he has a high ceiling but at the moment he has an important bench role in which his scoring is very volatile.
 
Community Bank 3Pt Tee said:
PYbonnie, im with you on 2 of the 3, not sure I know who the 3rd is at this time. One of them I’ve suspected is overmatched for a while, and oh my God did he ever look horribly overmatched offensively tonight.

That’s just it though. Right now we have 2-3 guys who possess, maybe, the ability to break through as scorers but none of them are there yet on a consistent basis. And that’s discouraging in nights like tonight where the offense is stagnant, choppy and Difficult to watch for long periods, and yet, we only lose by 5.
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Exactly, man. The third kid is a bit less obvious but still wouldn’t play on that UB team.
 
I'd have to look back on it, but I think Lofton was subbed out at around 5:10 left in the 1st. I'm guessing Schmidt was trying to play the extra rest game around the U4 timeout.
 
AJ is going to be a player for us. Once he learns what we’re doing on both ends, he could be the answer at the two. He also came to us slightly out of game shape. That won’t happen this year.

Having a year in our system is damn important. With only a few exceptions, most of our kids get better with time. Redshirt or transfer years are underrated opportunities for player development.
 
Frustrating.

This is repeated every year, but the staff simply MUST upgrade the second unit. We have few, if any, specialists to bring off the bench (see: secondary ball handler; catch-and-shoot guy). It’s great to have long athletes, but some heady basketball junky guards (basically, another English type and a true backup PG to develop) would go a long way in complementing Lofton and Welch. As is, the roster makeup beyond the top five or six gets a bit redundant.

Tough nights for Bobby, Amadi, and Osun. The latter of whom needs to chill with the attempted charges and reaching from the weak side. Beat your man to the spot and use that wingspan, baby!
 
Yep. Dave Moore would coach that out of him. It’s so damn instinctual to do it, though.
The charges are part of his game and our plan, but he tried too frequently.
The drop off to the second unit isn’t as bad as last year, but it’s bad.
 
We got bullied by Mballa and let the same guy that killed us last year do the same exact thing this year. However, 21 fewer FT attempts despite outscoring them by 20 in the paint is questionable officiating at best. That, coupled with an atrocious 3 point shooting night really did us in.

First 15 minutes of the game we looked like a top 5 A10 team. The next 23 minutes after that we looked like a big pile of shit. Oh fucking well.
 
Bill Russell said:
Frustrating.

This is repeated every year, but the staff simply MUST upgrade the second unit. We have few, if any, specialists to bring off the bench (see: secondary ball handler; catch-and-shoot guy). It’s great to have long athletes, but some heady basketball junky guards (basically, another English type and a true backup PG to develop) would go a long way in complementing Lofton and Welch. As is, the roster makeup beyond the top five or six gets a bit redundant.

Tough nights for Bobby, Amadi, and Osun. The latter of whom needs to chill with the attempted charges and reaching from the weak side. Beat your man to the spot and use that wingspan, baby!
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I know I'm stating the obvious and preaching to the choir here. With Kyle being pretty darn good, the quest for a backup PG will take a kid who is willing to take less PT (even a true backup PG who will accept the role). Kids like that are so rare these days in this "me" generation. Same issue we had with Jay being Jay and struggling to get a quality backup PG. We certainly need one, though. Totally agree that we need specialists off the bench. AJ will get better and will be solid in the coming years. Schmidt's trust level for the current bench guards (aside from AJ) is minimal to nonexistent.
 
PYBonnie05 said:
Yep. Dave Moore would coach that out of him. It’s so damn instinctual to do it, though.
The charges are part of his game and our plan, but he tried too frequently.
The drop off to the second unit isn’t as bad as last year, but it’s bad.
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Not only is it risky for foul trouble, it's pussy shit too. Man up and stuff these assholes into the 5th row...
 
TullyBonnie11 said:
With Kyle being pretty darn good, the quest for a backup PG will take a kid who is willing to take less PT (even a true backup PG who will accept the role). Kids like that are so rare these days in this "me" generation. Same issue we had with Jay being Jay and struggling to get a quality backup PG.
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While I can certainly sympathize with this reality, it sort of falls on deaf ears when SBU is shucking about a million annual oysters for the head guy. Be it a grad transfer from a lower level or something else, it has to get done.
 
Parting shots to UB and a quick reflection on the team and this new forum-
UB’s “transformation” to what they are now is typical of big state/public schools jockeying for more. Many of us here have questioned former coaches and their recruiting (and rightly so). I’ll take a shot at their athletic department. It infuriates me that any of my tax money goes to these types of schools. What’s my return? Mballa isn’t going into biochemistry... I’ll gladly pay for their excellent academic programs knowing it’s an investment.

In Reggie’s days, they had a Zach (fucking) Filzen or Javon McCrea who could beat you every 3 years or so depending on role players (Skeete, Regan, etc.). They were a solid team most of the time. Now it’s baller U and is a destination for transfer players with minimal ties to Buffalo or the current staff. The Hurley effect and generating resources did that. However, it’s all built on sand. One or two pedestrian seasons (or, God forbid to their Twitter fanbase, a losing season) and things will crumble.

This Bonnies team is solid and getting better. Sure we have missing pieces (see above posts), but we don’t have the headcases around like last year. 5/6 place seems likely but so much of that is dependent on injuries (to us and others).

I like this forum. I once thought the BW could be saved...The extreme ignorance and provincial views of some posters openly expressed in the Men’s basketball!! section were just wrong. I know for a fact that some players in the last decade would check that place out (along with a certain Blog). It’s embarrassing. Hell, my chainsaw forums have a better tone of tolerance and acceptance than the BW. A solid game thread here that I actually re-read today despite the loss.

TL;DR, I know...
 
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Definitely good to see Kyle being Kyle again. The bottom line is this team needs to get more consistent. We go on a great spell (up 26-14 in the first half) then make stupid mistakes. I love when Dom has his swag going and gets hot from 3, but too often he forces contested 3's that miss badly - he had a couple of those in the first half and it seemed his play went downhill from there. Osun still needs to work on his decision making when it comes to fouling (when to take a charge, when to let a guy go and when to go all-in for the block). Bobby makes a lot of blue collar hustle plays, but has otherwise been a liability. Unless he has a wide open cut to the basket, the only time I went him touching the ball on the offensive end is cleaning the glass. AJ and Winston are still young and have time to develop, but we really need consistency from at least one of them if everyone other than Kyle can't get it together. Is it just me or does Winston's full game impact highly correlated with his overall play in the first 7-10 minutes? He is either dialed-in early or looks lost for 40 minutes.
 
I heard that bobby is absolutely lights out in practice— never misses a three— and that’s why he still has a green light. But dear lord he’s got a nasty case of the yips. Not sure what the solution is. To me his jumper is fugly but he would be an asset on offense if he can find his stroke again. If not, he’s got to pass it off beyond the arc.
 
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