mbb 2019 Game #19: 1/18/20 - 7:00PM @ Stony Brook

[jimbo]

Here’s a fact....UA was 0-4 in conference at this point last season....about to go 0-5. This year we are 3-1. Why all the negativity? I’m not a coach and don’t pretend to be, so when WB says that they are learning how to win, I’ve got to take that as progress and the record speaks for it. 

Clark will amaze you one minute and break your heart the next. Cam will light it up at times and then go colder than Siberia. Hanson and DeSousa are both athletic as heck, but the total package of skills aren’t there.  Hutch is a revelation and Doherty yet a mystery.  French is the missing man, Hanks tries hard, Lulka maybe will get it all going. JoJo...who the heck knows? They were really competitive yesterday, but SB shot a little better....that’s about all. 

[godanesgo99]

14 hours ago, Real Purple Fan said:

We will agree to disagree. I want to see the kids win in life as much as I  do on the court. And if Rizzuto saves a life Idc if he ever scores another point. Your comments have nothing to do with someone's feelings being hurt. They have to do with the team being 3-1 in conference play and everyone acting as if they are 0-4.  I definitely don't know who you are and idc to know you. I never planned on being a part of "the board" and may never post again. Regardless of how often you post, it doesn't make your opinions more relevant than others. 

I've tried to argue with people on the boards (here and the AE board) that they should be less negative on the players, and through the conversation I've come to see, and agree with, some of their points. That said, I'm with you on most of your comments. I hate reading that so and so sucks and this player doesn't belong in D1, and so forth. Back to the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all".

That said, players should 100% not be looking at the sites. They should have them blocked. These are fans discussing their observations of what happened on the court. It's unfiltered and can get nasty at times. That is part of the fun of being a fan. As long as the topics stay with performance on the court, you will see rah rah posts in good times and suicidal quotes in bad times.

This team has vastly underperformed expectations so far this year. 3-1 in conference or not, they just haven't looked good. With what appeared to be (and still does) an easy schedule, the team is ___________ among 350 D1 tema

 271 in points per game

 253 in field goal percentage 

 243 in turnovers

 213 in assist to turnovers

 213 in blocked shots (actually good for a UA team)

 213 in rebounding (typically an area UA shines in)

276 in Adjusted offensive efficiency

198 in Adjusted defensive efficiency

302 in ORating

 

 

 Those are not numbers of the team we were expecting.  While there is talent there, we all knew the team would be light in the play of the bigs, and knew it would be a guard heavy lineup.

 194 in assists

 167 in 3pt %

158 in FT%

194 in tempo

Injuries have definitely hurt, but based on the talent we put on the floor, and the schedule, those are pretty bad results. It causes superaddicted fans to pull their hair out. 

The biggest problem I see right now is the ability to put an entire game together. Only in the Canisius game did the team perform start to finish. Even Potsdam had us looking bad for stretches.

They hit the floor and show they have talent and can run any team off the floor for 10 minutes then don't score a field goal for 5 minutes. This is something that needs to be fixed, and now, or the team will end with a 4 or 5 seed and lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.

Rizzuto: love what he does off the court. Great ambassador for the program. Hustles and has talent. Has not produced this year, and outside of a few good minutes has been a negative.

DeSousa: still the best athlete on the floor. Proved he might be the best player on the team against St. John's. For some reason he hasn't performed in other games. When you have his length and athleticism, fans expect him to take over for stretches not finish a game with 0 field goals.

Healey: one of the best shooters in the country. Not sure why he has been so cold shooting the last few games. 

Clark: best ball handler on the team, potentially in the AE. Always brings top energy, and has been my favorite player on the team for 2 years. Still forces too much at times and it makes fans batty. Love his energy.

Hank: although he didn't play much early, he has outperformed everyone's expectations. Wish he would get more than 10 minutes a game.

Lulka: Can't comment yet. He has underperformed, but that's understandable with the injuries. Fans need to let him get back to full game shape before complaining too much.

Hutch: major positive surprise so far

Lauderdale: fun to watch. Free throws are a gas. Needs to work on his hands

JoJo: whatever he brings is a bonus. Hopefully he gets in better game shape soon to help down the stretch, has his surgery in the off season and is 100% for next year

Hansen: Glad he isnt chucking 3s anymore. Has been solid defensively, but we haven't seen what he brought to the team in Canada yet. 

French: when given the opportunity this year he has shined. I wonder how he can earn more trust and get some more minutes. 

Doherty: he was highly touted, and supposedly the best passer on the team in the preseason. I'm ok with him taking a year to learn the level. Not sure why we didn't red shirt him if he was only gonna play mop up time.

Shafer: no idea what he will bring when he returns. 

I can't think of a player on the team that I don't want in purple and gold. All great kids with bright futures. Kids that I am proud to call #purplefam. Kids that I am happy that my actual kids look up to and idolize. That said, when they underperform, it's expected that a fan message board for a D1 program with a history off success and a decent number of fans will rip into them. Go read the Kentucky fan boards this season. With some of their losses so far the posts there have been crazy bad. 

If you actually have connections to the team, please, I beg of you, find a way to block access to these boards on their phones and computers.

Edited January 19, 2020 by godanesgo99

[Dane Pound]

16 minutes ago, jimbo said:

Here’s a fact....UA was 0-4 in conference at this point last season....about to go 0-5. This year we are 3-1. Why all the negativity? I’m not a coach and don’t pretend to be, so when WB says that they are learning how to win, I’ve got to take that as progress and the record speaks for it. 

 

Thank you for putting things in perspective!

We're 3-1 in conference with 3 of those games on the road. We just lost to a top 100 team (roughly) on their home floor.

[Dane06grad]

I agree that players shouldn't be reading this, but if you know its out there and your name is being brought up, sometimes it can be hard to stay away. This boards opinion may not matter about a person, but to that person the opinions might matter a lot. Its easy to say get tougher and thats life, but they are 19 years old. It ain't that easy.

I would like to see less unfiltered criticism of the players, and more on the system and overall performance of the team, if it has to be that way. "Out of control play from Clark is killing us" is a lot different from "Clark doesn't even deserve a spot on this team. He should be let go and never come back so this team can have a chance to win". Those aren't word for word quotes, but I would imagine people can understand what I am getting at.

I get it, if things aren't good we can't sit here and act like they are. But I think the UNH game was a good example. The UNH game made me shake my head and start getting really frustrated with this board. The rollercoaster of comments and emotions was CRAZY. We went from this team SUCKS, anther loss, I can't watch, I have to turn it off..... to talking about how it was a gutty win and we got out of there 3-0. I think we can all agree its gonna be an up and down season and we will be in the hunt at the end for one home game in the tourney, but probably not two. Enjoy the season, we wait all year for it and its only so long!

 

[godanesgo99]

There are a few fans on this site that are open with their emotions and at times go over the top with the can of gas and a match. It's their right to post their opinions and feelings. I wish they would tone it down a bit at times, but that is part of being a fan.

The sad part is that the overly negative posts have driven some fans away from the site as well. I know multiple people who go to all the games and are big fans, but they hate coming to the site because of the negativity. I have heard stories from people connected to the program that it got in some players heads and affected their play. May have caused some to transfer or never attend in the first place when they were searching for schools.

I don't expect everything being rainbows and sunshine. I expect their to be a post about a bonehead play or a forced error. I expect criticism of players when they have a bad game. I expect people to share their opinions and I don't want anyone censored, but reading through this thread again is harsh. 

I stopped reading the football section early last season because it got so negative. Hopefully it doesn't get that bad here.

[Clickclack]

6 minutes ago, Dane Pound said:

Thank you for putting things in perspective!

We're 3-1 in conference with 3 of those games on the road. We just lost to a top 100 team (roughly) on their home floor.

To be fair... Two of those wins are against 300+ plus teams in the ae who will be fighting for dead last. Unh was a good win... Last night it's not a shock they lost. However, most of the conversation has been about same 2 or 3 guys carrying the program. They could very well be 2-2 with only two wins being against the drags of the conference. This week is going to tell us a lot. Simply saying, well they are better then the horrible start last year on its face may be a good thing but let's face it...can't get any worse. They haven't really played well half to half or game to game. Deep into a second rebuilding year there are some fairly significant issues with roster construction and development of players. Many kids aren't performing even to minimum expectations. Against a weak schedule they are a .500 team. Program hasn't been competitive with Vermont in many years. It's just the truth...who can argue this fact. Yesterday Stony Brook shut everyone down but 3 guys who were pushing to hard and inefficient. Wasn't a well played team game. If you watched it they are way more athletic, physical, longer... Good first half... Down 13 in the second half they didn't really have a chance. 

 

No choice but to wait and see how things develop. The program is struggling to win... Even with cremo and Nichols here... They didn't win anything meaningful. Recruiting on paper looks decent but player development just isn't there. Look up and down roster.. Who's better today then when they got here. 

 

I for one am frustrated... I don't think we need to or should expect to win every game. But last night was disappointing... Same 3 guys throwing all they got against the wall. Healy 15 shots, Clark 21 shots.. The other starters 0-6 from the field... That's it. Outside of Adam... bench produced 4pts. 4pts...that's it. That's the reality people need to come to grips with. 

 

 

[Clickclack]

With the above said... Time for me to post less... Should significantly help pull up the happiness quotient and bring in better recruits, better fans and prevent players from transferring. 

[godanesgo99]

7 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

With the above said... Time for me to post less... Should significantly help pull up the happiness quotient and bring in better recruits, better fans and prevent players from transferring. 

Don't post less. Post your thoughts and knowledge. Just censor yourself a little. There is a line between puppies / bunny rabbits / rainbows and death and destruction that can be found. 

My comment on players leaving or not coming is tongue in cheek and based on a comment that was shared with me. I hope players would never make a decision based on how the fans act on a message board - although they do make one based on facilities and game atmosphere in many cases. 

[Clickclack]

12 minutes ago, godanesgo99 said:

Don't post less. Post your thoughts and knowledge. Just censor yourself a little. There is a line between puppies / bunny rabbits / rainbows and death and destruction that can be found. 

My comment on players leaving or not coming is tongue in cheek and based on a comment that was shared with me. I hope players would never make a decision based on how the fans act on a message board - although they do make one based on facilities and game atmosphere in many cases. 

It's all good man... Good luck to all the programs at UA I very deeply care about. I truly mean that. 

[UA'08]

Oh lord message boards getting into players heads 😂. What has the world come to?

[Eli]

Wow.

2 pages of whining about how/what people post 🤣.

Feel free to use my game thread templates. Or don't. Up to ya'll, I'm out.

[Dane Pound]

2 hours ago, Clickclack said:

To be fair... Two of those wins are against 300+ plus teams in the ae who will be fighting for dead last. Unh was a good win... Last night it's not a shock they lost. However, most of the conversation has been about same 2 or 3 guys carrying the program. They could very well be 2-2 with only two wins being against the drags of the conference. This week is going to tell us a lot. Simply saying, well they are better then the horrible start last year on its face may be a good thing but let's face it...can't get any worse.

 

 

I agree they aren't world beaters we beat but they're the same quality of team we were losing to last year. It's progress. Not as fast as I would like but it's improvement.

The irony of all this is, at the start of the year it was you who pointed out that we were one of the youngest teams in the conference and said .500 would be a large improvement. I agreed with you then and still feel the same way although I'd like to finish well over .500

[nysteve661]

Hello all.  Took a while to catch up on these posts and to watch the game on replay today as I was busy last night.  Will keep it short but I have been critical of players too, probably too much due to frustration.  Many of you have stated the obvious, the team is improved over last year record wise, although several players have not or regressed.  Function of the weak schedule, a few lucky breaks, etc.  I will also temper my criticism on individual players.  That doesn't mean that maybe CB and his homegrown staff may be criticized.  I posted here at start of season that his staff may not challenge him or make suggestions due to their history together and this may be affecting player recruiting, player development, practice quality, or in game decisions.

The roster is created by CB and his staff.  He stated at start of season that wants 5 guys on the floor who can score.  Certainly does not have that, thus the .500 record.  

Let's see where they end up by end of season, although after 20 games, they are what they are at this point.  I will tone it down.  I do enjoy the comments and knowledge you fellas post.  In the end, all we want is a successful basketball team for our alma mater.  Go Danes!

[Dane06grad]

1 hour ago, nysteve661 said:

Hello all.  Took a while to catch up on these posts and to watch the game on replay today as I was busy last night.  Will keep it short but I have been critical of players too, probably too much due to frustration.  Many of you have stated the obvious, the team is improved over last year record wise, although several players have not or regressed.  Function of the weak schedule, a few lucky breaks, etc.  I will also temper my criticism on individual players.  That doesn't mean that maybe CB and his homegrown staff may be criticized.  I posted here at start of season that his staff may not challenge him or make suggestions due to their history together and this may be affecting player recruiting, player development, practice quality, or in game decisions.

The roster is created by CB and his staff.  He stated at start of season that wants 5 guys on the floor who can score.  Certainly does not have that, thus the .500 record.  

Let's see where they end up by end of season, although after 20 games, they are what they are at this point.  I will tone it down.  I do enjoy the comments and knowledge you fellas post.  In the end, all we want is a successful basketball team for our alma mater.  Go Danes!

I am with you, the system and progression of a team is on the coaches. They have to bring in people that fit the system. The team is still pretty young. We were all hoping for a bigger step forward this year, but a lot of people agreed JUCO wasn't the way to go anymore. We have a lot more 4 year guys right now than we have in years passed. It appears it may take a little longer than wanted, but if next year is indeed the start of a good run for the program, I can wait one more. 

[Bball2020]

The team is young, the team has a winning record, the team is 3-1 in conference and just lost by 8 on road to number two best team in conference. What are yall complaining about? Like I said its odd that lulka, desousa and rizzuto havent had a good string of games yet, but team is fine. Fun to watch. Love hutch, clark top 10 player in conference, healy great shooter.