UBuffalo Wild Wings Postgame

[bballbeadle]

yeah I’m no optimist but there weren’t many red flags for me. We saw several long stretches of solid defense. Offensively between some rust and sloppy play - clean that up and this was 80-90 on the board. UB hit some tough contested shots included the late barrage of 3s.

Why aren’t you an optimist, Zoo?

 

[RedtheGOB]

The Debbie Downers here and I was one of them during that stretch at the end of the game need to ask themselves if our second string of Fennell/Kiyan/Betsey/Sadiq/Suare could beat our starting 5 last year. I'm confident they could.

Doesn't mean we're some top team but there's a tournament team somewhere in this group with 9-10 guys that can hoop. It may mean that JJ and even Donnie are not on the court down the stretch at end of games or maybe just whoever has the hot hand. There's gotta be a group that will shut down these runs.

 

[MGraves5]

How good/bad is Buffalo supposed to be this year? I know the 2016-2021 seasons (where were a bubble team pretty much every season) we'd be satisfied with a 10 point win over a team like Buffalo where we were pretty comfortably ahead the whole game and never seriously threatened.

 

[Cuse_NYC]

How good/bad is Buffalo supposed to be this year? I know the 2016-2021 seasons (where were a bubble team pretty much every season) we'd be satisfied with a 10 point win over a team like Buffalo where we were pretty comfortably ahead the whole game and never seriously threatened.

Bottom of MAC

 

[hoopsupstate]

We had some bad and careless turnovers tonight. We have to figure out where our best players will get their shots. This takes time and doesn’t happen the first time you play someone in another jersey. There were some warts tonight, but there were several minutes of excellent defense and well played offense. It’s only October 25 with a roster of new players. If we look like tonight in a six weeks, you can get worried. I doubt we will?

 

[Newhouser]

The Debbie Downers here and I was one of them during that stretch at the end of the game need to ask themselves if our second string of Fennell/Kiyan/Betsey/Sadiq/Suare could beat our starting 5 last year. I'm confident they could.

Doesn't mean we're some top team but there's a tournament team somewhere in this group with 9-10 guys that can hoop. It may mean that JJ and even Donnie are not on the court down the stretch at end of games or maybe just whoever has the hot hand. There's gotta be a group that will shut down these runs.

I think that's the big unknown. Will Red sit JJ if he's shooting us out of games and not guarding? Will Donnie sit if he's not impacting games. We have to be willing to play those playing well.

 

[billsin01]

The modern game is absolute crap. UB shot 9 straight threes in the last 5 minutes. I'll worry when it's time to worry. This game was like Olympic basketball, UB played like North Koreans thinking they'd be executed if they lost. Most meaningful game for them all year barring a MAC tournament run.

It would be nice to see one of Red’s teams do that one day.

 

[atlanticuse]

STARling continues to frustrate.
He needs to stop playing like he is the STAR. He is not. Better with Kingz at the 2

Is JJ like basketballs version of Collins?
I sure hope not.
Coach dopey needs to become an HC fast.

 

[orange44]

You’re seeing what you want to see. For the first 30 minutes they dominated and played everyone. Buffalo got hot and we lost our edge. Betsy and Kyle played well tonight. Everyone else played their “C” games.

Totally agree

 

[Orangezoo]

The Debbie Downers here and I was one of them during that stretch at the end of the game need to ask themselves if our second string of Fennell/Kiyan/Betsey/Sadiq/Suare could beat our starting 5 last year. I'm confident they could.

Doesn't mean we're some top team but there's a tournament team somewhere in this group with 9-10 guys that can hoop. It may mean that JJ and even Donnie are not on the court down the stretch at end of games or maybe just whoever has the hot hand. There's gotta be a group that will shut down these runs.

Donnie will be fine. Don’t forget it’s the first actual he’s played in almost a year after the injury. He started to settle in as the game hit crunch time.

JJs usage is going to come down when you look at the other options available. It’s inevitable.

 

[sufan59]

How good/bad is Buffalo supposed to be this year? I know the 2016-2021 seasons (where were a bubble team pretty much every season) we'd be satisfied with a 10 point win over a team like Buffalo where we were pretty comfortably ahead the whole game and never seriously threatened.

Picked to finish 11 out of 13 in the MAC

 

[Orangezoo]

Why aren’t you an optimist, Zoo?

Need a whole separate thread for that rabbit hole lol

 

[RealMcNeil]

Clean up the 4-5 exceedingly sloppy turnovers and this game would have been much different. Tighter lineups will do that. I think this is at least going to be a fun team to watch figure things out, and I believe they will.

 

[Cuse_NYC]

I think that's the big unknown. Will Red sit JJ if he's shooting us out of games and not guarding? Will Donnie sit if he's not impacting games. We have to be willing to play those playing well.

Even if Donnie isn’t playing well, he’s our best rebounder. He has to play.

 

[Orangezoo]

Picked to finish 11 out of 13 in the MAC

They definitely looked a better team than what it appears they had last year. Absent the lineup tinkering we were easily breaking that game open, doing so essentially in a road game.

 

[Todoubled23]

Really only saw parts of the first half, from that limited sample size I thought aside from the turnovers I liked what I saw.

The Post Standard indicated we played 13 different roster combinations out there in the first half alone. Some possessions the individual defense was smothering, I think if the team can gel quickly we can hold our own on that end.

Offensively looked a bit disoriented with the aforementioned turnovers, but I think that will improve too.

If it's available I'd want to watch the entire game tomorrow.

 

[Orangezoo]

Even if Donnie isn’t playing well, he’s our best rebounder. He has to play.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s the last time this year anyone will question whether Donnie is good or not or is put in the same breath as Benny.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Was looking at the #’s again. Buffalo was shooting like 20% all game from 3 until they got hot at the end. Then they hit 5 straight 3’s. Then they went cold again under a minute.

Letting them heave up a few contested late in the clock 3’s wasn’t the problem at the end. It was letting them keep doing it and not answering obvi.

Best to get those endings out of our system now but also fully acknowledge I said that last year too and the year before. If it happens again with this squad then it’s a trend and I’ll eat my words.

 

[FloridaCuse]

Classic Autry

As in - the same as last year?

 

[pearl31]

not that I'm surprised but holy hell the takes on here after an October scrimmage in which ridiculous lineup combos were used for much of it, bravo folks

 

[jgeorge322]

Is there a way to rewatch the game?

 

[dasher]

The Debbie Downers here and I was one of them during that stretch at the end of the game need to ask themselves if our second string of Fennell/Kiyan/Betsey/Sadiq/Suare could beat our starting 5 last year. I'm confident they could.

Doesn't mean we're some top team but there's a tournament team somewhere in this group with 9-10 guys that can hoop. It may mean that JJ and even Donnie are not on the court down the stretch at end of games or maybe just whoever has the hot hand. There's gotta be a group that will shut down these runs.

The guy we may not want on the floor at the end of a close game is Kyle. And that is troublesome

 

[Biaxtar]

I think all the rotation changes were a little tough for all the players. UB did not do that as frequently. I guarantee if the starters got more run with a mix of bench players at a certain times, it's a different game.

My takeaway is that defense has improved a little, three-point shooting has improved. But too many turnovers and not too many easy buckets are significant concerns.

 

[SimonSays]

Absolute love that we can put up 3’s. Seems like we’ve got multiple guys who can knock them down, and they can all be on the floor at the same time, which is nice. The difference from the last four years is huge — we used to either have shooting with zero defense or defense with zero shooting. Now it looks like there’s way more balance and versatility in who can shoot and at what clip.

The offense looks way more flowing. Someone’s always moving, which I love. But we still have little paint pressure interesting to see how that develops. i think this was a reason we don’t have as many “easy looks”. need to be able to back cut more and have different looks.

• Nait George is really good. Don’t care about the turnovers — that’ll clean up with time.

• Would like to see Kingz get more looks.

• I like the intensity of the guards on defense they’re really active.

• Donnie looks uncomfortable when he doesn’t have the ball as much.

 

[llandz]

Okay, credit to red for playing this game on the road. I think we have some very good pieces. Definitely good enough to be a tournament team. The question for me is Red, There couldn't be a bigger question mark. How would he match up with good coaches. Let alone great coaches. I didn't see anything tonight to suggest he can. But we will see.

The question is was it all about the w for Red tonight or was he sitting back and evaluating different personnel combinations. I thought that is partly what an exhibition game was for. You can't duplicate this in a practice. Even if he found a good combination, he needs to see what happens with that good combination if someone has to come out with foul trouble or an injury. This is an experimental game at best. Is there some general things to take away, sure. But don't be judging the whole season or the coaching ability on what you saw tonight. And yes playing this on the road was a very good idea.