(01-31-2016 12:38 PM)RocketBBallFan Wrote:  

(01-31-2016 11:20 AM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-31-2016 11:02 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote:  Well, he did say "this" basketball team. This is not the same team we've had the past 3 seasons (Brown,Weatherspoon, Drummond). This staff has been doing the recruiting, though.

That's how I took Moto's comment as well. It may not be fair, but in sports what you did "yesterday" means little--it's what you do "today" that counts, and "todays" are the building blocks of "tomorrows". So maybe the Rockets will be able to forget the yesterdays of Northern, Ohio & Buffalo and build a new today on Tuesday night. I hope so because I think another slow start and deep hole dug for the 3rd game in a row at home would not be a good sign.

Then again I'm no rosy optimist, so...

I realize that sports are a "what have you done for me lately" business, but Coach K's ability to contend for a MAC title was being questioned, and I was just pointing out that they have, in fact, contended for a MAC title under his leadership.

No argument from me about we he "has" done. Let's remember that this guy didn't really apply for the job--O'Brien hand-picked him and then made the sales pitch. Now if you're Coach K, you're already building a winning program at UW-GB, at a school that doesn't have to share resources with a money-guzzling football program, in a conference that is at least as good as the MAC if not better, at a school that has had more recent success than we had hat here at Toledo...and yet sight unseen he came here. Mad props to him forever from me for taking our program off life support.

I think that earns him the right to a couple back-to-back clunker seasons now that he has "his" program. Most of us wouldn't expect that this current season would have been one of those--I think most of us thought a .500 season, particularly in the MAC, would have been acceptable with all the incoming freshmen, and that's still possible (although another loss at home Tuesday and we'll have to make up a lot of ground on the road--not easy for most teams).

Unless the bottom completely falls out in the second half of conference play, and we finish at the bottom of the division and are a first-game out in the conference tournament, I think Coach K will get another couple seasons to build this into a MAC contender again. But, back-to-back losing seasons in the conference will make his seat a bit warmer, I'd have to guess...he will be compared to guys like Keno Davis at Central, Mark Montgomery at Northern, and what's-his-name at BG--if they win a MAC championship this season or next, it won't help Coach K's case.

And if Coach K is ever fired--IF--that will not be a happy day for me. I really want to see the guy succeed here.

So I was hesitant on posting this, because I bet some people (UB fans) will probably say this is an excuse for why UT lost, which it is not. UT deserved to lose the game. But there was some questionable actions taken by a couple UB players during pregame...

During pregame, probably with ~8-10 minutes left on the pregame clock, 2 UB players & 1 UB student manager (looked like a student mgr, but not 100% sure) went to the scorers table and grabbed the official game ball that was sitting right in front of the official scorer & other people sitting there (I'm almost positive that the refs were not on the court yet). 1 of the UB players dribbled it a few times, then gave it to the student manager, who had his back turned to the scorers table. The mgr also had an 'extra' basketball in his other hand. When the 1st player gave the mgr the game ball, the mgr gave the 'extra' ball that was in his other hand to the other UB player (the scorers table couldn't see it since his back was to the table), who then dribbled it a few times and proceeded to give the 'extra' ball back to the scorers table. Meanwhile, the 1st UB player took the game ball from the mgr and proceeded down to UB's basket to continue warming up. The people sitting at the scorers table (who had no idea that they switched basketballs) then looked at each other like "What was he doing? Oh, well". The way they looked at each other made it seem like this wasn't a normal thing that players do.

(01-31-2016 08:00 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  So I was hesitant on posting this, because I bet some people (UB fans) will probably say this is an excuse for why UT lost, which it is not. UT deserved to lose the game. But there was some questionable actions taken by a couple UB players during pregame...

During pregame, probably with ~8-10 minutes left on the pregame clock, 2 UB players & 1 UB student manager (looked like a student mgr, but not 100% sure) went to the scorers table and grabbed the official game ball that was sitting right in front of the official scorer & other people sitting there (I'm almost positive that the refs were not on the court yet). 1 of the UB players dribbled it a few times, then gave it to the student manager, who had his back turned to the scorers table. The mgr also had an 'extra' basketball in his other hand. When the 1st player gave the mgr the game ball, the mgr gave the 'extra' ball that was in his other hand to the other UB player (the scorers table couldn't see it since his back was to the table), who then dribbled it a few times and proceeded to give the 'extra' ball back to the scorers table. Meanwhile, the 1st UB player took the game ball from the mgr and proceeded down to UB's basket to continue warming up. The people sitting at the scorers table (who had no idea that they switched basketballs) then looked at each other like "What was he doing? Oh, well". The way they looked at each other made it seem like this wasn't a normal thing that players do.

Uh oh. Sounds like deflategate.

(01-31-2016 08:00 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  So I was hesitant on posting this, because I bet some people (UB fans) will probably say this is an excuse for why UT lost, which it is not. UT deserved to lose the game. But there was some questionable actions taken by a couple UB players during pregame...

During pregame, probably with ~8-10 minutes left on the pregame clock, 2 UB players & 1 UB student manager (looked like a student mgr, but not 100% sure) went to the scorers table and grabbed the official game ball that was sitting right in front of the official scorer & other people sitting there (I'm almost positive that the refs were not on the court yet). 1 of the UB players dribbled it a few times, then gave it to the student manager, who had his back turned to the scorers table. The mgr also had an 'extra' basketball in his other hand. When the 1st player gave the mgr the game ball, the mgr gave the 'extra' ball that was in his other hand to the other UB player (the scorers table couldn't see it since his back was to the table), who then dribbled it a few times and proceeded to give the 'extra' ball back to the scorers table. Meanwhile, the 1st UB player took the game ball from the mgr and proceeded down to UB's basket to continue warming up. The people sitting at the scorers table (who had no idea that they switched basketballs) then looked at each other like "What was he doing? Oh, well". The way they looked at each other made it seem like this wasn't a normal thing that players do.

I also saw something that I found disturbing. At one point in the second half, a Buffalo player was walking down the court with his arm around one of the refs, and the ref had his arm around the player. Have no idea what the hell they were doing, but it just smacked of inappropriateness to me. I don't care WHAT they are talking about, they should never show behavior that has the appearance of familiarity. Makes it way too easy for people to think something funny is going on.

(02-01-2016 07:28 AM)djsfw57 Wrote:  

(01-31-2016 08:00 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  So I was hesitant on posting this, because I bet some people (UB fans) will probably say this is an excuse for why UT lost, which it is not. UT deserved to lose the game. But there was some questionable actions taken by a couple UB players during pregame...

During pregame, probably with ~8-10 minutes left on the pregame clock, 2 UB players & 1 UB student manager (looked like a student mgr, but not 100% sure) went to the scorers table and grabbed the official game ball that was sitting right in front of the official scorer & other people sitting there (I'm almost positive that the refs were not on the court yet). 1 of the UB players dribbled it a few times, then gave it to the student manager, who had his back turned to the scorers table. The mgr also had an 'extra' basketball in his other hand. When the 1st player gave the mgr the game ball, the mgr gave the 'extra' ball that was in his other hand to the other UB player (the scorers table couldn't see it since his back was to the table), who then dribbled it a few times and proceeded to give the 'extra' ball back to the scorers table. Meanwhile, the 1st UB player took the game ball from the mgr and proceeded down to UB's basket to continue warming up. The people sitting at the scorers table (who had no idea that they switched basketballs) then looked at each other like "What was he doing? Oh, well". The way they looked at each other made it seem like this wasn't a normal thing that players do.

I also saw something that I found disturbing. At one point in the second half, a Buffalo player was walking down the court with his arm around one of the refs, and the ref had his arm around the player. Have no idea what the hell they were doing, but it just smacked of inappropriateness to me. I don't care WHAT they are talking about, they should never show behavior that has the appearance of familiarity. Makes it way too easy for people to think something funny is going on.

....don't ask, don't tell

(01-31-2016 08:00 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  So I was hesitant on posting this, because I bet some people (UB fans) will probably say this is an excuse for why UT lost, which it is not. UT deserved to lose the game. But there was some questionable actions taken by a couple UB players during pregame...

During pregame, probably with ~8-10 minutes left on the pregame clock, 2 UB players & 1 UB student manager (looked like a student mgr, but not 100% sure) went to the scorers table and grabbed the official game ball that was sitting right in front of the official scorer & other people sitting there (I'm almost positive that the refs were not on the court yet). 1 of the UB players dribbled it a few times, then gave it to the student manager, who had his back turned to the scorers table. The mgr also had an 'extra' basketball in his other hand. When the 1st player gave the mgr the game ball, the mgr gave the 'extra' ball that was in his other hand to the other UB player (the scorers table couldn't see it since his back was to the table), who then dribbled it a few times and proceeded to give the 'extra' ball back to the scorers table. Meanwhile, the 1st UB player took the game ball from the mgr and proceeded down to UB's basket to continue warming up. The people sitting at the scorers table (who had no idea that they switched basketballs) then looked at each other like "What was he doing? Oh, well". The way they looked at each other made it seem like this wasn't a normal thing that players do.

Before every game both home and on the road both teams have the opportunity to check out the game ball from the official scorer. If they are not happy with it, they have the option to ask for the ball to be change. There is no conspiracy there...

The lack of intensity from the Rockets lost the game, not the basketball itself. Buffalo under Hurley had lost two straight to UT. Buffalo certainly wanted the win more than our guys.

(02-01-2016 11:08 AM)BullBoy Wrote:  Before every game both home and on the road both teams have the opportunity to check out the game ball from the official scorer. If they are not happy with it, they have the option to ask for the ball to be change. There is no conspiracy there...

Did they ask?

(02-01-2016 11:43 AM)RangerRocket Wrote:  

(02-01-2016 11:08 AM)BullBoy Wrote:  Before every game both home and on the road both teams have the opportunity to check out the game ball from the official scorer. If they are not happy with it, they have the option to ask for the ball to be change. There is no conspiracy there...

Did they ask?

That i don't know.. I wasn't there...

(02-01-2016 11:23 AM)Rocket75 Wrote:  The lack of intensity from the Rockets lost the game, not the basketball itself. Buffalo under Hurley had lost two straight to UT. Buffalo certainly wanted the win more than our guys.

Amen.