Looking forward to the next 3 Games with Penn (9-2), Ball State (7-4), and @Buffalo (11-0) as this will be a good indicator of how good we really are as the Non-Conference portion of our schedule has not been as tough as many thought it would be. Penn will provide us with our biggest challenge to date, and a home win against the Quakers will give us some momentum going into MAC play. Our MAC home opener against Ball State on 1/4/2019 is very important as we didn’t match up very well with them in 2 loses last season. A win against the Cardinals will show we’ve improved since last season and prevent us from possibly starting league play at 0-2 with a trip to Buffalo on the schedule next. As for Buffalo, what more can be said as they have dominated their non-conference competition including road wins against West Virginia and Syracuse. While a road win against them would be great, I’m being realistic and just want to see us compete at a high level with the understanding we’ll get them at home later in the season and hopefully again in March in Cleveland.

(12-20-2018 03:03 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  Looking forward to the next 3 Games with Penn (9-2), Ball State (7-4), and @Buffalo (11-0) as this will be a good indicator of how good we really are as the Non-Conference portion of our schedule has not been as tough as many thought it would be. Penn will provide us with our biggest challenge to date, and a home win against the Quakers will give us some momentum going into MAC play. Our MAC home opener against Ball State on 1/4/2019 is very important as we didn’t match up very well with them in 2 loses last season. A win against the Cardinals will show we’ve improved since last season and prevent us from possibly starting league play at 0-2 with a trip to Buffalo on the schedule next. As for Buffalo, what more can be said as they have dominated their non-conference competition including road wins against West Virginia and Syracuse. While a road win against them would be great, I’m being realistic and just want to see us compete at a high level with the understanding we’ll get them at home later in the season and hopefully again in March in Cleveland.

Hopefully we play BG, WMU and Ohio in Cleveland

Buffalo plays Marquette tomorrow. That might be fun to watch.

The next 3 games should tell us more about what we should expect from this team.

I'm optimistic about this years team because of their depth, improved talent (I don't think there is any doubt the guys we lost were replaced by better players), and defense, but I'm not convinced they are a threat to Buffalo. The only road to the dance is still cutting down the nets in Cleveland.

Watertown native Nate Oats has Buffalo ranked nationally, with Marquette next on the docket

FTA:

Quote:Syracuse.com took a look at how Oats had built New York's best college basketball team this season before his squad went out and proved it against the Orange. The Buffalo News wrote Wednesday how Oats believes his team is now set up for an at-large NCAA berth even if it doesn't win the conference tournament

.

I'm good with that.

(12-20-2018 08:06 PM)Screwball Wrote:  Buffalo plays Marquette tomorrow. That might be fun to watch.

The next 3 games should tell us more about what we should expect from this team.

I'm optimistic about this years team because of their depth, improved talent (I don't think there is any doubt the guys we lost were replaced by better players), and defense, but I'm not convinced they are a threat to Buffalo. The only road to the dance is still cutting down the nets in Cleveland.

Fletcher?

(12-20-2018 08:44 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:06 PM)Screwball Wrote:  Buffalo plays Marquette tomorrow. That might be fun to watch.

The next 3 games should tell us more about what we should expect from this team.

I'm optimistic about this years team because of their depth, improved talent (I don't think there is any doubt the guys we lost were replaced by better players), and defense, but I'm not convinced they are a threat to Buffalo. The only road to the dance is still cutting down the nets in Cleveland.

Fletcher?

Understand. One guy isn't a team. Someone has to replace the numbers. This team is doing it by committee.

They are going 9 deep, and all contribute. I think they are a better team than last year. And I loved Fletcher.

For the record, the guys I was thinking about are Adway, Roberts, and another I can't remember.

(12-20-2018 09:28 PM)Screwball Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:44 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 08:06 PM)Screwball Wrote:  Buffalo plays Marquette tomorrow. That might be fun to watch.

The next 3 games should tell us more about what we should expect from this team.

I'm optimistic about this years team because of their depth, improved talent (I don't think there is any doubt the guys we lost were replaced by better players), and defense, but I'm not convinced they are a threat to Buffalo. The only road to the dance is still cutting down the nets in Cleveland.

Fletcher?

Understand. One guy isn't a team. Someone has to replace the numbers. This team is doing it by committee.

They are going 9 deep, and all contribute. I think they are a better team than last year. And I loved Fletcher.

For the record, the guys I was thinking about are Adway, Roberts, and another I can't remember.

Agree, Adway, Roberts and Rose contributed little. Adway May have helped this year but Edu is an upgrade as is Darrington. I suspect Littleton is ahead of Roberts but he certainly hasn’t shown the touch we’ve heard so much about. He HAS shown some pit bull defensive tenacity. Fletcher was such a great player, though. If he plays against UB last year I think our cries of “wait ‘til next year” would have ended.

One thing for sure with the improved guard depth we won't have Sanford and Jackson on fumes the 5 minutes of the championship like they were last year

(12-21-2018 06:54 PM)rocketpaul Wrote:  One thing for sure with the improved guard depth we won't have Sanford and Jackson on fumes the 5 minutes of the championship like they were last year

For the first time in years we have no one in the top ten in the MAC in minutes. I think only two in the top 25. Thus far the concern of bigmandepth has been managed very well by Coach K.