ubbullrun
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|  | Buffalo - American Preview (From a UB Perspective)
« Thread Started on Mar 13, 2012, 10:23am » | ![[Quote]](http://images.proboards.com/new/buttons/quote.png "[Quote]") |
http://www.ubbullrun.com/2012/3/13/2867337/know-your-cit-foe-american
For the first round of the College Insiders Tournament Buffalo will travel to Washington to take on American University of the Patriot league. The Eagles hired Jeff Jones after Virginia let him go in 1998. During his 11 years at AU he helped the team transition from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Patriot league.
Since 2001 the Eagles have won the Patriot League regular season title four times. Twice, during those seasons, they went on to win the conference tournament. Both times they were ejected in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They did manage to give #4 Villanova a scare, leading their 2009 first round game until late into the second half.
This will be the first meeting in nearly forty years. The Eagles hold a 3-1 advantage in the series with their last win in 1973. Buffalo's last win against AU was in 1964.
.... Rest at the link
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notjuanjones
Jeff Jones
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| | Re: Buffalo - American Preview (From a UB Perspect
« Reply #1 on Mar 13, 2012, 4:53pm » | |
Welcome, ubbullrun. It's always good to see how others perceive you from afar...I'd say you have it mostly right about AU, though there are some subtleties that no one would know unless they watched us all season.
Basically, we're a team that moves the ball until we get a good look. If that happens early in the clock, fine. If it happens with two seconds left on the clock, fine. It is true that we're mainly a perimeter team, but when the offense is going right we get a lot of action on the move. We are at our best when we get several guys involved, though Charles is indeed our leading scorer. We shoot threes both because we're good at it and because we don't have a lot of options inside, though Tony Wroblicky has improved dramatically over the course of the season. Our "magic number" is 64 points--we are 17-1 when we score 64 or more, 3-10 when we don't. That's because, most nights, our defense is pretty consistent and solid.
I would disagree with the notion that we "struggled" this season. We lost four starters from last year's team--including our starting center, whom we expected to play through this season and who didn't inform us he was leaving until July. From that standpoint, winning 20 games this season was an incredible feat. And regardless of the loss to UMBC (there were a couple of others just as bad, if not worse), we had next to no shot of making the NIT unless we'd somehow won the PL regular season and gotten the automatic bid, as Bucknell did after losing in the PL tournament.
Six of those top 200 losses were expected: Georgetown, Villanova, Richmond, Bucknell (2x) and at Lehigh. (We may have beaten Richmond--the regular season opener, on the road--if we'd played them later in the season, but everybody says that, I guess.)
In looking at the Bulls from afar (see?), your team reminds me a lot of St. Joe's. They also got on the glass and had a big-time shot blocker (C.J. Aiken), didn't play that many guys and were a solid team from a solid conference. Hinkle scored 32 in that game, his best performance of the season, but I think we're a lot better balanced now than we were then.
X Factor? Crowd. Or, rather, no crowd. Like you our kids are on Spring Break, so it's likely the game will be played in front of, let's say, sparse attendance. As you note we've been great at home this season, but your Bulls will provide us another strong test. Good luck to you. Look forward to the matchup.
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Bottom Line Boots
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| | Re: Buffalo - American Preview (From a UB Perspect
« Reply #2 on Mar 13, 2012, 7:01pm » | |
I saw Buffalo play Temple in Phila. and they took Temple to a dramatic OT. They are big, can shoot, and i think should be a heavy favorite to beat our AU kids...yet only favored by 2+ points today.
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ubbullrun
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| | Re: Buffalo - American Preview (From a UB Perspect
« Reply #3 on Mar 13, 2012, 7:55pm » | |
Sounds alot like what UB fans call Reggie Ball... A ton of ball movement but UB rather than using the perimeter moves around looking for something a little closer in.
Your team did struggle. Now they may have played great considering their challenges but your record against better than 200 rpi teams is wanting. Don't take it as a slap in the face, we lose four seniors this season and I expect the Bulls to struggle next year.
But we did nearly beat Temple (if not for a bone head penalty with second left) and gave Satin Bonaventure all they could handle. We also crushed Dayton and Akron (twice).
As to the line? UB just got waxed by Ohio who was hitting everything beyond the arch even shots four or five feet out. If American shoots 40% from 3 against us it's going to be very hard on the Bulls.
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