From the Back Offices: What we're talking about this week

On Football Bowls and UB's National Standing

Robby Johnson [11:49]
CBS sports has 6 5-7 teams making a bowl....wow
That one has us in the cactus bowl vs. Arizona

Conrad [11:54]
Anywhere but Detroit and Boise

Robby Johnson [11:55]
That one would be in Tempe

Conrad [11:56]
Which would work well for me it's close and there is a teds

David Brand [11:56]
For Buffalo fans to travel it has to be on the south east coast

Robby Johnson [11:56]
Detroit would be good for me, I could just cut right through Canada

David Brand [11:57]
that is why Toronto was great

Matt [11:57]
Don't see why we won't go Bahamas or Camellia

Matt [11:57]
CMU got bahamas at 6-6 last year
and there were only like 3000 people in the building so it's not like they care about attendance

Robby Johnson [11:57]
I've only seen one projection that had us in a MAC bowl
I'd prefer one of those

Matt [11:58]
that's strange to me, because doesn't the MAC now have 5 tie ins plus some others?
I guess we're still only 4-4, but I can see us finishing with the 5th best record in the conference

Robby Johnson [11:59]
I think it's just the 5. All the projections have us replacing the Big 12, B1G, and ACC

Matt [12:03]
I don't think there's any order other than GoDaddy now though

Robby Johnson [12:03]
Yeah, the MAC assigns how they want from there
Probably based on who they think can win against certain teams

Matt [12:05]
well given the conference's terrible bowl record, that ain't working

Robby Johnson [12:06]
I don't understand how it's like that because the Bahamas, and Camellia, and Potato should be very winnable.

Conrad [12:09]
The MAC would be delusional about who which team can beat

Robby Johnson [12:15]
I feel like the MAC would be delusional enough to make a case for Miami to make a bowl

Tim [12:16]
The MAC has a backup in the quick lane and a few others. [ed. note: St Petersburg, Foster Farms, Birmingham]

Matt [12:17]
I'm putting together a projections post now

Tim [12:17]
I might favor Detroit over the other MAC Bowls... 1 - Better opponent (I'd rather lose to VaTech than be beaten by a belt team) 2 - Close enough to get 22k to the game 3 - Direct flights from MSP to DET are pretty cheap
Actually the Bowls get picks not the conference, right? I mean I am sure there is some back and forth.

Robby Johnson [12:19]
I would love Detroit. If it's a game in the south or west, I wouldn't be able to go
Considering I might make it to the Duke game for Basketball
I think the Bowls get a say as well. They get the most say when they have to replace a spot

Conrad [12:42]
Detroit wouldn't be too bad for me I can RT to Toronto for less than 600
See home for a bit but if it's a 4 figure vacation I can think of way better places than Detroit in December

Robby Johnson [12:43]
Detroit definitely isn't the vacation destination

On Retweets

Matt [12:47]
TFW LL Cool Coach RTs our FanShot rather than UBAthletics' earlier tweet of the same news

Robby Johnson [13:04]
LL Cool Coach knows where it's at

On MAC East POW, Rankings and Nevada

Tim [13:06]
How did Licata get POW (or was that east division)

Robby Johnson [13:06]
It's East Division
We have to remember that most teams were on a bye
So there weren't too many incredible performances

Tim [13:07]
yea as I typed that I remembered the other options from the east were UMass and Akron

Robby Johnson [13:07]
yeah lol

Conrad [13:19]
nationally ranked below Akron tho that hurts

Conrad [13:19]
we beat Ohio, Ohio falls like 20 spots, UB stays put

Robby Johnson [13:22]
Yeah, I thought that was unfair
If only we had that win against Penn State

Conrad [14:28]
I think Nevada hurts
every other loss is a good loss
Close losses to Top 40 BGSU and @ Penn St
big loss to top 60 @CMU
but Nevada that lost to UNLV is sticking out

Robby Johnson [14:28]
Yeah, Nevada is an eyesore

Conrad [14:28]
as a baddd badd loss

Robby Johnson [14:29]
We were on our way to winning that game. We were gaining momentum and Joe throws an INT

Conrad [14:39]
really the Licata-JJ fumble was the killer
that's the unforced error
high pass on the deep slant with pressure in the face
bad, but excusable

Robby Johnson [14:39]
Yeah, I forgot about that

Conrad [14:39]
we don't fumble that I'm sure we waltz in the end zone in a few
really the 95 yard run was the killer
we stop them at their own 5
they punt we score
they had no other offense than those two long runs

Robby Johnson [14:40]
That too, our run defense was really crappy at that time

Conrad [14:40]
and still on a per drop back basis Licata's best game this year

On Basketball Recruiting

Matt [16:08]
it hasn't even been 19 hours since "making my college decision soon"
jeez. for a guy [Brock Bertram] who's been on the radar for three years, soon could be thanksgiving

Robby Johnson [16:09]
lol
I would rather him commit before the early signing period

Matt [16:10]
yes

Robby Johnson [16:10]
Before a top team swoops him away
That, and Oats can already get started on recruiting the next class full time

Matt [16:11]
I was reading the Miami board just now. They're already up to four in this class and are talking about roster balance. They're of course talking just to talk, but

Robby Johnson [16:11]
They do have a decent class

Matt [18:48]
WE GOT HIM
WE VOT HIM IM ON MY PHONE

John McWhinnie [18:53]
I JUST GOT THE NOTIFICATION
ON IT
That just made my day

Robby Johnson [18:54]
YESSSSSSSS

Matt [18:55]
Three top 50 players at their positions nationally

Robby Johnson [18:56]
I'm speechless. Our Basketball program is going places

Tim [19:04]
NICE! Now I still go watch a game

Drew Gaczewski [19:08]
GOOD WORK TEAM
THIS WOULDNT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT US [tongue in cheek. I feel I have to say explicitly that this was tongue in cheek]

Robby Johnson [19:09]
WHOOP WHOOP

Matt [19:22]
Twitter is not reacting like I thought it would

Robby Johnson [19:22]
I feel like if he did it earlier in the day it would be better

Matt [21:15]
The Facebook post got big quickly. I'm enjoying apple puns. Gaughan RTd our post

Robby Johnson [21:17]
I think the apple puns are perfect. #TheBigApple

Tim [21:21]
247 has UB as the 1st ranked mac team and 74th in the nation but not a lot of data on their site

Matt [21:25]
Yea 247 isn't great for midmajor hoops. It's a stunningly good class
Gotta get to the 11th

Robby Johnson [21:26]
This should definitely be the #1 MAC class this year

Matt [21:28]
We've always gotten two stars where the selling point was video rather than ratings and other offers, I don't really follow rest of the MAC as much

Robby Johnson [21:30]
The MAC is mostly 2 star recruits.

Matt [21:34]
I know Zeke Marshall was a 4. Daddy's princess was a high three and so was Xavier Silas
Toledo's seniors last year and this year were considered strong classes

Robby Johnson [21:40]
Yeah, Toledo's was strong. If you take a look at CMU, all of their seniors are two stars and that is a pretty good class. Having a majority 3 star class is going to do wonders for us

Matt [22:07]
part of me wants to nickname the whole class
jay, q, jayjay, and the big apple
but I feel like that's too much. nicknames are fragile

Robby Johnson [22:08]
I think jay and jayjay are pushing it
Q is good though

Drew Gaczewski [23:23]
earthquate
thats bad, but idc

Tim [23:24]
I'd not use that as a nick name but I would have a meme ready to go..

Matt [23:25]
yea what Tim said
and like I said, they're fragile

Robby Johnson [23:25]
I agree as well lol

Drew Gaczewski [23:26]
the Equate-or
lets see how many awful ones i can conjure up
already used, but Quater Oats

On Basketball Scheduling

Robby Johnson [14:57]
Duke and Iowa State are 5 and 7 in the polls. ODU got 3 votes and CMU had a vote
Keno Davis says he thinks the MAC is getting multiple bids this year
And I disagree with that

Tim [15:13]
The question would be "What team will be worthy of an at large which would then lose the MACC?"

Robby Johnson [15:15]
I could see CMU getting an at-large, they're definitely the favorites. They return their top 9 scorers. They have a weak non-con schedule though.
Besides them, I don't think any other team is capable
3 of their non conference games are against non-Division One opponents

Matt [15:18]
same formulas as last year. they need to go 15-3 in conference to have a chance at at large with their noncon

Conrad [15:21]
think we would have gotten votes had we kept the band together?

Matt [15:21]
yes

Robby Johnson [15:21]
I'd rather have half easy games, half hard games. That's really what our schedule is like.

Matt [15:21]
if cmu got one

Robby Johnson [15:21]
And we would've had votes
We were returning a team that could possibly upset Iowa State

Robby Johnson [15:25]
Toledo and CMU have the worst schedules. They're definitely going for that 28 win mindset
It backfired on Murray State

Matt [15:26]
murray state would have been screwed either way
what do they do differently?
schedule one good team hope to win? if they lose they're in the same boat
schedule 3? if they don't win at least one they're in a worse boat

Robby Johnson [15:28]
They played Valpo and Xavier. Lost to both of them
CMU only has BYU
Toldeo's best game is Youngstown state

On Olympic Sports

John McWhinnie [16:13]
SO MUCH WINNING TODAY

Tim [17:51]
Wow great weekend for UB as a whole... vball loses but gets the help they needed and Soccer / Wrestling get it done.
Am I reading that right... Ball State lost?

John McWhinnie [17:54]
They did

Tim [17:56]
wow... So we went from what 1/5 to 1/3 you think?

Matt [17:56]
WMU has to be the favorite now that they're hosting
I'd say winner of WMU/UB has to be 65% favorite
if it's WMU 70%
Thing is, Akron could upset Miami with the exact same formula
because Miami is Ball State lite
I can't give us greater than 25% odds right now with WMU in the fold, because they're the favorite
I think before today I'd've put Ball State at 20%, UB and WMU at 35% between them, and then Kent and Miami taking 25 between them. 20 for the other three
now I'd say WMU 40, Buffalo 35, Miami 20+, Akron 5-
so yea 1/3 but WMU-Buffalo is kind of the championship match

Tim [18:03]
if we do win it all do you think Burke is gone?

Matt [18:03]
no
I think Burke is here for Dougall's career at a minimum
plus this is his area. He's not a traveling coach.
I've talked to him in person a few times. He really is someone who wants to build something great. And I want to see him pass Jean-A. Tassy's marks

Robby Johnson [18:14]
I like loyal coaches
It's good to see that there are people who want to build powerhouses

Matt [18:15]
He was an assistant here for long enough under [Michael] Thomas that I think of he were going to leave it'd be him at Green Bay this year and not his former assistant

On Fatheads

Robby Johnson [19:56]
In the process of ordering a fat head of this
It's only $35. It will be worth it
I can't believe I didn't think of this