AIDAN POLLARD
Sports Editor
It’s a good year to be a Bulls fan.
This year the UB Bulls went 31-3 and ended the season ranked No. 18 in the AP poll and No. 16 in the coaches poll to secure a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.
They’ve done so well that it would be easy to argue that they should have been ranked even higher.
After their fourth conference title win in five seasons, the Bulls secured an automatic bid into the tournament.
And they’re a pretty strong pick to make a deep run.
UB’s No. 6 seed is also a Mid-American conference record, as no other team has been seeded that high in the tournament before. Previously, the record was a ninth seed shared by Kent State, Eastern Michigan and Ball State.
This is the highest seed UB has received by far, with their next best entrance to the tournament being a No. 12 seed when they were still led by head coach Bobby Hurley.
Hurley and his current Arizona State team may actually be the first team UB sees in the tournament as well, pending the results of Arizona State’s play-in game with St. John’s tonight.
If UB ends up playing their old coach, a win could be a great springboard into the rest of the tournament and increase their offense’s potential to be dominant against the nation.
UB averaged just under 85 points per game this season, placing their offense in the top ten of the nation and those average 84.8 points per game secured them as the No. 5 point scorers in the nation.
With a record like that alongside wins against Syracuse, West Virginia and St. Bonaventure, it’s hard not to see UB as an offensive force to be reckoned with.
That ability to put up points could be the factor that helps them get deep into this year’s tournament.
Though for all those points they’ve scored, not many of them have been from past the three-point line.
They hit 34% of their three-point attempts this season, ranking them 204th in the country, so any time they encounter a strong tight defense during the tournament it could easily be their downfall.
With the chaos that is March Madness, it’s impossible to guarantee the Bulls will do something special, or even anything at all. But they have had a fantastic season and earned themselves a strong spot in the tournament, and they show no signs of letting that opportunity go to waste.
They’re looking like a good dark horse to be backing throughout this year’s tournament.