I attended the University of Buffalo (UB) Law School from 1989 to 1992 and loved college hoops. Unfortunately, during my first two years the Buffalo basketball team was Division 2 and there was little interest in the team. For example, there was an inside running track around the same gym where the games were played, and I used to get annoyed when the track was closed as games started, especially since there were so few fans there. I remember articles in the school newspaper that the Buffalo Bulls jumped to Division 1 for 1991-92 season, but they were really bad and went 2-26. Rather than attend my own college’s games, I watched college hoops on ESPN.
The Buffalo Bulls basketball program has an inconsistent history. They were Division 1 from 1915 to 1932, then went to Division 2 and played in national tournament 6 times from 1957 to 1965. The Bulls returned to Division 1 from 1973 to 1977 but that didn’t go too well as they only won 28 games in 4 years. In 1978, the Bulls moved to Division 3 before returning to Division 1 in 1991.
So you can understand my surprise when famous Duke player Bobby Hurley became the coach in 2014 and put together a strong team – I immediately became a fan – and all UB alumni jumped on board when the Bulls became a national story in 2018 by beating highly seed Arizona in 1st Round of NCAA Tournament.
UB starting winning under Coach Reggie Witherspoon with four 20-win season from 1999 to 2013. But the program skyrocketed with Hurley as coach, who went 42-20 over two years. After Hurley left for Arizona St., Coach Nate Oats stepped in and led the Bulls to even more success with a record of 96-43 over 4 years and two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the big Arizona win and beating Hurley’s Arizona St. team in the 2019 Big Dance. Oats led the Bulls to a 32-4 record in 2018-19, and then left for Alabama. In the seven years under Hurley and Oats, UB averaged 23 wins per year. Jim Whitesell is the current UB coach and had a solid first season going 20-12. Let’s hope he can continue this golden age of UB Bulls basketball!
Interesting stuff! Hope to see UB in the Tourney bubble in 2021. The future is bright.