For the UB men's basketball team, Wednesday's practice was a little different than all the others they've had since early December.
The reason for the difference was UB's huge 90-66 win over Eastern Michigan Tuesday night. The win, which was arguably the best game the team has played since joining the MAC, snapped the Bulls' 12-game losing streak and gave the team its first conference win of the year.
With that monkey off their back, Buffalo (4-16, 1-10 MAC) went back to work Wednesday and seemed to have a new spring in their step. The practice was up-tempo, as the team was obviously happy to have the streak behind them. They made it clear, however, that they were not going to be happy with just the one win.
"We've been saying all season that all we have to do is stop the bleeding," said Bulls center Mark Bortz. "Well, we've stopped the bleeding and now the rest of the league is going to have to watch out for us."
The rejuvenated Bulls now have their sights set on Ball State (10-10, 3-4 MAC), who they will play at Alumni Arena Saturday Night at 7 p.m. (WWKB-AM 1520). If the Bulls are to win, it won't be easy going, as the Cardinals are one of the MAC's hottest teams. They have won three games in a row, including a win Wednesday night over league-leading Kent State, and they have also won six of their last eight overall.
Although the Cardinals have been impressive recently, they've won only one of seven road games this season. According to the Cardinals head coach Tim Buckley, they recognize the threat UB poses and they won't look at Buffalo as a pushover.
"I'm glad they got their win out of the way," said Buckley. "But I think they got some momentum with the way they played the other night. They've been in almost every ball game, and they're going to be a tough match-up for us."
The Bulls will have their hands full with Ball State. The Cardinals' biggest threat is senior guard Chris Williams. Williams comes into the game as the leading scorer in the MAC, averaging 23.4 points per game.
"We're going to have to make sure he doesn't dominate the game," Bulls head coach Reggie Witherspoon said.
Stopping Williams is easier said than done. In wins over Miami (OH) and Ohio last week, Williams averaged 33.5 points per game. For his efforts, he was awarded his third MAC West Player of the Week award of the season.
UB hopes that they can make the rest of the Cardinals beat them, rather than allow Williams to control the game.
"We'll probably have different guys guarding him," said UB guard Turner Battle. "We'll just throw a lot of guys at him and see what we can do to wear him down."
If the Bulls do, in fact, control Williams, they'll have to deal with two other quality players. Matt McCollom and Cameron Echols have been playing great ball lately, and have really helped the team during their current hot streak.
McCollom is a guard who has scored in double digits eight games in a row. He is averaging 12.8 points per game for the season, but against the MAC he is averaging almost three points more per game. He has also had 56 assists this year, showing poise in running the team's offense.
Echols, a forward, is the Cardinals' main threat down low. He is averaging 13.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game and is leading the team with 15 blocks. Wednesday night against Kent State, he poured in 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
The match-up between Echols and the UB big-men will be an important one Saturday night. A big part of Tuesday night's win was the solid performance the Bulls got from their big men. Forward B.J. Walker scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Bortz had a perfect game shooting, going 7-7 from the floor and 4-4 from the free throw line. Bortz also pulled down seven rebounds.
"When we play against good post players it really forces us to concentrate more," Bortz said. "That concentration helps us in other areas so that really forces us to play better."
In Tuesday night's game, UB's offense did what it had been trying to do all season and will try again against Ball State. They moved the ball very well and were able to get the ball down low for an easy put in or kick it out to an open player on the perimeter.
The ball movement created easy shots and helped the Bulls set a new school record of 67.2 percent shooting from the field. The team did a terrific job getting the ball down low, as they scored 58 of their points in the paint.
Additionally the strategy righted one of their biggest problems this season: 3-point shooting. Coming into the game Buffalo was shooting just .284 percent from long distance. But with everything working well down low Tuesday, they took only seven threes, hitting four of them. That is a drastic improvement over their two previous games, in which they were only 5-35 from behind the arc.
"Generally in basketball things get a little easier as you get closer to the basket," said Witherspoon. "But what people don't realize is that the shots further away, the 3-point shots, get to be a little bit easier as well. It sets them up and opens up the outside. That's the way we like to play, and if we can do that I think we'll continue to shoot the ball a lot better."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
