At 3-9 (0-3 MAC), the men's basketball team is in a bit of a slump, losing five straight games since their home victory over local rival Niagara University on Dec. 11. Two of these losses came on the road against Big Ten opponents Penn State and Northwestern by a combined 15 points.
"We've been in some tough places, we've played against some big programs and had opportunities to win despite being as young as we are and I think that's good, but we've got to sustain it for longer," said head coach Reggie Witherspoon.
The Bulls have not been consistent, offensively or defensively, a trait not uncommon to teams as young as Buffalo.
"We've been good in spurts but we haven't been able to sustain it for long stretches," said Witherspoon. "We had a game here against Marshall and we held them without a point for four or five minutes, but then we had problems that occurred during the game when we weren't good at all defensively. We have to be able to sustain a higher level of play defensively and we have to use it to generate offense."
On a team with five freshmen and four sophomores, inexperience at the level of play in the college game has led UB to struggle at times, especially against teams with more upperclassmen.
"We can get them (freshmen) to a certain level of play for short stretches and the problem is that we're calling on them to play for longer than short stretches," said Witherspoon. "We've had some really good moments ... the young guys need to understand that we need a high level of intensity for a long period of time."
The playing time that last year's freshmen received seems to have paid some dividends for the Bulls, and each are expected to continue to develop and be productive, although it seems nothing can substitute for the experience an upperclassmen has.
"Turner Battle appears to be a year ahead, but that's because he played almost 30 minutes a game last year," said Witherspoon. "Danny Gilbert didn't play as much, but he's coming along quickly. Mark Bortz hasn't been able to practice for long stretches at a time, so it affects his ability to be instinctive during the game. No matter what we do, we're not going to make them juniors or seniors."
Buffalo has had some health problems, but is not ravaged by injuries. Most notable is sophomore Jason Bird and senior Clement Smith.
"Jason Bird got sick and he's getting better, but he became weak due to the sickness. He's trying to work his way back in, and he had a pretty good practice Tuesday," said Witherspoon. "We didn't know what was wrong with Clement Smith until recently. He has a stress fracture in his back. Initially we thought it was just back pain, and he's been trying to play on it since right around the Canisius game."
With Smith's injury, Witherspoon is forced to play freshman B.J. Walker, Bortz, and senior Joe Veal more often. He is also changing his offensive and defensive strategy to accommodate the personnel changes.
"We're working on throwing a few different wrinkles in, because we have to in light of our health status. We have to be able to do a number of things defensively. We are also working on using our defenses to help score some points, again because of our health status."
"Defensively we need to concentrate for 40 minutes," said Battle. "It's the small things, not being in the ball box, taking charges, not seeing both the man and ball. It's these things that are kind of keeping us from moving forward."
The next challenge is defending MAC Champion and Elite Eight finalist Kent State, led by senior Antonio Gates (21 points per game). Last season the Bulls were the only team to beat Kent State in the MAC.
"We don't have it all down, but it's our hope we can keep them from having their things all down too," said Battle. "It's a great challenge. They really have been playing very, very well."
Buffalo will have to be creative in defending Gates, who has led Kent State. The Golden Flashes are coming off a four-point home loss to Bowling Green after holding a 24-point lead.
"We need to contain Gates," said Battle. "It's hard to shut him down, but if we can contain him maybe we can limit his ability to make the players around him better."
"Gates brings a load, there's no doubt about that," said Witherspoon. "For us the match-up we would have normally used would be Clem Smith. So it's going to be a huge challenge for our young guys to stay alert long enough to make it difficult for him and the rest of the team."
Despite the Bulls' current freefall Witherspoon believes the program is headed in the right direction.
"I think we're moving forward. I think our young guys have definitely gotten better and more acclimated to the college game. It's allowed us to go in and play against programs with more experience and have an opportunity to win. We just haven't gotten to the point where we are comfortable enough and poised enough, in difficult environments, to close things out."
