It was a very difficult season for the men's basketball team. It was going to be a difficult season even if the team stayed healthy. They didn't.
Let's do a little basketball math experiment, shall we?
What happens when freshmen and sophomores average 32.2 minutes of action per basketball game, and then take away the team's two captains who are also the only two returning starters?
Even Mr. Wizard would not be able to whip something up to get himself out of that mess of trouble.
Head coach Reggie Witherspoon's Buffalo Bulls weren't expected to do much this season. An extremely young team in the tough Mid-American Conference has it bad enough, but when the team is handcuffed by debilitating blows through injuries to its top two players, that's just kicking a team when it's down.
Nevertheless, Witherspoon kept his troops motivated every game, and was able to field a team that despite having a poor record of 5-23 overall, 2-17 MAC, was competitive in many games. UB, however, finished last overall in the conference, traveled to Northern Illinois for a first round playoff game, and lost 81-64.
"We weren't a team that went out and beat ourselves by playing sloppy, throwing the ball all over the court," Witherspoon said. "We had our moments when that happened, but I think that in spite of all the adversity that came out, and in spite of injuries and youth, we went out and played people. I don't think a lot of it was that the other team just didn't play well, but still won. There weren't a lot of times when the team had 20 to 25 turnovers, but I think sometimes when you look at a team's record, that team has beaten itself a lot. But we were still able to compete with the best teams in our conference."
Senior Clement Smith played his final game of the season against Marshall in the Bulls' eleventh game. His absence thereafter was due to a back injury, and the loss of his eight points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game set UB back greatly.
Yet Buffalo's greatest loss came when point guard Turner Battle broke his finger in practice, right after the team won their first MAC game of the season against Eastern Michigan Feb. 11, and also snapped their 13-game losing skid. Battle was leading the team in points per game with 12.7, was third in the MAC in assists per game (4.55), and fifth in steals per game (1.9).
"It was very difficult," Witherspoon said. "We went into the season with two starters returning from the previous season, and those two were named captains, and then to lose both of them means you're essentially put back at the starting block. With familiarity and leadership and comfort level it was very difficult. A season with one starter and then down the road none. Having said that, I think the guys that stepped in really did some good things."
