JB: Energy.
While knocking back a few brews at happy hour on Friday night, I saw a commercial on the television that sent chills down my spine and energy coursing through my veins.
It was a commercial for the Buffalo Bulls' home playoff game tonight in Amitrano Arena, and I could literally feel the energy flowing all the way from campus through the TV and into my body.
Maybe it was the buzz, but I felt like doing Merton Hanks's funky chicken across the bar floor.
The Buffalo Bulls are alive and kicking hard. The students are alive and getting nasty.
The university, one that has always reflected the apathetic views of its patrons with a palette of gray colors, is finally alive and vibrantly colorful. It's like that scene in "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy opens the door leading from the black and white world into one brimming with colors up and down the spectrum.
Less than two weeks ago I said that the Kent State game was the most important game here ever. I still stand by that statement, because it was an epic event, one that finally pushed us around the corner.
But it was only the tip of the iceberg, and from the way things are looking, this iceberg could be larger than the one that sunk the Titanic.
Some may say that the school is getting a little too conceited and cocky about its recent success. Forget them. We're not conceited, we're convinced.
This team has the talent, the heart and the desire to mow down the Huskies tonight and make a run through Cleveland.
If they can somehow parlay this magical run into an NCAA berth, only one thing is for sure.
This school will never, ever be the same.
JN: Ever since UB made its return to Division I in 1991 the school's athletics program has been questioned by naysayers who have pointed to the lack of fan support and student interest as reasons why UB doesn't belong playing at the D-I level.
Well, I can assure you that after tonight's playoff game against the Northern Illinois Huskies, anyone who questioned the school's place in major college athletics will be silenced. The 8,000 plus fans who will pack into Alumni Arena are going to snuff out any doubt that UB can make a mark on the local sports scene, a scene desperate for a winner.
Alumni Arena is becoming one of the toughest places to play in the MAC, because of the Mighty Maniacs, who spent the entire Kent State game two weeks ago on their feet. And, if that Kent State game is any indication of what the atmosphere at Alumni Arena will be like tonight with 2,000 more people there, Alumni won't feel much different than Cameron Indoor Stadium, the gold standard of college basketball venues.
A "real" college atmosphere has been present at the last few UB home games. And that atmosphere is going to come to a boil tonight. I've talked to people who plan on tailgating, despite the grim weather report, all day long.
And, while there have always been those loyal fans who research the other team's personal lives and scream their lungs out trying to get into the enemies heads, there are going to be thousands more people who are going to show up at the game and realize that the UB men's basketball team is the real deal.
