From the bleachers

What makes a rivalry in sports?

Is it two evenly matched foes engaging in a blow-for-blow, bucket-for-bucket contest that isn't decided until the waning seconds? Or is it the hostility, albeit just below the surface, that each side has for the other? Or are rivalries created by the passion of a contestant's supporters, as they faithfully and enthusiastically cheer on their side?

While the best rivalries in sports - Ali vs. Frazier, Brazil vs. Argentina, Lakers vs. Celtics, and Bills vs. Dolphins - are a product of everything mentioned above, it's the way such rivalries create indelible moments that live forever in the memories of contestants, fans and observers of sport.

Certainly, UB against Ohio is such a rivalry. Even if it has been a little - okay, make that very - one-sided.

From the now-epic MAC championship won by Ohio in overtime on a last-second tip by the Bobcats' stud Leon Williams, to the way Ohio's Jeremy Fears dropped threes on UB in an embarrassing 90-77 loss last March, to the 92-90 run-and-gun win at Alumni last February in the Bulls first scrap with the Bobcats, coach Witherspoon's squad just hasn't been able to beat Ohio.

Heck, even Ohio's fans got one up on the Mighty Maniacs when some burnout from that school deep in the Ohio River Valley answered three trivia questions during halftime of last season's MAC tourney semi-final between our beloved Bulls and Western Michigan by answering each question with the clever reply of "What is Buffalo sucks," or some variation thereof.

Turns out that particular burnout was wrong, as the Bulls certainly didn't suck in the MAC championship game but they didn't win either, which brings us to where we are now: a Bulls squad handicapped by injuries and suspensions, and plagued by poor shooting that is in desperate need of a big win. Beating Ohio is as big as it gets.

Forget about payback, revenge, or any other words that have more to do with some Charles Bronson film or a Brian Bosworth and Tia Carrere direct-to-video flick. Last season's Bulls are no more. Saturday's home loss to Central Michigan made it abundantly clear that these are not Turner Battle's Bulls.

As outstanding as Calvin Cage has been, and as much as you have to admire the effort of Darwin Young and Andrew Atman, among others, MAC play has exposed coach 'Spoon's squad as a work in progress.

Just as the Bulls have struggled, the Bobcats have failed to dunk and flex their way through MAC play like it's some sort of extended warm-up for the Big Dance, which is when they will finally get a game.

Instead, Fears, Williams, and the rest of the Bobcats find themselves trailing Akron, Kent State and Miami in the MAC East.

Sadly, once again, the Bulls find themselves behind the Bobcats.

That can all change this Thursday night with a Bulls victory. The seniors - Cage, Roderick Middleton, Mario Jordan - can carve out an identity distinct from that of the quartet that resuscitated Bulls' hoops by doing something even Battle could not: beating the Fears and Williams-led Bobcats.

Similarly, the Bulls' freshmen, many of whom have been wildly inconsistent, will get a chance to show the Bobcats that Ohio isn't the only place where MAC frosh can ball.

No payback, no revenge. The rivalry endures, but Thursday's game is all about starting over for the Bulls, taking a mulligan for the first six games of league play and, more importantly, cementing a new tradition of beating the Bobcats.