Following a road loss and sitting at 5-4, the men's basketball team traveled to Hawaii wondering how good of a team they really were. Three wins and a tournament championship later, the Bulls realized their full potential.
Unfortunately, Buffalo (8-5, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) was unable to maintain its momentum in their MAC opener at Bowling Green, losing 86-82.
Even with the loss against the Falcons, it was a successful winter break in which the Bulls tallied a 5-2 record and captured the 45th Annual Outrigger Hotel Rainbow Classic Championship.
Head coach Reggie Witherspoon realizes his team has the talent to continue its winning ways, but it comes down to his players' attitude and persistence.
"We just need to understand how important [maintaining energy] is," Witherspoon said. "Every team is going to take a couple punches, and we need to learn how to do just that."
Buffalo was able to overcome the heartbreaking blow it experienced against Connecticut on Dec. 4. The Bulls completed their home stand with blowout victories over Florida International (4-13) and UNC-Asheville (7-9).
A trip to Siena (12-5) followed the two-game winning streak, prior to the Hawaii trip. The Saints, who made the NCAA tournament and upset Vanderbilt last season, flustered the Bulls with a pesky zone defense and half-court trap. Buffalo fell to the Saints, 71-60.
The lackluster performance revealed to Witherspoon some glaring holes in the Bulls' attack. Along with the questionable energy level, he noticed a lack of execution on offense.
"We didn't have enough fight and energy to get through the adversity," Witherspoon said. "There were some things we needed to improve on, like our zone offense our ball movement."
The loss served as the turning point of the winter break schedule. Against Pepperdine (4-13) in the opening round of the tournament in Hawaii, the Bulls fell down early and found themselves down 12 at halftime. They were able to force overtime thanks to an improvement on the offensive end.
Down 71-70 with 12 seconds left in the extra period, senior guard Andy Robinson got the ball and sank a jumper before time expired, advancing the Bulls to the semi-finals.
Buffalo continued to ride the wave of momentum into their match-up with the Colorado Buffaloes (8-6). The Bulls jumped out to an early lead against the Big 12 squad and advanced to the championship game with a 62-60 victory, thanks in large part to junior forward Calvin Betts' floater with one second left. It was the Bulls' first-ever victory against a Big 12 opponent.
The championship game featured the Bulls and another team from the Centennial State, the Colorado State Rams (5-11). With an aggressive and stifling presence on the defensive side of the ball, the Bulls played arguably their best defense of the season and knocked off the Rams 67-53.
Robinson was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, averaging 12.3 points over the three-game tournament. After missing the first three games due to a suspension, last year's leading scorer has gotten back into the flow of things. However, Witherspoon wants to see more consistency from his senior guard.
"A lot of it is energy and aggressiveness for him," he said. "We're trying to get him [to be] less cautious."
The Bowling Green game occurred 11 days after the Bulls' championship victory. Rusty from a lack of game play, Buffalo came out flat and found themselves down 16 to the Falcons at halftime.
Bowling Green continued to hold a large lead until the Bulls got hot late in the game. A 15-2 run, fueled by two 3-pointers and a free throw by Betts, got the Bulls within six at 78-72 with 1:22 left. But it was too little, too late for the Bulls, who eventually fell and dropped their MAC opener for the third-straight season.
"We got too much into what Bowling Green was trying to do," Witherspoon said. "We just need focus on what we're trying to do and what we're forcing our opponents to do."
Now with a successful out-of-conference season behind them and the MAC schedule ahead, the Bulls look to change their recent conference misfortunes. During the last two seasons, the Bulls have won 14 out-of-conference games, but only seven conference games. Witherspoon hopes his players apply the same attitude they possessed in Hawaii to conference games.
"We need to improve on consistent concentration," Witherspoon said. "We have to keep pushing forward."
Look in Friday's issue of The Spectrum for coverage of Tuesday's game at Akron.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
