This recent four-year stretch by the men's basketball team can be considered the best in program history.
Before they arrived on the Buffalo campus in 2008, it was a program that had lost its luster after a couple of losing seasons.
Although Bulls did have a couple of noteworthy years, including the 2004-05 season in which they went 23-10 and were a tip-in away from earning their first berth to the NCAA tournament, there was still something missing in a program that has gone 110-173 since joining the Mid-American Conference.
In the four years since, this senior squad of forwards Mitchell Watt, Titus Robinson, and Dave Barnett, and guard Zach Filzen have helped to take the program to a new level. The members of the winningest group in history finished their careers with a 79-49 record, with three 20-win seasons.
To keep that in perspective, the University of Buffalo has been playing basketball on three different levels since 1915, and until 2008 had only one 20-win season, which was the 23 games won by the 2005 Bulls.
More importantly, this team has been tough to beat at home, providing competitive basketball for the True Blue faithful. Over the last four years, the Bulls were 43-13 in the confines of Alumni Arena. The implementation of True Blue in 2007 has been a big part of that success, as teams have had a hard time beating the Bulls in Buffalo, something that teams like Connecticut, BYU, and Akron quickly found out.
There were many great moments during this stretch, from the close loss to then second ranked Connecticut, in which Buffalo was a Rodney Pierce turnover away from the upset, to the amazing finish by the Bulls against Western Michigan in which Matt Stainbrook missed two crucial free throws with 1.5 seconds left in the game with a packed student section flustering the Broncos' big man.
This past season has been arguably the best in Bulls history. Although they once again fell short, losing in the semi-finals of the MAC tournament, this year was not a failure. Buffalo went 20-11, with a school-record 12 wins in the MAC. There have been some impressive games: the 84-55 drubbing of a solid Dayton team on the road, sweeping Akron, which finished with the best record in the conference, and sweeping all of their games against the MAC West, including a thrilling come from behind win against Toledo.
Through it all, we were treated to arguably the best shooter in program history in Filzen, and one of the best big men duos in program history in Watt and sophomore forward Javon McCrea. Others are noticing as well, because Watt looks to be the first Bull since the NBA merger to be drafted, which is very remarkable considering his physical struggles just two seasons ago. We have had players like Robinson, who is a guy that was a force defensively and on the boards, and Barnett, who earned the moniker 'Big Shot Dave' for his late-game heroics.
The hope is that the success of this group leads to successful future squads as the '05 team did. One thing is for certain, though - this group will be missed, and has left big shoes to fill.
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