Rising seniors hope to step up

This is the second part of a three-part series on the UB Bulls men's basketball team.

A chant of "Thank you, seniors" serenaded the Bulls on Senior Day, after their home playoff game and again at what turned out to truly be their final game, at St. Joseph's in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament.

Turner Battle, Daniel Gilbert, Mark Bortz and Jason Bird - along with head coach Reggie Witherspoon - brought the UB basketball program to the forefront of students' attention and even to national television for the first time in the long history of the school.

But if the Bulls don't want to lose a step in a conference that most observers expect to improve next year, their three new seniors - Calvin Cage, Roderick Middleton and Mario Jordan - will need to step up and fill the gap in talent and leadership the four players are leaving.

"The young men that are still here have to take the lessons that they learned together," said Witherspoon. "Cage, Middleton and Jordan have spent three seasons with these guys."

Two years ago, the Bulls fell short in their first appearance in Cleveland, losing to the Toledo Rockets in the second round of the MAC tournament. That team had no seniors.

This year, with one of the four seniors leading the team in nearly every statistical category - including points, steals, assists, offensive rebounds and blocked shots - the Bulls reached the finals.

Losing that kind of production can be devastating to any team, especially one that went 5-23 just two years ago.

"It's still slowly sinking in," said Witherspoon. "It won't really totally sink in until we start in the fall, but it was tough seeing them pull off the jersey for the last time."

Whether or not all three of the new seniors will be in the starting lineup, or even will get more minutes than they received this year will not be decided in advance.

"I think that will be an evolution of things, certainly the guys that will be seniors are the guys that have been around here the longest," said Witherspoon. "And like the guys that are leaving they have been through a lot of difficult times."

Unlike this year's freshmen, and next year's incoming class, Middleton, Jordan and Cage experienced the rough times, the opposing coaches and players crying out that UB doesn't deserve to be in the MAC.

The new seniors are as battle-tested as the outgoing seniors, according to Witherspoon.

"They have a better understanding of the lifestyle that is necessary," said Witherspoon. "We're counting on them for the day-to-day ability to respond to adversity and to show the way. Nobody's going through this without adversity, those are the things you have to respond to."

No matter how much speculation is put into the basketball team, and what the starting lineup will look like, and who looks like they should step up to be a big performer, it is all just speculation until the first game in November.

"What we have right now is paper, and mostly what we'll be dealing with until the season starts is paper," said Witherspoon.

Witherspoon said he does not expect as much hype to surround the team next year.

"They looked at what we had kept going into this year and said we would do well," said Witherspoon. "I think going into next season, people will look at what we're losing and they'll say it's going to be hard."

If the three seniors can step up and perform the way that they need to, the Bulls will look to book a return trip to Cleveland's Gund Arena next March.