BUFFALO, N.Y. — For a team that knows what it's like to miss the NCAA Tournament, there's some comfort for the University at Buffalo men's basketball team rolling into March on a nine-game winning streak.
"I think with this nine-game winning streak, we kinda went back after we got beat at home by Ohio and said 'let's go back and refocus on what we need to be good at," Bulls head coach Jim Whitesell told 2 On Your Side's Julianne Pelusi on Monday.
The Bulls' top four scorers this season are seniors, who Whitesell said are doing the right things to win.
Senior Jeenathan Williams leads the Bulls with 19.3 points per game and was named the Mid-American Conference's Co-Player of the Week, after averaging 21 points over the past three games.
Buffalo (19-8, 13-4 MAC) has a new test against the top of the MAC on Tuesday night, with Toledo (23-6, 15-3) coming to Alumni Arena.
"They're outstanding in every area. They're very good offensively. They're really good in transition. They shoot it well. They share it well, and they're really good defensively," Whitesell said. "It's gonna be a game where you're gonna have to do all the little things very very well. You're gonna have to play at a high level of intensity.
"As we keep getting better, you still gotta make another jump here because the opponent is so strong."
The Bulls will have one more regular-season game at Kent State before they head to the MAC Tournament, where the Bulls went on a run last season, but came up a game shy of a championship and an NCAA Tournament bid, before getting a bid to the National Invitational Tournament, where they lose to Colorado State in the opening round.
"I thought it was a really good experience for our guys. We lost to a great Colorado state team who is now in the Top 25, and it was a heck of a game. It went down to the wire, so there were a lot of good things you can pull from that experience, and hey, you've been in postseason play," Whitesell said.
The importance to win the conference is even stronger when it's the last chance for so many of his seniors.
Whitesell said, "Our seniors have given so much to our program."
