Special Basketball Edition * Check Saturday’s game preview | page 12 |
Vol. 61 NO. 61
ubspectrum.com
Friday, March 2, 2012
Sweep Dreams, Akron! Second-half run keeps Bulls alive for number one seed
NATHANIEL SMITH Sports Editor
Saturday. 6 p.m. Alumni Arena.
It started out as a festive senior night in Akron, Ohio. The home fans were packed into a hot James A. Rhodes Center, ready to cheer their team to a historic victory. They were looking to clinch their first-ever number one seed in the men’s Mid-American Conference tournament.
Student attendance at Division 1 college basketball games is something that simply gives the home team an advantage. Four seniors - the most successful group in school history - will play their last game at Alumni Arena. True Blue is challenging every student - freshman, sophomore, junior, senior or graduate - to come support the men's basketball team this Saturday at 6 p.m. Warde Manual will be honored at halftime as he's a few weeks away from taking over the AD duties at the University of Connecticut.
They came in having never seen their team fall to a MAC opponent at home this year. They left utterly shocked and disappointed. The Bulls (18-9, 11-4 MAC) fought fire with fire, using a scorching second half performance to shock the MAC-leading Akron (20-10, 12-3 MAC) again with a thrilling 74-70 victory Wednesday night. It was the first time Buffalo swept a season series over the Zips since the ’03-’04 season. “It’s been a while since we swept them,” said head coach Reggie Witherspoon. “It’s a great program with a lot of resources. Our guys did a great job of
Courtesy of Jeff Harwell Buffalo pulled off one of the biggest wins in program history on Wednesday night at the JAR center. The Bulls upset conference-leading Akron putting themselves in position to control their own destiny within the Mid-American Conference.
persevering and coming in here and taking them on in front of a senior night crowd. They locked in and played with great energy, and they really had great poise down the stretch.”
Red Alert at Red Jacket Students treated for burning skin, eyes
Many different Bulls players stepped up big time under tremendous adversity. Junior guard Tony Watson was hurt and did not practice for the last couple of days, but he came
Filzen Looking to Help Team Cement Legacy Bulls fans prepare to say farewell to Filzen and company on senior day When Zach Filzen arrived on campus after transferring from Northern Arizona in 2008, nobody had a clue as to how good of a player he would turn out to be.
Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum One student had to be transported to a local hospital after Red Jacket residents smelled a foul, unidentifiable odor, and six students experienced burning eyes and skin. Students sat outside for nearly three hours as firefighters and police investigated the situation.
BRIAN JOSEPHS and AARON MANSFIELD Arts Editor and Senior Life Editor
I have to admit that even I thought he’d never amount to much. He played 20 games his sophomore season and seemed like too much of a defensive liability to ever play significant minutes for a coach in Reggie Witherspoon who puts a lot of emphasis on defense. Man was I wrong.
At approximately 10:45 p.m. on Thursday night, students received an emergency alert text message stating: “UB Police are evacuating Red Jacket Residence Hall on North Campus because of an unidentified odor in the building.”
It’s no secret that Filzen is the most deadly shooter in the Mid-American Conference, but I’ll argue that his play has been even more impressive this season than a year ago.
Firefighters and police burst onto the scene as Red Jacket Residence Advisors hustled to evacuate students from the quarantined dormitory.
Surprising? It shouldn’t be.
Just what was the scent? Nobody seems to know. “Firefighters have gone through numerous times with sophisticated detection equipment and they’re not picking up anything,” said Joseph Brennan, associate vice president for university communications. Students were allowed back into their dorm at 1:03 a.m., after sitting outside for nearly three hours. Continued on page 2
Friday: AM Clouds/PM Sun- H: 54, L: 42 Saturday: Partly Cloudy/Wind- H: 41, L: 30 Sunday: Few Snow Showers- H: 32, L: 18
True Blue guarantee's you will not want to miss another game on the Bulls' run to a MAC Title and beyond! It's senior night and not only will all the seniors on the team be honored, but the event is a celebration for all seniors on the verge of graduation. We must come together as a university to support this team that has given everything it has all season. It's not often we get to watch a possible MAC champion. So come out on Saturday! You won't regret it!
Continued on page 2
MATTHEW PARRINO Editor in Chief
Weather for the Weekend:
'Will you accept the Challenge?'
Let’s just look at the numbers, shall we? Last season, Filzen was unconscious from threepoint range, making 110 three’s which was good for the second best total in MAC history. Last year was an incredible one for Filzen, but he played in 34 games and averaged 3.23 triples per contest. Compare that with his 82 3-pointers this season in 27 games good for a 3.03 average, and you’ll notice there’s barely been a drop off.
Filzen has heard the whispers, wondering what’s happened to his shooting stroke. He’s even his own harshest critic. “I have a lot of high expectations of myself and I’m not real happy with the way I’ve been shooting the ball, especially during the conference season,” Filzen said. How bad is he shooting in conference, you might be wondering? He has 39 3-pointers, good for second best in the MAC. Most guys would give almost anything to shoot as well as Filzen does on his worst day. It’s also noteworthy that senior forward Mitchell Watt has doubled his scoring average from last season, going from eight points a game to nearly 16 this year. He has 289 field goal attempts in 27 games this year compared to only 220 in 34 games last season. Continued on page 2
Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum
I N S I D E
After UB’s win on Wednesday night, senior forward Dave Barnett posted this on Facebook. The UB basketball team needs your support on Saturday – you won’t regret it.
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