Akron's flying start overwhelms UB

By Budd Bailey

Outside of Alumni Arena in Amherst at 6:40 on Tuesday night, it was snowing a bit, and it was cold.

Inside of Alumni Arena, it was raining. Raining threes that is.

The Akron Zips opened their scoring in the game with the University at Buffalo men’s basketball team with five straight three-point shots. Add a lay-up and a drive to the hoop, and Akron had a 19-2 lead with only seven minutes gone in the game.

“Offensively, we played into their hands a little bit,” coach George Halcovage of UB said. “That (start) gave them confidence and made it tougher for us to make stops. We weren’t scoring. Our offense let them get off to the good start. You don’t get a good shot and they get out in transition and hit a three. Now you’re making it tough for yourself.”

For those who braved the conditions to show up, well, there was no memorable comeback in the offing. The Bulls never got the lead under 14 points for the entire game, and lost to the Zips by a final score of 82-63.

In other words, it was a dreary night inside and out for the Bulls and their supporters.

Admittedly, Akron did come into the game on something on a roll. The Zips had won their last four games, and moved to 15-4 overall, 5-1 in the Mid-American Conference with this win. They moved the ball well and hit their open shots.

“We played a great team in Akron,” Halcovage said. “They’re one of the great offensive teams in the country. We let them get hot early. … We played them a little bit, and they made us pay. … Then we didn’t come out with a sense of urgency in the second half.”

Needless to say, that was not what needed for the Bulls to avoid a fourth straight loss – all against good teams. After a couple of near-misses against Kent State and Miami (Ohio), this was sort of a dud of a performance.

“It’s a tough league,” the third-year coach said. “We knew this was the gauntlet of our season. We look at it one game at a time. We battled our butts off Saturday in a great game on the road (in Miami, an overtime loss). We played better defense tonight than we did on Saturday. Our offense was big time on Saturday. You have to say – credit to Akron. We didn’t answer the bell.”

Part of the problem was that Daniel Freitag was out of the UB lineup. He is in concussion protocal. The guard is the Bulls’ top scorer at 20.4 points per game. Without his presence, Buffalo had some predictable trouble scoring. Ryan Sabol did have 26 points, but the rest of the starting five went 8 for 31 from the field. A shooting percentage of 25.8 percent isn’t going to get it done.

“Daniel’s been amazing – offensively and defensively,” Sabol said. “We have a next man up mentality. (Derrick Talton) came in and did a great job for us. … It showed that he (Freitag) didn’t play tonight, but we have to grind it out.”

If all of that wasn’t enough bad news for this stretch of games, the Bulls had – and have – other issues lurking in the background. Last week a federal investigation into point-shaving in college basketball games in previous seasons went public, and a couple of UB games from two years ago came up for potentially “fixed” portions of play involving point spreads. The players named have all moved on from the Amherst campus.

This was the first chance that UB team had played at home since those revelations were announced. No one connected with the team had a comment about the situation on Tuesday night, referring questions to a statement issued by the university last week.

That’s quite understandable under the circumstances. But wouldn’t it be interesting to know some of the background of this story? For example, what was that initial phone call to the UB athletic department like … and what happened from there? Maybe someday.

If nothing else, it’s a teachable moment for the school. If gamblers are willing to offer bribes in an effort to influence relatively meaningless mid-major basketball games, then danger is going to be lurking around almost every corner for all concerned. It comes with the territory these days, sadly.

Meanwhile, Buffalo’s schedule finally turns a bit easier after two weeks of playing the MAC’s best. The Bulls host the University of Massachusetts at 7 p.m. on Friday at Alumni Arena. While rain probably isn’t the forecast, cold certainly will be. At lead the team is handing out UB scarfs to the first 250 fans through the doors.  

(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)