UB MEN'S BASKETBALL GOES FOR 2-0 TODAY

The new-look Bulls, fresh off a win over Colgate, welcome Sun Belt challenger James Madison University to Alumni Arena at 1 p.m.

Image from ubbulls.com

If you’re one of those people who plan trips to every baseball stadium in the country or regularly count how many states you’ve visited (airports don’t count!), then the second game of the UB men’s basketball team’s 2022-23 season is one for you.

The Bulls (1-0) will face James Madison (2-0) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Alumni Arena (ESPN+), marking the first time the Bulls and the Dukes have shared a court in COLLEGE BASKETBALL HISTORY.

Read now: UB BASKETBALL 2022-23 PREVIEW: A TRANSFER TALE FOR TWO TEAMS

New-Look Bulls: A Breath of Fresh Air

Image from ubbulls.com

UB enjoyed a nice season-opening 88-87 win over Colgate, #31 in CollegeInsider.com’s Mid-Major Top 25. The feel-good victory provided an enjoyable introduction to a new cast of Buffalo basketball players, a collection of floor-running shooters who’ve never met a slick pass or big shot they didn’t like.

From UBBulls.com:

Buffalo is coming off a major win against Patriot League preseason favorite Colgate, 88-87. The Bulls scored 50 second half points in the victory. Zid Powell (pictured above) led all scorers with 24 points, as Jonnivius Smith led the team with eight rebounds. Curtis Jones added a career-high 17 points in the game.
 
In his UB debut, Powell became just the third Bull in program history to score at least 20 points while also having five assists and five steals. Only Javon Graves (20 pts., 5 asts., 5 stls.) and Lamonte Bearden (21 pts., 8 asts., 5 stls.) are the other UB players to do so. Graves did is on Nov. 27, 2020 against Towson as Bearden did it at Kent State on Jan. 18, 2016. All three games were victorious by the Bulls.

UB plays fast and loose, which makes for an entertaining product—Buffalo’s third in the country in adjusted tempo, behind only St. John’s and #17 Arizona.

Honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air after the chapter closed on last season’s squad, a veteran bunch star-crossed by the loss of coach Nate Oats in 2019, the 2019-20 pandemic season, a heartbreaking defeat to Ohio in the 2020-21 Mid-American Conference championship game, and a disappointing 2021-22 campaign that fizzled out in the first round of the MAC tourney, wilting under heavy preseason expectations.

Image from ubbulls.com

The starters from the Colgate game included the aforementioned Powell, a folk hero in the making, and 2021-22 holdover and newfound offensive threat Curtis Jones (pictured above) at guard; IUPUI transfer/former Division 2 Player of the Year finalist Armoni Foster and UCF transfer/former Florida Mr. Basketball Isaiah Adams at forward; and Smith, an Alabama native who played his prep ball in Ontario , did juco time at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla., and spent last season with Seton Hall.

Another Mid-Major Test for Buffalo

Image from jmusports.com

Like Colgate, the visiting Dukes are another muscular mid-major program. Picked to finish fourth in the hotly competitive Sun Belt Conference, JMU—#33 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25—boasts senior guard Vado Morse (pictured above), a preseason 1st-team all-conference selection, and former Georgia Southern coach Mark Byington, the odds-on favorite for SBC Coach of the Year.

Byington discussed Morse before the season with Craig Mathias of the James Madison student paper, The Breeze:

A transfer from Mount St. Mary’s, Morse now enters his third year with the Dukes, making him one of six players who’s been around for Mark Byington’s entire career as JMU head coach. 

Last season, Byington had Morse in the starting lineup for all 29 games he played. In 22 of those games, Morse scored double figures. 

Morse’s career high in points came last season when he finished with 32 in a 95-94 win over College of Charleston on Jan. 22. Morse went 5-for-10 from 3-point range and 13-for-14 from the foul line, including two crucial free throws with three seconds left to ice the game.

For Byington, Morse’s value as a player and a person is what will make him that much more crucial as his team embarks on the Sun Belt Conference this year. 

“Vado’s a talented guard,” Byington said. “I’ve had a lot of them and he’s right up there … I like the fact that he’s been with me for three years. I’ve already seen a tremendous amount of growth in the way he’s seeing the game and taking ownership of not just himself but the other guys.”

It’s James Madison’s first season in the Sun Belt Conference after years in the Colonial Athletic Association, but the Dukes are expected to be heavy contenders thanks to a veteran-laden core (eight of their top nine players, in terms of overall usage, are back) and the addition of three-point specialist Noah Friedel from South Dakota State and Mezie Offurum from St. Mary’s.

From jmusports.com:

After a pair of one-sided victories in Harrisonburg to open its 2022-23 campaign, James Madison men's basketball hits the road for the first game of a lengthy, six-game road trip on Saturday afternoon, traveling north to Buffalo for a 1 p.m. matchup.

The Dukes opened the year with a 123-38 victory over Valley Forge on Monday, then followed that with a second romp at the Atlantic Union Bank Center, rolling to a 106-58 win over Hampton on Wednesday night.

The Dukes have spread points around in both contests, with nine different players combining to rack up 11 double-digit scoring performances across just two games.

After freshman Jerell Roberson posted a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds) in his first collegiate game on Monday, sophomore Terrence Edwards picked up his own on Wednesday, erupting for 21 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in the first half against Hampton before finishing with a 21-11-5 line in 22 minutes.

Freshman Xavier Brown tallied seven assists on Wednesday, stuffing the stat sheet alongside six points and four boards.

Image from jmusports.com

A local note: former Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and 1st-Team All-MAAC guard Takal Molson, a Monsignor Martin Conference high school standout at St. Mary’s in Lancaster (N.Y.) who played his first two college seasons at Canisius, returns to Buffalo today. He’s a grad transfer who joined the James Madison roster last season after a year at Seton Hall. Welcome home!

Like UB, JMU gets out and runs—the Dukes have been a top-50 pace team for the past two seasons—so get your popcorn early, folks, and settle in for some early-season college basketball.

With the exception of maybe #7 LSU at Arkansas, the noon college football games aren’t that great today, anyway.

Enjoy! Horns up.