Question for you guys

[SienaTony]

Any reason why you guys don’t play UB? I have no idea if there is any bad blood and I’m certainly not trying to start trouble if there is. I thought UA and UB would be a natural on the basketball court. I think it would be a close exciting game

[Dane Pound]

I've wonder that as well. It would be a fun game for the students too.

[Clickclack]

Any reason why you guys don’t play UB? I have no idea if there is any bad blood and I’m certainly not trying to start trouble if there is. I thought UA and UB would be a natural on the basketball court. I think it would be a close exciting game

 

Tony,

 

No idea, we play the other 2 SUNY centers, not sure why we never play UB. I'm not aware of any bad blood, but I would love to have a running series with them like we do with Siena.

[UAalum72]

Albany last played Buffalo in 1990, and only two or three times in the 80s, usually in CD or SUNYAC tournaments.

[UA_MA_2000]

Any reason why you guys don’t play UB? I have no idea if there is any bad blood and I’m certainly not trying to start trouble if there is. I thought UA and UB would be a natural on the basketball court. I think it would be a close exciting game

 

I'm an alumnus of both Buffalo and UAlbany, so I'd love to see a series with Buffalo! Not only do we not play Buffalo (or haven't in several years), but I don't believe Bingo or SB play Buffalo either. Strange; perhaps because a game with Buffalo does nothing to help our exposure or recruiting reach?

 

Buffalo beat Colorado (Big 12) last night by two points. Buffalo was up 13 points and nearly lost the game. The game was part of the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu, HI. Next up for Buffalo in the tournament is Colorado State in the Championship Final.

 

Colorado plays our friends to the east, University of Vermont in the third-place game.

 

Rainbow Classic Basketball Tournament

[Dane96]

This is real easy, and ironically the same argument used by those at Siena who wish the UA-Siena game were not played (I think most of us would disagree with that):

 

COST-BENEFIT!

 

With UB and UA, the Cost-Benefit ratio is arguably worse than that who advocate the same for Siena-Albany.

 

As a sister SUNY, UB considers itself to be the UCLA of the SUNY's. In fact, those EXACT WORDS were used on my recruiting trip in 1991.

 

So, if UA, Bing, and SBU play each other, we are pretty much on an even-keel with recruits and conference. However, the way UB sees it, if they lose to any of us...that would be a terrible cost for them to pay considering they believe the MAC is a higher-rated conference and they are the bigger/badder school.

 

It would be akin to UNC losing to UNC-Ashville. However, that would rarely happen. If UB played UA, I would think the UA win ratio would be in the neighborhood of 40-50 percent. That, is not great for recruiting.

[UA_MA_2000]

Slightly OT, but relevant to Buffalo: ESPN article about Buffalo football over the years and why they declined a bid to play in bowl game in (1958-59 season) 1959.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=buffalo58

 

And article about Coach Turner Gill's status as a finalist for the Paul "Bear" Bryant national Coach of the Year award:

 

http://www.ubathletics.buffalo.edu/footbal...orehonors.shtml

[bob87]

Tony

 

You might want to check with Buffalo. As far as I know, they have not played Bingo, SB or UA in basketball since these 3 turned D1.

As you know, you can't have an OOC game scheduled unless BOTH sides agree to it with the possible exception of a matchup that occurs in a tournament and Dane96's reasons seem to make sense.

Although I would like a game with Buffalo or Umass, I don't worry too much about the 300 + non conference teams that we don't play in each season, but focus on the 13 games we are playing. I have already seen Albany play in some of the shrines of college basketball like UCLA and Duke + 2 ncaa games plus others like Notre Dame, Utah and Connecticut. I am unfortunately am not going to Kansas tonight.

That I haven't seen Albany play at North Carolina, Indiana, Buffalo or any or the other schools we have not played yet is far less important than the games actually on the schedule each season.

[Big D]

I would like to see a UA - UB hoop home and home, but Buffalo has always avoided playing Albany (even in the DIII days). Also, Buffalo has annual commitments to play Canisius and Niagara (and sometimes St. Bonn.) which leaves less available non conf. dates.

[sarge965]

Since UB went D1, they have had a policy of not engaging the other SUNY Centers in the higher profile sport of men's basketball. Some of that has had to do with the scheduling policy of the MAC. I don't think that there are too many other games scheduled between AE and MAC teams - I could be wrong. Some of it has to do with, as Dane96 put it spot on, they consider themselves the UCLA of the SUNY Centers - direct competition with Bingo, Stoned Broke, and our beloved Danes is a no win proposition for the Bulls. They feel that they are that much better and are supposed to win. The difference between our position with UB and $iena is that there would NEVER be close to 14,000 people in one building to watch UB vs UA. I used to want to see this game but now - meh.

[Clickclack]

"....Stoned Broke".....

[ATL_DANE]

Personally, I would like UAlbany to have a little separation from the other SUNY Centers. That could happen if the CAA wanted to expand. UA is looking for a full schollie football home. The CAA would be getting a pretty good all around athletic program in the country's 57th largest TV market. Maybe not a probable outcome but at least possible. I'd like us to shed the SUNY ties. "SUNY" doesn't have the best name for the few people that know of it. That's probably why Buffalo runs away from any SUNY affiliations. We'll see if they even mention SUNY during the college ads played during the International Bowl.... I doubt it.

 

Then you'd see:

 

Bingo: America East

Buffalo: MAC

Stony Brook: America East/Big South

UAlbany: CAA

 

I like this a lot.

[UBBulls]

The "Cost-Benefit" idea has some merit no doubt, but more so on the conference-level than "NY Public D-1 rivals"-level, IMO. The last AE team we faced was New Hampshire, beating the 'cats in Durham in 1999 and winning the return game in Amherst in 2001. Competitively, for all that UB and MAC S.O.S. and RPI crap, there is little benefit to playing AE programs. Geographically, there's little benefit to our recruiting with playing AE programs. We grabbed Andy Robinson out of the CD and conveniently got a good home-and-away with Siena where he could get a game in his home-area for his Sr season (why that could not have been with UA instead, who knows). Other than that, we don't seem to recruit anywhere East of Rochester and North/East of NYC. WNY, the MAC footprint, Canada and North Carolina are the present areas where our recruiters are focused. So, we've played a few SoCon, Horizon, and Missouri Valley teams recent years, and completed a 3-game exhibition swing through Canada this summer.

 

UB fans have also wondered why no Men's BB games with the other D-1's, since we meet occasionally in the Olympic sports. It's certainly not UB fandom that is for dodging them. Of course, the fans do view the AE Centers as all being inferior athletic programs who we should beat every time out (since UB plays in the basketball meat-grinder that is the rough-and-tumble MAC), just as UA fans would think they could knock UB off it's high-horse. It is also a surprise that UB and Bona have not met in BB in 10 years. The teams scrimmage every year but a yearly series is not likely to happen, let alone a regular season game. With only so many games, and our competitive games with the Griffs and Purple Eagles being established, yearly non-conference highlights, there is no push to create a Buffalo "Big 4" tourney. That's basically my way of saying a UB vs. UA/BU/SBU game would be cool occasionally, but few UB fans would care so much for a yearly series with AE Center's before any of the other "Big 4" schools. The MAC also has the deal with Temple to play a few MAC basketball teams yearly. So if Temple remains in MAC football long-term, UB-Temple BB games would cut into non-conference opportunities as well.

 

UB-SU won't happen any time soon either since UB won't fold for Syracuse's demands. You know them. SU want's and usually gets 1 and done deals at home. Or a game in the Dome and a return game at HSBC Arena that becomes a virtual home game. UB agreed to that deal once in the late 90's, Canisius still does it. The current UB brain-trust knows better. Alumni Arena is our advantage, so why give that up playing in downtown Buffalo? If Alumni is good enough for BC, UConn, Pitt, UNC, Penn State, Miami, Rutgers, and Northwestern, Syracuse should be able to set foot in there too.

[UBBulls]

I forgot to say I'm happy that I stayed up until 3 am to watch UB beat Colorado State for the tournament title in Hawaii...but after seeing us convincingly beat the Rams (who beat Vermont Monday) and Vermont whipping Colorado (who we beat at the buzzer Monday) I demand UB and Vermont stay one more day and play each other since some on the AE message board thought Vermont was the strongest team and anything less than the Tournament championship would be a disappointment.

[sarge965]

I forgot to say I'm happy that I stayed up until 3 am to watch UB beat Colorado State for the tournament title in Hawaii...but after seeing us convincingly beat the Rams (who beat Vermont Monday) and Vermont whipping Colorado (who we beat at the buzzer Monday) I demand UB and Vermont stay one more day and play each other since some on the AE message board thought Vermont was the strongest team and anything less than the Tournament championship would be a disappointment.

 

Agreed - and thanks for a UB fans take on this topic, good luck in Toronto - beat the Huskies