Time to Commit

 Commitment unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality. 

James Womack

First of all, on behalf of the whole Men’s Basketball Family, we would like to say thank you for all the support we receive last Saturday during our home opener. Everybody from the floor seats, to the last row in Alumni Arena, to all the fans, friends, and family members who watched the game online, we truly appreciate the support. You honestly don’t understand how much of an impact you all have on the game when we can look into the stands and see, hear, and feel every single one of you all cheering us on. From the bottom of our hearts, Thanks!

Ok, now Wats’ Up? As you all probably already know, after our season home opener win against Navy, we took a trip to Youngstown State University and it didn’t quite go as plan. We just couldn’t find a way to pull it together in the most critical parts of the game. So what Coach Witherspoon and Coach Kwitchoff stressed after the game was our commitment to each other. Now, you question what does that mean? They want us to throw ourselves into the team and buy into everything their saying and COMMIT to the teams’ style and philosophies. For example, COMMIT to playing Buffalo defense, COMMIT to passing to the open men, COMMIT to setting good screens, and COMMIT to being a better teammate to one another. The coaches can testify that this year’s Men’s Buffalo team has the best or one of the best team chemistries and unity they have seen in all their years of coaching; plus the talent to compete with any team. 


So all we need now is to get that “commitment [that will] unlocks the doors of imagination, allows vision, and gives us the "right stuff" to turn our dreams into reality,” which is to get a MAC Championship and advance into the big tourney. Expect to see a different mindset that you all saw against YSU in our upcoming game against Towson this Saturday night. This is the time to jump of the UB Men’s Basketball Team Fan Wagon! 


Until next time, that’s Wats’ Up!

Tough Love

Does tough love pay off? This year, the cliché of the UB Men’s Basketball Team is that “we are young.” Everyone knows that we have five freshmen this year, making us one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the MAC. With that being said, the entire coaching staff has made it their goal to not only prepare us for the season, but also make us men. With this being my second year and comparing last year to this year, I can honestly say practices have been extremely rough, and very fast-paced. We have all been put in difficult situations throughout practice, making us both mentally and physically tougher as well as overall better individuals; making us a better team.

“This isn’t high school anymore, boys.” This has been Coach Witherspoon’s most repeated quote this season so far. In other words, we have to grow and man up to the challenges set before us this year. This is sort of déjà vu, because I can remember when I was in high school and was a wide-eye freshman with long hair. I had no clue what I was in for starting as a varsity point guard. My coach, who was also my dad, had similar quotes. His were, “You ain’t in middle school anymore,” or “This isn’t JV, guys,” and he said these whenever we had immature moments or were not playing to our full potential.

So the question still stands, does tough love pay off? Since practice has started, we as a team have taken long strides. Day by day you can see how we are improving in different aspects of our games. Our first test came Saturday, when we had our first scrimmage against Carleton University, a university from Canada. With Byron Mulkey and Mitchell Watt out due to injuries (short-term injuries, don’t stress people), we were a little short-handed but ready. We looked strong in moments and were able to pull out a three-point victory in the end. We could see where we needed work and where we need to improve. On the other hand, we got the win and we can see tough love really does pay off. 

Until next time, that’s Wats’ Up!