Students filed into Alumni Arena with an excitement that I hadn't yet seen for the men's basketball team. A year prior, before the program's first conference championship and in the first game without all-time leading scorer Javon McCrea, this kind of showing was unthinkable. Thirty minutes before tip-off of the men's season opener versus Division-III Pitt-Bradford the student section was packed. Buffalo vanquished the Panthers that night after starting the game with a 26-0 lead.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, that matchup wasn't indicative of the next twelve games. Ahead of them was a non-conference schedule built for a team returning plenty of experienced talent, something that was no longer the case.