Point One: Nothing Earth shattering happened today in Dekalb.

Except the level of competition, and UB's slow start against them, there is not a to much that is noteworthy what happened today in Dekalb. The Huskies are easily one of the worst team in Division one basketball and they just lost Tim Toler, their best player who was dropped from the team for 'unspecified reasons'. So UB beating them by 15 would be something to worry about if the Bulls had not taken their foot of the gas with about ten minutes left in the game.

McCrea had a double double, which is about what you expect and Mitchall Watt was solid.

Point Two: The more people talk about McCrea the more damage Watt get's to do!

When talking about UB hoops the first words out of most people's mouth are 'Javon McCrea'. People who really follow the conference however might start with Mitchell Watt.

When the Bulls struggled out of the gate it was Watt who kept them going. Several times this season that has been the case. Maybe it's the senior in him, or the focus on McCrea but Watt is often the most dangerous Bull on the floor.

His 4-5 from the line tonight extends his 750+ free throw streak all the way back to the Kent Game which opened up conference play. The last time he had two back to back games where he was below 70% at the line? Niagara and Youngstown State.

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Watch on MAC Sports		Listen on WECK
Buffalo (Road)	NIU (Home)
Saturday, January 28th Alumni Arena, Amherst N

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Any Regular readers have noticed a change to Bull Run this season. More contributors!

When my wife got sick this summer (pregnancy induced hyperemesis) Bull Run kind of went on vacation. Now that I have a baby at home it might be some time before I can get back up to my previous volume, if at all. Thankfully a bunch of UB Fans have stepped up, so I might never need to go back to that pace.

Brandon is covering UB hoops. He was the first 'hoops czar' back in 2009-2010 but took a year off before coming back this year. Brandon has been following UB Basketball for years and has a great grasp on Buffalo and the MAC.

Scott is known in UB Land as 'ChiTown'. He has been doing the football "post game thoughts" which in our current times makes the man a damn saint! I mean week in and week out you pour all the frustrations, questions, and anger out for the world.

JD, or 2010Bulls, has been doing a lot of "Bulls in the Pro's". He also keeps me honest on the roundtable's, he has saved at least three of them this season.

Conrad used to run a site called 8 Wins is Enough. It was a UB Blog before it's time that I ran across about a year ago. I ran across him on Hustle Belt. You'll have to forgive him for being a Trojans fan now that he attends grad school at USC.

This is my thank you to this crew for helping me to avoid blogger burnout and an open invitation to anyone who wants to cover any UB Sport, even the club sports.

In the Mid American conference only two teams fielded worse defensive backfields than the Buffalo Bulls. Akron, which was almost a given in any category and Ball State who managed to get ranked second to last nationally. That's what happens when you lose four or five all conference quality players, UB Record Holders, and guys who at the very least got a look from NFL teams.

Coach Jeff Quinn experimented with several freshman in 2010, but none of them really panned out. He ended up using what experience he had over the promise of youth. So last year, when he had to fill the entire backfield with the same players who did not measure up in 2010 the results were pretty predictable. UB did not have consistent enough play from enough of their backfield to slow down their opponents.

Statistically it was a bust but it was a bust with youngsters so there are some positives to to be found.

Cortney Lester led the Bulls in interceptions and was second among defensive backs in tackles only to senior Josh Copeland. Lester, who goes into camp as a sophomore, will be fighting for a job on a team of defensive backs that is made up of four red shirt freshman, six sophomores, five juniors, and one senior.

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Like many fans, I was once against paying student athletes. After some study on the topic, I am still against paying athletes, because athletic departments could not afford the payments. I am in favor of allowing athletes to use their athlete status for money: advertisements, a piece of jersey sales or a check for allowing their name and likeness in video games...easy money things that cause little or no interference with the student lifestyle...

This fall as Conference Commissioners trampled tradition in pursuit of TV money, 300 players signed a petition asking for a share of that television revenue.

The NCAA responded by proposing a $2,000 stipend increase.

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In the past few years I have attended one NCAA Convention and one NCAA Compliance Conference. I learned three things:

1) The NCAA manual is too long and complicated for everyone.

2) The changes implemented are always too conservative, occur too slowly, & are always reactive not proactive.

3) It's all very boring.

That said, every week it seems there is new legislation proposed and debated; legislation that will shape the future of the game we love.

So I decided to take a look at the seven biggest proposed changes to college football, and how those changes will effect UB. Today we look at the proposal to require 7 wins to attend a bowl game.

I first heard of this proposal today. It is an effort to increase interest and ratings in bowl games, reduce the number of bowl games hosted, and prevent mediocre teams from losing money by traveling to these bowl games.

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Watch on MAC Sports		Listen on WECK
Buffalo (Home)	EMU (Road)
Tuesday January 24th Alumni Arena, Amherst NY

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