You never know which team is going to show up
How, I ask you how can you beat Kent, Akron, and Miami (albeit a split against Kent) and only go 3-3 against the west? Half way through the second half I was both excited that UB was about to knock off the current conference leaders and incensed that on that same floor UB let a Ball State team, a team that was held to 50% of UB's shots, walk away with a win. Fortunately This is not football, you can limp through the season and still win the MAC if you get hot towards tournament, weather or not UB is starting to surge is yet to be seen.
The big reason to think that, maybe, UB is done playing below themselves is the fact the Pierce has not only ceased to be a one man show but he can have an overwhelmingly average night and get the support he needs from the rest of the team. I'll take three Bulls at 15 points over Pierce dropping 31 any day.
Defensively the team looked good again but a lot of that had to do with Kent hurting themselves but even when the Flashes seemed to right themselves the Bulls would clamp down. Six blocks and nineteen steels and thirty defensive rebounds were big numbers behind a simple story. Kent shot poorly and UB made sure they did not get too many second chances. When they did get on a run the Bulls were very good about making their foul shots, and using timeouts ot break up Kent's momentum.
Offensively UB had a good, but not a great game. Pierce is still struggling (27%) but he made up for it by going eight for nine at the charity stripe. Boyer and Betts had monster nights and despite playing with some fould trouble Mitchell Watt did his part.
So where does this leave UB? Right now sitting in fifth place in the MAC. They need to pass Akron or Miami if they want that first round bye, fortunately those two teams have yet to play and then UB gets to play each of them so UB winning out guarantees a bye. Unfortunately UB has both Akron and Miami on the road.