Saturday afternoon will be the Bulls first road test of the season, as they travel down to New Jersey to face Ivy Leagues Princeton Tigers. The Bulls are 2-0 this season with wins coming against St. Peters and Cornell, while Princeton is currently 0-2 losing their opener to Wagner, and losing in the final seconds to NC State.
Buffalo has looked both impressive as well as below average in their first 2 games. Both came with victories, but a little to close for comfort for most Bulls fans. Both games featured strong front court play, surprisingly consistent PG play from sophomore Jarod Oldham, but a bench that has been anything but impressive. Oldham has 15 assists to only 3 turnovers early in the season, and continues to play his typical in your face defense that really disrupts opponents from getting into an offensive flow.
Mitchell Watt has continued to take steps forward as he currently has 6 blocks through 2 games to go along with 15.5 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game average. Both of these players are going to have to bring it on Saturday afternoon if they want to come away with the tough road victory.
Princeton was slated as one of the favorites in the Ivy League this year, coming off of their NCAA team season from last year. For those who may have forgotten Princeton lost by only 1 point to super power Kentucky in their opening game of the NCAA tournament last March. They returned a good portion of the team from last season, but they results haven't shown so far losing to an inferior Wagner team at home, and not being able to pull away against a below average ACC opponent. Junior Ian Hummer and senior Douglas Davis lead the Tigers so far this season with 17ppg and 16.5 ppg, but they're gonna need contributions from several others if they plan to have a repeat of last year.
Despite non-conference success over the past few season, the Bulls have not started the season 3-0 since 1986. There has been no recent history between these Bulls teams, since the last time they played each other was back in 1925. At first glance Buffalo appears to be the favorite, but I think both Bulls fans and players circled this one on their calendar knowing it would be a tough test, and a really good chance of seeing what type of talent this Buffalo team has this year. My presence will be there for this game, and as a 23 year old who still feels like he goes to UB I'm hoping there are several loud/obnoxious/cheering Bulls fans like myself for this game.