GameThread for Central Michigan Chippewas at Buffalo Bulls

It would be easy to look at the last leg of Buffalo's season and see a team reeling but underneath the 1-4 finish was a team that played as well as any in the MAC, they just were just unable to finish games. And then there was the win against Akron, the complete destruction of the then #25 team in the nation which happened before one of the Zip's stars was forced to leave the team.

Three of those last four losses were by a total of six points, one of those was overtime. The only loss in which the Bulls were not there right unitl the end was against Bowling Green, and even in that game UB looked solid early on.

So the question is can Buffalo make any noise during the MAC Championship Tournament? If they are they will first have to dispatch Central Michigan. This is the second time in the past three years Buffalo has opened up post season play at home against the Chip's. In 2010 Buffalo beat CMU before losing out to Kent in the first round at Cleveland.

In their regular season match up Cameron Downing put on an offensive clinic. Downing led all Buffalo scorers with 21 points but he was just one of five Bulls to top 10 points in UB's best offensive performance of the season. Javon McCrea added 17 points and nine rebounds, and Auraum Nuiriankh went 12-12 from the line during his 19 point effort.

The Chips looked competitive at times mainly because of senior transfer Kyle Randall who led all scorers with 23 points.

UB Will hope to recreate that energy but CMU still poses the same threats they did earlier this year. The Chips are a very disciplined team. Committing just 11 turnovers per game, and only fourteen fouls per contest. They run with an assists to turnovers ratio of just over one.

Buffalo will play on their size. They rebound better and have far more power in the paint. The Bulls are pulling about eight more rebounds per game six of those on defense. Simply put if UB does not play ugly ball Central may have no answer for McCrea, Downing, or any of Buffalo's big guys down low.

But that hinges on UB playing well and not letting up as has been their standard play over the past month.

The Winner of this game goes on to play Ball State in Cleveland.