Buffalo Bulls Men’s Basketball picked 3rd in the MAC East preseason poll

Basketball season is right around the corner and most conferences are announcing their preseason polls this week. Today, the MAC released their preseason polls for men’s basketball and have Buffalo finishing third in the MAC East.

The Bulls are the two-time defending champions of the conference and are viewed as the dark horses once again. The Bulls won last year despite having an almost complete rebuild in the roster and graduated only two bench players—Rodell Wigginton and Jarryn Skeete. What seems to make the Bulls the dark horse at this time is the departure of Lamonte Bearden. The former UB point guard transferred from the program to Western Kentucky and led the Bulls in scoring last season.

When releasing this poll, the MAC also releases their preseason All-Division teams as well. Blake Hamilton was named to the All-MAC East list after being UB’s second leading scorer from the previous year and also shot the game winner that gave Buffalo its second MAC title. Additionally, Buffalo was given two votes to become the first team in MAC Tourney history to win three consecutive championships.

For those that are curious, Akron has been picked to win the division with Ohio at an extremely close second. The Zips also had the most votes to win this year’s Mid-American Conference Championship. The rest of the selections can be found here.