Buffalo Bulls Basketball, Pitt Panthers to face off in 2016

Anyone got a time machine and up for a trip to 2006? UB fans will get the next best thing, as the Buffalo Bulls will face off against Pittsburgh on December 7th for a matchup with the ACC's Panthers, according to Pittsburgh's schedule release this afternoon. It will be the tenth meeting of the two teams and comes 100 years after the series-opening game, a UB victory.

Pitt is almost always a power in basketball. Since 2002 the Panters have been in the NCAA tournament 13 times. During that span They have advanced to the sweet 16 five times and the Elite Eight once.

The Panthers are in their first season under former Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings who took over the program after Jamie Dixon left to coach his alma mater, TCU.

Last season the Panthers finished the season 21–12 and 9–9 in ACC play to finish in a tie for ninth place in the conference. They defeated Syracuse in the second round of the ACC Tournament to advance to the quarterfinals where they lost to North Carolina.

They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where, as a #7 seed, they lost in the first round to Wisconsin.

The Bulls are in their second season under Nate Oats and will try to become the first Mid-American Conference team to win three straight MAC Championships.

UB won their first MAC title under Bobby Hurley in 2015 and when Hurley left for Arizona State the school promote his assistant, Nate Oats. Oats faced huge personnel losses because of graduation, transfers. He also had to contend with the returning conference player of the year being kicked off the team a month before the school year started.

Nobody picked UB to win the MAC but Oats led the team on a fantastic run in the MAC tournament after securing the #3 seed during regular season play.