The Buffalo Bulls men's basketball team represents the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, United States. The team currently competes in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) East Division. Buffalo began play in 1915 and joined the MAC in 1998. They won their first MAC East Division title in 2009, and won a third MAC East Division title in 2015 along with their first outright MAC Regular-Season championship and first MAC Tournament title to earn the program's first bid to the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

. The Bulls also have six appearances in the

NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship The NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament (officially styled by the NCAA as a "Championship" instead of a "Tournament") is an annual championship tournament for colleges and universities that are members of NCAA Division II, a grouping of ...

between 1957 and 1965 and two appearances in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

(NIT). Their current coach is Jim Whitesell, who was hired in April of 2019 to replace

Nate Oats Nathanael Justin Oats (born October 13, 1974) is an American basketball coach, currently the head basketball coach at the University of Alabama. Prior to Alabama he was the head coach at the University at Buffalo. Education and playing career Oa ...

. Home games are played at the 6,783-seat Alumni Arena, which opened in 1982. Recently, the Bulls have had a significant presence in

The Basketball Tournament The Basketball Tournament (TBT) is an open-application, single-elimination tournament played each summer in the United States. The 2022 edition features 64 teams with a $1 million winner-take-all prize, broadcast by ESPN. TBT was founded in 201 ...

(TBT), a summer event with a $1 million winner-take-all purse. Blue Collar U, a team consisting mainly of UB alumni, first entered TBT in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, reaching the semifinals. The next year, Blue Collar U returned and won the tournament, with

C. J. Massinburg Christian Jalon Massinburg (born April 14, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for Pallacanestro Brescia of Lega Basket Serie A. He played college basketball for the Buffalo Bulls. He was named the 2019 Mid-American Conference Pl ...

being named tournament MVP.

Conference affiliations

*1915–16 to 1942–43 –

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

*1943–44 to 1944–45 – *1945–46 to 1977–78 –

*1978–79 to 1987–88 –

State University of New York Athletic Conference The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) is an NCAA Division III athletics conference consisting of schools in the State University of New York system. It was chartered in 1958 as the New York State Intercollegiate Athletic Co ...

(SUNYAC) *1988–89 to 1990–91 –

Mid American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

*1991–92 to 1993–94 –

East Coast Conference The East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of C ...

*1994–95 to 1997–98 –

Mid-Continent Conference The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

(Mid-Con) *1998–99 to present –

Postseason

NCAA Division I tournament

The Bulls have appeared in the NCAA Division I tournament four times. Their combined record is 2–4.

NCAA Division II Tournament results

The Bulls have appeared in the NCAA Division II tournament six times. Their combined record is 5–8.

NIT results

The Bulls have appeared in the

(NIT) two times. Their record is 1–2.

Alumni Arena

The Buffalo Bulls play their home games at Alumni Arena, located in

Amherst, New York Amherst () is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. Amherst is an inner ring suburb of Buffalo. As of 2020, the town had a total population of 129,595. This represents an increase from 122,366 as reported in the 2010 census. The second ...

. The arena seats 6,100 spectators and features a state of the art video-board, sound, and lighting systems.

Notable former players

Notable alumni include: *

Turner Battle Turner Battle (born January 11, 1983) is an American former basketball point guard for the University at Buffalo Bulls men's basketball team from 2001 to 2005. Battle is credited with fueling the resurgence of the Bulls men's basketball program, ...

: MAC Player of the Year (2005), former Bulls assistant coach *

Yassin Idbihi Yassin Markus Idbihi (born July 24, 1983) is a former Moroccan-German professional basketball player. Idbihi spent the majority of his career in Germany and played one season in France for Limoges CSP. Professional career He made his professional ...

: basketball player for

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

Javon McCrea Javon Tyree McCrea (born November 5, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for Yokohama B-Corsairs of the Japanese basketball league B.League . Born in Newark, New York, he played college basketball for the Buffalo Bulls between 20 ...

: basketball player for

Medi Bayreuth Medi Bayreuth, official stylized as medi bayreuth, is a German professional basketball club that is based in Bayreuth, Germany. It was re-founded as BBC Bayreuth in 1999. The team plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the highest division o ...

of the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

* Sam Pellom: Played for the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

(1979–82) &

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

(1982–83) *

Mitchell Watt Mitchell Watt (born 25 March 1988) is an Australian track & field athlete. His main event is the long jump and holds the current Oceania record for the long jump – 8.54m. He was the first ever Australian long jump medalist at a World Champio ...

, basketball player for

Ironi Nes Ziona Ironi Ness Ziona B.C. (or spelled as Ironi Nes Ziona B.C.) is a professional basketball club based in Ness Ziona, Israel. The team plays its home games at the Lev Hamoshava, which has capacity for 1,200 people. The club plays in the Israeli Bask ...

of the

Israeli Basketball Super League Ligat HaAl ( he, ליגת העל, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is the top-tier level league of professional competition in Israeli club basketball, making it Israel's primary basketball co ...

*Rasaun Young: Former all time leading scorer and coach at

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS) is a public high school in New Rochelle, New York. It is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its student body represents 60 countries from around the world. I ...

* Wes Clark *

Jarryn Skeete Jarryn Skeete (born April 16, 1993) is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Sudbury Five of the National Basketball League of Canada. He played college basketball for Buffalo. College career Over his four-year Buffalo career, Skeet ...

* Justin Moss * Shannon Evans * Blake Hamilton *

* Jeremy Harris * Nick Perkins * C.J. Massinburg

Retired numbers

Honored jerseys

Jerseys were retired but the numbers remain available:

All-Americans

The following Buffalo players were named

NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans The NCAA Men's Basketball All-American teams are teams made up of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball players voted the best in the country by a variety of organizations. History All-America teams in college basketball were ...

: *

–

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

( AP Honorable Mention) *

–

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

(AP Honorable Mention) *

–

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

(AP Honorable Mention) * Justin Moss –

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

(AP Honorable Mention) *

–

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

(AP Honorable Mention)

Academic All-Americans

The following Buffalo players were named Academic All-Americans: *

– 2005

Mid-American Conference award recipients

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

– 2005 *

– 2012 *

– 2014 * Justin Moss – 2015 *

– 2019

Tournament MVP

*Xavier Ford –

*Willie Conner –

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

* Wes Clark –

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

* Jeremy Harris –

Coach of the Year

* Reggie Witherspoon – 2004 *

– 2018, 2019

Defensive Player of the Year

*Dontay Caruthers – 2017, 2019 *Davonta Jordan – 2020 *Josh Mballa – 2021

Freshman of the Year

– 2011

Sixth Man of the Year

*Mark Bortz – 2005 * Nick Perkins – 2017, 2018, 2019 *Ronaldo Segu – 2020

Academic All-MAC

All-MAC teams

All-MAC First Team

– 2005 *Rodney Pierce – 2009, 2010 *

– 2012 *

– 2012, 2013, 2014 * Justin Moss – 2015 *

– 2018, 2019 * Nick Perkins – 2018, 2019 * Jayvon Graves – 2020

All-MAC Second Team

– 2004 *Calvin Cage – 2006 *Byron Mulkey – 2011 * Shannon Evans – 2015 * Blake Hamilton – 2017 * Jeremy Harris – 2018, 2019 * Jayvon Graves – 2021 *Jeenathan Williams – 2021 *Josh Mballa – 2021

All-MAC Third Team

*Lamonte Bearden – 2016 * Blake Hamilton – 2016 * Wes Clark – 2018

All-Freshman Team

All-Defensive Team

*Willie Conner – 2016 *Dontay Caruthers – 2017, 2019 *Davonta Jordan – 2018, 2019 *Josh Mballa – 2021

All-Tournament team

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buffalo Bulls Men's Basketball