The UB Bulls men’s basketball team looks to defend its Mid-American Conference Title yet again as Buffalo opens up Mid-American Conference Tournament play on Thursday night when the third-seeded Bulls face the sixth-seeded Golden Flashes in the Quarterfinals. This will be the fifth time that the two teams are meeting in the MAC Tournament. UB and Kent State are two of the hotter teams in the league as Buffalo heads to Cleveland having won eight of their last 10 and Kent State enters Thursday winners of seven of their last eight.
Buffalo is looking to become the first team in the history of the Mid-American Conference to win the tournament title for the third straight year. UB is the first team to win back-to-back league titles since 2001 & 2002 when their opponent from Thursday did it, Kent State.
UB cleaned up on the individual postseason awards as redshirt sophomore Dontay Caruthers was named the MAC Defensive Player of the Year and sophomore Nick Perkins was named the MAC Sixth Man of the Year. Caruthers became the first UB player to be named the Defensive Player of the Year, while Perkins is UB’s first Sixth Man of the Year since 2005. Senior Blake Hamilton was named second-team All-MAC, while CJ Massinburg was named Honorable Mention and Caruthers was also named to the All-Defensive Team.
Kent State enters tonight’s Mid-American Conference Tournament game with a 19-13 overall record as the Golden Flashes finished one game behind the Bulls in the league standings at 10-8. Kent State won a thriller in the opening round of the league tournament as they defeated #11 Central Michigan, 116-106 in overtime. The teams combined for 34 three pointers in the game and Kent State scored 76 points in the second half and overtime.
Kent State is led by first-team All-MAC selection Jimmy Hall, who is averaging 18.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and Jaylin Walker, who is averaging 15.4 points per contest. Deon Edwin added 13.4 points per game, but no other Kent State player averages more than 5.3 points. Edwin was named to the league’s All-Defensive team following the regular season.
Buffalo and Kent State split their two regular season meetings this year with both teams winning on the opponents home court. The Bulls won at the M.A.C Center on Jan. 17, 82-69, while Kent State won at Alumni Arena on Feb. 21, 77-69.
Rob Senderoff enters his sixth year as the head men’s basketball coach at Kent State. The 43-year-old took over the program in April 2011 after spending seven previous years on the Golden Flashes’ coaching staff. Senderoff earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Albany in 1995 and a master’s in sports studies from Miami in 1997.