Not Being Bullish on UB

Confession:

When UB clinched the MAC, I had no idea they were that close to going to the dance prior to them playing in the Finals. In fact, the way I found out they were going was when my Twitter feed blew up. I gotta admit, I felt like I totally missed the party by not giving two shits about them prior to it. Really? There was a chase for this? How could I not know this?

Well, I’ve probably told this story before, but growing up, I never really cared much about college sports. In fact, I don’t think Buffalo as a whole really cared during the 90s and early 2000s. Not to paint too broad of a brush, but I tend to think Buffalo sports fans view themselves as a major league town and not a town that’s going to put their heart into teams that aren’t at the professional level. Furthermore, it doesn’t help the local college teams during that era didn’t do much.

However, it goes a bit deeper for me as far as my ambivalence towards college athletics. See, I hated UB students growing up. I worked at my Parents Pizza shop that was right by UB South Campus from the age of 13 to when I finished college at 22. My primary shift was Friday or Saturday night where I’d serve drunk college students -primarily from UB- slice after slice of pizza until 4am. As an avid drunk, if there’s one thing I can tell you that most will agree with its how being around drunks when you are sober is the worst thing ever. I had college kids swearing at me and making passes at my older sister who was working behind the counter with me. I had folks vomiting on the counter. I loathed that fucking school. I also found a majority of them to be from Tri-state NYC region who felt that Buffalo and its citizens were beneath them..or they thought some asshole working at a Pizza shop may as well be a homeless person.

My discontent towards higher learning didn’t end there as one of my biggest regrets growing up was that I didn’t go away to college. My grades sucked and I bombed on my SATs. So, Arizona or Cuse wasn’t exactly going to give me a scholarship, let alone allow me to attend their school. Of course, that’s on me and not them. I did the 20-minute commute to Buffalo State and couldn’t be more detached to that school.

I went there.

Did my school work.

Went home.

Partied with my friends from my childhood.

I never did the frats or Buff. State house parties. In fact, I was a bit pissed off as a broadcast student because the professors never told us that if you decide to do TV production in a city like NY or LA, you’d be freelancing for the most part which means no insurance or job stability. So, that collegiate bitterness then manifested towards Syracuse University. The SU alumni run television. And if you have Syracuse degree on your resume and the boss went to that snow infested region, bang! You were probably going to get hired. Then you have to deal with the self-entitled “I’m from Syracuse Valley High” bullshit in the industry which culminates in me fist-pumping at the thought of Jim Boeheim and the basketball program being in trouble with the NCAA.

So, call it pettiness, silliness and bitterness… but this has been my viewpoint on local colleges in this state.

When I found out that UB was going to the dance, I was originally going to sarcastically tweet about hating UB or being a proud Buff State alum (Lie). However, at the risk of sounding cheesy, I’ve always been a sucker for a decent Buffalo story and for fans to enjoy a winner for a change. I saw the jubilation on Twitter; Not just from UB alumni, but from anyone connected to Buffalo. It was a cool scene that put things in perspective, especially since the two other teams in town haven’t been to the playoffs in like 200 years. Now, I’m not gonna sit here and preach about how much I love UB and want them to win. It would be cool and all, but the bigger brass ring to attain would be to have a 3rd team in Buffalo, specifically at basketball.

By comparison to the UB Bulls football team, basketball seems to be one entity that could connect Buffalo to the major leagues because once you get in the tournament, all bets are off and everyone is watching you. I don’t know if you do that with the football team playing in like the International Bowl. Maybe I’m wrong. However, I’d take watching the tourney over a 7-4 football team playing in that bowl. Plus, I already have the Bills as a football fetish.

UB has made some strides over the last few years with the sports scene, but I’m hoping for the day that the city and myself really embraces the scene 24/7 and not just around the times when its cool to support them. It would be fun to actually blog about the Bulls during the season if I happen to catch them on TV. I think the difference between UB and say Bonaventure or Niagara is that Buffalo happens to be on their uniform and its head and shoulders the biggest school in the region. Size does matter. I’m hoping that having a recognizable coach like Bobby Hurley should raise recruiting efforts. Obviously, consistency has to be the key for this to truly pick up for me. If UB doesn’t get back to the dance for another 10 years, I’ll probably be blogging about the exact same topic in 2025.

Hopefully this is the first of many trips to the dance. I’ll be more than happy to put away my past bullshit with colleges around the region and actually not miss out next year.