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By JOSH NEWMAN
NEW YORK – His brother and his father lost crucial postseason games earlier Saturday, so Bobby Hurley was the family’s big winner on Saturday evening.
Bobby, the oldest child of legendary St. Anthony High School head coach Bob Hurley, coached the University of Buffalo to the Mid-American Conference Tournament title, defeating Central Michigan, 88-84, in the championship game at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
“I’m really proud of my team,” Hurley said. “I’m proud of the accomplishment that this group achieved, the first time in school history that we are MAC Champions.”
The NCAA Tournament berth is the first in the Bulls’ Division I history, which dates back to the mid-1990’s. Before Saturday, Buffalo’s postseason history consisted of six trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament between 1957-65, a berth in the NIT in 2005 and three trips to the CIT since 2009.
The accomplishment is remarkable considering that just a few years ago, Hurley was breeding horses in Florida until his younger brother, Danny, pulled him back into coaching with an assistant’s job at Wagner College.
Senior forward Xavier Ford and sophomore guard Shannon Evans led six Bulls in double-figures with a team-high 18 points. Buffalo shot 49.2 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from 3-point range.
“This team has so much heart and really came together when we suffered a tough loss at six and six in conference, to respond the way we have and to win eight straight games,” Hurley said. “It’s easy to coach when you have guys like Shannon Evans, Xavier Ford, Will Regan, Lamonte Beardon, Justin Moss and just go right down the line. This is an amazing group of kids.”
Forever a sleepy, nondescript basketball program, Buffalo hired Hurley on March 26, 2013 and the Duke legend has paid almost immediate dividends.
Last season, Buffalo went 19-10 and lost in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals before going 23-9 this season and winning a second straight MAC East Division title.
Among those nine losses, Buffalo played 33-0 Kentucky hard on Nov. 16 in Lexington. The Bulls led by five at the half before the Wildcats cranked up the defense in a 71-52 victory.
Buffalo had been in the ‘Next Four Out’ category in the latest ‘Bracketology’ from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, but that is no longer an issue thanks to the automatic bid.
Photo: USA Today Sports
