Bobby Hurley

Hurley says he wants to stay at Buffalo

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By Nick Veronica | Updated at 9:17 p.m. Tuesday

UB basketball coach Bobby Hurley, who interviewed at DePaul last weekend and is rumored to be in the mix for several other openings, said Tuesday that he plans to continue coaching at the University at Buffalo.

Bobby Hurley

Bobby Hurley

“My heart is here in Buffalo with this group of kids that I’m coaching and that’s what I plan to do here going forward,” Hurley said Tuesday morning on ESPN’s “The Herd” radio show, in an interview with host Colin Cowherd.

“These guys really delivered and put Buffalo on the map, for the first time in school history playing in the NCAA Tournament, and that’s why this stuff is going on,” Hurley said of having his name thrown around for seemingly every vacancy in the NCAA.

[RELATED: Obama likes Hurley, picks UB]

Later Tuesday, Hurley told Sports Illustrated, “I feel I will be back coaching Buffalo next season.”

But his commitment wasn’t ironclad.

“There’s nothing of really anything substantial that has my interest at this point,” Hurley added.

The Buffalo News reported last week that the school had reached an agreement in principle with Hurley to become the highest-paid coach in the Mid-American Conference, with a base salary over $550,000. DePaul this week hired Dave Leitao after Hurley and Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew reportedly turned down the Big East school.

The rest of Hurley’s roughly five-minute ESPN interview focused on his thoughts about the Final Four and his experience playing at Duke under Coach K. Hurley was also a great salesman for UB, weaving in references leading Kentucky at halftime, playing Wisconsin, and having several players appear on SportsCenter every chance he could.

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Obama likes Bobby Hurley, picks UB to upset West Virginia

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Obama picked UB to upset West Virginia before losing to Maryland.

Obama picked UB to upset West Virginia before losing to Maryland.

By Nick Veronica

President Barack Obama picked UB to upset West Virginia in his annual NCAA Tournament bracket with ESPN.

Obama thinks highly of second-year coach Bobby Hurley, who starred at Duke in the early ’90s when the president was in law school at Harvard.

“I liked Bobby Hurley,” Obama said. “Seeing Hurley, how tough he was … he was not a big guy. But he was tough and scrappy, and that’s reflected in his team.”

(Update: Seems like ESPN took down the video in the tweet. Obama’s full bracket video is here. Some of his quotes appear to be spliced together differently in the full version; the quote above was from the teaser video.)

Obama’s full bracket with ESPN’s Andy Katz will be revealed at 9 a.m. Wednesday on SportsCenter.

UB takes on fifth-seeded West Virginia Friday at 2:10 p.m.

Watch Bobby Hurley dance after UB wins MAC championship

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By Nick Veronica

UB is headed to the Big Dance, and Bobby Hurley’s moves are ready.

The second-year coach got down in the locker room on Saturday after UB beat Central Michigan to win the MAC Tournament and clinch the Bulls’ first-ever NCAA Tournament bid.

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I don’t know what you call the dance move when you put your fingers on your lips, but I like it. Really helps solve the problem of not knowing what to do with your hands.

Postgame video: UB 77, Bowling Green 75

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By Nick Veronica

Postgame interviews from UB’s win over Bowling Green that gave UB the 2-seed in next week’s MAC Tournament:

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From left to right, that’s Will Regan, coach Bobby Hurley, and Shannon Evans.

Regan had 17 points and eight rebounds on his Senior Night.

UB has a bye all the win into the semifinals of the MAC Tournament. Here’s the bracket (click for larger view):

MAC_Tournament_bracket

Immediate reactions: UB 77, Bowling Green 75

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Bowling Green 35 40 — 75
Buffalo 35 42 — 77

By Nick Veronica

What it means: UB earned the No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament with its win and the results of Friday’s other MAC games. Players and coaches cut down the nets after the game as the PA announced the Bulls as MAC co-champions, along with Central Michigan and Kent State at 12-6.

The MAC highly rewards its top seeds, giving seeds 3 and 4 byes into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament and seeds 1 and 2 byes into the semifinals. UB’s first tournament game will be Friday, March 13 against a team to be determined. Two years at UB, two MAC East titles for Bobby Hurley.

Play-by-play: The final minute and a half was wild. Here’s how it went down:

Justin Moss puts UB ahead 71-70 with 1:32 left. Bowling Green’s Spencer Parker tied it by making one of two free throws with 1:12 to go, then a BG steal led to a David Joseph layup that regained the lead. Will Regan knocked down his fifth three-pointer to put UB back in front, then Jospeh’s layup made it 75-74 Bowling Green with 26.3 remaining.

Lamonte Bearden answered with a jumper to put UB up 76-75 with 14.9 seconds left. Anthony Henderson missed the front end of a one-and-one with 7.4 left and UB got the rebound. Justin Moss hit one of two free throws to put UB up 77-75. Moss then recovered a loose ball as BG came up the court.

Moss

Moss

Moss appeared to call for a timeout, which would’ve been disastrous because UB didn’t have any timeouts left. Refs instead called a jump ball as Moss failed to secure the ball. Possession went to BG with 1.3 seconds left. The Falcons had the ball by their bench and threw up an alley-oop for the tie, but the pass went out of bounds. UB celebrated as the horn sounded, but no one had touched the ball so the clock shouldn’t have started. UB inbounded the ball deep into BG territory and ran out the clock on a 77-75 win.

UB looked to be in some trouble late in the first half down 34-20 with 4:16 left before halftime, but an incredible hot streak brought the game to a 35-35 tie at the break. Will Regan started the run with a three-pointer, then Shannon Evans hit one, Regan hit another, and then Evans hit two deep triples that earned a standing ovation as UB went into the locker room.

UB’s season-best winning streak is now at six games. Moss finished with 19 points while playing only 21 minutes in foul trouble. Regan had 17 and Shannon Evans had 14. Jehvon Clarke led Bowling Green with 21.

MAC Tournament bracket: UB has a bye all the way into the semifinals. The 2-seed is on the bottom in Game 10.

MAC_Tournament_bracket

Operation 6000:

Free-throw struggles: UB wouldn’t have been in such a deep hole in the first half if it could’ve made some free throws. The Bulls hit just 5 of 13 free throws in the first half (38.5%) and shot 57 percent for the game.

No T: Hurley was very upset with the refs when a BG’s Delvin Dickerson intentionally bumped Shannon Evans while checking out with 10:48 left in the game. The officials went to replay but decided not to call a technical foul.

MAC Player of the Year?

Senior Day: UB seniors Will Regan and Xavier Ford were honored prior to tipoff.

Vegas line: Line was UB -6.5 and over/under 138. Bowling Green covered, total was 152.

Next: UB’s next game will be in Cleveland Friday during the MAC Tournament, opponent TBD.