Just throwing this out there for discussion.

Well, if Buffalo wins that many games and advances as far as the 2002 Kent State squad then it can be a good discussion. Right now tough to say. Too much conference basketball still sitting in front of the Bulls.

way to much season left.

And in terms of how the game is played, it's almost a different era. The style of the game has changed in 17 years. And I'm sure Buffalo doesn't want to get ahead of themselves too much. A whole lot of unexpected things can happen in the next two months. Well, for Buffalo anyway. KSU '02 is pretty much all set.

Let's revisit this discussion in March.

The big question is whether any of the Buffalo players will end up starring in the NFL?

(01-09-2019 04:30 PM)Rocket75 Wrote:  The big question is whether any of the Buffalo players will end up starring in the NFL?

Nick Perkins could easily be a tight end!

Going back to my Sagarin rankings database, here's the highest ranking MAC Basketball teams since 2000:
year team rank rating wins losses
2002 Kent State 17th 87.17 29-6
2000 Kent State 32nd 84.54 21-8
2004 Western Michigan 37th 83.52 26-5
2000 Ball State 45th 82.34 21-9
2003 Central Michigan 48th 82.5 24-7
2008 Kent State 51st 81.75 28-7
2002 Ball State 54th 81.87 23-12
2012 Ohio 55th 81.52 28-8
2000 Ohio 61st 80.84 20-13
2007 Akron 63rd 81.33 25-7
2002 Bowling Green 63rd 81.22 23-9
2015 Buffalo 63rd 80.45 23-10
2008 Akron 65th 80.4 24-11
2006 Kent State 65th 80.72 24-9
2000 Bowling Green 66th 80.31 21-8
2018 Buffalo 66th 80.69 26-9
2001 Kent State 67th 80.35 23-10
2013 Akron 68th 80.11 25-7

Sagarin doesn't include the non-Division-I games, so the win-loss might be different than you're familiar with.

There isn't a lot you can use to compare teams 16 years apart, especially since there isn't a lot of datasets for that whole time span, but if you want to draw the line, you could put it at 17th in Sagarin, or the 87.17 Sagarin rating.

This list is cut off at with just teams finishing in the top 70. One thing to point out, in 2002 Kent State's high ranking is probably boosted by other teams in the MAC. In 2002, Ball State was 54th and BGSU was 63rd. Playing teams with higher rankings helps your ranking.

Beating 29 wins would be good - a win in the Elite Eight would also put 2019 Buffalo over 2002 Kent State

Right now in my opinion, Buffalo is the best MAC team of all time.

It's an impossible question right now because the strength of Kent State's run was all about January forward.

On this day in 2002, Kent State was 9-5 with losses to Hofstra (finished 12-20), #13 Kentucky (finished 22-10), Youngstown State (finished 5-23), Xavier (finished 26-6) and Buffalo (finished 12-18). They really didn't have much in the way of quality non-conference wins - UC Irvine may have been the best, finishing the year 21-11. But after that, Kent State won 21 straight before falling to Indiana in the Elite 8. Had they lost in the MAC championship game, they would have been on the bubble at 26-6 with their lone win against a tournament team coming from the MAC representative. They may still have made it, but it would have been close.

At most you can say that Buffalo right now is pretty far ahead of where Kent State was at the same time in 2002. But it will take a monumental run to stay ahead of the '02 Flashes the rest of the way.

Plus, at the end of that run, they didn’t get breaks by playing weaker teams in the tourney at any point. They beat three ranked power conference teams in a row. Oklahoma St., a 7 seed, Alabama, a 2 seed, and Pitt, a 3 seed.

1999 Miami

2016 WMU or 2012 NIU?

(01-10-2019 09:52 AM)GoBullsGo Wrote:  It's an impossible question right now because the strength of Kent State's run was all about January forward.

On this day in 2002, Kent State was 9-5 with losses to Hofstra (finished 12-20), #13 Kentucky (finished 22-10), Youngstown State (finished 5-23), Xavier (finished 26-6) and Buffalo (finished 12-18). They really didn't have much in the way of quality non-conference wins - UC Irvine may have been the best, finishing the year 21-11. But after that, Kent State won 21 straight before falling to Indiana in the Elite 8. Had they lost in the MAC championship game, they would have been on the bubble at 26-6 with their lone win against a tournament team coming from the MAC representative. They may still have made it, but it would have been close.

Reminds of 2011 Butler. A loss on February 3rd in Youngstown put Butler 14-9 and 5-5 in the Horizon League.

Two months later, they were playing for a national title.

Incredible. My first year watching CBB was ‘03 so I really regret having missed Kent’s run.