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Niagara at Buffalo, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3
The UTR Game of the Day shuffles off to Buffalo, New York tonight as Bobby Hurley’s Buffalo Bulls host nearby “Western New York Big Four” rival Niagara. Buffalo enters tonight’s game with a record of 6-2, and a solid KenPom rating of 96, best in the MAC. With teams like Toledo, Akron and Western Michigan all having struggled so far this season, this could be the year that the Bulls break out and get their first ever bid into the NCAA tournament. They just need to make sure they do not overlook the Purple Eagles tonight, especially with a trip to Wisconsin looming next weekend.
Niagara enters tonight’s game with a record of 1-6 overall and 1-1 in early Metro Atlantic play. The Purple Eagles have struggled, including dropping home games to Hartford and Canisius, both teams ranking outside the KenPom top 150. However, their four other losses were all to top 100 teams, meaning that they have at least been battle-tested so far this season. A win at nearby Buffalo tonight will go a long way to proving to Chris Casey’s team that they are better than last season’s 26 loss team — though they are going to need to improve quickly if they want ay chance to avoid at least 20 losses this year.