Central Michigan University
Buffalo
Chippewas Fall, Await NIT Call
3/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
CLEVELAND -- Day in and day out, it's been about a consistent effort and making strides.
That doesn't change for coach Keno Davis and the Central Michigan men's basketball team.
The Chippewas slugged it out toe-to-toe with Buffalo Saturday night before falling, 89-84, in the Mid-American Conference championship game at Quicken Loans Arena.
CMU (23-8), the regular-season MAC champion and the tournament's No. 1 seed, fell short in its bid for its first league tourney title and NCAA Tournament berth since 2003.
They go back to work immediately, preparing for the National Invitational Tournament. The Chippewas will find out who they play and where Sunday night (8:30, ESPNU). Tickets go on sale Monday afternoon at Ticket Central.
"What we talked about briefly in the locker room is it's been since 2003 since Central Michigan's been in the post-season," said coach Keno Davis, who engineered a remarkable turnaround that saw the Chippewas more than double their win total from last season and claim the regular-season MAC title after being picked to finish second-to-last in the preseason poll.
"There are a lot of teams that would love to be in the position to be able to play, not only tonight on national television, but to continue to play basketball at a high level," Davis said. "I would be shocked if we went into the NIT without great effort, great energy and a great attitude.
"Tonight will sting. It'll sting for awhile, but I think when we're on the practice court and when we're on the game court, you're going to see what you've seen all year and that's a team that plays as hard as they can possibly play."
They did that on Saturday against second-seeded Buffalo (23-9), which will make its first ever NCAA appearance next week.
The Chippewas and Bulls battled before a raucous crowd in an entertaining and memorable showdown that featured eight lead changes and five ties.
Tournament most valuable player Xavier Ford and Shannon Evans scored 18 points apiece to lead Buffalo, while Chris Fowler had 27 to pace the Chippewas.
John Simons and Braylon Rayson added 13 apiece for CMU, while Luke Meyer had 10.
Simons and Fowler joined Ford and Evans on the all-tournament team. Toledo's J.D. Weatherspoon rounded out the squad.
The Bulls flexed their inside muscle, outrebounding the Chippewas, 37-31 including a 13-8 edge on the offensive glass. Buffalo scored 15 second-chance points to CMU's eight, and it made 10 three-pointers to the Chippewas' eight.
"I thought we played really hard on both ends," Davis said. "Though we might not have executed as well as I would have liked on the defensive end, it wasn't for a lack of effort. And I think for that, as a coach, you can definitely be proud."
Simons, one of the nation's top three-point threats, finished 2-of-4 from long range as Buffalo blanketed him every time he sniffed the ball behind the arc. Both of his triples came in the game's first 2 ½ minutes.
"I had a few decent looks in the first half and I was able to draw a couple fouls," said Simons, who went 5-for-6 from the free throw line. "But they do a good job of switching, no matter if it's their biggest guy or their smallest guy. It doesn't matter. They're going to switch it either way.
"That was their game plan. They stuck to it and they did a good job."
Buffalo's Will Regan hit a three-pointer with 14 minutes, 21 seconds to play to break a 50-50 tie and the Bulls slowly pulled away to what became an 11-point advantage, 83-72, with just over two minutes left.
The closest the Chippewas got thereafter was three, but just 2 seconds remained and Lamonte Bearden iced it with two free throws.
"They made timely plays, they made a lot of tough shots, they made timely shots," said Fowler, who finished with nine assists. "We'd make a run and they'd stop it with a timely shot. They just made shots down the stretch and prevented us from getting stops and getting scores."
No matter what happens next week in the NIT, the Chippewas can look back on 2014-15 as a monumentally ground-breaking season, Davis' third at the helm.
They lose just one senior, Austin Keel, and the entire starting lineup returns. The entire group, led by Fowler and Simons, laid the foundation for what surely will be very high expectations next season.
"We're competitors and we want to win," Fowler said. "But as of right now, it's not feeling too good. When we look back on it we'll feel good about what we accomplished.
"It's been a lot of run, and a lot of hard work. We have a bond in the locker room that will be unbreakable no matter what happened tonight. We're a family. We'll look back and we'll have good memories about the legacy we want to create here at Central Michigan.
"We gave the fans and the university something to support. We're pleased to have done that. Our season's not over yet. We're going to play again next week somewhere and we're going to go out and give it our all no matter what it is."
Fowler and his teammates are very well aware that they will be a marked team next season. His tone in the post-game press conference suggested that they are ready to get the season started immediately.
"No pressure, just a lot of fun," he said. "It's another year to play basketball with a bunch of guys that I love.
"It means we have to work harder. We can't surprise anybody. We won't sneak up on anybody. Our work ethic has to go up over the summer. Everything we did to get ready for this year, it has to intensify. We have to work harder, we have to work smarter, and we have to turn our weaknesses into strengths."
