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for February 2010
 Super Bowl XLIV is in the books, and while the city of New Orleans takes the next two weeks to party like they’ve never partied before – you deserve it, folks – the rest of the NFL can now turn its full attention toward building toward the goal that the Saints achieved last night.
Back here in Buffalo Bills country, we’re still reeling from last week’s news that the team will be moving to a 3-4 alignment under head coach Chan Gailey and new defensive coordinator George Edwards. Few facts are known at this point, but what we do know is that Buffalo isn’t anywhere close to being equipped to run a traditional 3-4, and that the front seven in particular will be subjected to a great deal of house cleaning.
Continue reading ‘Bills Roster Review: Defensive Ends’
 University at Buffalo head football coach Jeff Quinn and men’s head basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon will be making a special appearance at the 2010 Buffalo Auto Show for “Hometown Heroes Day” on Friday, February 12 at the Buffalo Convention Center.
Coach Quinn will stop by first on Friday, February 12 from 2:45 pm until 4:15 pm followed by coach Witherspoon from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. The pair will be signing autographs and visiting with the attendees.
In addition, the official radio home of UB football and men’s basketball, WECK (1230 AM) will be hosting live interviews with each head coach during their respective appearance. Listen in via radio or online at www.weck1230.com.
Continue reading ‘BSD Briefs: February 12′
 You’d be hard pressed to find a team in the NHL more eager to see the Olympic break than the Buffalo Sabres. For the sixth straight game Thursday night the Sabres failed to skate off the ice with two points and perhaps more alarmingly tlost to the Carolina Hurricanes for the second time in a week, 4-3 in overtime.
Carolina, ranked 14th in the Eastern Conference defeated a sliding Sabres team that’s now 0-4-2 in their last six games and 2-8-2 in their last dozen. They’ve also lost four straight games to teams not currently in the top eight playoff positions in their respective conferences.
Continue reading ‘Sabres drop sixth straight at Carolina’
 The Indiana Daily Student is reporting that University of Indiana offensive line coach Bobby Johnson is leaving the school to become the assistant offensive line coach for the Buffalo Bills.
The report says that Johnson hasn’t signed a contract with the Bills yet but the school has already released him from his contract with the University.
Johnson has been with Indiana for five years. Under his guidance, Indiana ran for over 2,000 team rushing yards in 2007 and 2008.
Johnson played college football at the University of Miami and also has coaching experience with Akron as their defensive line coach and Miami as tight ends coach.
The Buffalo Bills have announced the retention of former defensive and special teams assistant DeMontie Cross.
The defensive staff appears largely set as well. George Edwards is the defensive coordinator; Giff Smith will coach the defensive line; Bob Sanders will coach the outside linebackers; Cross will coach the inside linebackers; George Catavolos will coach the secondary; and Adrian White will manage defensive quality control.
 It remains to be seen if the Buffalo Bills will soon be more competitive or descend even further into oblivion, but one thing about this team is certain; the roster turnover is going to be extreme.
There’s a slew of pending free agents, led by Terrell Owens and a cluster of mid tier to lower tier players the club won’t bring back.
Some players will get cut simply because they either don’t fit or underachieved. John McCargo, Nic Harris, Chris Ellis and Roscoe Parrish are among those prime candidates.
The following are six players that could be dealt this offseason. All contain a reasonable amount of value to other teams; even if they’re no longer needed here.
Continue reading ‘Six players the Bills could trade’
 The Bulls hit their first six shots against Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night and it was a sign of things to come as Buffalo went on to shoot 66.7 percent from the field en route to an 84-67 win over Eastern Michigan at Alumni Arena. The Bulls’ shooting percentage was the second best single-game performance in school history.
Buffalo (13-9, 6-5 MAC) never trailed in the game to earn its second straight. Both teams came out of the gates blazing, shooting over 60 percent from the field in the first half. The Bulls shot 60 percent and the Eagles shot 64 percent in the first stanza. UB held a 42-39 lead at the break.
Continue reading ‘UB pounds Eastern Michigan 84-67′
 A 16-point halftime lead and 22 points from senior Chris Matthews helped St. Bonaventure hold on for a 72-61 Atlantic 10 win over visiting Fordham on Wednesday evening at the Reilly Center.
Matthews’ 22 points came on the strength of 6-of-10 from the three-point arc, helping the Bonnies snap a season-long four-game losing streak to improve to 10-12 on the season and 3-6 in A-10 play. Fordham drops its 15th straight contest and falls to 2-20 and 0-10 in league play.
Continue reading ‘Matthews leads Bona over Fordham, 72-61′
Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital announced that Mike Robitaille, Buffalo Sabres broadcast analyst, underwent surgery today.
Robitaille suffered a spinal cord injury last week (Wednesday, February 3, 2010) when the car he was driving was rear-ended as a result of a minor chain reaction.
Kevin J. Gibbons, MD, of University at Buffalo Neurosurgery (UBNS) performed the surgery, decompressing Robitaille’s spinal cord and stabilizing his spine.
Continue reading ‘Robitialle has surgery today after accident’
 The New York Mets announced that they claimed outfielder Jason Pridie off waivers from the Minnesota Twins. To make room on the 40-man roster, the team designated righthanded pitcher Jack Egbert for assignment.
Pridie, 26, appeared in one game for Minnesota last season, entering as a pinch-runner on June 20. He spent the rest of the season playing with the Rochester Red Wings, hitting .265 (136-513) with nine home runs and 53 RBI in 121 games.
Pridie was especially tough against the Bisons, hitting .377 (23-61) with four home runs and 12RBI in 14 games against the Herd.
Continue reading ‘Mets claim Jason Pridie off waivers from Twins’
 The 14th ranked Medaille College men’s volleyball team wouldn’t need a five set marathon performance to upend NECVA Divisional foe and 15th ranked Nazareth College this time. The Mavs traveled to Rochester to take on the Golden Flyers on their home court and left town with a convincing straight set win (3-0); (30-28, 30-19, 30-28) to keep them perfect in NECVA Western Division play at (4-0) and (8-2) overall.
The story of the match would be the play of the Mavs trio of Ryan’s. First was junior setter Ryan Maxwell who directed the Mavs attack with (31) assists while pitching in with (4) blocks and a service ace. Second saw senior middle hitter Ryan Murdie who matched a team high with (14) kills while hitting at a (.435) clip. Rounding out the trio was senior outside hitter Ryan Metz who also contributed (14) kills in the victory.
Continue reading ‘Medaille takes out Nazareth in men’s volleyball’
 They say that the lifeblood of the 3-4 defense is a gap-plugging nose tackle and athletic playmakers at the pass-rushing outside linebacker positions. Unfortunately for the Buffalo Bills, the team is lacking just as severely in the pass rusher department as they are in the nose tackle department.
Well, it’s not that bad, I suppose. The Bills actually have solid options here, and if things fall right this off-season, will have two guys that can at least take the field as starters. But the pass rush has long been an issue in Buffalo, and the team’s inability to find athletic young players at the position in the draft now has a negative effect on their transition to the new scheme.
After the jump, we’ll talk about the four players currently on Buffalo’s roster that fit the mold of a 3-4 pass-rushing outside linebacker. Unfortunately for the Bills, only two of those players are natural fits; the other two names on the list probably don’t belong at all. Add this to the needs list, folks!
Continue reading ‘Bills Roster Review: Rush Linebackers’
 Whenever St. Francis and Bishop Timon get together for a boy’s Monsignor Martin Association high school basketball game, there’s only one conclusion you can always draw from.
Neither team nor its fans like each other.
Last month St. Francis held serve on their home floor. Tuesday night the Tigers returned the favor. Mike Scarcello’s game-high 22 points led Timon to a 58-54 that was quite spirited both on the floor and in the stands.
Continue reading ‘Timon gets revenge; NT beats the Falls again’
 The Buffalo Sabres started poorly against the Boston Bruins Tuesday night and ultimately it cost them a valuable point in the standings. The Sabres fell into a 2-0 hole in the first period before battling back to tie and force overtime, but the Bruins prevailed in a shootout and the Sabres have now left the ice five straight games without getting two points.
With Ottawa winning against Calgary, they’ve now overtaken Buffalo for first place in the Northeast division. Each have 72 points but the Senators have more wins to put them on top.
Continue reading ‘Sabres drop fifth in a row with loss to Bruins’
 The Buffalo Sabres fought hard last night, literally, but still couldn’t come away with a victory against the Boston Bruins. The 2-1 shootout loss was the team’s third straight against an opponent currently on the outside of the playoff race.
But unlike the previous four losses, this was a much grittier Sabres team. Adam Mair and Craig Rivet dropped the gloves in a pair of brutal fights, while Paul Gaustad unsuccessfully tried to get the gloves off Boston big man Zdeno Chara. At least the Sabres get a passing grade for effort, which is contrast to last weekend when you’d be hard pressed to believe they cared with their performances.
Continue reading ‘BSD Briefs: February 10′
Big game tonight for the Sabres as the team tries to put to rest a four-game losing streak. Ryan Miller is back in net for Buffalo, who face a Boston Bruins team that won Sunday to end a 10-game losing skid. Follow along here for the game alongside our partners from WNY Media.net, and as always your comments and questions are welcome.
According to a Pro Football Talk report, agent Drew Rosenhaus tells the Boston Globe that recently released wide receiver Donte Stallworth is working out for a team on Wednesday.
We have no idea if that team is the Buffalo Bills, who will certainly look to the free agent pool to replenish the position with the probability that neither Terrell Owens nor Josh Reed will be returning.
Stallworth was released by the Cleveland Browns on Monday. He was suspended for the 2009 season by Commissioner Roger Goodell after he pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida. He ended up serving 24 days in jail for the crime.
Continue reading ‘Report: Stallworth to work out for “mystery” team on Wednesday’
 Buffalo State’s women’s lacrosse team is ranked 20th in the nation according to the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Division III preseason national poll. There are 201 NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse programs in the nation.
The Bengals, under the direction of the reigning SUNYAC Coach of the Year Meg Stevens, return five All-SUNYAC players from a team that climbed into the national rankings for the first time in school history last season. The Bengals went 16-2 overall and 9-0 in league play last season, assembling a 16-game winning streak before falling to Cortland in the conference championship game.
Continue reading ‘Buff State lacrosse ranked nationally in preseason poll’
 After losing four straight games last week the Buffalo Sabres could really use a win. One could argue their slump is peanuts compared to their opponent at the HSBC Arena tonight, the Boston Bruins.
The Bruins don’t want to hear about the Sabres recent misery. Boston defeated Montreal this past Sunday. It snapped a 10-game losing streak that’s seen Boston slip to a tie for ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind Tampa Bay. If the playoffs started today, Boston would be on the outside looking in.
Continue reading ‘Sabres begin last week before Olympic break tonight’
 For the past few weeks, our talented colleague Brian Galliford over at Buffalo Rumblings has been generously providing our readers with a Buffalo Bills’ roster breakdown by position. I encourage all fans to check out his brilliant breakdowns by position (as well as visit Rumblings for all Bills related news and views—simply put it’s the best Bills fan site on the web).
Anyway, with the NFL season officially over and the new Bills staff seemingly in place, it’s time to (happily) start looking forward to 2010. New head coach Chan Gailey and General Manager Buddy Nix among other decision makers have hoards of key personnel moves to ponder.
Players will be cut and/or traded in the coming month and released players from other organizations are will be brought in during the time leading to free agency. With a new staff and front office, there’s going to be turnover—probably more so than any recent year.
Continue reading ‘Buffalo Bills Free Agents: Who Stays… And Goes?’
 Niagara Wheatfield High School and Fredonia High School have been selected as the varsity wrestling “Team’s of the Decade” in their respective divisions by a committee formed by long-time wrestling Coach Dick Lange and Niagara County Community College Coach Eric Knuutila.
The committee created to research and select the teams included former coaches Dick Lange (Roy-Hart & Newfane) and Walt Thurnau (Southwestern), both being inducted this March into the Section Six WNY wrestling Hall of Fame. It also included Bob Koshinski, associated with amateur wrestling over the past thirty years as both a member of the media and DiPaolo Wrestling Scholarship Committee Chairman, and NCCC Coach Eric Knuutila, a member of several wrestling Halls of Fame on the local, state and national level.
Continue reading ‘Section Six Wrestling Teams of the Decade Announced’
 While leading your division and sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference hardly constitutes a “must win” game, the Buffalo Sabres have a very important home game tonight against the Boston Bruins. It’s important in that they are in the midst of a season-long four game losing streak and have only three games left to right the ship before the Olympic break, including tonight’s affair.
If Darcy Regier doesn’t think this team needs to make a move before the trade deadline on March 3 he’s fooling himself. The Sabres badly need another goal scorer and a little more grit. They’ve looked exceptionally soft of late and more alarmingly Ryan Miller has looked average. If the team doesn’t have the confidence to put Patrick Lalime in net more often they need to find a better backup option. Between all the starts this year and the Olympics Miller is in serious danger of getting burned out before the season ends, and Buffalo has zero chance of going far in the playoffs if he’s not at his best.
Continue reading ‘BSD Briefs: February 9′
 When these teams last met a few weeks ago, Bishop Timon handed then-number one Nichols a four point loss. The Vikings would have none of it in their rematch at home on Monday night.
Nichols (15-6/8-2) used a suffocating defense that harassed the normally sound Tigers into their worst shooting performance of the year. The Vikings took control early and were able to cruise to a surprisingly easy 65-47 victory.
Will Regan showed why he’s the reigning Western New York Player of the Year, having one of his trademark well rounded statistical games. The senior had game-highs of 20 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots.
Continue reading ‘H.S. Hoops: Nichols suffocates Timon, 65-47′
 The Niagara men’s basketball team (13-13, 6-8 MAAC) dropped a road conference contest at Rider (14-12, 7-7 MAAC) on Monday, 70-62. The Purple Eagles took a 14-point lead into halftime, but allowed 47 points in the second-half.
“It was a dissappointing loss,” Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said. “We let a great opportunity slip away.”
The Purple Eagles used a strong defensive effort in the first half, taking a 37-23 lead into the locker room at halftime. But after intermission, the Broncs outscored Niagara 47-25, shooting 56.7 percent for the come-back victory. Rider now sits in fifth place with four MAAC games remaining, while NU slips into a sixth-place tie with Canisius.
Continue reading ‘Niagara blows big halftime lead, falls at Rider’
 The greatest athlete in the history of Buffalo State will be honored during the “Tribute to Randy Smith” at halftime of the Bengals’ men’s basketball game against Cortland on Friday, Feb. 19 at the Sports Arena.
Smith was a three-sport All-American in basketball, soccer and track from 1967-71. He died from a heart attack last June while working out. The tribute will include remarks from his former coaches and teammates as well as a proclamation by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown naming Feb. 19 as Randy Smith Day in Buffalo. Smith’s mother, wife and daughter will be on hand for the ceremony that will include a banner in his honor being lifted to the rafters.
Continue reading ‘Buffalo State Randy Smith Tribute Set For Feb 19′
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