For the five seniors on the women’s basketball team, this trip to the Big Dance is different

TALLAHASSEE — The five seniors on the UB women’s team have been to the Big Dance before, back in 2016. But this time, they say, it’s different.

“This year, we’re going in with a totally different mindset that this game we can win,” forward Mariah Suchan said. “And we’re going to.”

The 11th-seeded Bulls exuded that sense of confidence at practice Thursday, ahead of their Saturday afternoon opening-round game vs. 6-seed South Florida — and hours before the UB men shocked the basketball world with a bracket-busting, 21-point upset of Arizona Thursday night.

Two years ago the UB women were almost as surprised as anyone to find themselves in the NCAA tournament. Seeded eighth in the MAC with an 8-10 conference record, they went on a sudden postseason tear and won the MAC Tournament, earning the women’s program’s first-ever NCAA berth. But they quickly fell back to Earth, losing to Ohio State, 88-69, in the opening round.

“That year we were just very excited,” Suchan said. “We’d never made the tournament before. We were definitely not thinking that we were necessarily going to be able to compete. But this year we definitely think we can beat them. I’m not freaking out like, ‘Oh, it’s a big school.’ So are we now. We can compete with them.”

Indeed, the UB women, like the men, are no longer mere minnows swimming in a big pond. They are pretty big fish themselves, a 27-5 team chosen for an at-large berth by an impressed NCAA selection committee.

Senior center Cassie Oursler says this time around it’s a very different feel. “An 11-6 matchup, you never know what’s going to happen,” she said. “We’re ready to play. We came, we won throughout the season to get an at-large bid. We put in the work. So yeah, it is a very different experience.”

“Last time we went it was kind of all nervousness,” said senior guard Stephanie Reid, describing the Bulls’ emotional mindset then and now. “This time, there’s more of a competitive aspect, like we know we can compete as a team. It’s a big stage, so you’re always going to be nervous, but I think it’s more excitement now. We’re just ready to get out on the court.”

Senior guards Katherine and Liisa Ups, the twins from Australia (“We’re a duo”), discussed 2018 vs. 2016 in their distinctive, rapid-fire fashion.

“It does feel different than two years ago,” Katherine said.

“We’re way more prepared,” Liisa added.

“Two years ago, it was just the excitement of getting to the NCAA. We didn’t really have any expectations.”

“Yeah. Remember we were eighth place?”

“We were eighth seed in the MAC.”

“We were just so excited.”

“So this year, it’s a different feel — it’s like we were meant to be here.”

“Yeah, definitely excited, but also something we knew we were working toward.”

All the seniors said they were proud to be part of a UB team that has grown steadily in their four years, from 19 wins to 20 to 22 to 27.

“It’s cool to say Buffalo has kind of grown from when we got here,” Katherine Ups said. “Because when we were recruited, we talked to [then Deputy Athletics Director] Allen Greene, and he was all about building the Buffalo powerhouse. And we’ve actually done that.”

“We’re actually part of that,” Liisa Ups said.

For the five seniors, this second trip to the NCAA tournament is the start of the crowning moment of their college basketball careers. There’ll be time enough, after it’s all over, to look ahead to the future. For Suchan and the Upses, it will be a career in the biomedical sciences, medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical science. For Reid and Oursler, it will be a shot at pro basketball somewhere in Europe.

But for now, junior guard Cierra Dillard is determined to make the seniors’ crowning moment something special.

“I just want to give them the best ending to a career that they could have,” said Dillard, the Bulls’ leading scorer and a transfer from UMass making her first trip to the NCAA’s. “They started this four years ago, they started this dynasty of Buffalo and how it’s getting better and better every year, and now it’s a program that is becoming something big on the map. I just want to give them all that I have, because I know that next year I would want the same thing.

“We’ve had a great season,” Dillard said. “I want to top it off great.”

The UB women will have their chance to do just that on Saturday vs. South Florida. And maybe, just maybe, beyond.

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