Bulls Back Home Against Green Bay on Friday

Friday, November 7

Buffalo, N.Y.

6:30 p.m.

University at Buffalo

Green Bay

Tickets

Photo by: Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics

Bulls Back Home Against Green Bay on Friday

11/6/2025 2:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Zach Monell

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo men's basketball program (1-0, 0-0 MAC) are set to host the Green Bay Phoenix (0-1, 0-0 Horizon) on Friday evening. Tip-off time against the Phoenix is at 6:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Brian Koziol and Tony Watson on the call. Josh Whetzel and Bob Gaughan will be on the radio call on Buffalo 1520/Rochester 1280 and on the Varsity Network App.

LAST TIME OUT
The Bulls are coming an 85-79 comeback victory over the visiting Southern Miss. Golden Eagles on Monday evening in the season opener. Buffalo trailed by as many as 15 points in the win.

In the win, Ryan Sabol scored a career-high 32 points as he knocked down seven threes, tying a career high. This marked his first career 30-point game and ninth game with 20+ points in his time at UB. Sabol and Derrick Talton Jr. led the team with four assists each. Noah Batchelor recorded his third career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Batchelor also led the Bulls with three steals while adding a pair of assists. In his UB debut, Angelo Brizzi scored 18 points with three assists and three rebounds.

ABOUT THE PHOENIX
• Green Bay Head Coach Doug Gottlieb is in his second year at the helm for the Phoenix. He has posted an overall record of 4-29. The Phoenix opened up their season at #19 Kansas on Monday where they fell, 94-51. Green Bay posted a 1-1 exhibition record, losing to Bradley, 83-78, on Oct. 10 and defeating St. Norbert, 75-48, on Oct. 30.

• Junior forward Marcus Hall was selected to the Preseason First-Team Horizon League. Last season he averaged 13.9 ppg and 4.2 rpg.

• The Phoenix were selected 11th in the 11-team league in the Horizon League Preseason Poll.

• Gottlieb was a standout point guard who played at Notre Dame in 1995-96 and Oklahoma State from 1998-2000. He amassed 947 career assists, which is 11th all-time in NCAA history. His 793 assists while at Oklahoma State are third most in Big 12 history.

THE BULL-ETIN BOARD
• Ryan Sabol is third in the country in scoring with 32 points just behind Christian Anderson of Texas Tech (34) and Jadin Booth of Samford (34).

• Ryan Sabol has now made 148 career three-pointers, good for eighth all-time. He is seven threes away from passing Jeremy Harris (154, 2017-19) for seventh in program history.
• Ryan Sabol's seven three-pointers is the third-highest mark in the nation behind Jadin Booth (9, Samford) and Brett Decker Jr. (8, Liberty).

• Noah Batchelor is one of 100 players in the Division I that have recorded a double-double this season.

• Unlike last year when the Bulls had eight freshmen on the roster, they brought in six transfers to Buffalo. Ezra McKenna (Mobile), Derrick Talton Jr. (Oklahoma Wesleyan) and Angelo Brizzi (Longwood) are all grad transfers. Kyle Jones (St. Thomas Aquinas) is a red-shirt junior as Mikhail Pocknett (King) and Daniel Freitag are a junior and sophomore, respectfully. In total, they've scored a combined 4,908 points in their college careers. They have also combined for a 352-158 overall record and a .690 win percentage.

• The Bulls and the Miami RedHawks are the only MAC programs to return their leading scorers and rebounders from last season.

• UB opens the season with four of five games at Alumni Arena.

• The Bulls are 2-0 all-time on Nov. 7th. They last played on this date when they opened the 2022-23 season against Colgate where they won, 88-87. In 2007, the Bulls defeated Ohio Valley at the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic by a score of 89-82.

• A Buffalo win would give the Bulls a 2-0 start in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Bulls have only had seven 2-0 starts in their Division I history since 1991; 1994-95, 2005-06, 2008-09, 2011-12, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2024-25. They'd improve to 3-0 all-time against Green Bay and 32-32 against current Horizon League programs.

• The Bulls would drop to 1-1 on the season and it would be their first loss to Green Bay, snapping their two-game win streak over the Phoenix.

• Senior Noah Batchelor tallied his third career double-double in Monday's win over Southern Miss. He scored 12 points while grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. Last year he had double-doubles against Vermont (16 pts, 10 reb) and Western Michigan (10 pts, 12 reb). Batchelor has recorded the Bulls' last three double-doubles.

• Ryan Sabol started the season with a bang. In Monday's win over Southern Miss., the junior guard scored a career-high 32 points while making a career-high nine field goals. This marked the third time he's knocked down seven threes, tying his career high. He also did so at Bowling Green (2/6/24) and against Fredonia (11/8/24). Sabol's 32 points is tied for the 10th most scored in a home game as he tied Curtis Jones who did so on Dec. 3, 2022, against St. Bonaventure. Jones was also the Bulls' last 30-point scorer when he scored 30 points at Western Michigan on Feb. 4, 2023, 71 games ago.

• Buffalo's Division I non-conference opponents went a combined 7-2 (.778) on opening night.

• Following their win over Southern Miss., under Holcovage, the Bulls are 12-0 when leading with 5:00 to go.

• Since 2023-24, the Bulls are 10-1 when they score at least 80 points including a 10-game win streak. In their wins, they've outscored the opposition by an average margin of 9.0 points.

• Did you know that UB alum George Whitney Calhoun (1913) co-founded the Green Bay Packers with Curly Lambeau in 1919? Prior to the Calhoun family moving to Buffalo from Green Bay, Lambeau and Calhoun were friends and stayed in touch. Calhoun played both hockey and football at UB and following graduation in 1913, he worked for the Buffalo Times for two years before moving back to Green Bay. He served in many capacities with the Packers for 44 years before passing in 1963. In the 2010 NFL Draft, the Packers drafted running back James Starks in the sixth round. Starks and the Packers went on to win Super Bowl XLV. He spent six seasons with the team.

UB is just nine wins away from reaching program win no. 1,300. They would be the final MAC school to reach this milestone.

• Junior guard Ryan Sabol is Halcovage's longest tenured player. Sabol has played in every collegiate game during his time with the Bulls, including 58 starts.

• In the Blue Ribbon MAC Preseason Forecast, sophomore transfer Daniel Freitag was named MAC Newcomer of the Year.

• Ryan Sabol has scored a team-high 32 points this season. His 728 career points is 53^rdin program history.

• Ryan Sabol, who posted 14.4 points per game and knocked down 79 3-pointers, comes back to Buffalo as Head Coach George Halcovage III's only third-year player. During his sophomore campaign, Sabol became the fastest player in program history to 100 made 3-pointers as he did so in just 42 games. He's currently eighth all-time in made threes with 148.

• Headed into last season, the Bulls only had 188 collegiate games of experience played as they welcomed eight freshmen. This year the Bulls have 600 games played in college, good for a 412-game difference. The only other program with a biggest difference in games played was San Diego as they went from 425 games played in 2024-25 to 900 this season, a difference of 475.

For all the latest on UB men's basketball, follow @UBuffaloMBB on Twitter/X, @ubuffalo_mbb on Instagram and like the UB Men's Basketball Facebook page.

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