March Madness is a magical time of year for sports fans, and it hit especially close to home for us in Buffalo and at the Ellicott Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation this year, as the Buffalo Bulls NCAA Men’s Basketball team made it to the second round for the second consecutive year. As a trusted rehab partner of our beloved Buffalo Sabres, we’re big sports fans here at the center, and we’re very proud of this year’s Bulls team.

The 13th-seeded Bulls upset the 4th-seeded Arizona Wildcats in 2018 to make it to the second round where they were downed by 5th-seeded Kentucky. This year, however, the Bulls arrived at the tournament as the 6th-seed in their bracket region and were favorites to beat the 11th-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils, which they did easily. Buffalo was overwhelmed by 3rd-seeded Texas Tech in the second round, unfortunately, but such is the tournament.

The Bulls basketball program has come a long way over its long history, dating back over 100 years to 1915. In the eight years between 1957 and 1965, the team appeared in Division II NCAA basketball tournament six times, making it to the Elite 8 against Kentucky Wesleyan in 1957. They joined the Division I MAC Conference in 1998 and won the MAC Basketball East Division Title for the first time in 2009. They’ve won their MAC conference division season championship five times, the conference regular season championship four times, and the conference tournament championship four times. We’re eagerly looking forward to seeing how far our hometown Bulls can make it in the years to come!