What an incredible ride it has been, courtesy of our men’s basketball team. It was a season that began with a group of seniors and COVID-accommodated “super seniors” deciding they still had some unfinished business and were coming back for one more run.

Everything we’ve watched play out over the last week and a half in Washington, D.C., and Buffalo, New York, is exactly what they came back to do. A thrilling four-wins-in-four-days triumph at the Atlantic 10 Championship. A trip to March Madness. A first-round victory over fifth-seeded Iowa. It had us all on our feet and forever cemented this team’s place in our hearts.

With the Iowa win, the Spiders notched another noteworthy March moment for a university with a proud tradition of doing just that. The Spiders basketball program moved to 4-0 as a 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And, it was the ninth time the Spiders have won a tournament game as a 12 seed or higher. No other school has more than four. 

But make no mistake, this team’s spectacular run was about more than just basketball. Following a two-year pandemic period that disrupted nearly everything and in which it was easy to lose our connections with one another, this team galvanized our Spider community and reignited a surge of Spider Pride that has brought us all back together in the most powerful way.

As we gathered in the KeyBank Center, in the Robins Center, at game watch parties, and among groups of friends, we shared something that forever binds us — a love of UR and that red-and-blue feeling that only we know.

When the Spiders left the court following a second-round loss to Providence Saturday night, they did not walk off with heads held low or to a dejected crowd. Rather, they walked off to one more standing ovation from a grateful and inspired Spider family — literally in Buffalo and in the Robins Center, and figuratively everywhere else.

To all of our Spiders players — and especially to our seniors — congratulations and thank you. 

We are UR.