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MACwood Squares is our summer reading series on the best athletes in Mid-American Conference sports history. This week features Buffalo. Looking for your MAC school? Consult our schedule for other teams and please submit your nominees as well.
This is where the rundown of great women's athletes appears, but UB finds themselves in quite the pickle. When women's sports became popular, Buffalo was ensconced in Division III, so it took them quite a while to get up to speed with the others. Indeed, many of their women's sports are just now starting to catch up with the competition, so you could argue that every team's best player has been around in the last five years.
For basketball, that is also the case. And I don't know how you can argue anyone other than Kourtney Brown.
Really a no-brainer here. Starting her career in 2006 (and getting a medical redshirt her sophomore year) She holds school records in points, rebounds and blocks. She's the lone MAC Player of the Year in school history (won this past seson), and twice the MAC Defensive POY (08-09 and 09-10). Anyone who can pluck the MAC POY away from Lauren Prochaska during her senior year really earned this.
There's probably one other female athlete that might belong on here: softball player Breanne Nasti (2001-04). She holds a ton of career batting records, including batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBIs and walks. Twice she was first-team All-MAC and also set some single-season records as a freshman.
And there've been some other nice athletes over the years, but I'm not finding any others that stack up to Brown. If I am missing them, please correct the official record. And nothing against her personally, but the spelling of Courtney with a K has always been a little unsettling.
Who are your nominees for Buffalo's MACwood Squares? Comment below, tweet us at @HustleBelt or submit a FanPost making your case. The final nine will be revealed Friday.