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First workout. I see Jeenathan Williams, Graves, Segu, Antwain Johnson all there. https://twitter.com/UBmenshoops/status/1115619855498137600

I was supportive of the hire. Now I love it after watching the broadcast. Rewind 4 years. http://www.ubbulls.com/sports/mbkb/2014-15/releases/201504165a9prb To replace Hurley, oats hires 3 whitesell - is the brains and mentor (interesting that JW references NO as his mentor today, show you his humility) Marshall - is the big name to replace Hurley. Name will be used in recruiting. He is later replaced by Lindsey Hunter. Hogdson - is the young hungry guy who will need to outwork everyone else in recruiting We know Oats is good. Oats thought that highly of Whitesell to bring him here as his Associate HC. It was Oats selling Whitesell on Buffalo and that was a huge underrated coup at the time.

To be fair TT has made almost every player look bad. The best player against TT was Perkins in the tournament. That is something. I still don’t think Perkins has quite enough to play In the NBA but he might be really really good in Europe. Also great job by Perkins and CJ participating in the Final Four event. That’s good publicity for them and the school.

We opened the search. We got the best candidate. Best candidate means the best person we CAN get. We only took a week and people are complaining that we could have just hired Whitesell last week? I think this hire makes a lot of sense. We will see in 4 years if we made the right move. There are plenty of coaches who grind all their lives and then get recognition later on in their career. I think Whitesell is one and I am hopeful that we celebrate him in 4 years. Let’s get to work. Despite the negativity, the core is there. We just need couple extra pieces. Also don’t discount guys like Fagan and Bertram. I’ve seen this over and over again. Guys just look like they don’t belong but all of a sudden, things click in their junior or senior year.

Ok. Let’s go!

I’m thinking of getting a glass plaque for the greatest player at UB as voted by the fans. Anyone have a preference? Any other ideas? https://www.edco.com/all-glass-awards

No sorry to Javon. I always messed up his name even though he was my favorite player when he was here.

Ha. What a crazy new idea

Championship.

I personally think he'll do well. Definition of well is that he'll have a close to winning record in the SEC, have 20+ wins and get a 4 to 10 seed in the tourney most years. Once in a while his 4 seed team might be good enough to reach the Final Four. The problem he will face is that he'll need to compete against the Dukes, Kentuckys of the world. I don't think he can go after the 1 and dones. Maybe lucky if he can get 1 one and done per every 2/3 years. Not even sure the one and dones give you wins anyway (Wait as I write this, I think NBA is changing anyway, but ...). He'll need to win with 3-4 year guys. Similar to how Virginia/Villanova is doing it. So not the top recruits, but good enough to play in the SEC. So he'll need to develop and outcoach his opponents, guys with much more basketball knowledge. The other problem he's going to face is that once his team has success, the guys will leave early for the NBA. Man, it doesn't get easier outside the MAC now that I think about it.

Ok so he says “those players” so that would be a true statement if he told at least 2 players. He doesn’t say “all those players”. Not sure who to believe at this point.

I’ll take down my tweet. I tweeted at 10:11pm and he tweeted at 10:44pm. 30 minutes later. Coincidence? Sounds like I was misinformed. Sorry.

I try not to use social media for madvertising, but in this case, it had to be said.

I’m still very surprised by this. Can’t believe Oats went on recruiting trips without addressing his team. There really is no excuse for it. I still want to believe that Oats was a high character guy. Players must feel so used. He basically used these kids to get millions. Oats ditching the school and fans is one thing, but the kids? Uggh I’m not a bash the NCAA guy but there is just something really wrong about this. Big name guys like Durant and LeBron are really vocal about this issue and I see their point more and more. I can see why they don’t see taking money as an issue. Everyone else around them is making money off of them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the offense that Witherspoon ran. The dribble handoff motion is an effective way to generate offense. My only problem was the people that were running it. Witherspoon usually had his big who couldn't shoot all the way out to the 3 point line as the guy handing off. Well, that was not hard to guard because Idbihi, Watt, McCrae, Fedotov, (fill in the blank), none of these guys could shoot from 3, so there was no defender on them. That player all the way out there was useless in the offense. It would have worked with Montell McRae and Perkins. Now a better coach would have either recruited bigs who can run this system or would have changed his system that matched his personnel. There are two types of recruiting philosophies A) Just get the best athletes or B) Get guys that fit your system. I think Witherspoon went with A, but failed to change his coaching style to match his personnel.

Yes on the player front, no news is great news. The longer we go, the better chance we have of keeping jeenathan, renaldo, Jordan and graves. Besides those names the other transfer seniors are key. I don’t think those transfer seniors will transfer again. Hopefully, the players are now starting to band together and getting the us vs them attitude. Actually having five graduating seniors probably helps tremendously. Since those guys can encourage these players to stay the course. We’ve been here before and we’ve had success in this exact scenario. On Whitesell: I think that tip about Charlie Wilde who I had to look up makes sense if Whitesell is kept as a head coach. Perhaps he’s brought in in the Hogdson role. So here is my theory: Parker is interviewing on two fronts. Seeing what kind of head coach is available and at the same time seeing what kind of recruiting coordinator/assistant is available. The best package might win. Not necessarily the best coach.

Looks like Parker is casting a wide net. I guess that’s what these search firms do. The other extreme is what Alabama AD did. He was a committee of one and went after his man.

Quality coach. From what I’ve read, his inability to win at Loyola was that he couldn’t attract high level athletes.

I don't know what the fascination with Hogdson is about here. Yes, he recruited well, but that doesn't make a coach. He's also recruiting Nate Oat's brand. What's he going to do when he's the new HC. Tell his assistants to recruit using Hogdson's name? Year 1 was where he played a key role. He did find Blake Hamilton and Willie Conner before Oats became established, so that was great, but those two were not that highly recruited. CJ was Whitesell's recruit and Perkins was Nate Oats. Maybe Hogdson will be a great head coach one day, but he's got to put in his time. He's barely 30. What did you guys know about your profession when you were 30? Now if you guys have played for him and can point to his basketball genius, game management, running practices or something like that, it's a different story, but all we're going by is, "he can recruit, we need to keep this team together"? We're basically playing lottery with our head coach if this is the case out of fear. And it's not like we have a team of McDonald's All-Americans coming in. The best recruits we've had ever, yes, I agree, but I think we're getting a little carried away here.

Mike Anderson, Rob Lanier. Either of those would be great. I'm glad to see we're going after some people with experience. I'm also good with those that have failed in the past. I think failure is a good thing and coaches should not be defined by some setbacks. All great coaches have rough patches.

All, Posts about kids will be deleted.

Good detective work with these flights.

Watching the tech vs unify game: Michigan can’t score. I guess our offense did pretty good.

I would be shocked if Hodgson gets the job. Maybe he’s the next Oats but there just is nothing to go by. He’s never been a head coach at any level. Before he joined Buffalo, he was an assistant at a junior college. Even getting hired here was a huge jump. I really think without the O’Field connection, he’s not at UB. There is no way Alnutt risks his future on him. Yes he can recruit but guess what, if he becomes the head coach, his assistants will need to do most of the recruiting. He needs to delegate. He’s never had any management responsibility. He’s never coached in a game as head coach. Maybe tourneys or clinics but that’s it.

Alabama currently has 3 coaches employed. Pelfrey, Pettway and Rosemond. Reading their bios, here's what I see. Pelfrey = Whitesell Pettway = Hogdson Rosemond = Quarles He is most likely going to keep 1. I think he keeps Pettway from the Bio. He has Alabama ties. That leaves 2 openings. Pelfrey could also be kept because he has a wealth of experience, but highly unlikely. If Hodgson has been offered already, that means Rosemond will need to go. I don't think Hogdson will go if it's a position like Director of Recruiting.