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Ultimate Nate Oats Thread - Future/Staying/Growth/Articles


Kevin

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We are going to learn a lot from the talks with Alnutt and Oats' agent. I am assuming Alnutt is going to lay out the whole plan as to what he sees UB doing. From what I have gathered (and his track record), he wants to support the coaches and ego is out of the way for him. 

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8 hours ago, weareub46 said:

But will we ever hear the specifics of that meeting? I'd think prob not although I wish we could... I wanna know what the whole plan is

I'll guess.

1) Bump in pay to a mil/yr.

2) Practice facility is next athletic project. In the meantime they mock something up in the fieldhouse or put up a bubble.

3) Within 2-3 years we'll be in the AAC.

Edited by promotherobot
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1 hour ago, promotherobot said:

I'll guess.

1) Bump in pay to a mil/yr.

2) Practice facility is next athletic project. In the meantime they mock something up in the fieldhouse or put up a bubble.

3) Within 2-3 years we'll be in the AAC.

I def agree with the first 2 points. The third may still be a stretch but I think a conference move will have to happen at some point. It may still be early for that and the conference in question still up in the air but that will prob have to happen. 

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Don't think we need a move to the AAC.  It would be nice, but the conference is strong in basketball.  Remember when UMass declined the MAC's invite to stay in a basketball conference?  That basketball conference is lower than us this year

Edited by rma
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1 hour ago, UB_Prush said:

I def agree with the first 2 points. The third may still be a stretch but I think a conference move will have to happen at some point. It may still be early for that and the conference in question still up in the air but that will prob have to happen. 

I have to believe Allnut, who came from an AAC school in Memphis, has asked conference officials informally of their take on Buffalo as a candidate for admission. I would say 2018/2019 made a good impression.

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3 minutes ago, rma said:

Don't think we need a move to the AAC.  It would be nice, but the conference is strong in basketball.  Remember when UMass declined the MAC's invite to stay in a basketball conference?  That basketball conference is lower than us this year

I'm not following you. The MAC is 9th and the AAC is 6th in conference RPI.

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2 minutes ago, promotherobot said:

I'm not following you. The MAC is 9th and the AAC is 6th in conference RPI.

In fairness in a single year that doesn't mean much. I mean St Bonaventure plays in a lower ranked conference than us this year but on most years they are slightly ahead of us as a conference). They often get 2-3 tourney teams while we just get one. If a school like that located in the Amish country can recruit talent like they do to compete (near the bottom for 50 years) of a conference like that then surely we could do equally or better. 

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8 hours ago, promotherobot said:

I'm not following you. The MAC is 9th and the AAC is 6th in conference RPI.

If we have to spend $x0 million to get us into a slightly better basketball conference, it might not be worth it.  There's other factors in play though.

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48 minutes ago, rma said:

If we have to spend $x0 million to get us into a slightly better basketball conference, it might not be worth it.  There's other factors in play though.

How do you define slightly?  If you are Nate Oats and has stated in a very public way how hard it is to get an at-large bid from the MAC (I guess 3 regular season losses is one way), slightly might mean the AAC (where four teams are projected into the bracket).  I would say that, in this case, such a scenario would be very attractive to Oats (i.e. a conference where three teams could get an at-large bid).

 

 

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The American is at least a decade off...

The schools in the American regret adding ECU.  They were a hot team for a few years.  Buffalo has to show that the football team will improve the American along with regularly being a top flight basketball team before they are considered to join the conference.

Put it this way: If Houston, UCF, UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, Memphis, South Florida, Tulane, and Tulsa won't agree to home/home games with UB football and basketball then the team isn't getting an invite to the conference.  When those teams are willing to make trips to Buffalo will be a sign that the door to joining the conference is opening.

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1 minute ago, dutchcountry7 said:

Buffalo has to show that the football team will improve the American along with regularly being a top flight basketball team before they are considered to join the conference.

People on here aren't getting this, the football team can't have one good season, followed by 4-5 bad seasons and expect to jump conferences. Unless we by some chance get invited to another conference, we are sitting in the MAC for a while...as you said, at least 10 years. Football team's gotta show consistency. 

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Yeah, I'm not sure why the infatuation with moving to the AAC.  We've had a good little run, 5 years worth.  I don't think that means we need to jump yet.  I get the sentiment, but let's dominate the MAC for a decade before running off to a prettier girlfriend.  The MAC has been good to us.  For all the comparison's to Gonzaga, they never switched from the mighty WCC.

Oats needs a salary increase for he and his staff and facility upgrades.  Do that, and I think we keep him.

GO BULLS!

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2 minutes ago, dutchcountry7 said:

Put it this way: If Houston, UCF, UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, Memphis, South Florida, Tulane, and Tulsa won't agree to home/home games with UB football and basketball then the team isn't getting an invite to the conference.  When those teams are willing to make trips to Buffalo will be a sign that the door to joining the conference is opening.

Well we did home and homes with UConn (2010-2013) and Temple (2018-19).  MBB hasn't been a one way street (UC neutral in the Cayman Islands "Fyre Fest" Classic, home and home vs Temple, one off away against Tulsa), and only once away in women's basketball (UCF a few years ago away, USF neutral in NCAA).

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Do I want us to move to the AAC? Yes. Do I think we will get invited YET? No. Basketball has been on a great run but let’s see what happens this year and in the next couple of years. The future looks bright and we build a solid base but we need to keep it rolling. Football is just nowhere there yet. At a minimum we need to be bowl eligible for a bunch more years. The one good season (with a pretty bad ending) isn’t going to cut it. 

Edited by weareub46
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2 minutes ago, rma said:

Well we did home and homes with UConn (2010-2013) and Temple (2018-19).  MBB hasn't been a one way street (UC neutral in the Cayman Islands "Fyre Fest" Classic, home and home vs Temple, one off away against Tulsa), and only once away in women's basketball (UCF a few years ago away, USF neutral in NCAA).

Yup.  There has been a little bit of it.  Of course, football games are scheduled many years in advance. 

Tournament games in basketball don't count.  Only thing that counts is home/home.  Reggie was able to land a deal with Temple when he was here.  That was a big get and looked like the Bulls were making the step. 

When schools are willing to go to Buffalo for games they will be considered equals.  That is what a conference does it puts you on equal footing for scheduling.

When it becomes regular and no one considers it a big deal to get an American Conference team to come to Buffalo, we will be on the cusp of moving up. 

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I always felt like this was a recruitment video for another conference. 

I can just picture this video ending in a conference room and Alnutt starting his pitch for a bigger conference. 
 

I think we are hung up on this because we all see the potential for UB to start competing with the P5's. We have the right size and our Athletics are there. I agree that we need sustained success. But sometimes it is good to force it and get the right coaches in to continue to build. Could Leipold, Oats and Jack lead our team against Power 5 programs? I actually believe so. Stack the coaches first, facilities second and conference 3rd. I think we nailed down the first. started the second and starting to look at the 3rd.

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^^ I’m with ya. I’d love to push the boundaries and move up even if we aren’t fully ready. Would be amazing if it happens. Some people want Rutgers to move out of the Big10 because they aren’t winning yet but growing pains are fine. The option is there for them to be a top team eventually 

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I'm actually not a fan of the idea of moving to the AAC, we are too far removed from the other teams location wise. In my dream scenario, we would continue the success in the MAC for the next 10+ years and then move to the Big10. Is it likely? No, but you never know. 

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10 minutes ago, weareub46 said:

^^ I’m with ya. I’d love to push the boundaries and move up even if we aren’t fully ready. Would be amazing if it happens. Some people want Rutgers to move out of the Big10 because they aren’t winning yet but growing pains are fine. The option is there for them to be a top team eventually 

Rutgers is successful.  They brought in a ton of money for the Big Ten network.  That was the only thing they were suppose to do...

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39 minutes ago, rma said:

Well we did home and homes with UConn (2010-2013) and Temple (2018-19).  MBB hasn't been a one way street (UC neutral in the Cayman Islands "Fyre Fest" Classic, home and home vs Temple, one off away against Tulsa), and only once away in women's basketball (UCF a few years ago away, USF neutral in NCAA).

I don't want to derail your point because it is pretty true, but I do want to point out that the UC neutral was mostly luck. When you sign up for that abomination of a tourney, nowhere in the contracts does it guarantee you play any certain teams (UC in this example) or state what the other teams in the tourney are.

Also, I was told the UCF home-and-home in WBB was mostly due to Coach Jack's relationship with UCF's coach, Katie Abrahamson-Henderson--who spent a few years as Jack's Associate HC at Indiana. Sometimes it's just pure luck and past relationships that get you these deals; like Oats getting a second Syracuse matchup from Boeheim while attending the final four last year. 

Edited by Reverend_Goose
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