dutchcountry7

I am not sure if you saw former UB Ice Hockey player and assistant coach Tunney Murchie at wrestling matches.

There are two sports that the boosters and alumni have been pushing for (but the admin has had no interest in)... Men's Lacrosse and Men's Ice Hockey. With the geographic footprint of the UB alumni base and where we recruit students these are two very popular sports. They are also two expensive sports to operate and there isn't any reason to believe that they would generate fan support that would help offset the costs. As long as those two factions are fighting over which sport to add, you can guarantee that neither will be added. But if the supporters consolidated and got behind only one of the sports then it would be possible for there to be enough momentum to consider adding one of the sports and that would likely result in eliminating a current sport. With the addition of UMass to the MAC, the MAC could start sponsoring Men's Ice Hockey as a conference sport. You need six schools for a conference and adding Buffalo (with Bowling Green, Miami-OH, UMass, & Western Michigan) the MAC would simply need one associate member and there are many available in Ice Hockey. This would give the MAC an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament. (Of course, the Pugulas would not be supportive as it would be increased competition for the Sabres.) While the MAC sponsors Women's Lacrosse (Akron, CMU, EMU, Kent State with Association Members Detroit-Mecy, Robert Morris, & Youngstown State), there aren't any MAC Men's Lacrosse Schools. However, the sport is very popular within New York with many local D1 programs to play (Albany, Binghamton, Hobart, St. Bona, Syracuse, St. John's Hofstra, Stony Brook, Le Moyne, Cornell, Canisius, Iona, Manhattan, Marist, Siena, Long Island, Wagner, Army, Colgate). The reality is that no sport will be successful at UB without the investment and fan support. And the leadership is only focused on one sport. The other successes are largely incidental.

No. The issue is simply that the admin needs a sport in the MAC to keep their minimum sponsorship requirement. Wrestling is that sport. But there is no requirement that you have to give any attention to the sport or make any investment in it. ADMA and Co are just checking the box and are doing the absolute bare minimum required when it comes to wrestling. Over the years when resources have had to be pulled from somewhere to support the increased needs for football, sports like wrestling suffered. The previous staff was telling the admin they were doing less than the minimum required as their neglect was starting to impact the health of the athletes. That's when a change in staff was made. Can't have a staff complaining like that. From the admin's perspective, the staff should have been grateful they even had a program. It's a smart move from the admin. Young coaches will overwork themselves and try to push through with promises of future investment that never comes. They have bought themselves some more years of neglect with a motivated young coach.

https://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2024/04/wrestling-team-complaints-2024 @UBinMD @clodney @MuchMany @Chet @rma @BrooklynBull @promotherobot @SGBull

We did pay him! He was given a contract extension and a pay raise that was not funded. We had to fundraise for his raise because it was more than the athletic department could afford. The Units aren't paid to UB. They are paid to the MAC and distributed to all of the schools in the MAC and used to fund the MAC Championships. Also, the number one complaint from Oats was the lack of facilities. His salary wouldn't have been enough to keep him without facility upgrades. And since facilities aren't consumed annually like salaries are, the facilities are a necessary long term investment. The facilities serve the coaches who will be coaching today as well as five and 10 years from now. That is what happened. That is how he got the raise and extension right before he left for Tuscaloosa. How much did you contribute to the fund? No, he didn't. He made it his home for a moment in time. But he wasn't staying long term. Buffalo isn't close to home. Yes, you're right. It is a real head scratcher... Why didn't UB make Oats the 3rd highest paid basketball coach in the country in 2019? They should have just picked some notes from the money tree. No, it isn't. Everyone talks the talk while they are in the position. And then when something better comes along they are gone. Ah... I get it. This is a troll. You're really a Bonnies fan. Valued him with everything but their pocket book. But of course, you expect others to fund the program for you to enjoy.

Anytime you add a team to the conference that is both in your geographic region and is historically at a level that would put them higher than the median program in the conference, you've got a massive win! UMass to the MAC is great for UB basketball.

This is big for UB. Conference game within easy travel distance for alums in the Capital Region and even down state. UMass has some solid sports.

This is correct. Reggie and JW both were solid MAC coaches. They could compete. But weren't likely to win anything of any significance. They were each a steady hand. Sometimes that is a good thing. But obviously we want more and after the Oats years it looked like a failure.

Imagine the energy she would have shown if she was 20 years old and in that situation! ha ha Yes, I agree with you. Not everyone slows down and has a more mellow demeanor with age. There are some pretty intense 70 year olds I know still running companies and demanding the VPs try to keep up.

I am not too active on here... I tend to go weeks at a time without visiting and then spend a day engaging a lot before dropping off again. As a result, I don't know a lot of the drama from the board. But the things I quickly picked up is that I have disagreed with @MuchMany a fair amount but he has always made his arguments in good faith and we ultimately want the same thing--the success of the programs... and @RapidsFan does not make good faith arguments and often tries to paint people as a bigots out of left field. @RapidsFan is new here as far as I know... so I am not sure if they are a troll or just some nieve young kid just getting exposed to the world and trying to champion social justice in every instance possible even when it isn't an issue... But this is one of many such examples... claiming someone is ageist because they don't think someone displays enough energy? ha ha Talk about a strawman... needing to paint the messenger as a bigot so you can try to undermine their arguments without addressing the issues and don't have to engage with them. And for the record, I don't think a coach needs to display high energy on the sideline to be successful. Some do and are successful and some don't and are successful. There are some very successful coaches that many would label low energy out there in many different sports. It's also true that coaches, like all people, slow down with age so if one of your strengths as a coach was being high energy to motivate your players then that strength will diminish over time. It just happens that most coaches also develop many other skills over time that make the need to be high energy on the side line less significant.

What didn't matter? Maintaining relationships and keeping a connection to Buffalo? How can you turn around and say Buffalo is the place for you after that? I agree with your second comment about the employer. But it is also a reflection on the employer if they welcome that individual back. Especially when that individual is going around saying they have so many great offers that Buffalo would be lucky to have him.

That's the claim made by many when Oats left. People were saying that if Hodgson wasn't hired the whole team would transfer. They were wrong. I agree that it was time to move on from JW but it is crazy for anyone to think that his players didn't love playing for him and the UB rosters were stable and largely free from transfers because the players wanted to stay with him. JW likely would have had a higher performing team this year. I agree with that. But I also think it was time to move on. Though the process wasn't managed well because UB didn't understand the landscape and thought they had more to offer prospective coaches than they were actually willing to offer.

Hodgson didn't seem concerned about maintaining relationships when he was burning bridges. And I find your second comment funny. Jim Whitesell was the continuation of the Oats era. You're picking one data point--Hodgson--and saying that if he isn't given the job then UB is turning their back on their history? What an asinine comment. Clearly hyperbole.

You mean in the time between Oats sitting in the athletic department staff meeting and then when the meeting ended immediately putting in his resignation before heading to the airport? That is when Hodgson had the sit down to talk about his prospect of taking over Buffalo and learned he wasn't going to get the job? All before he joined Oats at the airport? I think you're off here. Why else would Hodgson have told recruits not to come to Buffalo if he doesn't get the job if he didn't believe he was going to get the job? Buffalo was blindsided by Oats' departure. There wasn't time to discuss the succession planning. You're mistaken and it always seems you're errors end up making Hodgson look better. Curious... when was the last time you communicated with Hodgson?

Potentially better results in year one doesn't mean its a better hire for the program. I am still of the opinion that Hodgson should not have been hired. And his performance at Arkansas State hasn't swayed my position. We have known he is a strong recruiter. That is why Oats felt it was so important to take him to Alabama on the private jet while he was still employed by Buffalo and have him talk with the players and recruits while in Tuscalusa. He has brought in talent to his new team but his team doesn't play well, just as @Tee4three has said. He has not shown he can coach and has spent hardly any time in his career coaching. He has always been a recruiter. We need a coach because we aren't going to be able to land and keep high level players in the program in the NIL era without looking the other way to behavior issues. The risk was too great with Hodgson. Did we end up with the right coach? We won't know for some time. It's possible the ship gets turned around but its also possible we missed and didn't get the right hire. Missing on a hire doesn't mean that Hodgson was the right hire. It just means he was one of many candidates that wasn't right for the job. Like @DocCas86said, someone like Ben McCollum is what the program needs. Someone who can coach the game really well, get the most out of their players, and also can convince players that though they have offers from programs at a higher level they should play for him. None of those qualities Hodgson has shown except for landing players with offers to other programs.