UB92

To this point, I enjoyed watching Wisconsin change up their defense to better guard Colgate at the 3-point line...and it worked well. Houston is a balanced team. Their matchup with Arizona will be good to watch.

From TBN Whitesell’s contract extension includes an agreement that the school would owe him $600,000 if he is terminated by UB before April 5, 2022, and that buyout would drop by $100,000 in each of the following years, until the expiration date of the contract. If Whitesell is to leave before April 5, 2022, he would owe UB $600,000, and that figure would drop by $100,000 in each of the following years, until the expiration date of the contract.

Part of me thinks that the program has already reached out to tournaments to tell them that UB isn't interested. Perhaps the team spoke about this before Cleveland and it was the NCAAs-or-bust for the team (since they were senior-laden). Note sure.

Six years ago tonight… That was fun.

I don't know if you said this in jest or not, but while there has been some non-D1 programs with female head coaches, this would make a big splash and is the type of out-of-the-box thinking that could keep her with UB. Certainly we can't compete with Syracuse on most other levels.

In reading what others have wrote and reading the articles before, during and after (and parsing his and others quotes), I get the impression that while Alnutt did have things he was thinking about (i.e. coaches), perhaps he was caught off guard a bit by the monetary constraints in hiring the new coach. That's where, it seems, things looked confused and, I think, the results (from Lanier and Whitesell) tend to point in this direction. I mean, Lanier was making $425,000 as an assistant at Tennessee. If he was leaving UT, it was going to be for more money. He signed at GaState for $575,000. Whitesell ultimately was signed for $300,000. I obviously don't know what the numbers/parameters were for the salary that Alnutt had in his head when Oats left, but maybe he didn't have as much as he thought he did. Remember...Oats signed that extension (3/14/19) right before he left...that Alnutt negotiated...for $837,000. That was $600,000 from UB funds and the rest they would raise externally. He left for Alabama two weeks later. Perhaps Alnutt felt he had the $600,000 in his pocket when the search started quickly, but he ultimately found out (from the President) that he had less than that...perhaps much less. And this is where the search went awry since it had to be done very quickly. I know nothing about what actually happened, but I think what I write here is plausible considering the time frame and my life experiences/some knowledge about things like this. So, DooleyBull06 (which, I assume, means a dual grad at Emory and UB), I believe you are right when you say that Alnutt thought he was going to be around one more year...since he just finished what was probably a high-stakes negotiation to keep Oats in the fold. And then Oats left. By the way, here is an old Alnutt interview from his days as AD at SEMO. https://www.southeastarrow.com/story/2160360.html

He has four years left on his deal. If Whitesell wins the MAC next year (and there is a chance...I mean, the games have to be played), EVERYONE would welcome that. Here's the thing. The "we are waiting out the Whitesell era" crowd has an expanding bandwagon. The "Team Whitesell" camp has but a few members on this board now. However, EVERYONE (and I can't emphasize this enough, apparently) EVERYONE would be in support of Whitesell should they win the MAC next year and go to the NCAA (considering the impression at this moment). On that, there is no debate. Otherwise, why would anyone be here on a UBfan board? Everyone wants UB to win -- period. Those in the "Waiting out the Whitesell era", should UB win the tournament, will have to eat crow...and they will eat it gladly.

If UB misses Cleveland, it would be easy to justify keeping Whitesell if you are the AD. The cliches sort of write themselves: Last year graduated the players in top-4 in minutes There was always going to be an inevitable decline after a successful run Optimistic about the future (with Skogman and Jones...and whatever name you want to put in there) Really like some of the next guys we are recruiting. I mean, if you are the AD (and you hired Whitesell), he's your guy. UB ditched some sports because of money and have went the cheap route to hire Whitesell (he is in mid-pack in coaches salary in the MAC). Do you really think he would get fired from a poor year next year? If they are 12-18, it is easy for the AD to use any of the above cliches (or say "Whitesell has been head coach for four years and his record is 67 - 49...he has earned time to work through this." --- When Reggie was fired after going 14-20, that was on the heels of 4 straight winning seasons and two straight 20 win seasons. It took alot, I am sure, for White to do that and there was a lot of negative noise about this when it happened from RW supporters. Of course, we don't hear that anymore because of what Hurley and, ultimately, Oats did. --- Many years ago (starting in the 80s) I always hoped/wished for UB to make the tournament. Once it happened, they continued to win and it exceeded my expectations (and hopes). Heck...we were ranked! I loved those teams, especially the Oats' years. Sorry, I am nostalgic for that because I feel like we are going to slowly sink and it will take a while to get back to that again. It's hard to win. Bowling Green hasn't made it to the NCAA tournament since 1968.

I think the likelihood of a new coach this upcoming season is the same as UB making the tournament this year as an at-large. Think about it: same president and same AD as when Whitesell was hired. They just gave him an extension this past summer through the 2025 season. Considering we just finished the 2021 season, that's a contract with four more years on it. AND...the AD circled back to Whitesell during the hiring process (who came much cheaper that others), so no one is buying out his contract...only to have to pay someone else. Well...I guess they could, but that will require a donor (or donors) to do this, whose money could be better spent. Remember what the AD said at the time: "We are excited about the future of our men's basketball program under Jim Whitesell's leadership," said Alnutt. "I am pleased with the trajectory of the program and I look forward to working with Jim for many years to come." --- In other words, no new coach this year (or, I strongly suspect, next year, REGARDLESS of the record). --- Last year, after we lost in the finals, I thought that Whitesell would be fired (or retire) in three years. We just finished year one of that. I suspect the next two will be challenging and then, two years from now, we will start the search.

These were the last five years for Reggie: 2008–09 Buffalo 21–12 11–5 T–1st CBI First Round 2009–10 Buffalo 18–12 9–7 T–3rd 2010–11 Buffalo 20–14 8–8 T–5th CIT Quarterfinals 2011–12 Buffalo 20–11 12–4 2nd CIT Second Round 2012–13 Buffalo 14–20 7–9 8th Three 20-win seasons Four of five years finishing in the top 5 in the conference. I mean, that's okay. But it wasn't good enough for the AD, so he was fired. And, of course, he decision changed the trajectory of the program for the many years. I know people want to be optimistic about the future, because it is happier to think in that way. But the harsh reality is that a lot is going to have to go right this upcoming year (we don't lose players or recruits, maybe Segu stays, we get some impactful transfers this summer, guys develop over the summer, etc.) for us to have a look at a 20 win season. In other words, I don't think that the RW days are behind us for the near future, unfortunately.

PWO as I understand it Good luck to him. I hope he develops and sees the field.

Perspective. Preseason All-MAC First Team Daeqwon Plowden, 5th-Sr., G/F, Bowling Green Josh Mballa, Sr., F, Buffalo Jeenathan Williams, Sr., F, Buffalo Ben Vander Plas, R-Sr., F, Ohio Ryan Rollins, So., G, Toledo Preseason All-MAC Second Team K.J. Walton, Grad., G, Akron Sincere Carry, R-Jr., G, Kent State Dae Dae Grant, Jr., G, Miami Jason Carter 5th-Sr., F, Ohio B. Artis White, So., G, Western Michigan

I have not added to this dumpster fire of a thread so far, but I had to laugh at this in a sort of nostalgic way. You can find the sort of sentiment you mention during the Reggie years when posters would project growth from certain young players and paint an optimistic picture for future seasons. Ad nauseum. Gadot never showed, by Danny White did and ripped off the bandaid, which ushered in a decidedly different approach to the offense (and fun teams to watch). Oats continued in that way. Alas, we are back to if so and so develops and if this or that happens, etc., etc. I did enjoy UB being ranked and the Gonzaga of the East talk, it the latter was only a dream. On to football. Who will be the QB and what can coach do with the #1 ranked recruiting class in the MAC?

None. I bleed only a royal blue. Every other college team is just filler between UB games, to be honest.

Whitesell and Lanier are definitely not shockingly similar. Well...I don't know. Maybe they are the same height or have the same number of children or something. Perhaps that is what you meant. True...both teams underperformed this year compared to expectations. Like UB, GaState was the clear pick of the other Sun Belt coaches to win the conference regular season. But I suspect that Lanier (and the GaState fans) are happy with how it turned out. Time will tell if that is the same for UB fans.

This comment (my bf) is literally what this board has been about this entire season, UBinMD. Speculating on what one side or another might have said or done. But it is this sort of offhand shot that has made this board a crappier place this year since its inception about 20 years ago. Nothing is gained by adding that comment and the false equivalency you imply between Whitesell and Lanier is disappointing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Lanier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Whitesell Lanier had four seasons as a head coach before going to GaState. In those four seasons, he made the NCAA once and the NIT once. Whitesell had 24 seasons as a head coach (17 in D2 and D3) before coming to UB. His 7 seasons at Loyola resulted in one season with a conference record above .500 and no post-seasons. --- Another poster (and I hope it was sarcastic, but I doubt it) mentioned that we needed to give Whitesell more time. The guy has been a head basketball coach longer than some on this board have been alive. Give him more time for what? To get better? --- From my recollection of the stories at the time and afterwards, Lanier wanted more $$$ than UB was going to give for this position and so they circled back to Whitesell (who took the $361k). Lanier is making $575k, if the internet can be believed. --- Blame Whitesell all you want, but he was offered the position and took it. If you don't like Whitesell, blame the AD and the administration. Instead of investing in mens basketball following the most successful run in their history, they cheaped out. Remember: Candle (Toledo) makes $1.17M.

The poll had listed 29 regular season games...and the Bulls played 29 regular season games. So I don't know if in November I miscounted or we replaced games or what, but the initial poll said "out of 29 regular season games". I suspect if I mentioned a different number, the wins average would have changed.

Now that the regular season has ended and we have a few days before our game against the Zips, it is time to go back to the beginning of November and see where we are with our predictions. Recall we had 29 regular season games and here were the predictions prior to the season starting in Ann Arbor. Regular Season Wins. (Respondents: N = 33) 25 - 29; Nate who? Whitesell is the man. 2 votes 21 - 24; UB justifies the optimism that many feel about this season. 25 votes 17 - 20; Okay season, but some unexpected losses. Questions remain. 6 votes 13 - 16; Something bad happened (injuries, regression, coaching, etc.) 0 votes 12 wins and under; Yikes... 0 votes This averages to almost exactly 22 wins (sorry...no error bars here). ___________________________ The average prediction was 22 wins, so the performance was 3 wins worse than the prediction. In retrospect, we were probably just a little more pessimistic in our predictions than the MAC coaches, who had UB finishing atop the MAC (all but one vote). The comment in the 19-win range (17 - 20) said "Okay season, but some unexpected losses. Questions remain." I think that this comment is a concise summary of the regular season. If you go back and look through this thread, I think there was less optimism in November about a 17 - 20 win UB team being able to run the table in Cleveland than there is now. I guess the thought then was that UB was 17 - 20 win team for a reason, so winning three games in a row with such a team was unlikely. The data we have now in March (i.e. UB floundering against the top MAC teams this season) only goes towards making such a run even more of a longshot. But that's why they play the games! Go Bulls!!

Those first two sentences are almost verbatim of what we've read on this board during the entire season. When you are the pre-season favorite but don't win (and have no injuries), there is always the hope (from UB) and concern (from others) that a 3-game run can occur.

This has to be sarcastic, right?

What that Toledo board poster mentions is hard to do. You have to have the right collection of players to make it work OR the right coach to get them to play as a unit where the sum is greater than the individual parts. And even then it may not work some or most of the time.

I know you are talking about the impact of a coach leaving (especially for the women's team), but I shutter to think about what next year is going to look like for the men's team. We are losing so much production and so many minutes.

He doesn't look a lot like George Oscar Bluth, but I haven't watched that show in a while.

One of the problems with this, however, is that if someone responds to a post by a poster you have ignored, you still see the ignored person's posts in the response. But it is better than nothing and it is something that is a recent addition to the site (not sure how many years ago, but certainly not more than one or two).

In my opinion (in honor of BSF) as someone who doesn't post during the games but reads it after the game, there are a lot of observations: 1. It is true -- you see the glass less than half full almost all the time (even when it is half full). All games have ebbs and flows. It is a known that the bench is weak and there will be ebbs when they are in -- and flat lines on the game flow, but the starters can't play 40 minutes. 2. There are some rose-colored glasses posters here during the game threads, that's for sure. And they go out of their way to comment positively on certain aspects...perhaps they see the glass as 3/4 full (or more) when it is half full. 3. You are 100% right about the "Told Ya So" posts from some (typically one, but sometimes more than that) individuals. That has been happening all season, though. It's what they do. With this 7 game win streak (that, I know, we all are happy about), that individual (those individuals) are out in full throat. Once again, the "ignored users" option has been a great addition to this site. 4. There is a huge common ground that most posters have, but it seems that the disagreements (albeit small) are the ones that run the narrative. 5. At least there is alot of action during the game threads. That's a positive. Perhaps it can be less combatitive, however. Go Bulls!