Big 4 Hoops Blogger

Get over yourself and grow up!

He wasn't great but they moved on from him pretty quickly. Polian had two winning seasons, two bowl appearances and one bowl win in four years. Their legendary coach Chris Ault went 7-6 his final two seasons before Polian took over. The point is UB isn't getting an experienced head coach with an impressive resume with their budget. They have a few options in my opinion: Go after another young up & coming coordinator/positional coach to spice up the program Hire a very successful experienced coach from a lower level like FCS or D2/D3 Hire an experienced D1 head coach that might not have worked out at last job but willing to come to Buffalo for another opportunity

Btw, I have it on good authority that Brian Polian almost landed the Bowling Green Head Coaching job before Scot Loeffler got the position. Polian was one of their top candidates. So if he was interested in BGSU, I'd think he'd be willing to come back home. He's obviously the son of Bill Polian. Grew up in Buffalo, attended Saint Francis High School. Has been an assistant on UB twice, was the head coach at Nevada and Special Teams Coordinator at Notre Dame and LSU. He's a person that would take the job and stay here to turn things around for the long haul in my opinion.

I think Maurice Linguist leaving is a saving grace for UB. It's pretty clear he wasn't going to turn things around heading into next season. He was most likely going to have another disappointing season and possibly fired. Now, he can claim he left on his own terms to join a historic program and re-build his resume to possibly get another head coaching job down the line.

Can someone delete this post -- It went through 3 times after it said it couldn't go through. Edited this not to have a duplicate post.

100% correct

You're right that it didn't take 5-6 "offers" since a few coaches outright told them they weren't interested before that point.

I appreciate being called a Twitter politician!

Proud of this UB squad tonight! That was a strong performance on the road to open MAC play. I understand it's never going to be pretty with this squad but it's always nice to grab a conference road win.

It’s a fact that puts their current start into perspective. That’s it. No reason to overthink it.

Thought UB battled hard tonight. Their offense is obviously a work in progress but it was nice to have Isaiah Adams back in the lineup. They ended the game on a 20-6 run to make it somewhat close in the final minutes. Graham looks really raw for a former 4 star recruit. Overall, one of the better games they've played this season.

With tonight's loss, Buffalo drops to 1-10 on the season, matching their worst record through 11 games since returning to Division 1 under Dan Bazzani in 1991-92.

Curtis Jones wanted to see what he was capable at a higher level. To be a 6th man on a good Big XII program is a solid opportunity. Blocker is getting more playing time at a Horizon League school. I'm sure he's okay with the decision he made. Mading is finally getting a shot to see the court on a winning Norfolk State squad Jack is a sophomore playing on a quality A10 program. It's not a surprise that his stats are limited right now Powell is basically the same guy at UTEP as he was here but putting up a few less shots Caesar really didn't improve his situation drastically but he might've wanted a new start Hardnett has been injured and hasn't contributed at Arkansas State.

I agree with the majority of your post. I was originally going to say the 70-100 range but edited it at the last second. As you stated, they really weren’t far off from that range during the early Whitesell years which is why I think it was fair to want a little bit more from the program even if it’s not an easy standard for MAC schools to achieve. Toledo is such an interesting program. Consistently good regular seasons under Coach K but no NCAA Tournaments to show for it. Ohio has kinda been the opposite the last 15 years where they’re normally pretty good but never great but get hot in Cleveland every once in a while. I think more fans would take the postseason success over the regular season consistency. The nice part of the Oats years was that Buffalo had both.

Agree with all of this. It’s obviously not fair to expect UB to be around where they were during the 2018-19 season. That was a historic, once in a generation type season that I was hoping they’d use to continue building the program but it wasn’t meant to be. A more reasonable expectation would’ve been for them to be in the top 90-120 conversation. I still think with the right coach and proper investment, they could’ve remained in the 60-90 range for a few more seasons but it obviously didn’t play out that way. The original point of the video was to simply show that this program has the ability to be a special, top end mid major that can win tournament games and has fallen down to one of the bottom teams in college basketball. Will they stay near the cellar? I don’t think so but that’s up to Halcovage and how he does turning things around. We’ll need to be patient.

That’s me and yes, that’s the comparison I was making in the video. Btw, is it possible to change usernames here so I can go under my actual name? 😂

KenPom doesn't project records strictly off of who's favored in each individual game. They go based off the probabilities over the course of the season, factoring in that you'll win some games you're an underdog in percentage wise and lose some that you're expected to win. That's how they arrive at UB having a 6-24 record despite only being favored in one of their remaining games at the current moment.

KenPom projects Buffalo to go 6-24 with the Niagara game being the only game left on their schedule in which UB is favored. I thought the Bulls would win 10-12 games prior to the season but it's going to be an uphill climb to reach double digits.

I’d take the field. The unfortunate part of this situation is the lack of leadership starts at the top and trickles down and impacts the coaches and players for all of their teams. I always thought it was laughable how mad people got over the NYBI. I thought it was a great marketing tool to get the school’s athletics programs out there. Oats was a genius with his Blue Collar hard hat mentality. It goes to show a little creativity can go a far way even when fighting an uphill battle with a lack of resources. Your point is solid though. Do we really trust Tripathi to make the right hire? Probably not. And even if he does, the battles will still continue. That’s why I think UB needs to heavily pursue an innovative young mind that wants to shake things up with a bold but attainable vision for the athletic department.

I responded above to this post already but I think you’re oversimplifying my point and coming to an incorrect conclusion. You can be patient with a coach while still making a change above them. It’s not normal but the SUNY system doesn’t operate athletics like most state university systems.

I believe that Halcovage would be given 3-4 years to turn things around at UB regardless of if Alnutt was fired or not. Thats why I don’t believe my points contradict themselves. You’re under the assumption that Halcovage would be gone if Alnutt left which I don’t believe would be the case. With SUNY’s outlook on sports, I’d find it hard to believe that UB wouldn’t be patient with Halcovage. My point on the basketball program isn’t just about this year being their new low. They were a Sub-200 KenPom team at points last year as well. This is about Alnutt overlooking the major regression of UB football and basketball during his tenure.

They actually don’t. I’m talking about long term regression from the point of Oats leaving until now. I never once mentioned that I thought Halcovage was a bad hire or that I don’t like him. I’m simply referring to the drop off the men’s program from one that was 32-4 and ranked 14th in the country in 2018-19 to one that is the 3rd lowest NET team in the country right now. I’m putting the blame on Alnutt. Not Halcovage.