Big 4 Hoops Blogger

18 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

Would you hire back a person to your company who when they left, while still your employee, was seen promoting a competitor?  That is what Hogdson did.  I would not rehire that person.

I have first hand knowledge from multiple people involved with the UB program that Hodgson was told he wasn't getting the head coaching job prior to him leaving with Oats. He told them he was going to Alabama if he didn't get the position. The fuss people have made over this is about semantics and a lack of information of things already known inside the program.

On 1/21/2024 at 2:52 PM, Jeseph said:

Big fan of your work

 

Love this! My wife actually worked at a station he interned at lol

I'm a fan of the hire. I covered Ball State a little bit when I was a sports anchor in Fort Wayne. My BSU connections were all positive about Lembo at that time and thought he was a solid head coach.

Buffalo is looking for someone to stabilize their program and be here for the long haul. Lembo knows how to run a D1 football team and has won at the MAC level with lesser resources than he'll have going forward. I think we're going to need to be patient but I'm confident Lembo has what it takes to win at UB.

11 hours ago, rma said:

Absolutely not.

Tony Annese (D2 Ferris State) makes $150k

Jason Eck (Idaho) makes $300k

Matt Entz (NDSU) made $400k, unknown what he makes at USC as an assistant, a job he took recently

Drew Cronic (Mercer) made an unknown salary, just took the OC job at Navy which does not disclose salaries

Mo made $675k, in the upper half of the MAC.

All of the above are coaches that have HC experience and would get a significant raise in accepting a UB HC job compared to their 2023 salary.

They were targeting coaches with prior D1 head coaching experience. That's why I said they didn't have the budget to get anyone with a more impressive resume.

Sources said UB was a mess under Mo. Alnutt wanted someone who has run a D1 program.

1 hour ago, DaBulls99 said:

IMO not sure there could be 3 worse collective candidates. I’ve been a contributor for 20+ years. If this is the vision they have for UB Football no sense in me contributing anymore bc they’ve stopped trying. 

People were laughing when I first brought up Brian Polian but I had outside sources telling me to keep his name in mind. I think it was clear from the beginning what type of coaches UB was interested in. The fact that all three of the above candidates have G5 head coaching experience doesn't surprise me. Mo didn't know what he was doing. They're looking for someone that has experience running a D1 program but don't have the budget to hire anyone that has an impressive resume so they're going after retreads.

20 hours ago, Tee4three said:

This whole thing seems odd to me

How has polian done as the AD at John Carroll? Would it be a huge jump to UB? 

The one tweet/x post that mentions that no search firm has been hired or at least haven't heard of one

Conspiracy......alnutt is on the way out? 

Polian’s coaching resume has nothing to do with his current job.

it has everything to do with being a former Mountain West head coach, special teams coordinator at Notre Dame and LSU, two time assistant at UB and a person with local ties.

Considering he’s already been a head coach at a higher level than the MAC and has familiarity with the Buffalo program, I’m assuming it wouldn’t be a difficult transition back into coaching.

(Don’t even know how seriously he’ll actually be considered)

The route with the highest upside is probably hiring a successful, experienced head coach from a lower level. Question will be if any of the leading candidates at those levels think Buffalo is a worthy job that can help them move up in their careers?

I think the Coach Mo experience makes it unlikely they hire anyone without a head coaching background but we’ll see.

If they’re looking to make a “splash” hire the community will support, they’ll target Babers or Polian because both names will resonate more in Buffalo than a random FCS/D2 head coach regardless of their resume.

2 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

Starting to get a feeling they picked Polian weeks ago and all the unsolicited "HEY WHAT ABOUT BRIAN POLIAN?" tweets are just his idiot St. Francis friends trying to drum up support

He's white and Catholic, so I'm sure UB Horns Up will be creaming himself

UB Basketball and Football both coached by nepo babies - what a world

Get over yourself and grow up!

2 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Wasn't he 23-27 at Nevada?

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:

1. Go after another young up & coming coordinator/positional coach to spice up the program
2. Hire a very successful experienced coach from a lower level like FCS or D2/D3
3. Hire an experienced D1 head coach that might not have worked out at last job but willing to come to Buffalo for another opportunity

16 hours ago, RapidsFan said:

I saw some Twitter politicians lobbying for Brian Polian and I laughed, but then I realized even Brian Polian wouldn't take the job since he's probably making twice whatever UB could offer as Athletic Director of John Carroll

Depending on how the next few weeks of the NFL season go, crawling back to DJ Mangas might be an attractive option that the public would support

Dino Babers is available

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.

14 hours ago, MuchMany said:

This ain't about money. It's about saving face and reattaching himself to a successful brand, which was his entire career strategy before UB. 

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.

14 hours ago, MuchMany said:

This ain't about money. It's about saving face and reattaching himself to a successful brand, which was his entire career strategy before UB. 

100% correct

2 hours ago, BrooklynBull said:

It did not take 5-6 offers.  Do not believe everything you read.

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.

38 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

I saw some Twitter politicians lobbying for Brian Polian and I laughed, but then I realized even Brian Polian wouldn't take the job since he's probably making twice whatever UB could offer as Athletic Director of John Carroll

Depending on how the next few weeks of the NFL season go, crawling back to DJ Mangas might be an attractive option that the public would support

Dino Babers is available

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.

15 hours ago, xDerekRx said:

Great one of those pointless ESPN type stats the media loves to put out for no reason. Literally service no purpose but thanks.

They also won 4-5 games total in the early Battle Reggie startup days before they quickly turned it around with generally the same roster (granted the battle injury was depressing that season). It's all relative. Has nothing to do with this team.

 

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.

3 hours ago, DocCas86 said:

I appreciate your perspective.  With respect to your statement '...with the right coach and proper investment, they could’ve remained in the 60-90 range...'.  This is certainly a lot easier said than done.  While overall, I agree that it was time to move on from Whitesell, the choice initially had some merit, keep team together, an experienced coach (albeit an average past record).  The team was even ranked in your desired range in his second year (77), but they were stopped short by a hot Ohio team led by Preston.   My point is not to reopen discussion about the choice, as it proved not to work out, but to emphasize it is not a simple task to pick the right coach.  There was certainly some carryover from the success of Oats into Whitesell years, but in the end Whitesell was not able to capitalize.

To me the sweet spot of a MAC coach is one who keeps the team successful but stays put, Groce (Kenpom ranks between 80-110)?  It will be interesting to see if Groce stay put.  I would have said Kowalczyk but he has not delivered a MAC championship but has delivered rankings in 60-90 range.  I struggle to see a scenario where you have a carousel of coaches and you remain consistently competitive. 

As for rankings, this team has had two very bad games which justify the net rank of 360, and two decent losses (JMU and Butler) that suggest a better ranking.  Overall, I do think their true ranking is slightly higher, ~330.  I think if the team brings effort on defense they will be competitive in more games and their rank will improve.  As you say, it is in Halcovage's and the team's hands how much the rank changes from here.   I wish them success in that effort.

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.