JoeyRattlesnake

Any context as to why? Why did no one want the job? Administration? Salary? Tall task of rebuilding?

I like a lot of our current roster, however I don't see how we don’t go back to the Reggie days, in terms of expectations this year. Try and win 20 games, get to Cleveland and have a shot at winning it. If we do, 13-seed range and pray for an update. Days of top seed hopes and all are pretty much gone. We have a few nice pieces, but losing the recruits and not having a inside presence pretty much dooms us, IMO

Not to be a jerk, but Alma mater is a perfectly acceptable use of the term and considered grammatically correct. - https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&rlz=1C1OKWM_enUS763US764&ei=S8KkXJibKsSIggeWg4HoCg&q=alma+mater&oq=alma+mater&gs_l=psy-ab.3..35i39j0l6j0i20i263j0l2.9865.10177..10449...0.0..0.123.285.2j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.sE4QRbhXcyM Also, while I get the sentiment, I do not want Frank Solich. That's effectively what we had in Reggie. Solid year in and year out, but really not much of a chance to do anything great. I agree, if coaches and ADs are getting hired, you've done something right. Just not sure how schools elevate their status. Gonzaga is the obvious example, but even Wichita State, VCU and Butler did it. They still lose coaches from time to time, but somehow maintain their level of success and have larger budgets than UB for coaching. I'm not sure if the A10 is a better conference financially or not.

Alright, so bear with me, I've had a couple... I'm sitting here in Winston-Salem, NC on a work trip thinking. I'm feverishly refreshing my twitter feed trying to find out who the next UB Men's Basketball coach will be, all the while hearing murmurs that FLJ might be off to Penn State... and it got me thinking. What can we, as UB fans, UB Alums, do to stop this trend? The answer is probably not much, but I'd love to explore. I'm a 32 year old 2008 Jacobs Management alum that has an undying passion for college sports. I grew up in a Florida Gator family. My uncle went to school with Steve Spurrier and all I knew growing up was the Fun N' Gun. From a young age I loved college sports. Now, we all know that NCAA sports has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Not too awfully similar to NASCAR, it's be come an industry once known for it's off-the-grid passion and under the radar entertainment value to a big business. We all know the stories of the $1B the NCAA makes off of March Madness and the transfers and the coaches jumping ship to the next biggest paycheck, but I digress. As UB fans and Alums, what can we, as average middle-class citizens do to raise the profile, and ultimately the brand, of UB? I wanted to believe that we caught a unicorn in Nate Oats and his staff. And while I admittedly have taken his departure all to personal, I wonder what can someone like me with, at most, $20,000 a year in donations do to help? Probably nothing is the unfortunate answer. I'll likely never have a facility named after me (see the Murchie family), but I thought about asking Mark Alnutt for a meeting. I thought about spending my own money to fly up and talk with the man to see what is it an Average Joe who played baseball for two years and has a burning passion to see my Alma-Mater succeed could do. The truth is, he's been at UB for less than a year and has aspirations for a Power 5 job, possibly at his Alma-Mater, Missouri, if my memory serves me right. He does not "get" UB. He wasn't here when Turner Gill walked away for Kansas or when Leon !*$Q&$*) Williams tipped in that buzzer beater in Cleveland or when Jeff Quinn didn't pan out or when we had to say goodbye to a fan favorite in Reggie Witherspoon or when we dropped baseball. We've seen AD after AD leave for the likes of UConn, UCF and Auburn. I'm proud of that, in a sense. UB's DNA is scattered throughout the landscape of college sports. UCF is a "National Champion", Auburn is Final Four bound and Warde is now overseeing a behemoth at Michigan. But, what about UB? Is it donor funds? If we rallied UB alum across the county, could we wake a sleeping giant? We have a current student body of over 30,000. That compares to some of the big boys. Is it conference affiliation, which you and I have no control over? Unfortunately, I do not have answers and unfortunately I don't think this thread will come up with many. I want to keep this free of SUNY bashing and MAC discrediting and especially the ridicule of individuals like Nate Oats, Bryan Hodgson, Mark Alnutt and President Tripathi. Do we as UB loving fans and alum need to be more vocal? Not just in the good times, but always? I'll admit, I became a Blue & White Fund donor to the Men's Basketball Excellence Fund only after last year and a cry support via this board (Thanks @Jeseph), but it's been the best thing I've done in terms of donating. I feel more connected and more invested (both literally and figuratively). I now live in Knoxville, TN and am surrounding by a rabid, all-be-it delusional, University of Tennessee fan base. These people love their teams and university like none I've ever seen. I'm sure drawing numbers for Saturdays in the fall is easy when you're hosting top 25 teams on the regular and you know you're one year away from being the top story on SportsCenter makes is easier. Is it that? Is it passion? Or is it the opportunity, even if your team sucks, (and believe me UT football has sucked) to make a splash on the national landscape when hosting Alabama, Florida or Georgia any given week? Thank you Danny White, Bobby Hurley, Allan Greene and Nate Oats. Thanks for making us relevant. Thank you for having my colleagues giving me unsolicited complainants this season, saying things like "Man, UB is really good!" or "I've got Buffalo in my Sweet 16!". I'm willing to hear everyone out here. I want to help and raise UB to the platform we all know we deserve. To be on the tongue of all fans, recruits and sportscasters nation wide. GO BULLS!

Lanier is from Buffalo... so there is a tie. Also, do we really want "Spoon" again? A lifer who challenges for a MAC title every four years? This is a good problem we have on our hands. We are successful, therefore we are looking for a new coach. In reality, you're always looking for a new one unless you're a blue-blood program. You're either winning and coaches are getting poached or you're losing and you're firing your coach. Look at Va Tech. They just were a 4-seed, challenged Duke to the final horn and now Buzz Williams is flirting with Texas A&M. It happens everywhere not named Kansas, Duke, Carolina & Kentucky.

After this year, the need for an inside presence is even greater. With Nick gone, I don't see a inside scorer. Montell, even though he wasn't a great scoring threat, added a lot of size and we'll miss him too. Raymond is a big need for us.

I'm not sure why, but I have an awful feeling in my stomach. I think I like being the little-guy more than the favorite. I think the guys are prepared and more than capable, but we've all see too many 11's get hot after that play-in game (see Syracuse 2018). Any one else feel similarly?

Just spit balling here, but men's attendance went up 30,000 tickets this year. What's an average ticket... $20? That means we raked in an additional $600,000 or so. That's most of Oats' salary. Now, a lot of that might be students, which are free, but theoretically, revenue took a large jump.

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!

Alright, so Noah Williams committed tonight and Raymond Hawkins appears to have had a good visit and showing interest in UB and the obvious national comment is, well Noah will leave "when" Nate Oats leaves for a bigger job. So, my question is, what will it take to keep Oats and what is realistic? Nate makes $600,000 in base salary with a realistic $100,000 in bonuses for the MAC regular season and tournament titles, plus others for personal accolades and tournament victories. Lower level Power-5 jobs are typically about $1,000,000 - $1,500,000 (think Oklahoma State, Minnesota, etc.). My question is what can UB pay? What are our constraints? Is it as easy as whatever administration is willing to pay or is there a cap related to the university / SUNY system? What, realistically, can donors pony up? Ultimately, I think it comes down to whether Nate values the community and continuity for his family over a much, much higher salary. For the record, that is not supposed to be a dig. Jumping from $600K to $1.5M would be very difficult for anyone to turn down. I know what he says in interviews, and honestly, I believe him. He's never been about coach speak. When we are a better team he never says "well you know anyone can beat anyone any night yada yada", he says "we should win. we have the better players." He has tones of equity in my book. Thoughts? Go Bulls!

Alright, I, like most everyone on this board, had a wide range of emotions on Tuesday night. I was livid for a while, then a little sad, back to angry and then apathetic. I was pissed at the players, the refs, Oats and then said "who cares, we're UB, we were never going to be 'Gonzaga of the East'". But over 48 hours later and after a dose of reality, here it where stand. AP / Coaches Poll: We'll fall a bit, but likely stay in the low 20's Bilas Index (FWIW): Jay, who knows his stuff, has us as the NINTH best team in America. This is considering the NIU loss. Bilas has some nice things to say about us and certainly has not dismissed UB because of a bad loss. http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/25825177/jay-bilas-ranks-68-top-teams-college-basketball-february-nears NET Rankings: The new metric that the selection committee has adopted dropped us from 10th to 23rd after the loss. Again, a fall, but not catastrophic. Now, I know this isn't how it works, but if you seeded teams straight from this analytic metric, we're looking at a 5-seed come selection Sunday. Had you told me that in October, I would have signed on the dotted line. - https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings Joe Lunardi Bracketology (Again, FWIW): Has us free-falling from a 4 to a 6 seed (tongue-in-cheek). More evidence that the national media believes in UB. - http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology In summary, the sky isn't falling. We're in just fine shape. Nate Oats is the right guy to lead this team. The players are talented, hard working guys. The ship will get righted starting tonight in Kent and start picking up steam headed into Dancing Season. So as Aaron Rodgers so famously said a few years ago, R-E-L-A-X, relax... Go Bulls!

We will most certainly fall in the rankings, perhaps out. Teams like UB... people are waiting for a crack in the foundation to say, "See, I knew they were never that good". Here's the good news. In the grand scheme of things, this doesn't matter. Yes, it would have been nice to run through the MAC at 18-0, 30-1 overall and land a top seed (3 - 5), however that was always unlikely as the MAC is a tough conference, especially on the road. So from here, what's the goal? 1) Learn from this loss. You can't just show up and beat teams on the road in this conference. 2) Finish 15-3 / 16-2, be in play for an at-large bid and/or win the MAC tournament. This scenario probably lands us an 8 seed? Perhaps up to 10? The sky isn't falling, but it definitely looks dark right now. I believe in Oats and that he'll do what he needs to to get this team motivated and playing well again. Go Bulls!

the kid graduated. It fulfilled his commitment by earning his degree and playing ball while doing so. I cannot fault a kid for trying to better himself or his opportunities. Also, $200k in scholarship? Since when is tuition and room and board $25K per semester? Good for him. Sucks for us. No need to belittle a kid for making a decision that is best for him.

This is so good to hear and the one thing I have learned with Coach Nate Oates (CNO) over the years is that the guy doesn't believe in coach speak. He's honest, genuine and tells it as it is. If says he wants to stay, I believe him. Now, our job as fans, alums and donors is to keep the pressure on administration to continue to invest.

We'll need at least one, perhaps two, OOC wins against these teams to have a chance at an at-large bid. Despite improving, wins over fellow MAC teams will not do much to move the needle in the eyes of the committee, especially after they announced that the RPI will no longer be something they consider. A win over Cuse, WVU or Marquette will go a long way come Selection Sunday... I hope.