UBfan44

1 hour ago, UBinMD said:

IF Isaac Jack goes to Vanderbilt (or other P5) and Curtis Jones goes to Iowa St and, my thoughts on our previous regime's HS evaluation and recruiting abilities will be changed. They may not have been able to use them to their maximum ability, but the talent was obviously there with whomever found them.

IMO they always recruited well and had plenty of talent. But the travels, charges, throwing the ball away, stepping on the out of bounds line, iso ball, etc were fixable issues that never got better. Maybe it happens everywhere and I just don’t pay attention but it felt like I was watching a team that cared less about valuing possession than their competitors 

8 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

 

This would be a big loss. He has Massinburg level potential. If he leaves I hope he stays a starter at a P5 program and doesn’t end up a rotational guy. 

came across this on Twitter. First offer from the new staff? 

1 minute ago, Majortomxiii said:

You expect nice things but seems like more than needed. Also interesting these was all ready as soon as it was announced. Is someone working damage control? Would love to know the true timeline. 
if nothing else tell me this has been in the works for weeks and the leaks were all untrue…lie to me if you have to.

I heard people are saying that this has been in the works for weeks and the leaks were all untrue 

This appears to be a great hire. Credit to ADMA he came through regardless of the search’s optics 

7 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Are we excited or not for a 266 Kenpom team getting a promotion after going 16-15 while losing to their bottom-feeder team in the conference tournament? One of the last-ranked teams in offensive efficiency. The guy has a nickname for trying to interview anywhere that will take him. 

All of his players were seniors and would have no one to take with him.

This isn't the hire that inspires me. The actual top coach in this conference went to WKU.

Do you think this is who we’re hiring? Nothing new on Halcovage? I’ll at least give the new coach a chance once we make the hire, because TBH I’ve never heard of any of these names before this week. It doesn’t make sense for me to get mad about something I don’t know anything about. I made that mistake once when I was told to be pissed off about the Bills drafting the wrong Josh quarterback. 

2 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

It looks like he "went through the process" with both New Mexico State and Idaho earlier this month. Don't see much mention of why those deals didn't get done.

Judging from our search, it very well could’ve been him saying no to the schools (I hope?) 

3 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

lol who knows if this nickname is good or bad...

edit:

This is where we are. At one point does our limited donor base start to send votes of non-confidence regarding Mark Alnutt?

I’m envisioning candidates asking about the future of the basketball program’s facilities, and ADMA excitedly talking about the fieldhouse, the football locker room, and the home game against Louisiana in 2037 

Another day another candidate another waiting game 

29 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

Is the fact that on a surface Jim whitesell looked successful here/performed as expected for a Mac school and still was fired for his first down year where he had all underclassman scaring coaches away? 

I say on the surface because I think anyone that watched the ub teams the past few years knew it was time to move on but he had a winning record and decent metrics up until this season

Jim got 4 years here after inheriting a great team and it didn’t pan out. One MAC finals loss and a handful of first round exits. Candidates shouldn’t be scared off by that, unless they have no confidence in their ability to build a program. If that’s the case I wouldn’t want them here anyway 

17 minutes ago, Kevin said:

I thought I had fake sources? Pretty lucky guess on Jones I guess.

I found it interesting that he hasn't been officially declined and liked a tweet I was mentioned in. 

 

Seems official enough, seeing that he’s liked 2 tweets about him declining the position lol 

11 minutes ago, Jeseph said:

 

That’s a huge loss. Good for UB, bad for the conference 

1 hour ago, Blue03 said:

I retract my statement, but still think it weighs in administration’s mind that they’d rather invest money elsewhere.

I think NYS probably has their priorities in line (valuing education over athletics), but having a strong athletics program can be important to recruiting students and giving national attention to the school. Sometimes I think that fact escapes them. It also sucks as fans knowing that there seems to be a low ceiling because it’s a SUNY school. The easiest fix would be for more fan support, but with a limited history it seems like the alumni don’t buy in to athletics because it wasn’t a big part of their college experience.

12 minutes ago, Kevin said:

Alright. But I was still waiting for you to show me where I said someone was signing next week? This is the issue I'm having. If I had, I'd even understand. I posted the exact words I was given. 

Cohen wanted to take this job but we already discussed other factors why he didn't. 

Please show me or stop saying it. It's slander at this point. 

Sorry I haven't been able to lock down who they are landing with certainty. I don't even think the AD knows. There are a lot of factors he's running into right now. I'll keep it private though.

I think being in print would make it libel 🙂

15 minutes ago, Kevin said:

A lot. You pay for them to offer you candidates. McCollum was their top choice for us, and he only came out here to play nice and pump up his own stock. Calhoun did the same thing after he didn't want to deal with NIL issues like he did at YSU. 

They didn't need a search firm for Cohen or Washington. 

The point of them is to recommend qualified candidates who want to take a major job and match to the right openings. 

CSA has failed at this twice now.

While that is infuriating, at least it makes me feel like maybe our AD is more competent than I’ve been giving him credit for 

I certainly don’t want to end up with some uninspired dud because we weren’t willing to give an extra year to our top guy 

Just now, Kevin said:

I was just told:

Calhoun declined for NIL budget reasons

Cohen declined as he was looking for a longer contract than the original length discussed. 

If losing Cohen was due to a contract length dispute than I’m flabbergasted, and I dont see how Alnutt continues to have anyone’s vote of confidence 

Edit: double post

A little while back I left these boards because the discourse had become so toxic with regards to the basketball program. It was extremely frustrating to see the team not supported because of negative feelings towards the coach. Personally I wasn’t sure whether Whitesell was the right guy or not but I was willing to give him the time to try. In retrospect many on this board were correct, but I don’t regret not jumping on the hate wagon. Flash forward to now, and here is my version of the timeline of events:

Oats leaves for Alabama, and UB receives a solid payout. Alnutt elects to retain and hire Whitesell after utilizing a search firm to find a coach. Whitesell came relatively cheap, and UB still had the Oats payout to use when needed. This was fine with me, as Whitesell promised and delivered on keeping the team together. We had Graves, Williams, Jordan, and Segu to keep it rolling. 
 

Whitesell generally underperformed over the next several seasons, but IMO the players he was bringing in and the direction the “core” of the team was moving warranted a wait and see approach. Instead, Alnutt inexplicably gave him an extension and this was the first big flaw in the process. Nothing was done to deserve an extension, and having a large buyout attached to it was absurd. Did he think Jim was going to jump ship for a bigger program despite not winning at UB? 
 

After the 4th season of Whitesell’s tenure and another disappointing result, mixed with a revolving door of players, no direction, and no indication that things would change, he was let go. It was time. It may have gone a year too long and it ended up not working, but I didn’t fault the idea of it all. Afterall they still had the Oats buyout money to throw at a new coach. Except the extension. Not only did UB have to pay for Whitesell’s buyout, but they did it a few weeks early to the sound of an extra 100k. What was Alnutt thinking? Did he miscalculate? Did he get to a point where he realized he was in a sunk cost fallacy? We might never know.

Now we’re at the point where the Oats money is likely gone, theres been no NIL cultivation, coaches are saying no left and right (despite the fact that search firms are supposed to weed those candidates out to avoid this exact embarrassment), donors are going to be turned off, and half the team is already in the transfer portal without anyone to steer the ship. IMO this is catastrophic for Alnutt, and unless he can pull a rabbit out of his hat I don’t see how it’s anything other than a giant step back for the program.